A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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Ryan walked into her house, coming to a stop when she saw Aaron getting his things together to go out. Where he was going, she had no idea. The last she had checked, he had taken the entire week off to help with the search for Will right before suggesting she do the same with school. She probably should've listened, but that was the thing about her. She never did.
"Hey Ry," He greeted, stopping her before she could make it up the stairs to her room. "How did today go?"
"I wouldn't know, I barely went to any classes." She admitted honestly, leaning against the stairway's banister. The way she saw it, it wasn't like he wanted her to go to school anyway, why would it matter that she skipped half the day. "Where are you going?"
"I'm heading to the station to help answer phones while everyone's out looking for Will." He shrugged on his jacket before turning to face her again with a suspicious expression. "If you skipped most of your classes, why are you home later?"
Ryan shrugged, not wanting to get into it again, "Something came up with people."
"Oh yeah?" Aaron raised an eyebrow, not accepting that as a sufficient answer. "Care to elaborate?"
"Do I have to?" She groaned, slowly pushing herself up the stairs. "Because I'd really rather not."
Aaron rolled his eyes as he grabbed the keys to his bike off the key rack by the door, "I guess not, but it would probably be better if you talked to someone about everything recently rather than keeping it all bottled up."
Ryan waved his concerns off, continuing up the stairs. He had a great point, she knew he did, but if she started talking about everything now, she wasn't sure she would be able to stay strong like she needed to be. Hell, she had almost broke down in front of Nancy already today. The walls she had built up were slowly crumbling into nothing and she didn't have the luxury of allowing that to happen. Not now. Not with everything happening.
"Okay," Aaron sighed, opening the door. "I'm going out! Call the station or leave a note if you go out, please!"
Ryan gave him a thumbs up as she turned to go down the hall to her room. She had a lot of thinking to do and she would really much rather do it alone, like she had for a while.
*•*•*
Ryan sat at her window seat, trying to organize the mess of papers in her backpack to keep her mind off of everything; Will, Benny, Steve... Jonathan. A stack of unfinished stories she had started writing a while back, but hadn't had the time to go back to lay next to her now empty backpack.
Despite the fact that they were only half-finished, she carried them with her everywhere, never knowing when her next inspiration would hit. Right now, they were just what she needed to keep her mind off of all the things in her life she couldn't control.
