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012. 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱, 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿
𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀.
𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 evaporating into the air. It was a sweet visual, with the haze floating above the little ripples and the sunrise in the reflection— the deep blue up above and the streaks of morning yellow at the horizon. The clouds were getting lighter every few minute seconds. Birds were chirping somewhere, crackling in the tree branches all around and orchestrating with the swaying of the leaves, small, humming wooshes from different corners of the lake.
She’d watched the sunrise many a’ time, but as she watched the water ripple and the feet dangle beside her, she realized it had never felt quite like this. Her fingertips were touching the wood of the dock, feeling the coarseness of it on her skin, and she inhaled the sweet smell of autumn. She’d never been one for admiring seasons. But there, by this lake, with the orange trees reflected in the sunrise water— she thought, maybe just this once.
A few moments had passed since they last spoke. He was still there, beside her on the dock, leaning back on his hands and staring out in front of him. She was still there, beside him on the dock, her legs folded up to her chest and her chin propped up on her knees. They’d sat for a few moments, just taking in their surroundings and the fact that they weren’t pulling each other’s hair out, spitting insults, or engaging in some form of petty argument. It was simply peaceful for once.
“So,” Lori said. Her voice sounded heavy compared to the stillness around them, although her tone was rather soft. “I have to ask the question. Why am I your designated driver?” she asked, without looking at him.
Steve shrugged, nonchalantly. “Everyone’s sleeping at three in the morning, I couldn’t make any calls.”
“But you could climb through my window,” she looked at him, stupidly. “What about your friends? You mentioned them back there but I was kinda half asleep—”
“They’re not my friends,” Steve cut her off, speaking with a hurt honesty. “Whoever you’re thinking of, they’re not my friends.”
“Oh,” she turned her head to look at him. His face was tense, and his eyebrows were doing that thing they did when he was upset, all tightly knit. “Is that because of Nancy,”
“Somewhat.” he said, forming his lips in a tight line. He stared down at his hands.
When she noticed him clench his jaw, she tilted her head to the side, only slightly. “She got you bad, huh.”
Steve widened his eyes for a second before returning them back to normal, as if saying ‘oh yeah’. He rose his hand, and lazily formed a finger gun, pointing it to his heart and pulling the imaginary trigger.
“Can I say something,” she said, suddenly, and looked back to the water.
“Lori Philbin asking for permission?” he joked. “Go ahead.”
She focused on the way her teeth felt against her lip for a moment before looking to him. “I can’t help but notice the fact that you, Harrington, have a heart of glass.”
For a second, he didn’t even know what she’d said. He knew she was random, and this was random. But then his face twisted a bit. “No, people like Nancy have a heart of glass.” he said, confidently.
“And what do you suppose it means?” she looked at his hair, as he ran a hand through it. “If you’re so smart.”
“Well what do you say it means.” he replied, his eyes trailing around the horizon before landing on her.
“Nancy Wheeler does not have a heart of glass, I’ll tell you that.” Lori let out a small, airy laugh between her words. “She’s more like ceramic, or rubber. Cause she’s not easily shattered— I’m not a fan of the Princess but I’ll give her that much. Then again, maybe if it was a different person she could break.”
“So you’re saying I wasn’t that important enough to her?” Steve scoffed. “Okay, I’m so confused right now. Enough with this, deep bullsh—”
“No, think about it Steve,” Lori looked at him seriously. “Just— think about it.”
“Think about what.” he said, tiredly.
A long moment passed, where she debated whether she should continue. But then her lips departed, and she watched his expression carefully. “You didn’t break her heart, and you know that.”
There was a silence after this. She imagined that the words hit him somewhere in the gut, and that he was realizing a fact he already knew. His eyebrows knitted together again, tighter, and he looked down at his hands, his tongue pressed on his bottom lip.
She shrugged. “Hey, someone had to say it.” she said, almost delicately.
He bit his lip, out of confliction, his hand now rubbing along the side of his leg. “Yeah, I know, Philbs.”
She tried to remember the tone of his voice when he’d said that. He knew, and she could see that.
“And I just feel like you should remember,” She said, as she leaned over and inspected her reflection in the water. “And I don’t really give advice— especially not particularly good advice to teenage boys. You know, you can’t light a match in the rain. Cheesy, but, you know.”
