Secrets // Steve Harrington

Chapter Nine - The Lights

Word Count: 2,270 words. 

Warnings: Emetophobia (there's a single mention of it).

I was used to going to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription, having done it dozens of times before, but Eddie had never come with me. I hated how he worried. I was crazy and yet he worried about me. I remembered that list that I told Steve about. The list of things that I cared about and my brother was certainly at the top of that list. I'd be long dead or in a nuthouse without him.

He had gone in to pick it up, insisting that I stay in the car and rest. I hadn't slept in days and no matter how many times I told him that I had, the black bags under my eyes and the pale nature of my skin spoke for themselves. Even that exhausted nap I had taken at Harrington's house hadn't done anything. I was still completely exhausted.

"Two," he called.

Shaking my head, I closed my eyes. "Fuck off," I told him.

"You never reply to me," he continued, voice loud enough to be beside me. He's never said more than a few words.

"You're not real. You're in my head."

"And since I'm in your head, that means I don't exist?" he posed, voice closer.

If I paid enough attention to the world around me, I could almost feel his breath on my face.

"Go away," I told him firmly.

"No."

"Go away." I rose my voice.

There was a small pause and when he spoke again, his words were whispered in my ear. "No."

"Go away!" I screamed.

I opened my eyes then, turning to my right. There was no one in the passenger seat. It had been a figment of my imagination. Like it always was.

The radio crackled to life in front of me and I turned my eyes to the car keys I held in my hand. I hadn't turned the radio on. In fact, I wasn't even sure it worked in this old car anymore. Jonathon had tried to fix it last year. He hadn't been able to.

"If I go there will be trouble..." the voice sang, but there was no music.

It was more of a soft whisper than a loud voice. They sung with laboured breaths and a shaking tone.

"And if I stay it will be double..."

I found myself leaning closer to the car radio, pressing a button to change the channel.

"So come on and let me know..." it continued.

I knew that song. I had never listened to it myself, but there had been countless nights where it had blared through the Byers house. He had played it on Jonathon's record player and I had even recently borrowed the cassette for the song from the store so that he could listen to it on my Walkman.

"Should I stay or should I go..."

"Will?" I asked, my voice shaking almost as much as his was.

"Lia?" the voice asked and I gasped.

The door of my car opened abruptly and I jumped in fear, turning from the radio to watch my brother get in, two bags in his hand.

"Alright, I ran to the bakery around the corner and got you that pastry thing that you like and a coffee so you don't die of hunger on me. Also," – he closed the door, placing the coffee cup into the cupholder in between the seats. Eddie opened the bag from the chemist – "the woman at the counter said that you're not supposed to take these on an empty stomach," – he held up the medication – "and so she gave me these," – he held up another bottle – "in case that you do so that you don't vomit every –"