51- The Perfect Movie
Summary: Mike takes El to Family Video for the first time. Steve and Robin are obviously there.
Requested by: friendsdontlie83
Mike was excited.
El was coming for Christmas, the first time she would be back since the Byers moved.
Mike wanted to plan the perfect Christmas for her, it being their first Christmas together.
He wanted to plan a big date to set their vacation off right.
Something with just the two of them.
Too bad that their town had nothing to do and neither of them could drive yet.
Mike thought about going and seeing a movie, but the Party was already planning to do that, and they'd already have movie dates anyway.
However.
They haven't stayed in for a movie date.
They've never went and rented movies, watching them until they fell asleep cuddled next to each other.
Mike knew it was perfect.
And memorable.
Because El had never been in Family Video before.
El wrapped her coat tightly around her. She wasn't used to this weather due to have lived in sunny California for a few months.
She was walking on the sidewalk next to Mike, who was waving his arms around while telling a story.
They were on their way to a store called Family Video. What it sold was something that El had yet to understand.
Mike tried to explain it to her, asking if she had ever been to a store like it. But El just shrugged.
They turned the corner and El saw the Family Video sign approaching.
El was nervous.
What if she did something wrong?
What if she messed up?
She was already teased for making so many mistakes in California.
But El couldn't worry about it much more, they were soon at the door in which Mike held it open for her.
El gingerly stepped into the shop, glancing around.
Her vision was soon on an older girl with a long smile.
Robin.
El didn't really know Robin. She was a part of the whole Battle of Starcourt and she hung out with the group a couple of times before El moved but other than that, El really didn't know much about Robin.
"Hey guys," Robin greeted. "Ready to pick out some movies?"
El just simply nodded but Mike told her, "Yeah I think we're planning on mostly Christmas movies, right El?"
El nodded again.
Robin didn't seem to mind. "Alright, the Christmas movies are in that corner right over there and lucky for you, not a lot of people come around at this time."
Mike gave a small thanks and headed to where Robin directed them. El didn't know what else to do but follow.
The couple scanned the aisles in silence for a while. El was just kind of looking at the movies, unsure what they were.
Mike was picking up some, then putting them back down.
Why? El had no idea.
El had picked movies from her friends' houses before, but they'd always explained everything to her, give their opinion in things.
El was about to ask Mike to do that for her, when he turned abruptly and walked away.
El stood there baffled for a moment.
Until a voice said, "Hey El! Good to see you!"
El turned, and there was Steve with a handful of videos tucked under his arm.
El grinned at him and gave him a side hug. Unlike Robin, El knew Steve longer and had grown close with the older boy.
"How are you?" Steve asked.
El shrugged and repeated the question. Which then made Steve repeat the same motion and made El giggle.
"Finding movies?" Steve questioned.
El turned to the rack of movies and then turned to Steve with scrunched eyebrows.
"Confused."
Steve nodded and put the stack of movies down.
"What do you need help with?"
"I- I don't know how to do," El swept her arms over the store. "This."
El expected Steve to laugh but he nodded.
"Alright. That's okay. It's hard when you don't know what you're looking for." Steve told her, looking around. "Where's Mike?"
"I don't know. He just left." El said.
Steve muttered something about how Mike was so ignorant.
"Okay, well we'll just have to this ourselves." Steve said with his hands on his hips, the mom pose, as the Party called it. "Robin!"
Robin came scurrying over. "Whatcha need?"
Steve quickly glanced at El, asking her if she wanted to ask herself and also pushing her to do so, it would be good social practice. This was all in one look. Steve was pretty incredible if you asked El.
El gave him a slight nod, and turned to the older girl, "I need some help."
"Okay! Do you need help picking out a movie?"
El nodded. "I- I don't really know how to do that. I mean, the boys usually help. And they never really explained how to do it. They usually just- did it."
El was rambling, she knew. She hoped that her spew of words would make sense.
Apparently, it did. Robin's head was bobbing up and down.
"Okay, so here's the basics. You look at the movies, trying to find something that looks cool to you." Robin started.
"There are some movies you should stay away from, but we'll get to that later." Steve cut in.
"Yeah, but for now, just find a movie that looks cool to you. You wanted a Christmas movie, right?" Robin said.
"I think so. That would be fun to watch." El decided, eyes scanning the rows.
A movie with an old cartoon man with a purple top hat caught her eye.
A Christmas Carol it read.
El reached out and picked it up.
"Now what?" El turned to the two older teens.
Steve and Robin smiled at each other.
"Christmas Carol, classic. Now, you have to read the description." Robin told her, flipping the tape around in her hands.
"Read it?" El asked with dread in her voice.
"If you don't want to read it, either Robin or me could read it for you." Steve said in a gentle tone.
"Or I." Robin corrected. "That proves that I should read it."
El chuckled as she handed her the movie.
Robin read the description aloud and when she was done her eyes flicked up to El, eyes filled with question.
"So, what do you think?" she asked.
El thought for a moment. "I don't know. It sounds like it would be fun to watch but, how do I know it's the one I want to watch?"
Robin gave her a small smile. "I think you're overthinking this a bit El. But that's okay. How about we go around, look at some movies, and pick out the first five movies you like. Then we'll go from there."
El nodded.
So, the three of them waltz around the store, picking up movies, explained them, and El picked-out movies.
Sometime between the comedies and the romances, Mike appeared and joined them.
By the end of it, they had 8 movies in total, 4 of which were El's pick and the other four were Mike's pick.
The couple waved goodbye to Robin and Steve behind the stacks of movies they were carrying.
"When we get home, we're going to have to start immediately if we want to watch all of these. We'll probably be up by at least 1." Mike told his girlfriend.
El nodded, she thought that sounded fun.
But first, she had a question.
"Why'd you walk off?" El asked.
"Hmm?" Mike looked at her in confusion. "Oh, I remembered a movie me and Will used to watch, and it was always stored in a back room, and I thought I could go see if they had it. Sorry that I walked off so suddenly, I wanted to find the perfect movie for us to watch and I guess I got in a zone."
"That's okay, I was just wondering." El said. "I also wanted to find the perfect movie for us to watch you know."
"Oh did you?" Mike asked, eyebrow raised. "And would you say that we did?"
El stopped and turned.
Then she gave Mike a little peck on his lips.
"Oh yeah. They're the perfect movies."
AN: Hope you liked it, friendsdontlie83! Requests are open!