Love Is A Battlefield (A Stranger Things/Steve Harrington Fanfiction)

Chapter Seventy-One: Tammy Thompson and Chrissy Cunningham

"Chrissy? Chrissy? You ready to try the dress on again? I loosened the back a little for you. Chrissy?! Did you hear me?! Open the door, Chrissy! OPEN THE DOOR, CHRISSY, OR I'M GONNA GUY YOU LIKE THE FAT PIG THAT YOU ARE!"

"GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" 

"DID YOU HEAR ME?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Riley...can you hear me? RILEY?!"

I bolted upright with a gasp, only to find that I had fallen asleep with my head on the counter at Family Video. I didn't even remember dozing off, but here I was, waking up from the most random and horrible nightmare about some random cheerleader in a bathroom. 

"About time!" Mike exclaimed, moving his hand from where he had been shaking my shoulder. "I called your name like twenty times."

"Sorry...I didn't even know I fell asleep." I said, rubbing a hand over my face. 

"Well? Do you have the letter?"

"Right, yeah." I took the letter out of my pocket, handing it to him. He took it, sliding it into his backpack.

"You sure you don't want to come?" He asked. 

"Of course I want to come," I said, walking around the counter to walk him to the door, "But I can't. We need the money."

"Yeah, I guess..." He said, clearly not understanding, "You know she misses you, right? Like a lot, she talks about it all the time in her letters."

"Yeah, I know. I miss her too." I told him. "Do me a favor and let her know that, will you?" He nodded, heading out the door. It just so happened to be closing time anyway, so I shut the door behind him and flipped over the 'Sorry, we're closed' sign just as Steve came out of the back office, whistling to himself and spinning the store key around his finger.

"You ready for screaming fans, sweaty teenagers, and sub par concession stand food?" He asked, coming to a stop in front of me. I smiled, taking off my vest and folding it over my arm.

"Am I ever." I said, taking the key from him as he threw an arm around my shoulders, leading me out the door. 

~~~

The gym was already packed by the time that we got there, and the basketball team was running out onto the floor to begin their warmups while the band played in the background. 

I combed through the players faces until I found Lucas, who waved excitedly. I smiled, waving back at him as Steve and I moved past the marching band to sit across the aisle from them, directly diagonal to Robin.

"Does it bother you that we might win a championship right after you graduated?" I asked, lightly bumping his shoulder with mine. 

"Yeah, that's an interesting point, thanks for bringing that up, Riley." I laughed, putting a hand on his back and looking out over the crowd. The Hawkins cheerleaders were standing on the other side of the gym, cheering, chanting and waving to the crowd. I never really took much notice of the cheerleaders when I was in high school...which is why I found myself concerned about the fact that the cheerleader in my dream was wearing a uniform identical to those of the girls jumping around on the gym floor below.

I looked down the line, studying each of their faces when I suddenly stopped on one that made my blood run cold. It wasn't just the uniforms that had somehow made their way into my subconscious mind...it was the cheerleader. The exact girl from my dream, who I had seen hiding in a bathroom stall, sobbing as someone shouted awful, grotesque things at her from the other side of the door, she was standing there, smiling and cheering as happy as ever.