𝐢 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

iv. EVIL RUSSIANS

AS STEVE and Dustin listen to the tape, Icarus sighed and stood up, putting his hands on the table. Dustin stops the tape, "so, what do you guys think?" He asked and Steve stops pacing. "It sounded familiar." Steve simply says.

"What?" Icarus looks at him. "The music. The music right there at the end." He explains and Icarus gave a confused look. "Why are you listening to the music, Steve?" He and Dustin ask at he same time. "Listen to the Russian!" Dustin says.

"We're translating Russian!" He exclaims and Icarus looks at him. "Which reminds me, Chris says he knows Russian, what about I call him up?" He asked and Dustin sighed. "Think he can get over here as quick as he can?" He asked.

"I'll try." He says then walks over to the phone. "Alright babysitting time is over." Robin says as she walks in. "You need to get in there." She said as she walks over to the whiteboard. "Hey, my board. That was important data, shitbirds." She says and Icarus looks at Steve, smirking.

"Well, he told me," he says and she chuckles. "He still sucks." She says and he nods. "I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin explains and Steve crosses his arms, throwing down the banana peel.

"Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" She asked and Dustin looks at Icarus then at Steve. "How does she know about the Russians?" He whispers. "I don't know." Steve shrugs his shoulder then looked at Icarus. "You told her about—" "it wasn't me."

"Hello, I can hear you. Actually, I can hear everything. You are both extremely loud. Icarus, he could've gotten away with it." She says and Icarus just grins at her. "Totally would've." He says before picking up the phone and dialing the Mayfield home. "You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a single word because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do." She says as Steve and Dustin look at one another.

"Sound about right?" She asked when they look at her. "Whoa! What do you think you're doing?" Steve asked as he grabs the recorder before she could. "I wanna hear it." She says to them.

"Why?" They asked. "Cause maybe I can help. I'm fluent in four languages, you know." She says and Icarus puts down the phone. "Russian?" Dustin asked and she looks at him. "Ou-yay are-yay umb-day." She says and Icarus looks at the other two. "Oh-ho-ho!" Steve starts laughing.

"Holy shit!" Dustin said with a smile. "That was Pig Latin, dummies and she obviously said something offensive." Icarus rolls his eyes. "Idiot." Steve smacks Dustin's arm. "But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I've been in band for 12 years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me." She says and Icarus sighs, looking at Steve.

"Come on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate. I don't even want credit, I'm just bored." She says as someone rang the bell at the counter. "I'll still call Chris.." Icarus says and Steve just takes the ice cream scooper, giving her the tape recorder before leaving to go serve ice cream.

Icarus turns to the wall as he waits for the phone, it'd ringing and he sighs, looking over at Dustin and Robin. "Chris! Finally, God, where the hell are you?" He asked as he looks away. "I'm at home and I have to go to the store for my mom." Chris replied and Icarus sighs. "No, you have to come to Scoops." He says as he looks down, playing with his shirt.

"Why? What happened? Harrington being a douche again?" Chris asked and Icarus rolls his eyes. "No. Wait, yes, he is.. He... hit me. You have to come down here." He says and Chris scoffs. "Oh, come on—" "oh my God, Steve, stop!" He said loudly and Chris hangs up. "Okay, he's on his way." Icarus said with a smile as he puts the phone down.

"You don't need him." Robin said as she listens to the tape recording for the first time. "Yes, we do. He learned Russian." He says as he crossed his arms, sitting across from her. She just glances up at her for a moment before looking back down at the tape recorder, he keeps his eyes on her.

She pauses the recording and looks up. "What is your deal, Blood?" She asked and Icarus raised his eyebrows. "You knew.. Steve, what he told me.." He says and she sighs. "I don't wanna get between you guys, okay? Don't worry about it, I tried to stay out of it.." She says and he looks away.

"You're right.. I'm not being fair, I'm sorry." He says and she nods. "Okay.." She whispers. "And I'm sorry.. I should have told you. You're also right.. But like I said, I didn't wanna get between you guys or get stuck in your drama, okay? I'm sorry. But you're his best friend, you'll be supportive no matter what, right?" She says and he nods.

"Of course, I will be.." He says before looking down. "Then good for you two.." She sighs and then looks away. "Now can we get back to the tape? And your friend better not take this away from me.." She says as she points to him. "Okay.. he'll help a little, at least, alright?" He says and she sighs.

"Fine, yeah.." She nodded before looking down and playing the tape. The three listened at least four more other times until Steve walked in, holding the back of Chris' shirt. "Why the hell does Chris think I hit you?" He asked and Icarus sighs.

"Chris, he didn't, I just wanted to get you here." He says and Chris groans, covering his eyes. "What do you want, Rus?" He says and Steve looks at Icarus. "I can't believe you would make him think I was hitting you." He says and Icarus gets up, sighing. "Steve, leave it alone, just go." He says, pointing to the door and Steve rolls his eyes.

He leaves the back room and Icarus looks at Chris with a smile. "You know Russian, right? You said that.." He says and Chris nods. "Yeah, I told you just yesterday." He says and Icarus smiles more.

"Could you listen to this tape?"

  

  

   

   

     

    

authors note i hate to take the spotlight from robin who figured it out with dustin, but i really wanted chris in the book more