𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 // 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓

3-3: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

The next day came by after our massive discovery. Needless to say, I struggled to sleep last night. In fact, I couldn't get the thought of possible evil Russians being in Hawkins out of my mind. 

Around three in the morning, I tossed and turned in my bed but I was wide awake. The message was weird in itself, but Steve discovering the music was even worse. I was going to head back to the mall tomorrow with our squad to try and decode the rest of the message-- well, Robin was the one decoding everything. I swear, that girl is incredibly smart. 

Steve could be, too. I mean, he says really stupid things all the time, but when it came to helping others and protecting people, he was a good decision maker. It's weird, since he's basically my best friend, but I can understand why Nancy fell in love with him. He really is sweet like Nancy told me all those years back. 

I found myself coming back to reality when I was standing by our telephone, dialing Steve's number. Shit, he probably wasn't awake. But I had a feeling in my gut that if I didn't try to call him now, I'd end up laying awake all night thinking about it. About him. 

I punched in the last digit of his number and waited patiently for an answer. The line rang rhythmically on and off, and I began getting antsy. I mean, I've never really called him this late before. Around the fourth or fifth ring passed before it stopped. There was an air of silence before I heard a very quiet and tired, "Hello?" from the other line. I didn't realize my heart had picked up pace a bit. 

"Steve?" I mumbled into the phone, worried my mom might wake up if I talked too loudly. "Sorry, did I wake you up?" 

"(Y/n)?" Steve yawned from the other end. "What are you doing awake?" He asked, avoiding my question. 

"I couldn't really sleep, y'know, with all of the Russian stuff and what not." I muttered as I glanced around my room. 

"Are you all right?" Steve whispered. "I can come over if you need me to."

"No, it's-- you don't have to." I told him, but my lips curled into a small smile at the gesture. 

"What if I want to?" Steve asked nonchalantly, and I could tell he was stretching. 

I chewed on my bottom lip for a brief second. "Then by all means, come over. Just be quiet so my mom doesn't hear you." 

"Got it. Just give me, like, half an hour and I'll be there. I need some time to wake up." 

"Right." I quietly spat out, still feeling bad that I woke him up. "See you soon." 

"See you, (Y/n)." Steve said before he hung up the phone. I placed our phone back on it's holder and sighed to myself, not really sure what I was expecting out of that conversation. But it sure as hell wasn't him coming over. Truthfully, I thought he wouldn't even answer. I crawled back into bed and sat down, placing the covers over my lap and put my back up against the wall. 

I didn't know what to do in the meantime while I waited for him. It was hard doing anything but thinking about this past week. Dustin came home, which was amazing to finally be able to hang out with him after the past month of just hanging out with the other three boys plus Max and Eleven, but then we found out that Russians were doing something weird inside of Hawkins. While I wanted to figure out what was going on, another part of me wanted to stay out of everything, to ensure Dustin's safety by not letting anyone continue decoding the message. Dealing with an alternate dimension was one thing, but now we're dealing with the Russian government. The last thing I want is for any of the kids to get hurt. I mean, seriously, we can't go one year without something crazy going down. 

I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard a soft tap on my window. I jumped before looking towards the window and opening up my curtains to see a familiar brunette standing outside. I quickly opened up my window and helped him get inside, but he clearly didn't need any help from me. He was pretty familiar with the "sneaking into girls' windows" business.