Chapter Text
"You're kidding me?"
Steve paused with a bagel half way to his mouth. Keith had interrupted his fifteen minute break to tell Steve some apparently urgent and mindblowing news about the future of Family Video. He stared at the piece of paper he'd been handed as if it might cease to exist if he looked at it hard enough.
Keith shrugged and looked just as uninterested in the conversation as he did in life in general. "It's what the owners want. Starts next weekend. New shift patterns are right here," He tapped the edge of the paper, as if Steve might have somehow missed the extra boxes drawn in red sharpie to extend the regular printed schedule.
"And who's going to cover it?" Steve lowered his legs from where he'd had his crossed ankles resting on the edge of the desk that double triple quadrupled as their security desk break room manager's office. "I'm not waking up at six in the morning to charge people a god damn late fee!"
Steve knew he was probably overrreacting but his Saturday nights were tragic enough with a terrible roster of girls who weren't sick of his commitment issues yet and a microwave meal back home after feeling them up in the back of his car for a while. He didn't want to add an eleven-to-seven night shift on top of it.
"It's handled, Harrington," Keith countered, in that half sneer that he thought was authoritive. "There's some students coming in to take the mornings, so you'll keep getting your beauty sleep,"
"And the nights? Who in their right mind wants to be here at three in the damn morning?" Steve cleared his throat and checked himself. He was getting a little hysterical and it was kind of embarassing. He swiped a hand across his shirt to clear out some stray crumbs from his lunch and sitting up straight. "I just don't see how-"
"I said it's handled. Now get back out there, you've been back here for two minutes too many," Keith turned to leave, calling back over his shoulder; "As of next Friday night we're a twenty-four-seven store, get used to it,"
"Has he told you who's coming in to do nights yet?"
"No one's coming, Rob," Steve said to his phone. His nightly facetime with Robin while she was studying in Europe was as vital as oxygen these days, and she had thankfully been just as up in arms about the new opening hours when he first told her. "It'll be me, I just know he'll stiff me with every night shift he can. That guy hates me. Wait and see, I'll get like, Tuesdays and Wednesdays free or something,"
"You used to party on Tuesdays with Tommy though, right?"
"We were fifteen and thought we were cool," groaned Steve, flopping back against his pillows. "No one wants a date on a weekday, what can you even do on a Wednesday? Nothing, Robin, nothing,"
"Wasn't it a Wednesday when you and Heidi-"
"Shut up,"
Robin hummed and held back a grin as she leaned into her mirror to apply a second coat of mascara. It was morning in whatever country she was in. Steve always forgot if it was Spain or Portugal because same thing, right? It's all Europe anyway. There was sun. Whatever. She was getting ready for her first classes of the week and from what Steve could tell, had a crush on the professor.
"Getting getting for Miss Rosa?" he asked, roughly unwrapping a candy bar and taking a hard bite.
Robin's face reddened quickly. "You'll get zits if you keep eating that stuff,"
"Don't change the subject," Steve said quickly, hoping the dim light of his bedroom hid the three pimple patches along his jawline. The stress of suddendly having to work at any hour of the day or night was bad enough without knowing it'd be nearly impossible to keep up his usual gym and skincare routines. He had dived face first into a share sized bag of skittles as soon as he got home after his and Keith's 'staff meeting' and was still swimming around in corn syrup two days later.
"I'm just…" Robin took a deep breath and tried to think of a way to end the sentence. "Trying to look nice because its a nice day. It's thirty two degrees, hardly any wind, it's great,"
"I don't know what that number means," Steve sulked. He wanted to talk more about how unfair his new working hours were going to be but it was hard when Robin's immeidate reaction had already subsided since he told her last night. "I know I'll be reracking the Milk Duds at four in the morning though! This is serious Rob, I can't believe they're doing this to me,"
Robin rolled her eyes and pap-pap-papped her lips to blot her lipgloss. "They're not doing anything to you, I'm sure its just some money spinner that the owner wants to try for a while and when no one comes in after eleven he'll see what a waste of money it is and go back to normal,"
"You better hope so," Steve said around a mouthful of chocolate. "You're a student, Keith said it's some kind of student that he's putting in for the morning shifts,"
Robin froze. That got her attention, Steve thought to himself as he grinned.
"I'm not back for another six months," she reasoned quickly. "It'll be a failed experiment by then,"
Steve shrugged and let her ramble.
"And I know Keith said my job would be there when I got back but, you don't think he'd make me come in the mornings? He can't do that?"
"I think he can," Steve said unhelpfully.
"I'll quit!" she said sharply, becoming slightly more panicked while trying to brush her hair. "I'll tell him straight out, no sir, nooooo thank you!"
"Oh yeah," Steve said, throwing his last piece of candy up in the air and catching it in his mouth. "I'm sure your parents will be so happy that you come back from Europe with no job and no money to pay your student loans,"
Robin pursed her lips and slammed her hairbrush down on her dresser, making her phone shake. She picked the brush back up and pointed it threateningly at the screen.
