"Are you holding my hand?"
"I'm scared as shit right now, so yeah, I'm holding your hand."
Steve Harrington x fem!oc
Summary inside
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Halley was perfectly fine keeping everything that had happened the night before to herself. In fact, she had no intention of sharing that information with anyone. At all. Especially with what Will was going through at that moment.
Such a situation explained why Halley was still at home.
She held a cup of coffee in each hand, offering one to Joyce as the older woman aggressively hung up the phone.
"Still no word from Hopper?" Halley asked, holding the mug to her face and allowing the steam to warm up her cold nose. It made her eyes water.
Joyce shook her head, muttering a small 'thank you' for the coffee. She had been trying to get in touch with Hopper since yesterday, when Will told her what was going on. So far, she had no luck; only a couple of forced pleasantries with Flo.
Halley had offered to go down to the station, not that she was jumping at the idea of coming up with an excuse as to why she had skipped her internship. Joyce had said no. Not only would the two be separated if something happened to or with Will, but Halley would also have to explain why she wasn't at school.
There had been a little bit of an argument about the whole 'going to school' thing. But ultimately, Joyce gave in when Halley said it was either staying home, or (still) skipping and going over to the middle school to talk to the kids. Supposedly, there was no need to bring the boys back into the mess. Halley neglected to tell her that there was a good chance that they were already involved.
Will had rounded the corner, then, a towel wrapped around his waist, but completely dry. "It's too hot." Joyce glanced at Halley, almost ready to argue, but she stopped herself, turning back and nodding. Will led her back to the bathroom, where the water in the tub was already whirling down the drain.
"I...I can cool it down a little, Baby," Joyce said, sitting on the side of the tub, running her hand through the water still there, "but we need to get your body temperature up." She shook the water off her hand.
"No."
That got both Halley and Joyce's attention. "What?"
"He likes it cold." Will stood almost completely still, an unrecognizable look sketched across his face. What the fuck? Halley stepped toward him, reaching out, but he flinched back. For a second, it looked like Will almost regretted speaking, he looked down, then walked away without another word. Leaving Halley and Joyce to stare at where he had stood.
"What was that?" Halley whispered, her eyes widening as she stared at Joyce.
She looked down at the tub. "I don't know."
With a gulp, the blonde looked at her mom, "I'll, uh, I'll go talk to him." Joyce nodded, still shocked by what happened. The drain gurgled as it took the last of the water.
