Talking in Your Sleep || Closed

Evie had to really think about it for a couple of seconds. She could just brush it off and make a joke about him, but she felt like that’d be taking the easy way out. She’d caught sight of his little smile playing on his lips, the way he’d bit his lower lip. It was hard to tell, but he might have actually cared about her response. “The type to work for what he wants.” The words fell between them in a way that felt kind of heavy to her, like she was being a little too honest for some reason. She let out a quiet mhmm when he’d mentioned that being a pretty safe assumption. For a second, her thoughts slipped down the rabbit hole of why cars were even considered feminine in the first place. It was probably something to do with women being seen as objects, or something close to it. Her thoughts were drug back to him when the words ‘pretty girl’ were uttered. Her cheeks burned a pretty red as she ducked her head, her right hand reaching up to scratch at the back of her neck. “I’ll keep that in mind, “ she murmured, her hand dropping back down to her side.

Billy Hargrove was going to be the death of her, she was positive; with the way that he was winking at her, there was no way that he wouldn’t be the end of her. Her breath got caught somewhere in her throat and she was finding it difficult to remind herself that she didn’t care. She wasn’t supposed to care. This was Billy Hargrove, for crying out loud. He was an ass. A pure, unadulterated ass. “I’d like to study medicine, become a doctor and all that,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I always wanted to work with Doctors Without Borders for awhile, and help people. She hadn’t been sure, but after seeing what they’d done to that poor girl in the lab, Evie had realized that she really wanted to help people. She’d never been good enough at science to get into the human DNA stuff, but she was smart enough to become a doctor, she figured.

She took in a deep breath, willing her cheeks not to flush as she shook her head. “I’d like to think that lines don’t work on me,” she said, stealing a glance towards him. She ducked her head immediately, caught off guard by his broad grin. For an irrational second, the thought crossed her mind that she was curious as to what would happen if she leaned over and kissed him until he wasn’t grinning. Now that thought sent her cheeks flushing. While they weren’t as red as before, it was still pink enough to be noticeable.

“Looks like you missed out, then , Billy,” she said, a small smirk on her face. A thrill shot through her at the realization that he might have been thinking about her in that outfit. She bit down on the inside of her cheek, making herself stop. No. She wasn’t going down that path. Not with Billy fucking Hargrove. Even if he wasn’t as absolutely horrible as she’d thought. She looked over to him, wanting to ask him if he was sure, if he really would do anything that she asked him to. But it was too late. He was leaning towards her and she couldn’t breathe and God, kissing him wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world and then he was opening the door and suddenly Evie Henderson couldn’t even think straight. She just sat there, blinking as he pulled away and opened his down door.

Scrambling, she stepped out of the car, grabbing her backpack and slinging it over her shoulder as she ran her fingers through her hair. The cool air was making it easier to think. She was fine. So what if she’d contemplated kissing him for half a second? It was fine. It was okay. She glanced over to him and nodded in the direction of her backyard. “It’s this way,” she said, all thoughts of kissing him melting away as reality set in. Whatever it was - and God knew it wasn’t good - that was in her cellar was probably dangerous. Could she really bring Billy into this unaware? “So my brother trapped a… thing in our cellar, and I just need you to stand by the doors and make sure that I don’t get hurt. You can’t go in the cellar, though. Just stand outside unless it sounds like I’m dying. In which case, feel free to go in and save me.”

---

Steve hummed a little, shrugging his shoulders. He wanted to snark back, but any thoughts he had fell flat. “Thanks,” he said, shooting her a small smile. He knew that he’d changed, he knew that. But there was still a voice in his head screaming that he was still King Steve, Lord of the Assholes. Sometimes he saw Jonathan get a little too close to Nancy and that same loathing rose up in him, that same feeling that had driven Steve to destroy the camera. And yeah, Byers kind of had it coming, taking pictures like that, but still. It hadn’t been okay of him, hadn’t been okay to go along with Tommy and Carol and their shit plan of vandalising the movie theater. Honestly, the more he thought about it, the less sure he was of why exactly Nancy had even agreed to still date him.

He pushed the thoughts away, trying to focus on the here and now. And now Kate was talking and when he glanced over to her, her cheeks were a little red. Pride welled up within Steve at that. He’d made her flush a little. Good. It was payback for her probably turning his cheeks permanently pink. “Well then, looks like I definitely don’t look like shit then,” he told her, a little smirk growing on his lips. Bright red cheeks really complemented her hair. His fingers drummed against the steering wheel as he tried to warm them up, the heat in car not helping all that much against the brisk chill outside.

“I’m telling you, they bring in tourists from thousands of miles away. It’s a real scientific miracle. Brown cows make chocolate milk,” he said, going on with the joke in the hopes that it would make her laugh more. He liked the way that she sounded, bright and happy. “I get what you mean. Thinking of jokes is tough. I’m funnier on the fly.” He glanced over to her, catching sight of her grin. The sight of it made his stomach flip. That wasn’t good. He really wasn’t supposed to feel like that. She was pretty. That was all. Just really pretty and it caught him off guard a little. That was it. “Wow, that was a good one,” he said, his tone dry as he shot her a pointed look.

“A baseball bat,” he mumbled, shaking his head. Oh God. He was going to have to get that out of his trunk. He was going to have to pull out a nail ridden bat and try to keep it from her. And she’d managed to pick up that he and Nance were having some troubles, so God knew that Kate would probably notice the bat no matter how hard he tried to hide it. What was worse, her thinking that he was going to brutally murder a racoon or her finding out that there was probably some real fucked up shit in Dustin’s cellar? He stole a glance over to Kate, watching as her eyes shut. He really didn’t want to bring her into any of this. He wasn’t thrilled that Dustin had asked him, but the kid needed help. And for whatever reason, Evie wasn’t around to help her brother. Which meant that Steve had to step up and deal.

“We don’t - It’s not - I swear to God, this does not happen ever,” he muttered, flipping his four-ways off as he put the car back into drive. He waited until the kid had started off on his bike before he eased his foot onto the gas, moving slow. “Just… I’m sorry about this. He’s not normally like this.” That was a lie. He coudn’t remember how many times Dustin had strolled into the Wheeler place like he owned it and ordered Steve to get him a Pepsi. This was just like that, although instead of a Pepsi, it was a…. Thing. And with Steve’s luck, it was a demogorgon thing.

“I wasn’t going to kick you out, Kate. Dustin’s just a bossy little shithead,” he told her, finally cracking a small grin. “I promise that it’ll take like five minutes, and then I’ll get you home.” He sped up a little as Dustin peddled wildly, eliciting a snort from Steve. “He’s a weird kid, but he’s alright. A little dramatic, is all.” He was dramatic, sure, but it took something real special for him to be like that. Steve’s stomach sank at the thought of just what had that kid so rattled. Odds are, it wasn’t good.

This date he was holding Evie to for driving her around better had come sooner rather than later. He’d gone on dates with girls for just looking pretty, but she seemed to possess the total package. How she wasn’t already taken—not that it would be any issue for Billy to swoop in and steal her away—was beyond his comprehension completely. She was something new that he found himself craving more of. At her words, his lips curled skyward slightly despite himself. That was probably one of the nicest things he’d hear about himself in a while and it wasn’t about the way he looked or how tight his jeans were. It was something that could be respected, something that would stick with him. His gaze slipped over to her and he directed the smile at her. “I’m not that easy to read, am I?” He asked, a quiet laugh leaving him. He wasn’t trying to joke her, but make light of what could easily turn their conversation a bit sappier than he’d want it to. His eyes traveled over her, studying the hand that grasped at the back of her neck and wondered how it’d be if his hand took the place of her’s. He wondered how it’d be if he pulled her in for a kiss and held her close—how she’d feel pressed against him.

He cleared his throat and looked away, knowing he needed to take things slow with her. She didn’t seem the type to rush headfirst into anything and he didn’t want to try his luck. His bottom lip worried between his teeth as she spoke of her future, biting back any comments he could’ve made about her pretending to play ‘doctor’ anytime she wanted with him. Maybe it’d be easier to do that then think of how his future looked pretty dim. “Respectable,” he murmured, eyes flickering over her features before they narrowed slightly as he added—just so he didn’t sound too soft, “and hot.” He paused a beat before staring ahead. “The world could probably use more people like you and less assholes like me, right?”

A short hum of a laugh left him at what she said next and he shook his head. “You can think that all you’d like, Evie,” he told her. “I’ll try to find a line that’ll work on you yet.” Billy nodded once toward her, a determined sort of gleam in his eyes as he noted the color flooding her cheeks. He wondered what she was thinking to have her reacting like that. He definitely wasn’t used to any girls he’d flirted with genuinely blushing like that. Billy found himself admiring the way the added color complemented her features.

Billy’s brows lifted slightly as she spoke about her costume, liking the mischievous smirk that played on her lips. “I’m sure I could find a way to convince you to wear it again,” he murmured slyly, eyes raking slowly over her as he let his mind wander to the way she must’ve looked in nothing much but a button-up and wayfarers. A hum left him before he could stop in and he turned away from her. As much as he would have loved to have taken in her expression, letting the want and urges linger unsaid and unfulfilled without so much as a glance from him should serve him well later on. He’d gotten her interested, it seemed, and now he was working on wrapping her around his finger.

He shut the door just as she exited the car and he turned up the collar of his jean jacket against the wind that was blowing. There were enough trees around that it blocked some of it, but it still had a bite to it. Billy’s hands found their way into his jacket and he glanced around the neighborhood for a moment before looking back to Evie just in time to see her nod toward the house. He stepped around his car and stopped just beside her. His brow furrowed slightly as she spoke, eyes darting between both of hers. Billy definitely wasn’t the sharpest person he knew, he’d admit that, but something was definitely fishy about what was going on. “It’ll be a little hard for me to protect you from being hurt if I can’t follow you or even go into the cellar…for this thing, don’t you think?” He offered, shooting her a look before turning and starting toward where she had nodded.

---

Kate’s past was a bit of a tricky thing and nothing she quite wanted to bring up or relive anytime soon. It’d landed her in the “mess” that she found herself in now and would probably always accompany her name, no matter how much they held sway over expunging records and shit that went way over her head like that. She returned Steve’s smile for a moment before glancing out the window to look at anything but him. This is all temporary, she told herself, though there was a part of her that grumbled slightly at the thought. Moving wasn’t fun and she didn’t look forward to having to do it again. And now, it seemed, that she’d at least have to leave behind the offer for rides in a nice car, with a nice guy, to get out of the cold.

“Nope,” she shot back at him, probably a bit too quickly and with too much emphasis on the popping of the ‘p’, “definitely not like anything remotely close to shit.” She drew in a deep breath of air through her nose, trying to calm the color painting her cheeks. Clearing her throat, she shifted a bit in her seat, shaking her hair forward a bit so it hid her face, but only slightly. She found herself ignoring it when he continued on about “Indiana’s brown cows and their miracle chocolate milk.” She found herself laughing again, eyes crinkling at the corners and mouth pulling up. “You’re ridiculous, Steve,” she said before turning to look over at him, “but it’s cute, so I’ll let it slide.”

She could have slapped herself on the forehead for that one. He has(or had, her mind supplied her) a girlfriend and she most definitely was not going to end up gaining a reputation for snatching up Nancy Wheeler’s ex only days after it seemed trouble popped up for them. Her stomach flipped anxiously at the thought of a guy like Steve having anything to want to do with a girl like her. The mental berating she was giving herself was interrupted by Steve shooting down her joke and her grin slid from her features slowly. “It’s been a long day. I’m sure school drained me of just about everything, including how good my jokes are,” she explained with a dramatic roll of her eyes.

She was from New York City. She didn’t blame Steve if he carted around a baseball bat with him. Maybe he’d had a bad past experience or just played baseball. Still, this whole situation didn’t sit well with here. It wasn’t the promise of grotesque violence to pests or even the pushy middle schooler. There was just a feeling she was getting; it found a way to course though her veins and weigh heavy in her stomach. Something wasn’t right here. They had informed of the experiments they’d conducted at Hawkins lab with special children, but this seemed like it was something completely unrelated.

Her gaze slip over to Steve as he spoke, a slight grin curling her lips at how he stumbled over his words a bit. She was beginning to find it very endearing. Kate then remembered that this all seemed to unusual and the grin fell a bit. “It just seems a bit odd, is all,” she told him with a shrug of her shoulders. “I’m not knocking it or judging you but…” Her voice died out a bit as she couldn’t think of anything to follow up her sentence with. She shrugged again, eyes finding him once more. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about, alright. Weird, unexpected shit happens sometimes.”

She ran her tongue over her lips, a soft laugh leaving her as he described the curly-haired kid that pretty much ordered Steve to come help him. Kate eyed his grin for a moment before looking toward the kid peddling furiously on his bike. “I’m sure he’s not too bad when he’d not shitting bricks about someone finding about he’s got a not-raccoon or…whatever locked in the cellar,” she said with wry grin. “I’ve done enough stupid shit in my lifetime, I know how that panic feels.” She paused for a moment before leaning back in the seat before turning to Steve. “Do I really have to stay in the car? This might be the most exciting thing for me to witness since I moved to Hawkins,” she said, eyes pleading silently to him.

“You’re easier to read than you think you are,” Evie said, glancing over to him with a small smile. She could have gone deeper into just what type of person he was, but odds are it wouldn’t have gone over well. Billy seemed like the type to put on the macho-asshole persona to hide a raging insecurity. Insecurity over what, she wasn’t sure, but she doubted that he acted like this much of a dick just for the hell of it. Maybe if he acted less like a dick, she’d be more willing to give into his advances. If he acted less like a dick, it’d be easier to let herself relax and see where things would lead her. It had been awhile since she’d been kissed. She wasn’t in desperate need or anything, but it’d be nice. She’d be more inclined to kiss him if he eased up a little, that was for sure.

For a moment, she was impressed with his response. Respectable wasn’t something that she got often. Usually it was oh that’s nice, but what about marrying a nice boy? (from her grandmother) or wouldn’t you be suited for something better, maybe like a secretary job around here? (from her biology teacher). Respectable, though. That was different. She frowned at the added ‘hot’ and rolled her eyes. She started to glare at him, but it softened into something else when she caught his next sentence. “I’ve met worse assholes than you, Billy. You’re an asshole, but assholes like you? Not the worst thing to happen to the world.”

She laughed softly, disliking the way that she kept flushing. It was unnecessary. He was flirting with her, that was all. There was no reason for her to be feeling this flustered. But her stomach was still in knots and she was finding it hard to push away the thoughts of what it’d be like to kiss him. “You can try all you like, Billy, but I promise you that you won’t.” Evie would be hard pressed to admit it, but she liked challenging him like that. She wanted to see what he’d do. It could have been a little twisted, but she liked the attention, liked to see him trying to pick her up. She liked him trying to get her into him.

“Oh, I’m sure you couldn’t.” It was hard to keep watching him, watching the way that his gaze slid over her. It sent a heat rising through her, sliding up from somewhere in her stomach and settling throughout her body. Steve would have had a holy conniption if he were there. She couldn’t imagine it, not really. She’d always prided herself on liking nice guys, guys that she could have introduced to her mom. But Billy… Billy was not that. He was everything opposite of that, but she was weirdly into it. Not that she wanted to admit that, but it was getting harder to deny it, especially when she was warm all over just from him looking at her.

