better by myself - steve harrington AU

chapter 5 - storm cellar

The logistics of everything that came next were blurry. I made Dustin stay in my room and continue to try to get ahold of his friends, much to his dismay, while me and Steve lured the creature out of Dustin's room with help of the bologna. We opened Dustin's door and bolted out towards the shed that stood directly in front of the storm cellar.

We stood there for a while, waiting, breathing heavily. The more time that passed, the more awkward the silence got. We were both pressed up against the wall, looking through the slivers to see when Dart came out of the house.

"I uh-" Steve broke the silence after a few seconds. "I'm sorry about that thing I said earlier. About girls not liking science. It made me sound really dumb." I looked over at him, barely making out his face in the darkness. I was trying to look for signs in his expression that would hint at some sort of insincerity, but I came up short.

"Well, if you believe it then you are really dumb." I answered candidly.

"Yeah, well, I don't." I raised my eyebrows at him. "I mean, I did. But you made me think about it and yeah... of course girls go to science camp."

It seemed like a frivolous argument to have, but I really appreciated his change of heart. It showed that maybe he wasn't completely impossible to deal with. I opened my mouth to reply but then I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. "He's here." I whispered, which made Steve join me in following the movements of the creature through the small crack in the wall.

The monster was slowly but surely gulping up all of the slices of meat but came to a sudden halt as he swallowed the last one. He stood just above the storm cellar, but he seemed hesitant to go down it.

"What's it doing?" I whispered. That's when it turned around and looked directly at us as if it could see us through the wall. We both hurriedly stepped away from the wall and backed up to the other side of the structure. I closed my eyes, getting an overwhelming sense that I was going to die right then and there. That this was the end. Amidst all the fuzz, I hadn't noticed how hard I was gripping Steve's hand, or that I even had gripped it at all. I quickly let go and took a hold of my own arm instead.

Steve looked down at me until I looked back at him, then he quietly mouthed I'll go and started creeping back towards the front of the shed again. I shook my head but it was of no use, he had already decided. I was too scared to follow him, so I stood back. I couldn't believe that I was going to die in my own shed with Steve Harrington. It was almost amusing.

Before I could register what happened, Steve flung the door open and ran out, directly at the monster. "What are you doing?!" I shouted, hesitantly running after him. I expected to see him get attacked by Dart, but it was quite the opposite. Steve ran at it full force, swinging his bat wildly in the air and the creature actually got scared. It screeched and ran down into the storm cellar, obviously scared of Steve. Steve managed to quickly shut the doors, and laid atop of it to weigh them down.

"Hannah?" He shouted, clearly struggling to withstand Dart's attacks to the doors. "Hannah? The chains!"

It felt as if everything stood still. I could hear the echoes of Steve shouting, but everything was blurry. After what felt like forever, but what was probably just a few seconds, I snapped back to reality. I quickly grabbed the chains that laid on the table inside of the shed and ran over to give them to Steve. He wrapped them around the handles of the doors and locked them in place with a padlock. Dart was still pounding on the doors but we could tell that the chains would contain him.

"What the fuck was that?" I denounced, hitting his arm as he stood back up.

"Ow." He muttered, holding his hand over the spot I had hit. "I had to do something."

I knew he was right, but still. "You had me so scared." I scolded, the adrenaline was still rushing through my veins and neither of us had had enough time to catch our breaths yet.

"I'm sorry." He said genuinely, touching my arm in a comforting manner. I let him, and I even stepped closer so that I could lean into his chest. I was still inexplicably scared, we had managed to lock the monster up, I shouldn't have been scared anymore. But I was, and I needed to be comforted and I didn't care if it had to be from Steve god damn Harrington. He put his arm around my shoulders and held me tight.

We were quiet, and eventually our breathing slowed down and became more regular. I felt calm again.

"Did you get him?!" Dustin shouted from the doorway. I instinctively stepped away from Steve, like we had been doing something inappropriate, and his arm fell back down to his side.

"Yeah." I shouted back, almost hesitant to raise my voice incase it would anger the monster more.

Steve gave the chains one final tug to make sure they were secure, and then we walked back up to the porch. I stepped inside, past Dustin, but Steve stayed outside. "So, we'll deal with this tomorrow?" He asked.

"You know, you can stay if you'd like to." I offered. I didn't know why, it just slipped out.

Steve looked amused at the comment. "I don't know," He gave me a sly smirk. "Your bed didn't look big enough for two."

"Ugh!" I exclaimed in disgust, that was definitely not what I had been thinking. "Consider my offer withdrawn, you cretin." I left them standing in the doorway and marched my way back to my room. A small smile was playing on my lips, I knew he hadn't been serious but I'd take any chance to get to call him names.

"I was joking!" Steve yelled after me as I left. I could hear Dustin muttering a frustrated "dude."

Once inside my room, I shut my door sharply. I could hear the boys still talking on the other side of my wall, but I couldn't make out specific words. They were probably just planning for tomorrow.

I did not like Steve. It was completely different that I appreciated his help with everything, and it was altogether unrelated that I had let him comfort me earlier. He reminded me again, and again that he was such a douchebag and I wanted nothing more than to wipe that stupid smirk off his face. He was dumb, and unrelenting, and futile, and yet... so insanely alluring.

Suddenly, I heard the front door shut and a set of footsteps approaching my door. Dustin lightly knocked before opening my door and letting himself in. At least he knocked.

"Steve will be here tomorrow at 8." He informed me.

"Good." I replied simply.

Dustin shot me a forced smile. "Will you... help me clean up Mews?" I winced at his wording, he said it way too casually.

I pretended to gag, but nevertheless followed him into his room to help. I thought in that moment that I really would do anything for my little brother, even clean up our dead cat's carcass from his carpeted floor.