My Best Friend's Ex | Steve Harrington x Reader

Season 1 - The Junkyard

Deja vu was all I could register as El, the remaining party and I walked down the train tracks, compasses held out in front of us. I walked just in front of Dustin and Lucas, every so often glancing back to Eleven and Mike who trailed behind us.

"How much further?" Lucas sighed for what seemed like the millionth time since we arrived in the forest.

"How should I know?" Dustin said.

"These only tell direction, Lucas," I said to the boys. "Not distance. You really need to learn more about compasses."

"I'm just saying," Lucas said. "How do we know when we get to the gate?"

"Uh, I think a portal to another dimension is gonna be pretty obvious," Dustin said.

Lucas rolled his eyes and glanced back to Mike and Eleven. "Do you think she's acting weird?"

"You're asking if the weirdo is acting weird?" Dustin questioned, his eyebrows raising. I turned around and eyed the boys, giving them a low hum.

"I mean, weirder than normal?" Lucas said, dismissing my warning.

"I don't know," Dustin shrugged. "Who cares?"

After some time, the compass led us off of the tracks and down a path that took us to an old junkyard filled with rusted cars and scraps of metal.

"Oh, no," I whispered, taking in our surroundings and coming to a stop.

"'Oh, no'?" Lucas said. "What's 'Oh, no'?"

"I, uh, think the compass is leading us back home..."

"What?" Mike said.

Dustin stared at me. "Are you sure?"

"Well..." I looked up to the sky. "Setting sun, right there. We looped right back around."

"And you're just realizing this now?" Lucas snapped.

"Hey," Dustin snapped back at him, not liking how he was speaking to me.

"Well, I'm sorry!" I threw my hands up in the air. "I was following the broken compass so that we could find your friend!"

The party stared at me, their expressions blank.

"Why is this all on me, anyway? You three have compasses, too, don't you? What do they say?"

They all checked their compasses, and responded in unison. "North."

My stomach filled with butterflies, and hopelessness made me feel suddenly heavy. "This makes no sense."

"Maybe the gate moved," Mike said, trying to make the best of the situation.

"No, I don't think it's the gate," Dustin disagreed. "I think it's something else screwing with the compasses."

"Maybe it's something here," Mike suggested. I silently agreed with him and spun around, trying to find something that could.

"No, it has to be like a super magnet," Dustin pointed out, making me stop spinning.

"It's not a magnet... She's been acting weirder than normal," Lucas said, pointing a finger at El who stared back at him. "If she can slam doors with her mind, she can definitely screw up a compass."

Mike scoffed. "Why would she do that?"

"Because she's trying to sabotage our mission," Lucas spat. "Because she's a traitor!"

I sighed. "Lucas, I don't think-"

Lucas beginning to walk toward Eleven and Mike speaking cut me off.