Evie turned around to raise a brow at him. “You know what I think?” She asked, stopping in her steps. A small grin spread across her features. “I think I said no questions,” she said, her words sweet as she shot him a look that was similar to the one he’d just shot her. She watched him for a moment before turning around and heading towards her backyard. Her stomach dropped as she rounded the house, seeing the hockey gear that had been dumped near the cellar. The little shit couldn’t even put his stuff away. She glanced over her shoulder to Billy, trying to stave off the flicker of fear that was suddenly coursing through her. She grimaced and turned back around, stopping once she was a few feet away from the metal doors. She could remember the demogorgon and its slobbery jaws, the thousands of little teeth, the way it was silhouetted by the flickering Christmas lights. “So - um - you’ll stay up here, and I’ll…” She trailed off as her voice shook just a little. She reached down and grabbed Dustin’s discarded hockey stick. “I’ll be back.”

---

“Wow, Kate. With compliments like that, a guy could get a huge ego,” Steve said, shooting her a quick grin. For a second, he watched as her hair fell into her face. Thoughts of Nancy left his mind for a blessed couple of seconds as he thought about getting a reaction like that from her again and again and again. He liked the way her cheeks were colored. He liked the way she cleared her throat and the way she made her hair fall into her face. Turning his attention to the road, he managed to stave off the guilt for a few more seconds - until she practically called him cute. He coughed, loud and awkward as he shook his head. “Thanks,” he said, cheeks burning bright red.

She’d practically called him cute. Cute. When was the last time he’d even been called cute? Nancy hadn’t, not in awhile, and she was the only one that had since they’d started dating. His stomach was churning with either butterflies or nausea, he really wasn’t sure. The guilt was making it churn, but there was a pleasant humming in his veins that was making him want to scream. He wasn’t supposed to feel like this. He and Nancy were technically still dating (he thought). And even if they weren’t, wasn’t it kind of shitty to just move on like that? Wasn’t it supposed to be harder to move on from someone if you loved them? He needed to drink. He needed to drink a lot of beer and figure this shit out.

“Looks like we’ll just have to hang out sometime so you can prove to me that your jokes are actually good at some point,” he suggested, purposefully keeping his gaze forward. He was suggesting they hang out sometime outside of school. That was fine. That was allowed. Nancy had hung out with Jonathan just the two of them plenty of times, and that had turned out just fine. This was the same exact thing. Just two friends hanging out. A soft voice in the back of mind wondered if it was a bad thing that he had to justify hanging out with a ‘friend’ that much. He ignored it.

Steve glanced over to her for a second, gaze lingering before looking back to the road. “You’re allowed to knock it or judge me, Kate. This is weird, I know.” He tried to imagine what it was like for her, and then realized that he didn’t have. He could still feel the painful wrench his his stomach when he saw the bandage on Nancy’s hand, the confusion that had swirled inside of him when she’d held the gun up to him. Christ, his life was weird. “Yeah, well Dustin shouldn’t have said that shit to you. And, uh, I’m still gonna apologize. This is just weird and all you wanted to do is just get home.” What if it was a demogorgon? What if it was and it was worse than last year and she somehow got involved? Maybe he should just speed up, tell Dustin he’d meet him at his house, and then drop her off first.

“No, he’s just as bad. It’s just that usually it’s not directed at me. I’ve been around when he and his buddies play DnD. It sounds like Dustin’s dying half the time, he’s screeching so loud.” He’d never gotten the point, but the kids had offered a couple of times. Usually it was Mike that offered, sighing loudly as though it physically pained him to offer Steve a seat at the table. He usually thought it was Will that was behind it all, because the kid would offer him a small smile and say that it was really fun. He tried at one point. It had lasted an hour, and Dustin himself had made Steve leave because he was ‘too dumb to figure it out’. “I’d appreciate it if you did. I don’t know how… Stupid he’s being right now, and I’d rather you not get bit by some rabid raccoon or whatever it is,” he said, glancing over to her. If it was a demogorgon, he wasn’t going to drag her into that. She didn’t deserve it.

Billy lifted a brow as he shot Evie a look. Was he that easy to read? Of course, there were times—especially when he was around his dad—that he felt like his whole “tough guy” act was just an facade that he put on. Surely, he hadn’t give her any reason to believe otherwise, had he? Part of him wanted to ask what she meant by that or how it was that she could read him so easily, but he figured that would just lead into a conversation that would just end up pissing him off. And getting mad at her would be no way to try and win her over. “If you say so, sweetheart,” he murmured, shooting her a crooked grin and drawing in a deep breath of air.

He hoped he’d surprised her a bit with his response. He may have been a colossal douchebag, but he knew that going to school to be a doctor and having a career as one was no joke. Most girls he’d known had always shied away from that sort of thing for the sake of trying not to appear like such a geek. Billy secretly had a thing for brainy girls though, especially those that went on to become teachers or doctors. Was it fetishizing women a bit? Probably, but he couldn’t help it if a beautiful, smart woman got him going. He noted the way annoyance flickered over her features for a moment before smoothing out into something else. “I’ve met a lot of people who’d probably disagree with you,” he told her with a wry grin, shaking his head a bit. “But thanks regardless.”

Worrying his bottom lip between his teeth at the flush that settled over her features, a quiet hum of a laugh left him as looked away for a moment. It seemed his attempts at flirting with her were working, even if she didn’t want them to. Billy’s bottom lip slid from his teeth as she spoke, brows lifting slightly as he tilted his head to the side to consider her for a few moments. “Do you enjoy breaking promises then, Evie?” He questioned, lips pulling back into a broad grin. “Because I don’t like not succeeding when I say I’ll try something.” His eyes roamed her features for a moment before he added. “It may take me some time, but I think I’ll eventually find a line that’ll work on you.”

Billy let out a soft hum and turned a bit to face Evie a bit more fully, eyes never leaving hers. “You must really like tempting me,” he stated simply, the grin never leaving his features. She was testing him, which was definitely better than her outright shooting him down. Evie seemed to be challenging him instead of acting completely disinterested. He must’ve been doing something right after all. “You seem like you’re so sure of so much. I think…that you’re not sure of anything right now,” he said, grin turning a bit more wicked as his gaze slipped over her once again before he looked away completely. “I could be wrong though.”

He offered her his most innocent smile as she turned to look at him, stopping even to make her point. There was a moment were he let the silence linger between the two of them, hands shoved into his pockets as he casually followed behind her. “That was actually more of a statement than a question,” he defended with a shrug of his shoulders. The levity of the situation fell a bit when he saw all the hockey gear strewn in front of a pair of large metal doors that he presumed led into the cellar. What the hell happened to have the kid cutting out and leaving expensive gear lying around? His brow furrowed slightly as he came to a stop just beside her and the closed doors. A slow exhale left him as she grabbed the hockey stick, eyes flickering over her once more as she spoke.

He couldn’t just stand by and see her hurt. Part of him wanted to believe it was because she’d never get to pay him back for the ride by way of a date, but it may have been something a little more than that. Before she had a chance to do anything else, Billy reached out and grasped the hockey stick, pulling her closer to him abruptly so he could stare down into her eyes. His gut jumped a bit at their proximity; getting a good look at just how blue her eyes were or how rosy her lips looked. “Look,” he said, all sort of charm leaving his tone, “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m not going to stand by while you arm yourself with a hockey stick and look scared shitless.” His gaze softened for a moment and he sighed again. “I won’t ask questions, I promise. Just…let me go in first, at least. You can keep the hockey stick if it makes you feel safer.”

---

Kate was mortified. It’d been a long, long time since a guy had her stammering and blushing like this and it was severely embarrassing. Then he went and had to say something about his ego and grin over at her and it only made matters worse. “I-uh…um…” She trailed off, biting down hard on the gum between her molars and slapping a hand over her eyes as she attempted to will the blush away. It wasn’t working. There had to be something in the water in Hawkins. That had to have been the explanation as to why she was acting so odd and so…bashful. His coughing jolted her out of her own thoughts and she dropped her hand to look over at him, lips pulling up slightly at the corners at how red his cheeks were.

She was being too forward with a potentially taken guy. This was so not like her. Sure, she’d had crushes on unavailable boys before, but never been in a car with one of them and called one of them ‘cute’. Her hand found the back of her neck as she rubbed it nervously, chewing away at her gum as she attempted to think of something to say. “Yeah,” she breathed before squeezing her eyes shut. She was feeling so smooth all of a sudden. Drawing in a deep breath of air as her cheeks stopped tingling, her eyes slipped over to him as he mentioned them hanging out at some point. A smile curled her lips despite how embarrassed she was still feeling and she nodded a bit. And despite how much she was yelling at herself to tell him she didn’t think them hanging out would be a good idea, what with him trying to repair a relationship and her “temporary” status in Hawkins, she told him quietly, “I think I’d like that, Steve.”

Shrugging her shoulders a bit and grinning to herself, she added, “I just don’t know if you’ll be able to handle just how good my jokes will be.” Kate knew she was flirting again. It was far easier for her to flirt than to think of the reality of the situation she was in, or focus on how easy it was for this Mr. Hair to get her feeling all flustered. Her brow furrowed as he continued on about Dustin and the whole pest issue thing. “It’s really not that weird. I’m from Manhattan,” she said with another shrug of her shoulders. “Try going to a subway station at midnight and then tell me about weird.” A quiet laugh left her as she attempted at making him feel a bit better about having to divert their route because some kid on a bike had demanded he helped.

“Dude, my parents are out of town for the next three weeks,” she explained, shooting him a look and a wry grin, “All I was going to do was go home and talk to my cat and try to find something to occupy myself with. Weird is almost welcomed at this point.” She shifted in the seat a bit, tucking her hair behind her ear as she eyed the middle schooler that was peddling like his life depended on it in front of the car. She’d been instructed by them to try and explain away her “parents” being gone so much was that they frequently liked to go on cruises and/or business trips. Sometimes Kate found the solitude infuriating. Her eyes darted over to him as he explained Dustin to her, brows lifting slightly. “DnD?” She questioned, head tilting to the side slightly. “I’ve gotta hand it to him. As much as I appreciated the creativity it tends to cultivate, I could never get into it. I much prefer just painting or drawing as opposed to having my character obliterated by some jackass dungeon master.”

Kate watched him closely as he pretty much told her to stay in the car as well. With a dramatic roll of her eyes, she scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Ugh, fine,” she huffed, brow furrowed and a small pout on her lips. Just because he told her to stay in the car didn’t mean she would. She was almost an adult. She could handle whatever risks she put herself in. “So,” she started, changing the subject as she turned back to him, “back to what we were talking about earlier.” She knew this wasn’t exactly the most pleasant of things to talk about, but she would feel bad if she just left Steve to his own thoughts. Turning in the seat to face him better, she drew in a deep breath of air. “A shit boyfriend doesn’t get as worried as you are about being a shit boyfriend,” she told him bluntly. “And have you ever considered that maybe it’s not you? We’re high schoolers. We don’t always exactly know…what we want. And girls are the absolute worst about shit like that.”

She watched him for a moment, noting the way his brow lifted at her words. That just solidified her thoughts. He could try and play the tough guy for as long as he liked, but no one was really that much of a raging douche. Even Tommy H. wasn’t the biggest douche on the planet - his family life was shit and he wanted to take it out on literally everyone else around him. Which sucked, but the backstory helped explain why he sucked. “I do say so, sweetheart,” she said, giving him a quick smirk.

Evie gave a bob of her head at his words, unsure of how to respond. Obviously, not a lot of people would agree with her. She got that. There was just something about him that tugged at her heart a little, that made her want to help him out. Which was a horrible idea, really. She hated it when she watched people that she cared about fall into the trap of wanting to help someone out, to change them for the better and all of that bullshit. She was starting to understand, though, just how easy it was to fall into that. Something about Billy’s demeanor made her curious as to what went on behind the scenes in his life. “So have I, but it doesn’t really change the facts,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“The thing is, though, is that I’m not the biggest fans of lines. They’re kind of bullshit, you know?” She raised a brow at him, tilting her chin up a little as she watched him. That was a small lie. There was only one line that she’d ever appreciated, and it hadn’t even been said to her. She could remember sitting in that dark movie theater with her brother and his friends as they watched The Empire Strikes Back, as Han gently plied his thumb into Leia’s palm and spoke the words that had made Evie’s - and Leia’s - mouth drop open. You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life. “It’s hard to take anyone seriously when they’re saying stuff like that.”

Her stomach dropped when said that, about her liking to tempt him. It was true, but the fact that he’d said it aloud made her cheeks flush a pretty pink. “What if I do?” She asked, the words falling out of her mouth before she could stop them. There were more important things to worry about, like the potential monster in her cellar. But her brain was latching onto this for the moment, pushing out those worries because somehow this was easier than dealing with whatever the hell her brother had done. “I’m… I’m sure of a lot of things,” she said, her voice wavering just enough to belie her words. She took in a deep breath, rolling her eyes as she tried to shake away the feeling in her stomach. She went to say something else when he mentioned that it was more of a statement, and she rolled her eyes. “I’m sure that that was a question,” he said, shooting him a look as she found her emotional footing once more. She was sure of a lot of things. She was sure that he was full of shit.

Evie went to turn around when suddenly his hand was on the hockey stick and she was being tugged forward. She almost bumped into him, but managed to stop herself - barely. Looking up at him, her stomach dropped. They were close, closer than she’d realized. That close, it was hard to think. His eyelashes were so long. His mouth looked really soft. She swallowed, her teeth grazing her lower lip as she somehow managed to drag her gaze away from his mouth. What he said next, though, was clearing her head in an instant. “Billy, I just… You can’t imagine the shit that could be down there.” No matter how big of an asshole he could be, she wasn’t going to let him get dragged into whatever it was. She let go of the hockey stick to rest her hand on top of his. “I go in first, you follow behind me. No questions.” Her words were wavering, but she could do this. She let her hand drop and stepped back to the cellar. She opened the door a crack. It was quiet. Glancing over to Billy, she took in a deep breath. “You coming or what?”

---

A burst of pride welled within Steve’s chest the second she started stammering. He glanced over to her real fast, biting back the grin that threatened to appear when he spotted the blush on her cheeks. It suited her features well, making her eyes really stand out. His blush, on the other hand, was probably horrible. He couldn’t even imagine how it looked. His cheeks were so warm that he kind of feared for them. Could cheeks be permanently red? Could they just be stuck like this if he kept blushing? God, that’d be embarrassing. The last time he’d blushed this hard was when he was thirteen years old, and had found his father’s stash of ‘adult magazines’. Christ, that was the last thing he needed to think about.

He needed to stop. He needed to focus. There was an issue with Dustin and the potential of a fucking demogorgon again (he wasn’t entirely sure on that part, but the last time that the nail-bat had been needed, he’d been slamming it into the jaws of a fucking monster, so it was probably something as horrible as that), and he needed to figure out what the fuck was up with Nancy. He should’ve been really broken up about it, right? Like, the ache in his chest was still there and he still had the desire to punch the closest wall, but he was also liking the fact that Kate had agreed to hang out with him. He thought she was cute, and that was definitely not okay to think. What kind of fucking prick was he, to be thinking these thoughts when he was still with Nancy? At least, he thought he was still with Nancy. Even that was up in the air. “Good,” he mumbled, trying not to smile. It wasn’t working. “That’s good.”

