86- Ice Cream Conversations
Summary: Erica comes over to the cabin and bonds with El. Ice cream is involved.
Requested by: Boris Yeltsin
Erica didn't know why she came.
Really, she didn't.
But here she was, hiking through the woods.
Erica gripped her bag tighter.
Finally, she made it to her destination, hopping over the trip wire.
Jogging up the stairs, Erica reached the door and knocked the secret knock.
The door slowly creaked open and revealed El.
The two stared at each other for a moment.
"Hi." Erica offered.
"Hi." El stated, still not letting the younger girl go in.
Erica rocked back on her heels.
This was getting awkward.
El furrowed her eyebrows. "Is something wrong? Something with Lucas?"
"No!" Erica assured. "No. I just-"
"You just what?" El asked when the younger girl trailed off.
Erica shrugged. "I just wanted to check on you. I know you haven't had company in a while."
El still looked hesitant but stepped to the side to let Erica in.
"Thanks." Erica smiled and walked into the cabin.
Dropping her bag, Erica cautiously made her way to the couch.
"So, why are you here again?" El asked.
Erica looked down at her hands. "Like I said, I know you haven't had company in a while."
The past couple of days El was in serious lockdown. There was couple of close calls due to someone always coming over.
Mike.
So, Hopper decided to have her lay low for the last few days, not seeing anyone but him.
And of course, the day the lockdown was lifted, everyone had something going on. Seriously, everyone.
Except Erica.
She'd only been at the cabin a couple times. The first few times were to help clean but the last times were to visit El.
Erica didn't talk much in those visits.
She didn't mind, she knew she wasn't very close to El. Erica usually just hung around the back, talking to Dustin or Steve and Robin if they were there.
So, why was Erica here visiting El alone when they weren't even that close?
That's what Erica wanted to know as well.
Erica looked up at El and saw that she still looked tentaive.
"I can leave if you'd like." Erica stood and started grabbing her bag.
El placed her hands on Erica's shoulders, stopping her. "No, it's fine. Do you want to watch some soap operas with me?"
Honestly, that was the last thing Erica wanted to do. But she just nodded and sat back down on the couch, this time El joining her.
The older girl turned the TV on and flipped the channels. "Ooh, good. This one's my favorite." El smiled.
Erica smiled back and got comfortable.
Soap operas were suprisingly interesting.
The two girls finished El's favorite and Erica could see why it was.
"Want something to eat?" El asked as the credits rolled.
"Sure, whatcha got?" Erica followed her into the kitchen.
El poked her head into the freezer. "Uh, Eggos?"
Erica giggled. "You can have some but I'm good. I've already had breakfast."
El smirked and looked back into the freezer. "Ah! Dad got some more ice cream!"
"Sweet. Just please no rocky road." Erica said.
"Nah, I don't have dad get that flavor. It always disappoints the boys though."
Erica shook her head as she helped El scoop the neapolitan ice cream. "I don't understand how they like that. The marshmallows always screw up the texture."
"Right!? I think Will is the only one who would agree with us. Even Max likes it."
"It's always one of Lucas's first choices so we usually have that in the freezer. That or peanut butter cup." Erica told her.
"Peanut butter cup isn't terrible. What's your favorite ice cream flavor?" El asked.
Erica thought for a moment. "It's between mint chip or cookies and cream. Luckily, Lucas likes those too so there's usually a tub of one them in our freezer."
El nodded. "Cookies and cream is one of my favorties as well. But I think strawberry is my favorite."
Erica hummed in acknowledgement as she thought of another question to ask the girl.
"This is going to sound weird but have you ever tried bubblegum ice cream?"
El literally dropped her spoon. "Uh, yeah! Please tell me that you at least like it?"
Erica nodded.
"Me too! All the boys hate it but it's surprisingly not terrible. Not my favorite but when I'm in the mood then I'll have a scoop."
Erica laughed. "I a hundred percent agree with you."
El grinned and took a bite of her ice cream.
The two girls then asked ice cream related questions.
Yes to cake batter? Erica was a yes, El was a no.
How about salted carmel? Both girls were a yes and had a solid 10 minutes conversation on the flavor.
Milkshake or cone? Erica loved the occasional milkshake but El preferred a cone most of the time.
They were in the middle of talking about how chocolate fudge could either ruin or make vanilla ice cream when the door opened.
"Hey El! We're here!" the voice of Erica's older brother floated through the air.
Lucas, Mike, and Dustin all turned the corner into the kitchen and stopped in their tracks when they saw Erica.
"Erica! What are you doing here?" Lucas asked.
Erica shrugged. "Just chilling. I thought you guys couldn't make it."
It was the boys turn to shrug. "We all got out of our things." Mike explained. "The others should be coming soon."
"Great!" El exclaimed. "Cause we got some new tubs of ice cream."
Dustin cheered. "Did you get rocky road?"
El and Erica looked at each other and smirked. Then, they answered the question together.
"No."
AN: Hope you liked it, Boris Yeltsin! Requests are open!
