Tension (Steve Harrington)

Chap 18; Dumpster Divers

In the morning, Lauren woke up to an empty house. She figured her dad finally let El out of the cabin, although she knew he still wouldn't let her talk to the boys. Lauren  knew she had stuff to do but her edge to paint was far greater in the moment so thats what she did. She put on some music grabbed a blank canvas and began to paint. Painting broght her so much relaxation and it was something she needed in the moment. Eventually, when she saw how late it was in the day and how much of her painting she had gotten done, nearly half the day had passed.

She grabbed white jeans, a black cropped shirt, and a flannel and threw it on the bed to change into later. She walked to the bathroom, turning on the shower. Lauren waited for the water to get warm with her hand under the shower head. The water barely got any warmer despite being in the highest setting. She got in anyways making it a quick one to get out of the cold. When she got out, she threw on the clothes she handed and some mascara along with some lip gloss.

Lauren decided to go over to Nancy's after not being able to get ahold of her for nearly two hours. She thought that their fight on Halloween was something that they shouldn't fight over, and she needed to apologize. Before she walked out the door, she slipped on a pair of white sneakers. It was colder than it had been all week, but she was already far enough away from the cabin not to turn back. When she got to the street, she walked in the direction of town to get some. I'm sorry, chocolate. Once she made it to town, she walked in the convenience store immediately walking to the restroom, regretting not going before she left the cabin. Lauren saw red on the toilet paper.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me. Of course when I'm wearing white pants." She said putting some toilet paper in her underwear, washing her hands out the door to get some tampons and the chocolate. For her only fourth period ever, it was more irregular than the anomaly of shit that happened last year. She walked over to the hygiene aisle grabbing a box of tampons and a bottle of ibuprofen that she was going to need sooner than later. Then she grabbed the caramellos candy bars that her, Barb, and Nancy had eaten by the dozen when they were younger. She set the items on the counter pulling out a twenty dollar bill out of her wallet in her backpack handing it to the cashier.

"How's your evening?" He said picking up the items and putting them in the bag.

"Fine, you?"

"Good." He handed her the bag and the change.

"Thank you. Have a nice day." She walked back to the bathroom pulling a tampon out of the box. When she came back out of the bathroom the man told her to have a nice day as well. The outside seemed to have warmed up just a little, probably just because the wind calmed down. Lauren walked even more to get to Nancy's. She was starting to be beyond tired of walking and she was ready to get a car. She had been saving up but with the scarce babysitting jobs she wasn't making any money. She walked up to the door where Dustin was walking away from the door.

"She's not here."

"Nancy?"

"No. Neither of them. But you can help."

"Help with what Henderson?"

"Do you have the car?"

"No, I never have the damn car."

"That's fine we can just walk but we have to get a move on though." He said, grabbing her arm and pulling her along. A car pulled up to the curb Lauren rolled her eyes when Steve stepped out. "Oh my fucking god this dude is everywhere." 

"Steve." Dustin said, still dragging Lauren behind her. "Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?" Steve looked down at the flowers.

"Ahh, No."

"Good. Here Lauren hold these." He handed them to her with the hand that was already holding the shopping bags while her other one was still being held on to.