He rolled his eyes, chuckling quietly. “I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to handle them. They’d have to be pretty phenomenal for me to not be able to handle them.” Was she flirting? Was that a thing? He was questioning himself. Kate made him feel like he was Dustin’s age, awkward and nervous and feeling like he was failing at being able to really talk to a cute girl. “Right, yeah. I’m sure the rats there are as big as raccoons,” he said, looking to her for a second before turning his attention back to the road. Dustin was glancing back to him, as though Steve would disappear if he didn’t look. Steve flicked his hand forward, motioning for the teen to pay attention to the road. The last thing he wanted was for Dustin to ride into a ditch. “Yeah? Is it really as weird as people say?” He asked, his curiosity piqued.

Steve felt his stomach drop at her words. “Your parents are gone a lot too?” He asked, pursing his lips a little. He could remember when he’d liked his mom and dad being gone at first. Having the house to himself, raiding his father’s liquor cabinet, doing whatever the hell he’d wanted. It had been fine, great even for awhile. But the older he got, the shittier it felt. Yeah, he was practically an adult, but he’d felt like an adult ever since his parents started heading on their trips together. They’d missed his last two birthdays because they were out, for fuck’s sake. “Uh, yeah, DnD. I never really got into it either. There’s too many rules.” He didn’t really the appeal around it. The kids had lived their own version of DnD. Why would they want to relive that? “You paint?” He asked, realizing what she’d just said.

He let out a sigh, his head hitting back against the headrest as she brought up their previous conversation. “Can we not…” he trailed off, listening to her as she continued to speak. “We were together for a year, alright? Why the hell would she continue on for a year if she wasn’t sure about what she wanted?” He kept his eyes forward, resolute. A part of him felt like if he glanced over to Kate, he might break down. “We’ve been through some shit together, and I just… Maybe I wasn’t sympathetic about it. Maybe she needed me to be something for her and I didn’t know because I was thinking about myself, and I somehow fucked her over.”

Billy found himself grinning crookedly at what Evie had shot back at him. He’d said he’d liked her spunk and it was apparent she was feeling a bit more comfortable showing it around him. “Careful now. I might get the impression that you’re flirting with me, calling me names like that,” he shot back at her and winking over at her. Under any other condition, someone calling him sweetheart would set him off, but hearing her throw back the pet name he’d called her set something afire in him.

He hadn’t expected her to try and defend his personality or how he functioned. Billy knew exactly what he was and didn’t expect anyone to try and change him. He was an asshole, there was no way around it. He appreciated her blunt and honest answer. People who tended to beat around the bush about who he was and how he acted to his face pissed him off beyond belief. It was better off to tell him the truth, no matter how harsh it may seem, than to risk causing him to act like an even bigger asshole than usual. It took a lot of bravery to tell him that not many people liked him to his face, and he could admire those who had the guts to do it. “The facts being that I’m an asshole that not too many people like, but not the worst asshole…at least not to Evie Henderson,” he said, shooting her a smile.

“So, lines are bullshit, huh?” Billy mused quietly, an amused expression on his features as he considered what she’d said. He knew that she was different, that Evie Henderson wasn’t like the rest of the girl’s he’d tried to woo before, but she managed to still keep surprising him. He nodded slowly to himself as he lapsed into though, searching through his mind for some sort of smart comment to reply with. He ran his tongue over his lips as he stared ahead for a moment before turning back to Evie. “You’ll see. One of these days, I’ll hit you with a line that’ll be so good, you won’t even realize it is one,” he said confidently, a grin playing around his mouth as he looked her over.

He hadn’t expected her to hint that she was actually admitting to liking to tempt him. Sure, it hadn’t been a definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but it’d been an answer that pleased him immensely. To be honest, girls had attempted to tease and tempt him before, but it never actually worked. The girls typically buckled and gave in before it actually seemed fulfilling or something like that. But this, this had his heart racing just a bit. A low hum left him in response, turning his eyes to meet hers. “I won’t tell you to stop,” he replied, voice dropping both in octave and volume. A quiet laugh left him at what left her mouth next, what had once been a sultry sort of look in him eyes turning into something more joking. “Oh, sure, how could I have ever doubted you?” He jested. It was his turn to roll his eyes as commented on his question and he shook his head a bit. “Fine. I followed a statement up with a question,” he told her, brows lifting slightly. “If that’s the only thing you’re sure of, I’ll be really disappointed in you.”

Her reaction to him pulling her close pleased him more than it probably should’ve. The way her eyes darted over his features and the way her teeth tore away at her bottom lip made him want to press her up against the nearest wall and press his mouth against hers over and over again until neither of them could breath. But there was the problem that her brother had left her, and he was sure that she’d be too preoccupied with that to even come close to wanting to kiss him. What she said next gave him a bit of pause. “Oh, I can. Is it rat or mouse shit?” He shot back at her, trying to ignore the fact that she looked severely serious. Then her hand was on top of his and the cocky sort of expression he wore dropped slightly as his bright eyes dropped to their hands for a moment before glancing back up to her. Her skin felt warm and soft against his and his mind immediately went to how they’d feel slipping up his torso or gripping onto his biceps or dropping down his—he managed to stop his train of thought before it went too far. Clearing his throat, he nodded a bit at the command that she gave him, too stunned by the images his mind had just provided him to protest. “No questions,” he repeated softly, eyes slipping between hers. When she slipped away from him, he drew in a deep calming breath of air to try and quell the tightness in his chest before she spoke again. “Yeah,” he murmured and closed the distance between the two of them quickly.

---

Kate pulled her lips between her teeth and bit down on them hard, feeling the blush slowly seeping from her cheeks and leaving them cool and tingling from the lack of excess blood. A soft sigh left her through her nose and she rested her head back against the seat and stayed quiet for a few moments. Her blushing was probably karma or something seeking swift retribution for her trying to coax Steve into blushing even more. While she had a good idea what Steve was blushing over, it didn’t really make sense to her. She was just the weird girl and he was ‘King Steve’. “I…uh…I think my cheeks got burned or chapped a bit from all that wind. Your cheeks, too,” she commented quietly, lifting her fingertips to press into the apple of her cheek for a moment. “Yeah, that had to have been it.”

At least her trying to explain away the fact they’d probably looked like two blushing fools in the front seats of his car. Oh, if they could see her flirting away with him, like genuinely flirting, they’d be so pissed with her. Another sigh left her as she stared out the window, trying to push down the stress and panic building within her at that thought down. She brushed a hand through her windswept hair, glancing back over to Steve as he spoke. The smile that he wore brought a smile to her lips and took her mind off of things for a moment—he had a nice smile. “You’re in luck. Phenomenal is actually my first name. Kate’s just a name I chose so I could pretend to be normal like everyone else,” she said, managing to keep a straight face and a serious tone to her voice for a few moments before a broad grin curled her features. “Like I said, I’m full of bad jokes.”

A frown curled her features as Steve waved his hand at something, her gaze finding Dustin hurriedly turning away from the two of them and the car and facing forward once more. “I…guess? I’ve never seen a raccoon in person, but there were some pretty big fucking rats,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I saw this huge rat dragging a old box of Chinese takeout from the trash,” she started, a grin curling her lips at the thought, “and even that wasn’t the weirdest thing I’ve seen.” She turned to him, eyes slipping over his features for a moment. He had a really pleasantly shaped mouth for a guy, she thought absently. His next questions jolted her out of studying him and reminded her that at any moment he could turn and catch her staring. “It depends on who you ask,” she told him plainly. “Tourists will always point out the crazier shit, but locals, like me…it takes a lot to weird out a local. We kinda just…tune out the weird after a while.”

She didn’t like the way Steve had asked that question, using the word ‘too’. “Pretty much raised myself since I was 15,” she said, knowing that what she was saying wasn’t completely a lie. “My parents are hot-shot lawyers for professional sports injuries or some shit like that. How the hell that lead them to Hawkins, Indiana, I’ll never know,” she murmured, looking away from him and setting her jaw for a moment. “It’s not all that bad. Its only when I start drinking when it turns shitty. Drinking with people is a party, but when you’re at home, drunk, by yourself, you’re just…a mess,” she said, lips pulling back into a smile and she let out a quiet laugh despite herself. She turned to him as he questioned about one of her favorite hobbies and nodded a bit. “I tend to get more of it on me than a canvas or whatever, but yeah, I paint. And draw. And generally make messes that I like to call ‘art’.”

A heavy sigh left her at the reaction she got, mouth pursing slightly as she looked over at him and listened as he spoke. He was really shaken up over this and she couldn’t really blame him. She’d experienced being the last one to know her relationship had gone to shit before and this seemed a lot like the case with him and Nancy. “Maybe she only just realized it recently. Has anything happened recently that might change the way she felt?” She asked, her gaze on his profile. “Look, I don’t mean to pry into your life. We only just met. But I knew from the moment you asked me to get into the car, that something was eating you alive.” She paused for a moment, drawing in a deep breath of air as she got ready to deal him a heavy punch. “This may not be the answer you want to hear, but…if she looks at you and sees you like this and doesn’t feel the slightest bit sorry for not explaining things to you, maybe you two are better off apart.”

“It’d only be fair if I was,” Evie said, giving him a shrug of her shoulders. “Especially since you’ve been giving me the impression that you’re flirting with me.” It was nothing short of a miracle that she was able to say that without her voice wavering, even though he’d winked at her. He’d winked at her. He’d literally kept one eye open and blinked the other and it wasn’t a huge deal, but it was sending her stomach into a flurry of butterflies that she couldn’t handle. She ducked her head, failing to bite back the grin that was playing on her lips.

She really should have been able to quell her grin, but it was difficult. He just kept smiling and grinning at her, which wasn’t fair at all. No one on Earth should be that attractive. It just wasn’t fair. The longer he smiled at her, the more she thought that his mullet kind of suited him in a way; that was disgusting. Mullets were gross no matter who was wearing them. It pissed her off a little that Billy seemed to be the exception. “The first step in overcoming your problem is to admit that you have one,” she teased. “I meant it, though. There’s got to be worse assholes than you in the world.”

The look on his face made her pause for a moment. He seemed entertained by that. “Yeah, they’re bullshit. Why would you feed me a line when you could just be upfront with me?” She asked, smirking a little at him. Her smirk fell as his tongue slid over his lips, her arms tingling as she wondered what it’d be like to reach up and press her mouth against his. She averted her gaze when he started to turn back to her. “I highly doubt that,” she replied, looking over to him once it felt like her knees weren’t going to lock up on her. She went to say something else about how confident she was that she wouldn’t give in to his lines, but then his voice was dropping an octave. She raised a brow, somehow keeping her expression blank as he spoke. “You couldn’t stop me if you tried,” she said, deciding then and there that if she didn’t die in the cellar, she was going to kiss him. Hard. She hummed as he continued on, but found that it was easier to hum than to speak since she’d used up her composure with her last sentence. All she could hear was how his voice had dropped and she wanted to hear that more often. “I’m sure of a lot of things, Hargrove. Trust me.”

Being that close to him had made it hard for her to think straight. Her hand was grasping the cellar door and it was open just a little, but all she could think about was how his expression had shifted from that cocky thing to something more.. Something. She wasn’t sure how to describe it, but it had changed in a way that had made her chest hurt. She hadn’t even been sure on how to answer his question, she’d just stared at him. It was confusing how she reacted to him. She looked back down to the cellar, and realized her glaring mistake. “Shit,” she mumbled, letting the door shut softly before stepping over to Dustin’s shed. She opened the door, relaxing a little when she spotted his old flashlight. Snagging it, she shut the door behind her and glanced over to Billy. The fact that he was sticking around for this made her think that he wasn’t as horrible as everyone - including himself - made him out to be.

“If it’s what I think it is… You need to listen to me, okay? Do exactly as I say, alright?” She took in a deep, shaky breath before beginning to open the cellar door. She pulled up just the right way so the door wouldn’t creak. Flicking on the flashlight, she aimed it at the stairs so it wouldn’t alert whatever it was. Stepping down the first step, her heart was squeezing tight in her chest. She held her breath, and could hear a soft snuffling somewhere. Fuck. She made it down to the very last step when her flashlight lit up something pale on the ground. The snuffling was still going on, so she figured that it was safe. She moved forward and crouched down, poking her finger at it. It was slimy and a little weird to the touch. It looked like something that she should know what it was, but it was hard to tell. The snuffling got a little louder. Evie took her time standing up, looking towards the dark corner. Slowly, she lifted her flashlight to the far left corner of the cellar. It was familiar in a way that she didn’t want to remember, but the way it moved itself as it tore apart the cellar wall was bringing her back to a year ago. “Billy,” she said, her voice soft. She took a step back. The small demogorgon was continuing its movements. “Billy, get out.” Her words were quiet, but her fear was apparent. They needed to get out before it noticed they were there.

---

“What?” He asked, his brow furrowing. Her cheeks got burned or chapped from the wind? Had she been out in the wind that long? What? Steve went to ask her what she was talking about, but instead raised his brows when he realized what she was saying. Your cheeks, too. What exactly was she saying? “Uh, yeah. Must’ve been that. It’s really bad outside,” he said, his words coming out too slow for him. Christ, women were confusing. Was she calling them both out on their blushing? Was she flirting with him? Teasing him? Fucking with him? It was hard to remember the last time he’d second guessed himself this much around a girl. He reached up to carve a hand through his hair, ruffling it up a little before it dropped back down to the wheel. “The wind, yeah,” he mumbled under his breath, wrinkling the spot between his eyebrows as he tried to figure out just what the hell she meant.

“Wow, really? Phenomenal’s your middle name? That’s pretty impressive,” he said, the sarcasm dripping off of his words. He glanced over to her, smirking. “It’d be kinda cool if your name was the Phenomenal Kate Young. That’d be pretty badass.” He liked her sense of humor. For someone that looked as intimidating as her, with her pink hair and the way she’d looked, all annoyed when Dustin had been ordering her around, her sense of humor was kind of dorky. He liked that. It was nice that she wasn’t trying to put anything on. This was just her, and he appreciated that. He really, really, really appreciated that. “What’s it say about me that I kind of like your bad jokes?” He asked, letting his eyes shift over to her for a second. “Does that mean that you’ve actually got a decent sense of humor, or is it that my sense of humor is just shot?”

Steve opened his mouth and promptly closed it, surprise making his eyes go wide. “You’ve never seen a raccoon in person? You’ve… Wait, what?” All thoughts of raccoons left his mind when he heard that. “A rat? Dragging Chinese takeout out of the trash?” He asked. His words were coming out slow to really emphasize just how shocked he was at all of that. He glanced over to her out of the corner of his eye, curiosity getting the better of him. “What is the weirdest thing you’ve seen?” The stupid, competitive side of him whispered that it wouldn’t matter because the weirdest thing he’s ever seen would outdo just about every person the planet. “Like, as a local, the weirdest thing you’ve seen? I can imagine that the tourists would be weirded out by stupid stuff.” He paused. “Are mole people real?”

