Chapter Text
1978
Lisa Henderson hurried into the small library of her new school, deciding to hide amidst the books for her lunch rather than face the horror of sitting alone in the cafeteria on her first day of sixth grade. As she'd realised during her first few classes at Hawkins Middle School, almost everyone was friends from elementary school, while Lisa and her brother Dustin had just moved to Hawkins following their parents' divorce.
Lisa hurried to the history section, knowing that no student, other than her, would bother to spend their lunch hiding between bookshelves, let alone next to the volumes of history books.
Lisa sat down and pulled out her packed lunch that her mother had made for her, and hoped that her brother was having a better first day than she was in second grade. Lisa bit into her sandwich and opened a copy of 'A History of Hawkins' on the carpet in front of her, but a noise down the aisle made her pause.
She stopped chewing and looked around, but there was no one there. After another beat of silence she shrugged and turned back to the book, but then a small thud made her jump. She put down her sandwich and closed the book, and then quietly made her way in the direction of the sound as she heard another thud coming from a wooden trunk against the wall, which was presumably full of extra paper or whatever supplies would be in a school library..
She stopped in front of the trunk and slowly leaned down to open it, her nerves growing at what might be making the noise. When she pushed the top of the trunk open, the last thing she expected to see was a gangly boy wedged in an awkward foetal position inside.
"Oh, hey," he said casually, giving her a small salute with his fingers, which appeared to be the only part of him he could move.
"Um, hi?" Lisa replied, staring down at him in shock.
"I don't suppose you could give me a hand? I'm kind of stuck here," the boy said, holding out a hand.
Lisa blinked in surprise, but then nodded and took the boy's hand and tried to pull him out of the trunk, and after a few attempts, he managed to clamber out.
He stood up and brushed off his t-shirt, and then he grinned at her, "thanks, I thought I was going to die in there."
"What were you doing in there?" she asked curiously.
The boy smiled sheepishly, "I put bang-snaps, you know the firework-thingies, under Mr Wilson's desk and now he's out to get me."
"Oh, why?"
"For fun, obviously," he said, and then he held out his hand to her.
"I'm Steve. Steve Harrington. I'm in the seventh grade."
"I'm Lisa Henderson, sixth grade," she shook his hand shyly.
"Oh, you're the new kid!" he said excitedly.
Lisa cringed, "yeah."
"That's cool. Did you move here with your family?"
Lisa shook her head as they walked back to where her school bag and lunch lay discarded, "me and my brother Dustin moved here with our mom after our parents got divorced."
Steve considered that for a moment, "that's tough that you've had to move to a whole new place. Hawkins is great though, you'll like it here. Have you made any friends yet?"
"No," she gestured to her bag where her packed lunch was sitting on top of it. "I was eating lunch here."
Steve nodded thoughtfully, "stay here, I'll be right back."
Steve came back a few minutes later with his own tray from the cafeteria, and somehow managed to sneak it past the librarian.
He grinned cheerfully at her surprised expression, "what?"
"Don't you have friends you eat lunch with?"
He shrugged and opened a bottle of Coca Cola, "I'm friends with everyone. Besides, you're my friend now too."
Lisa's eyes widened, "I am?"
Steve nodded and handed her a bar of chocolate, "of course you are!"
He sat down and joined Lisa for lunch, and in the following days, Steve introduced her to some of his friends who were also a year older than she was. They hung out everyday after that, even on the weekends and over the school breaks, having become the best of friends.
Everything was great, and Lisa was finally happy with her new life and her new friend, at least until it all came crashing down.
Two Years Later
Lisa could barely contain her excitement as she walked through the doors of Hawkins High School for her first day of Freshman year. Her mood was in complete contrast to her last time starting at a new school, because now she was at last going to be in the same school as her best friend once again.
Steve had left middle school the previous year to start high school and in his absence, Lisa had gotten close with a quiet boy named Jonathan Byers, and the two often ate lunch at the bikeshed away from the circus that was the cafeteria.
Despite having other friends, however, Lisa was beyond looking forward to seeing Steve again.
She'd hardly seen him over the last few months, and he'd spent the entire summer on vacation with his parents, which he'd only told her when they accidentally bumped into each other outside the movie theatre a month previously, though he said he was in a rush and left in a hurry without staying to talk to her.
She felt herself grinning as she spotted him down the corridor at the lockers with two people she recognised as Tommy and Carol, people she'd never spoken to despite having seen them occasionally hanging around with Steve in middle school.
She hurried up to him, hoisting her backpack higher onto her shoulders, "Steve!"
His eyes went wide in what looked like panic when he saw her, but before he could speak, Tommy turned around and his face turned into a menacing grin.
"Henderson? That's you isn't it?" the boy asked her.
"Um, that's me. I just wanted to talk to St-"
"So you're the girl who's been obsessed with Steve for the past two years?" Carol asked with a cruel smirk.
"I- what?" Lisa thought she was being pranked, she didn't know what was going on.
"That's what you told us, right, Harrington?" Tommy said loudly.
Steve opened his mouth to answer but Carol interrupted him, "you really do look like a stray puppy, don't you? Were you really friends with her, Steve?"
"I-"
Tommy interrupted Steve, "of course not, that's what he's been telling us all summer, right Steve?"
"I thought you were on vacation with your parents all summer?" Lisa said suddenly, speaking up for the first time as their words began to sink in.
"Oh my God. Is that what he told you?" Carol asked mockingly, barely fighting a laugh.
"Probably the only way you could keep her away, right Harrington?" Tommy asked, elbowing Steve in the ribs.
"I don't understand," Lisa said quietly, looking up at Steve who wouldn't meet her gaze.
"Um, what are you wearing? Did your mom buy you that?" Carol asked abruptly
Lisa tore her eyes from Steve and looked down at her worn dungarees, "um- yes she did but-"
"Let me guess, at KMart? That's, like, so embarrassing," Carol snickered.
Lisa looked at Steve again, waiting for him to finally stand up for her, having stood silently while his friends put her down right in front of him.
"Steve?"
He said nothing, and she felt her eyes well up with tears.
"Are you crying?" Tommy asked, bending down to peer into her face, "seriously?"
Lisa couldn't take any more, she shouldered past Tommy and hurried down the corridor.
"Lisa, wait!"
She ignored Steve as he ran after her, and he moved in front of her to block her path.
"What, so you know me now, do you?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Steve grimaced and ran a hand through his hair, "Lisa, you have to understand, high school is different- I have a reputation to maintain."
She just looked at him, no longer recognising the boy she once considered her best friend, "who are you, Steve?"
"What?" he asked, looking as though she'd slapped him. She almost wished she had.
She shook her head, "nevermind, it doesn't matter."
She tried to walk away but he took her by the arm, "Lisa, just hold on a second-"
"No, Steve!" She snapped furiously, and a few students turned in their direction. "I'd hate to tarnish your reputation, so you're getting what you want. Have a nice life, Harrington."
"Lis-"
She shoved him back by the chest, her eyes blazing, "never talk to me again."
Steve watched as she walked away, pushing past their fellow students to hurry into the girl's bathroom. He felt sick, but all the same, he turned and walked back to where Tommy and Carol were waiting for him, laughing at the situation.
Tommy looped an arm around Steve's neck and pulled him into a headlock, "you were right about that one, Harrington. Totally crazy."
Meanwhile, Lisa was trying to keep her crying quiet in the girl's bathroom, but only one other person was in the bathroom with her and could obviously hear her sniffles.
There was a knock on the cubicle door, "hey, are you okay in there?"
"Oh, um- no. Not really," Lisa mumbled tearfully.
"Want to talk about it?" the girl on the other side asked.
"Not really," Lisa repeated in more of a whisper.
The girl was quiet for a moment, "I have some makeup in my bag, I can help you get cleaned up if you like?"
Lisa unlocked the door, and on the other side was a girl with wavy brown hair and a kind face. Lisa recognised her from around the large middle school but hadn't spoken to her before.
"That would be great."
The girl handed her a few damp tissues from the tap, and Lisa smiled gratefully and wiped her eyes.
"Here, some lipstick. My mom always swears by dabbing some on your lips and cheeks," the girl said, holding a tube of lipstick out to her.
"That's pretty smart," Lisa replied, smiling slightly despite how hurt she was inside.
"I'm Nancy Wheeler," the girl said with a soft smile.
"Lisa, Lisa Henderson," Lisa said as she dabbed on the lipstick as Nancy had suggested.
"Dustin's sister?"
"Yeah, that's me," Lisa said, surprised. "Wait, Wheeler? Mike is your brother isn't he?"
Nancy nodded, "yeah. Oh, I think we're in the same homeroom actually. I met another freshman earlier, a really nice girl named Barb. Wanna hang out before class?"
Lisa smiled, "I'd like that, Nancy."
"Oh, before we go," Nancy rooted in her bag and pulled out some pins. "Can't hide that pretty face, can we?"
Lisa stared wide-eyed as Nancy reached up to pin her brown curls back over her ears.
"There," Nancy grinned at her. "Let's go."
The two girls walked out of the bathroom, and Nancy linked her arm through Lisa's as they walked down the hall. Steve Harrington watched from down the corridor, watching her walk away, down the corridor and out of his life.
Lisa did her best not to spare Steve another thought, and after a long few months, she no longer had to pretend that she wasn't upset about what had happened between them.
She ignored him, and pretended that he didn't exist. And while he became one of the most popular guys in the school as time went on, Lisa was happy with her small, tight-knit group of friends.
She became inseparable from Nancy, and close with Barb who usually kept to herself most of the time, but was a good friend nonetheless. Lisa continued to hang out with Jonathan between classes, usually finding him in the darkroom of the photography lab.
Lisa learned to move on, and there came a point when she no longer wanted to cry at the thought of Steve Harrington, because he barely crossed her mind at all.
Chapter Text
1983
“Dustin, come on! We’re going to be late!”
“I’m cycling to Lucas’ house!”
“Could you not have told me that earlier? I’ve been waiting for you!” Lisa scowled at her brother and then drove to school, picking Nancy up on the way.
“I have news,” Nancy told her as soon as she climbed into the car, and she was positively beaming.
“Spill,” Lisa asked in amusement, looking over at her friend.
Nancy squealed a little bit, “...I’m seeing someone.”
Lisa gaped at her and then grinned, “I knew it! I knew it! Barb and I had a feeling something was going on. You were so secretive all summer, and you couldn’t stop smiling yesterday. Who is it!?”
Nancy wiggles her eyebrows conspiratorially, “it’s a secret, I’ll introduce you to him at lunch.”
“Nancy Wheeler, you little minx,” Lisa laughed.
After parking, the two girls walked into school and while Nancy went to her locker, Lisa headed straight to class.
During her morning break, Lisa headed to the library to find a few books for her history essay which she’d been assigned despite it only being her second day back at school, and she silently cursed the slacking she’d done over the summer break. Her hand was going to cramp from writing in no time.
Putting on her headphones to cut out the noise from the corridor, she pressed play on her Walkman as she walked through the aisles. Stevie Nicks’ new album had just come out that June and Lisa hadn’t been listening to anything else, and did her very best not to sing along right there in the library as the music began playing from the cassette tape.
Preoccupied by reading the spines of the books and with her headphones on, she didn’t hear someone walking around the corner, and she ploughed straight into a very tall person.
“Shit, sorry,” she said quickly, yanking her headphones down around her neck.
“Lisa?”
She froze and looked up at the person she’d bumped into, who was talking to her for the first time in a whole year, the last time being during that awful first morning of her freshman year.
“Oh,” she said tightly, her fingers tightening around the book she held to her chest.
She actually debated whacking him with it, but she was better than that. She could imagine doing it all she wanted though.
Again and again and-
“Hi,” Steve said awkwardly.
She was not a violent person, so she took a deep breath, loosening her grip on the book.
A tense silence stretched between them then, so Lisa cleared her throat, “ahem, well, I’ll be going-”
“No, wait.” She stopped and he seemed to be looking for something to say, “how…how have you been, Lisa?”
Unbelievable.
“Fine, thanks. You?” she replied sharply, the memory of her first day of freshman year playing on her mind for the first time in a while.
“Er- I’m good too, thanks.”
An awkward silence arose once more and Lisa picked at the cover of the book she was holding, and then she opened her mouth to once again excuse herself, but Steve spoke before she could.
“Have you seen Nancy around?”
“Nancy?” she asked in disbelief. She’d never even seen them talk to each other.
“Uh, yeah. I was going to pick her up for school but she said you’d already offered.”
Lisa felt like her brain might explode, “sorry, I’m confused. How do you know Nancy?”
Steve scratched the back of his neck, visibly uncomfortable, “shit, um, she didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what? Wait- it’s you. You’re the guys she’s seeing,” she answered her own question.
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Lisa felt a lump rising in her throat, “okay. Cool, um. Cool, great, that’s really great.”
“Lisa-”
She waved her hand dismissively, “I’ve gotta go, um-” She backed into a shelf and knocked a few books to the floor, “shit.”
“Here, let me-”
“It’s fine-”
“Just let me-”
“I said it’s fine, Steve,” she said sharply, and loudly, and shushes echoed from the tables nearby.
She shoved the books back onto their shelves and backed away from Steve slightly, and they stood in silence. Steve shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and looked down at her almost as if trying to read her. She pushed her curly bangs back from her face, feeling herself beginning to sweat with the discomfort and uneasiness she was feeling.
The bell signalling the end of break blared loudly, making them both jump, but Lisa welcomed the sound like she never had before as it broke the suffocating air between them.
“I’d better go,” she mumbled and she hurried out of the library without waiting for a response.
Lunch rolled around quickly and Lisa sat down at a table in the cafeteria next to Barb who was writing out her calculus notes in silence.
Lisa was good friends with Barb, and despite the other girl being extremely quiet and unwilling to socialise much outside of class, Lisa always felt at ease in her presence. Lisa underlined a few quotes in her new book for English class and reread the chapter while eating her lunch, and she and Barb sat in comfortable silence until Nancy came over.
“Lisa, Barb, this is Steve,” Lisa looked up and almost dropped her book onto her plate. Steve nodded awkwardly at them and Barb gave him a single nod of acknowledgement before turning back to her notes.
Nancy’s smile turned tight and she raised her eyebrows. Lisa looked up at Steve with her most calm and collected expression despite wanting to scream.
“Steve.”
“Lisa.”
Nancy looked between them, “do you two know each other already?”
“No,” Lisa said.
“Yes,” Steve said at the same time.
Nancy raised her eyebrows even higher, and Lisa cleared her throat, “are you joining us, Nancy?”
“Um, well actually I was going to sit with Steve, Tommy and Carol today.”
Barb dropped her pencil and looked up, “really, Nancy?”
“It’s just for today!”
“You were joining us tomorrow as well, no?” Steve furrowed his brows at Nancy.
Nancy grew flustered, “no! Well, I mean- yes.”
The girls said nothing and Nancy awkwardly waved at them and then dragged Steve away. Lisa and Barb shared a look, and Barb rolled her eyes and shook her head, then went back to her notes.
Lisa felt a bit guilty for not telling Nancy about how she had known Steve, very well in fact, but it had never come up before now.
She’d never wanted to talk about it with anyone, and she hadn’t told anyone until Jonathan. As observant as always, he’d picked up on her hidden sadness over the Christmas holidays the year before and she’d told him everything that had happened.
Jonathan had already hated Steve, but this made him hate him even more.
But now, Lisa knew she couldn’t bring it up with Nancy. Nancy was her best friend in the whole world, and she couldn’t do it to her, especially knowing that her happiness over the past few weeks had been down to the guy she’d been dating.
Who of course, just had to be Steve.
Unless she did it to warn her, in case Steve turned on Nancy the same way he had with Lisa the year before, as if their two years of friendship had meant nothing to him.
“I’m gonna go look for Jonathan, wanna come with?” Lisa asked Barb abruptly, needing to clear her mind.
Barb pushed her glasses, further up her nose and gave her a genuine smile, “no, I think I’ll just finish these. I might come find you later though, okay?”
Lisa gathered her bag and waved to Barb, then dumped her tray and headed toward the back of the school. Knocking on the door to the photo lab, she walked in and found Jonathan hanging up some photographs in the dim red light.
He turned around and smiled at her, “oh, hey, Lisa.”
“Hey. Whatcha doing?” she asked, dropping her bag on the floor and approaching his workbench.
“The PTA had me take photos of the refurbished gym for the paper,” he said evenly, and then he chuckled, “exciting right?”
“Totally,” she smiled back at him, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Jonathan studied her for a moment and then put down his roll of film, “everything okay, Lise?”
She groaned and fiddled with her braid, pulling it down over her shoulder to pull some curly strands out of the hair tie. “It’s Nancy, she’s seeing someone.”
Jonathan opened his mouth and closed it again, then after some consideration he spoke again, “really? Who?”
“Steve Harrington.”
“Wait- what?” Jonathan exclaimed in very obvious disbelief.
Lisa sighed loudly and sat down on a stool, “I know.”
“Well, that puts you in a shit situation,” Jonathan said, leaning against the counter next to her. “I’m guessing she still doesn’t know about freshman year?”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“You should tell her, she won’t want to be with him then, problem solved,” Jonathan shrugged as if it were the most simple solution in the world.
“I don’t know, Jonathan. She seems to really like him. Besides, I don’t want her to break up with him just because I don’t like him. I just worry he’ll drop her when she’s not the shiny new toy anymore.”
Jonathan squeezed her shoulder gently, “yeah, but she’s also your best friend-”
“Apart from you.”
Jonathan grinned, “apart from me. Maybe you should tell her, so at least then she’ll know why you don’t want to be BFFs with him.”
She looked at him and couldn’t bite back her grin, “hold up, did Jonathan Byers just say BFF? Now that’s something the school paper should write about.”
“Shut up,” he said, shaking his head in amusement.
“Hey, want me to bring Will to the Wheelers’ today? I’m bringing Dustin anyway and going to study with Nance, so it’s no problem. I know his bike is in the shop.”
He gave her a grateful smile, “that would be great, actually, thanks Lisa.”
The bell signalling the end of lunch rang out and Lisa stood up with a long-suffering sigh, “back into the fray, I guess I’ll catch up with you tomorrow. Tell your mom I say hi.”
“You gotta come over for dinner again soon, she won’t stop pestering me about it,” Jonathan answered with a pleading look.
Lisa chuckled at that, and after saying goodbye to him, she went to her locker.
She was rooting through her locker when Nancy came up to her, looking ashamed, “Lisa, I am so sorry about today, I didn’t mean to blow you off like that- it’s just, I really like Steve.”
Lisa feigned a glare, but she couldn’t stand the look on Nancy’s face so she relaxed into a forgiving smile, “you’ll just have to make me apology cookies for our homework session tonight.”
Nancy gave her a relieved smile, “deal.”
~
A few months later, Lisa was once again studying with Nancy in her bedroom while the boys played downstairs in the Wheelers’ basement.
Nancy sighed loudly and rolled over on her back, dropping her notebook onto her stomach, “Lisa, do you feel like I’m neglecting you?”
Lisa almost choked on her soda, “uh, what?”
Nancy propped her head up on her hand, leaning on her elbow, “I know I’m spending a lot of time with Steve lately, but you’re still my best friend. You know that right?”
“No, I thought you just hung out with me for my sharp wit and good looks,” Lisa said dryly.
Nancy laughed and shoved her shoulder playfully, “Lisa, be serious.”
“I am being serious. Look, Nancy, you clearly like him and if he’s making you happy then that’s all that matters, right?”
“Even if you don’t like him?”
“Even if I don’t like him.”
Nancy fixed her with a serious look, “what happened between you anyway? I asked Steve and he told me to ask you, and you told me to ask him so I’m at an impasse.”
Lisa bit her lip, choosing her next words carefully, “we used to be friends, until we weren’t. That’s all.”
Nancy raised her brows pointedly, “that’s clearly not all.”
It was Lisa’s turn to flop back on the bed, “you’re relentless, Wheeler.”
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, staying quiet for a long moment to plan what she was going to say. She already predicted that this conversation would give her a headache.
Nancy, sensing that this was an important conversation to Lisa, sat up and crossed her legs beneath her, giving Lisa her full attention.
“You can tell me, Lise,” Nancy said earnestly.
Lisa nodded and sat up too, leaning back against the headboard and taking a deep breath, “he was my best friend in middle school. In fact, he was my first friend when I moved to Hawkins, even before Jonathan.”
“I didn’t know that,” Nancy said softly, “I thought Jonathan was your first friend.”
“Well, I wish he had been,” Lisa said. “Steve dropped me as soon as he got popular in high school.”
“Lisa, I honestly didn’t know,” Nancy said, taking her hand and drawing her eyebrows together in a mix of sympathy and disbelief.
“Not many do, to be honest. I didn’t even realise we weren’t friends anymore until the first day of freshman year. I thought he’d been on vacation that whole summer but he’d just lied about it so he could avoid me. I was so excited to see him again, Nancy. So excited.” Lisa blinked quickly and cleared her throat.
“Anyway, the first day of freshman year, he let Tommy H and Carol talk shit about me right to my face, when I tried to talk to him. He’d obviously made me out to be some sort of freak who wouldn’t leave him alone.”
She met Nancy’s horrified expression with a wry smile, “and that’s when I met you in the bathroom. So it wasn’t all bad.”
Nancy shook her head, “so that’s why you were crying in the bathroom? You said it was nerves about school.”
“Maybe it was a bit of that too, can’t give all the credit to Harrington,” Lisa said, trying to lighten the mood, but Nancy could see right through it.
She tackled Lisa with a hug, “I’m so sorry, Lise.”
Lisa chuckled and patted Nancy’s back, snuggling her best friend fondly, “it’s fine. Maybe he’s changed. And I’m sorry for always leaving whenever he comes over, I’ll try harder to be civil, okay?”
“You don’t have to do that, I completely understand now-”
“Nancy, you like him, I’ll try,” Lisa told her. “No promises on how nice I’ll be, but I’ll try to at least be civil.”
Nancy leaned back from the hug with a huge smile, “you will? Are you sure?”
Lisa grinned and then shoved Nancy away by the face, “yeah, but if he puts a toe out of line I will end him.”
Nancy snorted, rolling onto her back, “noted.”
They shared amused looks between them and then went back to their notes for a while until the sound of someone clearing their throat came from the door.
They looked over and Dustin and Lucas were standing on the threshold of Nancy’s room with idiotic grins on their faces.
“Yes?” Lisa asked.
“Nancy, there’s a slice left if you want it-” Dustin held up a pizza box.
Lucas elbowed his way into the room ahead of Dustin, “hi, Lisa.”
Dustin elbowed Lucas, “gross, dude, that’s my sister.”
“Yeah and? That’s Mike’s sister!” Lucas retorted, waving a hand in Nancy’s direction.
Nancy scowled and climbed off the bed, shutting the door in their faces. Once she sat back on the bed, the two girls shared a look and burst into laughter.
Later, Lisa was putting on her coat to head home with Dustin while the other boys grabbed their things too.
“Do either of you want me to drive you home?”
Lucas beamed at her, “yea-”
“Lucas is fine,” Dustin said bluntly, Lisa shrugged and turned to Will, “what about you, bud? It’s cold out.”
“No, I'm fine, Lisa. Thanks though,” Will said shyly. He and his brother were so alike at times, too quiet and unsuspecting for anyone to pay attention and see how great they really were.
She ruffled his hair fondly, “okay, get Jonathan to give me a call when you’re back, okay?”
He gave her a quick side hug, “he’s doing an extra shift at work tonight so he won’t be home ‘til late.”
Lisa nodded, “no worries, I’ll see him tomorrow anyway. Call me or Dustin when you’re home, ‘kay?”
Will gave her a toothy smile and nodded, and then he and Lucas were hopping on their bikes.
“Nancy’s turned into a real jerk since she started dating that douchebag, Steve Harrington,” Dustin scowled as he climbed into the passenger seat.
“Maybe she’s just sick of your little crush, dude. It was cute when you were a child, but now it’s just weird.”
“Shut up, Lisa.”
“You shut up. And put on your damn seatbelt.”
Chapter Text
The following morning, Lisa walked to her locker while Nancy went to talk to one of their teachers before class. Tommy H was leaning on her locker while talking to Steve, who was clearly waiting for Nancy whose locker was just a few down from Lisa’s.
She walked up to them, “excuse me, that’s my locker.”
