STARCROSSED ▷ steve harrington

02. the hellfire club - part two

CHAPTER TWO — THE HELLFIRE CLUB
PART TWO

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"YOU'RE SURE you don't want me to just grab it for you?" Steve asked as Jackie climbed out of his car. "I'm not sure you should be walking. And with all of the lifting and stuff, it's just not good."

She shot him a look. Yes, it was incredibly annoying hobbling around in the dramatic cast Steve had bought her, and yes it would've been easier for him to just get everything for her, but her new home was, well... Embarrassing. And she knew Steve didn't care, but his house was extremely nice, and there she was living in a trailer park. She already felt pitied with all of the stares she'd get if she went into a grocery store, or literally did anything public, she didn't need her own boyfriend to walk inside and see what shithole she lived in currently, and have him pity her, too.

"It's fine," she assured him. "I've got it. It's not like I'm moving my bed frame, it's just some clothes. My room's a mess, anyway. You wouldn't even know where to look."

"Maybe I would if you actually let me inside for once."

"No," she said, harsher than she had intended. She regretted it immediately, but didn't apologize. "Just stay in the car. I'll only be a minute."

The trailer was still foreign to her, despite occupying it for almost six months. She was never there. A large part of her felt guilty for it, she knew her mother was struggling. She knew Max wasn't in the right frame of mind from what Lucas had told her, but she was so exhausted from having to keep everyone else afloat all the time, and she just couldn't do it anymore.

The first month after Billy's death was the worst. All of Billy's belongings were sold, and Neil turned his vileness onto her mother. After weeks of seeing the shit he had put her through, Jackie was fed up.

She knew she was partially the reason her step-father fled and had left them nothing—the words she uttered to him were almost as nasty as the ones he had said to her mother. That was also probably a contributing factor to why she was never home. She was the reason they were stuck at this dump now, and it was the same reason why she was more familiar with the Wheeler's basement couch, rather than her own bed.

It was guilt. She felt awful. It was conflicting, at times she was so proud of herself for sticking up for her mother when she knew she'd be unable to, and at others, she was so disgusted with herself for being the reason they had to move. If she had just kept her mouth shut, perhaps Neil wouldn't have left, and perhaps she would still have a house that wasn't a total of a square foot.

Nobody was home when she entered. Jackie winced at the beer bottles crushed on the floor and the smell of cigarettes that lurked in the air as she roamed around, stumbling on trash until she was at her bedroom door.

She didn't lie about it being a complete wreck. Her clothes were tossed onto her bed, there were still unpacked boxes in the corner, and most of her records were stacked on the built-in desk. The room didn't feel like her at all, especially without her skateboards hung up on the walls. She had to sell all of them except one before they moved, no more would fit.

The bag she packed was small, but it would last her a few more days until she had to do laundry. She was sitting back in Steve's car within a couple of minutes.

"Are you sure you want me to drop you back off at the Wheeler's?" Steve wondered, putting the car into drive. "You could always just stay with me. We've got a guest bedroom. That's nicer than that ratty old thing they call a couch in the basement."

"No, it's okay," she said, mostly because the thought of being under the same roof as Steve's parents was absolutely terrifying. She'd met his dad once at the end of the previous summer. Her car had broken down in their driveway, and he came out to fix it. Needless to say, he was the most intimidating man Jackie had ever met. "Pretty sure Ted is fed up with me, but Karen loves that I can make my own breakfast."