"You need to make sure this doesn't happen to me," she told Steve. "Find out who Keiths putting on nights and mornings, and find out today,"
Steve saluted his phone. "You got it boss,"
"Keith can't make you work nights anyway," Robin sighed, moving around her room to pack her bag for class. "At least not every night,"
"Oh yeah, why not?"
"Your monthly thing," she said simply. Steve sat up in bed and held his phone with both hands.
"Excuse me?"
"Your parents," said Robin. "That dinner thing,"
Steve blew out a stream of air. "Yeah, yeah you're right, I'd, uh, I forgot about that,"
"See? There's always a way out of things. Your parents come back to town every single month for a visit and a nice dinner with their favourite baby boy-"
"I'm an only child, Rob,"
"-and Keith won't take that away from you. I met your dad once, he's a scary guy,"
Steve nodded. His dad sure could be scary, his mom too. A kid pushed Steve down in the playgroud once and they both jumped up with teeth bared, ready to fight whatever parent was willing to come forward and claim the pusher. Parental instincts or something.
Steve really had forgotten about it. He checked the date on his watch. It'd be rolling around again in a couple of weeks so he figured he better get his day off request in as soon as he got to work the next day.
"I gotta go," Robin said, blowing a kiss to the screen. "Find out everything you can, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Steve said hazily before snapping back to the present. "Say hi to Miss Rosa for me. Maybe you could blow her a kiss to?"
Robin spluttered and tried to choke out a denial. "That is, thats not, you don't, ha! You're not funny, you're, you don't-"
"She might like it," Steve continued to tease. "She might like it, mucho mucho,"
"Wrong country, dingus," Robin said, sticking her tongue out before ending the call.
Steve settled down into his bed and set his alarm for the morning. It was already two thirty. He tried to imagine what it might be like to be at work now. Dusting shelves, restacking the popcorn stand, refilling the candy buckets… He shuddered and tried to clear his head. That night he dreamt of trying to tell part different brands of potato chips in a pitch black room.
"Denied, Harrington,"
"Bullshit! Don't tell me anyone else already booked the day off for a shift that doesn't even exist yet,"
"No," Keith mused, sitting at the manger's desk and using a pencil to fill out the schedule. Steve tried to take a peek but the red boxes didn't have a name in them yet. "But I can see you're trying to weasel your way out of pitching in,"
"My parents come to town every month," Steve fumed. "You know they do,"
Keith looked up, something like recognition crossing his face. "Oh, right,"
"So can I have the day?"
"Sure," Keith sighed heavily. "But you're working the day both sides,"
"What? Why?"
"To teach you a lesson,"
"What lesson could this possibly teach anyone?"
Keith opened his mouth as if to speak, furrowed his eyebrows for a second. "That's for me to know and for you to learn,"
"You're full of shit," Steve said, his own eyebrows high up towards his hairline. "You know that, right? You haven't even told me who you're hiring to work the nights yet. I bet you don't even have anyone,"
"Another thing for me to know," Keith said, getting back to the schedule. Steve noticed he had now scrawled a small E on four out of seven night shifts for the week he was working on and a J on the other three. "You'll meet them soon enough,"
"Them?" Steve asked. "There's more than one?"
"I don't pay you to chit chat, Steve," Keith sighed again, pushing his hair out of his face.
"You don't pay me at all," he mumbled. "Your uncle does,"
"What?"
"Huh?"
"There's a stack of tapes in the rewind bin," Keith told him. "You should take care of that,"
Steve stuck his tongue under his bottom lip to make a face at Keith's back as he left the office.
Steve spent the rest of his shift wondering why the store even existed these days. Who even rented movies anymore? Every so often some teenagers from the local highschool would get into a phase of thinking they were so cool and so retro but it never lasted long. There's be a three week flash of the For Sale section being practically empty before it'd go right back to being untouched until it was trendy again.
Steve's friend Heather from school worked in a music store a few blocks away and said the same group would buy out all her LPs twice a year before returning them three weeks later and buying new headphones instead.
Come to think of it…
"Hello?"
"Heather! I need your help!"
"I'm not setting you up with any more of my girl friends, Steve,"
"What? Why? You know what, never mind, I have a question,"
"Shoot,"
"If your boss changed your store's opening hours to something crazy, like, I don't know, let's say, like, twenty four hours, what would you think?"
Heather hummed lightly. "That's tough, I mean, it might make sense? I guess we could do late night poetry readings or something. Why?"
"Would you want to work overnight though?"
"Oh, god, no. I can't anyway, you know that. Why?"
"They're doing it here," Steve said, leaning dramatically against the counter.
"Oh wow. Do you guys even have the business for that?"