Tommy looked her up and down with a smirk, “okay, and?”
“Could you remove yourself from it?”
Tommy wiggled his eyebrows at her, “and what’s the magic word, sweetheart?”
Lisa stared him in the eyes, “now.”
“Nah, I don’t think that’s-”
“Come on man, just move,” Steve said to Tommy who rolled his eyes and moved away, but not before he intentionally knocked the books from her hands and onto the floor.
Steve groaned in frustration while Lisa just stared at Tommy, “seriously? Are you twelve?”
“What are you gonna do? Go cry about it?”
Lisa stepped close to him with a sickly sweet smile, her voice low but venomous, “no, but I will tell your girlfriend about you hitting on me on your way back from gym class last week. That is, if you don’t pick up my books and apologise.”
Tommy swallowed angrily and noticed Carol approaching them from down the corridor, Lisa followed his gaze and raised her eyebrows pointedly. Tommy slowly bent down to pick up her books and then handed them back to her with a mumbled apology.
“I didn’t quite catch that,” she said, tilting her head at him.
He rolled his eyes, “I'm sorry, okay? Jesus.”
“That’s okay, Tommy. Accidents happen,” she said sweetly and he hooked his arm around Carol’s shoulders, steering her away from them before she could stop to chat.
Steve looked down at her with his eyebrows raised, “well, that was-”
“Epic? Spectacular? Groundbreaking?” she answered with disinterest as she put in her combination to unlock her locker.
“All of the above, actually,” he said with a hesitant smile.
Without realising, she was almost automatically returning his smile, so she quickly turned back to her locker which she pulled open, blocking his face from view with the door.
“So, um, is Nancy around?” he asked after clearing his throat.
“She’s asking about our algebra homework before class so she won’t be here for another few minutes.”
Steve ran a hand through his hair sheepishly, “oh, it’s nothing. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay,” she answered simply, opening her bag to pile some books into her locker as he walked away.
A few minutes later, Nancy and Barb walked up and greeted her. Nancy opened her locker and a note fell out, and when she read it a smile grew on her face.
Lisa snorted, “he left you a note? That explains a lot.”
“What?” Nancy asked, her cheeks flushing.
“Steve was just here, he must’ve put that in your locker before I got here. So cliché.”
“Did you talk to him?” Nancy asked with her eyes wide.
“Uh, yes?”
Nancy grinned, “and you didn’t kill him! That’s definite progress.”
“I thought about it, believe me,” she huffed.
Nancy shrugged with a smile, “good, we love inside thoughts that stay inside thoughts.”
Barb laughed and shook her head in amusement, and Lisa nudged Nancy in the arm, “shut up Wheeler, there’s still time.”
Nancy smirked and then looked down at the note in her hand, “I gotta go, I’ll see you guys in class!”
Lisa watched as Nancy hurried off and Barb let out a sigh, “he’s gonna break her heart.”
“Let’s hope he doesn’t, or he’ll get a book in the face,” Lisa mumbled.
Barb snorted, and the two made their way to class.
—
Will Byers didn’t show up to school that day.
On the phone to Jonathan that evening, Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose in worry, “...and what do the police think?”
Jonathan sighed on the other end of the line, “they think he got lost on his way home last night. Or ran away.”
“Goddammit, I should’ve brought him home. He said he was okay and would call when he was back. When he didn’t I just assumed he forgot and went to bed. I’m so sorry Jonathan, I should’ve-”
“Don’t do that Lisa,” Jonathan said pleadingly, “trust me, if you let yourself think like that it’s a dark hole and I’m barely keeping myself together as it is. It’s not your fault.”
“You’re right, sorry,” she felt guilty at expressing her worries when it wasn’t even her brother who hadn’t come home. “We should go out looking for him, right?”
“The police want us to stay put while they search for themselves,” Jonathan told her.
“Hopper is seriously going with that? The more of us that look, the higher chance we’ll have of finding him sooner.”
“That’s what I said. Look, I gotta go, Mom is freaking out again. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Tell her we’re here for her, for both of you, alright? Talk soon.” They hung up and Lisa turned around to see Dustin pacing.
“Any news?” he asked her immediately.
“Not yet, buddy, I’ll keep you updated if I learn anything else.”
He nodded and began fidgeting.
Lisa put her arm around his shoulders, “come on let’s watch one of the new tapes you got yesterday, until we hear more.”
He agreed and they sat with their mom in the living room to watch a movie, though both Lisa and Dustin’s eyes kept darting to the phone, as if looking at it would make it ring with news that Will had shown up.
Over dinner that night, Lisa put her fork down after spending a few minutes pushing her peas around on her plate. “Mom, we need to join that search party in the woods.”
“Agreed,” Dustin chimed in straight away.
Their mother, who was normally not strict, gave them a stern look, “absolutely not. Do you really think I’m about to let my sixteen-year old daughter and twelve-year old son wander the woods at a time like this? There’s absolutely no way.”
“Mom-” Lisa protested.
Dustin spoke at the same time, “but it’s Will, Mom!”
Mrs Henderson put her fork back on the table and stared fiercely at them, her normally sweet voice turning fierce, “I said no. You know how fond I am of Will, but you have to let the professionals do their jobs. You’ll only make things more difficult for them if you try to get involved. And I don’t want you to get lost too.”
They ate their dinner in silence then, and as Lisa lay in bed she couldn’t help but consider all the ‘what ifs’ that filled her mind. What if she’d driven Will home that night, or what if someone else had driven him home and taken him?
The news these days was filled with horror stories from around the country, of missing women and disappearing kids. She felt sick at the idea, and did her best to push the thoughts from her mind so she could sleep.
At breakfast the next morning, Dustin was quiet.
Lisa looked at him suspiciously and he fidgeted under her observation, “what are you looking at?”
“You have mud on your face, did you go out in the garden last night or something?” she asked.
Dustin spluttered indignantly, stalling by cutting up his bacon, “no, the cat climbed on me.”
Lisa sighed. She knew it was bullshit, but if her brother wanted to roll around in the garden then that was his issue, not hers.
Besides, she had more important things to worry about than her brother's odd habits, like the chemistry test that morning. It was the only thing she could think about that distracted her from Will being missing.
After dropping Dustin off at the middle school she parked the car at the high school and walked purposely towards her locker.
Nancy and Barb were there already, quizzing each other on chemistry. Just as Nancy began to answer Barb’s question, Steve snatched Nancy’s flashcards from Barb’s hands.
“I don’t know, I think you’ve studied enough, Nance,” Steve said with a smirk.
“Steve…” Nancy protested.
Steve continued, “I’m telling you, y’know, you’ve got this.”
Tommy came up behind Steve and poked Barb in the ribs and then pulled the hair tie from the bottom of Lisa’s plait, releasing her curly hair which she had just styled before school.
She snatched the elastic band back from Tommy with a scowl and fixed her hair back up, glaring at the undesirable trio of Steve, Tommy and Carol.
“Don’t worry,” Steve straightened up in a way that came across as cocky and Lisa felt her skin prickling with anger. “Now, onto more important matters; my dad has left town on a conference and my mom’s gone with him, ‘cause, y’know, she doesn’t trust him-”
“Good call,” Tommy butted in.
“So, are you in?” Steve raised his eyebrows at Nancy, and then his eyes slid to Lisa briefly but she narrowed her eyes and he looked away.
“‘In’ for what?”
“No parents? Big house?” Carol said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“A party?” Nancy answered hesitantly, and Lisa could see Barb scowling in the corner of her eye.
“Ding, ding, ding!” Carol said sarcastically.
“It’s Tuesday,” Lisa said shortly.
“‘It’s Tuesday!’” Tommy mocked her, “who even said you were invited, Henderson?”
“She’s invited, Tommy, it’s my house,” Steve said to his friend who rolled his eyes. “You too, Barb, if you want.”
“I don’t know, Steve,” Nancy said.
“C’mon, it’ll be low key, it’ll just be us. What do you say? Are you in or are you out?” Steve asked her.
His gaze flickered briefly to Lisa again but she didn’t notice, she was looking over her shoulder to where Jonathan had stopped at a notice board on the wall, and was putting up missing posters for Will.
Carol spoke up, “oh god, look.”
Steve replied, “God, that’s depressing.”
“Seriously?” Lisa snapped.
At the same time Nancy glared at them, “his brother is missing.”
Lisa scowled and walked over to her friend.
“Jonathan,” she said quietly, and he turned around to look at her, the dark circles under his eyes and the paleness of his face enough to make her heart break for him.
She immediately pulled him into a hug, rubbing his back as he basically clung to her, almost sagging in relief, and she could tell he’d really needed that hug.
When they pulled back she pointed to the posters of Will he had in his hand, “let me take some, I’ll put them up during my free period.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, his eyes flicking over her shoulder to the others.
“I’m sure. And ignore them, they’re assholes,” she told him firmly and he nodded.
Taking a bundle of posters from him, she opened her mouth to say something but Nancy walked up to them.
“Hey,” she said to Jonathan.
His eyes widened at her presence, “oh, hey.”
“I just…I wanted to say, you know, um…I’m sorry, about everything,” Nancy said anxiously and Jonathan once again looked over to the group over their shoulders.
“Everyone’s thinking about you,” she said to him, “it…it sucks.”
Jonathan looked at her with suspicion, considering they’d hardly ever spoken before, “yeah.”
“I’m sure he’s fine, he’s a smart kid,” Nancy said, trying to be reassuring, and just then the bell rang, and Nancy looked relieved to have a reason to go, “we have to go, chemistry test.”
Jonathan nodded, “oh, yeah.”
Nancy quickly walked away and Lisa gave Jonathan another hug and looked him straight in the eye, “if there’s anything I can do, anything we can do, ask.”
Jonathan smiled sadly and squeezed her wrist gently in gratitude, “thanks, Lise.”
Lisa gave him a kind smile before walking back down the hall.
“Wow, one freak to another,” Tommy snickered.
“Your fly’s open, asshole. Careful or your tiny dick might fall out,” Lisa told him loudly as she walked past.
As she walked, an announcement came over the intercom system, “attention faculty and students. At 8pm tonight, there will be an assembly tonight on the football field in support of Will Byers and his family…”
As she walked, Lisa glanced over her shoulder to see Jonathan storming out of the school. She couldn’t imagine what he was going through, and she couldn’t imagine what sort of state she would be in if it had been Dustin who’d gone missing.
She felt sick whenever she considered what might have happened to Will, and her heart broke for his brother and mom.
Maybe, like the police said, he really was lost and just waiting to be found.
Chapter Text
That night, Lisa was sitting on her bed on the phone to Nancy, “I just don’t understand why you want me to go.”
“Because I don’t want to go by myself!” Nancy replied pleadingly.
“I’m already going to the assembly for Will,” Lisa answered. “You’ll be fine by yourself. Steve’ll be there, obviously.”
“We’ll go after the assembly. Please?”
“Nancy…”
“Lisa, it’s not rocket science. Just tell your Mom you’re gonna stay at my place afterwards- no, tell her we’re studying, and then having a sleepover.”
“Studying, Nancy, really?” Lisa closed her eyes wearily.
“She’ll believe it! You can spend the night at mine, okay? Bring your stuff for school tomorrow.”
“What about Barb?”
“Well, I figured I’d asked you first, and if you said you were going, she’d be more likely to agree to come too.”
“That’s a long shot, Nance. You know Barb doesn’t like parties.”
“I’m gonna call her next, please say you’ll go,” Nancy all but begged.
Lisa groaned but reluctantly agreed, “fine, but only after the assembly. And the first sign of you hooking up with Steve and leaving us with Tommy and Carol, we’re leaving.”
“Fine, fine! I’ll see you later, come over for seven.”
—
After hanging up, Lisa stood and rooted through her closet for something to wear. After deciding on her new pair of denim jeans and a white sweater, she changed and told her mom she was going to Nancy’s before the assembly for dinner and they were having a sleepover afterwards. Thankfully without many questions, once she mentioned she was going with two of her ‘sensible’ friends, Mrs Henderson agreed.
Lisa put on a little bit of makeup and pulled the top half of her curly brown hair into a scrunchie, then she gave herself a long-suffering glare in the mirror. Nancy would owe her big time for this.
At seven o'clock, she arrived at the Wheelers and along with Nancy, helped Mrs Wheeler to finish preparing dinner.
“Have you done your homework?” she asked Dustin who was already at the table.
He narrowed his eyes, “my friend is missing and you’re asking if my homework is done.”
“It’s a completely reasonable question, Mr Henderson,” Mr Wheeler said monotonously over his newspaper.
“Mom’s worried, okay? Just keep up with your school work. Slacking off won’t help Will,” Lisa said quietly to Dustin who rolled his eyes.
“Whatever. But yes my homework is done, thanks, Mom.”
Lisa sat down next to Nancy, and after thanking Mrs Wheeler for the food, Lisa began to eat but noticed the three boys were just pushing their food around their plates.
“Something wrong with the meatloaf?” Mrs Wheeler asked and Lisa glared at Dustin, silently telling him to watch his manners.
“Oh, no, I just had two bologna sandwiches for lunch…I don’t know why,” he said with a sweet, toothy smile to Mrs Wheeler.
“Me too,” Lucas said.
Lisa shared a wary look with Nancy but continued with the food while Nancy straightened up, “it’s delicious, Mommy.”
“Thank you, sweetie,” her mother replied with a smile.
“So, there’s this…special assembly thing tonight for Will at the school field,” Nancy said.
Nancy nudged Lisa under the table and she cleared her throat, “uh, yeah. Barb is driving us. A few of us are gonna go for food afterwards.”
“Why am I just hearing about this assembly?” Mrs Wheeler asked, confused.
“I thought you knew?” Nancy asked weakly.
“It was only announced in school this morning,” Lisa added.
“I told you, I don’t want you out after dark until Will is found. Lisa, I’m sure your mother feels the same-”
“It’d be super weird if we weren’t there, Mom. I mean, everyone’s going,” Nancy, wearing her best doe eyes.
Mrs Wheeler looked between the two girls and sighed, “okay, just…be back by ten.”
Nancy nodded and gave Lisa a small triumphant smile, but Mrs Wheeler wasn’t finished yet, “why don’t you take the boys, too?”
Before either of them could protest, the boys all shouted, “NO!”
After a momentary silence, in which the boys shook their heads fiercely, Mrs Wheeler looked at them in confusion, “don’t you think you should be there? For Will?”
Lisa watched Mike’s eyes go wide at something and he choked on his glass of milk in shock.
Before anyone could look around for the cause of his outburst, Dustin slapped the table abruptly, startling them all and making little Holly Wheeler gasp.
“Sorry. Spasm.” His weak excuse caused Lisa to narrow her eyes at him and he pulled a face back at her.
“It’s okay, Holly. It’s just a loud noise,” Mrs Wheeler said to her youngest child, whose bottom lip was now trembling.
Lisa looked across the table and fixed Dustin with a glare, “nice.”
Dustin at least had the good sense to look ashamed.
The rest of dinner was uneventful, and just as Lisa and Nancy had finished freshening up, the sound of a car horn outside signalled for them to go.
After a quick look in the mirror, Lisa tucked a stray curl into a hair pin, tightened her scrunchie and then pulled her jacket over her sweater. She ducked into the backseat behind Nancy, and Barb who was driving.
“If they bring out a Ouija board, I’m leaving,” Barb muttered over the low music playing on the radio as they drove.
Nancy sighed loudly, “Barb, I really don’t think communicating with the dead is on the agenda.”
“What is on the agenda after the assembly, Nancy?” Lisa asked.
Nancy shrugged, “I don’t really know. Talking, I guess?”
“Oh, wonderful,” Barb scowled as she drove down a street of large houses. “And, tell me, what would those thick-skulled morons have to talk about? Apart from themselves, that is.”
“Barb, please,” Nancy groaned, “at least try to get along. And Lisa, you too, if you could go one night without looking like you want to explode at Steve, Tommy or Carol, that would be great.”
“Fine, fine,” Lisa said, holding her hands up in surrender, and then she added halfheartedly, trying to reign in the sarcasm, “I’m sure it’ll be fun.”
After the half-hour assembly at the school for Will, the girls were back in the car and following Nancy’s directions through a suburb of large houses.
“Oh, Barb, pull over here!” Nancy said suddenly and Barb looked at her as if she’d grown another head. “What?”
“Pull over!” Nancy repeated, nervous energy radiating off her.
“What are we doing here?” Barb asked after she pulled in near the curb.
“Yeah, his house is three blocks from here,” Lisa pointed out and Barb looked at her in surprise.
Lisa waved a hand dismissively, “I’ve been there before, years ago.”
Barb shrugged as if nothing could really phase her at this point, and then turned back to Nancy, “well?”
“We can’t park in the driveway,” Nancy said.
Barb scoffed, “are you serious?”
“Yeah, the neighbours might see!”
Barb glared out of the windscreen, “this is so stupid. I’m just gonna drop you guys off-”
“Calm down, Barb. Come on. You promised that you’d go, you’re coming. We’re gonna have a great time! Right, Lisa?”
Lisa rested her chin on the back of Nancy’s seat and looked at Barb, “I’ll be there with you, don’t worry.”
Barb let out a long-suffering sigh, “Nancy, he just wants to get in your pants.”
Lisa blanched and busied herself with fixing her smudged brown eyeliner in the rearview mirror.
“No, he doesn’t!”
“Nance…seriously. He invited you to his house.”
“He invited you guys too!” Nancy protested.
Barb raised her eyebrows, “I was invited was I? You didn’t beg him to let me come along?”
Nancy opened her mouth and closed it again, and Barb continued, “see? I seriously doubt he wants to get into my pants. Lisa, well, that’s up for debate but-”
“Jesus, Barb. Don’t drag me into this,” Lisa scowled.
Barb stopped laughing then and gave Nancy a pointed look, “okay, let me reiterate, he invited you to his house while his parents aren’t home.”
“Tommy H. and Carol are gonna be there-”
“Tommy H. and Carol have been having sex since, like, seventh grade. It’ll probably just be, like, a big orgy.”
Lisa snorted and Barb’s words while Nancy scowled, “gross.”
Lisa and Barb shared an amused look in the mirror and then Nancy pulled off her sweater to reveal a much smaller top underneath.
Lisa leaned over the seat and jokingly tugged at the lacy strap that stuck out from under the collar, “Nance, is that a new bra?”
Nancy flushed, “what? No!”
Lisa and Barb laughed as they climbed out of the car, and they walked to the large Harrington residence, where Lisa spotted the tire swing that was still hanging in from the oak tree in the front garden. Pushing the memory from her mind she followed the others to the front door.
Steve opened the double front doors with a flourish and grinned at them, “hello, ladies.”
—
Within the hour they were all sitting on the poolside garden chairs while Tommy and Carol messed around, trying to push each other into the lit-up pool.
Barb sat silently seething while Lisa sat on the chair next to her, a knee to her chest as she tied and untied the laces on her shoe to occupy herself. Who knew that there were so many ways to tie a bow?
Steve punctured a hole in his beer can and drank it all in one go while Nancy watched.
“Is that supposed to impress me?” she asked as he stuck a cigarette in his mouth.
“You’re not?”
She giggled in a very un-Nancy-like manner, “you are a cliché, you do realise that?”
“You are a cliché,” Steve retorted, lighting his cigarette.
Then he looked over Nancy’s shoulder, “what do you think, Henderson? D’you think I’m a cliché?”
Lisa startled at being acknowledged and straightened up, “why do you care what I think?”
He shrugged nonchalantly, taking a drag from his cigarette, “call it morbid curiosity.”
Lisa decided to humour him and relaxed back into her chair, crossing both her arms and legs, holding his gaze, “if, by cliché, you mean sitting at a so-called party in your stupidly big house, almost as big as your own ego, chugging shitty beer to impress a girl whose friends you only invited for brownie points when you actually couldn’t care less about them? Then, yeah, I’d consider you a cliché.”
Barb stifled a laugh, her first smile all night.
Steve even smirked and raised his fresh can in salute to Lisa, “I’ll take it, Henderson.”
Lisa raised her own can, the one she’d been nursing all evening, smiling as fakely as she could at him.
Nancy glared pointedly at Lisa over her shoulder, and Lisa just shrugged at her.
“So, party girl, why don’t you show us how it’s done?” Steve held a can out to Nancy.
She took it eagerly, even having barely finished downing her other one, and Lisa and Barb shared a look.
“You’ve gotta make a little hole right in the bottom-”
“I got it,” Nancy interrupted him.
Tommy laughed, “she’s smart, you douche!”
He flattened an empty can against his head and threw it in Lisa and Barb’s direction and missed by a longshot.
Lisa sighed in fake-sympathy, “at least you’re not hoping for a football scholarship in the future, Tommy.”
He flipped her off while Barb smirked at Tommy’s expense.
Then, Nancy began to chug the beer while the others chanted, and Lisa and Barb watched on in silence. Barb was really taking the whole thing to heart, shaking her head in a mixture of disappointment and disbelief.
“Barb, Lisa, you wanna try?” Nancy asked, completely oblivious to how her friend was feeling.
“No, thanks,” Barb answered while Lisa shook her head.
“Come on, try it!”
“No, I don’t want to,” Barb repeated uncomfortably.
“Henderson will give it a try, won’t you Lisa?” Steve said, holding up an unopened can in his hand.
“One beer is enough for me. We’ve got school tomorrow,” Lisa replied. She wasn’t judging Nancy simply for drinking, but rather how fast and how much she was drinking to seemingly fit in with the others.
“‘We’ve got school tomorrow!’” Carol repeated mockingly.
“Guys, come on, just give it a try!” Nancy pleaded.
Barb snapped, “you know what? Fine.”
Barb stood up and tried to pierce the can with the knife but it slipped and cut her hand instead, and then she dropped the can in shock and clutched her bleeding hand.
“Ew, gnarly!” Tommy jeered.
Lisa stood up quickly and took Barb’s wrist gently in her hands, “are you okay?”
Lisa could see the tears brimming in her eyes and Nancy stepped closer, her cheeks flushed with the effects of how quickly she’d been drinking, having never drank more than a couple of glasses of wine during Christmas break.
“Barb, you’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine!” Barb was furious and Lisa led her to the house.
Steve followed, “hey, wait!”
Barb scowled and Lisa turned to him as he rooted around in the kitchen.
“Here,” he handed her a small red first aid box, “the bathroom is the third door-”
“On the left. Yeah, I remember,” Lisa said, taking the box from him and leading Barb through the house and to the bathroom.
She was about to follow her friend in to help but Barb turned around, “could you give me a minute? I just need to be alone for a bit. Thanks though, Lisa, seriously.”
Lisa nodded in understanding, and walked back out to the pool. She heard shrieking as soon as she stepped outside and saw the other four in the pool, fully dressed and splashing around.
“Lisa, hey!” Steve grinned at her, swimming over and leaning his elbows on the side of the pool, “come on in!”
She sat on a chair opposite him, “it’s November, Harrington.”
“Aw come on!” he said, nudging the toe of her converse with his knuckles. “You used to love this pool.”
She raised her eyebrows at him, really not in the mood for a trip down memory lane as though nothing had happened between them, “yeah, when I was twelve. A lot has changed since then, Steve. You made sure of that.”
His face fell and his eyes searched her face for a moment before he nodded curtly and turned to swim back to the others.
Lisa looked away, cursing herself for being in this position again, in this house, with this boy.
Of all the boys in their school that Nancy could have had a crush on, why did it have to be Steve Harrington?
Chapter Text
Barb came back outside a while later after cleaning up her hand, just as the others were climbing out of the pool. They towelled themselves off, laughing and messing around, giddy after too many beers.
Tommy and Carol headed inside, as did Nancy with a towel wrapped around her shoulders.
Steve turned around to them before stepping through the patio door, “you guys wanna come in and sit down? It’s getting cold out.”
Lisa nodded and followed him in with Barb right behind her. They followed Nancy until they realised she was heading to the stairs, hurrying after Steve who was walking up to the next floor.
“Nance?” Lisa called her but Nancy didn’t turn around.
Barb, who was beyond pissed, called her again, “Nancy!”
Nancy turned around on the stairs to look down at them, looking awkwardly between them and where Steve had gone.
“Where are you going?” Barb asked her.
“Nowhere! Just…upstairs to- to change,” Nancy replied sheepishly. “I fell in the pool.”
