16.

  "ᵂʰᵉⁿ ᴵ ᶜˡᵒˢᵉ ᵐʸ ᵉʸᵉˢ
ᴬˡˡ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵗᵃʳˢ ᵃˡⁱᵍⁿ
ᴬⁿᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ᵃʳᵉ ᵇʸ ᵐʸ ˢⁱᵈᵉ."
—ᵒⁿᶜᵉ ⁱⁿ ᵃ ˡⁱᶠᵉᵗⁱᵐᵉ ᵇʸ ᵒⁿᵉ ᵈⁱʳᵉᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ

    The summer of '85 had finally rolled around and it was treating most of them pretty nicely. June had felt slightly like a honeymoon in a way to the new couple that was Steve Harrington and Amber Hayes. June was their slightly relaxation month after completing their run in high school May had consisted of finals, prom, and then graduation. The party had made sure to be there to see Amber walk across the stage, all of them having pitched in for some flowers for her. Nancy and Jonathan who were officially together had tried to cheer the loudest for Steve and Amber but when it came to Amber they were beat by a long shot in being the loudest. Jim Hopper was cheering and pressing an airhorn, Joyce hollering beside him with El 'Jane' Hopper smiling brightly at her sister. They had all been through a lot but they all did it together. And all of them were going to be there for each other regardless. Amber might not have had Violet there to cheer her on, but she had the rest of her family there which was all that mattered to her.

    Once they threw their caps into the air, Steve missed no time kissing Amber. Not that he had far to go since they were a couple seats away from each other. Dustin had been the one to separate the two as he latched onto Amber. The rest of the party followed to join the group hug as Hopper patted Steve on the shoulder and Joyce gave Steve a hug. When the kids dispersed from Amber, they had gone to talk amongst themselves about when they would graduate themselves. Amber had given Joyce a hug as the woman was crying happy tears.

"I'm so proud of you, Amber." She cried. Amber had tightened her arms around the woman a bit more happily to have her love. Jonathan had come up to detach his hysterical mother from his best friend before he gave her a hug followed by Nancy.

"This will be you two next year." Amber told them.

"I'm counting down the days." Nancy said before they both laughed. Amber turned away from the two, her eyes falling onto Jim Hopper. She let out a little breath of relief before she raced into his awaiting arms.

"You did it kid. Your mother would be so proud of you." Jim said.

"Thanks, Hop." Amber let out, hoping he knew how much him saying that meant the world to her. Hopper had become an important person in Amber's life after the events of November and the two grew even more closer as the months passed. She had even tried to talk him into moving into the house with El but he said he wanted to still play it safe for the time being. So she would have to suffice with him visiting with El or when El would stay over with the rest of the kids.

    After May had ended and June came, Steve and Amber seemed to just embrace their summer vacation for a while. Steve continued to spend most of his time at Amber's house without his parents really caring, which wasn't a surprise to him. And the couple never seemed to get tired of the other. Somehow the more time Steve spent with Amber, the more he fell for her which he didn't think was possible. But she always seemed to make his heart burst from his chest every time she did something no matter how simple it would be.

    The new attraction in Hawkin's was the Starcourt Mall that they built in order to get more attention drawn to this new mall instead of the weird history in the town. But all the mall was doing was burying the truth that didn't want to stay down. The Starcourt Mall had a bunch of stores and a new movie theater inside. Once it opened, everyone seemed to be attracted to the huge shopping mall. It became the go-to place to hang out with friends. It was something many people were proud of having.

    Two people who were grateful for the mall were Amber and Steve who wanted to get jobs. Well, Amber wanted a new one, knowing that the library wasn't a permanent place for her. Steve's father had been disappointed in his son not getting into college and because of that he refused to give Steve a position at his workplace. He wanted his son to get actual work experience like the adult he now was, which meant Steve needed to find a job. Dustin had helped him look for a few different places after Amber had gotten a job at the music store, but Dustin had gone off to his summer camp for the rest of the month. Steve took the suggestions from Dustin and gambled. Ultimately he landed himself a job at the ice cream shop 'Scoops Ahoy' in the food court at the mall. Once Steve got his uniform, Amber couldn't help but giggle at him in his sailor outfit, but she wouldn't lie either, she still found it extremely attractive.  And Steve used that knowledge to his advantage quite a lot.

    That was another thing with the couple, they couldn't seem to keep their hands off the other. They always got complaints from the kids, but they didn't seem to change much with the constant whining of the pda. Hopper had been more displeased with the two young adults but Joyce had been the one to talk him down from making a whole bunch of rules. It was young love after all. And Steve and Amber just worked too well together to have people try and pull them apart.

