I drive the girls to the pool as it starts pouring down rain. I feel kind of bad that I don't recognize the fanny pack, but in all honesty, the only person I really socialize with at the pool is Billy.
We get to the front desk and Max takes the hood of her rain jacket off her head, "Excuse me."
The lifeguards don't even look up, "No one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike. And don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree."
"Yeah, we don't care. We're not here to swim. Or get electrocuted."
El pulls the fanny pack from her pocket, "We found this."
"Does that belong to anybody here?"
"Oh, yeah," the guy answers, "That's Heather's. I'll get it back to here."
"Actually, um, we could give it back to her?" I offer.
"You could. 'Cept shes not here. Bailed on me today. What is this? You girls want a reward or somethin'?"
Max shakes her head, "Nope. We're just... Good Samaritans."
El turns around and starts walking to the bulletin board. I nudge Max to get her attention and we follow El to the board.
El looks at Heather's picture and I recognize her, "Do you think you can find her?" I question El.
El looks back at the lifeguards at the desk and then grabs the picture from the board.
El gets a pair of swimming goggles and we head to the bathroom. Max and I start turning on the showers while El wraps the goggles in duct tape that she found.
El sits on the ground and puts the picture down in front of her. Max and I sit on a bench as El pulls the goggles over her eyes.
After a few minutes, I speak up, "What do you see?"
"A door," El replies, "A red door."
El gasps and throws the goggles off.
"What? What happened? El!" Max questions.
El pants and I get down on the floor next to her, "Hey, its okay. Shh. Breathe, El. Breathe."
I put my hand on El's shoulder and she puts her head in her hands.
//Timeskip//
We arrive at the address the manager gave us and I turn to El, "Is this it?"
El nods and we climb out of the car and walk up the front steps. El uses her powers to open the front door and we walk into the house.
In the hallway, there's a picture of Heather with people I assume are her parents.
"This is her house." Max says quietly.
"What?" El asks.
"Heathers house."
A woman laughs in another room and the three of us follow the sound.
We walk into a dining room to see Billy and the man and woman from the picture.
"Max, Y/N," Billy smiles.
I clear my throat, "W-We didn't mean to, uh, barge in. We tried to know, but...maybe you didn't hear us over the storm."
"I'm sorry," the man speaks up, "Who is this dripping all over my living room right now?"
Billy chuckles, "I'm sorry. Janet, Tom, this...is my sister, Maxine, and my friend, Y/N."
"Oh!" Janet exclaims as Billy stands up and walks over to us.
"What on earth are you doing here?" Billy asks playfully, "Is something wrong?"
"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay." Max answers.
"Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?"
"You haven't called and—"
El cuts me off, "Where is she?"
Billy gazed at her, "I'm sorry. Where is who?"
"Well, they're a little burnt, I'm sorry." Another voice speaks up and I look over to see Heather.
"Heather!" Billy announces, "This is my sister, Maxine. You already know Y/N. And, I'm sorry," Billy says to El, "I did not quite catch your name."
"El." She says simply.
"El." Billy repeats, "Now, what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?"
"I-I saw..." El mutters, "I saw you—"
"Your manager," Max cuts her off, "At the pool."
I nod, "Right. He said you guys didn't come in to work today, so naturally, we got worried," I fake a laugh, "You know me, Billy, I'm always worried."
Billy chuckles and smiles so sweetly, that I know for a fact that something is off, "Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health. But you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?"
Heather nods, "I'm feeling so much better. Do you girls want a cookie? They're fresh out of the oven."
The girls stand still in shock so I speak for them, "Thank you, but we really better get going. We have a sleepover to prepare for," I look at Billy, "Um, see ya."
We leave the house and I drive to El's so she can leave a note to Hopper that she's gonna be at Max's house tonight and get some clothes. We leave the cabin and go to the Mayfield/ Hargrove household and get ready for bed.
After El finishes brushing her teeth and joins Max and I in Max's bed, Max holds up two comic books, "Which one?"
El lays her head on my shoulder, "I don't know."
I rub my hand up and down her arm, "Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?"
She looks up at me, "It doesn't make sense."
"What doesn't make sense?" Max questions.
"Heather. The blood. The ice."
I try to think up a reasonable explanation, one that I don't even believe myself, "Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now. That has to be it. I'm not really sure where the blood came from, but...we saw her, El. We all saw her. She's totally fine."
"What about Billy?"
"What about him?"
"He seemed wrong."
Max chuckles, "Wrong is kind of like his default. But it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."
El smiles and looks down at the Wonder Woman comic books, "Who... is that?"
Max scoffs, "See, this is why you can't just hang out with Mike all the time. This is Wonder Woman. AKA Princess Diana."
Both girls settle in and lay their heads on my shoulders as Max explains the comic and starts reading it.
YOU ARE READING
Always (Steve Harrington X Reader)
Romance"Shh. I got you," I say rewrapping my arms around him, "I got you. You're okay. You have me." He chuckles dryly, "I always do don't I? You're always here for me." I smile softly, "Always," (Takes place in season 2 and 3)
