FAMILIAR ↳ STEVE HARRINGTON

forty-one.

The ride home from the mall was an interesting one, the kids deciding they didn't want to ride their bikes home and Steve deciding he wanted to take Christine on a drive.  She instructed him to meet her at her house in approximately 40 minutes, giving her time to drop everybody off before he picked her up and drove her around.

They had argued for awhile outside the car on who would get the front seat, moments like these reminding Christine that they were still 14 year olds. Finally she told them to pick a number, this system ending up with Lucas in the front seat, Max glaring at him from the back as she was squeezed between Will and Mike.

"So what's your plans tomorrow?" Christine interrupted the bunch of arguing teenagers, all of them immediately springing into conversation about Dustin coming home. Will was talking the least, Christine glancing in the mirror and seeing that he looked a little pale. She brushed it off, pulling into Lucas' driveway.

"Alright Sinclair out!" She said, pushing his shoulder. Before he was even fully out Max was climbing into the seat beside Christine. The rest of the ride was the kids spoiling the movie for her, Will getting out after Lucas and Max being the last stop. When it was just Christine and Mike she reached over, one hand on the wheel and the other pushing his head, a smile on her lips as she looked at him briefly.

"Where you been Mike? I feel like I haven't seen you in years."

"It's summer. Every time I'm home you're with Steve and every time you're home I'm with El."

"How is El? I haven't seen her in a couple weeks." Christine asked, the girl looking in the mirror and fixing her hair. Mike was giving her a halfway disgusted look, his eyebrows furrowing as he answered her.

"She's fine. Is Steve picking you up?" Mike asked, his face dropping as she stopped fixing her hair and looked over at him.

"Yeah he's probably at the house now. Why?"

"Gross. God you make it so obvious when you're fixing your hair and stuff." Mike groaned in disgust again, the girl shaking her head as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Make what obvious? Shut up Mike."

"I can't believe you guys haven't just gave in yet. It's like watching a terrible movie where the people are like in love with each other and it's so freaking obvious, but they don't just get together. It's worse that you won't just get together." Mike said, making the girl swallow as she punched him in the shoulder.

"Me and Steve do not like each other."

"But I bet you've kissed before." Mike said, searching her face for the answer.

"No. We haven't."

"You answered that awful quick." Mike said, giving her a knowing look. "Come on, you're telling me it's been almost 8 months since the mind flayer and you guys haven't kissed once? You're lying. And I know you're lying."

"How do you know I'm lying?"Christine asked, giving him a raised eyebrow as she pulled into the driveway.

"I just know." She snorted at that, shaking her head and getting out of the car before shooing him off. She walked towards Steve's car that was parked  on the street, the girl looking back for a moment  as Mike walked back inside. He mouthed the words 'I know' to her, the girl shaking her head and flipping him off before opening the passenger side door of Steve's car. He gave her a smile, his Scoops Ahoy hat resting on the dashboard and his blue outfit making her grin. It wasn't funny to see him in the outfit until she saw him in it outside of his job, Christine always fighting back a laugh when he picked her up.