I slammed my front door behind me, trembling while securing each lock. I sprinted up to my room and locked that behind me before diving in my closet. I moved my hands blindly across the wall, trying to find the shelf that held my gun. I grabbed it and crouched in the corner, my knees pressed against my chest.
Someone pounded on the door, making me jump. My breathing hitched, and tears sprung to my eyes.
"Please don't hurt me," I muttered.
"Y/n? Are you ok?" Dustin asked, still knocking on the door.
"How do I know you're Dustin?" I called, different theories racing through my mind.
"What?"
"How. Do. I. Know. If. You're. Really. Dustin?"
"I have this condition called Cleidocranial dysplasia. My teeth won't be coming in until-"
Yep, most likely Dustin. I crawled out of the closet and swung my bedroom door open, carefully scanning my brother for anything off. Nothing I could see.
"Are you drunk?" he asked.
"Um, no, I only had, like, two sips of beer," I snapped.
"Oh yeah? How much do you consider a sip?"
"Dustin-"
"No, don't 'Dustin' me, Y/n. It's midnight, Mom is asleep, I was getting ready for bed, then you just burst inside, slam the door behind, and run off. I'm the only one actually being rational here."
I sighed, "Fine. Yes Dustin, I might be a little drunk, but it's nothing like full-blown-I'm-gonna-have-a-hangover-tomorrow."
"That doesn't explain why you did what you did."
"We watched a scary movie," I lied. "When I got here, I thought that the monster was behind me."
"What movie?"
"Uh... E.T."
"E.T?"
"Yeah."
Dustin sighed, "You know what? I'll come talk to you in the morning, when you're sober." He shut the door behind him, leaving me alone in my dark room. My heart rate quickened, my palms suddenly a lot more sweaty.
Was I necessarily scared of the dark? No, but when you were just chased by some freaky alien, having a bit of light was definitely preferred. I switched on the lamp next to my bed and crawled under the sheets, placing the gun under my pillow. I tried to shut my eyes, but every time I did, I saw it. It kept getting closer and closer, its mouthing opening wider and wider each time.
This was gonna be a long night.
***
"Y/n? It's-"
Dustin's sentence ended abruptly when I swung open the door. He gave me a confused look, to which I answered, "Thanks."
"I thought alcohol didn't keep you up?"
"It doesn't," I snapped. Before Dustin could respond, I slammed the door in his face and got dressed. When I opened the door, Dustin was still standing there.
"Why are you so cranky?"
"Why do you think?" I stormed past him and went to the bathroom, inspecting my reflection. Dark circles shadowed beneath my bloodshot eyes. My makeup from the night was still mostly intact, besides the smudged eyeshadow and mascara. I washed it off and applied new makeup, taking special care to hide my eyebags.
My hair was disgusting, but there wasn't enough time to wash it. I sprayed some dry shampoo and pulled it up, calling it good.
By the time I was in the kitchen, Dustin was strolling through the door. He called out, "Bye Mom! Bye Y/n!" and left.
"Where's Dustin going?" I asked, noticing Mom at the table.
"He's going over to Mike's house before school. He also has an AV club after school, and I don't know if I'll be off work, so if he needs, can you pick him up?"
"Sure," I said. He's having an awful lot of AV club meetings.
I slowly ate the cereal, thinking about Steve's party as I had the entire night. I wonder how long the rest had stayed. If I had to take a guess, I would say they probably spent the entire night. Did that mean Nancy was going to pick me up?
Surprise surprise, as soon as I had thought that, Nancy's car pulled up. I disposed the food and called, "Goodbye" to my mom, stomping out to Nancy's car.
Seeing her reminded me of what she had said last night, about how I had been thrown in a pool and not a lake. Yeah, they weren't the same thing, but trauma was still trauma. It wasn't about the location. It was about the person and what they did.
I slammed the car door shut behind me, clutching the bag close to my chest and staring out the window. Nancy began to drive.
"I'm sorry about what I said yesterday," she sighed, a minute or two after we left. "I don't know what I was thinking."
"It's fine," I mumbled, the anger slowly fading away.
"No, it's not. It obviously affected you, and I'm really sorry for that."
"Nancy." I lightly touched her arm. "I forgive you. I understand. Trauma's weird."
Nancy smiled, "Thanks."
Before I knew it, we had pulled into the school. Nancy and I left her car and walked into the school together.
I expected Barb to meet us when we first walked in, but she didn't. Nancy and I looked at each other, confused, until I brushed it off.
"She probably just went to go study," I assured. Nancy didn't look convinced.
"Did she take you home last night?"
"No?"
