Chapter 9

Dustin leads them into the cinema. Sofia’s breathing heavily when they open the door to one of the movie rooms, where Back to the Future is playing. They walk to the front row and there’s five seats available. 

“Dude, these seats blow” Steve complains, as he and Robin seat down.

“Then don’t watch the movie” Dustin says.

“We wanna watch it” Robin says.

“Then watch it!” Dustin shouts, making people try to shush him. “Whatever you do, don’t.. go.. anywhere”

“Fine, dad” Steve says, laughing.

Dustin, Erica and Sofia start to walk over to their seats, but Robin grabs Sofia’s hand. “Stay here!” Robin says, begging for Sofia’s company.

“Robin, there’s no seat” Sofia says with a smile, trying not to get distracted by Robin’s hand holding hers. She felt her cheeks turning red and her heart skipped a beat. It was the third time high Robin said something bold, which was very confusing for Sofia.

“Just seat on my lap” Robin responds, smirking at Sofia. The thing is, Sofia really wanted to say yes, she really did. But her brother would be pissed, so she decided not to.

But Robin’s smirk got burned into Sofia’s mind, desperately needing to see the places where that smirk could take her.

She walked to her seat, noticing Dustin was gone. “Where did he go?” Sofia asks Erica.

“To find us a ride” Erica responds, who seems more interested in the movie than in the situation they’re in.

Sofia nods and says “Look, I’m just gonna close my eyes for a sec, so keep an eye on them, please”. Erica nods, and Sofia finally relaxes, closing her eyes.

The immediate peace she felt once she closed her eyes was enough to fall asleep, not even having time to overthink every that happened on that day.

Sofia wakes up by somebody shaking her. She opens her eyes, startled, and sees Dustin with a mad look. “Dusty, what’s up?” she asks, clueless, while the cinema lights burned her eyes.

“Where did they go?” Dustin asks.

Sofia looks over at the two empty seats, where Steve and Robin were supposed to be. “Oh…” is all she can say. Sofia started feeling a severe migraine developing.

They get up and start looking for them. Dustin and Erica go to the right and Sofia goes to the left. She checks out the rest of the cinema, and there’s no sign of them. Anxiety starts to strike her. 

She walks over to the bathroom, hearing some voices.

Getting closer to the door, she realizes it’s Steve and Robin’s voices. She sighs, feeling glad that they’re alive, and stays by the door, listening to their conversation.

“Listen to me, Steve. It’s shocked me to my core, but I like you. I really like you. But I’m not like your other friends. And I’m not like Nancy Wheeler” Robin says, and Sofia furrows her eyebrows.

“Robin, that’s exactly why I like you” Steve says. Steve likes Robin? It was game over then, and the game had barely started.

“Do you remember what I said about Click’s class? About me being jealous and, like, obsessed?” Robin asks, as Sofia fights the tears from falling.

“Yeah” Steve responds.

“It isn’t because I had a crush on you. It’s because… she wouldn’t stop staring at you” Robin says. She?  Sofia’s heart started filling with hope.

“Mrs. Click?” Steve asks.

“Tammy Thompson. I wanted her to look at me. But… she couldn’t pull her eyes away from you and your stupid hair. And I didn’t understand, because you would get bagel crumbs all over the floor. And you asked dumb questions. And you were a douchebag. And… And you didn’t even like her and… I would go home… and just scream into my pillow” Robin says, and Sofia tries to process what she just heard.

“But Tammy Thompson’s a girl” Steve says.

“Steve…” Robin says softly.

“Yeah? Oh…” Steve says, realizing what Robin meant.

Sofia smiles, mostly in relief, but also in happiness. Those hours she spent thinking about how great it would be if she found a girl who was also different, those days she spent thinking about Robin and idealizing a life with her, those months she spent thinking about how amazing would be if she could just show her true self could finally come true.

However, the happy thoughts went away when Sofia remembered that Robin mentioned Tammy. Could Robin still like Tammy? If so, Sofia would have zero chances against her. And would Robin ever like Sofia back? Sofia and Tammy are so different. What if Tammy is exactly Robin’s type? What if-

“Sofy, are they in there?” Dustin asks, interrupting Sofia’s thoughts.

“Uh, yeah, I just found them” Sofia lies, not wanting to admit she just heard their entire conversation.

Dustin bursts the door open, and they see Robin and Steve laughing.

“Okay. What the hell?” Dustin asks, pretty mad.

At least Steve’s okay with girls liking girls– Sofia thinks to herself as she sees them laughing.

Steve and Robin get up, and Robin looks at Sofia as if it’s the first time she’s seen her since before getting captured by the Russians. Which in a way was.

Robin walks over to the girl and holds her face, examining it. “Oh my god…” Robin says.

“Yeah…” Sofia chuckles, looking in the girl’s eyes like she’s looking at someone new. She knew she only had some cuts and maybe a bruise, but she liked being held and comforted.

There’s a quick pause. “Does it hurt?” Robin asks, letting go of Sofia’s face and taking a step back, but maintaining eye contact.

“Not much, no…” Sofia says with a soft smile.

Dustin, who’s smirking, stops looking at the two girls and looks over at Steve, to see how his wounds are. 

“Why are you smirking?” Dustin asks Steve, seeing a smirk on his face.

“Why are you smirking?” Steve asks Dustin. Hearing them talk, the two girls break eye contact, feeling their cheeks getting hotter. It was like they were in a trance before, getting caught up in each other’s beauty.

