SWEET CREATURE//steve harrington

EIGHT

SLEEP HADN'T CURED VIVIAN'S IRRITATION. She woke up just as upset as she'd been the night before. To her displeasure, she'd accidentally fallen asleep in her clothes, on top of her sheets. All of the lights she'd had on were still shining, and she squinted at the sight of them.

The smell of bacon wafted up the stairs and into her room, taunting her. She knew that was her mom's way of trying to smooth things over. The worse part was, it was going to work.

Vivian sat up slowly, rubbing her head. It still hurt; the stress of recent conflicts had only furthered her headache. She peeled off yesterday's wrinkled clothes and found some jeans and a striped t-shirt to wear. That made her feel marginally better already. Catching a glimpse of herself in her vanity mirror, though, she realized her hair was a different story. She smoothed it down with her hands as much as she could and threw it up in a clip. 

When she opened her bedroom door, Harper was pulling on her windbreaker and rounding the corner before the stairs. "Wow," she said, freezing. "You look like shit." Vivian glared at her and pushed past her down the steps. "I'm really starting to hate this whole 'you insulting me' thing," she said, subconsciously tugging on a stray curl. "It's getting old." Harper raced to the bottom of the staircase, jumping off the last step. "Maybe to you," she countered. "I find it hilarious." 

Mrs. Sweets stood in the kitchen over the stove, still in her bathrobe. "Good morning, sweetheart," she said, clearly overcompensating. But Vivian, in spite of her rough night, was a fan of being overcompensated. "Hi, Mom," she said through a yawn, eyeing the plate of still-sizzling bacon on the counter. Her mom pushed it toward her. "Extra crispy, too," she whispered, winking. Vivian smiled and loaded up a plate.

Harper loped into the kitchen, breathing in deeply. "Mom, you're an angel," she exhaled, picking up two pieces of bacon from the plate. Their mom laughed, ruffling Harper's short red hair. She cracked two eggs into a bowl and started to whisk them vigorously with a fork. Harper rested leisurely against the counter as she chewed her meek breakfast. The, a horn sounded outside, signaling the arrival of the school bus. Harper protested with a yell of nonsense, but she gave her mom a resigned hug goodbye. "Farewell," she sighed dramatically, munching on her piece of bacon and swinging out the front door. 

Vivian stared down at her plate; she could feel her mom's eyes boring into her like lasers. Her mom sighed. "I'm sorry about last night," she said, scrambling eggs in a pan. Vivian shook her head. "It's not you," Vivian answered, sighing. "It's not me, either. It's just--the way things are. Can't change them. But it does piss me off." Her mom laughed faintly. "Better to learn it now rather than later," she remarked. "What will be will be." She groaned inwardly. The worst part about all of her mom's philosophical destiny bullshit is that it usually proved to be right.

"Even still," Mrs. Sweets said, the eggs sizzling. "I shouldn't have brought it up. I know how you feel about that sort of thing." Vivian met her mom's eyes. "Thanks, Mom." She polished off the last bit of bacon; it hadn't been much, but she hadn't ever been big on breakfast anyway. She stood up and cleared her plate off the table. Her mom took Vivian's face in her hands. "Have a great day, or at least not a bad one," she said, kissing her fingers and placing them to Vivian's forehead. The small gesture made Vivian's heart warm. "I'll try, Mom. I promise." Unlike some people, Vivian was a strict promise-keeper. 

She snagged her keys off the hook by the door and set out on her way to school. It was absolutely freezing outside. Her breath clouded in front of her, and she shrugged on the coat she'd left in her truck, which offered very little warmth.

The parking lot was buzzing with activity when Vivian arrived at Hawkins High, a sight she rarely saw due to her terminal case of tardiness. She spotted Billy in the far side of the lot, leaning up against his car, an abhorrent amount of denim covering his body. Two girls stood in front of him, practically drooling. Vivian swallowed back a grimace.