"Well, she was gone when I wanted to go home."
"What time did you go home?"
"A little after one." Nancy's eyes started darting around, her face uncomfortable. Now that I noticed, I realized a bunch of people were staring at us. I waved it off and continued the conversation.
"I'm sure she just got tired and went home," I offered, arriving at my locker.
"Yeah, yeah, that's probably what happened." Nancy stuck a few books in her locker when someone slammed open her door. Both of us jumped.
"Hey!" Steve greeted, his voice overly chirpy. I rolled my eyes and listened to the conversation.
"Hey," Nancy laughed, a slight tone of nervousness in her tone.
"Is everything ok?" Steve asked.
"Yeah! Yeah, totally. I just... I feel like everyone's... staring at me."
So they did do it, I thought, disgusted. That explains the looks.
"Oh I didn't... I didn't tell anyone," Steve assured.
Yeah, and you aren't the school player.
"I know! I know. Of course not. But what about, like, Tommy and Carol and them?"
"You're being paranoid."
Then how does everyone in the school know?
"I mean, when you two are talking in a not so secure spot that multiple people could listen in on," I interrupted, slamming my locker shut, "it's not too surprising that people know."
"Really Henderson?" Steve spat, all acts of kindness from last night disappearing.
"Really," I smirked. "Class is about to start, so if you two want to go make out in the bathroom, I would suggest going now." With that, I left the pair and went off to my first period.
***
My eyes scanned the lunch room, trying to find Barb or Nancy at one of the many table. I spotted Nancy sitting with Steve, Tommy, and Carol, and instantly ditched that idea. Barb was still nowhere to be seen. I sighed, accepted my fate, and walked out in the hall to eat lunch alone.
Luckily, Jonathan passed me, and sat down next to me.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Any sign of Will yet?"
Jonathan shook his head. "No, I went looking for him yesterday, but I didn't find anything."
"Nothing at all? Not even, like, a weird tree?"
Jonathan looked at me, his eyebrows scrunched together. "What?"
"Nothing," I rushed, shoving some of the meatloaf in my mouth to avoid further questioning.
"Well, I'll let you get back to your lunch. See you later, Y/n."
"See ya!" I waved, watching Jonathan walk away, probably to the darkroom. I smiled as I thought about some of the photographs he had taken before. He had a bunch of pictures of Will, some professionally done while others were just a joke. He had a few of me, but I ordered them to never see the light of day. And then, he had a bunch just about nature. That's probably what he was developing now.
I finished the last of my food and threw the trash away, walking around the school to see if Barb was around. A few times, I thought I saw her, but it was just some other girl with short, red hair.
She was probably just skipping. I mean, even the most perfect students had some sort of rebellious streak, right?
But what had happened when I thought Will just went to school early? Oh, that's right, he was actually missing. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more stuff started to make sense. Will went missing only a few days ago, meaning the kidnapper was most likely still in town. And what if that thing I saw had something to do with it? In fact, I was almost positive it did. I mean, why hadn't the thing gone after me? The only logical explanation was because it was after something else.
I was going to talk to Nancy and see if she had discovered anything. If not, I was finding Barb.
***
"Nancy!"
Nancy whirled around, her expression softening when she saw me. She stopped, waiting for me to join her before resuming her walk.
"Have you seen Barb?" I asked, not giving her a chance to say hello.
"No, that's actually what I was just doing. I'm going to call Mrs. Holland and see if Barb managed to get home. Hopefully, she knows something."
I followed Nancy to the phone booth, both of us walking briskly. She picked it up and put in a few quarters, dialing the Hollands' number.
We waited about five seconds before someone on the other end of the phone said something inaudible.
"Hi, uh, Mrs. Holland, it's Nancy!"
Mrs. Holland said something, to which Nancy responded, "Good! I'm good!"
Wanting to know everything going on, I stood next to Nancy, my ear pressed against the back of the phone.
"Um, I was just wondering, uh, is Barb there?" Nancy asked.
"Mmm... No, she hasn't come home yet," Mrs. Holland informed.
"But she did come home, right? After the vigil?"
"No, she said she was staying with you last night."
I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking we were screwed. Mrs. Holland was going to see right through our lie, and then call the cops, and even more people were going to freak out, and-
"Right! Yes, she did, sorry," Nancy lied, quickly covering our tracks. "I meant, did she come home this morning? I think she left some textbooks, and she was gonna go pick them up."
"Oh, um, no, I haven't seen her." My heart dropped to my stomach. Something had happened to her.
"Do- do you know what? I just remembered, she's at the library," Nancy stated.
"Nancy, will you have her call me as soon as you find her?"
