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It was another morning before school, typical routine for Ronnie to have a quick breakfast before rushing out the door. Yelling at Dustin to hurry up and throw his bike in the back of her car.
"Don't forget I have Hellfire after school." Dustin reminds Ronnie as he shuts the passenger door.
She couldn't even get a reply out before he was catching up with Mike to walk into school together.
"Cute sweater, Nance. I wonder who picked it out." Ronnie says aloud, making her parking lot partner turn around with a smirk on her face.
They both walk around their cars to walk next to each other, so Ronnie can get a good look at Nancy's new cream colored sweater, paired with her pale blue skirt.
"Told you it would be cute." Ronnie compliments.
She notices Nancy stop in her tracks, staring straight past her towards the school, making Ronnie furrow her brows at her friend.
"No way." Nancy nervously laughs. "Oh, he's got some balls."
Ronnie spins, facing the school seeing why Nancy was so flabbergasted, and stuck in place. She was staring at Steve on the sidewalk right in front of the front doors with a bouquet of red roses in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other and a smile plastered on his face.
"You've got to be kidding me." Ronnie groans.
Everyone at school had eyes on her or Steve, whispering to each other and pointing. She groaned, walking up to Steve, raising her brows for him to start explaining.
"Morning beautiful." He greets her.
"What are you doing here?" Ronnie fires quickly, looking around at everyone staring at her.
She doesn't care that she's causing a scene, she just hates that it was caused by Steve. Giving everyone that she knows something to talk about for the rest of the day.
"I just wanted to surprise you with breakfast." He answers happily.
"Yeah, thanks for the surprise and the show you're giving to my classmates." Ronnie remarks.
"It was the only way I could get your attention." Steve comments.
"Well, you got it. Now, what do you want?" She groans, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"I-I brought gifts. Your favorite breakfast sandwich: sausage, egg and cheese on a croissant." Steve answers, handing her the bag.
She hesitates for a second, staring at his hand in front of her, then finally snatching it out of his hand. It was hard not to when the smell of the buttery croissant was filling her nose.
"And the flowers?"
He smiles, handing her the small bouquet, which she obliges and holds them down at her side.
"First of many, Covey. If waiting for you here everyday before school, giving you flowers and breakfast gives me a second chance, then hell. So be it, because I fucking miss you." Steve expresses.
Ronnie lets out a breath, like a small piece of the wall she built up to protect herself from Steve was already chipping away.
"Give him a chance already!" She hears a familiar voice behind Steve, making the both of them look, and Steve chuckling, as Ronnie glares at her cousin for egging him on, but also trying to hide her smirk.
Steve just raises his brows, shrugging his shoulders as if all the cheering didn't boost his ego and help with his cause. Ronnie rolls her eyes, and lets out a deep breath.
"Tulips." She mentions, taking a step beside Steve to rejoin with Nancy.
"What?" Steve asks confused.
He watches as Ronnie turns to him with a smirk on her face.
"I like tulips." She explains, continuing to walk towards the door with Nancy, trying to ignore the loud cheers of Steve celebrating himself, shaking her head in slight embarrassment as she went inside.
She found out first hand that Steve wasn't kidding. For the next few days, he would be waiting for her in the exact same spot with a tulip in hand. Sometimes with breakfast, or coffee, but every gift had a note.
Some said to have a good day, some were filled with compliments. What Steve didn't know was that she saved every little note. Every scrap of notebook paper he would steal, or the corner of a letter, even backs of receipts. She kept every single one and put it in her night stand, and it started to slowly pile up.
"You gonna say something to him today, or you just gonna eat the poor man's heart out?" Robin brought up to Ronnie as they started to walk to the front doors.
"Yeah, Ron, when you say you're giving the guy a chance, you actually gotta try." Nancy jumps in.
"You both are a pain in my ass, you know that?" Ronnie complains.
Robin and Nancy bump elbows as if Ronnie didn't just see them do a small celebration, and walks up to Steve as her new routine.
"Morning, Harrington. What's on the menu today?" Ronnie greets him.
She loved the way he looked in his favorite pair of Ray-Bans. It made him look like cool kid he was, King of Hawkins, but she couldn't tell him that. She was feeding his ego enough by just talking to him, she couldn't compliment him just yet.
"Coffee cake, toasted, but I'm not sure how warm it still is." Steve answers lightly.
"If it's from Stan's, you know they have the biggest coffee cakes."
He smiled, hearing the effort she was trying to make in her voice. The enthusiasm in her words that have lacked in the past few weeks are finally inching in.
"Well, maybe we can share it." He suggested quietly.
Ronnie sends him a smirk, but grabs the bag for herself, forcing Steve's half smile to drop.
"I think I'll take the coffee cake for myself."
Steve purses his lips, expecting for her to just walk off like she usually does, but there's a hesitation with her today.
"I wouldn't say no to sharing one of those milkshakes from that secret diner outside the town of yours." Ronnie suggests, turning halfway towards him, watching the smile on his face grow wide.
"One condition." Steve blurts out, making her stop right in front of the doors with Robin and Nancy. "You have to share it with me at Family Video. Today, after school."
Nancy and Robin hide their smiles behind their hands. Ronnie scoffs, she had missed this confident and forward Steve. He was always holding back when he spoke to Ronnie, as if he was going to say something wrong, but now that he has nothing to lose, he's showing his true self.
"You better get the right flavor, Harrington." Ronnie answered, slipping into behind the door, trying to ignore Robin silently cheering on his friend.
