Steve Harrington hated to say this but he missed her. He missed the way she chuckled at the stupid things he'd do to get her attention. He missed the way she would mock her brother and his friends but if anyone else were to do it, they would be dead...
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"Out of the blue and into the black You pay for this, but they give you that And once you're gone, you can't come back"
Hey hey, my my (into the black)
By Neil Young (1979)
Valerie stood at the front of the school beside Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Max watching Joyce guide Will slowly to her car. "Okay, that totally freaked me out. Did that not freak you guys out?" Max nervously said as they all stayed watching the Byers get into their car. Valerie was worried about the situation. It seemed that everything had been normal until she had come back to Hawkins. Was she cursed or something? No one responded to Max as how could they. She was the only one out of the loop.
"Two episodes in two days." Lucas leaned on the beam next to him as Valerie bit her lip, continuing thinking about Will's situation with great distress. "It's getting worse." Mike kept his eyes firmly on his best friend sitting in the green car, staring vacantly at nothing. Almost like he was in shock or in a trance. "You think it's True Sight?" Valerie's eyebrows furrowed at the mention of the Dungeons and Dragons term. Valerie tossed the term around in her head as she thought about what it meant. "What's True Sight?" Max questioned as all the kids and Valerie looked at Lucas with either confusion or contemplation. "It's nothing." They all turned to the car as the sound of an engine turning on prompted them to. Valerie frowned at the sight of the highly stressed mother and the expressionless boy.
"Alright, Dust. I'll see you at home. Bye boys and girl." Valerie quickly rushed back to her car, immediately rushing home and returning to her normal and clueless mother. It was nice to have someone who was completely clueless about their situation and that was her mother. Sweet, soft and completely and utterly clueless. "Hey Vallie, how was school?" Claudia sat on her usual couch chair spot which hadn't changed since Valerie was born. Mews sat on her lap, purring as the woman ran her fingers through her fur. She really did love that cat. "Yeah, it was okay. Much better than Florida." Claudia laughed causing Valerie to retreat into her room where she heard soft chirps coming from Dustin's spare room across the hall. Choosing to ignore it, Valerie was quick to fall asleep to the sound of it and wake up to it. She was absolutely exhausted which caused her to sleep through the early evening and dinner.
"Got you some breakfast. Your favorite." Valerie heard muffled speaking before deciding to check on her brother who she hadn't heard come in the previous night. As she walked into his room, her brother was laughing as Dart wolfed down the family's favorite food, Three Musketeers. "You really should give it better food. Three Musketeers, although delicious, is not nutritious." Valerie walked up to the enclosure, breaking off a piece of the bar and shoving it into her mouth. "He likes it." Valerie rolled her eyes before slowly making her way to school where she could found none of her friends except for Steve, of course, who always seemed to be in the same places. The day went slow with Valerie sitting in on Steve's basketball practice which went much like the others: awfully.
"Steve, are you okay?" Valerie looked at the boy who sat with his head in hands with sympathy in her eyes and voice. Steve didn't know what it was, but he always felt like he could talk to Valerie about things that bothered him that he couldn't talk to Nancy about. In fact, he knew that he had seen his friend instead of his girlfriend more in the past few days. "No, not really. Have you seen Nancy or Jonathan today?" As Valerie shook her head slowly, Steve scoffed loudly and stood up next to her and the two strolled down the halls.
"Typical. I just can't believe it." Steve kicked his shoes on the ground as Valerie's eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed as her expression turned confused. "What is it?" Not receiving an answer, Valerie grabbed his bicep, forcing him to stop and look into the eyes of the brunette who looked up at him. "Nothing." Valerie's eyes widened as he ripped his bicep out of her hand, walking away from her at a swift pace. Valerie groaned out loud and turned to see him still walking away. "Steve!" Valerie jogged up to him before tapping him on his shoulder. Steve had to give it to the Henderson girl. She was damn stubborn. Steve froze with Valerie behind him, her finger still on his shoulder.
Valerie was known to be a hugger but as she was tempted to wrap her arms around him, she hesitated before giving in. Wrapping her hands around him with his back to her, Valerie rested her head on his back as she heard a slight sigh from him. Whether it was a sigh of frustration or contempt, Valerie had no idea but she stuck with it. "You don't have to tell me what is going on. I just want you to know that I'm here for you." Valerie abruptly pulled away, fast walking away from the boy who felt the same as her when they broke away. Steve missed the warmth of someone, anyone hugging him whereas Valerie, more specifically, missed the smell of his Farrah Fawcett hairspray that he pretended not to use.
Valerie continued the rest of her day, a tiny part of her still worried about Steve. Valerie jumped up as the bell rang, prompting her to run to her car and make the short trip home. Pulling into the driveway, Dustin's bike pulling in alongside her, the two siblings smiled at each other. "Let's go check on the slug." Valerie slung her arm over her brother's shoulders as they lightheartedly walked through the front door. "Mew-mew, dinner! Where are you? Mew-mew! Hey, Dusty! Hey, Vallie!" Their mother quickly rushed over to the two, giving them a hug.
"Hi, hey." Dustin beelined straight for the room, leaving his sister to deal with the mother who looked around the house for their cat. "Hey, Mama." Valerie gave her mother a quick wave goodbye before she started to walk towards Dustin's room. "Everything okay?" Her mother asked Valerie who was about to round a corner and she gave her mother a nod with a smile on her face before replying. "Yeah, everything's fine." Her mother, satisfied with her child's reply, continued looking around every corner looking for her precious mew-mew. Valerie quickly walked into his room before locking it and her eyes widening as Dart's enclosure came into sight.
"Dust..." Valerie slowly walked towards the broken enclosure, picking up the skin shed and holding it up. Screeching comes from behind her causing the skin to slip out of her fingers and next to the shards of broken glass. Valerie instinctively pushed her brother behind her as the two walked to the chair where grunting was coming from. Dustin pointed to the blood on the carpet and the orange chair causing both of their hearts to beat erratically in their chest. As the two bent forward to look, Valerie gasped as she watched a much bigger Dart burrow its teeth into their cat's stomach before it slowly got up and turned towards the two, its face covered in the blood of Mews. Before the two knew it, Dart screeched at them causing Valerie to quickly shove her brother towards the door. He frantically unlocked it and the two shut it as fast as the could, hearing Dart bang into the door repeatedly.
"Dustin, what the fuck?" They had definitely found out where Mews had gone.
SORRYYYYYY. I am so sorry that I haven't been updating this very often, it is just that I only just finished all of my exams so I should be able to update much more frequently now. On a different note, I would just like to say thank you to you guys for getting this story to 2K reads!!!! The comments that Y'all have been leaving just warms my heart. Also, sorry this is short. I didn't want to carry it on into the next ep.
