My mom called the store on Wednesday afternoon, "I have to cover a night shift tonight, we'll get a take out another night, sorry Raindrop." She only used that pet name when she felt really bad about something. During my shift we had a buttload of deliveries and a stupid group of teens wrecking the displays to deal with. "I'm so fucking done with today," Steve sighed, leaning against the counter with his famously huge hair now plastered to his head with sweat. When the phone rang again, Robin answered, "Family Video Store, what can I do for you?" Robin's expression quickly changed, "Alright I'll pass that along, bye." Steve and I furrowed our brows at her; she flashed a smile to us. "Steve's getting laid tonight!" she clapped her hands together, "Linda just said she's back on and will be at your place for 8."
Steve's mouth dropped in surprise, "Oh shit. I made plans with Heather instead, Linda said she was babysitting tonight. What the hell am I gonna do?" Robin and I rolled our eyes. "Poor you, two ladies looking forward to a date with you." As I spoke, Eddie Munson walked through the door. He was wearing another ink stained band shirt - Metallica of course - and cargo pants. "Well well, Harrington's having a three way is he?" Eddie smirked. "I'm not having a three way." Steve gritted his teeth. Their dynamic was weird - obviously they never hung out together in school, but they didn't hate each other either, yet anytime they were in the same room both avoided eye contact. "His first date cancelled so he got another one; now the first one is back on and meeting him at 8" I relayed the story. Eddie's eyes turned to me and an entirely different look overcame his face. My face felt hot. Eddie licked his lips and put his hands in his back pockets.
My pulse quickened a little, I turned to Robin to regain my composure, "Sleeping at mine then?" Robin chuckled, "duh, either way Steve's fucking tonight and I don't wanna be there." Eddie was tracing his finger along the titles nearest to him. "When's the date with babe number 2?" He asked. Steve pushed his hair back and said, "6. We're going bowling." Eddie nodded, "Go bowling with babe 2, nobody plays for 2 hours. Take her home, get the goodnight kiss, be home by 8 for babe 1." To our surprise, Steve agreed that was a great idea. I, on the other hand, felt repulsed by how quickly and casually he came up with the idea to go out with both of them. I walked away from the others to hide my face. A couple of kids were struggling to reach a Disney video, I helped them and stuck around, talking to them about their favourite movies. Their mom returned to the store a few minutes later and they took out the videos.
From the corner of my eye I saw Eddie approaching me, I slapped a casual expression on my face. "How's the arm feeling, Wheeler?" He asked. "Been aching all day, nothing too bad. Slow day, Munson?" I was filling out delivery forms at the counter, Robin was lurking nearby, listening to our conversation. "I have an hour spare before my next one. You got any recommendations for me?" Eddie nodded towards the curtain to the X-Rated section. No one was in there, and I had mixed feelings about being back there just with Eddie right now. "Uh, yeah sure, follow me." I could feel Robin's eyes burning a hole in my back. When we entered the room Eddie walked by my side, the aisles were so narrow that the backs of our hands were touching. Eddie didn't seem to make a big deal of it, so neither did I. 'The Fly' was another movie I was obsessed with. "This one's a hit with me, Mike, and Dustin. It made Steve wanna vom." Eddie clapped his hands and said "Perfect, I'll take it. There another movie night this friday?" There was a look of hope in his eyes. Part of me wanted to invite Eddie to Friday's movie night, part of me was still bothered by what he said to Steve. "Hmm, not this week." I couldn't think of an excuse to lie about, and Eddie's face told me he wouldn't believe it anyway.
At 5 Steve sighed, "Wish me luck. I don't wanna get slapped tonight." he was leaving early to clean up before date with 'babe' 2. "Good luck, don't fuck it up" Robin jeered. I opened my mouth but said nothing. Later, we locked up and headed to Robin's house for her to grab some things. As usual, the place was empty, her parents were workaholics and rarely made it home before 7pm. I didn't bother making myself comfortable, Robin never wanted to stay here long. Back at my house, my mom wrapped Robin in a huge hug, then me. "I gotta go, don't keep the neighbours up!" She winked at us before leaving. Robin and I devoured dinner and began washing up. Robin was looking into the distance. "You good Buckley?" I splashed water at her. "Yeah just thinking." she said. The drains groaned when I pulled the plug. "Thinking about?" I asked. "You're crushing on Eddie again, aren't you?" Robin's words made me jump.
I moved to the couch, keeping my hands busy by tying up my hair, "What? No, I grew out of that." She sat down next to me, silently surveying my body language. "Well, the energy between you two today was pretty intense. You were blushing when he came in." I hoped that wasn't something Eddie noticed. Robin continued talking, "You didn't just get over the crush in middle school - you moved and pushed it down. When you came back here there was the drama with Will and Barb, no time for crushes. Then you were with Billy. Maybe you didn't get over the crush, just repressed it." My mouth was dry. Robin's theory made sense. My life so far had been one disaster after another, maybe I had just been repressing a crush on Eddie Munson all this time. Fuck me.