Barb just stared at her in disbelief and Lisa felt uncomfortable, the tension between her two friends that had been growing all night was finally coming to a head.
“Why don’t you guys go ahead and go home? I’ll just…I’ll get a ride or something.”
“With who, Nance? They’ve all been drinking, a lot, they’re not gonna be able to drive you anywhere,” Lisa tried to reason with her best friend.
Nancy shrugged, “guys, I’m fine. Seriously.”
Lisa and Barb shared a quick glance, and Barb gritted her teeth, “Nancy this isn’t you.”
“I’m fine,” Nancy replied more fiercely this time, “just go ahead and go home, okay?”
“I was supposed to be staying at yours, Nancy,” Lisa reminded her.
Nancy groaned, “can’t you just stay at Barb’s?”
Lisa was getting really annoyed, “Barb lives on the opposite end of town, and all my stuff is at yours for school tomorrow. Plus my car is parked in your driveway.”
Nancy shuffled awkwardly on the stairs, “I’ll drive your car and bring your bag in for you, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.” And with that, she hurried upstairs.
Lisa and Barb shared an incredulous look. “Well, I think we can both agree that we’re not going to leave her here alone.”
Barb agreed, “yeah, come on let's go back outside.”
They sat in bewildered silence at the pool, Barb on the diving board with her feet in the water, and Lisa on a sun lounger with her knees pulled up to her chest.
“She’ll get over it, won’t she? This phase of doing everything to impress Steve?” Barb asked and Lisa shrugged, a cold wind making her shiver slightly.
“Hopefully. I mean, he obviously likes her for a reason. I don’t know why she’s trying to act differently now.”
“It’s pathetic,” Barb scowled, and then her face softened. “You used to be friends with Steve, right? You knew where he lived and there’s clearly some history there.”
“That obvious, huh?”
“To those of us that pay attention,” Barb answered sympathetically.
Lisa sighed, “we were best friends in middle school, and he dropped me as soon as he got popular. I found out that we weren’t friends anymore the hard way. First day of freshman year.”
“I’m sorry,” Barb said solemnly.
“Yeah, well, shit happens,” Lisa said with a grimace, “I just never exactly planned on him coming back into my life. I didn’t want him to. I don’t want him to.”
Barb nodded in understanding and Lisa stood up, “I’m gonna get some water, do you want some?”
Barb shook her head, “no, I’m fine, thanks.”
“By the way, if you wanna drive back home, you should. I’ll wait for Nancy and she and I can walk home together,” Lisa told her.
Barb nodded, “yeah, okay. I’ll think about it.”
Lisa walked inside, closing the patio door over to keep the cold out and poured herself a glass of water.
She found herself wandering around the first floor of the house, looking at the framed photographs on the wall of a young Steve in formalwear with his parents, both good-looking and well-dressed people with good reputations in Hawkins.
She’d been in this house many times, seen these pictures before, but now she felt like a stranger. She realised that that’s exactly what she was now, a stranger.
Looking around to make sure no one was around, Lisa skimmed her fingertips along the perfectly polished wooden drawer console in the hallway under the stairs, coming to a stop at a row of photo albums.
One that looked like it had been recently looked at, its spine jutting out slightly from the rest, had the years 1975-1980 engraved on the cover. After a moment’s hesitation, Lisa opened it and saw a few photographs of Steve as a kid with his parents at various business events, and there were another few of him with them on vacation.
Lisa knew that Steve had grown estranged from his parents as he’d gotten older. His dad was a successful businessman, and his mother was a popular socialite, and as time went on, they had less time for him. Eventually a nanny had been brought in to look after him from the age of eight, and she was who Lisa saw whenever she was at Steve’s house when they were kids.
Flipping through the photos, Lisa’s hand stilled as she flipped to a photo from the summer of 1979 with a thirteen-year-old Steve sitting in the tire swing with a twelve-year-old Lisa standing up on it behind him and holding onto the rope, both of them grinning broad smiles for the photo.
Steve had worn braces on his teeth back then, and Lisa’s hair had been in two braids with a bow hairband on her head.
There were a lot more photos of them, spanning a number of pages in the album, and the pages were worn as though they’d been looked through a lot since the first ones were taken five years ago. Lisa felt her eyes fill with tears and she shut the album quickly and put it back where she found it, and then she hurried through the kitchen and to the patio door.
“Barb, honestly you should go ahead home-” she said as she pulled the door closed behind her, but Barb wasn’t sitting at the pool anymore.
“Barb?” Lisa looked around but couldn’t see her anywhere.
Lisa walked back inside and checked the bathroom, which was empty, and Barb wasn’t in any of the other rooms downstairs, and she definitely wasn’t upstairs because Lisa would’ve seen her come in.
She wondered if Barb had taken her suggestion onboard and gone home, but she didn’t think she would’ve left without saying goodbye.
She checked her watch, and let out a sigh, realising that they were already half an hour past their curfew, and they’d be even later now that they had to walk back to the Wheelers’ house.
Reluctantly, she walked upstairs to where she knew Steve’s room was, and sure enough it still had the faded, ‘S’ on the door.
She took a deep breath and knocked loudly.
“Go away, Tommy! We’re busy,” Steve yelled from inside the closed door.
“Nancy, it’s Lisa. I need you to-”
The door was flung open and a shirtless Steve stood in the doorway looking down at her in surprise, “Lisa? What’s up?”
Averting her gaze, and ignoring him, she looked past his arm and saw Nancy pulling her sweater back on, looking mortified.
“Thanks but no thanks for the interruption, Lisa,” Steve muttered, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
Lisa glared at him coldly, “to be honest, Steve, I couldn’t give less of a shit about you not getting laid tonight.”
She turned her attention to her friend, “Nancy, we’re going.”
Nancy stepped up next to Steve in the doorway, “what? I told you guys to go ahead.”
Lisa bit back her irritation at Nancy, “Yeah, well, I told Barb to go ahead home and she obviously went ahead. So I’m not walking home alone, so we’re leaving now.”
“She left without you? That was a bit shitty of her,” Steve said with a frown.
Lisa gritted her teeth, “don’t get me started on a conversation about people being shitty, Harrington. Besides, I told her to go ahead because she was so unhappy.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” She gave him a withering look and then turned it on Nancy, “we’re leaving, now. I’m not asking.”
Nancy bit her lip, clearly ashamed, “yeah, just let me get my jacket.”
She pushed past both Steve and Lisa and went downstairs in a hurry, while Steve walked back into his room to grab a sweater, leaving the door open behind him as he went, “we didn’t, like, if you were wondering, she, uh- she was drunker than me, so we didn’t do-”
“Save it,” she snapped, crossing her arms and turning her back on him. “I really don’t want to know what you did or didn’t do.”
“Alright, Henderson, what’s your deal? Why do you hate me so much?”
“Excuse me?”
The abruptness of the question caught her completely off guard and she turned back around to face him. Thankfully, he was clothed this time.
“You act like I’m the- the biggest fucking douchebag you’ve ever met,” he said, looking genuinely hurt as he stood in front of her.
She stared at him in disbelief, “seriously? You want to talk about this now?”
“If not now, then when?” he answered, his eyebrows raised.
She shook her head, but as she turned away he gently pulled her to a stop by the wrist, “Lise, please.”
Him using the nickname he used to call her broke her heart in two. She swallowed the lump in her throat and looked back up at him as he dropped her wrist.
“You hurt me, Steve. You really hurt me,” she told him in a whisper, not trusting her voice to not tremble if she spoke aloud.
Steve stared at her, “I’m sorry, I was such an idiot.”
Lisa bit her lip, “you were my favourite person back then, you know. And then you dropped me, as if I meant nothing. Saying sorry just isn’t enough.”
Steve ran a hand through his hair, looking pained, “is there anything I can do? To make it better? I’ll do anything-”
“Don’t, Steve,” she said, not looking at him as she shook her head.
“Lisa, please. I miss y-”
“Lisa, I found my jacket,” Nancy called from downstairs.
Without looking at Steve, Lisa walked away with tears in her eyes and he slowly followed her back down to say goodbye to Nancy.
“Want me to walk you home?” Steve asked.
“We’ll be fine,” Lisa answered firmly.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Nancy said, and as she kissed him Lisa walked out the front door.
The walk back was mostly silent as the two girls made their way back to the Wheelers’ house, in the dark.
Quietly opening the door, they snuck in, but the lights came on and they jumped.
“Jesus, you scared me!” Nancy whispered to her mom.
Mrs Wheeler was furious, “oh, I scared you?”
“I know, I should’ve called-” Nancy began.
Mrs Wheeler wasn’t having any excuses, “where have you been? We agreed on ten o’clock.”
Nancy bit her lip before replying, “after the assembly, we got food and, um- we had to walk back so we were later than I thought. I didn’t think it’d be a big deal.”
“You didn’t think to call and let me know? With everything that’s been going on? Especially when I have the responsibility of looking after someone else’s child?” Mrs Wheeler looked at Lisa sternly, “I have half a mind to drop you home right now Lisa and talk to your mother.”
“Mom, no- just…” Nancy trailed off.
Lisa spoke up, “we didn’t realise how late it was. We should’ve planned to walk earlier, sorry Mrs Wheeler.”
“Sorry, Mom,” Nancy said, and then she turned on her heel to walk up the stairs until her mother caught her by the jacket, “whose sweater is that?”
“Steve’s,” Nancy replied quietly.
Mrs Wheeler looked from her daughter, to Lisa, and back to Nancy.
“Steve’s,” she repeated, “so is Steve your boyfriend now?”
“Goodnight, Mrs Wheeler,” Lisa mumbled before quickly running up the stairs.
She pulled her pyjamas out of the overnight bag she’d brought, and was sitting on the bed taking her makeup off when Nancy came in.
She closed the door and then flopped down on one side of the bed.
They were quiet for a moment, and then Lisa spoke, “you can talk about it, if you want. If something happened with Steve. I’m sorry I interrupted…well, whatever.”
“We don’t have to talk if you’re mad at me.”
“I am mad at you, but you can still talk to me if you want,” Lisa told her as she got under the comforter.
Nancy turned her head to look at Lisa and let out a long breath, “nothing happened. Not really. We were just kissing and…took our shirts off. But I-I drank too much so we’d, um, slowed down before you’d even knocked on the door.”
Lisa nodded but didn’t say anything.
“I think it was just bad timing anyway. I knew you and Barb were pissed at me so I was distracted.”
“You were a bit of a jerk tonight,” Lisa told her honestly.
Nancy nodded, getting up to change into her pyjamas, “I know, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
Lisa lay down on the bed facing Nancy, “if he makes you happy, that’s what matters. But don’t change yourself for him. You don’t need to.”
“Thanks, Lisa,” Nancy said and then she sighed as she settled under the comforter and lay down to face Lisa. “Barb is really pissed at me isn’t she?”
“Yeah, she is. But she’ll be fine. I just wish she’d said something to me before leaving, but she probably just wanted to get home. We can talk to her tomorrow and clear the air.”
“Okay,” Nancy whispered, unconvinced.
“Just…try not to worry too much, okay?”
Nancy nodded, “I’ll try.”
Notes:
Who's gonna tell them...
Chapter Text
They didn’t see Barb in homeroom the following morning, and as Lisa and Nancy walked through the cafeteria at lunchtime, they didn’t see her then either.
“Hey, let’s sit over here,” Nancy said, nodding her head to where Steve was sitting with Tommy and Carol.
“Nancy, seriously?” Lisa gave her a look of disbelief.
“They might’ve seen Barb!” Nancy reasoned. “It’s better than sitting by ourselves and wondering where she is.”
Lisa rolled her eyes but followed her, sitting opposite Nancy next to Carol, who was making the boys inspect something on her foot.
“Look at this, it’s totally frostbite,” Carol complained.
“It’s a heated pool!” Tommy said with his mouth full, crumbs from his sandwich landing back on his tray.
“Well, if it’s not frostbite then what is it?” Carol demanded, her foot still up on the table.
Steve blanched, “ugh, I don’t care what it is, it’s disgusting. Take it off the table, we’re eating here.”
He looked up to give them a smile of acknowledgement as they sat down, and Lisa just looked away and busied herself with her tray of food.
“Hey, Tommy,” Nancy said. “When you left last night, did you see Barb?”
“What?” he answered with a smirk.
“Barbara,” Lisa said sharply, “our friend. She’s not here today.”
Tommy looked down the table at her, “I seriously have no idea who you’re talking about.”
Carol snickered and then Tommy joined in.
Lisa opened her mouth to snap at them, but Steve spoke up, “come on. Don’t be an ass, man. Did you see her leave last night or not?”
Tommy rolled his eyes, “no, she was gone when we left.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Steve said to Lisa and Nancy with a half shrug. “She’s probably just skipping or something.”
The two girls shared a look, because they knew that Barb would never skip school.
Not unless something was really, really wrong.
—
After school, Lisa sat on the wall while Nancy called Barb’s house from the payphone.
“Is it ringing?” Lisa asked, holding the phonebook they’d borrowed from the front office.
Nancy fidgeted anxiously, “come on, come on, come on…”
Mrs Holland picked up, and the call confirmed their worst fears: Barb hadn’t come home the night before, and her mother hadn’t seen her that morning either.
“Look, let's try not to panic just yet, I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for all this,” Lisa said and Nancy nodded.
Lisa glanced up and saw Jonathan leaving school and she told Nancy she’d catch up with her in a few minutes.
“Jonathan!”
“Lisa, hey,” he said, stopping on the footpath until she caught up with him and they walked together to the parking lot.
“How are you holding up? I think my mom was going to drop a lasagna over this afternoon,” she told him. “She’s trying to coordinate with Karen Wheeler so they don’t bombard you with casseroles.”
He gave a small smile, “that’s kind of her. I’m okay, worried sick but I’m…What the hell?”
Lisa looked up and followed Jonathan’s gaze to where Steve, Tommy and Carol, and another girl from junior year were leaning on his car.
“Hey, man,” Steve said with an unreadable look on his face, straightening to his full height to look down at Jonathan.
“What’s going on?” Jonathan asked warily.
“Nicole here was, uh, telling us about your work,” Steve replied, nodding to the redhead next to him.
“We’ve heard great things,” Carol said sarcastically.
“Yeah, sounds cool,” Tommy taunted.
“And we’d just love to take a look. You know, as…connoisseurs of art,” Steve said plainly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jonathan said quickly, and he tried to make a move for his car but Tommy pushed him back roughly and grabbed his bag.
“Harrington! What the hell is going on here?” Lisa demanded, coming up just behind Jonathan who had practically run across the parking lot.
“You should probably leave, Henderson,” Steve said curtly, avoiding Lisa’s eye completely.
“Do not tell me what to do,” Lisa snapped.
“Please, just give me my bag,” Jonathan said, and Lisa looked over her shoulder to see Tommy throwing Jonathan’s backpack around.
Steve caught it and sneered at Jonathan, acting like a completely different person from the night before. The person who had apologised to her, asked if there was anything he could do to make things right between them…that boy was nowhere to be seen right now.
He opened the bag and rummaged around inside, “man, he is totally trembling. He must really have something to hide. Oh! Here we go.”
Steve pulled a set of photographs from the bag and the others leaned over to have a look.
“These aren’t creepy at all,” Carol commented, pursing her lips.
Jonathan visibly deflated and Lisa stepped up next to him, “what is it, Jonathan? I don’t understand.”
“Let me help you understand, Henderson,” Steve said harshly, walking over and shoving the photographs into her hands.
Lisa’s heart sank when she saw them, all taken from the forest outside Steve’s backyard. They were from the night before, photos of them sitting by the pool, drinking beer, a photo of Barb sitting on the diving board of the pool, clearly after Lisa had gone inside to get a drink. The last one made Lisa’s jaw drop, because it was a photograph of Nancy in Steve’s bedroom with her sweater off.
Jonathan was visibly shaken, “I was looking for my brother-”
“No. No, this is called stalking,” Steve said to Jonathan with a disgusted expression.
Then he looked down at Lisa again, brows raised expectantly, “well? What do you think? Is this the kind of trash you really want to associate yourself with, Lisa?”
Lisa shoved the photos back into Steve’s chest and pushed him back a step, “who the hell are you being right now?”
“Who the hell am I? Did you not look at the photographs?” Steve was furious. “Did you not see that this creep took photographs of your best friend?”
“I did, and I’m asking you why you have to be such an asshole without waiting for a goddamn explanation!” she shouted at him.
Steve narrowed his eyes and his expression flipped between hurt and anger. She knew this wasn’t his fault but she had to blame him, because this couldn’t be real.
Jonathan wasn’t like that, he couldn’t be like that.
Her eyes had filled with tears, and she met his dark eyes which had softened slightly at her visible upset, “I-”
Her hand was still pressing the photographs to Steve’s chest, and she took a step back, shaking her head, “there’s an explanation for this. There has to be. Jonathan?”
She looked at her friend, but he had nothing to say.
“Jonathan?” Lisa asked again, pleading with him for an explanation.
He wouldn’t meet her gaze, and then Nancy showed up after seeing the commotion from across the parking lot.
“What’s going on?” she asked, taking in Lisa’s expression.
“Ah, here’s the starring lady!” Tommy exclaimed.
“Lisa, what’s wrong?” Nancy asked, standing next to her, but Lisa was staring at Jonathan, and didn’t answer.
Steve had his eyes on Lisa and without looking away from her, he handed the photographs over to Nancy, “take a look for yourself, Nancy.”
“This creep was spying on us last night,” Carol announced, “he was probably gonna save this one for later.” She tapped a manicured fingernail on the photograph of Nancy in her bra.
“See you can tell he knows it was wrong, but…that’s the thing about perverts. It’s hardwired into ‘em.” Steve walked over to Jonathan and tugged on his collar. “You know, they just can’t help themselves.”
He tore the photographs up and then continued, “so, we’ll just have to take away his toy.”
“Steve…” Nancy protested.
“No, please, not the camera,” Jonathan pleaded with him.
“Don’t, Steve, just leave it alone. You’ve made your point,” Lisa tried to reason and Steve looked from her and then back to Jonathan with narrowed eyes.
He held out the camera, “alright, here you go, man.”
But just as Jonathan reached out to take it, Steve let it fall to the ground, glass and plastic shattering on the concrete.
Steve turned on his heel and stalked away, the others laughing loudly behind him. Lisa and Nancy stood in a stunned silence as Jonathan bent down to pick up the bits of the camera.
Lisa crouched next to him, picking up the shattered lens while Nancy snatched up a few bits of a torn photograph and backed away quickly.
Before catching up with Steve, Nancy turned around, “are you coming Lisa?”
“No,” Lisa replied, shaking her head. “See you tomorrow?”
Nancy gave her a sad smile and nodded, then continued on her way.
After picking up as much of the camera as they could, Lisa wrapped the shards in a tissue and handed it over.
“It was wrong what you did, really wrong,” she said to him sharply, still in disbelief.
He kept his head low, “I know. I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, you weren’t. What were you even doing out there?” Lisa asked as they stood up, having gathered what they could of the shattered camera.
“I was in the woods, looking for Will. I swear. I brought my camera, just in case, and then I heard- I don’t know- screaming or something. But it was just you guys messing around at the pool. I don’t know why I took those pictures. I really don’t.” He hung his head in shame.
“You need to apologise to Nancy. This was a total invasion of privacy.”
He nodded, “I know, and I will.”
She nodded before shouldering her backpack, “I’m sorry about your camera, I know how much you loved it.”
“Thanks, Lisa.”
“I’ve gotta go. See you tomorrow.” She walked to her own car, her mind spinning with everything that was going on.
That evening, Lisa was doing her homework at the kitchen table when the phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Lisa? I’m sorry, I know it’s late.”
“Nancy? You okay, you know, after earlier?” Lisa replied.
“Um, fine, it’s- it’s not about that…I…”
Lisa was surprised at hearing her friend’s tearful voice. “What is it?”
“I, um, I found Barb’s car where she parked it last night. She didn’t- she didn’t drive home, Lisa,” Nancy said, choking up slightly.
“Oh, Jesus,” Lisa said, feeling sick. “Have you told anyone?”
“I told Mom, she’s just called Mr and Mrs Holland, I think they’re gonna come over so I can tell them what I know, and then I guess they’ll go to the police,” Nancy replied.
“Okay, good, the police will find her. They’re looking for Will so they’ll know what they’re doing.”
“I really hope you’re right,” Nancy said.
—
About an hour later, Lisa was just finishing her homework when the front door opened and shut again.
“Dustin, is that you? Mom’s at her book club so I was just gonna put on some pizza if you want some?” she called out, but she got no answer.
“Dustin?” she called again, putting down her pen.
When she once again got no answer, she stood up from the table, and upon consideration of all the awful stories she’d read about in the papers and seen on TV, she picked up the scissors from the countertop before walking out into the hall.
She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Dustin standing just inside the door, “Jesus, Dustin, you scared me.”
He was standing there, staring into space, so she put down the scissors and walked over to him.
To her dismay, she saw that he was crying and she put her hand on his shoulder, leaning down a bit to look him in the eyes, “hey, buddy, what is it? What happened?”
He was shaking all over, his face swollen and wet with tears. She could just barely hear him when he answered, “they found him. They found Will.”
Lisa froze, her hand tightening on his shoulder, “they found him?”
Dustin looked up at her, “they found his body, Lisa. At the quarry.”
Feeling as though the world had tilted beneath her feet, Lisa pulled Dustin into a tight hug as he cried against her shoulder.
Lisa’s own tears fell down her cheeks, but all she could do was stare ahead, waiting for the phone to ring again, to say it was a mistake.
Because there was no way, no way, that Will Byers was dead.
Their mom got home a short while later, and Lisa had to tell her because Dustin couldn’t speak. They both spent the rest of the evening comforting a devastated Dustin, and Lisa tried her best to keep her own tears to a minimum for his sake.
They also called the Wheelers’ and Sinclairs’, and no one had any idea what to do next. Lisa desperately wanted to call Jonathan, offer both her condolences and her help in anything he or Joyce needed, but she knew he was probably only finding out the news as they had.
—
The following morning, Lisa and Nancy were sitting in English class, but not really paying attention. The mood of the school population was sombre and shocked, as if no one really knew how to deal with the news of Will’s body being found.
It took everything in Lisa’s power to not cry, but she had to dab her eyes with her sleeve to catch the tears that threatened to spill over.
The door of the classroom opened, “Nancy Wheeler and Lisa Henderson?”
They looked over to see the school principal standing in the doorway, “could you both come with me, please?”
They shared a quick glance before packing up their things and leaving the classroom.
Nancy had told her more from her evening of looking around Steve’s street, that after finding Barb’s car, she’d gone into the woods behind the backyard and had seen someone else there. What Lisa struggled to get her head wrapped around was that Nancy said it wasn’t a normal person, it looked like it didn’t have a face.
The description had sent a chill down Lisa’s spine and while she really wanted to believe her friend, the idea of an extremely tall person with no face just walking around Hawkins was a bit far-fetched. Stuff like that was for Halloween movies, not for Hawkins.
“Do you think this is about Barb?” Lisa asked quietly as they walked several feet behind the principal as she led them to the cafeteria.
Nancy bit her lip anxiously, “possibly. Steve doesn’t want us to bring up the beers to the cops in case it gets him in trouble.”
“Is he serious? Our friend is missing and he’s worried about getting in trouble?”
“That’s what I said,” Nancy scowled. “We’re in a fight over it.”
In the cafeteria, two cops sat waiting for them, along with Mrs Henderson and Mrs Wheeler. The girls sat between their mothers and waited for the cops to start asking questions.
Lisa let Nancy do the talking, and only answered the basic questions she was asked. She watched the growing scepticism on the cops’ faces as Nancy told them about seeing what might have been a ‘bear’ in the backyard of Steve’s house, changing her story from the tall person with no face that she’d told Lisa about.
“Miss Henderson, when was the last time you saw Barb?
“I went inside to get a glass of water, and I was inside for just a few minutes, and when I came back outside she was gone.”
“And you didn’t see her leave?”
“No, I was in the kitchen and hallway so I would’ve seen her leave through the house, but I don’t know, she could’ve used the back gate. I told her to go home, that Nancy and I would walk, but I don’t think she would’ve left without saying anything.”
They scribbled a few things down in their respective notepads.
“And do you corroborate Miss Wheeler's theory about this, er- bear?”
