Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter six

EVELYN walked through the near-empty parking lot of the Palace Arcade. She mindlessly headed to the main doors of her workplace, her head buried in a book she'd picked up from a thrift store in the town and her Walkman headphones covering her ears. She was scanning the words quickly, trying to cram in the last page so she could finish the chapter before she had to put it away.

The obnoxiously loud music blaring from an unknown car speeding through the spaces had failed to catch her attention so far. It was only when her knee buckled and her book exploded from her grip and her Walkman clattered to the floor with her headphones falling in front of her face, that she saw it.

"Watch it!" Evelyn hissed, slamming on the bonnet of the car that had jerked to a holt in her path, despite having all the room of the car park. Swearing as she gathered up the book and grabbed at the silver case containing her new cassette, Evelyn saw smaller hands reaching for her things and she looked up. Her face contorted, and then relaxed, her irritation fading. "Max?" Evelyn said, as used the bonnet of the stranger's car to push herself up.

"I'm sorry." She was saying, as Evelyn dusted herself off. The blonde shook her head with a quiet 'don't worry about it' and turned to look at the black car that had clipped her. The driver, a tall broad boy with long curly hair and a double denim attire had his back to Eve, too busy looking at himself in the rear-view mirror to notice the rage blushing Eve's cheeks through the window screen. Evelyn doubted he even realised he'd knocked her as he pulled at the curls framing his face - she squinted at the man, looking several inches taller than herself, and wore a frown that cut into her features. The man then moved his icy eyes from the mirror to hers, and it made her jump.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going." He said, his voice travelling through the driver's open window. With tight fists, Evelyn watched him take a drag from his cigarette and then turned her attention to all the room around them. She huffed, thinking it wasn't worth it and didn't want to upset Max either and so rolled her eyes, hugging her things to her chest. She turned away from the car and took another step towards the arcade.

"Arsehole." Max, tailed her, spluttering an embarrassed apology over her step-brother but Evelyn shrugged at his ignorance and sighed out her frustration.

"You're earlier than usual," Eve then said in her usual loving tone as she pushed open the door for them both. Suddenly Max was skittish and out of character. Eve thought nothing of it as she babbled and chuckled at her antics.

"Yeah, I- I could only get a lift at this time so," Max threw her thumb over her shoulder towards the car speeding away from the arcade and laughed nervously, "yeah, so I came now." Eve headed to the door leading to the back of the arcade and gave Max a curious glance.

"Okay?" She laughed and dropped her things in their make-shift store room mostly filled with snacks, wires and a change of clothes. When Evelyn reappeared from the stockroom with her Palace T-shirt on, she smiled at Keith who walked up to her with a bag of cheesy potato chips in his hand, naturally leaning the bag towards her to offer her one. It should be pointed out, Evelyn was Keith's only exception with human interaction. He even went out of his way to engage with her. Lucky for him, she wanted desperately to go to university - having worked so hard to do so - and picked up as many shifts as she could to start saving for tuition fees.

"Are you early too?" She said mocking suspicion but oblivious, Keith just scowled at her and placed a chip in his mouth.

"I just got here? And aren't you late?" He said dryly and Evelyn shook her head, lifting herself onto the counter. She was late, which was extremely rare. She was supposed to be helping at an AV meeting but with no one turning up which was utterly unheard of, Eve just waited for Jonathan to collect Will and see if he was okay. Usually, Jonathan collected Will on Thursdays when he didn't have his appointments and would drop Eve off at the palace. Neither Byers boys had turned up that day and so Evelyn had walked to the arcade, but late.

She crossed her legs and Keith sat on the side opposite her. There weren't many people in the arcade today and so it hadn't really mattered Eve was late. With a great sigh, and no one to help, Evelyn pulled at the book she sometimes forgot to take from the desk. Eve flicked the pages open and pulled the pencil she'd stuck in to the binding. She began sketching one of their customers and Keith made a muffled noise as he nodded to her work.

"You're really good you know, I can see why you wanna do it at College." Evelyn bashfully thanked him, and took a chip from the bag in his hands. "You should draw like, Luke Skywalker or Bruce Wayne or something." He was getting gradually excited as he pointed to the page and Evelyn chuckled, looking up quickly.

"Noted." But then someone came into the arcade and Evelyn took her feet off the opposite side of the counter beside Keith. With a quick sigh, and sliding the book to one side Evelyn turned to the counter with a bright smile. She paused though, when she saw Steve Harrington running a hand through his hair in distress.

"Steve?" Evelyn questioned, stepping forward. She looked around, a little lost and with furrowed eyebrows. "What are you doing here?" He'd never been here before to the best of her knowledge and she'd certainly never imagined it to be his kind of entertainment. But the truth was, Steve had never had someone to speak to apart from Nancy. His friends were never friends and so stressed and their conversation from Halloween fresh in his mind, Steve strangely couldn't think of anyone else to go to.

"She doesn't love me," he blurted. Today he sounded only frustrated, which was a relief in some way. His foot tapped against the wire carpet below and he placed a hand on the wooden counter in front of him. Taken back, Eve gulped and blew out her cheeks.

"She said that?" She leant forward, planting herself into the conversation she hadn't planned for. "She said it again?"

"I asked her to tell me she loved me but she couldn't do it. She just couldn't do it. She just looked away from me." He was throwing his hands into the air and placed his elbows on the counter putting his head in his hands.

"No customers on or over the counter." Keith's muffled voice split between them and Evelyn turned back, muttering in surprise: "Keith", because he never usually cared and Steve looked up between his fingers with half lidded eyes and his mouth in a straight line. He looked at Evelyn as if to say 'you can't be serious?' And he straightened himself up with a sigh, taking his arms off the desk.

"What do I do?" He asked frankly, but Evelyn took a chip from the bag beside her in Keith's arms and Steve was surprised Keith didn't stop her as she turned back to face him.

"I'm not sure what to say Steve. I mean, she can't be right for you if this is how she feels. If she loved you, she wouldn't be treating you like this. Look at how concerned you were about her that night." She wafted her hair in the air, "did she mention that?" Steve scoffed.

"No! Didn't even remember it. Thought I was mad at her for drinking." He wiped his mouth, "I mean seriously?" Evelyn climbed onto the wood separating her and Steve and slid over it, realising he might not want to shout his relationship problems out to the small section of Hawkins inside the arcade. "Do you wanna go to the back?"

Exasperated, Steve threw out his arms. "Sure?" And Eve turned back to Keith, batting her eyelashes to which he immediately, routinely, replied.

"Fine." To her silent question of will you cover for me? As she bit into the chip and pushed open the door and Steve followed Evelyn, he looked at the back of her shirt with the superhero on it. His lips twitched in amusement.

"Honestly, I think you might be the love of Keith's life."

"Yes, very funny." Eve scolded as the door closed and she pulled out a chair so she could face him. When he slumped in the chair opposite and wiped at his face, Steve just sighed.

"What am I even supposed to do with that? With nothing? I love her." Eve didn't say anything but Steve could hear her words. "And I know that doesn't matter because she doesn't love me and that's it." He leant back in the white plastic of his chair, looking down his nose at Eve as he rested his head on his shoulders.

"That's it?"

"Well, what else can I do. If she doesn't love me?" Eve looked around the room and shrugged, nibbling her lip until honestly she declared:

"I have no idea what to say." Steve nodded, laughing bitterly. Then he huffed, and groaned loudly.

"Tell me about it."