Don't Blame Me ➵ Steve Harrington

twenty

HER NECK HAD BECOME CRAMPED UNDER BILLY'S MUSCLY ARM BUT SHE FELT TOO TIMID TO MOVE IT. Billy had bought them both tickets to see Runaway—his choice of film. Dylan never bothered to protest but the movie left her confused as it featured Tom Selleck and that guy from KISS with the long tongue.

Billy seemed into it though. When Dylan finally squirmed out of his hold, he hardly glanced her way. She maneuvered out of the dark aisle and found her way back to concessions.

"I'll have a Diet Coke please," she ordered from the elderly man behind the counter. "And a pack of licorice."

"Dylan..." The man disappeared behind the fountain to grab her drink and Dylan turned around to see who belonged to the soft voice.

"Nancy," she nodded curtly. "Nice to see you."

Nancy smiled weakly as if scared to be too nice. "Yeah, nice seeing you. Are you here with Steve?"

"Uh, not exactly—"

"Dylan's here? And Steve?" Dustin came up from behind Nancy, the other three boys in tow.

Dylan grimaced. "Uh, no. Sorry to disappoint but it's just me."

Lucas pinched up his face. "You came to a movie by yourself? And we're supposed to be the losers?"

"She didn't say she was by herself," Mike Wheeler snapped at his friend. "She said she wasn't here with Steve."

"Oh, right," Dustin looked up at her with hopeful eyes. "But you're not here with him right?"

She bit her lip, trying to hold back a laugh at the younger boy's concern. "Who's him?"

"Only the Darth Sidious of Hawkins," Lucas piped in again. "See Steve used to be Darth Vader but Vader goes to the light in the end — Billy Hargrove is just a whole lotta dark — A.K.A Darth Sidious."

"Well as long as I can be Princess Leia," Dylan grinned amused by their little analogy. Steve as Darth Vader. "Find me my Han Solo while you're at it, too."

The boys exchanged wide looks and Dylan chuckled at their surprise. Steve had taken her to the premiere of A New Hope as a joke and then was too embarrassed to admit that he had liked a stupid movie about space and aliens. So, naturally, Dylan pretended that she wanted to go to the next two films—for Harrison Ford, of course. Which Steve had zero qualms about. The boy even had an Empire Strikes Back poster hidden on the back of his closet door.

Nancy rolled her eyes at her brother and his friends. "I think you just made their nerdy little year."

"Miss!" The concessions worker called to her. "Your drink?"

"Oh, yeah," she smiled at the older man briefly before turning back to the small crowd behind her. "See you around guys. Nancy."

She reentered the theatre and found Billy the way she had left him: sprawled across more seats than necessary.