The babysitters club|| Steve Harrington

19

"Code red, I repeat code red" Dustin's voice filtered through the hatch on the ceiling. "Does anyone copy?"

"Still going, huh?" Matteo rubbed the sleep from his eyes. They had just finished the last of their water from the bottle Dustin had thankfully brought with him.

"He's... hopeful" Steve gave him a small shrug.

"We are innocent children, and we are trapped under Starcourt mall" Dustin spoke into his walkie talkie, Steve didn't know about the range on that thing, but he was fairly certain they were out of it, "The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins, and if we are found, they will torture and kill us"

"I better—" Steve gestured upward.

"Yeah, no I love hearing about what awaits us outside the elevator"

Steve climbed the shaky tower of boxes again, like they had last night. His body was sore from sleeping in a weird position, well technically there hadn't been much sleeping at all. Even though he was exhausted, his body refused to shut down.

The only thing that repeated in his mind was that all of them were down here because of him. He had to be the one to think of a way out of there.

"Hey!" He pulled himself up through the hatch, "Gotta take it easy on that thing. Gonna drain the battery"

"The mall just opened" Dustin gestured to his digital watch.

"So?"

"So someone could be in range"

Steve admired his optimism, he really did. But Dustin needed a reality check.

"What do you think, Petey the mall cop is gonna rappel down here and save the day?" He hauled himself to his feet, sparing a glance through the hatch where Robin and Matteo were trying to keep the green goo canister away from Erica.

"All right, why are you such a cranky pants after getting to spend the night with Robin?"

Steve shushed him out of instinct, not realizing Dustin had said Robin instead of Matteo. The two older boys had woken up earlier, Steve's fingers brushing against his, which he pulled back immediately. So no one other than them knew they had slept so close to each other.

"Jesus christ" Steve raked his fingers through his hair, "Will you just give up on your creepy dream already?"

"I heard you guys talking last night"

"What? No— it wasn't—"

"Dude come on" Dustin urged.

Steve had to swallow the bile rising to his throat. If what he feared about himself was true (and he really hoped it wasn't) he was in deep shit.

He'd seen people beaten up over it, he had heard stories about people like that— people like him— killed for existing, he'd heard his father laugh at stories like that. He'd seen people losing friends, losing family over it.

"It was Matteo" He said at last, the boy's first name feeling weird on his lips. Matteo. It was a really pretty name, but Steve was more used to his last name. "I was talking with Matteo last night. He said Robin kicked in her sleep—"

"I already told you they're not dating so you don't need to worry about that"

The more Dustin talked, the more Steve was convinced he was losing his mind because he was actually starting to consider his weird plan. Surely if Steve focused on Robin, his feelings about boys in general would vanish, right? He'd done that for years now, what was a few more years?

And besides, he wasn't gay. He knew he wasn't.

He liked girls, he had always like girls.

He wasn't gay. He wasn't straight.

He had to focus on the Russians (and maybe Robin so he could distract himself from his feelings)

"We talked about the door" Steve said, looking away from Dustin and walking toward the edge of the elevator top, "No luck thinking of ways out of here. And I just spent the night in a really weird position so my back hurts. Which is, you know, great. Nothing changed overnight so that may be a part of the reason why I'm feeling just a tad cranky"

"What are you doing?" Dustin cried out as he unzipped his pant.

Steve pulled a face and glared at the kid, "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking a leak. Look away" Dustin shrugged but didn't move fast enough, "Look away!"

...

"I'm going to surrender myself over to the Russians" Matteo looked away from the wall, "Please tell me that's not pee"

"Gross" Robin pulled a face, "Men, too much headache"

"More like— Steve: too much headache" Matteo rolled his eyes, joining her at the panel.

"Can you redirect your stream please?" Robin called out loudly so even Steve could hear, and surprising both of them, he actually complied. Still she groaned in disgust.

A clanging noise filled the elevator, causing Matteo to look away from Robin and turn to Erica who was banging the canister of green liquid against a metal barrel.

"Hey! Hey!" He plucked it out of her hands, "You lose green goo privileges. Careful— be careful!"

Erica tried to snatch it back, but since he was much taller than her, it was easy to keep it out of her reach. The glass canister was cool to the touch, much like everything else down here. Matteo was glad for the cold, because otherwise he would have boiled alive in his hoodie.

"We don't even know what that is" Robin joined the commotion, throwing one hand over Matteo's shoulder.

"Exactly" Erica tried to snatch it again, but Matteo held it higher, "It could be useful!"

"Useful how?" He looked up at the liquid inside the canister— green like some cheap Halloween decoration.

"We can survive down here a long time, without food" Erica argued, "But if the human body doesn't get water, it will die"

"Hate to break it to you, kid, but this is not water"

"No, but it's a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst—" She gave him a shit eating grin, "I drink"

Matteo's ears picked up a whirring sound, like one of the golf carts his uncle Patrick used to drive at the country club. He forgot about Erica momentarily, letting the girl grab the canister from his hand as he moved to the wall the noise had come from. He pressed his ear against it, waiting for more noise.

Nearly tripping over his feet, he scrambled to the tall tower of boxes, standing on the top one to peer through the hatch. Thankfully, Steve had stopped taking a leak by now.

"We've got company" he announced.