𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕧𝕖 ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕥𝕠𝕟 𝕀𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤

♡ Never Stopped Loving You ♡

We all walked through the woods to the Lover's lake, to find a gate to the Upside Down.

The kids walked in the front, while Eddie and Steve were in the back. Robin and Nancy beside me as Robin kept on blabbering to Nancy. I sighed, wrapping my arms around me as we walked through the woods.

I was nervous and afraid, this thing from the Upside Down was back in Hawkins. I had already lost my best friend, Alice on the night of 4th of July, 1986. I felt really bad for her, she had no idea about these things from the alternate dimension which took her life. I felt guilty that I couldn't save her, I missed her alot as she was the only one I was open and well, closest to, except Steve.

Well, Steve Harrington. We had been apart for years, we were together for 4 months. Things went on smoothly, we were there for each other through good and bad, and pretty much the most popular lovebirds in Hawkins. I still remember the night of our date, when he finally confessed his love to me which shocked me, my voice was caught in my throat and it took me a minute to respond back with "I should leave" and I left the diner in a hurry leaving him in a baffled state. Well, I was excited and surprised that he confessed, but I thought it was quite soon. He was caring, sweet and very kind, such a gentlemen. But I still needed more time to reciprocate my feelings, I did liked him but I just needed some more time. I wasn't able to sleep that night, thinking about the events that happened in the past hours that night. The next morning, I was met with an anxious Steve at my door. He wanted to know if I liked him the same way he did, but I was just surprised. It was all just too soon, nothing came out of mouth. I just looked at him, speechless. And before I knew, I had lost him. He left me and I never saw him for weeks after that morning. We just left things like that, and that was because of me. I still regretted it till today, if only I had confessed to him that day. I would have the best person by my side. We never had a proper conversation after that, we could still sense the tension between us when we were together. A small part of me wanted to tell him the three words I should've said earlier, but it was too late. I couldn't stand hearing the rejection.

However, after the strange things started to occur in Hawkins again. The gang got together, including me and Steve. We still didn't have an actual proper conversation, just a few small talks whenever we passed by. That's all.

So after all the weird things started occurring in Hawkins once again, we were set out to end it. And here we were, heading to the Lover's lake to find the gate.

"Woah, watch your step, Henderson", Eddie held Dustin as we reached to the shore of the lake.

"So, there's a gate in Lover's lake?", Steve asked, running a hand through his hair.

"We don't know yet, we've to go in and find out", Dustin replied.

"Okay", Steve mumbled before looking around for a boat. Eddie and Steve dragged the boat in front of us as everyone started stepping in.

Eddie held his hand out to Nance to step in, and next was Robin. I bit my lip and took in a shaky breath as Steve reached his hand out for me to hold. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed as he observed my face, he could notice my fear. I quickly averted my gaze to the floor and placed my small hand on his soft one. The warm and comforting touch ran many emotions within me, I missed the comforting feeling he provided. I gulped, and stepped my foot in the boat.

"Careful", Steve mumbled.

I nodded, getting in the boat. I pulled away my hand from his, immediately missing the warmth. Eddie got in the boat and sat beside Robin, making the only space vacant that was beside me. Steve stepped in last, and sat beside me, his arm touching mine. The boat was quite small, so we had very less space to settle in. Nancy got the compass and the walkie and Steve started to row the boat towards the center.