wires, steve harrington

thirty.

after the fourth of july, things almost seemed back to normal. meadow henderson and her brother, dustin, had safely survived yet another apocalyptic attack. and yet, despite surviving, meadow couldn't help but feel as if she hadn't really survived at all. what was surviving?

surviving, in her opinion, wasn't waking up with a cold sweat, shaking after yet another nightmare. she was alive, sure, but meadow was still, in many ways, stuck in whatever dungeon or prison the russians had kept her in the summer prior.

the worst part of it all, meadow thought, was not being able to talk to anyone about it. normally the rational part of her brain would tell her to go to a therapist, obviously, get this checked out and try to minimize whatever case of ptsd she had. but, of course, no therapist would believe her if she started talking about monsters and alternate realities.

"it feels like.. it's never over. never." she once confided in steve, who was almost the only person that truly understood what she was going through.

he had frowned, shaking his head. "no. no, i don't believe that."

but she thought that he was just trying to console her, because meadow knew that steve was going through the same exact nightmares she was. it wasn't ever going to truly be over, she thought.

"can you please just be.. optimistic? for once?" dustin pleaded with her, moving the joystick to the right. "i'm going to win this time. i know it."

"yeah?" she responded, raising a brow. "cause it looks like you're getting your ass beat." she got up from her position leaning on a random arcade cabinet, moving to lean over her brother's shoulder as he, once again, lost dragon's lair. "and guess who was right, again."

dustin groaned, but put his hand into his back pocket to take out a dollar bill that he slapped into her open hand. "i don't get it. how did you win?"

"pure talent and skill."

he shook his head. "bullshit. did you do something with keith? are you bribing him?" his brows raised and his voice became an accusatory whisper. "are you and keith-"

meadow gave him a look. "no! what, obviously not, gross." she then leaned down to be more on his level. "legend says it can only be won by someone with my exact and precise dna running through their veins." she said with a grin and an attempt at a spooky tone. "or, legend says you just have to not suck."

"legend says you can shove dragon's lair up your ass-"

"hey!" his sister scolded, hitting him on the back of his head. "i won, which means i get to pick lunch, and i'm deciding we get the greasiest burgers in town and then stop by family video, sound cool?"

the boy sighed. "yeah, so you can swap face with steve!"

"no," she spoke incredulously, "so we can get a movie to watch for movie night." the look that her brother gave her told meadow that he wasn't fooled, and she shook her head. "okay, yeah, and to see steve."

"fine." dustin grumbled, leading the way outside to her car. "but it's only because i want to see him, too. this is a choice i am making purely out of greed, absolutely no compassion to be found here, i am still quite mad at you."

meadow just shook her head with a fond smile as she followed him out the door, stuffing his dollar into her back pocket.

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