𝘿𝙤𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨- 𝙍𝙤𝙗𝙞𝙣 𝘽𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙭 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣- 𝙊𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙞𝙢

Two weeks until prom

Nancy walked into class the next morning with a certain aura around her. She'd been down ever since Barbara went missing, apparently, but she seemed more so than normal. Remembering her offer of being there to talk, y/n walked over to her.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked delicately as Nancy looked up to her.
Nancy wiped her eyes, and weakened her tone.
"Yeah I'm fine, it's just that- as you've probably heard- my friend is still missing. The other one, Will Byers, had a funeral the other day, but it turns out he's alive. All of this is happening, and yet still no sign of Barb." She spilled, seemingly not being able to stop.

"Hey, hey I get it." Y/n frowned, comforting her classmate with a rub on the arm. "It sucks, I know."

She decided to ignore the first part, and not question why the hell they held a funeral if he wasn't dead. Comfort now, question later.
"Shall we, erh, change the subject?" Y/n offered.

The eldest Wheeler dabbed her eyes once again with her sleeve, and sniffed. "Yeah, I think we should. Heard Steve's taking you to the prom?"

Ugh, more prom talk... wait what?
"Me? With Steve? Um, yeah- no."

"It's okay, honestly. I'm over him anyway."

"No, it's not that- I'm glad to hear that, by the way, but I'm still not going with him."

"Oh" Nancy shrugged. "Well, it's all over the school, so try telling them that."

"Oh for god sake."

"Yeah"

Y/n grimaced down at her work, dreading the fact that Steve might actually be willing to ask her out. Each option wouldn't be a happy ending anyway.
Say yes and have all the girls hate her through jealousy, and not have a good time, or say no and have everyone hate her because they assumed that she thought she was too good for him. It was a lose-lose situation.

Y/n turned herself back towards the front of the class, pen propped in-between her teeth.
The topic was the Tudors, which had just changed from the previous topic of the Romans.
Around five minutes into the lesson, Steve Harrington made an entrance, bagel in hand.

"Mr Harrington will you please hurry up and finish your breakfast- you are late. Again."
The teacher lectured, tired of his usual routine.

Steve nodded as he took a seat, and almost immediately, Tammy's eyes were fixated on him. Y/n had noticed that recently, that Tam had a weird obsession with his hair. She was always staring at it, or him. Same thing.

"Maybe it's a good thing that I didn't end up staying with him- he's extremely messy." Nancy whispered with a sad chuckle.

"Too right" y/n replied, staring at the crumbs that Steve was dropping all over the floor.

-

Steve sat on his bed that night after pacing his room, trying to come up with a solution. It confused him, how he wanted something so badly.
Carol was pestering him, Tommy was pestering him- goddamnit even Tina had a little dig. It felt like middle school all over again, everyone mocking each other for liking someone. Steve had thought that the high-schoolers would be a lot more mature this year. Obviously not.

He stood, and walked towards the window, staring down at the pool that Barbara was abducted by under his watch. He knew about all of the tragedies, all of the confusion, and hoped that the stupid dance coming up would take his mind off it for a while. He could only hope.

Next week was the week. He was going to ask her whether she wanted him to or not.