𝘿𝙍𝙄𝙑𝙀 |𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲|

7| 𝘽𝙄𝙏𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙏𝙊𝙉𝙂𝙐𝙀

"I thought we were honest with each other, El?" Steve and I each faced one another, finally. I, on the bed, and him, standing in front of me with his arms crossed.

"You know he's no good, you saw it yourself for the past year. You saw him beat my ass at the Byers place, he's racist, he's an asshole and I mean.. the list goes on!" Steve went on.

"He doesn't like any of your friends and family, that should have been a red flag instantly."

He was so right, yet none of them knew Billy the way that I did. He wouldn't dare treat anyone bad if I were around.

"He's not even nice to Max, Ellie," Steve added.

None of the right words seemed to escape my lips, so I sat there. Maybe it made things worse, but I'm sure what I would want to say, would've been the wrong words coming out.

"Ellie!" "What Steve!"

"C'mon! Please talk to me!"

Steve's eyes pleaded for me to say something. They searched for anything, but nothing stuck out. He shook his head and ran his fingers through his thick, brown hair.

"So, your not gonna talk." His hands slapped on his hips, "that's great, I'm liking the silent treatment. It's cool."

I kept my arms tightly over my chest, I didn't really want to talk about the whole situation.

I honesty didn't even know what I'd wanted or was doing.

The heat flushing my cheeks was visible, once I had caught of glimpse of it in the mirror. "I don't have to tell you anything Steve. Just because we were once something, doesn't mean you need to keep a leash on my ass. I can talk to, kiss, or be with whoever I please."

His eyes narrowed on me. His mouth agape as if he were going to say something yet never did.

"I'm eighteen years old, Im old enough to handle myself, grow up."

I'm sure those words left a lash.

His expression was unreadable. His mouth shut and he disappeared from my room in seconds.

The guilt instantly set in, because Steve was right, everything he said was right. He was only trying to keep my heart out of chaos.

I should have told him, he is my best friend.

I knew my aunt would fly through that door any second now, reeming my ass for flipping out on Steve the way I did, maybe even Dustin would send me an earful.

Instead, the front door could be heard being slammed from downstairs. Steve.

Falling back into the sheets, the bed began to consume me into the fluffiness of the blankets. Turning over I grabbed ahold of my pillow and groaned. I was hoping at some point I would fall asleep.

Maybe I'll do that.

---

"What? You didn't say that earlier?"

"That's only because I didn't wanna tell you, but I guess it doesn't matter now, does it?"

"Dude, shut up, she's waking up!"

"Oh shit, shit, shit, find somewhere to hide!"

I could hear light talking and at first I thought it was in my dream, but it sounded a lot like Dustin and Lucas.

Rolling over and removing my face from the pillows, I peeled my eyes open to see the lamp light from my desk on. Once I was able to finally see, as I had said before, what had sounded like Lucas and Dustin, was in fact, Lucas and Dustin.