When he didn’t say anything for a moment, she looked at him. He was staring down at his hands, folded on his lap. He bit down on the inside of his lip.
“Why don’t you give advice,” was what he said, after a pause. He tilted his neck up slowly, and caught her eye.
She shrugged, keeping his gaze. “Never really had anyone to give it to,” she said, and then her voice lowered. “I guess.”
He nodded, keeping the same expression. He shifted his eyes back to the water in front of them. He wasn’t thinking about how much time they had left before the opening of the shop— neither was she.
“So that’s why you’re the one with the glass.” Lori said simply, folding her arms on top of her knees, that were still pressed up to her chest.
“And what’s your reasoning for that,” Steve said. And then he let out a small, airy kind of laugh. “You seem to have a reason for everything.”
“I like to have a reason for everything.” she said, matter of fact-ly. “Put it this way. I don’t think you’d be sitting at this lake, with me, at seven in the morning if you weren’t heartbroken.”
“So how the hell does that have anything to do with glass.” he narrowed his eyebrows.
“It’s not that hard, Steve,” She turned a little bit in her seating position to face him. “You’re heartbroken. Your heart is broken.” she said, slowly. “Glass breaks, obviously.”
“Jesus, Philbs, way to be upfront about it.” he joked, half-meaning it and half-not.
“But it can be a good thing, too,” she tried to lighten it, although her tone of voice didn’t sound so softening.
“Yeah I’m a heartbroken loser, sitting on this dock at seven in the morning, like you just said.” he scoffed. He wasn’t scoffing at her, or at what she’d said— her words simply made him think about himself. And he was scoffing, rather, at his own realizations.
“I don’t think you’re a loser,” she defended. “Per say.”
“Sure seems like it. Jesus, I got no friends anymore, Nancy’s just— I don’t even know. Look— I had to steal your car.” he looked at her.
“What, you don’t like Maureen’s car?” she tried to joke.
“It’s just, I don’t know, man,” he lifted his hand and let it fall onto his legs.
“Is there something wrong with being a loser,” she said, staring at the side of his face.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” he folded his fingers together. “I, just, maybe I’m not the guy that I think I am. Or that everyone else thinks I am.”
“Oh my god, it’s happening,” Lori’s eyebrows rose just a little bit. “Your cliche is falling apart, and now it—”
“Look— we should just go home.” he turned his head towards her.
The way he spoke caused her to halt, and the look in his eyes emitted that he was somewhat serious.
“What?” she said, her eyebrows twitching.
“I dragged you here for nothing, and it’s like you said— Nancy doesn’t even care about me anymore and the necklace is basically pointless.” he said, sounding conflicted.
“I never said she didn’t care about you, I know she does,” she said, her words quickening when she realized he was going to get up. “Hey. Hey!” she placed her hand on his forearm.
“What,” he stopped his movements, making eye contact.
“The necklace isn’t pointless.” she said, assuredly. “And I sure as hell didn’t come all this way for you to turn around now.”
He paused, searching in her eyes.
“If you want her back, then I think it’s a good idea.” she told him. She didn’t mention whether she thought this good idea would work or not. She also didn’t know if she was truly being honest or not.
He thought to himself, as she let her hand fall form his arm. He looked at the water for a second, thinking that they did come all this way, and it would be stupid to turn back so suddenly.
“Besides,” she said, and it sounded humorous. “High school can’t exist without its golden couple.” she joked. “You have to get her that necklace.”
He knew Lori wasn’t one for jokes, and even though it was a bad joke, one that he was tired of hearing all the time from so many other people— so if she got a kick out of it, it was okay just this once. He also knew that she meant it harmlessly— even though it was Lori that he was thinking about, Lori who could probably do real harm if she wanted to— and decided not to take offence.
“You think we’re a golden couple,” he asked, a little smile pulling on half his mouth.
“On the surface it seems so,” she said, shrugging.
He didn’t know what that meant, at first. But he thought about it.
“On that note,” she said, and it seemed like she was beginning a new topic. “Do you ever think about the fact that we’re all entwined? You’ve got me on the golden couple trope now.”
“Me and you?” he asked, narrowing his eyebrows.