The corners of his mouth sloped downwards into a frown. “I’ve got you beat. Mine started heading out at fourteen,” he murmured. He gave a couple of nods of his head in agreement, knowing every single word that she spoke. He’d been sixteen when he’d realized that drinking alone wasn’t the same as drinking with friends, not when you were a kid and your parents were off doing God knows what and you missed them like hell. “Yeah, well, anytime you wanna drink with somebody, hit me up. My parents aren’t around a lot either.” Was it selfish of him to like that she was like him, that he wasn’t alone in how he felt? “That’s pretty cool. Do you show anybody your stuff?”

He hmmm’ed in the car, soft enough that it was barely audible over the rumble of the heater trying in vain to keep them warm. He thought back to the news of Barb’s parents, of what they were doing and how they were selling the house. His heart twisted as the proverbial knife dug in nice and deep. “Yeah. You could say that.” His voice was rough as he spoke, and for a horrified moment, he thought that he was going to cry. But this throat wasn’t thick and his eyes weren’t burning. His chest just hurt. Maybe he should have known more, should’ve…. A flash of anger shot through him. What the fuck was he supposed to have known? They were old enough, they should have talked about it. Hell, he wasn’t even sure what he was supposed to be apologizing for. He’d tried to make sure that she wasn’t drinking herself straight to the hospital, he’d been the one being fucking responsible. “I dunno, maybe,” he muttered. His fingers drummed against the steering wheel as he made the left hand turn. “If something was bothering her, she should’ve said something, right?” His voice was smaller than he’d meant for it to be, but he tried to ignore that. “She should’ve said something.”

Billy let out a quiet laugh at what she had said, using his tongue to drag his bottom lip between his teeth. He let his eyes wander over her for a moment, as if he’d forgotten exactly what she had looked like. “Do you mind that it seems like I’m flirting with you, Evie?” He questioned, lifting a brow as he watched her duck her head and grinned to herself. There was a certain sort of satisfaction that coursed through him at the fact that he’d managed to get such a reaction out of her. He figured that his attempt at charming her was working.

She was definitely seemed a bit more receptive to him than when he’d first tried to help her get into her car. Though, he couldn’t help but feel that she’d change her tune as soon as they ended up running into someone they knew. Her friends didn’t like him, so he couldn’t exactly blame her. His brow pinched together at her next comment and he turned to look over at her with a slight frown. She could have been taunting him a bit, but since he wasn’t too familiar with her mannerisms, he wasn’t sure. “Who said I wanted to overcome my ‘problem’?” He questioned in a gruff sort of noise, observing her carefully for a moment. “Maybe I like being an asshole…even if I may not be the worst one.”

The next thing she said had him raising a brow, a sly sort of grin curling his features. So, she liked upfront guys. He could definitely be upfront, if she liked that. Now, the question was, how upfront did she want him to be? “Being upfront lacks a little…finesse, in my opinion, but…alright, if you say no lines, I’ll not give you any,” he told her with a shrug of his shoulders. The grin he wore turned a bit more crooked as she spoke and he merely glanced over at her and said naught a word. A huff of a laugh left her as she continued to talk, lips pulling back from his teeth to smile. He definitely liked this feistier side of her, the fire he didn’t know she had in her. Again, it was something different and refreshing to discover about her. Maybe if they resolved this whole issue with her brother, he’d ask for that date she was indebted to him as soon as she made sure her brother was okay. Surely, she’d accept his offer of dinner or a drive around town, or something.

Part of him wanted to see if she’d be sure to say ‘yes’ if he asked her out, but the timing seemed a bit off to him. She was distracted by the hockey gear in the yard and whatever rodent she was afraid of pilfering away in the cellar. If he asked her, he wanted to make sure there were no distractions, nothing she could possibly find a reason in being more invested in than him. Billy could imagine it now, the pink flush across her cheeks and her ducking her head a bit in response. His reverie was interrupted by the curse she hissed and her darting off to an old shed to retrieve a flashlight. With lifted brows, his drew in a deep breath of air as he considered her. People telling him what to do really got under his skin. He had enough of that to deal with at home. Instead, he set his jaw for a moment and nodded stiffly. “Fine. You owe me big time for this, sweetheart,” he grumbled under his breath, shaking his head

Gripping the hockey stick loosely in his hands, he followed behind her, boots falling heavier on the steps than what was probably necessary. Evie was probably just overreacting to her brother’s overreaction and this was probably just some giant mouse or rat or something. He could faintly hear something shifting on the far side of the cellar, like brick sliding against brick. It kind of reminded him of the last time a small earthquake hit and their brick house shuddered around them. This was smaller, quieter, but similar. He stopped just behind her as she reached the final stair, eyes following her movements to something that looked like the aftermath of when snakes shed their skin, but something much…slimier. Something instinctual told him that something wasn’t right, all of a sudden, and he had a feeling that they both needed to get out of there. As her flashlight landed upon some thing that was huddled in the corner, grey, slimey, and definitely not a rat, mouse, or lizard, his hand latched around her wrist without even thinking.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the dog-sized creature that was methodically tearing a hole in the cellar. Whatever it was, Evie seemed equally frightened by it, and her words were clear indication of that. Without a word of protest, he tore back up the stairs, tugging Evie behind him. His heart was thudding hard in his chest and this unwanted, ugly feeling of fear was clawing at his lungs and making it hard for him to breath. He hadn’t felt this…scared in a while. Once they were both clear of the cellar doors, he shut them as quickly and as quietly as possible, slipping the hockey stick through the handles in case that thing decided it wanted to come after them. He waited for a few moments in silence, ear lowered to the cellar door, but it seemed whatever it was that was digging through the wall to get out hadn’t noticed them. Slowly, he turned his gaze to Evie as he righted himself, expression grim and maybe a little pissed off. “Can I ask questions now?” He asked brusquely, eyes locked on hers.

---

Kate was going to drop the whole cheeks thing. She’d gotten her comeuppance from joking how much he’d blushed but blushing equally as hard, if not harder. Her head merely ducked forward a bit, shoulders rising up a bit to try and meet her ears as he spoke. The wind was a lame excuse and it clearly didn’t work on making him feel any better from just how confused he sounded. Her gaze followed his fingertips through his hair, some part of her wondering what it’d feel like to run her fingertips through his hair or if he’d even allow it. The smallest bit of a smirk curled her lips at the thought of being the one to mess up such perfectly coifed hair before she wiped that expression off her face. Again, she reminded herself that he had a girlfriend and she was here temporarily.

A soft laugh left her as she grinned crookedly at the sarcastic comments that left Steve. She should have expected that sort of response out of him. “‘The Phenomenal Kate Young’ sounds like I’d be hired out as a magician to pull rabbits out a hat or something,” she said, letting out a soft laugh as she shook her head. She didn’t remember telling him her last name, and something about that realization caused her stomach to give an awkward flip. She couldn’t help the broad grin that curled her lips at what he said next. “I’d like to think that the fact you like my bad jokes means that you’d just as awesome as I am,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders as she glanced over at him to meet his gaze for a moment.

Her brows lifted slightly at his reaction, pursing her lips to keep from laughing a bit. Was it that big of a deal? “Yeah, are there a lot of them out here? Raccoons?” She asked quietly, gaze darting over him for a moment. A laugh left Kate before she could stop it, eyeing Steve for a moment. “It was a bigger carton too. Must’ve been pretty damn hungry to put in that sort of effort,” she said with a laugh. She pulled her lips between her teeth as she considered his next question, eyes narrowing slightly. “It definitely would have been the time I saw a six-foot tall drag queen chasing a skinny, highly inebriated Santa down the street with a bottle of wine in one hand and a butcher’s knife in the other on Christmas eve a couple years ago,” she said, laughing to herself at the memory. An even louder laugh left her at what he asked next, slapping a hand over her forehead and tilting her head back as even more laughter left her. “Oh my God,” she managed to get out. “If they are, I don’t think I’ve ever met one of them.”

Drawing in a deep breath of air, she brushed hand through her hair, the smile slipping from her features as she let her gaze slip to the book bag between her knees for a moment. “It sucks,” was all she could think to say, almost too quietly. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, turning back to him for a moment. Her heart gave a few hard beats in her chest as he offered for her to become his drinking buddy, but she managed to push down the nerves she felt. “Sure,” she said, smiling crookedly over at him, “we can commiserate our lack of parents together with alcohol.” A small snort of a laugh left her at what he said next, mind immediately going in the gutter. “I typically want people to buy me pizza or beer, or take me on a date before I show them my stuff, Steve” she murmured, a smirk curling her lips as she watched him closely. Kate paused for a moment before added, “However, I do show people my art stuff…if they’re cool enough.”

Kate felt a bit bad for trying to coax answers out of him; it seemed very apparent that this was a conversation that he and Nancy should have been having. Maybe this would help him in some way. A heavy sigh left her at the tone of voice he was using and she looked away for a moment, humming softly as she nodded a bit. Her gaze slid back over to him as he spoke again, brow furrowing as a slight frown pulled at her lips. “I can’t speak for Nancy. I don’t know her that well, but if something is bothering me and someone else is involved, I’ll let them know,” she said with a small shrug. She let silence fall over the car for a moment, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. Kate really didn’t know if there was anything she could say to make the situation better—there wasn’t anything she could say. “Look, I’m honestly…pretty shit at relationships. You probably shouldn’t listen to me,” she murmured with a shrug.

Maybe she needed to start going to church. The thought drifted through her thoughts, and she realized that that could be it. Maybe the reason she was so fixated on the way that his tongue tugged his bottom lip between his teeth was because she’d never really gone to church beyond the handful of times as a kid. She took in a deep breath at his words. The answer was obvious, but she didn’t want to tell him that no, she didn’t mind at all. In fact, flirt with her some more, please. But she couldn’t say that. His ego would go through the roof. And realistically, what was going to come of this? He flirts with her, they go on a date, maybe make out in his car? She needed more than that. She’d never been the type to just let herself go with the flow. “I don’t mind that much,” she said with a shrug, by some miracle exuding nonchalance.

“I was kidding, Billy,” she said, frowning at the way he’d responded. “You can be a raging asshole if you want.” She’d almost added in something about the fact that she wasn’t into assholes, and that’s why he should want to overcome it, but that felt too close to playing into whatever thing he wanted to happen. And she really didn’t want that to happen. It felt like playing with fire as is, the way he’d flirt and taunt and she’d give it right back to him. Even now, with everything that was going on, she still found her gaze sliding to his mouth for a split second, which was insane. She needed to get her head in the game, so to speak.

Her gaze fell to his mouth once more, tracing the way his lips curled into a sly grin. Christ, she needed help. She flicked her gaze up to his eyes, watching him. “You, lacking finesse? I find that hard to believe,” she said, smirking at him. Steve would crucify her then and there if he heard her saying that in such a tone. It was verging on flirtatious, really. A thought crossed her mind, making her realize that as bad as Steve’s reaction would be, Dustin would be a thousand times worse. She cocked her brow at his words, noting the way he kind of got a little stiffer when she told him what to do. “I’m sure you’ll figure out a way for me to make it up to you,” she had mumbled.

Everything kind of happened in flashes after she spoke. All she could remember after was staring at the demogorgon, and then Billy’s fingers wrapping around her wrist, and then on the stairs, and then outside. It wasn’t cohesive and it didn’t make sense, but that didn’t matter. Evie stepped back from him the second he’d started to slip the hockey stick through the handles. How had it gotten through? She’d thought that everything was taken care of. That’s what they’d been told by the government scientists. Granted, no one had actually believed every word they’d said, but they’d believed that. It had been done, ended when El had taken on the demogorgon herself. Dustin had recounted it for Evie enough times that she felt like she’d been there.

She carved her fingers through her hair, staring at the ground as her mind raced. It wasn’t as big as the one from last year, but it was a demogorgon. There was no doubt in her mind, not a single one. Her mind was racing a mile a minute, the neurons firing faster than she could comprehend. All she knew was that her heart was racing too fast and that she was going to kill Dustin. Everyone came screeching to a halt, though, when Billy spoke. She looked up to him, blinking owlishly. Okay. One step at a time. First thing was first - Billy needed to leave. He didn’t deserve to get tied up in all of this. “No, you can’t.” Somewhere deep down, she was proud of herself for her voice being as strong as it was. “You just… Forget what you saw, okay? Go home.”

---

“I’d pay good money to see you be a magician,” Steve said, shooting her a wide grin. He could picture the whole getup, complete with one of those giant top hats that all those cheesy magicians would wear to pull shit out of. “One time I saw a magician try to pull a dove out of his jacket pocket - I was like eight, I think - and when he did it, the dove fell down to the ground.” Steve started snickering at the memory. “My mom kept telling me it was a fake dove, but…. Is it bad that I think it’s kinda funny?” He asked, glancing over to her. The memory had come to him for the first time in like a year. He’d thought it was kind of hilarious in a dark sort of way. He’d told Nancy about it once, and she’d just frowned at him, thinking it was gross. “Looks like we’re both pretty awesome then.”

He was already bobbing in his head as a ‘yes’, his eyes widening. “Yeah, there are a lot of them out here. They’re raccoons, Kate. It’s like - it’s like having never seen a cow in person before. They’re everywhere. You just see them.” He couldn’t imagine having not seen a raccoon before. Sure, they’d usually be seen at night, but you still saw them. Even if it was just while you were driving. “Well, shit. That sounds kind of terrifying, honestly.” He shuddered a little at the idea. A rat large enough to drag a decent sized carton of Chinese food? He’d rather not come across that. “I…. Okay, that sounds incredible. I’m assuming you never got the backstory on that?” He asked, quirking a brow at her. Steve could see the whole thing playing out in his mind, and it made him chuckle. “So what you’re saying is that there’s a chance they could be real. Got it.” He looked over to her with a grin. He wouldn’t have minded making her laugh like that more. It was nice.

All he could think of to respond with was a shrug of his shoulders. “It is what it is,” he murmured. Yeah, it sucked. It really, really sucked. But it wasn’t the worst thing on the planet. Really, it wasn’t. It only stung a little more whenever anybody at school would mention how lucky he was to have the house to himself, or when they’d complain about their parents annoying them because their mom had asked about their day for too long, or some shit. “That sounds great. We’ve got really healthy coping strategies.” The sarcasm dripped with every word, but he belied it with a small smile. The smile fell, though, when she spoke. “I didn’t - I - you - You know what I meant, Kate.” He was mumbling his words as his cheeks flooded with color once more. He swallowed, collecting his thoughts as he eased up on the gas, watching as Dustin stopped peddling in favor to coast alongside the road, a car passing them. “Am I cool enough?” He asked her, his voice a little rough as he avoided look at her. The blushing needed to chill.

“Nah, you’re giving me good advice here,” he said, heaving out a sigh. “You’re right. She should let me know when someone is bothering her.” His fingers tapped against the steering wheel, pressing down on the gas pedal as Dustin started to go faster once more. “It’s just… It’s….” He wanted to call it for what it was, say that it was bullshit, but he couldn’t get the word out. It was too fresh, too raw, too stupid for him to even fathom. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do. I feel like I should apologize, but I just… I’m not sure what I’m supposed to apologize for. Sorry for not realizing that you were having an emotional crisis when you were bottling everything up? Sorry for watching you get shitfaced and then tell me our entire relationship was bullshit? Sorry for-” He cut himself off, wincing at how hard his voice had gotten. “Shit. Sorry. You don’t need to hear that.”

