wild one - steve harrington

never-ending

'So, we're really not going to check if there's something in that giant human-sized meat freezer. Alright.' Roxy shrugged, following everyone out. 

Minutes or hours later (Roxy dozed off for a while) their car stopped in the hospital parking lot. Not really knowing who Mrs Driscoll was, why they were in the hospital, or why on god's green earth Steve hadn't been in touch in so long, Roxy fumbled her way out of the car and waltzed into the hospital following Nancy and Jonathan, the kids trailing in after her. She spotted a phone against the wall near the reception desks, and took a step toward it, hoping to finally hear Steve's voice. She was interrupted by the gossipy receptionist that seemed to be too busy to notice them. 

'Woah Woah Woah! Excuse me!' The woman shrilled at them. Nancy and Jonathan, who lead the pack, halted. 'Where do you think you're going?' Roxy took a deep breath and cooked up an extremely last minute yet plausible lie to get them through before Nancy put on a sickly sweet, innocent demeanour. 

'Oh! Um...' Nancy started. The receptionist cocked her head as Roxy tried to not snarl at the woman. 'I was just going to visit my grandma again. And this- this is my family.'

Roxy bit her cheeks to stop herself from smiling too much. She looked at Nancy, then Jonathan, El, Mike, and Will. All passable with their brunette hair and light skin. Then she looked at Max, with unmistakably red hair. Then herself, clearly sun-tanned. And then she looked at Lucas and prayed for a miracle. 

'Extended.' He said. Roxy, again, tried not to laugh. 

'I don't care who they are. You know the rules. Two visitors at a time.' The lady said with attitude. Nancy tried to argue but was cut off rudely before the receptionist went back to her phone conversation. Roxy sighed, knowing that the two people to 'visit' and not sit around bored would not include her. 

As Nancy and Jonathan walked quickly toward the elevators, Max and El picked up some trashy magazines to flip through and pretend the world their life existed in was figuratively on fire. After some painfully awkward silence, Mike and Lucas trudged off to the vending machine, and Roxy settled herself cross-legged into a seat next to Will. 

'How're you doing, kid?' She asked him. A year ago she would've sat away from everyone and not at all cared about their lives. A year ago she would've stayed home. 

'Okay. I- I don't know. It feels like it should be hurting more. That's stupid.' Will told her, surprising himself. He didn't know why he found Roxy to be easy to talk to. She was as intimidating as hell. 

'It's not stupid. Must be weird that it's not all on you this time around. Maybe the evil in this town figured you deserved a year off.' Roxy tried to lighten his mood a bit, and Will chuckled lightly at her. 'Do you reckon it'll go away? Like, if we're lucky maybe it'll just stop. Forever. Instead of plugging back into gear every three hundred and sixty-five days like Christmas.' 

'If we're lucky, yeah. Are we ever lucky though?' He asked dejectedly. Roxy squeezed his shoulder, comforting him. She didn't usually feel bad for people, but she felt bad for Will. 

'Feels like we should start a meeting club for pessimists.' She joked. 'I used to think my life was hell. And I know it's super strange, but since I moved to Hawkins and started nearly dying every now and then, I'm happy.' Roxy looked around at the kids, who thankfully weren't listening to her. 'I don't deserve all of it, and if I could I'd give you some. Don't tell anyone I'm saying this, but if you ever need someone to chat to or you just want to hang out, you can give me a call.' Roxy moved the hand that was on Will's shoulder to his other one, wrapping an arm around him. She lightly shook her head as what she was doing she'd never done before. 

Will was silent for a couple of seconds, processing, before he spoke. 'Thank you. It feels like everyone's got somebody. I don't like being lonely.' He thought about leaning his head on Roxy's shoulder, but he didn't want to push it. He didn't feel all too close to her yet, but he did feel oddly comfortable and safe with their resident bad girl. 

'You've got me, kid.' Roxy told him. She felt as if she knew what it was like to have no one, even though Billy had been her rock for her entire life. She couldn't imagine life without him. She started to feel sick at the thought.

Soon, Mike sat down next to El in the same row of chairs as Roxy and Will. Mike turned to them, jerking his head as a way to tell them to go away. Roxy made a face at him before getting up and wandering around the floor, trying not to let her mind stray too far. She picked up and ran a trashy magazine. The lights started to flicker, and Roxy knew it was not a good sign. Looking over to Will, he didn't seem to be noticing anything sinister, so she didn't pay it any mind. Moments later, the flickering became increasingly violent, and the kids noticed it as well. Mindlessly throwing the magazine onto the floor under the chairs, Roxy tried to tune out the receptionist's loud chatter and focus on hearing noise from the other parts of the hospital. You'd thing echoes would carry in a place like this, Roxy thought. But she didn't hear anything. 

She looked at Will, who met her eyes. 'Are you...?' She asked gesturing to the back of her neck, unsure of her words. Will brought his hand to the back of his neck and furrowed his eyebrows. He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, an otherworldly chittering emanated from the corridors. They all knew what it meant, but not what or where it came from.