wires, steve harrington

four.

after meadow had hugged steve outside of tina's party, she had tried to play it off as if it was a dream. after all, there was no way she had actually hugged steve harrington, right? and what was worse than hugging him was that she actually wanted to be there for him, and found herself hugging him in not only a yearning for his touch but in a desire for his happiness. she wanted steve to be happy; but she didn't know if it was just out of care for him as a friend.

immediately after the hug, meadow had chuckled awkwardly, shuffling away from him. steve had a soft look in his eyes, almost as if he viewed meadow as a delicate piece of glass. maybe that was why he was always saving her; he found her to be breakable. she didn't know if she liked that consideration or not.

on the one hand, it meant that he cared about her, which made her feel a lot less uncomfortable with caring about him. but, on the other hand, it meant that steve saw her as weak, which she most definitely wasn't.

meadow was quick to hop off of the hood of steve's car, briefly looking over at him. "have a good night, steve." she smiled, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear before walking over to her own car before he could reply.

while meadow was sitting in her room thinking about her feelings towards steve harrington, her brother was outside, discovering something much more dangerous than feelings. meadow listened to the sounds of him come home from trick or treating, and heard her mother insist that she wanted to know every little detail of his time out.

since his sister didn't want to be a bad sport, she joined them in the living room, listening as dustin described what had happened with max and will. "and mike wouldn't even let us help him, he just left." as he spoke, the contraption in dustin's hands started rustling, moving side to side.. almost as if it was alive.

"what's that?" meadow asked as she pointed to the object in dustin's hands, and the boy feigned confusion, looking down at it. she crossed her arms, raising a brow; she knew him better than that.

claudia nodded, confused. "you're acting weird." she inisted, and meadow nodded her agreement.

"oh!" dustin exclaimed, clearly making an excuse up on the spot. "yeah, i actually, i, uh, i added a motor to make it move so that it looks like i caught a ghost. just like in the movie."

while their mother laughed at his "invention", meadow furrowed a brow, clearly not buying a thing. dustin joined in on their mother's laughter for a moment before retreating off to his room. "i told you to keep quiet. all you had to do was stay quiet for one minute. one minute!" dustin said just as meadow walked into his door behind him.

"what the hell did you do?" she asked her brother, looking at him as he turned around.

he quickly moved to cover his turtle cage from her line of sight. "um, nothing! nothing, i did nothing!"

"then why is yertle on the floor?" meadow asked as she gestured to the turtle, who had scurried under a pile of dustin's clothes. "and what the hell is that?" she approached yertle's cage, seeing a small slug-like creature in his place in the glass container.

"i found him!" the younger boy insisted. "he was in our trash can. i think he needs me!"

meadow sent him a baffled look. "are you out of your mind? look at that thing! you don't even know what it likes to eat, you can't just keep it-"