*

Amber was in the kitchen preparing dinner after she had gotten home from her shift. She loved working at the music store, especially because they weren't ever extremely busy so she was able to have content work days. And she had her coworker, Halle, to keep her company. The girl had become one of her close friends by the time they had started to work together. Halle was around the same age as Nancy and Jonathan so the girl's were still able to relate to the same things which had been one of the factors that made them extremely close.

Something Steve wouldn't admit to Amber was that he had become slightly jealous of Halle who began to take away his Amber time during their breaks. He would always talk about Amber to his coworker Robin, which always seemed to end with her rolling her eyes at how in love he was with Amber Hayes. He was like a lost puppy without her and she honestly had no idea how Amber could put up with him when they were together. Amber hadn't really come into Scoops Ahoy for most of the week which had caused Steve to pout for hours while working which drove Robin nuts, but the Buckley girl couldn't even bring up the girl's crybaby boyfriend to her because she wasn't present for days. When Steve would get out of work and go to Amber's house, the boy never brought up how gloomy he had been not seeing her. But it was also because when he would see her in the kitchen cooking or watching the television in the living room, he would melt and instantly fall into her for her touch.

"Have I ever told you that you're phenomenal at cooking?" Steve asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Amber turned to smile at him and chuckled.

"I think you've brought it up a few times. But I don't know if you're just sucking up for something else or not." Amber said, Steve walking over to wrap his arms around her waist.

"I'm being honest. The food always tastes amazing. But I do believe my compliments do help me get something else." Steve lightly teased, kissing her neck.

"Yeah, yeah." She laughed as she playfully shoved him away but he came back to her to place a kiss on her lips.

"How was work today?" Amber questioned.

"It was alright. Those little shits wanted to get into the movies again. I don't know why they always have to go after your shift when they could easily go to you to get into the movies." Steve began to tell her.

"It's because sometimes they want me to see the movie with them. And they love their momma Steve." Amber teased.

"I'm not the mother."

"Yes, you are." Amber told him as he huffed out in annoyance.

"Oh, also the power shut off for a few minutes." Steve informed her.

"Hmm. The power shut off for a little bit here too. Maybe it was a whole power outage?" Amber shrugged. Not wanting to bring up that weird feeling she had gotten in her body when everything went dark.

"Maybe it was." Steve agreed.

"How was your day?" Steve asked, slightly wondering if she would bring up her lack of visiting the ice cream shop.

"Oh, we got our new shipment of records and cassette tapes. Halle and I were putting them out and also getting first dibs on a few. I'm still waiting for one though, we haven't had it in a few weeks because it's on backorder. But other than that we just had a few customers here and there. Lucas' sister came in to complain about you though. She wanted me to tell you that you should be more generous with your sample servings." Amber chuckled.

"I swear she comes in almost every 30 minutes for another flavor. It's ridiculous." Steve said.

"I mean, you guys do offer free samples." Amber pointed out.

"Yeah, and I really think we should have a limit every week for certain people." Steve complained.

"See, I would get the samples like Erica in all honesty, but you already spoil me with ice cream." Amber smiled at him.

"Hot fudge sundae with strawberries and rainbow sprinkles. Of course I would spoil you with ice cream." Steve looked down at her, returning the smile. "Speaking of, maybe if you come around tomorrow I can give you some ice cream." Steve tried to throw in there, hoping she would take up the offer.

"Hmm. Once I get done at the pool, maybe I'll swing by." Amber told him.

"You're going to the pool tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yeah, I told you I had the day off. I'm going with Halle and Max." Amber responded as he frowned.

"But Hargrove works there." Steve mumbled.

"And he's not a problem. Steve, I'm with you. He knows that." Amber assured him.

"But you used to date. What if those feelings come back?" He worried.

"I can promise you those feelings won't come back. I used to like him and who he was. But things changed. Is there a part of me that will care about him? Maybe. But it's different with you. My feelings are stronger. I like you, dingus." Amber told him before kissing him. She hated how he always worried that she would leave him. She knew that it was that fear of what happened with Nancy repeating, but she wasn't Nancy and he knew that. It still didn't stop him from worrying that he wasn't enough.

"I love you, Hayes." Steve said, she smiled before placing a kiss on his lips again.

"Will you please grab the plates?" Amber asked and Steve nodded and went to the cabinet to grab the plates for the food. He put the forks on each one as he brought the plates over to Amber. Before he could sit down, he had shoveled some of the food into his mouth.

"God, this is so good." He mumbled through the food in his mouth.

"Steven. Don't speak with food in your mouth. And slow down or your stomach is going to hurt." Amber scolded.

"I'm sorry. I am just starving and I want to shower." He apologized.

"Well, the shower isn't going anywhere." She told him.

"You know, if you wanted to join me after, I wouldn't be against it." Steve said which caused the girl to laugh.

"Eat your food you horndog."