Love Is..?

Chapter 16

Nova bolted out of the woods and ran straight into Steve, who had been looking for her. Steve grunted as Nova ran into him, but he held her and looked at her. She had tears in her eyes, "Nova! What's wrong? What happened?" Nova sniffled, "I uh... I'll tell you in the car. Can we just go?" Steve looked concerned but nodded, "Yeah sure." He led her over to his car and helped her in. He then got himself into the driver's side and drove off. Neither saw Eddie watching them go from behind the trees. Steve looked at Nova who was still upset, "So, what happened?" Nova looked at Steve, "I uh... I got high and kind of made out with Eddie Munson." Steve swerved slightly at this information, "I'm sorry, you what?!"

Nova sobbed with guilt, "I know! I can't believe I let that happen. We leapt away from each other before it got serious. I can try to blame the weed all I want but... Gods, am I a bad person?" Steve shook his head, "No, you're a good person that did a bad thing under the influence." Nova groans, "Gods, how am I going to tell Billy?" Steve frowned, "No, no, no... you can't tell him that! He'd kill Eddie! Not that I know the guy but as someone who has been on the other side of Billy's punches, he hits really hard. And I mean, REALLY hard."

Nova looked at Steve, "I can't lie to Billy about this! I just came from a relationship full of lies. I'm not doing that again." Steve sighed, "Just be careful when you tell him. I don't want him to hurt you, even if its accidental." Nova nods, "Honestly, I wouldn't blame..." "No! You don't deserve that so don't even start that bullshit with me, ok?" Nova nods and looks at her compact before she groans again, "Crap. My makeup is all smeared. Do you have any napkins or something?" Steve thought for a moment, "Try the glovebox." Nova opened it and out popped some napkins. "Thanks." She spent the remainder of the car ride fixing her makeup. They arrived at the school to see Joyce holding Will and yelling at him. Nova and Steve looked at one another before Nova bolts out of the car, Steve hot on her heels.

"What's going on, Aunt Joyce? What's wrong?" Nova gasps as she sees the state Will is in and calls out to him, "Will!?" At that moment, the spell broke, and Will looked around panting and confused. He latches on to his mother and cries, "It got me! It got me!" Nova frowned sadly as she watched her cousin cry. She felt hands on her upper arms and looked up at Steve, who mouthed, 'Its ok now.' Nova had a feeling it was far from ok, but she nodded anyways.

Timeskip~

Joyce had decided to take Will and Nova home with her, mainly because Nova refused to go back to school and had Steve grab her assignments for her. Joyce started a bath for Will and Nova was comforting him on the couch. Nova looked at Will, "What happened?" Will frowned, "It got me. The thing from my nightmares. I stood my ground like Bob said... but it got me anyways." Nova frowned and kissed Will's forehead lovingly, holding him close. "C'mon. Let's get you into the bath so you can relax, ok?" Will nodded and left to go to the bathroom where his mother was testing the water. Joyce looked up at Will and smiled, "It's nice and warm." Will frowned, "It's too hot." Joyce frowned, "What?" Will continued, "He likes it cold." Nova who had walked up at this point shared a horrified look with her aunt as they realized, this possibly wasn't Will.

Joyce called Hopper while Nova kept an eye on "Will". A knock was heard, and Nova went to answer it. She was surprised to see Mike and let him in. Mike looked at Nova, "Is he ok?" Nova frowned, "He's drawing a lot of pictures but earlier..." Nova told Mike about what "Will" had said and his eye widened. "Holy shit... What do we do?" "I have no idea. Joyce wants to wait for Hopper but..." She heard Joyce come into the room, "Hopper's missing! They haven't seen him since yesterday." "Will" came up behind them, "He's in a bad place. A place he shouldn't be." Nova and Mike watched warily as Joyce looked and approached her son. "What do you mean? Where is Hopper?" Will frowned and held up a picture with a red X on it. "He's here."

Joyce looked at it and Nova suddenly remembered, "He's been drawing pictures like this since the bath." They ran into Will's room and saw the whole room covered in the same drawings. Nova spoke up, her southern accent coming out full force, "Well, shit." Both Mike and Joyce nodded.

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AN: Sorry it's so short. I got distracted halfway through and all my ideas went out the window. I'll do better later, I promise.