CINEMA ( steve harrington! )

004

cinema——
have a nice life

004

The next day Kenra knew she had to go to school and push through. She rode her bike with Dustin for the first time in years to get there. She had a calculus test today that she'd been dreading, but showing up to school and getting it done is always better than having to stay after one day to complete it.

The whole day felt off, Will's apparent death was still in the back of her mind as she went about her day. She almost made it to the end of the day before she even caught a glimpse of Jessie. She was fed up with the fact that he hadn't even called to ask why she didn't come to school yesterday, which is a big part of the reason she rode her bike to school in the first place. Kenra was meant to meet Nancy right after school to discuss whatever it was that Nancy had called and asked about the previous night.

Kenra left her final classroom and headed straight towards the exit to go find Nancy when a hand caught her arm. She knew who it was before she even turned around. "Where have you been, babe?" Jessie asked as she turned around to face him.

"I was sick yesterday." Kenra lied, with a shrug.

"Okay," Jessie scoffed. "I didn't know that." He was clearly irritated with her already.

Kenra kept herself from rolling her eyes but her next words came out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Well maybe if you had called to check on me, or something, you would have." Her voice was quiet and low but Jessie heard it perfectly.

His grip on her arm grew hard enough to make her whimper. "What did you just say to me?" Jessie's words were threatening. Kenra knew she shouldn't have said something like that to him, no matter how badly she wanted to. "Repeat that, would ya?"

But for some reason, now, she just felt good. Like she'd finally been able to talk back to him after years of putting up with his bullshit. "No." Kenra built up the courage to say. Jessie's brows rose in questioning.

"Excuse me?" He leaned down to say. Kenra glanced all around her, they were in the middle of the hallway and everyone was staring. Everyone could see he was clearly hurting her.

"I said no." Kenra spoke up louder, she ripped her arm out of his grip. "I'm done." Jessie focused his eyes on her, he wasn't paying attention to the crowd the way Kenra was.

"No, you're not." He told her.

"Yes, I am. I'm done." Kenra's voice got a little louder, slightly more confident.

Jessie scoffed. "What are you even talking about?"

"I'm saying, we're over." Kenra said, loud and clear. "Have a nice life." She smiled sarcastically and turned around. Kenra walked fast so she could make it to the school doors before Jessie could say anything else or embarrass her in front of everyone. The whole school had just seen Jessie Williamson get dumped, including all of his friends.

Kenra made it to the doors where Nancy had been standing and watching the whole encounter. "Woah." Nancy said. They opened the doors and walked out quickly.

"Holy shit." Kenra breathed. "Oh, my God." She rushed. Nancy smiled as she watched the girl. Kenra smiled. "I just did that. I finally did it." She had no clue where the courage came from. Maybe because she knew there were so many people watching and there was no way Jessie could hurt her in front of them. Or maybe it was all the times Dustin told her 'why don't you just dump that douchebag already'.

"Yeah you did." Nancy laughed with her.

After a few moments and the two girls walked farther away from the school Kenra suddenly realized what they'd been together for in the first place. "Oh, what was it that you wanted to talk about?" Kenra turned to Nancy.

Nancy nodded, they sat down at a picnic table in the field. "So, Barbara is missing, and Steve said you walked home from his house, and I just wanted to know if you saw anything that night. Maybe, out of the ordinary."

Kenra's mood changes quickly as she is brought back to the reality of her situation. She couldn't mention what had happened to her to anyone, they would just think she was being ridiculous. "W-what kind of thing?" She asked.

Nancy dug through her bag for a moment before she pulled out a picture that had been ripped into pieces and taped back together. "Something like this." She pointed to a figure in the corner of the photo.

Kenra tilted her head as she looked around the picture. It looked like it'd been taken from the woods behind Steve's house. Barbara sat on the diving board by the pool. Her eyes wandered over to where Nancy was pointing and Kenra's stomach sank. She shrugged after a moment. "I think I might have seen something in the woods when I was walking, but I don't know." She lied.

Nancy nodded.

▾

Nancy mentioned something about wanting to go see Jonathan to ask him a question, and Kenra agreed to come along. They eventually found him at the funeral home talking to the man about caskets. Kenra instantly felt the depressing feeling in the air.

The two girls walked in and when Jonathan saw them he excused himself from the worker to speak to them. When Jonathan walked up to them Kenra stepped up and pulled him into a quick hug, she wasn't just sympathetic for her friend but she was truly hurting for him. "You're mom, she uh, said you'd be here." Kenra said when she stepped back to stand by Nancy.

"Can we talk for a second?" Nancy asked him. Jonathan nodded and they walked out into the hall and took a seat on a bench. Nancy pulled out the picture she had shown Kenra earlier.

Jonathan looked at the picture for a few seconds before he spoke. "It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion, but I wasn't using a wide angle." He explained. "I don't know, it's weird."

Nancy took the photo back. "And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" She asked.

"No." Jonathan answered. "She was there one second and then, um..gone. I figured she bolted." Kenra thought about both of their words for a few seconds.

"Wait," Kenra spoke up, she touched Jonathan's knee to get his attention. "You took this picture?" She asked. It hadn't occurred to her until then how Nancy had gotten the photo in the first place. Kenra wasn't even concerned with the fact that Jonathan had been in the woods without their knowledge that night, she was more worried that he had seen her fight with Jessie. Jonathan nodded, he apologized again for being there.

"I went back to Steve's and I thought I.. saw something." Nancy said. "Some weird man or.. I don't know what it was." There was a break of silence. "I'm sorry. I.. I shouldn't have come here today. I'm... so sorry." Nancy said and Kenra stood up mindlessly to follow her, still focused on her paranoia.

They began to walk away when Jonathan spoke up. "What'd he look like?" He asked.

Nancy and Kenra turned around. "What?"

"This man you saw in the words." Jonathan clarified. "What'd he look like?"

"I-I don't know. It was almost like he..." Nancy drawed out.

"Didn't have a face." Kenra thought to herself at the same time Jonathan said it out loud. They all look at each other.