“I didn’t go back to the house yesterday, so I don’t know what Nancy saw,” she said honestly. “But I know that Barb wouldn’t run away, or ditch school. Something else has happened, I know it.”
After an intense hour of questioning, Lisa and Nancy were allowed to leave, and they didn’t get a chance to speak to each other as they were herded to the parking lot by their respective mothers.
“I just don’t understand, sweetie, why didn’t you just tell me you were going to a party?” Mrs Henderson said on the way home. “I could’ve picked you girls up!”
“It wasn’t even a party, mom, it was just us girls, and Steve Harrington and his stupid friends,” Lisa grumbled, staring out the window as her mom drove them home.
“Steve, as in little Steve?”
“He’s like, six-foot now, Mom,” Lisa grumbled.
“Oh, gosh! Is he handsome-?”
“Yes, wow, puberty sure is a magical thing,” Lisa swiftly interrupted what was only going to be an embarrassing conversation. “And no, before you ask, we’re not friends again.”
Mrs Henderson tutted, “well that’s just a darn shame, you used to get along so well! And he was always so polite when he was over at our house. But anyway, from now on I don’t want you keeping secrets, okay? It’s not a good example to set for your brother.”
Lisa stayed silent, knowing full well that Dustin and his friends weren’t as innocent as they seemed.
In fact, she was sure they were keeping secrets too. She wondered if they’d joined a cult, which appeared to be all the rage these days.
When they got home, Lisa went to her room and pulled out her biology test from that morning. She’d gotten a lower mark than she would usually get which didn’t do anything for her already-low mood. She decided then that she wasn’t going to go out and chase weak, fantastical leads and play detective.
She thought about summer break, which was somehow only a couple of months ago. The most unusual part about her summer had been the fact that she’d spent a couple of weeks out of Hawkins at her dad’s across the state. Then she came back and Hawkins continued to be a sleepy town, everyone's kids, siblings, and friends were safe. She spent her days with her friends, or going shopping.
And no six-foot idiot boys were clawing their way back into her life, on top of everything else.
She groaned and put her head in her hands, wondering how everything had turned upside down so quickly. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming, and if Nancy coped with that feeling by pushing herself to the edge of delusion to pass the time, then fine.
Lisa wasn’t under any impression that they'd have more luck than the police in finding out what happened to Barb.
After the news about Will, she felt sick to her stomach with the thought that Barb wouldn’t be found safe. So she realised that all she could do to keep herself together was to stay busy and focused on her schoolwork, or else she’d fall apart completely.
Chapter Text
Lisa fixed Dustin’s tie for him while he silently straightened his cardigan and formal trousers, his outfit for the funeral. She anxiously brushed the skirt of her black dress and silently pulled her brother in for a hug which he immediately returned.
“You okay, bud?” she asked him.
He pulled back from the hug and nodded, “yeah, I’m fine.”
“Ready to go, kids?” their dad called from the kitchen. “Mom is waiting in the car.”
Their dad had travelled across the state to Hawkins once their mother had called him to tell him what had happened. Their parents were still on good terms, and in the five years since the divorce, they had somehow gotten along far better than they had when they were married.
“Some people are just better off being friends, hon,” her mom had told her once.
They saw their dad on holidays, and Lisa and Dustin were going to spend time with him that Christmas break. His only flaw in Lisa’s eyes was that he still tried to push them into hobbies that he’d loved as a kid. He’d tried to get Dustin to participate in baseball or basketball, and didn’t quite understand that Dustin had a flair for science.
Meanwhile Lisa had spent weeks at band camp of all things when she was younger, attempting to learn the clarinet when she’d much rather have spent the time going through all their old pop-rock or folk records to put a mixtape together for herself. She still didn’t know where Dustin had hidden her instrument when she’d come back from camp, though she had to admit she’d never looked very hard for it.
Aside from that, he was a kind man and a good dad, and Lisa was glad he was there for the funeral.
“Your new ‘do is lovely, Claudia,” he winked playfully at their mom as they all climbed into the car.
“Why, thank you, Walter,” their mom blushed. “I see your ‘tache is still going as strong as ever.”
She turned around to smile supportively at her two kids as their dad started the car.
The car ride to the graveyard was quiet, as their parents conversed quietly in the front, and Lisa just stared out the window at the passing trees.
The funeral service was short, but nice, and there was a huge turn out from shocked members of the community. Lisa stood with her parents, while Dustin stood in front of them with Mike and Lucas. Nancy was nearby with her parents, and Jonathan stood with Joyce directly at the graveside.
After the service, Lisa watched in tears as the coffin was lowered into the ground. The little boy she’d known for years and come to adore in all his quirkiness was gone, and she was watching him being buried right in front of her.
She leaned into her mom as she began to cry, and Mrs Henderson rubbed her back consolingly as she herself cried, thinking of her own son and the unimaginable pain Joyce must be experiencing. Her dad wrapped his arms around her and her mom, his own face drawn with sadness.
The shock and grief of the town kept the graveside silent, apart from the boys in front of her, and she had to poke Dustin in the back as he leaned over to whisper something to Mike and Lucas who smiled, surprisingly.
Afterwards, Lisa went over to hug Jonathan tightly, “I’m so sorry, Jonathan.”
He hugged her back, for a long moment, and when he pulled back his eyes were shining, “thanks, Lise. Thanks for being here, and there for me in general.”
She nodded and then hugged Joyce who appeared more confused and angry than upset, but who was anyone to judge her emotions at a time like this. However, her face softened when she saw Lisa, and gratefully accepted the hugs from her and Mrs Henderson.
*
The next day, Lisa phoned Nancy asking to hang out that night but Nancy turned her down, saying she was seeing Steve for a few hours and wouldn’t be able to talk until the day after. Lisa was disappointed, and slightly pissed, but she figured she should let Nancy do her own thing.
If seeing Steve helped to cheer her up then that’s what she should do.
Later on, the sound of the doorbell ringing pulled her attention from her book. She was home alone so got up from the couch and saw that their mom’s cat Mews had taken up residence directly in front of the door.
The cat just stared at her with withering dislike, and she stared back with equal disdain, trying once again to slide her away from the floor with her foot.
The doorbell rang again and Lisa glared even harder at the cat, “just a second! Move, you damned demon cat!”
The cat hissed and clawed at her socked feet as she tried to move her, and she ended up having to herd her with an umbrella from the stand next to the door.
“Don’t hiss at me, you little bastard.”
After more hissing and general nastiness from the cat, she opened the door and almost fell back in shock to see Steve Harrington on the other side.
“Steve?”
“Uh, hey. Did you just have a one-sided argument with your cat?”
Lisa flushed in embarrassment, “well, um, she’s my mom’s cat. I don’t claim her, she’s an asshole. And she’s evil, I did tell Mom that we should’ve brought her to get exorcised but she-”
She stopped, “sorry, rambling.”
Steve chuckled, “don’t apologise.”
She looked at him expectantly, “so…?”
He shook his head, “er- yeah, so I know me showing up on your doorstep is a bit weird-”
“It is, actually,” she said, opening the door wider and stepping out onto the porch with him. “Why are you here? Looking for more personal property to break? I don’t have any cameras lying around, sorry.”
He rolled his eyes, “Byers was stalking us so-”
Lisa waved her hand dismissively, “I don’t want to hear it. He buried his brother yesterday.”
Steve looked down awkwardly, and didn’t answer so Lisa spoke again, “why are you here, Steve?”
He ran a hand through his hair, “I’m just…I’m worried about Nancy, alright? I saw her earlier and she was acting weird, so when you see her later to study could you just make sure she’s okay? I figured if she’d talk to anyone it’d be you-”
“Um, I’m not seeing her later,” Lisa interrupted, confused.
“What?” Steve asked, equally as dumbfounded. “She told me she was coming over here tonight.”
Lisa laughed awkwardly, “she’s not, I asked her to come over but she said she’d already made plans with you.”
Steve seemed genuinely hurt, “oh, alright. That’s a bit weird, don’t you think?”
Lisa shrugged, “look, sometimes Nancy gets really hyper focused on something, and everything else falls by the wayside for a while. She’s probably just stuck doing a school assignment or something and got her days mixed up.”
Steve nodded, “yeah, maybe. Um, thanks Lisa. See you around.”
She gave him an awkward wave and sat back down on the couch, wondering what the hell was going on with Nancy Wheeler.
—
Lisa went into town the following morning with the intention of buying some new clothes since the devil cat had decided to use her laundry as a scratching post. She stopped on the sidewalk when she spotted Nancy and Jonathan outside of the hardware store loading a few boxes into the trunk of Jonathan’s car.
“Nancy? Jonathan?” she walked over and Nancy’s eyes went wide when she saw her.
“I’ve been trying to reach you all weekend, Nancy,” she said, not even trying to hold back her annoyance. “Oh, and Steve called to my house looking for you, because apparently you lied to both of us about what you were doing”
Nancy gaped at her, “shit.”
“Yeah. Shit,” Lisa repeated.
Nancy looked briefly at Jonathan, and then Lisa’s brain caught up with what she was seeing, and she looked between the two of them.
She’d only seen the two speak more than a couple of words to each other maybe once, and that was the previous week.
“Wait, since when are you two friends?”
“Look, Lisa there’s just some…stuff going on right now,” Nancy began, almost nervously. “It’s a lot to take in, and I don’t want to burden you with it so-”
“Cut the bullshit, Nancy, tell me what’s going on,” Lisa said irritably, folding her arms. “And if you don’t, Jonathan will, because he can never keep secrets from me.”
“True, actually,” Jonathan admitted, giving Nancy a sheepish look.
“Okay,” Nancy said, nodding as though relieved at being able to tell Lisa about whatever was going on. “It’ll take a while to explain so-”
A car horn beeping behind them cut her off and a guy from school leaned out of the window with a taunting grin on his face, “hey, Nance! Can’t wait to see your movie!”
Then he drove off, and he and his friends in the car laughed hysterically.
“Um, what was that about?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know,” Nancy replied anxiously, and then something caught her attention and her eyes went wide.
“What?” Jonathan asked, and he shared a confused look with Lisa. They both followed Nancy as she quickly made her way down the street, and when she began to run, so did they.
“Nancy, wait!” Lisa called but Nancy didn’t slow down as she ran across the road in the direction of the movie theatre.
Lisa and Jonathan spotted the graffiti at the same time.
“What the fuck?” Jonathan said loudly.
Lisa shook her head in disbelief, “there’s no way in hell…”
The billboard above the movie theatre advertised its showing of the new Tom Cruise movie, ‘All the Right Moves’ but underneath it…Lisa stared at it in horror.
Under the movie title, graffitied in red spray paint, it said ‘starring Nancy ‘The Slut’ Wheeler’.
“Jesus,” Jonathan mumbled in shock while Nancy shook her head, both hurt and mortified.
Loud laughing and the sound of spray paint caught their attention, and then Nancy was storming into the alleyway next to the movie theatre.
Lisa ran after Nancy and saw Tommy with a can of red spray paint, graffitiing ‘Byers is a perv’ on a boarded up doorway.
“Aw, hey there, princess!” Carol jeered as Nancy approached Steve.
“Uh oh! She looks upset!” Tommy commented with a smug smile.
Before anyone could say or do anything else, Nancy slapped Steve across the face.
“What is wrong with you?!” Nancy demanded furiously as Lisa stared between the two of them in disbelief.
“What’s wrong with me?” Steve repeated incredulously, “what’s wrong with you!? I was worried about you.”
He spared a brief glance at Lisa and looked back at Nancy with disgust, “I can’t believe that I was actually worried about you.”
“What are you talking about!?” Nancy demanded.
“I wouldn’t lie if I were you! You don’t want to be known as the lying slut, now do you?” Carol said with a sickly sweet voice.
“Shut up, Carol,” Lisa hissed and the redhead glared at her.
“Speak of the devil,” Tommy said, eyeing Jonathan with a malicious grin as he hesitantly approached Nancy’s other side.
Nancy looked over at Jonathan and then back at Steve, “you came by last night?”
“Ding, ding, ding! Does she get a prize?” Carol said.
“Does anyone want to explain what the hell is going on?” Lisa said and Steve looked at her for a moment before looking back at Nancy.
“Yeah, I came by last night, Nancy,” Steve was beyond furious, but it was clearly hiding a lot of pain, too. “Shortly after I called by your best friend’s house, actually, who you said you were hanging out with. Only, she was under the impression that you were hanging out with me.”
Steve’s brows drew together and he turned to Lisa, “unless…were you covering for her, Lisa?” His voice was softer, the hurt showing through more than the anger as he looked at her.
“Wait, what? What do you mean by ‘covering for her’?” Lisa asked, completely at a loss.
“So you’ve been screwed over too, huh?” Steve said to her, his eyes not leaving Nancy. “Welcome to the club, Henderson.”
“Nancy, what's going on?” Lisa asked her friend directly, her own anger rising too. She still had her reservations about Steve, but that hurt in his eyes, that couldn’t be faked.
Nancy turned around with tears in her eyes, “I didn’t want to lie to you, Lisa. I’ll explain everything to you.”
“Great, what about me?” Steve demanded.
She turned back to him, trying to school her features, “look, I don’t know what you think you saw, but it wasn’t like that.”
“What, you just let him into your room to…study?” Steve retorted.
“Or for another pervy photo session?” Tommy interjected with a sneer.
“We were just-”
“You were just what?” Steve snapped, “finish that sentence.”
He took a step closer to Nancy, as did Lisa, standing closer to her friend as he glared at Nancy.
“Finish the sentence.”
Nancy said nothing, and the anger on Steve’s face gave way to pure hurt, misery, “go to hell, Nancy.”
“Lisa, Nancy, let’s just leave,” Jonathan said quietly, tugging on Nancy’s arm.
Steve turned around, “you know what, Byers? I’m actually kind of impressed. I always took you for a queer but I guess you’re just a little screw-up like your father.”
“Steve!” Lisa gasped, completely taken aback.
“Don’t look at me like that, Lisa, this guy isn’t right in the head,” he shook his head and shoved Jonathan by the shoulder. “Yeah, that house is full of screw-ups. You know, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised, I mean, a bunch of screw-ups in your family, like your mom-”
“Jonathan, don’t,” Nancy said as Jonathan’s hands began to shake with fury.
But Steve wasn’t done, “I’m not even surprised what happened to your brother-”
“Steve shut up!” Lisa snapped angrily, trying to drag Steve back by the arm but he pulled out of her grasp.
“-but the Byers, their family, it’s a disgrace to the entire-”
And then Jonathan’s fist collided with Steve’s face, knocking him into a wall. Lisa and Nancy exclaimed in horror, and then Steve slowly straightened up and tackled Jonathan to the ground.
“Steve!” Nancy yelled, “stop it!”
The two girls shouted and pleaded with the boys to stop while Steve’s friends jeered and egged them on.
Jonathan got Steve to the ground, gaining the upper hand as he repeatedly punched Steve in the face. Just then, two cop cars pulled up, but Jonathan didn’t stop hitting Steve, and he even elbowed one of the cops in the face. Two cops wrestled Jonathan off Steve, and then Tommy dragged Steve from the ground before running off after Carol.
Steve grabbed Lisa by the hand and pulled her along with him, and Lisa let him.
Chapter Text
Once around the street corner, and out of sight from the cops, Lisa yanked her arm out of Steve’s grip, “get off me, asshole. I can run just fine by myself!”
“Do you want to get caught by the cops, Henderson?” he asked her incredulously and then he pulled her into an alcove of a closed storefront while the others ran ahead.
They stood in silence until the cops ran past them, chasing Tommy and the others, and then Steve collapsed down onto the steps at their feet.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he muttered, his head hanging between his knees.
Not knowing what else to do, Lisa sat down next to him, resting her elbows on her knees.
What on earth had just happened? Nancy and Jonathan, who were supposed to be her best friends, were keeping secrets from her…together? And what the hell were they doing putting boxes from the hardware store into Jonathan’s car? Last time Lisa checked, Nancy wasn’t a fan of DIY.
“What is wrong with me, goddamnit!” Steve’s outburst startled Lisa, and she looked at him in surprise, and that was the first time she saw the full extent of his injuries.
“Sorry, sorry. I just, I don’t know why I say that shit. I don’t actually think all that about the Byers’ but- shit, I was just so pissed,” he ran his hands through his hair, clearly agitated.
She actually felt sorry for him.
He looked over at her then, resting his elbow on his knee, “why are you here, Lisa?”
She pursed her lips, “because you dragged me along when you were running from the cops after fighting with my friend?”
“He’s got one hell of a right hook, I’ll give him that,” Steve rested his cheek on his hand only to wince when he touched the split skin there. “Ouch! Jesus.”
Lisa opened her handbag and pulled out a packet of tissues and a bottle of water, “here, let me.”
She opened the bottle of water and poured some of the water out onto a tissue, then she reached over, “can I?”
Steve nodded, and she gently dabbed the drying blood away from his cheekbone, and wiped away the fresh droplets before they could trail down his face.
He angled himself towards her slightly so she could reach his face better, mumbling an apology when his knees bumped against hers.
After a moment of silence, he sighed, “I’m such an asshole.”
“Yep, you are,” Lisa agreed.
“I deserved that,” Steve replied, wincing when she got to the cut above his eyebrow.
She silently cleaned his cuts, really not knowing why she was doing it. “You said some really horrible shit, Steve. Like really nasty stuff.”
“I know. I don’t know why- when Tommy and the others are there I just get so-”
“That’s no excuse, you can’t blame other people for how you act. You’re not a child, Steve,” Lisa said sharply, stopping her cleaning to look him in the eye, and then she looked away to get more tissues from her bag.
“You don’t mess around,” Steve mumbled, and when she got a fresh tissue to continue cleaning the cut over his eyebrow he watched her.
He spoke again, clearly not someone who liked silence, “why are you helping me?”
“You have blood on your face.”
“Okay well, apart from the obvious, why are you helping me? You clearly don’t like me right now, or at all.”
“I don’t dispute that,” she said quietly, brushing his hair back with her fingers to wipe blood away from his hairline.
“Then why?”
She stopped cleaning his face and sat back to look at him. Why was she helping him? Part of her knew it was because she hoped that deep down, he was still the boy who’d been her friend.
She didn’t say that though, she just shrugged, “for Nancy.”
“Oh, yeah,” Steve said, picking at a hole in the knee of his jeans and not meeting her eye.
Lisa let out a long breath, “if you don’t stop acting like such an asshole, you’re going to lose her.”
Steve grew defensive, “mind your own damn business, Henderson.”
Lisa stood abruptly and dropped the slightly bloody tissue in his lap, “okay fine, then clean up your own goddamn mess, Harrington.”
“Lisa, I-”
“No, don’t ‘Lisa’ me,” Lisa snapped, finally at the end of her tether. “If you had any ounce of respect for yourself, or the people around you, you’d stop with this goddamn stupid facade-”
“Now, just hold on a minute-”
“No, I’m not finished,” she said, her eyes blazing, and he shut his mouth. “You don’t need to be a dickhead to be liked by the people that matter. If you push away the people that actually give a shit about you just so you can be liked by those assholes, then you’re lost, Steve.”
He was quiet, studying her face as he let her words sink in, then he nodded once, “you’re right.”
“I know,” she said shortly, crossing her arms.
“I’m going to fix this.”
“You bet your ass you are.”
He looked up at her from where he was still sitting on the steps, and then he chuckled slightly, “you’re something else, Henderson, you know that?”
She scowled, “if I had any sense I’d let your face swell until your mouth closed up, but we need to get ice on that.”
“‘We’?” Steve repeated.
She glared, “don’t make me change my mind.”
He nodded and stood up, towering over her. She was shorter than Nancy, but didn’t realise how short she was until standing right next to Steve. She didn’t even know how someone could even reach-
She scowled, not knowing why she was thinking about, well, anything relating to him at all, actually. She once again debated with herself about what she was doing.
“This way,” she said as she walked away, not waiting for him.
She silently led him to her car, and he awkwardly drummed his fingers on his knees as he looked around the interior.
“What?” she asked.
He held up his hands, “er- nothing. Nice car.”
“Thanks,” she answers, pulling out onto the street.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“The gas station on the other side of town, figured the cops won’t look for you there,” she told him.
He nodded, then winced, “yeah, good. Smart.”
Lisa pulled into the parking lot of the gas station, where Tommy and Carol were already there, sitting on the bonnet of Tommy's car, clearly having had the same idea.
They were sipping on some soda and laughing hysterically.
“There you are, Harrington!” Tommy said as Lisa parked and she and Steve got out of the car.
“Finally seeing sense and staying away from the slut and the perv, huh, Henderson?” he said when he saw her.
Lisa ignored Tommy and glanced at Steve, “I’ll be back in a minute.”
She went inside and bought a pack of aspirin, as well as frozen peas and a can of Coke, figuring either of them would work for the swelling and bruising.
She walked out of the shop and back to the others, handing everything to Steve who gave her a grateful smile, wincing slightly as the movement hurt his split lip.
“Thanks, Lise,” he said quietly, and she nodded and stepped back, hovering slightly away from the others, folding her arms in front of her chest.
Steve took the painkillers straight away and Tommy nodded in determination, readying himself for a hypothetical fight, “don’t worry, he’ll need more than an aspirin when we’re done with him.”
“Yeah, if the creep ever gets out,” Carol snorted. “The cops should just lock him up forever. Did you see the look on his face?”
She mockingly imitated Jonathan throwing punches as Tommy laughed and looked over at Steve, “he probably had that same look whenever he killed his brother right-?”
“Hey, that’s enough,” Lisa seethed.
“If you don’t like it, sweetheart, then leave,” Tommy sneered.
“Yeah, maybe you and Nancy Wheeler could form a support group for annoying little sluts- oh wait, you’re probably a virgin,” Carol jeered, pouting mockingly at Lisa who narrowed her eyes.
“Carol, for once in your life, shut your goddamn mouth!” Steve shouted at her, furious.
“Hey, what’s your problem, man?” Tommy said.
“You’re both assholes, that’s my problem!”
“Are you serious right now?” Tommy said incredulously.
Steve stood up from where he was leaning against Tommy’s car, “yeah, I’m serious. You shouldn’t have done that.”
Tommy was getting riled up, “done what? Called Wheeler out for what she really is? Oh, that’s funny, because I don’t remember you asking me to stop. Maybe we should’ve written a little message for Henderson too-”
“I should’ve put that can of spray paint right down your fucking throat,” Steve said dangerously to Tommy.
“Steve, let's just go,” Lisa said, trying to diffuse the situation.
“Still the pathetic little nerd following Steve around?” Carol sneered. “You should just get lost already, find some equally desperate boy to give you a good-”
“I told you to watch your mouth!” Steve roared at her, and then Tommy shoved him into the side of the car.
“Get out of my face,” Steve seethed, pushing Tommy back.
Tommy got him by the collar and got right into his face, “you gonna fight me too? Huh? You gonna fight me too? Cos you couldn’t even take Jonathan Byers, so I wouldn’t recommend that.”
Tommy let go of Steve, and Lisa took the opportunity to quickly grab Steve by the arm and pull him towards her car.
They drove in silence until Lisa cleared her throat, “do you want me to drop you to yours?”
Steve groaned, “God, my parents will kill me when they see me. Well, if they even notice I’m home.”
Lisa considered that for a moment, “okay, I’ll take you back to mine first so we can get you properly cleaned up.”
“Thanks,” he said earnestly, leaning tiredly back against the headrest and closing his eyes.
—
Lisa drove to her street to find multiple cars and vans outside the house, as well as a number of people in suits walking in and out of her house with boxes.
“What the hell is this?” she asked, slowing her driving as she looked at the scene in front of them.
“Is it the FBI or something?” Steve suggested, noting all the suits walking around with evidence bags.
Lisa pulled the car in and hurried out and into her house, Steve trailing somewhat awkwardly behind her.
“Mom?”
“Lisa? Oh thank goodness,” Mrs Henderson rushed in from the living room and threw her arms around her daughter, not even noticing the almost six-foot tall boy standing behind her.
“What’s going on, Mom?” Lisa asked urgently.
“They’re looking for a Russian spy, or something! I don’t know, they won’t tell me! They’re with the…government,” her mom whispered the last word, as if saying it out loud would get her in trouble.
“Miss Henderson?” a man in a suit asked and Lisa nodded.
“Do you know the whereabouts of your brother?”
“I’m sorry- what? My brother?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes, miss. We believe he’s harbouring a dangerous individual.”
