CHAPTER SIX
↳ what a stoner would watch

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Immediately, Laurie could feel herself go a bit red when they had pulled up right outside Family Video. Right where Robin worked. It came very quickly to her realisation that both Max and Dustin were referring to Steve and Robin when they expressed on the fact they needed to go see two people who could help. Laurie breathed in heavily as they opened the door, the bell chiming and Robin Buckley's face widening at the mere sight of Laurie Fisher with both Dustin Henderson and Max Mayfield.

"Hey, Steve." Dustin rushed to the front alongside both Laurie and Max. Laurie simply waved awkwardly to Robin, who gave her a small wave.

"You see this?" Steve asked, referring to the news.

The news referring to Chrissy's death.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked firmly.

Steve looked dumbfounded. "Someone was murdered."

"No shit Sherlock." Laurie immediately replied, not even caring how rude she sounded at the moment. She could already tell how urgent Dustin needed for him to reply and so she knew she had no time to worry if she sounded like a complete bitch.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked once more, this time more firm with his question.

"Two. Why?" Steve replied, his face completely downturned in confusion.

Robin interjected, "technically three, if you count Keith's."

"Perfect." Laurie smiled, though immediately dropping it the moment Dustin swung his legs over the counter, knocking the tapes off the counter. Laurie and Max both walked behind the counter, though Laurie joined Robin in picking up the pile. Laurie gave Robin an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that."

Robin breathed out with parted lips, returning a small smile. "It's fine." She bent down, trying to grab onto some tapes, accidentally touching Laurie's hand. Robin went bright red, standing up and turning her attention back onto Dustin who was already on the computer.

"What are you doing, man?" Steve had asked, moving directly next to Dustin as the boy sat down.

"Setting up base of operations here."

Robin frowned, looking completely bewildered. "Base of operations?" She turned to Laurie.

"I'm still confused as well, don't even ask me." The blonde haired girl shrugged before Robin could even ask a question to her. "Just know that this is actually pretty important, though I don't get the full picture whatsoever."

Both Robin and Laurie turned their attention onto Steve and Dustin, who were bickering.

"Get off."

"I need it."

"For what?"

"Eddie's friends' phone numbers." Dustin replied, grabbing a pencil and writing some numbers on the paper.

"Your new best friend, Eddie, you bring up everyday since you think he's cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game?" Steve asked, clearly not liking Eddie whatsoever. Laurie quickly put it down to jealousy.

"Yes." Dustin looked completely shocked, objecting to the other bit of what he was saying. "I never said that."

"Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around, but it's Saturday. It's our busiest day." Robin asked, evidently frustrated as she stacked the tapes up once more while simultaneously checking the label to see if they were in the precise order she had put them in beforehand.

"Robin, I empathise, but this cannot wait until Monday." Dustin interjected heavily, tapping away at the keyboard.

"What because calling Eddie's friends is an emergency?"

"Correct!"

Laurie smiled awkwardly as Robin turned to her with a very confused look. "Unfortunately I think he's right." She gave a smile, noticing Robin look as though she was contemplating life itself.

"Do you want me to strangle him or you want to?"

Robin smiled and something in Laurie's chest churned. She felt herself freeze up and she couldn't help her smile dropping. Robin just looked so happy with Steve.

Maybe she had overthought absolutely everything.

She moved away, going closer to Max and looking over Dustin's shoulder to see the details he was pulling up.

Dustin exasperatedly turned to Max. "Can you just fill them in?"

Robin frowned. "Full us in on what?"

Max simply shuffled on the spot awkwardly.

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The next hour or so was filled with absolute chaos. Robin, Max and Dustin were all on phones, talking with each person Dustin had written down while Steve was tending to the customers. Or, well, more precisely, the babes.

Laurie was sat on the side of the counter, reading numbers out for the three whenever one of them had finished a call. They had a constant cycle know, crossing names out to rule out possibilities.

Laurie could see Steve getting saddened after finding out one of the customers had a boyfriend, though she could see why. This customer was very pretty. Still, she winced watching Steve stutter a bit before walking her out.

The moment she had left, Max turned to the whole group. "Hey guys, I think I might have a lead."

Dustin spun around to turn and look at Max. "Seriously?"

She nodded. "Yeah." Max replied, before elaborating further to get to what she needed all of them to know. "Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there."

"That sounds like the most Eddie Munson thing for him to do in these distressing situations." Laurie gave a smile, feeling slightly hopeful that they may have found a potential hint to where Eddie was.