“Come on, we gotta go!” Erica shouts, clapping her hands.

They walk to the cinema to keep watching the movie. Entering the room, Sofia, Robin and Steve sit together on the three chairs, Sofia being in the middle.

She gets the urge to hold Robin’s hand but tries to ignore it. Of course, she couldn’t stop thinking about her, especially since she felt Robin turning her head to Sofia, looking at her for a couple of quick seconds and turning her head back to the movie.

When the movie ends, they blend in with the crowd and keep walking. “Well, shit, that worked” Erica says, excited.

“Course it worked” Dustin says. “We just have to get on the bus with the rest of these plebes, and home sweet home, here we come”

“Uh, Dustin?” Steve says.

“What?” Dustin asks.

“Yeah, we might not wanna go to your house” Steve says.

“Why?” Sofia asks. 

“Well, I might’ve told them your full name” Steve says.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?! My mom’s home!” Sofia whisper-shouts at Steve.

“Dude, I was drugged” Steve says.

“So?” Sofia asks.

“So?” Steve asks back, outraged.

“So, you resist. You tough it out. You tough it out like a man” Dustin says.

“Oh, yeah, it’s easy for you to say” Steve complains.

“Guys?” Robin asks, interrupting the conversation. They look ahead and see two Russian guards.

“Abort” Dustin whispers. One of the guards looks over at the group, and Sofia feels a wave of anxiety hitting her once again. “Abort, abort!”

Without noticing, Robin grabs Sofia’s hand. The group starts running through the crowd, and Sofia can’t help but apologize to every person they accidentally hit. They sprint to the escalator, but the passage’s blocked.

They slide on the middle of the two escalators and run, hiding behind the Great Cookie’s counter.

Sofia squeezes Robin’s hand and looks over at her brother. They’re all panting and scared. As Sofia starts hearing the steps coming closer, she closes her eyes, feeling her heart pounding on her chest.

Suddenly, a car alarm starts wailing, causing the five of them to jump. Then, they hear a crash and metal clattering.

They slowly get up from the counter, scared and confused, looking at the hopefully dead bodies of the four Russian guards. They look up and see Jonathan, Nancy, Mike, El, Max, Lucas and Will.

What the fuck? 

The two groups run to each other, both in confusion.  “You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!” Dustin laughs, as he runs to hug El.

“Lucas?” Erica asked, still not believing her brother’s involvement.

“What are you doing here?” Lucas asks in confusion.

“Ask them. It’s their fault” Erica responds, pointing at Steve, Robin and Sofia.

“True, yeah. Totally true. It’s absolutely our fault” Steve says.

“I don’t understand what happened to that car” Robin says.

“El has superpowers” Max says, pointing at El.

“You have super powers? How am I only hearing this now?” Sofia asks, thinking about all the times that she’d hung out with them.

“That’s El?” Erica asks.

“Who’s El?” Robin asks.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Nancy asks Robin.

“I’m Robin. I work with Steve, I’m friends with Sofia” Robin says.

“Hi Nance” Sofia says, and Nancy waves in response.

“They cracked the top secret code” Dustin tells Nacy.

“Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians” Steve explains.

“Russians? Wait, what Russians?” Jonathan asks.

“The Russians!” Steve shouts.

“Those were Russians?” Max asks.

“Some of them” Erica says.

“What are you talking about?” Lucas asks.

“Didn’t you hear our code red?” Dustin asks.

“Yeah” Mike says. Couldn’t understand what you were saying”

“Goddamn low battery” Dustin mutters.

“How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?” Steve asks, shouting.

“Well, everything worked out, didn’t it?” Dustin asks.

“Worked out? We almost died” Erica says.

“Yeah, but we didn’t, did we?”

“It was pretty damn close” Sofia mutters.

“Okay, Russians? As in, they’re working for the Russian government?” Lucas asks.

Sofia looks to her side and sees El slowly walking away. She walks over to the girl and is about to ask if she’s okay when she collapses on the ground.

“Guys?” Sofia yells, shaking El.

“El! El!” Mike shouts, running to the girl.

“What’s wrong with her?” Erica asks.

“What’s wrong?” Mike asks El.

“My leg. My leg” Eleven whimpers.

“Her leg, her leg. Okay” Jonathan says, as they lift her jeans a bit.

“Get that off” Nancy orders.

“Okay” Jonathan says, taking the ligature off.

When he takes it off, they all exclaim in disgust, seeing her leg full of pus and blood. Suddenly, something starts moving inside her leg. They groan and El grunts in pain, screaming.

“There’s something in there” Mike says, between El’s screams and sobs.

“Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?” Jonathan asks and sprints away.

“It’s, uh… You know, it’s not actually that bad. There was a… The goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and the bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane” Robin rambles, trying to help.

“Robin” Sofia says softly.

“Yeah?” 

“You’re doing that thing when your mouth moves faster than your brain and you just keep talking…” Sofia explains, trying not to smile over Robin’s cute self.

“I’m sorry” Robin apologizes and Sofia gives her a warm smile, patting her on the back.

Jonathan arrives, panting, with a hot knife and a wooden spoon. He starts cutting El’s leg, on the spot of the wound, and then puts his hand inside, trying to find the little slug. After some excruciating seconds, El decides to take the slug by herself. Eleven screams at the top of her lungs making the glass behind them break.  

When she manages to take it off, she throws it away and it’s immediately stepped on by no other than Hopper. 

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