A gust of wind brushed past them. “No, like, everyone.”
He squinted his eyes, but she continued.
“It’s like we’re all woven together.” she said, with a certain tone of voice.
She began to trace shapes on the wood in front of her legs, and looked up at the calm water. He was looking at her side profile, listening to her speak.
“We’re all intertwined. It’s like one of us can’t exist without the other, you can’t exist unless someone else does too.” she let out a breath. “You can’t have the ill-fated golden couple without the spectators that decide they’re golden.” she began. She hadn’t decided these words, they were coming out as she said them. “You can’t have the Princess who thinks she’s rebelling, simply by acting upon the thought that she’s rebelling— might I add— without the mysterious boy she dumped her Prince for. And you can’t have me, who climbed down a fuckin’ ladder at three in the morning, without you.” she said. “You know?”
He was still staring at her when she finished.
“I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about ever since I showed up in this shit show.” she admitted, honestly. She looked down at her fingers on the wood. “Hawkins is different.”
When she thought he was going to mock her, or make fun of her stupid monologue, she heard him speak.
“What are we woven together with?” he asked, genuinely sounding into the conversation.
She nearly smiled at the fact that he understood what she said. But she composed herself, and shifted her attention from her hands to his face. “I don’t know. An invisible string, I guess.”
“Many strings.” he added, putting a finger up.
He was looking at her in a certain way that made her want to laugh, or smile. She didn’t really know why or how that was.
“Yeah. Everyone has their own string. Call it…” she searched for the word, then let out a theatrical sigh. “Fate, I suppose.”
“Go on,” he encouraged.
“And it’s not so pretty like it sounds. It’s kinda cruel, almost, to me.” she said, tracing circles on the dock. “It’s like I was meant for nothing but this.”
“Is this so bad,” he said, referring jokingly to their position right then, on the dock, together. But he also wasn’t joking.
She cracked a smile. “Not right now, no. But it kinda feels like fate, or whatever the hell you wanna call it, will give me whatever I want. Even if I make sporadic choices.”
“So, is that why you’re so… random,” he said, delicately.
“I guess.” she shrugged. “I don’t want anything to decide anything for me, even though it will.”
“You seem like the type of person that cheats fate.” he said, with a breathy laugh.
“I just wanna curve it, you know, as much as I can.” she said, laughing a bit too.
“So nothing’s expected.” he concluded, nodding.
Finally, she cracked a smile. “Exactly, Harrington.”
The jeweler was a nice place. It was a quaint little store, at the top of a small, barely inclined hill, in the middle of the town. There was nobody inside when they walked in at seven thirty in the morning, except for the old man at the back counter. The walls were coated with an eggshell color, with curvy baseboards and swirling patterns. There was a chandelier hanging from the roof that made everything shine in just the right way. It wasn’t a big store, and it didn’t have jewelry worth thousands of dollars.
They walked up from the dock after a few minutes of silence. Their conversation sort of slid to an end, in the natural, comfortable way, and slipped into a quiet silence where they were with their thoughts. She spent this time looking at the water and the reflection of the trees. He spent this time reflecting on their next task. The walk up from the dock wasn’t awkward or dodgy— but she didn’t really want to leave the water. It was something unlike what she’d ever seen before, and she tried to take as many mental Polaroids as she could before they left. She thought about it the whole drive away from the lake and up the hill to the shop.
They had gotten out of the car and walked in, and by this time, the sky was brighter. The sunrise was now just the sun that had risen, and the clouds covered the sky in streaks of grey.
As she stepped over the threshold to the little jeweler, the door held open for her by Steve, she wondered how in the world she got there. How did she procure such a position?
He walked in behind her, looking around the room but keeping his pace for the back desk. She slowed down her steps, her eyes looking in the cases of antique jewelry, new modern jewelry, precious jewels, and some chunky rings. She couldn’t take her eyes away from some of them.
“Like anything you see?” Steve asked, from behind her. She thought he’d gone straight to the front desk, but there he was.
She didn’t answer right away, just stared at the rings. “Those are cool,” she pressed her finger on the glass, pointing down to a rack that caught her eye. “Don’t you think,”
She could feel the warmth of his body on her back, though he wasn’t touching her at all. “Yeah,” he said, genuinely meaning it. “You wanna get something? It’s good prices here,”
She turned to face him. “Not today.” she said, and then rose her hand to pat his chest once. “We’re here for your love life.”