Lisa stared at the suited man looking at her and then at the others who had stopped to pay attention to the conversation, and then she did what any person in her situation would do.
Lisa Henderson burst into a fit of laughter in front of a group of supposed government agents.
“I’m sorry, but you think Dustin, my brother, is harbouring a fugitive? Is this a prank? This has to be a prank,” she asked between laughs, while her mother swatted her repeatedly in an attempt to get her to control herself.
“Alright, miss, if you have no information then we’ll just have to ask you to stay out of our way while we continue our search,” the man said before turning away.
“Mom, is this for real?” Lisa asked her mother, who looked around nervously and then bent down to pick up Mews the cat, who immediately hissed at Lisa.
“Karen Wheeler called and said that there’s agents in their house too, and at the Sinclairs’. I don’t know what- oh my, hello there.”
Mrs Henderson looked up at Steve who stuck out like a sore thumb. Lisa cringed internally at the whole situation of her house swarming with agents, and even stranger yet, Steve Harrington standing in her hallway.
“Mom, this is Steve Harrington. You’ve met before.”
“Oh, goodness, it’s been too long!” Mrs Henderson said, beaming up at him and blinking quickly. “You really have grown tall!”
“Good to see you again, Ms Henderson,” Steve said politely, though he looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him up.
“Please, call me Claudia,” she told him brightly, as if their house wasn’t currently swarming with strangers.
“Claudia,” he repeated awkwardly.
“I thought you said you weren’t friends anymore, honey?” Her mom asked and Lisa groaned in frustration.
“We’re not, Mom,” she said. “We….we were just-”
“You poor dear, what happened to your face?” Mrs Henderson asked sympathetically, getting a proper look at Steve.
“He fell off his bike like an idiot, so I said I’d help him get cleaned up rather than run him over with my car,” Lisa said quickly to her mother who nodded in mild confusion and waved them away.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing Steve by his sleeve and dragging him across the house to her room.
He stopped just inside the door, “um, this is your bedroom.”
“Incredible observation skills, Harrington,” she said dryly. “The bathroom is across the hall, there’s bandaids and wipes in the cupboard under the sink.”
As soon as she heard Steve leaving her bedroom, as weird as that thought was, she began to root through her closet and then in her dresser. Then, in a box under her bed, she found it.
She switched on the Walkie-Talkie waiting for it to pick up the only frequency it had ever been set to.
“Dustin, do you copy? Over.”
All she got was static, so she tried again, “Dustin, it’s Lisa. Do you copy? Over.”
She was just about to give up when he answered, his voice crackling slightly with static, “Lisa? What the hell’s going on? First Nancy radioing us, now you? Over.”
“Dustin, there’s people in our house searching through our stuff, and they’re saying you’re harbouring a fugitive? Over.”
There was a beat of silence, “it’s a long story, over.”
“So you are harbouring a-” Lisa took a breath, rolling her eyes up to the heavens before radioing back. “Dustin, where's Nancy? Over.”
Steve walked back into the room then, his face clean of blood with a few steri-strips on the split skin over his eyebrow. His hair was slightly damp having been combed back with his fingers, and he looked at her questioningly as he listened in.
Another moment of silence passed before Dustin answered, “er- we don’t actually know. She was with Jonathan but we don’t see them now. Over.”
“‘We’? Who’s ‘we’?””
“You didn’t say ‘over’, also that’s classified information. Over.”
“Where are you right now, Dustin?” Lisa demanded, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers in frustration.
“Classified. Over.”
Lisa scowled, “alright, I’m going to find Nancy and Jonathan. Over.”
“No, don’t-” Lisa cut Dustin off by switching off her radio and throwing it into the handbag she’d dumped unceremoniously on her bed.
Lisa turned to Steve, “fancy another road trip? Cos we’ve gotta go. Now.”
Chapter Text
Lisa swung open her wardrobe and pulled out a jacket which she put on over her sweater and jeans, and once she’d picked up her bag with the Walkie-Talkie stowed inside, she beckoned Steve to follow her through the house.
She grabbed her car keys from the table in the hall where she’d left them, and was just walking to the front door when an agent stopped them from leaving.
“Miss, you can’t leave,” he said sternly.
“I sure as shit can leave,” she answered, trying to push past.
The agent stopped her, “miss, you can’t leave without informing us of your whereabouts.”
She sighed loudly, “fine, I need to make an urgent trip to the store to get tampons because I’ve just got my period, and my friend here is coming with me because I can never reach the top shelf. Is that enough information for you?”
The man paled slightly and she could've sworn his eye even twitched slightly, but as she'd planned, he nodded and moved out of her way so they could leave.
Once in the car, Steve turned to her, “you just called me your friend.”
“Shut up, no I didn’t,” she said, intentionally pressing too hard on the brakes to jolt him a bit as she reversed out of the driveway.
“Yes you did.”
“Well, I also said that I need to urgently buy tampons.”
“And…do you?”
“No, Steve,” she sighed.
He nodded, but didn’t say anything else. Lisa wondered how long he’d be able to stay quiet for.
She’d driven halfway down the street when Steve let out a loud sigh as if he’d been holding his breath for twenty minutes, “okay, so, wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“Basically, my brother and his stupid friends are mixed up in something, and they can’t find Nancy and Jonathan, who were apparently with them until recently, so we’re going to look for them. Or at least I am, I can drop you off somewhere.”
“I’m going with you, Lisa,” Steve said without hesitation. “Where do we go first?”
“My mom said that the agents are at the Wheelers’ too, so we’re going to Jonathan’s house. It’s a bit out of town but it’s the only other place I can think of right now where they might be.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Steve said, and they drove in silence for a few minutes.
“Steve?” Lisa asked hesitantly.
“Uh, yeah?” he replied, seemingly surprised that she was actually initiating a conversation with him.
“Thank you, for, um, for standing up for me back there, with your friends,” she tightened her grip on the steering wheel slightly as she spoke, uneasy about letting her defences down in front of Steve.
Steve shook his head, “you don’t need to thank me for that, Lisa. Honestly, I should’ve done it a long time ago. I should’ve done it on the first day of school last year, before I fucked everything up and lost you.”
Lisa bit her lip cursing herself for the unexpected tears that filled her eyes at how fiercely he’d said those words.
Steve hesitated a bit before speaking again, “Lisa, I really am sorry about everything that happened. I really- I’m so sorry.”
Lisa looked across at him for a brief moment before turning her eyes back to the road, “I…I believe you, Steve.”
Steve let out a long breath, “good.”
Lisa leaned forward to try and catch sight of the entrance to the Byers’ house, since it was dark and there were no street lamps. She concentrated hard, trying to spot the opening in the trees and hedges.
“So, what should I say to Nancy if she's there? And to Jonathan? Should I have- I dunno, brought a cake? Or flowers, or something? Maybe I should’ve gone to the store to get some-”
“Steve.”
“Yeah?”
“Please be quiet for a minute.”
“Roger that, boss.”
Lisa spotted the opening in the hedges and pulled into the Byers’ driveway and parked the car. It didn’t look like anyone was home, all the lights were off and Joyce’s car wasn’t there.
Steve was about to open the car door and Lisa grabbed his wrist to stop him, “Steve, remember to actually apologise to Jonathan. And to Nancy, if she’s here as well. And, for the love of Christ, don’t jump to any conclusions, alright?”
“No jumping to conclusions, got it.”
She quickly let go of his wrist and he climbed out of the car, and she followed him to the Byers’ front door. She let Steve go first, and he rapped his knuckles on the door quickly.
He looked down at her in a panic, “shit, was that too eager? I feel like that knock sounded too eager. Should I wait a minute before knocking again? Or would that seem impatient-”
"Steve, relax," she told him, resisting the urge to smile slightly as she caught a glimpse of the Steve she used to know in his awkward rambling.
Steve nodded and knocked again, loudly, “Jonathan!? Are you there, man? It’s…it’s Steve! And Lisa’s here too! Listen, I just wanna talk!”
Steve glanced back at Lisa again who gave him an encouraging nod, and just as he knocked on the door again, it unlocked and Nancy peeked her head out slightly.
“Steve, Lisa, listen to me-”
Steve stared at her as though surprised that she was actually there, “hey. Nancy, what-”
“You both need to leave,” Nancy said sharply.
“I’m not trying to start anything, okay?”
Lisa stepped forward until she was next to Steve, and Nancy grimaced as she looked at her best friend, really hating having to keep secrets from her.
“Nancy, tell us what’s happening,” Lisa pleaded.
“I can’t explain right now, please just go-” she tried to close the door but Steve leaned into the doorway again.
He really wanted her to hear him out, almost begging her to listen, “no, no, no- listen, Nancy. I messed up. Okay? I messed- I messed up. Please. I just want to make things right.” Lisa stepped aside slightly to allow Steve his moment with Nancy.
“Please,” he said to Nancy with the utmost sincerity, “please, I- wait, what happened to your hand? Is that blood?”
“What happened?” Lisa asked, stepping forward again to see Nancy’s bandaged hand.
Nancy looked at her with a pleading expression, “Lisa, please go, it’s nothing-”
“Wait a sec,” Steve cut in, “did he do this to you?”
Lisa tried to reason with him, “Steve, let’s not jump to-”
It was too late, Steve was already pushing his way through the door and into the Byers’ house.
“-conclusions,” Lisa scowled, and then she hurried in after him, ready to pull him back from Jonathan if she had to.
“Lisa, Steve, no! You have to-” Nancy protested but they were already inside.
Lisa and Steve stopped at the same time, shocked at what they saw inside the house.
One of the living room walls had letters painted on it like some sort of large Ouija board, and there were Christmas lights hanging from the walls and ceilings, all around the house. The coffee table had a number of makeshift weapons and snares scattered across it, and a strong, overpowering smell filled her nose as she stepped further into the room, making her eyes water.
“What is..what the..” Steve stammered, looking like he was about to pass out.
Lisa felt fear running up her spine like a cold chill, “uh- what is all…have you guys joined a cult or something?”
Jonathan walked over and put his hands on her shoulders, trying to walk her back towards the front door, “Lisa, please. You need to get out of here.”
Steve’s eyes were wide in shock as the strong smell hit him too, “what the hell is- is that gasoline!?”
Jonathan let go of Lisa and grabbed Steve who was trying to walk further into the living room, and attempted to haul him to the door, “listen to me, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you-”
“Is this because of those government guys?” Lisa asked urgently and Nancy’s jaw dropped open and she shared a look with Jonathan.
Nancy stared at Lisa, “did you talk to them?”
“They think our brothers are hiding a dangerous fugitive, which is complete bullshit,” Lisa replied, but upon seeing Nancy’s face she faltered. "It is bullshit, right? Nancy!?”
“Lisa-”
“Jonathan, tell me what’s going on! NOW!” Lisa protested as he once again tried to haul her towards the door, but then the click of a gun made them all shut up.
“You both need to leave ,” Nancy said, a handgun held in front of her.
Lisa shrieked and gaped at her best friend, hardly believing her eyes, “what the fuck , Nancy?”
Steve was freaking out hysterically behind her, “wait! What!? What is going on? What !?”
Lisa glared at Nancy, who looked both apologetic and like she was begging her to listen, “you have five seconds to get out of here.”
Steve was still freaking out, “is this a joke? Stop! Put the gun down!”
The lights began flashing around them and Nancy and Jonathan stared at each other in horror.
“What’s happening!?” Lisa shrieked as the lights flickered erratically.
“It’s here,” Jonathan spoke in disbelief.
“What? What’s here?” Steve demanded as the light continued to flash erratically.
“Where is it!?” Nancy asked urgently as she and Jonathan looked around urgently.
“Where’s what? What’s what !?” Lisa cried in fright.
Jonathan and Nancy began walking around the room, staring in every direction, Nancy holding up her gun, and Jonathan brandishing a baseball bat with nails in it.
“You’re crazy, you’re both crazy!” Lisa exclaimed.
She looked at Steve who wore a face of matching terror, “they’re fucking crazy.”
Steve was beside himself, “would someone tell us what the hell is-”
Suddenly, the ceiling in the corner of the living room began to cave in and Lisa screamed and backed right into Steve who was frozen in complete shock as Nancy began to shoot at it.
Lisa went to cover her ears against the loud bangs of the gun, but then something enormous and gruesome climbed down from the ruined plaster.
It made a start towards them, and Lisa and Steve were dragged away, both screaming, by Nancy and Jonathan, out of the living room and across the house.
“Jump over the snare!” Jonathan shouted at them.
“Oh my god, oh my god!" Steve shouted over and over as they both hurdled over the large snare in the middle of the floor.
They were pulled into Jonathan’s bedroom and Lisa immediately collapsed down onto the bed and held her head in her hands.
“Jesus! Jesus! What the hell was that!? What the hell was that!?” Steve shouted, pacing the room and hyperventilating.
“Shut up!” Nancy and Jonathan yelled at him simultaneously.
“This is how I die, isn’t it? Or maybe I’m dreaming. Did I hit my head or-” Lisa mumbled half-deliriously.
Nancy grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her sharply, jerking her back to reality. Or at least what Lisa thought was reality, because this all seemed like something right out of a nightmare.
“Lisa, I’m going to need you to calm down or we’re going to die-”
The two girls jumped in fright when an ear-splitting screech echoed through the house from the other side of the door.
Lisa staggered to her feet next to Steve, and without thinking he wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her into his side as they backed away slightly, and she clung to him, her fingers gripping his shirt.
Jonathan and Nancy stood in front of them, gun raised and in Jonathan’s case, lighter raised.
Lisa felt faint as Jonathan raised the lighter, recalling the smell of gasoline throughout the house.
“We’re gonna die,” she whispered and Steve tightened his grip around her as he stared wide-eyed at the door.
“What’s it doing?” Nancy asked shakily.
“I don’t know,” Jonathan answered quietly, and suddenly, the lights came back on as normal and the noise disappeared.
“Do you hear anything?” Nancy asked.
Jonathan shook his head, “no.”
Jonathan slowly opened the door and walked out of the bedroom and into the empty hallway, where the large snare was untouched, and the rest of them quietly followed him out.
The eerie silence of the house as they walked sent a chill up Lisa’s spine.
They made their way back into the living room and Lisa stopped walking suddenly and ran her hands through her wild curly hair which had come loose from her scrunchie, “what in the unholy hell was that!?”
Nancy grabbed her hand and sat her down on an armchair near the front door, “please, just- stay there.”
Meanwhile Steve was pacing and muttering to himself, “this is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy!”
He yelled the last part and snatched the phone off the wall presumably to call the cops, much to Lisa’s relief, but Nancy grabbed it from him.
“What are you- what are you doing!? Are you insane-”
“It’s going to come back!” she snapped at him. “So you need to leave. Both of you. Right now.”
Steve looked between Nancy and Lisa, and then he darted forward and grabbed Lisa by the hand, pulling her up and out of the armchair and then out the front door with him, slamming it shut behind them.
They ran to the car, panting in fright. Lisa’s hands shook so badly that she couldn’t put the car key into the door so Steve came over and took them from her in an attempt to help, but then the electricity in the Byers’ house began to pulsate again, stopping them in their tracks.
Steve looked down at Lisa with wide eyes, and in one momentarily shared look, they knew they were going back inside.
Lisa took the car keys back from Steve with newfound resolve and walked around and opened the trunk, leaning in to drag over the toolbox. She tossed Steve a wrench which he caught from the air, and grabbed a large axe for herself.
“Why do you get the big axe?” he protested.
“Because it’s my big axe, Steve," she replied, giving it a swing through the air to test its weight.
They heard shouting and inhuman screeches, and they quickly burst back into the house to see Jonathan being pinned down on the floor by the enormous, nightmarish creature.
Then, it turned on Nancy just as her gun clicked empty.
Lisa acted on some sort of instinct and slammed her axe hard into the creature’s back before it could attack Nancy.
Meanwhile, Steve grabbed Jonathan’s baseball bat from the floor, and together, they hit the creature repeatedly until it backed away, injured.
“Lisa? Steve?” Nancy exclaimed in disbelief, and while Steve gave the thing an almighty kick.
Lisa glanced back at Nancy, with a slightly crazed smile, “couldn’t let you two have all the fun, could we?”
They continued beating the monster until it stepped right back into the snare.
“It’s in the trap!” Lisa yelled. “It's stuck!”
Nancy shouted, “Jonathan, now!”
Jonathan leapt in front of them and clicked on the lighter, then he threw to the floor at the monster’s feet. The gasoline on the carpet lit up, consuming the creature and the hallway, and they all stepped back and shielded their eyes against the brightness of it.
The creature was shrieking in agony, and when it stopped, Jonathan put the fire out with a fire extinguisher until the flames died down completely. They all coughed the smoke out of their airways, and the sound of their panting echoed around the dark room as they walked to where the snare was.
Only to their horror, the snare was empty.
“Where did it go?” Nancy asked and the rancid smell of burning flesh filled their noses as they got closer.
Lisa covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve, trying not to gag at the smell, and Jonathan looked around, “no…it has to be dead. It has to be.”
“What sort of animal was that?” Lisa asked faintly.
Nancy pursed her lips, “that wasn’t an animal.”
“Alien?” Steve offered, and when Lisa gave him a baffled look, he shrugged helplessly.
Jonathan shook his head in answer to Steve’s question, but before he could answer, the lights flickered once again, but not erratically like before. Instead, each bulb along the Christmas lights lit up one by one as if following a trail.
They watched in silent fear, grouping closer together with their weapons raised.
Then Lisa heard a strange echo, like hearing someone talking through a wall, “did you guys hear that?”
“Hear what?” Jonathan asked, looking at her quizzically.
Lisa looked around but there was no one else there, “I don’t know, it sounded like someone speaking.”
They followed the lights to the front door and then Jonathan stopped, his eyes widening in realisation, “Mom.”
“Um, what ?” Steve whispered and Lisa shook her head, completely at a loss.
Jonathan walked out onto the porch and they followed, watching as the lamp outside flickered wildly.
“Where’s it going?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t think that’s the monster,” Jonathan answered.
—
They quickly agreed to drive to the middle school, and Lisa had barely put her car in park before she dashed out to where Dustin was.
He was standing with a shock blanket around his shoulders in the middle of the parking lot, which was filled with police cars and ambulances.
“Dustin!” she yelled as she ran.
He whipped around and stared at her in shock as she approached, “Lisa?”
She flung her arms around him and pulled him into a hug, and he hugged her back.
She could barely speak, “I’m so glad you’re okay, there was this monster and we fought it-”
Dustin pulled back from the hug and looked at her in bafflement, “you fought a Demogorgon?”
“A what?”
He just smiled toothily at her, “you are so much cooler than I thought you were.”
Then he pulled her into another hug and she rested her chin on the top of his head.
“You need to explain everything to me, you little asshole. And I mean everything .”
—
That night and into the early hours of the morning, the boys and their siblings and parents sat in the waiting room of the hospital for what felt like hours. But no one minded, all that really mattered was that Will Byers was alive.
Will was alive.
Lisa was sitting on a bench chair next to Steve while her mother sat across the room, whispering hysterically with Mrs Sinclair as they both shared whatever they knew with each other. Dustin and Lucas were asleep nearby, and the Wheelers all sat waiting for news.
Lisa had her jacket wrapped around her and eventually, the adrenaline of the evening wore off, leaving her completely exhausted.
Without meaning to, she fell asleep, and her head slowly fell onto Steve’s shoulder. Something which would've made her kick herself if she'd known she was doing it.
Nancy watched as Steve smiled softly down at Lisa and slowly pulled the jacket back up onto her shoulder after it had fallen down.
The look on his face was unfamiliar, and it took Nancy a minute to figure it out: he looked completely unguarded, at ease. No pretense.
The genuine smile on his face suited him, Nancy thought.
A small smile grew on her face at the sight, knowing how far they’d come in just a few months, but her heart ached as she remembered that Lisa still didn’t know that Barb was dead, that she wasn't coming back. She herself had barely accepted the fact.
Just then, Jonathan walked into the waiting room with a tired smile on his face, telling everyone that Will was awake.
Steve nudged Lisa gently awake, “Lise, Jonathan’s back. The kid’s awake. Will’s awake.”
She sat upright, disorientated from sleeping, and watched as Mike shot up out of his chair to wake the others to go see Will, and she and Nancy went in too once the boys had seen their friend and filled him in on everything he'd missed.
—
A few weeks later, it was Christmas Eve.
Lisa and Jonathan arrived at the same time to collect their respective brothers from the Wheelers’ house.
Mrs Wheeler answered the door with a warm smile, “Merry Christmas, you two! Come on in. The boys are downstairs, of course, and judging by how loud they're shouting, they're just finishing up. Nancy! Lisa and Jonathan are here.”
Nancy walked out of the living room, smiling when she saw them. She pulled Lisa into a tight hug, and then both she and Jonathan went for a hug, but awkwardly stopped themselves at the last minute.
Jonathan cleared his throat, “um, I’m gonna get Will. Lisa, I'll tell Dustin you’re here.”
“Could you tell Lucas, too? I’ll bring him home as well.”
He smiled at her, “sure thing.”
Lisa was relieved to see her friend happy again, no longer bearing the weight of worry for his missing brother, and the grief of thinking he was dead.
Nancy pulled Lisa by the hand into the living room, and Lisa did a double take when Steve grinned at her from the couch and gave her a small wave, all dressed up in a shirt and a Christmas jumper.
“Hey, Steve” she said, smiling tentatively at him and Nancy sat down next to him, then patted the space beside her on the couch.
Lisa sat and grinned as she and Nancy pulled out their wrapped gifts at the same time, passing them to each other.
“On three?” Lisa asked.
Nancy laughed, “on three.”
Steve counted down for them, and the girls unwrapped their gifts from each other.
Nancy gasped, “the blue earrings!? I thought they were sold out.”
“Who do you think bought the last pair?” Lisa grinned and Nancy hugged her before Lisa even had a chance to look at her own gift.
Nancy had gotten her a new pair of headphones for her Walkman, and there was also a cassette tape in the wrapping too, labelled, ‘Monster Hunting Music :)’ across the front.
Lisa laughed out loud, “you’re hilarious, Wheeler.”
“Hey, it was my idea!” Steve exclaimed in protest.
Nancy glared at him, “it absolutely was not! You suggested I get her a fancy bookmark instead of the headphones.”
Lisa looked between the two and smiled, happy for both of them that they were getting along again.
“Oh, I'd better get Jonathan’s!” Nancy gasped, running out of the room and upstairs.
There was a slightly awkward silence as Lisa and Steve sat on the couch together. Lisa thought about how only a few weeks ago, she’d openly disliked him and wanted to hit him in the head with a tray from the cafeteria, and now, they could say they’d fought a literal monster together.
“Lisa,” Steve said, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Hm?”
“You look nice,” he said, then his eyes widened in mild panic, as though worrying he’d just crossed a line.
But Lisa smiled at him and he relaxed, “thanks, the skirt is new. The cat shredded the other one.”
“The devil cat,” he said, grimacing.
“The devil cat,” she repeated with a nod.
They were quiet for another moment and then Steve straightened up
“I- uh,” he scratched the back of his neck shyly, “I brought you something.”
Lisa flushed, “oh, Steve. I didn’t think…I didn’t get you anything-”
He waved his hand dismissively, “no, no, it’s not a gift, really. It’s just something I wanted you to have.”
He reached under the collar of his jumper into his shirt pocket and pulled out a photograph.
He handed it over and Lisa felt tears stinging her eyes. It was a photograph of them from the summer of ‘79, sitting side by side on the front steps of Steve’s house with huge smiles and grass-stained knees.
"I didn't forget, you know," he said softly, "even though it may have seemed like I did."
She looked up at him in surprise, and he gave her a sad smile.
She returned his small smile, "I didn't forget either."
She looked down at the photo again, at her younger self smiling brightly, mid-laughter, while a younger Steve grinned widely at the camera with his eyes scrunched up against the sun, braces and dimples and all.
Steve leaned over to point to his younger self, “at least my hair has improved since then.”
Lisa chuckled, “well, that’s debatable.”
He laughed and she looked over her shoulder to find him already looking at her, “Lisa. I just…I know I can’t take back what I did. But I do want to tell you how sorry I am, again. And I want to make things right.”
She nodded and considered him for a moment, “I forgive you, Steve.”