Steve lifted his foot from the gas to the brake, pressing down as he pulled in behind the car that was parked outside of Dustin’s house. He wasn’t paying too much attention to it, more focused on how he’d just ranted about his relationship issues to a girl that he hadn’t even talked to an hour ago. He put his car into park and shut the engine off, snagging the keys and letting his head tilt back against the seat. Dustin had let his bike fall onto the yard and was yelling at Steve to hurry up. He glanced over to Kate, watching her for a moment. “So you’re staying in here, right? You’re -” He was cut off by a pounding on his window. He looked over, reaching to the side to roll it down as Dustin scowled at him.

“Can we hurry it up, Harrington? We’re burning daylight, here.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Should we deal with this if your mom is home, though?” Steve asked, glancing to the car in front of him. He frowned a little as he looked at it longer. There was no way that Mrs. Henderson would have owned a Camaro. Hell, there was only one person that owned one in Hawkins, as far as Steve could remember. “Dude, is that Billy’s car?”

Billy would admit it openly—he wasn’t the smartest person around, but he was perceptive as hell. And he could probably have blindfolded himself and known that Evie was fixating on his lips. Most girls did, if he was honest, so he played it up as much as he possibly could. He’s bite his bottom lip, lick his lips, grin, and smirk over at them. He knew, typically, when a girl looked at his lips, they were thinking of slipping into the passenger seat of his Camaro and making out until their lips went numb. A soft hum of a laugh left him at her reply, eyes slipping over her for a moment. “Well…then I guess I won’t stop,” he told her with a similar shrug of his shoulders. Not that her saying it bothered her would have stopped him in the first place. Billy knew what he wanted and that was a date with Evie Henderson. He wasn’t going to stop until he got it.

He lifted a brow at what she said next, letting out a soft huff of air as he shook his head. The more he thought about the words ‘raging asshole’, however, the more he found them a bit comical. She wasn’t exactly lying about it either. “Raging asshole,” he repeated, lips curling up into a devilish sort of grin before he turned his gaze back to her. “You really know what to say to make a guy feel special, sweetheart,” he shot back at her sarcastically, winking at her for measure. He wasn’t offended by it in the least. In fact, he kind of appreciated brutal honesty…at least when it wasn’t coming from his dad.

“Hey now, I never said I lacked finesse. Being blunt lacks finesse,” he told her honestly, shooting her a look. “Surely, you wouldn’t be excited by a guy coming up to you and telling you exactly what he’s thinking.” He rolled his eyes a bit before glancing over at her. “Tell me you wouldn’t be freaked out if a guy came up to you and told you things that guys inevitably think about girls.” He kept his eyes on her for a moment or two longer before looking away, smirking to himself a bit at all the devious things he could tell her. Surely, he couldn’t just outright tell girls how much he wanted to bang them in the back of his Camaro. Well…at least not most girls.

All Billy could think of was how that thing had been clawing at the wall, but also grasping bricks with its…mouth? All he knew was that the glimpses he got of it, he could see no discernible features other than a mouth with rows of tiny teeth. Was this some sort of science experiment from her weird-ass brother gone wrong? All he knew was that nothing good could come from what was in that cellar and he almost wanted it to succeed with going through the wall. Maybe then things could get back to normal and he could maybe broach the subject of getting Evie to go on a date with him. Still, he couldn’t help shake the feeling that he’d just seem something terrible.

He kept his gaze on her, taking a step away from the cellar doors as she spoke. “Sure, no questions” he managed to bark out before scowling slightly over at her as she continued to speak. “Go home?” He questioned sharply, leveling her with an equally sharp stare. “You expect me to just walk away after seeing that…thing in the basement? What if it gets out and comes after you?” He pushed his hair back from his face as he shot a glance to the cellar doors. “The fuck was that?” Billy was sure he’d never seen anything like that before. Part of him wondered if it was something just in Indiana or what. His gaze slowly slipped back to Evie, watching her for a few quiet moments. “Look…should we just call animal control…or something?” He honestly didn’t think that animal control would be able to do anything, but it was honestly the only thing he could think of besides actually heeding her advice and trying to forget about it.

---

Kate let out a quiet laugh, shooting Steve a look as a crooked grin played around her lips. “I’d probably be the shittiest magician ever,” she told him with a shake of her head. “Though…I’d look really cool one of those jackets with the tails.” She kept her gaze on him as he continued out, brows shooting skyward at what he said as she curled her lips in and bit them, though there was a wobbling sort of smile curling the corners of her lips. “No,” she told him softly, “it is kinda funny.” A slow smile curled her mouth, lips pulling back from her teeth at the sound of him laughing. “So did he like…toss it into the air and just…plop?” She questioned, letting out a few light giggles at the mental image that conjured up.

The girl froze for a moment at the mention of having never seen a cow in person and she twisted her lips to the side slightly. “Well…I’ve kind of only seen cows from my car or bike. And never up close,” she told him with a sheepish sort of shrug. “Maybe I need to keep my eyes open. Might miss one of those chocolate-milk cows.” She grinned to herself at the reaction the mention of a rat large enough to pull around moderately-sized carton of Chinese takeout. “Then I probably shouldn’t mention the size of the cockroaches,” she murmured, grinning wryly to herself. She shook her head in reply to his question, laughing quietly. “Does it need one though?” Kate pushed her hair out of her face, continuing to laugh at what Steve had said. The sight of his grin directed at her caused her stomach to flutter. He was cute, there was no two ways about it. “You’re ridiculous, Steve,” she said softly, shaking her head as she smiled over at him.

She sighed heavily as she sunk back into the seat, chewing her gum a few times as she thought of what she could say. Honestly, she couldn’t really think of anything. They both found themselves in a shitty situation that they just had to deal with. “I’m just…kinda biding my time until I’m old enough to move out, honestly,” she said through another sigh before pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. Kate lifted a brow at the sarcastic comment that left Steve and she let out a short laugh. “It may not be healthy, but it doesn’t look like we’ve died from it yet,” she pointed out with a shrug and a similar sort of smile on her lips. “I did know what you meant. And you left it wide open for me to make it dirty,” she told him poignantly, grinning cheekily over at him at the sight of the blush on his cheeks once more. She looked away from him, eyes watching the passing scenery as she contemplated what she should say to him. “That’s yet to be determined,” she told him, eyes sliding back over to him as a crooked sort of smile curled her lips.

Kate remained quiet as Steve spoke, the smile slipping from her features as he spoke. Her brow furrowed a bit as she listened to what he was saying. Man, this was worse than she though. Him getting choked up was one thing, but it seemed like he’d bottled some shit up too…if only just recently. A heavy sigh left her through her nose as she pulled her lips between her teeth and bit them. “No, don’t be sorry,” she told him, shaking her head a bit. “Just because she’s bottling stuff up, doesn’t mean that you should too.” She paused a moment, eyes sweeping over his features. “The only way you’re going to feel better about it, is if you just let it all out.”

She glanced over the house they had stopped in, frowning a bit at the blue car that was parked at the curb and immediately knowing who it belonged to. However, she didn’t feel it was really her place to say much, so she just listened as Steve cut the engine to the car. Kate’s gaze slid back over to him, studying him for a moment when he wasn’t looking. A dramatic sort of frown curled her lips as he spoke, gaze darting over to Dustin before he even started to knock his fist against the window. Really though, was a rodent in some cellar this big of an issue? Her eyes darted over to Steve as he spoke again, brows lifting when he finally realized who was parked in front of them. Dustin’s scowl dropped from his features suddenly and he was quick to turn on heel and stomp toward the house without the two of them. “Wanting me to stay in the car when I’m sure to see that curly-haired kid lay into Billy Hargrove? Not a good way to earn cool points, Harrington,” she said, shaking her head slowly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Evie’s stomach flipped when he said that. A hint of pink colored her cheeks, the warmth feeling as though it spread through her entire body. “Good,” she said, making her voice sound stronger than she felt. She cocked a brow as he continued on, smirking faintly. Shrugging her shoulders, her smirk shifted into a quick grin.. “I try my hardest, Hargrove,” she said, making sure that her tone was similar to his. She couldn’t remember when she’d last met someone that could match her in sarcasm without being a total dick about it. It was kind of funny, really. The one person that wasn’t a total dick with the sarcasm was Billy, who was a dick ninety percent of the time. She chuckled softly when he winked at her. She was warming up to him, which was bad. He was bad news.

“You kind of do lack a little finesse, though. Especially when people twelve miles away can spot you checking out Carol’s ass,” she said, mirroring his look with one of her own. “That’s not what I said. There’s a difference between setting aside the bullshit and telling me exactly what’s going on in your gross guy-mind.” She huffed at the sight of him rolling his eyes. God, guys were gross. “Of course I’d be freaked out if a guy came up to me and said that. But that’s not what I’m saying.” She watched as he looked away, catching a brief glimpse of that little smirk. Was it horrible of her to want to know what he was thinking about that?

Evie rolled her eyes, annoyance flaring up within her chest. “Yeah, go home,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. She didn’t like the way he was staring at her, sharp as glass. “I can handle it, Billy.” Her insides were shaking and she felt a little lightheaded, but she could handle it. “We’re not calling animal control.” The words had fallen out of her mouth faster than she’d meant to. She ran her fingers through her hair, taking a couple of steps forward until she was within arm’s reach of him. “Look,” she began, tilting her head up to look at him. “You gotta trust me on this, okay? I’ve…” She let her words die off as her gaze flickered over his face. “I know what I’m doing. And the last thing I want is for you to get hurt because I dragged you into this, so just… Go home. I’ll call you -”

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Dustin bellowed, his face dark as he came around the corner of the house. “Get away from my sister, you dick.” He marched right up to Billy and scowled. He looked down at the cellar, then to Billy, finally to Evie. “Please tell me you waited for me.”

“How was I supposed to know to wait for you when you decided to ignore me and just leave, huh?”

Dustin groaned, tilting his head back as he smacked his hand against his forehead. “You brought him down there with you? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You told me it was a slug! You made it sound small! That thing down there isn’t small, asshole! It looks like a little demo-” She glanced over to Billy and cut herself off. “Look, I’m sorry Billy. I shouldn’t have asked you for your help. Thanks for the ride home, but you can leave before I kill my brother.”

---

“I don’t know. You could be great at anything you put your mind to,” Steve said, giving her a wide, toothy grin. He tried to imagine it, and the image made him chuckle. Her in a top-hat with that bright pink hair. It’d actually work really well together. “Oh, you absolutely would look cool in one of those. Those things are badass.” He was afraid to look over at her for her reaction, but he made himself do so anyway. When he caught sight of her mouth curling upwards a little, his shoulders slumped down. She wasn’t looking at him in disgust. Hell, she even seemed a little entertained. “Uh, yeah, actually. Just did the whole two-hand toss right into the air and… nothing,” he said, his stomach flipping pleasantly when she giggled. Pride flared up. He’d made her giggle. That was better than making her laugh.

He let out a weird kind of shocked, or indignant noise - he wasn’t sure what he was feeling. “You’ve never seen a cow up close? Are you kidding me? We’re in cow country. This is prime cow real estate, Kate.” He made a decision right then and there that he was going to bring her to a cow sometime. He wasn’t sure where (there were farms literally everywhere, they could just pick one) or when, but he was going to do that. “Obviously you have missed one of those chocolate-milk cows if you’ve never seen any cow up close.” He was shaking his head, unable to wrap his mind around that fact. “Okay yeah, keep the cockroach talk to a minimum. Those things creep me out,” he said, wincing. “It doesn’t have to have one, but it’d be nice. I’d be interested in the backstory,” he said, grinning. “I am not ridiculous! They could exist and if they do, I’m going to show up wherever you are and tell you that I was right.”

His grin fell a little as she sighed. It was weird to go from such a light-hearted conversation to this. “Yeah, that’s about where I’m at.” The familiar twinge of nerves settled in his gut at the thought of moving out. Despite his grades, the plan had been college. But if he and Nance did break up, how was he going to make it? The only reason his grades had risen was because of her. She’d been the one to prod him to study, to help make study guides and quiz him on every subject that he had. Without her, he was just some okay basketball player that didn’t have a shot at a scholarship or a hope at getting accepted anywhere. “That’s true. Neither of us are dead yet,” he said, his voice soft. “Yeah, well…. You were the one to choose to make it dirty, so… Yeah,” he mumbled, cheeks still red. The idea of her making anything dirty sent certain emotions flooding through him. “Well let me know when you figure it out, yeah?”

Steve ran his fingers through his hair, mussing it up a little. It fell back to its rightful place as his hand dropped away, a sigh leaving his lips. “I feel like I’m putting it all on you, though. You don’t need to hear this shit.” He paused. “She does.” He looked over to her, a serious expression on his face as he tried to figure her out. He didn’t know a single person that would be that caring towards someone they hadn’t ever spoken to an hour ago. “Are you telling me that I should let it all out to you?” He asked, raising a brow at her.

“Fucking… Christ,” Steve mumbled, scowling as Dustin headed off. He sighed, running a hand over his face as he glanced over to Kate. “I didn’t… Alright, fine. Whatever. At this point, I’m going to need all the backup I can get to make sure that Hargrove doesn’t murder Little Henderson.” He reached over to the swing open his door, legs hitting the road. He stood up, a pit settling into his stomach. Turning around, he leaned down to poke his head back in the door. “By the way, can you not judge me for what I’m about to grab out of my trunk?” He didn’t wait for an answer and shut the door.

Despite how nice his car was, he still had to jimmy the lock a little to get the trunk open. It popped open after a few tries, showing just how messy it was in there. But under all of the basketball stuff, and the half empty gallon of water, and the two jackets, was the bat. He heaved in a deep sigh, glancing in the direction of Kate before lifting it out and shutting the trunk. “This looks way worse than it seems.” He paused. “Okay, probably not. But yeah. The raccoons out here are really big. You’ve gotta be careful with them,” he said, cracking a small smile.

Billy let out a short huff of a laugh as she offered him a single work reply. So, he really was managing to work his way under her skin. He hadn’t imagined his charm would work so quickly, but he even surprised himself at times. This was certainly no exception. Maybe he’d willingly get a date out of her instead of her just going out with him because he gave her a ride and she felt the need to pay him back somehow. Maybe, just maybe, he’d actually get somewhere with her. His gaze flickered back over her at the thought, a knowing smirk curling his lips. A loud laugh left him at her comment about his lack of finesse and he shook his head at her.

“Oh no, sweetheart, I was trying to figure out where her ass went,” he shot back at her with a grin. “That’s not lack of finesse, it’s more studying in confusion.” A short hum left him and he drew in a deep breath of air. He didn’t have a “gross guy-mind”. His gaze narrowed slightly before his sight swung back over to her. “But isn’t setting aside the bullshit telling you exactly what’s going on in my mind?” He questioned, lifting a brow and running his tongue over his bottom lip. “And it’s not really gross if you’d like it,” he added, a devious little smirk curling lips before he turned forward once more.