With that, she turned on her heel and walked towards the main desk at the back, where the old man was standing, writing on some tabs.
“Good morning,” she said, with a nice voice.
“Well good morning to you,” the man looked up, speaking with a warm tone of voice. “You’re my first customers today.”
Lori folded her hands on the glass. “We’d like your finest piece of jewelry, please.”
The man’s thin lips departed, and just before he was about to say something, Steve cut in.
“She’s kidding.” Steve said, and the man looked to Lori, and smiled earnestly. “We’d like to see if you still have this,” he reached into his pocket, “In stock.”
He placed the crumpled yellow flyer on the shiny glass. The placed his glasses on his nose, and looked at the advertisement.
“Oh, yes,” he finally smiled, and Steve let out a sigh of relief. “The discontinued. We’ve got a few left— I’ll be right back.”
“Lucky you,” Lori nudged Steve’s arm.
They waited, Lori’s fingers tapping on the glass and Steve leaning on the desk. The man came back within a few seconds, with a necklace between his fingers.
“Here you are,” he said, warmly.
Funny enough, he extended the necklace towards Lori. In a joking mood— probably from the lake and their conversations— she grabbed it delicately. She looked down at it. It was a beautiful pendant, silver, with the smallest little diamond on the end. For the first time, she realized why Nancy had always wanted it. It was beautiful, to anyone. For one second, she was serious about it, looking down at the necklace like she wanted it.
But then she rose it up to her neck. She pretended to put it on.
“How do I look,” she said, in a certain tone of voice. She posed, like a model, putting herself on display with the necklace as if she were a piece of art. She held the clasp with one hand behind her neck. Her eyes rolled up.
The man smiled at her, nodding with approval. She let out a laugh, hearing it echo on the walls a bit.
Then she looked at Steve.
He was standing there, leaning on the glass, staring at her. His eyes were first on the necklace around her neck, and she assumed he was visualizing it being Nancy’s neck, but when his eyes darted up to Lori’s— she knew he wasn’t thinking about Nancy. He was thinking about her, and only her. The way the necklace looked on her neck, the way her skin complimented the diamond, how her presence embodied it. He stared at her, in a way that he hadn’t before. Maybe it was the light, playing tricks on his eyes.
“Speechless?” she said, trying not to add a second thought to the way his eyes searched her. “I know.” she joked. She let out a laugh again.
The man laughed, and she laughed at the fact that he’d gotten the joke. Smiling with all her teeth showing, she stopped posing and brought the necklace down. Steve could tell that she liked it.
“It’s beautiful.” she told the man, and she didn’t think she could ever sound so sincere and kind. It was just really unlike her. But there she was, smiling brightly at this old man like she was a completely different person. She knew it wouldn’t last long, this cheerfulness, but she enjoyed it while it did.
“Young man,” he looked to Steve, as he took out the wrapping box from a nearby drawer.
Steve tore his eyes away, “Yeah, it’s beautiful,” he agreed, laughing lightly. “Perfect, even.” He ran his hand through his hair quickly.
“She’ll love it.” Lori patted his shoulder, with approval, before turning away. She was done at the cash.
Steve pulled out his wallet, watching the back of her head as she trotted past him. He looked back to the man, and realized the man was looking at him in a certain way. Steve pulled out his money as the man placed the necklace in the box.
The old man adverted his eyes to Lori for a moment. “You picked a good one, young man.”
“Oh, no, she’s not my girlfriend.” Steve laughed, awkwardly, feeling obligated to say, certainly.
“Well, then,” the man looked slightly shocked. “I hope you give this to someone that truly matters.” he tapped the box, and slid it to Steve.
Nancy mattered, Steve was trying to repeat in his head.
“Thanks,” Steve said to the man, while grabbing the box.
For a few moments Steve looked to Lori, who was searching the glass counters again, humming a tune to herself. He leaned back on the glass desk, watching as she trailed her hand along the rows of jewelry and walked out of the store with her hair blowing behind her.
𝙅𝙐𝙇𝙄
i literally um love this
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