Robin gave her a smile too, meeting her brown eyes, which were wide with happiness. Or, just wide in general. "It does." Laurie averted her eyes away with a giddy grin.  "Where does Reefer Rick live?"

Max winced slightly. "See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a... a legend than someone that people actually know."

"I mean, that's something we should've anticipated." Laurie replied and the entire group deadpanned at her. "I'm sorry, but you're telling me that if you sold drugs, most of which are probably illegal here, you'd tell everyone where you lived?"

Dustin shrugged. "She has a point." He admitted and Laurie simply smiled. Of course she had a point. Dustin frowned slightly. "I'm assuming that'll mean we have no last name."

Max shook her head. "I don't know that either."

"Bet the cops know the last name." Steve mused from where he was stood, organising some VHS tapes in some metal basket. Everyone turned and looked at him, frowning.

"What?"

Steve turned around to them. "I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system."

Dustin looked annoyed. "The cops? Really, Steve? That's your suggestion?"

"I think they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on." Steve said and Laurie exhaled heavily, playing with the hem of her pink shirt.

"You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?" Dustin asked, crossing his arms at Steve.

Steve immediately opposed, scoffing at Dustin's accusation. "Woah, I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit. I just, you know, don't think we can rule it out."

"That's precisely what we're trying to do here, Steve."

Laurie sighed. "If you really aren't interested in actually being of use, perhaps go back to eyeing up customers as though it's gonna be your last supper tonight, okay?"

Max snorted.

Dustin nodded. "She's right. Maybe we'd have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time trying to find Eddie."

"Somebody has to attend to the customers." Steve opposed, clearly not liking both Dustin and Laurie ganging up on him like that.

"Especially if they're babes, right?" Robin remarked, winking teasingly at Steve. Laurie cringed slightly, not because Robin was winking, but because it wasn't to her.

"Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all customers equally, babes and non-babes alike." Steve protested, making his point. He continued his mini rant.  "We've got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming for people."

A smile all the sudden appeared on Robin's face from realisation. "Yeah, it can be."

"What are you doing?" Max asked when Robin sat down in front of the computer, pulling up their database.

"Maybe we don't need a last name." She began typing away on the computer, writing in the name 'Rick'. She pressed enter and Laurie watched from over Robin's shoulder as a dozen Ricks all appeared. "Twelve Ricks have accounts here."

"That's a lot of Ricks."

"What's the chance none are stoners?" Laurie asked Max, who simply shrugged. "If I know one thing about getting high, it's that you do it to a movie that'll be so bizarre that you'd question it sober."

Steve gave Laurie a clueless look. "How do you know that?" Laurie deadpanned at him and he simply looked a bit shocked. "Oh."

"Okay, let's narrow it down." Robin clicked on the first Rick. The names of all the movies he had rented appeared and she read them out, Rick Alderman's latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo."
She looked at the group. "Chances our drug dealer has a family?"

"Not likely."

Laurie added, "especially if he's letting another hang around while away from cops."

Robin clicked on another name. "All right. Rick Conroy. Sixteen Candles, Teen Wolf, Romancing the Stone." She gave a slight chuckle after reading all those titles out.

"No."

Robin nodded once more. "Okay. Rick Joiner. Mask, Footloose, and Grease."

"Both Footloose and Grease? Okay, I'd be friends with this Rick Joiner." Laurie exclaimed slightly, her nose scrunching upwards. Max quirked an eyebrow at her and Dustin simply exhaled. "Not the time, sorry. Definitely not Reefer Rick."

"Rick Kimbrough. The Blue Lagoon and Splash." She laughed once more, knowing fully well that those films weren't what a stoner would watch.

"Definitely not."

"No way."

"Okay. Rick Lipton." Robin once again clicked on the profile, reading the names of the movies. "Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cheech & Chong's Next Movie. Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams. Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke."

"Bingo."

Laurie added, scrunching her nose up as she read the names of the films.  "The title alone exclaims stoner."

Robin nodded, agreeing with Laurie.

"Lipton?"

"Spelled like the tea." Robin answered with a grin, reading out further. "2121 Holland Road."

"That's out by Lovers Lake." Dustin exclaimed, looking relieved they had found a lead to where Eddie could potentially be.

Max added on, "Middle of nowhere."

"It's a perfect place to hide."

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here you go besties, some raurie crumbs

gfs already

i love them

i also got my gcse results. 5 A*s and 6 As !!

i hope all who got their grades are happy !! i'm very proud of you all