He set his jaw a bit as continued to tell him to go home. Honestly, if he was listening to his instincts, he’d be burning it down the street. But there was still some small part of him that told him he’d regret it if she got hurt after he left. “I’m not going anywhere,” he told her plainly, squaring his shoulders to her and crossing his arms over his chest. “Then who’s going to help? The fucking Ghostbusters?” He asked sarcastically. Billy knew this wasn’t going to help them at all, but he wondered where she got the idea that she was going to deal with whatever the hell was in the cellar by herself. He stared down at her as she moved closer, gaze narrowing slightly at what she was saying. She knew what she was doing? He was about to lean closer, to challenge her by saying that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Before he got the chance, Evie’s brother—what was his name again? David? Darwin?—came tearing toward the two of them. He shot him a glower before turning back to Evie and taking a step or two back, lifting his hands up slightly in defense. “Ease off me, alright? I was just making sure your sister didn’t get hurt by whatever the fuck is in your cellar,” he shot back, shooting the younger Henderson sibling a dark look. He drew in a deep breath of air and crossed his arms over his chest once more. He dug his tongue into his cheek as he listened to the siblings bicker, finding that it seemed something he could sympathize with. He and Maxine got into it more frequently than not.

He went to interject when her brother started to lay into her about bringing him down there with him, opening his mouth and turning a glare to the kid, but Evie was already talking. He let out a short grunt of a noise before turning to Evie as she directed her comments to him. For a moment, Billy was silent, just dividing his stare between the two of them. Finally, he turned his gaze to the kid brother. “Listen up, you little shit, if it weren’t for me being here. That thing in there could’ve escaped, or worse, hurt your sister. So, you should be thanking me for actually hanging around and giving a shit. And you-“ He turned his gaze to Evie. “I’m not going anywhere until that thing in the basement is dead. There’s no way in hell I’m risking that thing following me home if it gets out.”

---

Kate grinned a bit to herself at what Steve said, gaze flickering over to him. “Careful, Steve, you’re sounding dangerously like one of those motivational speakers,” she joked playfully, mouth curling into a broad smile after she spoke. “But I definitely appreciate hearing it,” she added, eyes slipping over his features for a moment . She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as he glanced over to her, hoping that she didn’t freak him out with just how much she appreciated darker humor. She clung to his words, interested in hearing what had happened, and she wasn’t disappointed. When he finished, she continued to laugh to herself. “Oh God, that poor pigeon,” she said through giggles, shaking her head slowly.

The girl pulled a bit of a face at the noise he made, looking entertained more than anything. “Yeah,” she told him with a shrug of her shoulders, “believe it or not, we don’t have cows in Manhattan.” She eyed him for a few moments. “If it’s so much of a shock, why don’t you take me out to find one?” Kate asked, brows lifted slightly as she shot him a look. “Not to mention I haven’t had chocolate milk in years.” She smirked a bit at the mention of cockroaches and she shook her head a bit. He’d never survive in Manhattan. “I mean, I could always fabricate some sort of story, but I doubt it’d be as interesting as what had really happened.” Kate shot him a look and snorted a bit. “That’s if they let you survive. What if mole people are a violent species?”

To be honest, Kate was kind of sad that she found someone who could sympathize with her about raising themselves. It felt kind of…odd. Most people her age didn’t get along with their parents, but they were barely around for her to even get into disagreements with. “Do you have any plans after high school?” She asked, tilting her head to the side slightly as she looked over at him. “College? Jobs? Anything like that?” She couldn’t help but to grin broadly at what he said about her making it dirty. “Like you wouldn’t have taken the opportunity,” she told him, shooting him a poignant look before looking away. “Definitely. If you can manage to impress me, you’ll be the first person in all of Hawkins to make it onto my cool list.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip a bit as he spoke, eyes darting to how his hair managed to fall just so…perfectly, even after he’d ran his fingers through it. “I can’t take it,” she rebutted, shooting him a small smile. “Besides…sometimes it’s easier to talking to someone you barely know than someone who knows you,” she added with a small shrug. Her brow furrowed slightly as he questioned her. Was she being too suspicious? She knew that she may have tried to get on his good side for the sake of information, but she did know the value of talking out problems. “Would it make you feel better if you did?” She questioned, eyes flicking between his as she pulled her lips between her teeth for a moment.

Kate kept her gaze on him, brows lifting slightly. This seemed like it may have been a common occurrence, Steve getting roped in to help middle-schoolers. She beamed over at him when he said she could get out of the car, lips pulling back into a wide, victorious smile. “Don’t worry. That dick won’t know what hit him if he pisses me off enough,” she told him, a wicked twinkle in her eye. Her gaze swept over him almost subconsciously as he slipped out of the car, gaze quickly darting back up to his as he spoke. When he shut the door, she took that as her cue and exited the car and shut the door behind him.

Tucking her hands into her pockets, she stopped beside him as he rifled through his trunk, brows lifting dramatically at the nail-ridden bat he pulled from the depths of it. Her heart gave an awkward jolt in her chest and she glanced from the end of it to him a few times. “I didn’t expect a guy like you to have something like that in his trunk,” she said plainly, managing to keep her surprise to a minimum. “That’s kinda badass,” she shot at him with a crooked grin before rounding him and starting toward the house she’d seen Dustin disappear behind.

Evie let out a snort of laughter despite herself. “What are you talking about? She’s got a decent ass,” she replied, feeling like she had to stick up for her for some reason. Maybe because it was kind of mean of him to say (despite it being kind of true). “Besides, looking is still looking, Hargrove. Studying in confusion or not.” He was quick, she’d give him that. Really quick. He’d never struck her as funny before, but then again, they’d never actually talked to each other before then. Really, she’d gone out of her way to avoid him. “No, there’s a -“ She stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening when she continued on. “I don’t - I’m not - Shut up, I don’t like it,” she stuttered out, scowling at him.

He needed to leave. She rolled her eyes, jaw setting when she saw his do the same. “You want to bet, Hargrove?” There was a wild, ridiculous, split-second thought that he looked incredibly attractive with his arms crossed over his chest, looking a little annoyed. “Maybe they will. God knows they’d be more of a help than you would be.” She poked at his chest to emphasize her words, swallowing when she realized how firm his chest was. Jesus Christ, he was rock solid. Something in her stomach shifted. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to yell at him or kiss him. Possibly both. It was easy to push the words away, to focus on the matters at hand. The other thoughts would rise up eventually anyway, probably when she was lying in bed and trying to sleep, the image of him glaring down at her with a jawline that could cut glass floating through her head. She needed help.

“Her, get hurt? Really? She can take care of herself, mullet-man,” Dustin said, scowling. He looked over to Evie, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you asked him to help you out. Why didn’t you ask Steve, huh? Or anyone that actually knows what’s going on? You’re going to get us arrested, Evie! You know what they said! You dragged him into this! You -“

Evie rolled her eyes. “Dusty, it’s fine. We’re not going to be arrested because Billy isn’t going to tell anyone what he saw,” she said, glancing over in his direction.

“Really? You think pretty boy’s going to keep quiet? He’s going blab, you know it, Evie.” Dustin looked over to Billy, raising a brow as Billy started to speak. He took a little step back, head turning between Evie and Billy fast.

“Don’t call him that,” She snapped, stepping forward to grab Dustin’s shoulder. She jerked him back a little, her gaze darkening towards Billy. She could call the kid a shithead or whatever other insult she came up with any time she wanted, but someone else? Especially someone that didn’t know him. “And if it wasn’t for you? Really, Billy? I could have handled myself just fine. You grabbed my hand, you didn’t save my life.” Dustin looked between the two of them, brow furrowing as though he were trying to figure out just what was going on between them. He opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was was cut off by Evie letting out a sharp laugh. “Billy, look -“ She cut herself off, pressing her lips together as she tried to think of what to say. She heard voices and glanced over to the corner of the house, only to recognize the sound of Steve’s voice.

Great.

She gave Dustin a little push out of the way, stepping up to Billy, almost chest to chest with him. “I swear to God, you need to leave. I’ll go on a date with you. I’ll do whatever you want, but you need to leave because I guarantee you do not want to get involved with this.” Dustin let out a scoff, muttering something about prostituting herself. Evie really shouldn’t have used that word around him. She was pretty sure that Mike was using it now too. “Look, it’s not going to follow you home. It’s like… It’s like a shark, okay? They don’t go after specific prey, they go after blood. You’re safe. Just get in your car and head home. We can handle this. I promise you.” She was trying not to feel sick when she heard Steve’s voice call across the yard, the sneer in his voice evident when he said Billy’s last name. “This is deep shit, okay? You don’t deserve to get involved in this,” she said, her voice soft as she looked up at him. “You’re not going to get hurt because of me, alright? So you need to leave.”

---

“How dare you,” Steve said, shooting her a grin. He shook his head at her, wincing at the image of him being a motivational speaker. One had visited Hawkins High last Spring, and it had been scarring to say the least. He still couldn’t think about weed the same way again after it. “You should appreciate hearing it. Because it’s true. If anyone could ever do anything they put their mind to, it’s you. The hair confirms it for me.” His gaze slid to her mouth for a split second, lingering there as her bottom lip went between her teeth. He jerked his gaze away. Christ, he needed to not think about her mouth. But then she was giggling and it was infinitely harder to not think about her mouth.

He let out a hum. “How do you not have cows in Manhattan? Like, not a single cow? How do you get hamburger then, huh?” He paused, realizing where he’d ended up in the rambling. “Don’t answer that. I know where you get hamburger from. Ignore that. But uh, taking you to find a cow? Taking you out to find a cow?” He blinked at her, mouth hanging open for a half second before clamping it shut. “Yeah. I’ll take you to find a cow. Get you some fresh chocolate milk, the whole nine yards.” He had to remind himself that he and Nancy were still together, which was a thing that had never happened to him before. “That’s true. There’s no way a fake story would be as interesting as the real one.” Rolling his eyes at her, he let out a dramatic sigh. “Then I’ll take them all on. It’ll be easy.”

He heaved in a sigh, thinking it over. “Uh, college. Maybe.” She didn’t know about the issues that he’d been having when it came to college. He tried to tamp down the annoyance, pushing it away because it wasn’t her fault at all. Even Nancy didn’t know the extent to how stressed he was about it, how his dad had been riding him since June about college - which was impressive, considering his dad had barely been home the last couple of months. “We’ll see how senior year goes. What about you, though? What are you doing with all that?” She seemed like the type to have a plan, or at least more of a semblance of a plan than he did. “I wouldn’t have. I’m an upstanding member of this community,” he argued, the smirk belying any time of argument he would have had. “Really? I’d beat out Billy for being the first person in all of Hawkins to make it on your cool list?” He teased, grinning wide at her.

Steve gave a shrug of his shoulders as he pressed his lips together. He wasn’t sure how someone could be that willing to listen to him ramble on about stuff that she didn’t have a stake in. “It’s still not fair to you, though. You just wanted a ride back to your house and now you’re being dragged in on Little Henderson’s weird thing and my relationship issues.” He watched her for a moment. Would it make him feel better if he did? He really wasn’t sure. “Maybe sometime,” he said, giving her a serious look. She was nice enough, she was. But smiling out his guts to her was a whole other level of trust, one that they definitely weren’t there yet. Not that he hadn’t already spilled half of his guts to her. That was ridiculous.

“I would pay a lot of money to see you take down Hargrove.” He grinned at her, something warm settling in his gut. She wasn’t acting as though something was weird. She was just taking it all in stride, and that was hitting him hard for some reason. “Seriously. You ever decide to take him on after he pisses you off, hit me up before you do. I’d love to see you beat the shit out of him.” He looked over to her, smirking at her reaction. “Really? I thought everyone in New York had nail bats.” His heart was in his throat when she said that, and he stared after for a moment before scurrying after her.

He fell into step with her, wincing when he heard the shrill of Dustin’s voice from the backyard. “Look, I’m honestly not sure what the hell is going to happen from this point out, but I want you to know that if you give me the word, I will drive you to your house, no questions asked. It’ll be -“ He paused as he rounded the corner of the house, freezing in his steps. Evie was standing between Dustin and Billy, way too close for Steve’s comfort. She was frowning up at him, the look on her face similar to the one he’d seen a year ago in the Byers’s house. “Hargrove,” he yelled, the disdain rolling from his words. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Billy had to keep telling himself that he was angry with Evie, that she continuously was trying to tell him what to do and that pissed him off more than anything. But, there was something that kept flipping anxiously in his stomach at the way she was meeting his annoyance head-on. He ran his tongue over his lips as his gaze flickered between hers, continuing to look down at her with his head tilted back slightly. His jaw worked a bit as he thought of something to reply to her, noting the way she seemed to swallow and stall a bit after poking his chest. “And who exactly is going to make me go home? You?” He questioned, leaning forward a bit as he kept his eyes locked on hers. Up close, Evie was undeniably one of the most beautiful girls in Hawkins and he had to force his mind back on the fact that he’d just seen some sort of…beast in the cellar.

He drew in a deep breath of air as the Henderson brother turned to him, rolling his eyes at the name that was shot in his direction. “Look, her car door got stuck and no one else was around to help her out,” he snapped back, leveling dark look in the direction of the curly-haired kid. The more he spoke, however, the more his curiosity piqued. Why would they get arrested for whatever he saw in the cellar? “You mean to tell me this has happened before? Like you’ve seen that thing in the basement before?” He asked, dividing his stare between the two of them. He didn’t expect his questions to be answered. In fact, he expected them to be ignored.

He turned to look at Evie, meeting her gaze as she mentioned him not telling anyone what he saw. “Hell no, I’m not telling anyone!” Carding both sets of fingers through his hair, he sighed heavily before throwing his hands down to his sides. “The moment I try to tell anyone, they’re going to think I’ve gone absolutely insane,” he said, shaking his head as he looked between Dusty—that surely couldn’t have been his name—and Evie. Though, his gaze lingered on hers as she snapped at him. His stomach gave a flip despite how pissed she seemed at him and it was everything he could do to keep from smirking over at her. “How long would you have stayed in there if I hadn’t pulled you back up the stairs? What if you’d gotten it’s attention somehow?” Billy’s chest swelled as he drew in a deep breath of air.

Brows lifting slightly, he noted Evie stepping closer to him. His kept his eyes on her, his lips pulling up into a wicked grin as she continued on. All he was focusing on was the word ‘date’ for the longest time, bright gaze darting between hers. The grin fell slightly as she continued on about the thing in the cellar, stomach dropping again but not in a good way. His head snapped over in the direction of the voice that was calling his last name. The smirk finally cracked his features as he noted Steve Harrington not too far from where they were standing. Billy’s gaze darted to the bat in his hands. Vaguely, he could hear Evie continuing to talk, saying something about how he wasn’t going to get hurt because of her. His attention returned back to her and he leaned forward a bit, gently lifting his knuckle to tap under her chin. Was he putting on a show for Harrington? Maybe, but Evie didn’t need to know that. “Keep that date in mind,” he murmured, eyes slipping to her lips for a moment before he abruptly turned away from her.

“Harrington,” he called in return, taking a few steps away from the kid brother and Evie. “I was actually helping your friend Evie out.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, eyes darting over to the bat in his hand. A bright mop of pink-and-blonde hair caught his attention next. “I see you’re heeding my advice. Plenty of bitches in the sea, right?” He shot to him, glancing over to the girl that stood just beside Steve. She merely rolled her eyes and scoffed, shaking her head as she murmured something he couldn’t hear. “So…I’m guessing either that bat is for me or whatever this kid trapped in the cellar,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest once more.