"Yeah, yeah I will. Sorry to bother you." Nancy put the phone back in its spot, her face twisted up in concern.
"I'm going to go look for her," I stated. "You coming?"
"I can't. I'm going to the game with Steve."
I stopped and turned to her, cocking my eyebrow. "Nancy, our bestfriend is missing, and you're worried about a date?"
"Look, we don't want others to know and freak out, right? If I just cancel my date, right after I asked if anyone had seen my bestfriend, people would start to suspect something."
"Nancy, I need help-"
"And I promise I'll come help, as soon as the game is over, it should only be about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, ok?"
"You know what? Fine. I'm done arguing," I snapped, throwing my hands in the air. "Can I just go grab some stuff out of your car, please?"
"Fine," Nancy sighed. We strolled out to her car, an uncomfortable silence falling over us. Yeah, I get Nancy's point, but she could've just said I needed help with something and she was obligated to go. Or literally any other reason. But no, she had to go on this date. Steve was changing her, and for the worse.
Before we could cross the parking lot to Nancy's car, I noticed a group of people standing close to us. I quickly scanned them. Tommy, Carol, Steve, and this girl in my grade named Nicole were all standing around, looking at... Jonathan.
I immediately forgot what I was doing before and headed towards the group, Nancy following closely behind.
"What are we doing?"
I pointed to the group and said, "If I had to take a guess, I would say that Steve is harassing Jonathan, and with all the stupid things he's going through, I would be an idiot to let that slide."
The group didn't take notice of us until Nancy asked, "What's going on?"
"Here's the starring lady," Tommy mocked.
"What?"
I glanced at Jonathan, hoping he had some sort of answer. His eyes were fixed to the ground while his body shifted between his two feet. That definitely wasn't Jonathan behavior.
"This creep was spying on us last night," Carol answered, giving Jonathan one of her signature glares. My eyes slightly narrowed, confused by what I was hearing. "He was probably gonna save this one for later."
Carol handed a photo over to Nancy, who's eyes widened with shock. I looked over her shoulder, my jaw dropping open. It was a photo of Nancy through Steve's window, which is creepy enough in itself. What made it worse was the fact that Nancy was undressing.
My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, disappointment, and anger. I knew Jonathan was having a tough time, but taking pictures of girls undressing was overstepping the line.
"See, you can tell that he knows it's wrong, but... Man, that's the thing about perverts. It's hardwired into them," Steve spat, brushing any dust off Jonathan's shoulder. It would've been a friendly gesture in a completely different situation, but now, it was mocking action. "You know, they just can't help themselves."
Steve started ripping up the picture he was holding, scowling at Jonathan the entire time. Tommy laughed, and for once, I didn't find myself entirely annoyed at him. In fact, I wanted Steve to rip up every single photo Jonathan had taken last night. And I wanted to help him.
"So, we'll just have to take away his toy."
"No, please, not the camera," Jonathan begged. He looked to me for reassurance, but I looked at Steve. I wasn't sure what I thought of Jonathan anymore, but it definitely wasn't pride. When he saw I wasn't going to do anything, he surged after Steve, ready to grab his camera, but Tommy shoved him back.
"No, no, wait, wait, Tommy, Tommy... it's ok," Steve assured, holding out Jonathan's camera. "Here you go, man."
Jonathan reached forward to grab his camera, but as soon as his fingers brushed the object, Steve dropped it. The crack as the camera smashed into pieces echoed in the air, louder than it should've been.
"C'mon, let's go. The game's about to start." Steve started to walk off with Carol and Nicole behind him. Tommy was with them, but stopped when he reached me. He shoved a couple of pictures at me.
"These are for you, Henderson."
Even though I never did anything last night, I was still worried to see what Jonathan had gotten a picture of. Nevertheless, I studied the pictures.
This one was taken while I was sitting on the porch, not too long after Steve had thrown me in the pool. The towel was wrapped around my shoulders and the beer was in my hand as I waited for Barb...
Barb. I was supposed to be looking for Barb, not studying pictures someone took of me last night. I folded them up and shoved them in my jacket, glaring at Jonathan before I left. Nancy was long gone by now, following the group as they went to the game. Meaning, I truly was on my own for the time being.
I shouldered my bag and walked towards the Harringtons' house, hoping I'd find something.
A/N: To be honest, I don't know how I feel about the whole 'Steve breaking Jonathan's camera' situation. Like, Jonathan shouldn't have taken those pictures, and I think Steve was in the right to rip them, but I feel like breaking his camera was a little far. Personally, I would've beaten Jonathan up, but that's just me.