Caught In The Loop | Steve Harrington X Reader

~4~ Who's Barbara?

Me, Nancy and Steve all have this one class that we need to work on which is quite infuriating. The homework the teacher gave us is despicable and he's quite rude too. Not to mention a pervert.

Nancy rubs the pencil eraser on her paper as she tries to clear a mistake. My focus is on what I'm writing and I try to concentrate with my mind going berserk.

Billie's warnings. Max talking about the stalker boys from her school. Will's trauma. Barbara that Nancy seems very on edge about. Jonathan's relationship with Will. Steve's relationship with Nancy.

I hear a light little snap and look down to notice that Nancy's pencil snapped. Steve twirls his pencil unnoticed and I pause looking at my pencil. It's dull, she'd probably wanna sharpen her own.

Nancy pushes herself away from the desk and goes to the left. Both me and Steve look up as she leaves. He goes back to focus on his own work and I boredly, drop my pencil and rest my chin on my hand.

Steve looks in my direction and sighs, shaking his head.

"What's the matter with you?"

"What'd I do?" I question.

"You seem on edge today. Like when Billy dropped you and Max off, it seemed that you wanted to get as far away from him as possible."

"Me and Billy had a massive argument and a glass vase was broken. Happy?"

Steve's eyes widen. "Is that the truth or a lie?"

"Well, lying gets nobody nowhere. The only time I lie, Steve Harrington! Is when I have secrets to keep for friends I value!"

"Okay, so you're calling me by my full name now?" He raises his voice a little.

I roll my eyes and look away. Steve's voice fades off as I see Nancy. She's continuously sharpening a pencil, starring off at something. Or someone. She's not removing eye contact, as if she's caught in a transe.

"Hey, Steve. I think something's up with Nancy."

"What are you talking about?" He groans. His eyes go to look at Nancy and notice the mini trance she appears to be in. He drops his pencil and gets up from his chair. I proceed to do so too but he mouths NO.

"Nancy." Steve puts his hand on her shoulder and snaps her out of it.

"What's going on? Are you okay?" I hear him softly ask.

I sit there miserably, turning away and staring down at my sheet. Who am I kidding? What if I'm just doing this homework for nothing?

I look back to Nancy and she goes off in one direction. Steve looks toward me and follows her. I frown. I need to know what the fuck is going on because clearly! I haven't gotten the full story.

I wait for a moment, before I follow where they went to and hide behind a wall.

"I can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Pretending like everything's okay."

"What are you talking about?"

"Barbara."

There's that name again. She must've been a very close friend to Nancy or something.

"It's like everyone forgot. It's like nobody cares. Except her parents. And now they're selling their house."

Holy shit! She went missing or killed or something. Poor Nancy.

"Nance-"

"And they're going to spend the rest of their lives looking for her."

"I know. I know."