---

Kate let out a soft laugh and shook her head a bit. “There’s no room for cows in Manhattan,” she told him bluntly. “I don’t even think they’re at the zoo in Manhattan,” she added with a small shrug. Another laugh left her as he started on about hamburger and she grinned over at him as he corrected himself. Her brow furrowed slightly at how his mouth hung open and she quickly put the pieces together. “Oh, not like taking me out, not like a date…that’s…that’s not what I meant,” she managed to stammer out, cheeks flushing slightly. “It would be like…friends,” she added, ducking beneath her collar a bit. “You’d would take on all the mole people? Do you have a death wish?” She asked, head tilted slightly to the side, as she looked over at him.

Her amber gaze slid over him as he spoke, lip twisting slightly to the side at how unsure he sounded. Part of her wanted to press in a little deeper, to see what was going on in his head, but figured they didn’t know each other well enough. “Local or out of state?” She finally settled on asking. A soft sigh left her as he turned the question back on her. If she ever completed this mission she was on, she’d be able to do what she wanted with her life. “I’d either move back to Manhattan on my own, maybe sell my art. Ideally, I’d love to move to Paris, but…I doubt that’s realistic at this point.” She ran her tongue over her lips and looked over at Steve, offering him a crooked grin. “Well, I can’t argue with you there. You did offer me a ride.”

She continued to grin crookedly over at him. “Oh hell yeah, you’d beat that asshole out by a landslide,” she told him, gaze slipping over his features for a moment. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as the grin fell and she looked away from him. “Seriously, I wouldn’t have brought it back up if it bothered me,” she said. “You’re one of the first people in this town I’ve held a decent conversation with, alright? I just…I can tell when something is seriously bothering people and just wanted to help you out.” She lifted her gaze to his, wondering if her curiosity had gone too far and now he was suspicious of her. A sigh left her and she threaded her fingers through her hair, wrapping the strands around her fingers for a moment before smoothed her hand over her hair.

The grin slowly spread across her lips once more and her eyes flickered up to his, mischief in her gaze and heart jolting in her chest at the grin he was shooting over in her direction. “It wouldn’t be pretty. I can guarantee that,” she replied. Hargrove liked to think he was hot shit because he had a Camaro and was from California. Kate knew he wouldn’t last a minute in New York City. She shook her head a bit as he continued to speak. “You must really dislike him to want someone like me kicking his ass. I mean, look at me. I’m ferocious,” she jested. A quiet laugh left her at his next comment. “Just the badass people. You’ve definitely just jumped up by quite a lot on my cool scale.”

She tucked her hands into the pockets of her jacket, frowning a bit when she heard the sound of raised voices and arguments going on between a few people. A hum left her as she looked up at Steve, noticing for a moment just how much taller he was than her but forcing herself to focus on what he was saying. “I’ll at least let you take care of the rodent problem and the Hargrove problem before…” Her voice trailed off as they both turned her corner and she silently took in the scene. Kate drew in a deep breath of air, shooting a glance over to Dustin for a moment, to make sure he was alright, before glancing to Hargrove and Evie. The dick had nerve to refer to her as ‘bitch’, as if she didn’t already dislike him. “Fucking asshole,” she grumbled under her breath, leveling him with a dark stare. Though, he was mentioning the thing in the cellar and a soft hum left her. Surely, he knew what a raccoon looked like. She shot a glance to Steve for a moment before turning her gaze forward once more.

It took everything within her to keep her gaze on his and not on the way his tongue slid over his lips. Granted, it was difficult, but Evie managed to somehow keep her composure. It helped that he was absolutely and utterly frustrating. She jutted her chin forward and nodded. “Billy, could you remove your head from your ass for one second to listen to me? Just go home.” Her heart was pounding as he leaned forward. “Just go home, please.”

Dustin scoffed. “He’s not going to leave just because you said please, Evie.” His grip tightened around the hockey stick as he watched Billy. “Oh, no one else was around. Likely story.” As Billy continued to talk, Evie and Dustin shared a glance. “Technically… no?” Dustin ventured. Evie rolled her eyes. Billy wasn’t dumb and Dustin was a terrible liar.

Evie opened her mouth to back Dustin’s claim up when Billy started talking one more. Relief that he wouldn’t tell anyone flooded her, but it was soon followed by a wave of annoyance. “I would’ve handled it, Billy. I clearly know how to take care of myself. You barely did anything,” she said as she unconsciously wrapped her fingers around the wrist that he’d grabbed. “Look, we’ve got things taken care of.”

“Yeah, we don’t need your pretty-boy ass getting in the way,” Dustin chimed in.

She ignored her brother, instead shifting her focus to Steve approaching. Shit. Shit. Shit. Steve was going to lose his mind. There were no two ways about it. She and Steve may not have been best friends, but there was some level of camaraderie there. That combined with the fact that he hated every single atom that made up Billy, and well… She was betting that things weren’t going to go well. But all of those thoughts stopped the second his knuckle tapped her chin. Her eyes slipped to his, mouth parting slightly as she stared at him. It took her a second to snap out of it before she scowled and took a step back. “Billy, don’t,” she warned.

Rolling her eyes, Evie took in a deep breath as she eyed up Steve and the girl next to him. She was new and Evie didn’t really remember her name. It was surprising though, that Steve had brought her along. “Hey Steve, I’ll pay you five bucks to take a swing at Billy with it,” she said, giving Billy a pointed look. She was kidding – mostly. She lowered her voice, just loud enough so Billy could hear. “Look, you’ve got the date, right? So, leave before Steve shanks you.”

---

Steve faltered in his steps, but he couldn’t tell if it was because she’d mentioned taking her out or if it was because she mentioned him having a death wish. It wasn’t like he had a death with per say, but the fact that was he was charging blindly into whatever situation Henderson had gotten himself into made him feel like there might be some form of a death wish going on. Frankly, he wasn’t sure how to reply to the former, so he settled on the latter. “Death wish? Come on. The mole people don’t have shit on me.”

He shrugged as they walked. “I haven’t gotten that far.” Frankly, he wasn’t sure if he’d get that far. But she didn’t need to know all of that. Besides, thinking about that too much was just going to make him feel bad and that was the last thing he needed. He let out a low whistle when she mentioned Paris. “Paris would be a hell of a place to sell your art,” he said. He wasn’t sure what else to add. Dreams of going to Paris sure did beat out his dream – of just getting through his final year and not fucking anything up too bad.

And, you know, not getting killed by a Demogorgon with a bunch of preteens.

Grinning, he bobbed his head in agreement when she mentioned him beating out Billy. That was good to hear. “I appreciate the concern, but uh… yeah. Maybe some other time, we could uh, hash into that.” He chuckled at her words. “Oh, trust me. I hate his guts. It’d make my day to see you kick his ass.” He loosened his grip around the base of the bat for a second before tightening it again. It was more for his own reassurance than anything else. And maybe preparing in case he did have to take a swing at Billy.

Steve’s jaw twitched when he saw how close Evie and Billy were standing. The look on Dustin’s face was half rage, half fear and he couldn’t tell if it was because of the Demogorgon or Billy. His grip on the bat tightened when he mentioned Evie. He went to reply when Evie’s words came across the yard. He laughed. “C’mon, Evie. You know the first swing is free.” His gaze slid back to Billy as he kept walking forward, pausing a few steps away from him.

He wanted to swing. He wanted to swing it so bad. Or, at the very least, tell him to get the hell out of here. But the words finally began to register in his head. He’d mentioned the thing in the basement. He glanced over to Dustin, eyebrow quirked.

“Evie let him see it,” Dustin said, shooting his sister a scowl. “So we’re going to have to make sure big mouth here keeps his mouth shut.” He looked over to Kate and gestured towards her with the hockey stick. “Who’s this? Why do you people keep bringing more outsiders? This is party business.”

There was some part of Billy that enjoyed being obstinate and infuriating. He loved just digging in his heels and refusing to give into what other people wanted. Was it probably because he had such little control over his personal life when at home? Yeah, he was sure that played a part in it, but he didn’t really care. Some part of him enjoyed toying with people. Maybe he enjoyed seeing Evie get angry, even if it was at him. Besides, the last place he wanted to go was home. “Why would I go home when I’m having such a good time here?” He questioned, his lips curling up slyly at one corner. His tone was a bit sarcastic, considering what he’d just seen in their cellar.

Dustin was talking next and he watched the middle school, noting the way he gripped onto the hockey stick as if he’d dearly love to take a swing at him. “Take my word or don’t. There was a reason your sister told me to get here quickly and I just found out why,” he retorted bluntly, tilting his head toward the cellar doors. “So, what, is this some sort of freaky science experiment gone wrong or something?” Billy almost tacked on the word nerd to the end of his question, but figured that’d just piss both of them off. He didn’t think Evie would appreciate him calling her kid brother names and he at least wanted their date to be somewhat enjoyable.

Billy’s eyes darted back to Evie as she spoke, brows lifting sharply. “‘Taken care of’, huh? Yeah, sure looks like it,” he shot back, tone dripping with disbelief. He just managed to catch the tail end of what Dustin interjected and he slowly rounded on him, working his jaw a bit. “You might want to watch your mouth, Dusty. You wouldn’t want someone to try and teach you some manners. All I did here was try and help your sister out and from what I just saw or…think I saw in there, the two of you might need more help than just a fucking hockey stick.” Sure, part of him was just putting forward this valiant face to prove to Evie there was more to him that just being some cocky asshole with a cool car.

The thing he’d seen in the basement scared him when not much else did. And he hated it. Billy Hargrove did not get scared. He didn’t get the clammy sweats or shakes because of something else, he just didn’t. While he wasn’t shaking now, anytime his mind replayed the moment his eyes laid on that…thing he couldn’t help but to feel a bit terrified at what seeing that thing meant. Were there more of them? Were they all in some grave danger and it was just a moment of time before that thing came busting through the weather-worn doors of the cellar? All he knew was that he wanted that thing dead and gone. Sure, he wanted to protect Evie as well, but something just wasn’t sitting right in his stomach about this whole thing.

Seeing pretty-boy Steve stroll up with a bat chock full of nails didn’t settle him at all. Like they were all in on some secret that he just happened to stumble upon and now they were ganging up on him. They must have something important to keep hushed from the way he was continuously told to keep his mouth shut about things. His thoughts were redirected when he heard Evie mention Steve swinging at him with a bat. It stung a little more than it should have. The date be damned at this point. “Alright, that does it,” he barked, turning from Harrington—which may have been a dumb move, he wasn’t sure—to face Evie. “I don’t see why I’m the fucking bad guy when all I’ve done was help you out today and get caught up in this bullshit. But I’m sure as hell not leaving until that thing is dead, alright?”

Billy gave Evie a lingering look before turning back to Steve. As much as it irked him to say, he was probably most equipped out of them all to deal with the monster in the cellar. Gritting his teeth and ignoring the vitriol that’d come from pretty much every direction and the fact that Steve looked like he could kill him right about now, he drew in a deep breath of air. They could either team up and deal with this the easy way, but he wasn’t leaving until he knew that thing was dead. “You gonna fucking deal with Dusty’s problem or will I have to?”

---

A gust of wind whipped at Kate’s face and she scowled against in, only slightly angry at it, since it had provided her with getting to know Steve a bit more, but damn. It almost hurt it was hitting so hard. Instead, she shrunk a bit more into her jacket and shoved her hands in her pockets to try and keep warm or at least fend off any additional gusts of wind. “Yeah, you’re right. What was I even thinking?” She replied with a wry grin. “The mole people cower and kneel before Steve Harrington.” Her gaze found the end of the bat he toted, darting over the nails. Not much would get past it, be it mole people or not-raccoons.

“You’ve got the rest of your life to figure it out. Whoever decided you have to know exactly what you want to do with adulthood right out of high school can suck it, in my opinion,” she told him with a shrug of her shoulders. “I mean, I want to make art now, but that could always change. Why box ourselves in with something at any point in our life?” She realized just how fucking philosophical she sounded and let out a soft laugh, shaking her head. “Eh, it’s probably a pipe dream at this point. I don’t think there’s a market for fine art in Indiana. Nothing lucrative enough to get me to Paris.”

There was a sense of victory in making him grin like that at saying he beat out Billy. Not that Billy didn’t have the cool factor, but his personality was shittier than a back alley full of rats with dysentery. Steve scored major cool points with his hair and offering her a ride in this wind storm. And just generally seeming thoughtful. And his ass, her brain supplied which caused her to look away from him sharply for a moment or two. “Like I said, you don’t have to talk about it, but it might make you feel a little better,” she murmured, watching him for his reaction. “Yeah, it might make your day, but you might be a little scared of me afterwards,” she jested…well, half-jested. Kate wasn’t as scrappy as she was in her pre-teens, but she could pack a walloping punch when she needed to and knew exactly where to punch to knock someone out.

Kate immediately could sense the tension amongst this group of people, whether it was related to what was in the basement or just a general butting of heads, she couldn’t say. Then the girl was saying something about Steve taking a swing at Billy with that bat full of nails and her brows disappeared behind her bubblegum pink fringe. Surely, they didn’t mean it and that it was just some sort of intimidation tactic. She stopped just behind Steve as he stopped and her eyes trailed over his back, watching for a sign that he was going to actually do what Evie asked. Her chest felt tight, like she just knew something bad was about to happen. Then Dustin was referring to her and she rolled her eyes.

“I’m his backup, kid. So you don’t get flayed alive by a man whose pants are so tight, I’m sure his balls have crawled back up into his body to avoid being strangled to death,” she shot back at the curly-haired boy before her venomous gaze flicked to Billy. Her hands remained in her pockets as she stepped between the two teens that were squaring off. She needed to see what the hell was in that cellar. They would probably want to hear about it. So, her words came fast, her New Yorker accent coming through a bit heavier that it had before. “Look, I don’t want to see anyone hurt, even you Billy, as much as I’d love to see your ass handed to you.” Her gaze darted between Dustin then Evie. “I’ll go take care of the not-rodent in the cellar, we all call it a day, and then we can all go our separate ways without it coming to blows. You have my word that I won’t blab to anyone about whatever odd thing you think is down there. I’ve probably seen way worse shit back home.”

Without waiting for an answer and with firm, determined steps on the leaf-covered ground, she marched over to the cellar door and grabbed the hockey stick shoved through the door handles. Just as her hands met the polished wood, the cellar doors bucked outwards a few times. Kate took a calm step back, followed by another—her hands lifted up in some sort of gesture of surrender as she kept her attention on the doors that rattled violently in their hinges.

Evie could admit that her comment about Steve taking a swing at Billy may have been unwarranted. She was stressed. She’d needed him to leave. It had slipped out, and thinking about it made her feel guilty. But dammit, the way her stomach had twisted into butterflies when he’d whirled around and told her he wasn’t leaving until that thing was dead? It was a thing. Which was ridiculous, considering the fact that they were stuck dealing with yet another fucking Demogorgon and Dustin had only just gotten Lucas on the walkie-talkie. There were things to be taken care of, things to be dealt with, and there she was, thinking about how Billy Hargrove might actually be hot.

Although, the odds of something happening just then were slim to none. It was quiet on the train tracks, almost like nothing was going on. It was just like when she was younger, leading the Party along the tracks on a hot summer day, yelling and laughing and pretending to be adventurers going deep into the woods. This time, instead of the Party, it was Steve, Kate, Billy, and her brother. Which was weird in and of itself.

