Distortion [S. Harrington]

chapter 26

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The next day at school was just as tiring as the rest of the week was. Nancy and Jonathan didn't show up and left Lucy all by herself. Neither of them even called her and told her that they were skipping. She would've loved to not see anyone today.

Lucy decided to wear sunglasses inside to cover up the cut on her face, even though it looked barely like a scratch by now.

School was going by smoothly. No one asked her about the glasses until she saw Steve Harrington. Steve met up with her in their free period and sat next to her in the library. He kept making obvious glances at her, probably wondering why she had the glasses on inside.

"So, little miss non-partier is hungover at school? Shocking. How'd that happen?" Steve laughed silently.

Lucy glanced at him and said nothing. She was trying to ignore any conversation about her face and Steve wasn't. She ignored him and continued to work in her textbook.

"Lucy. Come on, Luce, tell me why you have those glasses on," he pestered, "Lucille."

"It's none of your business Steve," she snapped back quietly. She didn't want to be loud and disrupt the other students in the library.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked, getting concerned.

She didn't answer him so he reached over and pulled the glasses off of her face. Luckily they were at a table in the back of the library or everyone would've seen the small gash that contrasted Lucille's pale skin quite clearly.

"What the fuck, Steve. I said it was none of your business," Lucille cursed, grabbing the glasses back.

A few of the people around their table noticed the commotion and looked back at them. Quickly noticing who it was, they immediately turned around and started gossiping to their friends.

"Who did that to you?" Steve said, fully turning towards Lucy. He seemed angry. What Steve thought was the only person that Lucy hung out with that would do this was Billy.

"It was nothing. I tripped over my feet and broke a glass. Really, it's nothing." It seemed like a believable lie, she was a little clumsy, but Steve knew it was a lie, she was acting too defensive. He played it off as the truth even though he knew she was just making something up.

"Wow, I guess you really are the clumsiest girl I've ever met," Steve said, laughing a little. "Are you alright though?"

Steve pushed a piece of hair out from in front of the glasses and smiled at her. She blushed, not expecting that.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Lucy said, nodding. "So did you get 'A' for the first one?"

"You think I'm actually doing my work?"

"Steve!"

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The gym teacher was blowing the whistle all over the place, it seemed like there were more fouls and dirtier plays than yesterday. He blew the whistle for all the good and the bad. It seemed like he liked the new whistle a little too much.

Steve was playing harder today than he was all the other times. He was fed up with Billy and everything he did. Billy was trying to act like the greatest guy at school and he thought he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted but Steve wouldn't let that happen. He stayed quiet for the game, not wanting to get too worked up in front of everyone, and instead was waiting for the perfect time to shut Billy down.

"Don't sweat it, Harrington. Today's just not your day, man," Billy said as he turned the water in the shower off.

"Yeah, it's not your week either. You and the princess break up for one day and she's running off with the freak's brother," Tommy H. laughed.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Steve said.

"Shit, you don't know. Jonathan and Nancy skipped yesterday and they still haven't shown up, but that must just be a coincidence, right?" Tommy laughed again and turned the water off, leaving the showers.

"Don't take it too hard, man. Someone like you has got nothing to worry about. Plenty of bitches in the sea, but not Lucy. Man, I like that girl. She's one fine piece of ass and you should've seen her the other day. Wow," Billy carried on, pushing Steve's buttons. Billy really did like her, but right now he just wanted to get under Steve's skin.

"You better stay away from her, you hear me. If you ever hurt her again, or even look at her I'll knock you on your ass."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Billy replied. Since their science teacher wasn't there today, Billy hadn't seen Lucy all day and didn't know about her cut.

"You heard me. Stay away from her," Steve threatened.

"Is that so?" Billy paused. "Yeah, I don't think I will. She's mine now, Harrington. You stay away." Billy turned Steve's shower faucet off and left while saying, "I'll be sure to leave you some."

Steve smacked the handle back and the water poured out onto him. He started to think about Lucille's relationship with Billy and how she never told him anything about it.

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Lucy's favorite time of school finally rolled around. The period after lunch was the best, in Lucy's opinion, because that's when she had art class. She wasn't a professional but painting seemed to calm her down.

The prompt today was flowers and she was painting red roses. They weren't her favorite but it was the first thing that came to her head. Just then, Billy Hargrove burst through the door of the class, startling everyone. Lucy gasped, ruining her painting by putting a big slash of red paint through the majority of her painting.

"Mr. Hargrove, what are you doing here?" The teacher asked.

"I'm just visiting," Billy said, looking directly at Lucy.

"What do you want?" Lucy asked, knowing that Billy was standing next to her without looking. "I thought we still weren't on speaking terms?"

"What happened? Steve told me someone put their hands on you. Is that true?" Billy looked at the side of Lucy's face as she tried to concentrate on fixing her roses.

Billy had never been in the art room before. He wasn't really an artistic person, more athletic. He couldn't sit still long enough for anything to look good.

"Since when do you talk to Steve? I thought you guys only compared dick sizes in the locker room."

"Funny," Billy scoffed. "Just answer the damn question."

"No one did anything to me. Thanks for the unexpected concern but you don't even care about me, so I don't really understand why you're asking me anything," Lucy said, turning to look at Billy. Now that she didn't have the sunglasses on, Billy saw the cut. "It's nothing. Where are you even supposed to be right now?"

"Don't worry about it," Billy rolled his eyes. "I do care about you, Lucy. Why would you even say that?"

"I don't want to talk about this right now and you should get back to class," Lucy said, cleaning off her red brush.

"How about tonight then?" Billy suggested. "I'll pick you up and we can hangout."

"No," Lucy said quickly, immediately thinking about Eleven.

"Oh, come on, Lucy. Why-" Lucy cut him off.

"I'll just drive myself to your house."

"Great," Billy smiled. "I'll see you later then."

She let out a sigh after Billy left. It's not that she didn't want to hang out with him, she was just planning on going to Jonathan's after school today.