Broken & Pretty..Steve Harrington

020.

THE RETURN FROM CALIFORNIA

⇾change my clothes by dream & alec benjamin

if i wanna change the world, i should change myself.

⸺DURING the summer, Billy and Tiffany had gotten close. He went to every single one of her art shows and she would visit him at his job a lot. They weren't close as in they liked each other, they were more really close friends. Tiffany was the first girl Billy actually wanted to be friends with because she actually had a personality. Tiffany had gotten close to Max too, who happened to be Billy's step sister. Billy's family and Max's family were moving to Hawkins and since Tiffany had to go back, they figured they'd just bring her back with them. Billy was a bit disappointed because he really liked California, but he was happy he'd still get to hang out with Tiffany.

They had gotten back to Hawkins and Tiffany ended up helping them move in. When they finished it was already late at night, so she couldn't go say hi to everybody, but she could go see her mom and Dustin. Tiffany headed back home and she unlocked her door. She saw Dustin running around and their mom watching TV. Tiffany closed the door behind her and waited until someone noticed her. "Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch! Another stupid penny!"

"Dusty, watch it! You almost hit Mews!"

"Can I please check under your cushions?!" Tiffany then coughed to get their attention. "Hey guys, I missed you too."

They looked at Tiffany and got up to hug her. "We missed you so much!"

"Welcome back, sis! Do you have any quarters?" Tiffany sighed and pulled two quarters out of her pocket. She handed them to Dustin and he ran out of the house. "Well, it's nice to know he missed me."

"He's just excited about the arcade."

"Wait, since when was there an arcade?"

"Oh, they built it just last month."

"Huh, cool." Tiffany's mom noticed her haircut. Tiffany had cut her hair shorter so it just reached her shoulders and her mom liked it. "I love your hair, it suits you."

"Thanks mom." Tiffany stared bringing her stuff to her room and unpacking everything. Her mom stood with Mews in the doorway. "Sooooo!"

"So..."

"How was California? Did you get an internship? Did you talk to Steve?"

"California was fun. I didn't apply for any internships, but I did do art shows once every week and I sold seven paintings. No, I did not talk to Steve."

"Oh, honey I'm so proud!" Tiffany put down Mews and pulled Tiffany into a hug. Tiffany had been hugged a lot by Harriet and Garret, so she had learned to tense her body and she won't almost suffocate. When her mom let go, she started to help Tiffany unpack her stuff. When they got to her bag with all her paintings, her mom started pulling out paintings. She pulled out a painting of Billy. Billy had asked Tiffany to make a portrait of himself and she forgot to give it to him. "Tiffany. Who's this?"

Tiffany looked at the painting. "Shoot. I forgot to give the painting to him! That's just my friend, Billy. I met him in California and he was moving here when I had to come back, that's why I said don't bother driving me home."

Mrs. Henderson handed Tiffany the painting and she put it on her dresser so she would remember to give it to Billy. "Is he why you didn't call Steve?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Steve is a very nice boy and you two are perfect for each other, I don't want some California trash taking advantage of you and breaking your heart."

"Mom! Me and Billy are just friends. I know everyone says that, but trust me, we are only friends. Plus, he's not trash all the time." Tiffany then had to come up with a reason why she didn't call Steve. Why couldn't she have just lied before? "Also, I didn't call Steve because we agreed before I left, that we wouldn't call each other, so when we saw each other again, it was more...uh...magical."

Tiffany's mom smiled and brought her into a hug again. Her mom started pulling more of her paintings out of the bag. She looked at them in shock. "Tiffany."

Tiffany hummed to signal she was listening while she was also hanging some of her paintings up. "These are very...different then what you used to do. I mean, before you did mountains and forests, but these are so much creepier, but their better. They look more realistic, I'm so proud!"

Tiffany laughed. "Thanks, mom."

They finished unpacking everything and Tiffany knew she was going to forget to give the painting to Billy, so she was going to rush over there quickly. She walked over to Billy and Max's house and knocked on the door. Max answered the door. "Hi Tiff."

"Hey Max, can you give this to Billy?" Tiffany handed her the painting and Max cringed at it. "God, I hate his face. I really hope he keeps this in his room and not in the living room or something."

"Yeah, I love him, but that would suck to have to look at all the time."

Max laughed and waved goodbye. Tiffany headed back home. When she got back home, she stayed up later painting something new. Tiffany didn't want to do a proper painting of the shadow, she had sketched it, but it was never in her shows. Tiffany started to paint it and her head started to hurt a little bit. She rubbed her head. Tiffany was hearing a high pitched squealing noise again. Like when someone flat lines. It was louder than the last time. Tiffany had been hearing it in California, but she just tried not to think much of it, but this time, was louder than it ever was. Tiffany then started to hear breathing, but that echo sound like when Dustin was screaming and when the cars were chasing them. It almost sounded like Will.

A/N

Sorry this chapter was short, it was just a filler chapter.