"No, no one ever comes in here, it's a total ghost town,"
A customer who had been waiting patiently for service cocked their head. Steve held a finger up and turned his back on them.
"So you're going to, what, become nocturnal?"
"I don't appreciate your tone," Steve said squinting his eyes at Heather's giggling. "I feel like he's punishing me for not inviting him to Robin's farewell party,"
"Oh he's definitely punishing you, maybe for more than that,"
"What have I ever done to him?"
The customer cleared their throat and held up a small stack of DVDs in their hand when Steve looked over his shoulder.
"One sec, I'm on kind of an important call,"
"Didn't you tell him he looked like he melted in the sun one time?"
"Yeah, I did…" Steve sighed with a smile. He'd been proud as hell of that one. "He deserved though, he made me work on a night when he knew I had a date,"
"You were the one who forgot about the date with Cindy,"
"That, that is, look! It's not important. The point is, I was here, instead of there!"
"At least there you didn't waste any money. Cindy orders steak on dates and never puts out. So your wallet should be grateful,"
"I do not just go on dates for sex!"
"Don't lie to me Steve. I talk to Robin just as much as you do,"
Steve took the phone away from his ear and stared at it in disbelief. Those treacherous bitches. He briefly grappled with whether or not it was politically correct to say so.
"You're a couple of treacherous bitches, you know that?"
"You can't call me that," Heather laughed.
The customer piped up again. "Uh, excuse me? Can I just-"
Steve flashed an unbothered half smile at them and pointed back at his phone. He could hear Heather similarly dismissing a shopper on the other end.
"Me and Billy could swing by some time, keep things interesting for you,"
"You and Billy chewing on each others' tongues right in front of me, hmm, let me think, oh, right, no thanks,"
"So just don't show up for the night shift if Keith tries to make you do them. Easy,"
"Oh yeah, forcing myself into early retirement at twnety two, real good idea,"
"Your parents can afford it,"
"You really think Richard Hard Work Gets You Everywhere Harrington would let me quit my job?"
"No, but Sylvia My Baby Stevie Weevie Harrington might,"
"I'm never inviting you to my house when they're home again," Steve hissed down the phone.
The customer sighed and loudly set their DVDs on the counter with a snap. Steve turned his nose up at the noise and took a quick look at the top of the pile.
"You're looking for more of this genre? Crime drama? That section over there,"
Steve waved a hand towards one of nearby aisles and turned away to continue speaking with Heather.
"How many nights do you even need to do a week?"
"I don't know, that's the worst part. Keith said he has someone lined up but he won't tell me who. It's obvious he's going to dump it all on me!"
"You don't know that, maybe he'll do it himself?"
"Heather. Don't be dumb,"
"Yeah you're right he would never be so helpful,"
"He left work three hours early last week and left me to do inventory by myself, said he needed a new heat lamp for some tank. Did you know he kept snakes?"
"I hope he doesn't, he told me once he can't even keep a houseplant alive," Heather groaned. "Oh, uh, my boss is, ok, yeah, I gotta go, my boss is pissed I'm on the phone again, I said I'm coming!"
Steve pocketed his phone when Heather abruptly hung up and ran his hands over his face. The customer is still standing firm at the counter when he turns around again.
"This is Legally Blonde," They said flatly, holding up the DVD Steve had looked at.
"Yeah," he said like it was obvious, pulling the stack towards him. "Crime drama,"
Thursday night rolled around and Steve was getting more and more anxious about the next day. He was due to work two until eleven, surely Keith wouldn't just spring it on him at ten thirty that he'd need to stay until the next morning?
Steve's watch said he had fifteen minutes left until he could shut up shop, but when he went to start his usual closing checklist, Keith appeared through the front door and told him to stop.
"Doing kind of a soft launch tonight," he explained, not so subtly counting the candy bars in the rack to make sure Steve had restocked them correctly over the evening. "Gotta train in the newbie, figured this was the best way to do it before the real deal tomorrow,"
"They're coming tonight?" Steve asked, genuinely surprised. "You really got someone?"
Keith snorted. "I told you I had it handled,"
Steve held in hands up in mock defeat and moved away from where he had been getting ready to set the security alarm for the night. He grabbed his jacket and his keys from the back, and stood leaning against the register with his hands shoved in his pockets for the last five minutes until he could clock out. Keith was behind the counter sweeping up a burst bag of chips on the floor that Steve had decided to ignore earlier instead of picking up.
The bell rattled over the doorway as just as Steve's watch beeped to signal turning eleven.
With a metal lunchbox in hand, that Steve knew very well once held the worst weed ever sold in the halls of Hawkins High, and a steel thermos sticking out of the pocket of his leather jacket, Eddie Munson ran through the entrance. He whirled around until he laid eyes on Keith, who patted Steve on the shoulder.
"Sorry," Eddie smiled sheepishly. "Am I late?"