“You do?” He looked genuinely surprised.
She looked back down at the boy in the photograph, who she could see hints of in the Steve sitting beside her now. “Yeah, I really do.”
He let out a sigh of relief, “can we maybe…start over?”
She smiled, “I’d like that.”
He gave her a hesitant smile, “so…friends?”
She thought for a moment, but smiled, “we’ll build up to that.”
He grinned at her and nodded, “I can work with that.”
The sound of Dustin and Lucas shrieking and arguing in the kitchen signalled it was time for her to go.
She stood up, and turned to Steve once more, giving him a sincere smile, “Merry Christmas, Steve.”
He gave her a light squeeze on the arm before she stood up, “Merry Christmas, Lisa.”
She walked into the kitchen and slung an arm around Will’s shoulders, “how’re you doing, bud?”
He grinned up at her, “really good, Lisa! Well, overall at least. Our campaign tonight could’ve gone better but we’ll work on it for next time.”
She ruffled his hair fondly and then turned to Dustin and Lucas, “could you two stop arguing for one minute and grab your coats?”
“You tell ‘em, Lisa,” Jonathan said with a chuckle, leaning on the kitchen island, and then they all said goodbye to Mrs Wheeler and walked to the front door.
Lisa reached into her coat pocket and handed Jonathan a small wrapped box, “don’t open it until later. And yes I know we don’t usually get each other presents, but you’ve had the shittiest of shitty years. So deal with it, Byers.”
He smiled bashfully and nodded, putting it in his jacket pocket.
Nancy ran down the stairs, “found it!”
Lisa steered Dustin and Lucas out of the front door, giving Nancy a knowing look and a small wave of goodbye. Lisa had given Jonathan a box of new film, to coordinate with the camera Nancy and Steve were giving him to replace the broken one.
Before the door closed, Lisa watched as Nancy handed Jonathan the box, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
She smiled to herself, then leaned down to grab a handful of snow from the grass to shove down the back of Dustin’s sweater which made him scream like a small child. Lucas roared in hysterical laughter, and when he wasn’t looking, Lisa did the same to him, then ran to the safety of her car before either of them could retaliate, laughing until tears filled her eyes.
She let out a sigh as she drove, Dustin and Lucas in the backseat bickering as usual, while classic Christmas songs playing through the radio.
All was right with the world again.
Notes:
Season 2, here we come :)
Chapter 10
Notes:
Season 2, let's gooooo!!
Chapter Text
1984
“Son of a bitch!” Dustin yelled from his room, and Lisa shared a look with her mother from her seat on the couch. “Son of a bitch!”
Dustin ran into the living room and all but yanked Lisa off the couch to root under the cushions beneath her, “hey, watch it, asshole!”
“Another stupid penny!” he flung the small coin across the room.
“Dusty, watch it! You almost hit Mews!” Ms Henderson protested.
Dustin ignored her and pointed to her chair, “can I please check under your cushions?”
“Dusty-”
“Mom, please? It’s an emergency!” he pleaded.
“‘It’s an emergency!’” Lisa mimicked, checking her watch to make sure she wouldn’t be late for work.
“Shut up, Lisa. This wouldn’t be a problem if you just gave us free tokens!” Dustin retorted.
“No can do, bud.”
“Mom!” Dustin groaned, gesturing to the chair she was in. Claudia Henderson groaned in frustration, and he mimicked her as she got up.
He found two coins under the cushions and pumped his fist in triumph, “love you, Mom!”
He sped off to his room and Lisa called after him, “Dustin if you want me to drive you, I’m leaving in twenty minutes!”
After pulling into the carpark of the arcade, Dustin basically jumped out of the car, slammed the door behind him, and ran into the arcade without a word.
“You’re welcome, asshole!” Lisa shouted after him, and then checked her hair and makeup in the mirror before climbing out and straightening her work shirt and nametag.
Joyce and Will pulled up a moment later, and as Will climbed out Joyce warned him to be careful.
“I’ll keep an eye on him, Ms Byers, don’t worry,” she said, leaning her forearms on the window frame of the car.
“Lisa, again, just call me Joyce. I’ve been telling you for years,” she smiled warmly at her. “And thank you, I appreciate it.”
“I’ll call you if there’s any problems,” Lisa reassured her, and Joyce smiled and reached over to pat her hand gratefully.
“See you later, Joyce,” Lisa added and Joyce laughed and waved at her as she went.
Walking into work she overheard Dustin berating the Dragon’s Lair machine, “you know, whatever, I’m still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug.”
“You sure about that?” Keith, Lisa’s coworker at the arcade, said as he popped a Cheeto into his mouth.
“Sure about what?” Dustin asked, and then his eyes went wide in realisation as he shoved past the others.
He pushed past Lisa, screaming, “move, Lisaaa!”
“Don’t crush his dreams, Keith,” she said airily as she walked away.
“You crushed mine, Lisa Henderson,” he replied sorely, and she rolled her eyes at him as she made her way to the back room to put her bag away.
She walked back to see the boys crowding around the Dig Dug machine.
“Who is Mad Max?” Dustin demanded.
Keith shrugged and spoke over his mouthful of Cheetos, “better than you.”
Dustin turned to Lisa who came to stand next to Keith, “Lisa. I’m your brother. You love me. You have to tell me.”
“Sorry, I can hear a child crying by the Defender game. I’ll see you later,” she gave the group a two-fingered salute and walked off, ignoring their protests.
There was, in fact, a child crying by the Defender game, so Lisa crouched down to talk to him with a kind smile, “hey, little buddy, why don’t you try PacMan instead?”
The little boy just screamed angrily in her face, so Lisa just stood up and walked away from him.
“I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” she mumbled under her breath.
As she walked across the arcade and past the front doors, she happened to see Will standing outside, staring up at the sky. She opened the door and called out to him, “Will?”
He didn’t answer so she raised her voice, “hey, Will?”
He startled and turned around with a gasp.
“Will, are you okay?” she asked him worriedly.
He nodded quickly, and then turned to look up at the sky again, “yeah, I just…I needed some air.”
“Okay, well it’s cold out here. Come on in, the others are looking for you,” she said, holding out her arm to beckon him in, and he followed her back inside.
She studied him carefully as he walked past her. It had been ten months since he’d vanished and come back, but he wasn’t quite the same.
She told herself that no kid would be the same, having gone through what Will did. But she also hadn’t thought that monsters were real, and she’d been proven wrong about that, too.
She watched as he rejoined the others and smiled a real smile, and she took a deep breath.
Things were okay. Different, but okay.
—
The following Monday at school, Lisa was sitting in her parked car in the parking lot and rereading some last minute English notes when a loud revving from behind startled her.
She looked over her shoulder to see an unfamiliar car pulling in next to her, and climbed out of her car, startling as a flash of red hair zoomed past on a skateboard down the street towards the middle school.
“Hey there,” came a voice from nearby.
Lisa glanced over to see a handsome young man standing at the car that had pulled in beside her.
“Um, hey? Sorry, have we met?” she asked and he smirked and strolled over, leaning his hip against his car and leaving a respectable distance between them.
“We have now. I’m Billy.”
She blushed under his heated gaze, not used to guys looking at her so shamelessly. “I’m Lisa.”
He gave her an easy smile, “nice to meet you, Lisa.”
Lisa was suddenly very aware of the stares from her fellow students, including the popular cheerleaders and jocks who’d never once even looked in her direction, as stereotypical as that was.
“Are you new here?” she asked, fidgeting with the hem of her light jumper.
“I am, just dropped my kid step-sister off,” he flashed her a grin, “I’m starting at the high school too.”
“Oh, well,” Lisa cleared her throat, “I’m a junior.”
“Senior,” Billy told her with a sly smile, “but don’t let that stop you.”
Lisa bit her lip, unsure what to say to that, and Billy’s eyes followed the movement.
He stepped closer and Lisa took a breath, but his gaze landed on something behind her, and he stopped about a foot in front of her with a smirk.
“I think your friends are waiting for you,” Billy said, nodding over her shoulder.
Lisa turned to see Steve and Nancy watching the exchange, “oh, uh, yeah. I guess I’ll see you around.”
“I’d like that, Lisa,” he said and he gave her a flirtatious wink before walking away.
Steve and Nancy were at her side in a flash.
“Who the hell was that?” Steve asked, glaring at the newcomer’s departing frame.
“I have no idea, some new kid,” Lisa answered, watching him leave too.
She was definitely not admiring the view as he walked away, absolutely not.
—
After leaving class later that day, someone calling Lisa’s name caught her attention. “Hey, Lisa! Wait up!”
Lisa turned around to see her biology partner, Tina, running up to her. She and Tina had become friendly over the summer, after meeting while clothes shopping and agreeing to go for a coffee. They’d met up several times, and Lisa was glad to have a friend that wasn’t part of the whole monster-from-a-parallel-universe thing.
That, and Nancy was spending most of her time with Steve these days, and Jonathan was working hard to save up money so his mom wouldn’t have to work as much now that Will was back and needed extra support.
“Oh, hey, Tina. What’s up?”
Tina grinned, flicking her perfectly styled dark hair over her shoulder, “I’m having a Halloween party at mine tomorrow night, I’d love it if you could make it.”
She handed her a bright orange invitation, and then another few, “here, take a few and ask your friends! Did I see you talking to Billy Hargrove? Are you friends with him?”
Lisa took the handful of invitations that were shoved into her palms, “the new guy? Oh, no. I just met him today.”
“Oh, shame,” Tina pouted, but then her bright smile returned. “You could come over a bit earlier if you want? We could get ready together? Your hair and makeup is always immaculate with a capital I. Let me know!”
“Yeah, that would be great, I’ll let you know,” Lisa grinned. “See you in biology!”
Lisa said goodbye to Tina, and then slid an invitation into Steve’s locker as she walked past.
She intercepted Jonathan and Nancy in the hallway and showed them the invitations, “Tina’s having a Halloween party, wanna come?”
Jonathan cringed, “er-”
“You're coming,” Nancy said, taking an invitation from Lisa and shoving it into his hands.
“‘Come and get sheet faced,’” he quoted and they laughed as they walked.
“You should come because of that pun alone,” Lisa said, nudging him playfully.
“Yeah! It would be so much fun!” Nancy laughed.
“Hey, Nance, remember the last time we went out for Halloween? In Freshman year when we dressed as the Pink Ladies?” Lisa looked from Nancy to Jonathan with a grin. “Nancy, Barb and I-”
Lisa cut herself off, her smile falling, and Nancy reached down to squeeze her hand comfortingly.
Nancy had sat her down shortly after Christmas to tell her everything she’d learned last year, about the Upside Down, and about Barb being dead. She was glad to get away to her dad’s with Dustin for New Years, to escape from it all for a while.
Lisa still had a hard time coming to terms with it, that her friend was dead. Though she had a feeling that a part of her always knew Barb wasn’t coming back, especially learning the truth about where Will had been. And what that girl, Eleven, had seen. Lisa was still trying to wrap her mind around everything Dustin had told her about the girl, where she’d come from and what she could do.
“Ahem, anyway. Jonathan you should come tomorrow night,” Lisa said, changing the subject as a painful lump grew in her throat at the memory of Barb, and knowing she’d never see her again.
“No way,” he said firmly.
Nancy groaned, “oh come on! We can’t let you sit all alone on Halloween!”
“We just can’t, it’s not acceptable,” Lisa agreed.
“You’re both relentless,” Jonathan said with a fond shake of his head. “But anyway, you can relax. I’m not gonna be alone.”
“What?” Nancy asked far too quickly, and Lisa glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, surprised.
“Um, I’m going trick-or-treating with Will,” he explained.
“All night?” Lisa asked, putting a finger to each temple. “Because my psychic abilities tell me that those boys will be home by ten o’clock so they can eat their weight in candy and watch the showing of Poltergeist on TV.”
“Your psychic abilities, or Dustin?” Jonathan mumbled, rolling his eyes.
Nancy smirked at Jonathan, “even better than that, you’re gonna be home by eight, listening to the Talking Heads and…reading Vonnegut or something.”
Lisa snorted at the accuracy of Nancy’s statement while Jonathan rolled his eyes, “that actually sounds like a nice night.”
Nancy sighed dramatically, “Jonathan, just come. I mean, who knows, you might even, like…meet someone.”
Just then Steve came around the corner and literally swept Nancy off her feet.
Jonathan backed away and so did Lisa, looking away quickly when they started making out against the lockers.
Jonathan nudged Lisa with his arm and gestured to the hallway with a tilt of his head, and silently she walked with him towards the cafeteria.
It had become a habit for Lisa and Jonathan since school had started back, to disappear together whenever Nancy and Steve started kissing, or seemed to forget they were there.
They never had to have a conversation about it, it was an unspoken agreement. Lisa didn’t ask Jonathan about it, and Jonathan didn’t ask her about it. It was for the best, since Lisa didn’t have a reason for walking away. Though, neither did Jonathan, as far as she knew.
There were some things she didn’t want to know about, anyway.
She’d ask Nancy how things were going with Steve and beyond ‘they’re going great!’ she didn’t want details, and she wasn’t sure if that made her a bad friend or not.
Lisa knew that if it were some random guy, and not Steve, she’d be asking for all the gory details. But she really, really didn’t want to know about whatever her and Steve got up to.
She put it down to having known Steve so well years ago. And she figured it was also because of the slow pace they were both taking while rebuilding their friendship. She didn’t want to know more than she had to, or for something to come up that would make things awkward between them again.
She knew the two of them were going to the Hollands’ house for dinner that evening, which Lisa outright refused to participate in. She couldn’t bear the thought of lying to grieving parents’ faces about the fate of their daughter, no matter how much she missed Barb or how well she knew her parents.
She figured Nancy was a much stronger person than she was to be able to do it.
The following afternoon while sitting at a table with them in the library, Lisa didn’t bring it up, and neither did Nancy or Steve.
Instead, she distracted herself by trying to figure out her calculus homework. Nancy got up to sharpen her pencil after breaking the lead, and Lisa glanced up at Steve to see him visibly stressing over his own homework.
“You okay, Steve?”
He looked up in surprise and then he frowned, “I can’t figure this out, I’ve been staring at it for ten minutes.”
“Want me to have a look?”
He considered it and then nodded, sliding his notepad over to her. She spent a few moments looking over the algebra and then slid it back to him, pointing at one of the figures. “X equals 1 here, not 2. Here, try it now.”
He looked at her briefly and then glanced over it, realisation dawning on his face. “Great, thanks, Lise.”
She nodded and smiled at him, and he looked up again and met her eye, smiling back at her.
They’d become better, albeit cautious friends in the ten months since Christmas, and she hadn’t realised how easy it would be to fall back into a familiar friendship with Steve.
She hadn’t ever expected them to talk again, let alone spend time together on purpose.
But her guard was still up, and she didn’t want to raise her hopes only for them to be dashed again, and she could tell that Steve was giving her space and time to adjust.
She cleared her throat, “you can ask Nancy for help, you know. She wouldn’t mind.”
He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “yeah, I just don’t want her to think I’m like, stupid, or something.”
Lisa held his gaze intently, “you’re not stupid, and Nancy doesn’t think so either.”
He just shrugged and looked back down at his work, and Lisa turned to glance over at Nancy who was in a world of her own while sharpening her pencil.
“Steve,” Lisa nudged his leg under the table with her foot, and when he met her eye she nodded in Nancy’s direction.
He looked over and understood her meaning right away, then he got up and went over to her to make sure she was okay.
After a minute, Steve came back over to the table with Nancy in tow, “we’ll be back in a minute, okay?”
Lisa nodded and went back to her homework, knowing exactly what Nancy was thinking about.
Every girl with short red hair and glasses was Barb, every laugh at a dumb science joke was Barb, and every helping hand when she needed it without any questions asked, was Barb.
Lisa wiped her eyes on her sleeve, trying to distract herself with her homework. When that didn’t work, she packed up her things and left, figuring she wasn’t going to be able to focus on anything else that day.
Before she left, she wrote a small note on a scrap of paper and left it on Nancy’s notebook saying, ‘headed home, see you at Tina’s! P.S I’ll be the devil in red!’ with a little devil doodled on the bottom.
Lisa figured it was time to act like a teenager, and try to enjoy herself.
After all, if Barb's death had taught her anything, it was that life could be too short, and that she ought to make the most of it.
Chapter 11
Notes:
Yes, Billy is an asshole, but Lisa doesn't know that yet.
Chapter Text
Lisa looked at herself in the mirror of Tina's bathroom. She'd agreed to get there early to get ready in Tina's room, and while Tina and her friends, apart from Carol, had been so welcoming, she felt very out of place.
Tina, thankfully, snapped at Carol whenever she said anything even slightly rude to Carol. She privately told Lisa that they were only friends because their moms were.
Lisa zipped up the side of her dress, pulling up the frilly straps. She wore a dark red velvet party dress that was probably too short, but she did her best not to care. Instead, she focused on how the dress hugged her curves, both at her hips and her chest. Then she put the hairband with the devil horns on and fluffed out her dark brown curls around it. Nancy was coming as an angel as per their agreement to coordinate with costumes.
She stared at herself, not used to wearing anything that wasn't a sweater or t-shirt with jeans, and straightened up trying to feign confidence. She was used to telling Nancy how great she looked in anything she looked, but noticeable curves had come in recently that she was still getting used to.
"Henderson, you fought a goddamn monster, you can handle one stupid party in a small dress," she told herself in the mirror. "You look fine. No, you- you look...well, good."
With one last look at herself she flung open the bathroom door and walked down the stairs - in boots because she didn't trust herself in heels - with a new purpose: let loose, and have real, stupid fun.
She could hear the noise of the party from the top of the stairs, but it was only when she got to the kitchen that she saw how many people had turned up.
She quickly went to the kitchen island, grabbed a small but full cup of wine. She drank the cheap drink in one go with a grimace and then grabbed another.
"Oh my god, Lisa! You look so hot!" Tina ran over and threw her arms around Lisa, smacking a kiss to her cheek. "Where've you been hiding that body! You're gonna turn so many heads tonight, I just know it!"
"Thanks, Tina," Lisa chuckled, already feeling the effects of downing that wine. "This is such a good party, and I've only been here for twenty minutes."
Tina grinned, "my parents are so gonna kill me when they come back from their trip, but it'll be worth it! Come hang out with us outside, I've warned Carol to keep her claws in for the night."
Lisa laughed, "let's see how long that lasts."
"An hour, tops," Tina shrugged. "By the way, I haven't seen Steve and Nancy yet so let's head to the dance floor for a bit!"
Lisa nodded and Tina took her by the hand and led her outside, where the sounds of cheering hit them like a tidal wave. Once out there, they saw a long-haired guy being held upside-down, chugging beer directly from a keg.
Once he was let down, he wiped his face and Lisa's eyes trailed down his bare chest, only barely covered by a leather jacket.
"Well, damn," Lisa said, and it was only when Tina giggled that she realised she'd said it out loud.
"We've got ourselves a new Keg King!" Tommy yelled in glee, and the whole crowd chanted Billy Hargrove's name.
"That's how you do it, Hawkins!" Billy roared, and more cheers reverberated around the garden.
His eyes landed on her, and their gazes locked, his face relaxing into an easy smile as he gave her a nod of acknowledgement.
Lisa's eyes widened and she steered herself and Tina directly to the dancefloor.
Tina gave her an amused look, "well, well, well. That was interesting."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lisa said, feigning innocence. "Come on, let's dance."
They met with a group of others from their year and danced for a while, loud pop music blaring from the enormous speakers.
After about half an hour, Tina nudged her and nodded pointedly over Lisa's shoulder before smiling and walking away, but not before offering her another cup of cheap wine.
Lisa looked over her shoulder and saw that Billy was walking directly towards her. With a squeak of panic that made Tina laugh, she turned her head back and took the cup of wine, taking a quick drink.
Tina took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face Billy who looked very amused.
"Have fuuuun!" Tina said in a sing-song voice as she skipped away.
When Billy reached her he stopped barely a foot away from her, eyeing her appreciatively.
"Hey there."
She felt her face growing hot under his gaze, "hey."
He gave her a crooked smile and looked at her red-stained lips for a brief moment, and Lisa really hoped that her gloss hadn't smudged all over her face.
Lisa was vaguely aware of Steve and Nancy having arrived at the party. They were standing on the edge of the dancefloor across from them and watching the conversation, Steve scowling and Nancy looking worried, but curious.
She pushed them out of her mind and turned her focus back to Billy.
"You look damn good, Lisa," Billy said with a smile, looking her up and down.
"You remembered my name," she said, slightly breathless.
"'Course, I did. I mean, just look at you," Billy said with a smirk, his hand warm as he slowly wrapped it around hers, and she felt herself relaxing.
"Are you flirting with me?" she asked, playfully narrowing her eyes.
He chuckled, "do you want me to be?"
"You're very confident, I'll give you that," she said, her eyes darting to his slightly parted lips.
He took a step even closer to her until he was right in her space, smiling down at her, his blue eyes twinkling under dark lashes. He slid a hand around her waist and she smiled, trying not to notice her heartbeat quickening.
—
Across the dancefloor, Nancy watched Lisa who was getting increasingly closer and familiar with Billy Hargrove, but what really surprised her was how angry Steve was getting as he stood next to her.
"You okay, Steve?" she asked him, tugging on his sleeve.
His eyes didn't leave Lisa and Billy, "what the hell does he think he's doing?"
Nancy chuckled, "oh, I don't know, getting to know our lovely and gorgeous friend?"
He shook his head, "this isn't funny Nancy. He's a creep, I can tell."
"We both know Lisa can take care of herself-"
"Yeah, well, she shouldn't be hanging around with a guy like that," he scowled. "Look at him, you can tell he's trying to- y'know...And they've met, like, twice?"
Nancy's smile faded, "it's fine, Steve. Why shouldn't she have a bit of fun? We can't be the only ones of our friends who get to...you know."
Steve finally looked at her, "what, so you think it's fine if she fools around with some guy she barely knows? Judging by how shameless he is, he's had a lot of 'fun' with girls. He's just gonna mess her around."
Nancy shrugged, "what if she wants to fool around with him? She's not naive, she sees people for what they are far better than the rest of us do."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve asked, brows furrowed.
Nancy rolled her eyes, "nothing! I just mean that she can fool around with some random guy if she wants. Why shouldn't she? We just need to be good friends, make sure she's okay, and support her. Right?"
Steve didn't answer, he just clenched his jaw as Billy slid his hand around Lisa's waist, brushing his fingers across the fabric of her dress.
Nancy took Steve by the arm, "right, Steve?"
"What?"
Nancy sighed, "I know you're feeling protective, but she deserves to let loose. We'll just keep an eye for any signs of trouble, from a distance."
Steve nodded and gave her an apologetic look as he turned his back on Lisa and Billy. "You're right, Nance. I'm sorry. Let's go enjoy this party, yeah?"
Nancy's happy smile returned as he took her hand and led her across to the open patio doors.
—
On the dancefloor, Lisa was smiling coyly up at Billy, aware that between each wisecrack, he was getting closer and closer to her.
"Did you leave many broken hearts behind in California?" she asked him, feeling like she could barely breathe in the air that was heating rapidly between them.
He gave her a wolfish grin, "been asking around about me, have you?"
"Maybe," she said, smiling into her cup of wine as she took a sip. "Maybe not."
He let out a sigh, "long story short, my dad got married to his girlfriend, we moved here. Shittier weather but...hotter girls, apparently."
She tilted her head back in a laugh, "you're unbelievable."
He watched her laughing, and smiled. Then, he leaned in close to whisper into her ear, "nah, I just know how to go after what I want."
He lifted the hand he'd had on her waist and reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, and rested his hand on the side of her neck.
"And you want...me?" she asked, feeling the buzz of the alcohol in her veins giving her an edge of confidence.
He finished his beer and leaned over her to put the cup down on a nearby table, and then he took her by the hips in both hands, pulling her a bit closer.
"The second I saw you, studying in your car, blowing those curly bangs out of your face," he gave her a slanted, coy grin. "Well, I just had to know more."
Here was this gorgeous, mysterious boy, noticing little things about her, and Lisa hardly knew what to do with herself.
She held his eye as she finished off her wine and dropped the cup onto the table behind her, "well, what do you want to know?"
Billy quirked a brow, his eyes dropping to her lips again, "anything, everything. I want to know about that mouth for one."
