Beautiful Disaster - S. Harrington.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THIS IS WHY I DON'T SOCIALIZE

CHAPTER SEVEN: THIS IS WHY I DON'T SOCIALIZE

LILY HATED MANY THINGS, BUT SHE HAD ESPECIALLY COME TO HATE DUSTIN HENDERSON IN THE MORNING. Specifically at six o clock in the mornings. He made loud noises with his stupid walkie, and he yelled around the house every morning. Every. Single. Morning. This morning in particular he seemed to be more worked up than usual, which had Lily squeezing her pillow tight around her ears. How did a kid have this much energy at this time of day? She had no idea.

"Lily!!!!! Lily!!!!" He yelled, getting closer and closer to her room. "Shut up, shut up." She muttered under her breath. "Lily!!!" The kid finally swung open her door and flicked the light on. "AGH!" She let out a frustrated scream and threw her pillow at Dustin with all the force she had that early. He blinked, watching the pillow fall to the floor.

Lily gave him wild eyes as she sat up. "Dustin. Do you not realize that you are screaming around the house at six in the morning? Six." He frowned. "I'm looking for my walkie." She rolled her eyes. "Oh god, because what would you do if you lost that piece of shit!" He threw his hands up. "Exactly!" Lily rubbed her puffy eyes and let out another groan. "It's on the kitchen counter, where you left it." His face lit up. "Thanks Lily!" Before he could way away, she called out again. "Oh, and Dustin?" "Yeah?"

"If you wake me up at six am again, I will strangle you."

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            "That's why science doesn't make any damn sense to me!" Tommy exclaimed from the lunch table they were all sitting at. How exactly Lily had ended up eating lunch with them, she wasn't sure.

"Hey Tommy, when you left did you see Barb?" Nancy asked him, voicing Lily's thoughts since this morning. "What?" "Barbara." "She's not here today." Lily piped in. "I seriously have no idea what you're talking about." Of course he didn't.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Come on, don't be an ass man. Did you see her leave last night or not?" He sighs. "No, she was gone last night when we left." Carol chuckled. "Probably couldn't stand to listen to all that moaning." Lily internally gagged, or maybe outwardly, she wasn't sure. She shot a glance at Nancy to ask something along the lines of, 'you had sex with Steve Harrington while I was sleeping downstairs?!' But Nancy was too caught up in her own thoughts to notice. Steve rolled his eyes and laid an arm around Nancy's shoulder. "Look, I'm sure she's fine she's probably..." "She's probably just like skipping school or something." Tommy voiced his normal opinion this time. "Yeah."

Nancy frowned. "Uh, yeah probably." But she finally exchanged a glance with Lily, they both knew one thing. Barb would never skip school. Ever.

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            "Come on, come on, come on." Nancy held the phone up to her ear urging Ms. Holland to answer the phone. They had resorted to calling Barb's house, because like they said, Barb didn't skip school. Nancy perked up. "Hi, hi!" Lily leaned in close trying to her the other caller, but it was no use. "Hi, uh, Ms. Holland, it's Nancy!" Lily leaned against the wall with a frown. Something wasn't right. Will going missing and then Barb's not at school? That couldn't be a coincidence.

"Lily!" Her head shot up and she looked around. Did she imagine it? "Psst. Lily. Over here." She followed the sound of the voice and saw Mike waving frantically. What was he doing here? "Mike?" She asked once she had gotten closer to him. "What are you doing here?" "I needed to talk to you." She frowned, "shoot."

"So, El's still at my house." Lily's frown deepened. "Um, who?" "El! Oh, the girl that we found last night? Her name is El, short for Eleven." Lily gave him a look. "Her name is a number." He rolled his eyes. "That's not important, but she's going to help us find Will today. We're meeting at the power lines in my backyard at 3:15."

Lily glanced back to see Nancy still on the phone. "You want me to go with you guys." She assumed as he nodded. Lily crossed her arms. "Did you tell your mom?" Mike let out a nervous laugh. "Uh, no? Look, I know it doesn't make any sense, but we'll explain it all later. Just meet us, okay?" Lily sighed. Seriously, what was going on in this town. "3:15?" He nodded. "3:15."

Before she could ask another question, he took off back to the middle school and Lily made her way back to Nancy. Definitely more confused than she had been three minutes ago.

"Was that Mike?" Nancy asked as she hung up the phone. Lily nodded. "Yeah, he wants me to do D&D stuff or something later. Any luck?" Nancy shook her head, her face grim. "She never went home, Lily." Lily felt her stomach twist a little. "Are you sure? Maybe her parents didn't see her or..." Nancy shook her head again. "Ms. Holland has no idea where she is. This is really bothering me, like Will disappears and then Barb. What if something awful is happening?" Lily rested her arms on Nancy's, attempting to calm her down. "I'm sure everything's fine, and Barb will like randomly show up and be like 'ha! You guys never thought I'd skip, but here I am.'" Nancy gave a small chuckle but neither of them believed it.

"Come on, I can give you a ride home?" Nancy nodded. "Sounds good." They made their way into the school parking lot but Nancy stopped short when she saw the scene before. Lily looked up to see Steve, Carol, and Tommy standing in front of Jonathan. "What the hell?" Lily whispered as they made their way closer.

"No this is called stalking." Steve tells Jonathan as they walked up to the group. "What's going on?" Nancy asked once they stopped before the other teens. Jonathan's eyes snapped to Lily with a grimace. "Here's the starring lady." "What?" "This creep was spying on us last night." Steve told them as Carol passed a picture over. "He was probably gonna save this one for later."

Lily gasped as both her and Nancy looked at the black and white photo of Nancy through Steve's window the night before. It wouldn't have been as bad if Nancy wasn't practically naked. Lily became slightly nauseous, what was Jonathan thinking? Steve clicked his tongue. "See, you can tell that he knows its wrong but that's the thing about perverts...it's hardwired into them." Lily flinched slightly before looking back to Jonathan. He refused to meet her eyes and clearly had nothing to say to Steve.

"So..." Steve drawled. "We'll just have to take away his toy." He slowly picked up Jonathan camera up from the ground and waved it in front of him. "Steve!" Nancy protested. "No, please not the camera." Jonathan said, finally speaking up. Lily knew how much that thing meant to him, and when he was taking creepy photos without people knowing, he was a great photographer. Lily stepped forward. "Steve, just leave it." He shot her a glance that said he was not about to 'leave' this. But he decided to play it cool.

"It's okay." He held the camera out for Jonathan to grab. "Here you go man." Jonathan gave him a wary look before reaching out to grab it. Steve let the camera slip from his fingers moments before Jonathan could touch it. "Whoops?" His camera now laid on the ground in tiny pieces. Tommy let out a laugh and with that, the three started walking away. "Come on let's go, the games about to start." Nancy reached down and picked up the discarded pictures. She gave Jonathan one last loaded look. "Nance!" Steve called, "come on!" With that she joined the group. Lily kneeled and helped him clean up his camera. Although he made a stupid decision, she couldn't help but feel bad for him.

"Just go, Lily." Jonathan told her. She handed him the last piece as he stood up. "What were you doing in the woods?" Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck. "Looking for Will." She bit her lip to stop herself from making some sarcastic comment she knew would make the situation worse and made her way to her car.