She glanced up to where Dustin was rambling on about something to Steve and Kate, waving his hands around animatedly. A small smile appeared for a moment before disappearing. She remembered the fear she’d felt facing down a Demogorgon at the Byers place. She remembered the relief she’d felt when Dustin ran to her after they’d all met up, clinging to her as he tried to tell her what happened. She remembered his sleepless nights, the nightmares keeping him awake. She couldn’t believe this was happening again.

Looking over to Billy, her gaze flickered over his form. “I’m uh, sorry. About what I said earlier to Steve. I just – Billy, you don’t know what we’re dealing with here. This is…” She trailed off and sighed. “It’s dangerous.”

---

The Demogorgon had somehow tunneled out while they were all arguing outside of the cellar doors. In retrospect, it was a good thing. His heart had stopped when Kate had just approached the doors, his voice getting stuck somewhere in his throat. For a second, it was as though he were back in the Byers’ as the thing was stalking down the hallway towards them. But then Dustin had screeched something about not wanting someone else to die and well, that had just opened up a new can of worms.

Steve, Dustin, and Evie had tried their best to explain the situation without giving too much away. It was dangerous, it could kill them, it wasn’t normal. Dustin had almost blown it when he’d started to say the word “government” but Evie had slapped her hand over his mouth fast that the kid had yelped. If they’d had to lie to Barb’s parents for a year about what was going on, they weren’t going to let something slip now.

Steve rolled his shoulders back a little to shift his backpack around a little, trying to redistribute the weight. He huffed out a laugh as Dustin kept talking, even though he’d tuned him out a while ago in favor of sneaking glances at Kate. Evie had been more adamant about telling them to leave, that they’d get hurt. But Steve had just stood there. He had this feeling that at this point, Kate would just head there herself if they told her to leave. So she might as well just stay with them.

“… so I’ve got to ask, Steve. You’re good with the ladies, right?” Dustin asked, eyes wide as they walked. Steve almost tripped.

“Uh, what? What did you just say?”

“You’re good with the ladies, like how to talk to them and stuff?”

Steve looked between him and Kate, trying to figure out if they were fucking with him. “I… I can talk to them, sure. Why?”

This journey to the fucking junkyard would have been a lot more pleasant if it were just him and Evie. Billy played a fantasy on loop over and over in his head, one where it was just the two of them alone in the woods and he backed her up against one of these trees, kissing her until they were both breathless. It passed the time a lot more pleasantly than listening to her dumb younger brother prattle on about whatever it was that nerds talked about. But no, here they were, tracing railroad tracks to a junkyard so they could kill that thing, which Dustin had called ‘Dart’ at one point.

Billy watched Evie for a while, studying her profile as they marched toward their destination. She cared about Dustin—which couldn’t be said of him with Maxine—and he couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to worry like that for a sibling: to know they’d seen something so…unnatural and have to feel like they had to protect them from it. If this had been Max they were talking about, he probably would have laid into her for fucking putting him in this situation to begin with. Billy Hargrove didn’t do fear. He didn’t do worry. He didn’t do compassion. Which is why that ‘Dart’ needed to die.

His lips pulled up at the corners as he watched a soft smile curl her features before dropping again. She truly was the most beautiful girl in Hawkins—shame they’d gotten caught up in this mess instead of her getting caught up in him. As she turned to look at him, Billy met her gaze, not even pretending like he hadn’t been looking at her as he lifted his half-crushed package of cigarettes and made a show of putting one between his lips. Couldn’t hurt to get their mind of whatever fucked up situation they found themselves in by tormenting her a little.

“Water under the bridge, sweetheart,” Billy murmured past the filter before flicking open his lighter and sending the end of the cigarette ablaze. “I’m a raging dick, I get it. But I ain’t heartless.” He took a drag off the cigarette, pulling it away from his lips to exhale the smoke away from the two of them. “I can tell how worried you are about this shit. About your brother. About people you barely know.” Bright blue eyes flicked up to study the group ahead of them, zeroing in on the curly-haired little shit who hadn’t stopped talking once. Billy dragged his tongue across his lips before giving a shrug of his broad shoulders.

“It’s not fair for you to face down whatever the hell this is alone,” he murmured, though it felt a little more open and vulnerable than he liked to. He took another long drag off the cigarette, eyes sweeping over her features. “Besides,” Billy added with a crooked grin, “you die? I don’t get that date with the prettiest girl in Indiana I was promised.” He couldn't shirk his asshole status too hard now. He couldn't let on just how much he felt the need to protect her, even if this protective feeling was only reserved just for her.

---

Kate didn’t have to be told twice that something was seriously off about this. If it wasn’t the fact that rodents usually don’t possess the strength to push doors like that, it was the fact Dustin had mentioned someone dying because of whatever it was in that cellar. She wasn’t dumb. She’d made the connection in her mind quickly. Barbara fucking Holland wasn’t missing. She was dead. And whatever was in that cellar had connections to her death. Her suspicions were only solidified as Evie, Steve, and Dustin tried explaining the situation to her. But Steve wasn’t telling her to leave, it was Evie that pushed hard for her to go home. Not that she would have, but she was curious as to why he didn’t have an opinion on her staying or going.

How she found herself following train tracks with this rag-tag group of individuals, she’d never know. All she knew was she was thankful Dustin and her had found common grounds to talk about. It kept her mind wandering to if they had wanted her to get caught up in all of this and have her offed in a similar fashion to Barbara. It kept her from thinking that she’d soon enough have her face plastered on milk cartons as missing—brushed off as some punk-rock degenerate who ran away from home because mommy and daddy didn’t understand. She would so rather be at home, cuddled up with her cat, drinking coffee with a hefty amount of whiskey poured in it, and slinging paint at a canvas.

“…all I’m saying is Vader isn’t as bad as people make him out to be,” Kate told Dustin with a shrug.

“Not as bad?! He chopped off Luke’s hand—his own son—and killed Obi-Wan! Yeah, he turned his back on Palpatine, but that doesn’t redeem him. Not to mention the Empire is pretty much a communist regime set on ruling the galaxy with an iron fist.”

“Yeah, but how’d you react if your kid or someone else started swinging at you with a lightsaber? You wouldn’t just sit there and take it—you’d fight back. Besides, Vader wears a lot of black leather, which I appreciate, and the Empire looks way more badass than Rebel scum ever will.” Dustin looked like he was about to explode at this statement.

“You can’t like the Empire and Vader just because they look cool! Shit doesn’t work that way!” Kate let a slow grin curl her lips and Dustin caught on faster than she expected him to. “You’re just saying this stuff to get a rise out of me, aren’t you?” The pink-haired girl merely shrugged and glanced over to Steve. Dustin murmured to himself about girls being too damn confusing before he posed his question to Steve and it was everything Kate could do to not laugh. She couldn’t imagine where this conversation could be going. At the look Steve shot her, she shook her head subtly with wide-eyes. She didn’t know where Dustin was going with this, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t poke a bit at the both.

“What about the ‘…and stuff’ portion of that question, Steve,” she asked, a too-mirthful gleam in her eyes as Dustin pulled a disgusted, wrinkled face and shook his head and murmured something about that not being what he meant.

As they walked, she wondered what it would have been like had none of this happened. What would she think of Billy then? It wasn’t as though her initial opinion of him had changed so drastically in the span of a handful of hours, but there were things about him that clashed. By all accounts, it didn’t make sense for him to pursue her this much, to stick around when he saw Dart. Billy was supposed to be heartless, was supposed to just sleep with whoever was into him and remain a shallow, and maybe attractive, asshole.

But that’s not what she was seeing now. Sure, he was rough and callous and she’d wanted to punch him more in the last couple hours than she’d ever wanted to punch someone ever. But there was something that just kept pulling her to him. Something that… could be dealt with later, after they’d handled whatever else was going on. This, this could wait.

Well, wait for around five seconds until her eyes settled on the cigarette being placed between his lips. She swallowed. Blinked. Get it together. “You could’ve still bowed out, even if you’re not heartless. This is beyond what anyone could ask of you.” She seized upon the moment that he looked ahead and let her eyes quickly slide over his form, shifting back up to his face as he shrugged his shoulders. Christ, he was attractive.

Something bloomed in Evie’s chest, causing warmth to flood through her limbs as he spoke. It wasn’t fair for them to face all of this on her own, let alone for any of them to have to face it in general. For the first time in over a year, someone was acknowledging just how unfair it all was. She offered him a small, almost vulnerable smile before he continued on. She couldn’t help it when she rolled her eyes. “Does that mean you wouldn’t be helping if I’d said no to the date?” It took a few seconds for the rest of his words to catch up to her brain. Prettiest girl in Indiana. She had to look away to hide her blush.

---

Steve should have been paying attention to the conversation. This is what he gets when instead of trying to figure out shit with Nancy, he’s off sneaking glances at another pretty girl. While guilt settled in his chest at that thought, another part of him whispered something different. It was nice to talk to someone that actually liked talking to him, to talk to someone that wasn’t always glancing over at Jonathan Byers.

Nancy pretended that it wasn’t like that, but deep down, Steve knew that she did.

But regardless of that, this was his penance. This was his price to pay. Having some shit-brained teenager taunt him somehow in front of a very pretty girl. They’d been talking about Star Wars, right? How did he slide it to Steve being good with women? He narrowed his eyes at Dustin before glancing over his shoulder towards Evie, hoping to get her attention to please rescue him from her brother. Of course, she was too wrapped up in whatever Hargrove was saying. Shit.

“I suppose that I am, yeah? It’s just… Talking to people,” he said, trying to be diplomatic. He rolled his eyes at Kate’s addition, but couldn’t help the smirk that spread across his features. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

Dustin groaned. “Yeah, okay just… you have the hair and you’re cool and shit and you know what girls like to talk about.”

“You were literally just talking to Kate about Star Wars.”

“But I’m not trying to seduce Kate – no offense, you’re just too old for me – so Star Wars is fine. But what do you talk to girls about?”

Steve was going to plunge himself off a cliff, he swore.

The wind and the cold were really starting to get on Billy’s nerves, not to mention he’d be happy if he never had to look at trees or a railroad track ever again. Or hear Dustin speak ever again. If it weren’t for trying to get on Evie’s good side, he would have threatened him to shut up about half a mile ago. It took a lot of concentration for him to try and drown out the sound of his yammering on. All thoughts of his irritation quickly melted away when he remembered the sounds “Dart” was making and the shine of rows upon rows of pearly teeth.

Something kept bringing him back to the teeth. They reminded him of a shark…it was the only thing that reminded him of a shark. The rest was completely unnatural looking and he couldn’t wrap his mind around what exactly scared him about all of it. Sharks didn’t really scare him. That thing did. How the hell were they going to get rid of that thing? Billy would admit he wasn’t the smartest, but he knew enough that mere brawn alone wasn’t going to kill it. They needed a weapon and probably more than that bat full of nails that Steve had.

He could feel her eyes on him, watching his mouth, watching him. It provided him enough distraction to clear his mind of whatever they were going to have to face down at the junkyard—whenever they got there. Evie’s soft comments pulled a crooked grin to his mouth, the filter of his cigarette just barely hanging there. Why was he staying back? The conquest of a pretty girl? No, surely it was more than that. There was something deep down in him, at a primal level, that screamed death about this whole situation. Billy wanted nothing more than to shout back at it. But it'd be a cold day in hell when he admitted that. “I’m not a coward,” he retorted simply as his shoulder gently bumped into hers as they walked, his voice quiet and low: a tone he typically reserved for girls in the near silence of his Camaro when they were parked somewhere desolate for the night. “It’s not exactly my idea of a good time, but it beats sitting on my ass at home. I get to spend more time with you, at least.”

That wasn’t exactly a lie. Even with the dick that his dad was, there was something way more abstract what they were facing down, made it a little easier for him to handle. Home wasn’t pleasant for him, but something about walking down these railroad tracks with Evie was. Especially when he could pull small, sweet smiles from her that made even his stomach flip with excitement. Billy couldn’t remember the last time a girl had been able to get such a reaction out of him. He definitely wasn’t about to admit he was scared to her, even if it was the truth. At her question, his gaze slid over to her, studying the flush at her cheeks. Would he be so adamant on helping her if she’d not offered him a date?

Taking a pull on his cigarette to give himself some time to think of something smooth to reply with, his bright gaze slipping over her features as he exhaled the smoke off to the side. A wicked grin twisted his lips as his tongue curled over his teeth. His mind flashed back to the way she’d looked up at him when he’d tugged her close using that hockey stick and his stomach flipped again. “I guess you’re different, Evie,” he replied, openly looking down at her mouth for a moment before staring at the group ahead of them once more. "Take that for what you will."

---

Kate’s nose was tinted almost the same shade of pink as her hair and her fingertips were going a bit tingly with the cold. So, she flipped the collar of her wool jacket up around her neck and shoved her hands deep into her pockets. A sharp laugh left her at the reply Steve gave to her comment and she glanced over at him. The smirk he wore looked good on him. “Sure you don’t,” she replied in a tone dripping with disbelief. Part of her remembered that he’d been so torn up about Nancy when he’d gotten into the car and that they were technically maybe still dating. The other half wondered vaguely if she’d ever really find out if he was good at the “and stuff”. She had to bite her bottom lip and look away to try and hide the beaming grin she wore at that thought.

A grin that quickly fell at Dustin’s comment about him not trying to seduce her and the fact that she was too old. It wasn’t the seducing part or even the part that he mentioned it was “too old for him”, it was just the “too old” part. Her mouth dropped open and her gaze hardened playfully. “Uh, yes offense,” she snapped back at him. “‘Too old’?,” she repeated before blinking dumbly and turning to Steve. “Did I hear him correctly? Did he just call me old?” She asked the older of the two boys, pushing her hair back from her face as her anger dissolved into confusion. “Oh my God,” she murmured, staring ahead at the train tracks, “am I old?”

She didn’t have much time to contemplate this too much as some small creature—a bird, squirrel, groundhog, or whatever—skittered away from them in the blanket of fallen leaves on the forest floor surrounding them and she jumped suddenly. The sharp gasp she drew in almost froze her lungs from the inside out. Kate knew it was stupid, she really did, jumping at whatever forest dweller they’d startled. It definitely wasn’t big enough to be the thing that was in the cellar. But whatever bravery she’d had left when those cellar doors had bucked outwards toward her. “Shit,” she breathed out shakily, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before continuing forward.

Her thoughts were suddenly redirected from the light conversation she and Dustin had been having and taking the shit out of Steve at how Dustin had directed their conversation. She had questions to ask, to see just how much danger they were putting themselves in. Dustin would try to bullshit her, but she doubted Steve would. “Hey Dustin, could I have a moment or two with Steve, please?” She asked, failing to keep the slight quiver from her tone. The curly-haired middle schooler glanced between them before giving a shrug and falling back, walking somewhere in between the two groups of high schoolers. Once she was sure the kid was far enough away, she spoke, her voice quiet and still shaking.

“Steve, how much danger are we really in?” Her eyes flickered up to him from the forest around them. She wanted more information for herself—fuck the big them that were the puppet master that held her strings. This was unfair…to all of them, but she hadn’t planned for this at all when she moved to Hawkins. “And be honest, please.”