Lisa didn't know if it was the alcohol, or the adrenaline coursing through her, but when he leaned in for a kiss, she let him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and the crowd roared as Billy kissed her, lifting her up as he did, making a show of it. And while it was definitely not her first kiss, it was definitely her most enjoyable.
Inside, Nancy was part of the crowd that roared in this silly celebration, glad to see her friend having fun and not worrying about everyone else for once. She tried to ignore how Steve had gone stock-still beside her as they watched on through the glass.
Lisa broke the kiss with a laugh and Billy set her back down on her feet, then held her face in his hand and chuckled, "what's so funny?"
"I would've thought that cheerleaders are more your type," she confessed and he quirked a brow.
"I like a girl who doesn't throw herself at me," he answered.
"And I'm not throwing myself at you?" she asked. "Because I am like every other girl, you know."
"Nah," he said, kissing her again. "Cos you're making me work for it."
She chuckled and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and walked her inside to the living room while everyone around them cheered his name.
Lisa felt on top of the world, but she was also very aware that if not for the alcohol, she'd be feeling far more discomfort at being under the spotlight.
Another cup found itself into her hand, and Lisa frowned at it until she saw it was just from Tina, who nodded reassuringly at her.
She relaxed and blew her friend a kiss, and then drank it deeply.
More cheers erupted around them, and Billy laughed and kissed her jaw as she tilted her head back to finish it, "there you go, sweetheart."
She tossed the cup in the general direction of a trashcan and wrapped her arms behind his neck, and kissed him again. He slowly backed her against the living room wall behind her, his hands finding her ass, and she got lost in the feeling of him and his warm hands.
That was, until she heard Tommy H shouting, "see? We've got a new Keg King, Harrington!"
She broke the kiss at the sound of his name, sensing everyone's attention, including Steve's, and she straightened up and pushed away slightly from the wall.
Billy wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his other arm raised in a fist of triumph while people roared around them.
Lisa met Nancy's eyes across the room, her friend gave her an inquisitive look and she nodded, indicating that she was okay.
But then she met Steve's gaze, standing beside Nancy, and something stirred in her at the look on his face. She couldn't quite make sense of it, and she didn't really want to.
Cheeks flushing furiously, she leaned closer into Billy's side, and Steve's brows knit together, his expression tense.
Billy followed her gaze and smirked, and then he tightened his arm around her shoulders and kissed her again, right there in the middle of everyone
The crowd began chanting "Keg King Billy!" And Billy revelled in the spotlight, and Lisa tried to shy away from the attention, but he held her tight into his side.
"And look, I've already got myself a queen! Isn't that right, sweetheart?" Billy said, stepping forward with Lisa in tow.
He leaned down to speak against her ear, "don't hide, gorgeous. Why shouldn't people be looking at you?"
"Leave her alone, man," came Steve's voice, and Billy straightened up, grinning.
"Why, Harrington? You're not jealous, are you? I think you're just used to all the girls flocking to you," Billy replied tauntingly.
"Nah, they don't like him anymore," Tommy sneered.
Lisa suddenly felt like she was involved in something that she definitely didn't want to be a part of anymore, which was a pissing contest between a bunch of boys.
"Lisa, are you alright?" Steve asked, ignoring Billy and Tommy and holding her gaze.
"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine," she said, sounding more exasperated than she'd intended.
Billy scoffed at him, "'course she's alright, Harrington, she's with me."
Nancy raised her brows at Lisa who nodded and smiled reassuringly at her friend, who smiled back.
At least they could have a silent conversation while the boys were needlessly throwing their weight around.
Billy stared at Steve for a moment longer and then looked down at her, "c'mon, sweetheart, let's go get some more drinks."
Lisa nodded, then glanced at Nancy, "I'll see you guys in a bit."
Steve didn't reply. He just watched Lisa's retreating back, and Nancy watched him.
"So, what's your beef with Steve?" Lisa asked Billy as they got to the barrel full of ice and beer bottles. She poured herself a drink from the wine box on the table, and also poured herself a water which she quickly drank, wanting to clear her foggy mind a bit.
He shrugged, "no beef, I just think he should be taken down a peg or two."
"Or three!" Tommy said lamely from beside them.
Lisa gave him a withering look and Billy looked over his shoulder, "get lost, man."
Tommy hesitated but nodded and scurried away with a pathetic look on his face.
"So, where were we," Billy said with a smouldering smile, leaning in close to her again.
Lisa took a sip of the water she'd poured into her cup and smiled up at him, "I don't know, you tell me."
"Or I could show you," Billy said, and then he leaned down to kiss her again. After a few minutes of making out, Lisa felt his hands travelling down to her ass, and moving even further down to the hem of her dress.
She didn't break the kiss but pulled the hem of her dress down again, only for Billy's hands to find it again tugging at it but not lifting it again.
She pulled back from the kiss and cleared her throat, "I- um, this is all new to me."
"That's fine, I'll do whatever you want me to do," he whispered against her ear, and he pressed a kiss to her jaw that sent shivers down her spine.
She bit back a smile, and then Tina walked past with an airy grace, "top floor, second bedroom on the left."
She said nothing else but winked at Lisa over her shoulder. Lisa giggled and ducked her head, but Billy tilted her chin back up with his finger.
"Don't do that."
"Do what?" she asked.
"Don't hide your face," he said, and then raised an eyebrow, looking over her shoulder to the stairs. "So...what do you say? Should we explore the house?"
Lisa felt a giddiness rising in her chest, and she leaned up to kiss him, and then she stepped back, "I could...um, I could meet you up there in a couple minutes?"
Billy gave her a wide grin, and then kissed her deeply, making her legs feel like jelly, "sounds good to me."
With that, he walked away, winking at her over his shoulder as he headed towards the stairs.
Lisa giggled and covered her face, and then hurried over to Nancy and Steve who were standing at the punch bowl.
She grabbed Nancy by the hand and pulled her to the side for some privacy, "I have news."
Nancy's face lit up, meeting her excited smile, "spill."
"I'm...I'm going upstairs. With Billy," Lisa whispered, raising her eyebrows meaningfully.
Catching her hidden message, Nancy squealed and flung her arms around her friend.
"Oh my God!!!" Nancy whispered excitedly, and then pulled back and held Lisa by the shoulders. "Don't do anything you don't want to do. And have fun."
Lisa's face grew hot and her face hurt from smiling, "I really want to, but I'm nervous."
Nancy nodded, "everyone is, the first time. Trust me." She gave Lisa a conspiratorial grin and adjusted the devil horns on her friend's head.
Lisa giggled again, "okay, this is really happening. I'll, uh, see you later, I guess!"
Nancy watched with a grin as Lisa hurried up the stairs.
Following Tina's directions, Lisa slowly opened the door to find Billy sitting on the bed. This was clearly Tina's eldest sister's old room, but it was perfect.
"Hey," he said, looking up as she entered, and he ran his tongue over his bottom lip as he watched her.
"Hey," she answered and she closed the door behind her, locking it.
He grinned and held out a hand to her, she smiled shyly and approached the bed.
Chapter 12
Notes:
I changed Steve and Nancy's costumes for plot reasons, before anyone gets confused!
Chapter Text
“What was that all about?” Steve asked, approaching Nancy as Lisa walked away. But he realised what was going on as he watched Lisa hurrying towards the stairs, to follow Billy.
“Well, Lisa is meeting Billy in an upstairs bedroom,” Nancy said, pouring another cup of punch.
“You’re kidding,” Steve said flatly.
“Nope, and she was nervous so I was giving her a pep talk,” Nancy said with a smile.
Steve didn’t return her smile, “she shouldn’t do it if she’s nervous!”
Nancy rolled her eyes, “Steve, everyone is nervous when it’s their first time.”
She didn’t know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t for Steve’s face to fall like that.
Nancy noticed with a jolt that she wasn’t hurt by it, no pang of jealousy at all. In fact, she hadn’t felt jealous all evening, but angry that it only added to her own confusing thoughts.
If she was honest with herself, she’d had her own complicated thoughts in her mind for a while now, about losing Barb and the guilt she felt, and how she sometimes found her mind drifting to Jonathan…and her lack of jealousy at how closely Steve was paying attention to Lisa and Billy tonight only made things more messy in her head.
To make things worse, she knew she should be happy with Steve, but she looked at him and was reminded of the night that Barb went missing, and felt overcome by guilt.
You could’ve been with her that night, but instead you were fooling around with Steve. It was a constant thought in her head. If not for you, Barb might still be-
“Just…let it go, okay? I’m getting another drink,” Nancy said, pulling the halo hairband off her head and dumping it in the trashcan nearby. She didn’t wait for him to respond as she walked back over to the punchbowl.
She glanced over to the guy standing next to it, “so, what’s actually in this?”
“Pure fuel!” he yelled. “Pure. Fuel! Whoo!!”
Nancy poured herself a full cup, and downed it in one, and then poured another.
“Woah, you okay, Nance?” Steve asked, now standing next to her.
She smiled tightly, “yeah, fine!”
She lifted the cup to her lips, and she was halfway through chugging it down when Steve spoke up, “hey, whoa, whoa! Take it easy! Nance- Nance!”
“We’re just being stupid teenagers for the night. Wasn’t that the deal?” Nancy shot back, and then she finished the rest of the drink, giving him a challenging glare.
She filled her cup again, looked at Steve, and then walked out onto the dancefloor.
Steve let out a long breath, looked back towards the stairs, and then followed Nancy back into the fray.
They danced for a while, and Steve tried not to keep his gaze from returning to the stairs, but he failed. Multiple times. Nancy noticed, but ignored him as she finished off one drink and then went to get another, and then another.
When she left to get her third refill in forty minutes, Steve groaned and followed her, and tried to stop her from filling up her cup again, “no, no, no.”
“Get off!” she snapped at him, holding her cup out of his reach, but he took it anyway.
“No, you’ve had enough, okay?” He walked away with the cup but she snatched it back from him.
“Screw you!”
Steve was bewildered, but he shook his head, “Nance, come on. I’m serious.”
He once again tried to stop her as she filled her cup from the punch bowl, “hey, hey, stop! I’m serious! Put it down!”
Nancy held firm to her cup, “no!”
“Nance, put it down!”
“Steve, stop!” Nancy raised her voice, and then Steve’s grip on the cup slipped, and the red liquid sloshed all over Nancy’s chest.
Steve stared in shock as her white angel costume went bright red all down the front, and the room erupted in a mixture of drunken cheers and taunts.
Nancy slowly looked back up at Steve and glared at him, “what the hell?”
She stormed past him and ran to the bathroom at the top of the stairs, and Steve hurried after her, “Nance, come on!”
Meanwhile, Lisa closed the bedroom door and walked down the stairs from the top floor behind Billy, grinning like an idiot.
He kissed her when they were halfway down the stairs, then raised a brow at her, “I sure hope to see you again sometime.”
Lisa grinned and nodded, “you will.”
He’d told her he needed to be back for his curfew, alluding to having an asshole for a father. So she waved at him as he headed the rest of the way down the stairs, smiling over his shoulder at her.
She smiled to herself and then slowly walked down the next few steps onto the next floor, and that was when she heard Steve trying to placate Nancy through the half-open bathroom door, and she knew she should’ve kept walking but she didn’t.
“-like it’s great…like..like we’re in love, and we’re partying- yeah…let’s party, we’re partying…it’s bullshit.” Nancy was clearly very drunk, and Lisa didn’t know how she could’ve gotten that bad in the time she’d been gone.
“‘Like we’re in love’?” Steve repeated, sounding devastated.
“It’s bullshit,” Nancy repeated.
“Y-you don’t love me?” Steve asked, and Lisa’s hand went to her mouth.
She had to get out of there, this was not a conversation for her ears. She quickly made her way to the next flight of stairs when she heard the bathroom door slam against the side of the bathtub as it opened abruptly.
Steve froze at the sight of her, barely halfway down the stairs, and Nancy frowned as she leaned on the doorframe.
“Now, see? You can st-stop looking for her. Just..it’s-it’s all bullshit,” she ranted, waving a hand in Lisa’s direction.
Steve stared at Nancy, looking heartbroken, and Lisa slowly went up a step.
Steve looked away from Nancy, and walked down the first few steps, stopping on the step below Lisa, so he was face to face with her.
“Steve?” Lisa asked. “Are you…?”
“You’re okay? Good,” he said, and then he gestured in Nancy’s general direction. “I can’t, I just-”
Lisa put a hand on his shoulder, “go, get some air. I’ll look after her.”
He held her gaze, and then looked away, walking the rest of the way down the stairs.
Lisa turned to Nancy, who was now clinging to the sink for dear life, and she joined her friend in the bathroom.
She took Nancy’s hands and led her to the toilet, sitting her down on the closed lid, “stay here, I’ll be right back.”
She hurried to Tina’s bedroom where she’d brought a bag with her costume and makeup, and picked up the sweater she’d been wearing before changing.
Back in the bathroom, Lisa locked the door and picked up the wet towel that Nancy had been using to get the spilled drink from her top and rinsed it out. She guided Nancy to sit on the floor next to the warm radiator, and used the damp towel to wipe away Nancy’s streaked mascara.
Nancy watched Lisa with an unfocused gaze and then suddenly burst into tears.
“I-I don’t deserve him,” she cried, leaning her head back on the radiator.
“Don’t talk like that, Nance,” Lisa told her, wiping away the fresh streaks of makeup.
“But he’s right,” Nancy whispered, “I’m the bullshit. Me. Because, b-because I don’t love him.”
Lisa froze, staring at Nancy, “you’re drunk. You don’t mean it, let’s get you changed.”
Nancy allowed her to pull off her ruined white top, and held up her arms when Lisa redressed her in the sweater.
Nancy took Lisa firmly by the face, “he kept looking at the stairs…and I didn’t care.”
“I don’t understand,” Lisa shook her head, and then Nancy burst into fresh sobs.
“It’s my fault that…that Barb is gone,” she wailed, and Lisa pulled her into a hug right there on the floor, rubbing her back.
Jonathan walked through the party with only a few awkward encounters, and then he found Steve sitting on the bottom step of the stairs.
“Steve?”
Steve looked up with wet eyes, and Jonathan frowned at the state of him.
“Oh. Hey, man,” Steve said, dragging his sleeve over his eyes and putting his black shades on.
“Somethin’ happen?” Jonathan asked carefully.
Steve gestured vaguely up the stairs, “Lisa’s with Nancy, I just…I couldn’t look at her anymore.” He stood up and before Jonathan could ask any questions, Steve clapped him on the back and then headed outside, lighting a cigarette as he went.
Jonathan wondered if Steve and Lisa were fighting again, and he tried to figure out what could’ve happened between them that would’ve made Steve so upset, that he didn’t want to look at her anymore. He figured Nancy would be able to shed some light on what was going on.
He knocked on the bathroom door, “Lisa? Nancy? It’s Jonathan.”
After a brief moment, the door unlocked and he was ushered in. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t Nancy with her head in a toilet bowl.
Lisa settled back on the floor next to her, taking the hair elastic from where Nancy had half her hair tied back, and tied it all up on the back of her head. She rubbed Nancy’s back as her friend cried into the toilet, and then turned to look at Jonathan who was still standing, stunned by what he was seeing.
“How did you find us?” Lisa said simply.
“Steve,” Jonathan answered.
Lisa grimaced, “did you talk to him? Did he seem-?”
“Upset? Miserable? Yep,” Jonathan answered, sitting down across from Lisa, his back against the bathtub. “He went straight outside, didn’t stay to talk.”
Lisa groaned, “he and Nancy had this huge fight…it sounded bad.”
She looked at the door and then at Nancy, and Jonathan cleared his throat, “I’ll keep an eye on her if you wanna do some damage control? Or I could drive her back to her house?”
Lisa gave Nancy another look and nodded, “that’s probably a good idea, you sure it’s okay?”
Jonathan gave her an incredulous look, “of course, Lise. Do what you gotta do, I’ll make sure she’s okay. I’ll tell her parents she got food poisoning from bad takeout or something.”
Lisa smiled gratefully, then reached over to peel Nancy away from the toilet, “Nance, Jonathan is here, he’s gonna take you home, okay?”
Nancy blinked blearily at Jonathan and nodded.
“Want help taking her to your car?”
Jonathan shook his head, “I’ll manage. I’ll call you tomorrow?”
Lisa got to her feet and ruffled his hair, “thanks, Byers.”
“Happy to save the day, Henderson,” he answered with a smile and a two-fingered salute.
It didn’t take long for Lisa to find Steve, smoking on a swing bench at the back of the garden, away from the rest of the party.
He glanced up as she approached and put the cigarette out, then looked down at his hands.
“Hey,” she said, “mind if I sit here?”
He shook his head and moved over so she could sit down.
“Wanna talk about it?” she asked.
He shook his head, “not really.”
She nodded, “okay.”
Instead of saying anything else, she just sat with him, keeping him company. After a few minutes, Steve leaned forward with his face in his hands.
Lisa turned to him, “I heard what she said, and I’m sorry.”
He wasn’t crying but he had tears in his eyes, “yeah, me too.”
“She didn’t know what she was saying, she was drunk,” Lisa told him. “I couldn't even make sense of what she was saying.”
Steve shook his head, “it’s not just that she said that, or, that she didn’t tell me I was wrong, it’s that I…I wasn’t even surprised. She’s been pulling back from me for a while, and I don’t know why. And tonight she said everything was bullshit, that I was bullshit, that we were ‘pretending to be fine and in love’.”
“She was drunk, she didn’t mean it,” Lisa said gently, trying to calm him down.
“Yeah, well, sounded pretty damn sincere to me,” he replied bitterly as he sat back in the seat, then he softened. “Sorry, this is probably weird for you, she’s your best friend.”
“She is,” Lisa said, “but I know what she can be like, and you’re…my friend too.”
Steve smiled softly at that, and nodded.
Lisa took a breath and continued, “I think Nancy is finding it hard, lying to Barb’s parents. I knew I couldn’t do it so I took a step back, but Nancy…well you know her, she can’t let things go.”
Steve was quiet for a while, and then he spoke again, “is she okay now?”
Lisa laughed humourlessly, “well, as okay as anyone can be after spending fifteen minutes with her head in a toilet puking her guts up.”
Steve’s eyes went wide and he went to stand up but Lisa put her hand on his arm before he could move, “don’t panic. Jonathan’s bringing her home, before he goes to collect the boys from-”
Steve groaned and rubbed a hand down his face, “Jonathan is- that should’ve been me bringing her back home, not sulking out here-”
“Hey,” Lisa interrupted, “don’t do that to yourself. You’re allowed to be upset.”
He nodded, and then looked at her, opening his mouth before closing it.
She rolled her eyes and sat back on the bench, “just ask, if you really want to.”
Steve flushed, “it’s not that- jeez, I’m…are you- like, are you good?”
She smiled and sighed, “yes, for the millionth time, I’m good.”
He didn’t seem satisfied, in fact he frowned, “Hargrove seems…I dunno, there’s just something about him.”
Lisa narrowed her eyes, “you don’t know him!”
Steve’s brows pinched together, “and you do!?”
Lisa shrugged, “I mean, I’d say I know him quite well after-”
“Jesus,” Steve interrupted, standing up. He paced a bit, agitated. and ran his hand through his hair.
Lisa stared incredulously at him, “what? What’s the problem?”
Steve continued pacing, “problem? There’s no problem!”
“There’s clearly a fucking problem, Steve, so spit it out!” Lisa snapped back.
Steve threw his arms up in the air, “he’s not good enough for you, Lisa!”
She was shocked into silence, which didn’t happen very often.
He stared at her, appearing as shocked at his own words as she was.
She saw the honest torment on his face, and considering the night he’d just had, she felt her heart swell at how he’d still managed to find time to worry about her.
She folded her arms around herself against the chilly night air, “you’re really taking this friend thing seriously, huh?”
He blinked at her, and slow smiles grew on their faces simultaneously. Then he saw how she was trying to warm herself against the cold.
“Jeez, Lisa,” he immediately shrugged off the black leather jacket he’d been wearing over a white t-shirt, and draped it over her while she put her arms through the sleeves.
She gave him a grateful smile and then eyed the jacket, and then the rest of his outfit, “no way, Danny Zuko?”
He smirked as he sat back down next to her, “well, I had to think of something when you and Nancy decided to coordinate and she turned down my Risky Business suggestion,”
“Well, this Plan B costume turned out well,” she said, and he matched her smile with his own. “Do you remember…”
“When we went to see Grease in the movie theatre the week we met?” he finished with a grin. “I remember. I still haven’t forgiven you for eating pretty much all of my popcorn.”
Without thinking, she backhanded him playfully on the arm with a laugh, “shut up, I did not.”
“You did, I still have the teary-eyed photobooth photos to prove it,” he said, holding up his hands.
She gaped at him, “if I remember correctly, we were both smiling in them. If anything, you took most of the popcorn and got it stuck in your braces.”
Steve snorted, “touché. But there is one thing you could do to make it up to me.”
She folded her arms, giving him a challenging glare, “oh, do tell.”
His face softened a bit, and he ran his hand self-consciously through his dark hair, “do you think you could…tutor me in algebra?”
Lisa was extremely surprised, but she hid it quickly, “er- yeah, sure. I can do that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “But, just out of curiosity, why me and not Nancy?”
He flushed, “it’s stupid, really, but I feel embarrassed when I don’t know things around her. She doesn’t do it on purpose, but she’s just so smart and- not that you’re not equally as smart, shit, that’s not what I meant. You are smart. Very smart, actually.” He waved his hands animatedly as he panicked.
“Thanks.”
“But anyway, I just- you’re easy to talk to, you know? I feel like I could tell you anything and you’d listen, but whenever I try to talk to Nancy about something, her mind is miles away.”
Lisa smiled, “that’s Nancy. Her mind is always on, like, a hundred things at once.”
She sighed and lay back on the chair while Steve’s long legs guided it in a slow swing. “Just talk to her, Steve. Tell her everything you’re feeling, lay it all on the table. You guys will work through it.”
“Do you…” Steve began as he searched her face, “do you think we should work through it?”
Lisa’s brows furrowed, “of course, why wouldn’t I think that?”
Steve shook his head, embarrassed, “nevermind, stupid question. But yeah maybe I’ll talk to her, but I won’t lie I’m still pretty pissed at her.”
Lisa nodded, “honestly, you should be.”
He was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, “it’s weird to think how things were a year ago, isn’t it? I was an asshole and you hated me, rightfully so, and I didn’t believe in monsters.”
Lisa chuckled, “a lot has changed. But you seem more yourself now.”
He considered that for a minute and nodded, “I guess I am more myself now.”
She gave him a genuine smile, and he felt himself holding her gaze for a beat too long.
He cleared his throat, “um, it’s late. I drove here so I can take you home? To your house, not mine.”
She laughed and nodded, “that would be great, thanks.”
He nodded and stood up, and then held out his hand to pull her out of the swing seat, and just like that, the most dramatic party of their lives to date was over.
Chapter Text
Lisa got home from the Halloween party shortly after Dustin had gotten back from Lucas’ house, after Trick-or-Treating, and she was glad that she’d mostly sobered up by the time she got home. She gave Steve a wave as he pulled out of her driveway, and headed inside and sat with her mom for a bit.
“I’m glad you had a good night, honey. Dusty must’ve eaten too much candy, he’s acting very weird,” her mom said worriedly, stroking Mews who sat on her lap. The cat was definitely glaring at Lisa as she stood up and walked over.
“Mom, he’s always acting weird. He’s fine, don't worry,” she leaned down to kiss her mom on the cheek and said goodnight.
Before she could head down the hall, her mom called out to her again, “honey?”
“Yes, Mom?”
“I’m glad you’re getting out and enjoying yourself a bit more, but…just be safe, okay?” she said, giving her daughter a meaningful look, brows raised.
“Um, yeah, of course,” Lisa said, edging closer towards the hallway.
“So, you spent time with a boy tonight?” Claudia Henderson was always eager for a bit of gossip.
Lisa cringed, “um, yeah, just talking with a boy.”
“And talking with this boy is what smudged your lipstick, yes?”
Lisa was horrified, and she opened and closed her mouth like a fish, speechless.
“Well, anyone I know?” Claudia’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. “Was it Ste-”
“No. The new guy. Billy,” Lisa said quickly, feeling her cheeks burning.
