"Your time's almost up, Rain". My mom's voice carried through my bedroom door in a frustrated tone. I was rubbing moisturiser onto the small tattoos on my right leg, rushing to leave for my shift, and really didn't need to hear this again. "Seriously, I've supported you through this gap year because you got that job. But I know you don't want to work at Family Video forever." she continued as I walked into the kitchen to grab some OJ and a banana, my collarbone length wavy purple hair was still damp from the shower...so we're doing this again, great.
"Rain, are you listening? I don't want you to end up like Steve, stuck here". I gave her a glare for insulting Steve that way and shook my head, "not cool mom" i simply told her. "I'm sorry, I know how much being in Hawkins hurts you. I hate that I couldn't afford to get us out of here after what happened, I still can't. But going to college means you can finally leave this place and put the past behind you" my mom sighed. I gave her a weak smile before saying, "I know you tried mom, and being here with all of the memories sucks... but just trust me okay?".
I was 15 minutes late to my shift...not that it really mattered anyway, Steve was the manager now and he sure as hell wasn't going to fire me. When I arrived, Robin and Steve were standing against the wall. "Late again Wheeler, another strike and i'll have to put you on probation" Steve smirked at me with his arms folded, before heading into the back. "You're here! I need to talk to you ASAP!", my best friend Robin grabbed my arm excitedly, there was only one customer in the store and he was concentrating a little too much on the romance section. Steve strode through from the back room, carrying two arms full of videos so high i could hardly see his face. "Oh yeah you guys keep chatting, i don't need help at all" He said sarcastically. I shook Robin's hand off and went to relieve Steve before he dropped a stack.
I knew exactly what Robin wanted to talk about, but we couldn't do it whilst Steve was around. After some time setting up displays in the store, my cousin Mike and his friend Dustin came running in looking sweaty... "is- is it here?" Mike panted at the desk. Robin immediately shouted "Steve, 2 of your sons are here again". Steve came dancing out of the manager's room to greet the two newly 16 year olds, carrying the single copy of the Hellraiser video that we just got in store that morning. "You're welcome you're welcome," Steve bowed when Mike and Dustin high-fived one another smiling. "Hey, don't watch that without me! you know that's my favourite new horror movie" I pointed my finger at them and narrowed my eyes. They laughed and promised to save it for a movie night this Friday.
Mike and Dustin hung around the store chatting to Steve, perfect time for me to sneak round back with Robin. "Have you heard anything? i can't believe we are so close to leaving this place, we are so close to going to college, it's like i can taste the freedom." Robin spoke at her usual 100 miles an hour and waved her hands around. "I...well, yeah i heard from them but the answer is still the same." I hated bringing her mood down, but we'd been waiting for months to hear back from the college we applied to together.
I had graduated with pretty decent grades this year considering everything; Robin and I knew where we wanted to go together but a gap year meant we could work and save some money. Also, it meant we got to stay with Steve, our third musketeer. Nobody knew that we had applied; Robin for Drama and Theatre, me for theatre and special effects make up. The problem was that the school is in Canada. Steve especially could not know, not yet, it will break his heart to know we kept this from him. Anyway, we got waitlisted. Every month since then we pestered admissions for an update, and every month we got the same answer...waitlisted.
Robin's usually electric mood was dampened, she spent the rest of the shift barely making any sarcastic comments at all. "What's with her?" Steve asked me as Robin packed her bag getting ready to head home. "uhh...PMS i think" I responded without thinking, i was a bad liar, even worse when trying to lie to friends. Friends don't lie. The answer satisfied Steve though, he held up his hands and walked away to begin locking up the store. I nudged Robin and rested my head on her shoulder because i was a few inches taller, "I'm sorry, we'll try again next month". Robin gave me a small smile and said "well at least it means we don't have to break Steve's heart just yet. He's going to be so bummed if we go and he's stuck here."