The Strangest is Yet to Come

02

When 5:45 came around, which was a little later than planned, Samantha practically skips out the doors to the pool and, as promised, Jonathan was sat in his car waiting for her.

"I'll see you later, Samantha!" Heather says as she heads for her own car and the blonde gives her a wave.

"Bye, Heather!"

Jonathan gets out of the car as she approaches, giving her a smile when she stands on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Sorry I'm a little late," she apologises, "A kid fell, there was quite a bit of blood."

"Don't worry about it," he assures, taking her small bag so he can toss it in the back.

She grins when he opens the car door for her and as soon as she gets in, she can smell something good. A smell that only comes from one place.

She looks at him when he climbs in the other side, "You've gotten food? You've been to Frenchie's?"

He laughs as she turns to kneel on the seat, hearing her rummaging through the large paper bag, "Yeah, I thought we could drive out to the lookout and eat ehre. I know we haven't really seen each other lately and I wanted to make it up to you."

Samantha settles back into her seat with her milkshake but not before leaning over to give him another soft kiss.

Jonathan gives her a smile in return but it's not his usual smile -it doesn't quite reach his eyes but she doesn't question it. He's been up since god knows when and the poor boy is exhausted.

"You're too good to me, Jonathan Byers."

~~|~~

At 6:30, Jonathan drops her at the arcade and says he'll be there at eleven to take her home, shaking his head when she tells him that he should sleep, that she could walk.

The parking lot is empty - not surprising at all thanks to Starcourt but as she heads inside, there are quite a few kids running around.

Maybe things won't go as slow as she thought tonight.

Once she's dumped her stuff and punched in, she grabs her cloth and cleaning spray and heads back out onto the shop floor but it's not long until Keith is pulling her off of cleaning to help him out on the prize desk.

Her manager lets out a loud groan when Will, Max and Lucas all come up not ten minutes later, making a beeline for the backroom, "You deal with them."

"Hey guys!" she grins, leaning against the desk, "What can I do for you on this fine evening?"

"We're here, to cash in," Lucas slams a thick pile of tickets down and she lets out a whistle.

"Jesus, how long have you been here?"

They shrug, "A while."

Shaking her head, Samantha moves to the automatic ticket counter and starts feeding them in, "What are you guys doing for the rest of the night? Please tell me you're not staying here. You guys need to get some fresh air."

"Well for your information," Max begins as the machine beeps, "We're going to the mall to watch Day of the Dead."

"Day of the Dead?" she repeats, ripping the small reciept that tells Lucas how much he's won, "Isn't that rated-R?"

"Yep."

"And just how are you planning...you know what, don't wanna know." it's then that she realises that there was only three of them. Dustin, she knew, was at camp, "Where are Mike and El?"

"They're on a date," Will rolls his eyes, "Again. But Mike's going to meet us at the mall."

Samantha nods before looking at Lucas, "So, what are you thinking about choosing?"