sunday, october 24th

Wham! Had released their second album: Make it Big. And Beth had worked an extra shift on saturday just to unbox and stack three giant boxes of those vinyls and cassettes. Her boss Jeremy had explained for twenty minutes, how important it was to get the new releases on sale by monday. If they weren't on sale by then, people would go and by them somewhere else.

Where else would they buy them? There was no other record stores on Hawkins. And Beth doubted that anyone would be bothered enough to drive all the way to Indiana.

Jeremy's logic didn't add up on her mind. Well, atleast she got paid good for working extra.

And it was a good way to keep her from thinking about her hangout with Robin.

Sunday morning rolled around, and Beth rushed downstairs from her room. She rambled trough her shoulderbag and found her mother in the kitchen -reading the paper.

The radio on the table was blasting Careless Whisper -so maybe Jeremy was right. All the new Wham! albums would be sold by wednesday.

"Mum, I'm going to the movies."

Sandy Parker lifted her face from the newspaper she was reading. "Okay. With who?"

"Robin." It felt weird to say her name out loud to her mum. "She's in the drama club too."

"Okay." Sandy started going trough her pockets.

"Do you want a few dollars for snacks?"

"Sure." Her mum handed over a few bills, which Beth happily took.

"Have fun!"

Beth grabbed her jacket, bag and gloves and shouted back: "I will!"

It was getting chilly, and Beth shivered as she stepped out of the house. Well, october was almost over. Isn't it weird, how fast time goes by sometimes?

Beth closed the door behind her, and took her bike from their small backyard.

She adjusted her bag and hopped on. She had agreeded to meet Robin at the movie theater at three o'clock.

She was sort of scared that Robin wouldn't show up. That would be absolutely humiliating, break her heart, and make her wallow in self-pity for the rest of the week.

Robin didn't seem like the type who would just ditch someone on a scheduled hangout. Their plans weren't on a very steady ground, since teht hadn't even exchanged numbers yet, but.. Let's just hope.

Beth didn't live very far away from downtown, but it would still take her around ten minutes to bike there. And she didn't want to be late. She wanted to take, charish and remember every second spent with Robin. Who knew if there was ever gonna be a next time?

—

Robin was standing outside of the theater, when Beth's yellow bike came from around the corner.

Beth jumped off of the bike, and fixed her wind-blown hair.

"Hey." She said, smiling at Robin.

"Hi." Robin smiled back. "Cool bike."

Beth laughed: "Really? This old one?"

"Yeah! It's adorable. Well.. a bit easter-ish, but who cares?" They walked towards the bike rack, and Beth left the bicycle leaning on the kickstand.

"I broke my old bike." Robin told her. "Sad, you know? I really loved it. And we haven't bought a new one yet. They're so expensive, and my parents don't have the money ri-"

Robin suddenly stopped talking.

"What's wrong?" Beth asked, confused.

"Nothing. Just that... uh. I'm not the richest person on this town, you know that? I can't get even new bikes." Robin nervously chuckled, but Beth could tell that the laugh was fake.

"I'm not rich either, Robin. Why do you think that I work at the record store?" Beth said, quietly.

"Oh. I'm.. I'm sorry." Robin said

"It's not so bad." Beth assured her.

"So you don't care? That I'm not-"

"I couldn't care less, Robin." Beth smiled, and Robin laughed, clearly relieved.

Beth's thoughts were going wild. Has Robin been bullied about it? Or why was she so insecure about being poor? She wasn't the only one.

But Beth didn't dare to ask such personal things yet.

The two girls walked trough the doors, and the cold wind was replaced by the warmth of the theater. It smelled like popcorn.

"Well: if we're both tight on money, why don't we split a can of those?" Beth asked, nodding to the butter-popcorn machine.

"I'm in."

Robin grabbed a medium-sized carton, and started scooping popcorn.

"It's full." She said, but Beth shook her head.

"Take one more scoop. It'll fit."

Robin did, and she poured half of the popcorn to the floor.

"Shit!" She groaned, but Beth couldn't stop laughing.

"What? Don't laugh!" Robin said, trying to sound angry.

"You should've seen your face when you missed the carton!" Beth giggled, almost folding over from laughter.

Robin couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Come on, help me clean this!"

"Just kick them under the counter!" Beth whisper-yelled, kicking the fallen popcorn under the machine.

"We can't do that-" Robin resisted, but when she saw the cashier giving them weird looks, she quickly wiped the rest of the popcorn away with her shoe.

"Well, you just did." Beth was still giggling. The chaos had only fueled her laughter.

Robin and Beth moved to the ticket desk.

The cashier was chewing gum very loudly.

Robin cleared her throat before speaking: "Two tickets to the Outsiders, and this." She pointed at the overflown popcorn-box.

The cashier groaned and clicked a few buttons. She has sure got some attitude-problems.

"That will be 15.70."

—

Stay gold by Stevie Wonder echoed from the auditorium, when Robin and Beth walked trough the hallways of the theatre.

"Well? Was it better than the book?" Beth asked.

"I don't know. Is it even possible that the movie could be better? The book is the original one, but that -that was a good movie!" Robin explained.

"Well, I don't think it was better. The book always wins in my opinion." Beth said, tossing the popcorn-carton to a trashcan.

"Well, I would usually agree. But that was a good movie!"

"I can't disagree with that." Beth shrugged.

They stepped out of the theater, yet again facing the cold october breeze.

Robin wrapped her jacket around herself as they walked over to the spot where Beth had left her bike.

"I had fun." Beth smiled, and turned around -locking her eyes with Robin's.

"Me too." Robin said. Now that they were standing so close to each other, Beth noticed how tall Robin actually was. She was way taller than her, and realising that sent little butterflies flying around Beth's stomach.

"Do you wanna do this again sometime?" Robin suggested, quietly, yet still breaking the moment.

"Yeah! Wait, maybe I should give you my home number?" Beth asked, and Robin nodded. "Sure."

"I might have a pen in my bag." Robin said, going trough her backbag.

"Why do you carry a pen around?" Beth asked with an amused tone.

"Because I'm weird?" Robin laughed. "A-ha!"

She handed a ballpoint pen over to Beth, who clicked it.

"Where am I supposed to write?"

"On my hand." Robin said and lifted her jacket's sleeve.

Beth did everything she could to stop her hands from shaking, as she gently grabbed Robin's hand and started to write her phone number on her soft skin.

"2, 4, 9. Done!" She said, letting go of Robin's hand.

"Great. I'll give you a call." Robin smiled, putting the pen back in her bag.

Beth took her bike off the rack, and put her gloves on.

"Well, uh, I should go. I'll see you in school. Or elsewhere!" Robin chuckled.

"Yeah, see you."

"Stay gold, Ponyboy!" Robin acted, making dramatic hand movements.

Beth cracked onto laughter. Robin was walking backwards, laughing aswell.

Beth did a little salut back at her and turned her bike around.

"Bye!"

"See you!"

Oh my goodness.