❝ in the seventeen years i've been on this earth, i've never met anyone as f#@!%^g stupid as you. ❞
in which two kids on the opposite sides of the social spectrum find solace in one another during a strange period of time.
ESTELLA COLLINS STAND ALON...
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CHAPTER ELEVEN ; BRIEF RECONCILIATION also known as; ( the bathtub)
★☆
"IS THIS A PRANK OF SOME SORT?" STELLA'S EYEBROWS WERE FURROWED AND HER ARMS WERE CROSSED AS SHE STARED DOWN THE FOUR PEOPLE BEFORE HER. She stood at the back of Chief Hopper's office, listening to the group all babbling about some kind of supernatural monster. It wasn't at all what she was expecting when she followed them into the private space, and she quickly wanted out. As they all shared a bunch of ridiculous crap between them, she grew exasperated. Between all the shit that Mike and the boys were saying and now this? Needless to say, she still wasn't having any of it. "There's no such thing as monsters, unless you count Tommy H."
"Stella, how can you not believe us?" Joyce exclaimed, pointing to the picture Jonathan had seemingly taken the night Barbara Holland had gone missing. Her eyes were wide and crazed, and Stella felt bad for her, thinking it must have been some kind of coping mechanism for her after the loss of Will.
Everyone grieves in their own ways, Stella thought.
Scoffing, the girl glanced over at the awkward Byers boy across the room. "It's probably a camera glitch, right Jonathan?"
Jonathan shook his head, which only made Stella more desperate. Had everyone in Hawkins gone insane? First it was the boys and the fact they were convinced Eleven had superpowers, now two of her schoolmates and the police chief thought there was some kind of unworldly beast roaming around? She needed a nap.
"You say this thing draws blood?" Hopper piped up, glancing at the two teenagers that sat on the couch. Jonathan shrugged, his posture tense and more on edge than he usually was.
"We don't know," he responded, before pursing his lips and sighing softly.
"It's just a theory," Nancy backed him up, and Stella ran a hand through her dishevelled hair. So many things had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and she was slowly reaching the end of her tether. One more stupid paranormal claim and she knew she'd probably slam her head in a door. She'd had enough and she didn't need anymore bullshit for at least another two weeks.
"Then I would've seen it," she muttered, causing everyone to look over at her. The girl shrugged, lifting her hand and pointing to the dried up cut that ran halfway down her thumb. "At the cemetery, I was all by myself and I didn't get caught by whatever you think this is."
"Did you hear anything?" Hopper asked her, his voice monotone as it usually was. Stella shrugged, trying to think about the other day.
"I heard a branch snap," she recalled, chewing the inside of her cheek as she remembered what had happened. How she sat by Annie's gravestone and heard something in the bushes that attached to the woods. "Then a growl. But there's no way it was this...thing. It was probably a dog or something. I ran off, it's no big deal."
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"Have you told anyone?" Hopper queried, standing up straighter and eyeing her suspiciously. Stella held her hands up innocently, growing a little vexed at their persistence. "Stella, listen to me. What you saw, and what you've heard here right now, you can't repeat to anyone. You understand?"
"Oh yeah, cause no one's gonna think I'm crazy if I run outta here, yelling about a monster," Stella retorted sarcastically, staring at everyone in the room in disbelief. With a dramatic sigh, she inched towards the door and glanced back at Hopper. It was clear she had given up and wanted out, not in the mood for this unbelievable garbage they were trying to feed her. "Can I go now?"
"I thought you wanted to hear about this," he muttered, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at her. Stella resisted the urge to snap back and instead held her tongue; she was near breaking point and no one in her godforsaken town was making it any easier. Averting her eyes, she adjusted her cropped green sweater irritably. Hopper pointed his finger at her as if she were some type of child and he was her parent, which only riled her up even more. "If you leave and tell people about all this, your life is in danger."
"Good thing I'm gonna keep my mouth shut, then," she forced a smile, before opening the door and rushing out the police station without another word. No one called out after her, and she was glad. She barged past the officers and waved goodbye to Flo, not bothering to stop for conversation. She didn't know what she needed in that moment. She didn't have her walkman or her skates, so she'd be walking home.
Stalking down the pavement back towards the main street, Stella's insides were on fire. She didn't know whether she was angry, scared, tired or crazy -- maybe she was all at once. Her hand still felt a little stiff from when she had punched Tommy earlier, and her head was pounding from the lack of sleep she had gotten as well as all the stress she had face. She didn't even know what time of day it was, it had already felt like a lifetime.
As she strolled back into the centre of town, a realisation hit her and she groaned loudly, attracting a few stares from other townsfolk. Running a hand down her face, her shoulders slumped a little as she remembered that she had left Kevin and Leilani back in the diner. "Ugh, fuck."
★☆
By the time Stella had reached the diner, she was out of breath and utterly exhausted. Her hair seemed more of a mess than usual, she was getting cramps in her stomach and her headache had grown to the point where it was unbearable. She didn't know how she had made it through the past week, too much had happened for her to comprehend. Understandably so, she didn't think she could handle much more grief for the next few days.
Just as she turned to walk into the Indigo, she glanced over at the Hawk to see the writing once more, only to see something she never thought she'd lay her eyes on. The one and only Steve Harrington was perched upon a wooden ladder outside the cinema, scrubbing away at the bright red paint. Her eyebrows perked up a little bit in surprise, and she began having an internal debate regarding whether or not she had the patience to speak to him twice in a day. With a huff, the girl looked both ways before crossing the street, walking towards the boy who had caused her so much grief. "Wasn't expecting to see you back here."
Steve glanced down, huffing when he saw her standing below. He had removed his jacket and held a cloth in his hands pausing what he was doing. Stella was nothing short of astonished. The last thing she expected to see that day (something that topped hearing the police chief babble about a monster), was him cleaning up his mess, Tommy H., Carol and Nicole nowhere in sight. "What do you want, Indi-slamher Jones?"
"Okay, that one was the worst I think I've heard," Stella joked, and Steve scoffed, watching as the girl stepped forward and held the ladder in place for him. At the questioning look upon the boy's face, Stella shrugged. "What? Who the hell am I gonna give a hard time if you fall off?"
