suave

adjective

(especially of a man) charming, confident, and elegant.

They were ready to go the next morning with time to spare. Sneaking around the Harrington house because she didn't want Steve's mother to realize she was there, Emilia found a phone and called the station. It rang three times before someone answered, and of course that someone was Flo.

"Hi, Flo, it's Emilia, is Hopper in?" she asked with hope in her voice.

"Haven't seen him since yesterday, he looked like he had a mission in mind and he wasn't going to let anyone at the station be privy to it. Other than that, I think he checked up on Joyce Byers. And if you see him, tell him to get in here, ASAP, will you?" Flo spewed out in one breath.

"Uhm, yeah, I will. Thank you." Emilia hung up the phone, not feeling great, but feeling better than she had. Perhaps Hopper was just busy helping out at the Byers house, and that eased her mind about Will and Joyce, who were not alone now. As she contemplated calling the Byers household, she heard Steve shouting at her that they were leaving -so much for Mrs. Harrington not knowing she was there.

She slinked through the hallways, grabbed her jacket and darted out the front door before anyone could see her. The drive was silent, not filled with small talk as they went to town to pick up the meat for bait. Emilia went to the grocery store while Steve ran in and bought the meat, planting two large buckets in the backseat that smelled so foul that Emilia had to open a window. The drive felt a lot longer from there, rank, day old meat filling the vehicle. When they picked up Dustin, he opened the door to the back and grinned.

"Cool!" he exclaimed.

Parking by the tracks, the car well out of sight from the road, they all got out. Emilia slid a backpack over her shoulder, while Dustin and Steve grabbed gloves and a bucket each. And off they went.

It didn't take long before the bickering began.

"Why did you even keep it?" Steve asked, referring to the creature that Dustin was calling Dart.

"Well, there is this really cool girl-"

"Oh here we go," Steve said as he rolled his eyes.

Emilia smiled lightly, despite the ridiculous situation, it wasn't all bad. Being in the presence of Steve and Dustin was rather heart-warming, in this weird sense of friendship that was developing. Of course she knew that she wasn't going to be hanging out with Dustin, he was just a kid, but at the end of all of this she imagined herself spending more time with Steve. Steve and Jenny, she figured, if she didn't get Jonathan back in her life. It was starting to look worse every day with him and Nancy having disappeared. Dustin had stated that he had been unable to get a hold of any of his friends.

Emilia tuned back into the banter.

"I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyways?" Steve asked, "Emilia, back me up here, you wouldn't like it would you?"

"No, no, no. I'm staying out of this one," Emilia chimed.

"An interdimensional slug? Because it's awesome," Dustin countered. "Besides, this girl is different, she's... cool."

"Are you saying Emilia isn't cool?"

"No!" Dustin shouted. "She didn't even say if she would be impressed by it or not."

"I wouldn't be," Emilia admitted. "But given that I threw one up last Christmas, I haven't been particularly fond of them."

"You what?" Both Dustin and Steve said at once, stopping their meat-tossing to look at her.

Emilia just shrugged, "I just figured it was a side effect of having an Demagorgon tentacle shoved down my throat."

"That's awesome," Dustin said.

"That's disgusting," Steve added, then they proceeded to walk along the tracks and Steve tackled the conversation again that he had been having with Dustin. "So even if she thought it was cool -which she didn't- I dunno, I just feel like you're trying too hard, man."

"Well not everyone can have your perfect hair, alright?" Dustin argued.

Emilia scoffed, never once having seen Steve's hair as a lady-charming attribute. Sure, it suited him, but it had never tickled her fancy. She kept her thoughts to herself, though, because she didn't want to offend anyone. Her thoughts moved to Jonathan, thinking about how simple things were once between them. They'd get up out of bed in the middle of the day, messy hair, and they didn't need to hide it from each other or from anyone else. The simplicity of how they composed themselves and got ready, it was different from all the hairspray and makeup that everyone else wore. They were who they were, in the most authentic sense.

"It's not about the hair, man," Steve told him. "The key to girls is acting like you don't care."

"Even if you do?"

"Yeah, exactly, it drives them nuts."

Emilia laughed this time, not keeping it to herself. Both Steve and Dustin looked at her, as if her laugh didn't expose just how ridiculous she thought this method at getting girls was. Neither of them understood what she said with that laugh and turned back to the direction they were heading. Not only was it a terrible idea, it was plain rude to think ignoring a girl would win her over.

"Then what?" Dustin asked.

"You just wait until, uh, until you feel it."

"Feel what?"

"It's like before it's gonna storm, you know? You can't see it, but you can feel it, like this, uhh, electricity, you know?"

"Oh," Dustin began talking about electromagnetic fields when Steve cut him off.

"No, no, no, no, no, like a, a sexual electricity."

"Oh," Dustin said, trying to keep up.

"You feel that, then you make your move," his voice was very suave.

"That's when you kiss her?"

Emilia rolled her eyes, listening as they talked about different kinds of girls. Some who liked men who were more forward, and others who liked to take things slow. Emilia thought about what kid of girl she was, and she didn't really know. The slow build that the relationship with Jonathan had with her, it was perfect. He helped her overcome all that obstacles that prevented her from moving forward with her life. She didn't think there was anyone else who could have done that. Her heart ached suddenly as she thought about what she had lost, one simple mistake had cost her Jonathan.

"What type is Nancy?" Dustin asked.

Steve's shoulders tensed. "Nancy's different. She's different from the other girls."

"Yeah, she seems pretty special, I guess."

Emilia smiled, and continued to silently listen. Despite what Steve had said about making moves and pretending like you don't care, he cared about Nancy. Even after everything, he wasn't going to give up on her. And Emilia knew that she couldn't give up on what she had with Jonathan, because he was special too.

"You're not falling in love with this girl, are you?" Steve asked.

"Uh, no. No."

"Okay, good. Don't."

"I won't."

"She's only going to break your heart, and you're way too young for that shit."

There was a silence while everyone thought about their designated relationship situations. Emilia wanted to get Jonathan back; she realized then that she didn't care what happened, she didn't care if he was off with Nancy. Emilia decided that as long as Jonathan still had feelings for her, they could work it out. It might hurt, to learn what was happening, what might be going on between them, but she just wanted what they had back. It was too important to give up because of something so trivial. She looked at Steve, seeing how low his head hung, and realized that he'd do anything for Nancy.

He was right, though, Dustin was too young for love and the ramifications that came when it all fell apart. He was too precious to go through that sort of pain.

"Fabergé," Steve said suddenly.

"What?" Dustin asked.

Steve looked behind him at Emilia, hoping she wouldn't laugh and make fun of him. Then he pointed to his hair, "It's Fabergé Organics. Use the shampoo and the conditioner, and when it's damp -it's not wet, okay?- when it's damp... you do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray."

Emilia smiled; Steve was opening up some embarrassing personal information to Dustin. Like an older brother, he was both snarky about it and open about it. It showed Steve was a good person, and that he was just like everybody else. She too would keep her lips sealed about his beauty regime, which was far more than Emilia ever did in the mornings.

As they walked along, she felt like despite everything, good was coming out of this too. 

So I completely forgot about that "Secret Thing" Emilia and Jonathan did way back in like chapter 7 or something, so I sort of have to bring that back in. It was supposed to be brought in a while back, but I think now is going to be the best time to do it.

Question of the Day: Is your beauty routine more or less effort than Steve's?