"And then I- you're not listening." Christine Wheeler shook her head as she leaned against the Scoops Ahoy countertop, her face dropping as she looked up at Steve Harrington with a defeated look.

"I am listening." He defended, looking back at her  with a confused face.

"Really? What part of listening involves talking?"  She asked, pushing off of the counter and rolling her eyes.

"This is the first time I've spoken since you started telling me about your day!" He said, looking at the girl like she was crazy. Christine shook her head again, pushing her tongue into her cheek and then giving him an upset look.

"Whatever. I gotta go anyways. Bye Robin."  Christine turned immediately, walking out with her arms crossed. Just as she made it to the door she  flipped Steve off, disappearing into the masses of mall shoppers and leaving him with a confused face and a mouth that was hanging wide open.

"That's the 7th time this week. You suck dude." Robin said, giving him a tally on the white board. He shook his head as he turned around, his hands flying up in the air as he looked at the girl.

"What did I even do wrong? God she just makes no sense anymore!" Steve said, looking at the board that had the tally's. Robin had made a game out of Steve and Christines encounters, tallying how often she left angry and how often she left happy. In the past month she had left angry 47 times and she had left happy a total of 6.

The months following the spring break trip were not the easiest for the two, Steve fighting ridiculously hard to fix his relationship with Christine after everything that happened. Things had been fine until  early June, the girls attitude shifting. She would visit him every day twice a day like clockwork when he worked, Steve always happy to see her. And then after work he would pick her up from the police station usually, where Hopper had given her a 'internship' or she was basically a part of the police without the academy. She followed Hopper around all day, the pair growing rather close during the time. And Steve was happy to see her happy, except for when she wasn't.

He was never really sure what the shift was, what exactly had happened that had made her act the way that she was acting. And he was too afraid to ask her, in fear of if she would get mad at him for asking. The smallest things seemed to irritate her, and she was getting further and further away from the Christine he knew. She was becoming distant, but Steve didn't want to lose her.

"Why don't you just ask her what she's so upset about?" Robin suggested, raising her eyebrows at the boy as she pushed the board back to where it was before. Steve shrugged, looking at her with a doubtful look as he spoke again.

"I'm too scared to ask. She just snaps. I-whatever." He said, brushing off the interaction and going back to working.

Christine Wheeler had asked for the afternoon off hoping to spend it with Steve but she figured she blew it after getting mad at him. Christine knew she was being unfair, but her temper had shortened when she had gotten the news that her dad wanted to talk to her a month prior. She answered, but the voice on the other side of the phone was not her father, it was Alice Cohen. Her mother. After a brief conversation through her dads line that the couple had strangely rekindled, and the suggestion that she needed to consider forgiveness, she hung up the phone, and had been irritable and angry ever since. Sharing this information was hard for her though, so she kept it to herself, but took it out on Steve.

Christine pulled into the Wheelers driveway, her hand gripping the wheel as she put the car in park. She groaned as she got our, tired from the long days she had been working and the lack of sleep she was getting from thinking about her parents. The news had taken an extremely heavy toll on her, and she had no idea how to handle it.

She headed to her room, walking up the staircase silently and opening the door. She closed it, laying down in her bed and taking the opportunity to get some sleep before she decided if she was going to go back to the mall or not.

It was a few hours later when Christine was awoken by her aunt shouting her name up the staircase, the girl quickly heading down to see what the problem was.

"The phone." Her aunt said, gesturing towards the phone that was hanging against the wall. She sighed, grabbing the cord and pulling the phone up to her ear, not quite sure who could be calling.

"Hello?"

"Christine! Hey how are you?" Joyce Byers spoke into the phone, Christine furrowing her eyebrows as she heard her. She had spent a substantial amount of time with the Byers woman over the past few months, Hopper liked to visit her often and the girl would tag along. She would visit the house, the shop, anywhere and everywhere Joyce was. If Will was there he always had something new to tell her about Dungeons and Dragons, he tried to teach her once he realized how bored she was sitting and listening to Hopper talk all day. She even spent some time with Jonathan and Nancy, because Nancy and Christine had something special...a mended friendship.

"I'm alright. Is everything okay?" Christine was still rather confused as to why Joyce was calling, she usually didn't reach out like this.

"Yeah everything's fine. I'm working a little late tonight and Jonathan is God knows where so I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor and take Will to the mall. He's watching a movie with the others and I just really don't know anybody else at the moment that could take him." Joyce spit out, Christine closing her eyes as she realized she was going to end up at the mall anyways.

"Yeah that's fine. I'll take him."

"Alright I'll call home and let him know you'll be by in 20 minutes. Thanks!" Joyce hung up before Christine could say anything else, the girl hanging the phone back on the wall and letting out a groan. She grabbed the keys from the hook by the door, walking towards the kitchen and giving her Aunt Karen a look.

"Who was that?"

"Mrs. Byers, she wants me to give Will a ride to the mall."

"If you see Mike tell him he needs to come home right after. I feel like I haven't seen that boy in days." Karen said, pushing some hair from her face as she looked down at the food she was putting away.

"Yeah if I stick around I'll give him a ride back." Christine said, pushing off the doorway and turning around.

"Be careful!" Her aunt called after her, Christine disappearing out of the door and to the car. She got inside, the radio already blaring music as she quickly pulled out of the driveway. She started off down the street, heading towards the Byers house.

She didn't mind being the chauffeur of all of these kids, all of them using her house number as some kind of taxi calling service. She liked it because she got to spend time with them, and most of the time they would invite her to go with them. Sure, she was an 18 year old hanging out with 14 year olds, but she enjoyed every second she got to spend with them, because they were her friends. Max and Christine had grown close, Max trying to teach the older girl how to skateboard. It was easy for the two of them to get along because of the fact that all of the rest of her friends were boys, so it was nice to hang out with a girl. Christine and Max would drive around and blare music, sit in Christines room and talk like sisters or sometimes Max would use Christine as a human ATM and they would go shopping together. In a way she was the supportive older sibling she had never had and the only thing they had to worry about as a pair was avoiding Billy.

Christine pulled herself from her thoughts as she entered the Byers driveway, the girl pressing the car horn. It was only a moment later that Will bounded out, a smile on his face as he jumped into the passenger seat.

"Hey Chris. Thanks for the ride." Will said, buckling his seatbelt as she started to pull out.

"No problem Will."

"So have you been reading the manual I gave you?" Will asked, giving her a seriously curious look as he reference the Dungeons and Dragons manual he had given her. Christine nodded, her eyes on the road as she spoke.

"I'm about 3/4 of the way through. I think I'm starting to understand it."