Claudia seemed disappointed, and settled back into her seat with Mews, “oh well, that’s good. Make sure you give him back his jacket, nice of him to give you something against the cold. Maybe wear some tights with that dress next time, hm?”
Lisa looked down at the jacket, eyes wide, “yup, I will. Night, Mom.”
As soon as she was in her room, she took Steve’s jacket off and hung it on the back of her door.
She quickly changed into her pyjamas, and went to take off her makeup in the bathroom, and to her surprise, on her way back she heard Dustin talking in his room, no crackle of the radio to be heard.
She flung open the door and he screamed. Candy, socks, laundry hamper, all part of his explosion of chaos as he jumped across the room
Once he’d finished screaming, he stopped and stared at her, “oh, hey, Lisa! How are you, sister? Have a good night? Mine was great, and I’m going to bed, like, right now so-”
“What the hell, Dustin?” Lisa asked, interrupting her brother’s bullshit. She was glancing around his room when he waved a hand in front of her face.
“Uhh, hey, could you mind Yertle? I have his other tank in my closet, one second.” With that, he shoved his tortoise into her hands, and then pulled a small tank from his closet and pushed her out of his room and into hers across the hall.
He shoved the tank onto her dresser, knocking over some books and perfume bottles as he did so.
Then, he smiled brightly at her. “See? Perfect. I’m just, er- renovating his big tank.” He made a beeline for her door, “bye-Lisa-goodnight-love-you-bye!
And then he slammed her bedroom door shut behind him, which was followed by the bang of his own door shutting, which was followed by their mother giving out from the living room, “kids, no slamming doors in the house, please!”
Lisa stood in the middle of her bedroom and looked down at the tortoise in her hands that was now, apparently, in her care.
She lifted him to her eye-level, “well, Yertle, I guess you’re stuck with me for a while.”
—
Steve Harrington was a pretty good basketball player, and he was usually at the top of his game in gym class. At least, that was until Billy Hargrove started at Hawkins High School, and flipped his social standing upside down.
If Steve was honest with himself, he didn’t care that much. Popularity used to matter to him, but since fighting a literal monster, things were put into perspective for him. Like how he had every right to be upset with Nancy, about how somehow Lisa was now his favourite person to talk to despite everything, and how Billy-goddamn-Hargrove was making his life difficult for no apparent reason.
“Harrington! Good to see you again, pal. I’ve heard a lot about you since the party on Friday,” Billy said as he stood in a defensive position on the court while Steve tried to dribble the basketball past him. “I heard you used to run this school. That true? King Steve, they used to call you, huh? Then you turned bitch-”
“Hey, maybe you should just shut up and just play the game?” Steve retorted.
“I don’t know, man, I’m liking my standing in this school. And I’m really liking your pretty little friend Lisa Henderson-”
Steve shoved Billy out of the way, but Billy tripped him and he hit the floor hard. Billy sneered at him as he snatched the basketball, and scored a hoop within seconds.
“Whoo!” Billy cheered, “that’s what I’m talking about!”
Then he circled back around to Steve and leaned in close, “one thing’s for sure, you definitely missed out with that one. But your loss is my gain, so just stay outta my way. Cool?”
Steve stumbled to his feet and resisted the urge to punch Billy square in the face
“Steve?”
He immediately turned around to see Nancy standing there, and he deflated slightly for some reason.
Billy stepped up far too close to his shoulder, speaking low into his ear, “damn, Harrington. You seem almost…disappointed.”
Steve scowled but decided it was best to say nothing. Instead he walked towards Nancy and led her out of the entrance to the school gym.
Walking into the small alleyway next to the gym he folded his arms defensively, “what are you doing here?”
“What do you think?” Nancy retorted, furious at Steve for not collecting her for school, “where were you this morning? I missed first period! If you couldn’t make it I could’ve called Lisa and-”
“I figured Jonathan would take you,” he replied coolly.
Nancy stared at him, confused, “What…what are you talking about?”
Steve scoffed, “Jesus, you really can’t handle your alcohol. Uh, you remember going to Tina’s party last night, right?”
“Yes?”
“And then what?”
“I remember dancing and...spilling some punch, and you got mad at me because I was drunk…I talked to Lisa in the bathroom. And then you took me home,” Nancy said.
Steve scoffed, “no, see, that’s where your mind gets a little bit fuzzy. That was your other boyfriend. That was…that was Jonathan.”
“I don’t understand,” Nancy replied sharply, “I was with Lisa and-”
“It’s pretty simple, Nancy. You didn’t want to talk to me, Lisa tried to help you, but no Jonathan had to bring you home. Not me. And you were just telling it like it is, weren’t you?”
“What?”
“Uh, apparently we killed Barb, and I don’t care ‘cause I’m ‘bullshit’ but I’m the bad guy for caring about our friend hooking up with- with some guy...and our whole…our whole relationship is bullshit, and…I mean, pretty much everything is just bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!” At Steve’s words, Nancy stared in disbelief.
“Oh, yeah, also,” Steve continued bitterly, “you don’t love me”
Nancy scowled, “I was drunk, Steve! I don’t remember any of that! Just ask Lisa-”
“Oh, yeah, Lisa!” Steve nodded. “You know, last night was a pretty big deal for her. Do you even remember?”
Nancy shook her head, at a loss.
Steve huffed a bitter laugh, “yeah, ‘course you don’t. But, you know what, she still stood up for you, and convinced me that I should try and make this work.”
He gestured between them as he spoke, “but I guess she was wrong. ‘Cos it’s all just…what was the word? Bullshit.”
“I. Was. Drunk!” Nancy retorted.
“So that makes everything that you said…it’s what? Just bullshit, too?”
“Yes!”
“Well, then tell me,” Steve said plainly.
“Tell you what?” Nancy demanded.
“...you love me,” Steve replied, defeated. But Nancy couldn’t say it.
“Really?” she asked, trying to stall. Then, the gym door opened with a bang and the moment was gone.
Steve’s classmate yelled at him to come back inside and Steve stared at Nancy, giving her one last chance to say something, anything.
But she didn’t.
He walked away, “I think that you’re bullshit.”
—
At lunchtime Lisa sat cross-legged on the bonnet of Jonathan’s car with Nancy and Jonathan sitting on either side of her.
“…I’m just trying to understand,” Nancy said in exasperation, “so, he asked you to take me home?”
“No, Lisa did,” Jonathan replied, nodding his head to Lisa who hummed in agreement and Jonathan lowered his voice as he continued. “Steve didn’t really hang around to talk.”
“He was really upset, Nance,” Lisa added, giving her friend a meaningful look.
Nancy sighed sadly, “God, I’ve made a mess of everything, and now he hates me. I’m surprised you don’t hate me, Lisa.”
“Me?” Lisa asked.
Nancy gave her a puzzled look, “um, yeah you just told me about hooking up with-”
Lisa quickly put her hand over Nancy’s mouth, but Jonathan’s eyebrows shot up, “holy shit?”
Nancy gave her an apologetic look, and Lisa rolled her eyes and then put her face in her hands, to hide the flush that was undoubtedly creeping in.
“Wait- who? At the party?”
“Billy Hargrove.”
“The new kid?”
“Yeah!”
Lisa took her hands away from her face, “you know, just because my eyes were covered doesn’t mean I can’t hear your whispering.”
Her friends both shrugged innocently, and then Lisa shook her head, “anyway, onto more serious business.”
She turned her attention back to Nancy, “try and sort things out with Steve, Nance. He doesn’t hate you. He was still worried about you, after you guys left.”
Jonathan leaned forward across Lisa slightly, looking directly at Nancy, “yeah, you need to cut yourself some slack, okay?”
“He’s right,” Lisa agreed, and she gave Nancy's hand a comforting squeeze before letting go and sitting back again. “People say stupid things when they’re wasted, things they don’t mean.”
“Yeah, but that’s the thing,” Nancy said tearfully as she looked up at them both, “what if I did mean it?”
Lisa and Jonathan exchanged a brief, puzzled look, and Nancy continued, “all this time I’ve been trying so hard to pretend like everything’s fine, but it’s not. I…I feel like there’s this…I don’t know, like this…”
She trailed off and Jonathan nodded in understanding, “like there’s this weight you’re carrying with you. All the time. I feel it too.”
Lisa pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them, “me too. I…I have this routine that I have to do every night, I’ve to check that there’s nothing waiting for me in my closet or under my bed. I make sure my window is bolted shut, and I have an axe propped up between my bed and my desk, just in case. And even then, I can’t sleep through the night.”
Jonathan bumped his shoulder against hers in solidarity, “we’re all in the same boat.”
“But it’s different for you, isn’t it?” Nancy asked him, “Will came home.”
Jonathan sighed, “yeah, yeah he did. But he’s…he’s not the same. I try to be there for him, you know, to help him, but…I don’t know.”
Lisa rested her head on his shoulder as a gesture of reassurance, “you’re doing the best you can for him, Jonathan, you always have.”
Jonathan nodded, “I just don’t know if it’s enough.”
Lisa sighed, her head still on Jonathan’s shoulder, “maybe…maybe things just can’t go back to the way they were. Maybe we’re just going to have to live with this knowledge of monsters and parallel dimensions, and that’s just how things are going to be from now on.”
—
After school, Lisa was swapping out books to bring home for homework when a familiar voice spoke, and was accompanied by a hand on the small of her back.
“You busy tonight?”
Lisa was already smiling when she turned around, and Billy rested his arm above her head on the locker behind her.
“So you didn’t forget about me over the weekend, then?” she asked, teasing.
He chuckled and then kissed her, pressing her back against the lockers, and Lisa did her best to ignore some of the wolf-whistles from people walking past.
Pulling back from the kiss, he smiled at her, bumping his crooked finger against the underside of her chin, “does that answer your question?”
She pursed her lips in an attempt not to smile but she failed miserably, “I think it does, yeah.”
He leaned his shoulder against the lockers as she turned around to take books out.
“Anything fun happen after I left? I heard Wheeler really did a number on Harrington’s ego,” Billy said casually.
Lisa looked at him, “they had a fight, it happens.”
“He really doesn’t like me,” Billy said, but he looked more thrilled than not at the thought.
“You were taunting him a bit at the party,” Lisa said.
Billy frowned, “it was just a bit of fun. You’re definitely a sensitive topic for him, I’ll say that. You guys have a history I should know about?”
The change in his tone made Lisa stop re-arranging her books, “we were friends when we were younger, then we stopped being friends. Now we’re friends again. That’s all.”
Billy didn’t look convinced, “didn’t seem that simple to me.”
“Well, it is,” Lisa said, raising her eyebrows at him in a silent message to drop it.
Billy held up his hands in surrender and then his charming demeanor returned, “so, are you free tonight?”
She smiled and checked her watch, “I could spare a few hours before I’ve to be home for dinner.”
He flashed a grin and kissed her, “meet me at my car? I’ll drop you home afterwards.”
“After what, exactly?” she asked him, blinking innocently at him.
He snickered and crowded her against the locker again, his hand sliding under her sweater to trace across her waist, making her gasp slightly.
“After I have you making some more of those noises like you did on Friday night,” he whispered against her ear, and she bit her lip.
He pulled back, putting his hands behind his back and giving her an expectant look.
She coughed and gave him an amused look, “I’ll meet you at your car. Where are you parked?”
“The middle school,” he said with a sudden tension in his jaw. “See you in a few.”
She nodded, waving as he left.
Half an hour later, she was leaning against the car next to Billy, and while she was enjoying the winter sunshine, Billy was growing increasingly agitated.
“Does your sister know you’re picking her up?” Lisa asked casually. “Maybe she’s already left.”
“Screw it,” he said irritably, dropping his cigarette and walking around to the driver’s side. “Little shit can skate home.”
“Oh, I don’t mind waiting for her,” Lisa said quickly but Billy shook his head, pulling open the driver’s door.
“Nope,” he replied. “And don’t call her that.”
“What?” Lisa asked, pulling open the passenger door.
“‘Sister’,” he repeated, his expression hard. “She’s not my sister.”
Without another word, he sat into the car and started the engine. Lisa, taken aback, decided not to say anything else on the topic as she, too, got into the car.
Chapter Text
The following morning Lisa sat in her car, both sheltering from the rain, and keeping an eye out for Nancy or Jonathan. She hadn't seen either of them since lunch the day before.
It worked out well for her that Billy had offered her a ride, or else she would've had to get the bus from school which she tried to avoid for numerous reasons. Another positive to Billy's offer as well as everything else. Her mind drifted back to the evening prior at Billy's house, his bed, his mouth and hands and-
A knock on the passenger door window made her jump, but she relaxed when she saw that it was Steve, so she leaned over to open the passenger door.
He was kind enough to shake the droplets of rain out of his hair all over her, like a dog.
"Thanks for that," she said, wiping her sleeve over the folders on her lap to dry them, and he winced apologetically.
"Sorry, Lise," he said, and he stared through the windscreen through the droplets of rain, brow furrowed.
"You okay? Or do you need more time to brood?"
"I am not brooding," he shot back.
She shrugged, "fine, you're moping."
He shook his head in amused exasperation, "you sure know how to make a guy feel good, Lisa. Wait no- I didn't mean...shit, nevermind."
Lisa threw back her head and laughed, and he shoved her lightly in the shoulder, "shut up."
After a moment of comfortable silence she gave him a knowing look, "what's up?"
"You haven't seen Nancy around, have you?" he asked.
She shook her head, "not since lunch yesterday. I was supposed to get a ride home with her and Jonathan but they must've skipped last period."
"That's weird," Steve said.
"Agreed."
"Sorry, if I'd known, I would've hung around and brought you home," Steve said with a frown.
"Nah, it's good. I, uh, went back to Billy's."
Steve's frown deepened, and Lisa scowled, "honestly, what's up with you two?"
"He's...well...Just be careful, okay?" Steve said slowly.
Lisa nodded and sighed, "I will. So enough about my relationship, what's new on your side?"
"As Nancy probably told you, she swung by the gym, we talked. And yeah, I think it's fucked."
"You're both so goddamn stubborn, just talk to each other," Lisa said in exasperation.
"We did talk!"
"Without getting pissy," Lisa added.
"And hold on- I'm stubborn? Well, you should tell Nancy-"
"I'm not a messenger pigeon!" She scowled, "you both need to stop using me as a middle ground whenever you fight."
"You're right, sorry," Steve answered apologetically. "I'll talk to her properly. I just need to cool off first or I'll say shit I don't mean, like usual."
The school bell rang, and they reluctantly got out into the rain, running to the school doors. Lisa sheltered her hair with her folders, not willing to put up with the frizz it would evolve into if it got wet again.
Lisa turned to Steve as they wiped their wet shoes on the rug at the doors, "so, you still want me to tutor you in algebra?"
He looked up, "you'll still do that?"
She smiled, "sure. What days suit you?"
He thought about that as they walked to their lockers, "well, on Wednesdays I have swim practice after school. Thursdays I have track, but I'm free most evenings 'cos basketball is during gym period."
"I just work on the weekends so I'm free during the week, here-" she tore a scrap of paper from the back of a notebook and pulled out a pen, scribbling down a set of digits. "That's my phone number, if you need to reschedule or anything, call me at home."
"I probably still have this number from, well, before," he said, but he took the scrap of paper and tucked it into his wallet with a genuine grin. "So, are you free tonight? After school?"
Lisa glanced up to see Billy leaning against her locker, and she gave him a small wave, not noticing as Steve's face fell slightly.
"Yeah, I can do tonight," she told him, and he was slightly taken aback.
"Uh, wait, really?"
She gave him a strange look, "yeah. If you still want-"
"Yes!" he blurted. "Yeah, I'll see you tonight."
"And at lunch," she said, and it wasn't a question.
"And at lunch, yeah," he smiled, ignoring Billy staring holes into the side of his head.
—
Steve was in the showers after gym class, during which Billy knocked him on his ass. Again.
"Don't sweat it Harrington," Billy said as they washed themselves. "Today's just not your day, man."
"Yeah, not your week," Tommy added with a laugh.
Steve ignored them as the water sprayed over his hair and chest, so Tommy took that as an invitation to keep talking.
"You and the princess break up for one day, and she's already running off with the freak's brother."
That caught Steve's attention and he froze as he was reaching for the soap.
Tommy snickered, "oh shit, you don't know. Jonathan and the princess skipped yesterday. Still haven't shown. But that must just be a coincidence, right?"
"Don't take it too hard, man," Billy said with a patronising smirk as Tommy left the shower room, "a pretty boy like you has got nothing to worry about. Plenty of bitches in the sea. Am I right? Not that I'm looking, 'cause I'm tellin' you, Lisa has got me hooked. Man, she's hot. Those smarts and that body-"
"Don't," Steve spat furiously, glaring at Billy.
Billy held his hands up in mock surrender, "sorry man, didn't realise it was a sore spot for you. Did she turn you down or something?"
Steve said nothing, and Billy smirked, "sucks for you, man."
Steve once again stayed silent and Billy reached over and turned off his water before walking out of the room and leaving Steve alone with his thoughts.
—
Dustin got home from school and halted in the kitchen. "Lisa?"
"Yes, Dustin?"
"What is Steve Harrington doing in our kitchen?"
He asked the question as though the guy wasn't sitting right there.
Lisa glanced at Steve who was sitting next to her at the kitchen table, algebra notes strewn everywhere, "we're studying."
"You're not even in the same year-"
Dustin's hat moved and his eyes went wide, as did Lisa's, "what's wrong with your hat?"
"What's wrong with your face!?" he shrieked, and then he ran to his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.
Steve turned to Lisa with raised eyebrows, "so that's Dustin?"
Lisa chuckled, "the one and only."
"I don't think I even met him when we were kids," he said, deep in thought.
Lisa shrugged, "that wouldn't surprise me. He met his friends as soon as he got to school so spent most of his time with them."
Steve nodded and turned back to his notes, attempting to answer an equation that Lisa had given him from one of her own books.
The phone rang then, and Lisa stood to pick it up, "hello?"
"Lisa? It's Nancy, I need a favour."
"Oh, hey-"
"I got it! Hell yeah!" Steve praised himself for completing the equation and raised his arms in the air in celebration, then he winced and remembered Lisa was on the phone.
"Sorry!" he mouthed at her.
She rolled her eyes but before she could answer Nancy spoke again, "is that Steve?"
Lisa cleared her throat awkwardly, "um, yeah, it's Steve. I'm helping him with algebra before his test next week-"
"Oh, okay!" Nancy replied, "anyway, I need you to cover for me tonight. If my mom calls, I'm staying at yours."
"Oh, why-"
"I can't explain now, but I'll fill you in when I can. I'll talk to you soon."
"Nancy-"
Steve's attention snapped to her, his brows pinched.
"Please just trust me. Talk to you soon!" Nancy hung up the phone and Lisa put it back on the wall with an irritated sigh.
Steve glanced at her sidelong as she sat down, "is Nancy okay?"
She nodded, "yeah she's fine, she just needed a favour."
He shrugged and picked up his pencil again, following her instructions until he didn't fear algebra as much anymore and mentally reminded himself that he had fought an actual monster with nothing more than a baseball bat. That gave him a much-needed confidence boost.
Meanwhile Lisa sat there trying to figure out what Nancy was up to this time, and she was growing tired of being her alibi whenever she decided to start investigating something without letting her in on it.
—
At lunchtime the following day, Lisa walked to her locker, expecting to see Nancy at hers, but she wasn't there, yet again. If she hit a third consecutive day of absence, the school would phone Mrs Wheeler.
Lisa hadn't expected Nancy to be absent yesterday, and figured that was why she'd wanted Lisa to cover for her that evening. But this was the second day she'd skipped, and Lisa realised that she hadn't seen Jonathan around either.
"Lisa?"
She turned around to see Steve walking towards her, and he leaned heavily against the lockers next to hers.
"Oh, hey. I was just about to come looking for you actually," she said as she shoved some books into her bag.
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah, I was gonna ask if you'd seen Nancy today."
Steve frowned, "I was gonna ask you the same thing. You haven't seen her?"
"No, I haven't. Haven't spoken to her since she called last night."
"Apparently she's with Jonathan," Steve said.
Lisa raised her eyebrows, "what?"
"Yeah, Tommy said they're skipping school together. I didn't say anything last night because, well, I'm trying not to jump to conclusions."
Lisa scowled, "first of all, you know better than to listen to anything Tommy has to say. Second of all, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation, and not the one you're thinking of right now."
He crossed his arms, "okay, and if you know so much then tell me what I'm thinking."
Lisa closed her locker and leaned against it, mirroring Steve as she looked up at him, "you're worried she's hooking up with Jonathan right after you guys break up."
"We're not technically broken up, and they're getting close so-"
"You're not broken up?" Lisa asked, confused. "What was the last thing you said to her?"
Steve groaned and rubbed a hand down his face, "I told her that she's bullshit."
Lisa grimaced, "oh, well maybe you need to have that conversation, and soon."
"She's with Jonathan-"
"Steve, boys and girls can be friends, you know. I mean, look at us, right?"
Steve's shoulders dropped and he took a second to respond, "uh, yeah. You're right."
"Hey, Lisa," came a voice from behind her, and Steve immediately tensed up while looking over her shoulder.
Before she knew what was happening, Billy was kissing her right there against the lockers as if Steve wasn't standing right next to them.
Steve quickly turned away, putting his back to them.
Lisa's legs felt like jelly at the intensity of the kiss but then she pulled back and pushed Billy back a step, "we're in company, Billy."
Billy grinned at Steve, and clapped him hard on the shoulder, "Steve doesn't mind, do you Harrington?"
Steve said nothing and Billy nodded, "that's what I thought."
"Well, I mind," Lisa said, frowning. "We were in the middle of a conversation."
Billy's smile dropped, "oh, well don't let me ruin the fun."
She grabbed the front of his jacket before he could storm off, "don't be like that, c'mon."
"You coming over tonight, then?" he asked, turning the charm back on.
"I have work at seven but I could come over for a couple of hours after school?" she replied.
"Looking forward to it," he said, and he ran his hand over the small of Lisa's back and then shamelessly palmed her ass.
"C'mon, man," Steve groaned.
Billy pouted patronisingly, "aw, don't be jealous, Harrington."
"I'm not-"
"I think you are," Billy grinned.
Lisa rolled her eyes and turned away from them to finish swapping out her books.
She was practically choking on the testosterone these two boys were emitting during this pissing contest.
"Why would I be?" Steve said as he stood up to his full height, and Billy stepped close to him, meeting his gaze in a challenge.
"Because Lisa is interested in me and not y-"
"Would the two of you give it a rest!" Lisa snapped, slamming her locker shut.
Billy turned to her, his confidence not wavering, "your pal here is pushing boundaries, sweetheart."
"You're such a jackass," Steve retorted.
"Billy, I'll meet you at the middle school?" Lisa cut in, and Billy turned to her.
"See you then, sweetheart," he winked at her, and then smirked at Steve as he left.
Steve stared after him in disgust and then turned to Lisa, eyebrows raised.
"I'm not talking about this with you," Lisa said before he could say anything. "Let's get lunch before all the good stuff is gone."
"Look, Lise, I know it's none of my business but-"
"You're right, it's not your business," Lisa said, walking away from him.
He tilted his head back and groaned in frustration, but then followed her to the cafeteria.
Madaboutjoe on Chapter 5 Sat 28 Jan 2023 06:07PM UTC
Last Edited Sat 28 Jan 2023 06:08PM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 8 Fri 29 Aug 2025 09:52PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 9 Sat 30 Aug 2025 01:09AM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 9 Sat 30 Aug 2025 04:37PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 10 Sat 30 Aug 2025 04:21PM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 10 Sat 30 Aug 2025 04:37PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 10 Sat 30 Aug 2025 05:37PM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 10 Mon 01 Sep 2025 01:59PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 10 Mon 01 Sep 2025 02:01PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 11 Mon 01 Sep 2025 02:16PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 12 Mon 01 Sep 2025 05:05PM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 12 Wed 03 Sep 2025 03:08PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 13 Wed 03 Sep 2025 03:41PM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 13 Thu 04 Sep 2025 02:32PM UTC
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sonamey on Chapter 14 Thu 04 Sep 2025 02:20PM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 14 Thu 04 Sep 2025 02:32PM UTC
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wildfire377 on Chapter 14 Thu 04 Sep 2025 03:25PM UTC
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badplantmom on Chapter 14 Fri 05 Sep 2025 01:03PM UTC
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