wild one - steve harrington

wildcat

When they arrived, it was pouring with rain. The storm was heavy, and people were running out of the pool and through the parking lot. Roxy told the girls to get out, before she did a very risky quick park, taking the spot of someone who had just left. She looked around and couldn't see Billy's car; with people running and screaming and the weather creating poor visibility she didn't think it meant anything. She weaved through people walking against her and finally caught up to the girls. 

"And don't try to argue with me. You want to get electrocuted, you go climb a tree." Roxy heard the head lifeguard drawl on without even looking at them. She rolled her eyes and pulled her shirt down a little, stepping up to the counter. She cleared her throat, and he still didn't look. Roxy leant over, picked up a pen, and threw it lightly at his head. Max suppressed a smile.

He looked up, his anger diffusing when he saw Roxy. She gave him a very fake sweet smile. "We're not here to swim. We're looking for somebody." 

"Okay, who?" The lifeguard asked, shutting the book he was reading. 

"My brother Billy." Roxy answered, and El held up the bag they found in the bathroom.

"We found this." She said, showing it to him. He looked between it and Roxy as the girl next to him in the booth sipped on her drink, being completely quiet.

"Does that belong to anybody?" Max asked, getting impatient. 

"Oh yeah." He replied, after barely a second. "That's Heather's. I'll get it back to her." Roxy rolled her eyes, figuring that this wasn't helping them find Billy at all. 

"We can get it back to her." Eleven said, and both Max and Roxy looked at her confused. 

"You could. Except she's not here." The lifeguard responded. "Bailed on me today." He looked back at what he was reading before. He looked back up, and raised an eyebrow seeing that they were all still there. "What, you want a reward or something?"

"No. We're just... good Samaritans." Max replied, and Roxy let out a breath of laughter before playfully nudging Max. The lifeguard looked at Roxy, and it annoyed her to the bone that his expression seemed more entitled than hers. When she saw that El wandered off, she gave him a wink and followed the girls, rolling her eyes. They ended up staring at the pinboard that had images of all the lifeguards. When Roxy laid eyes on Billy's picture, she had a chilling feeling that a picture seemed all he was, as if she was looking at a memory. She pushed that thought out of her mind. "You think you can find her?" Max asked, and Roxy tuned back into where they were, paying attention to the picture of Heather. El ripped the photo of Heather off the wall, and they all briskly walked into the locker rooms after checking whether or not they would be seen. 

Eleven sat and duct-taped around a pair of goggles to get rid of the visibility whilst Max and Roxy ran from shower to shower turning on all the faucets. Roxy sat on one of the benches opposite Max, El in between them on the floor. The silence seemingly unbroken by the running water had made Roxy on edge. Her nails dug into her thigh from nerves. She couldn't help but think of what could be wrong. She'd been gone this long without telling her brother, when she was out firing guns at slimy interdimensional animals. That only made her more concerned. Suddenly, a shaken El ripped the goggles off her face. She looked horrified. Max and Roxy asked her loudly what she had seen to be heard over El's heavy panting. Roxy felt her eyes sting, but she ignored it. She and Max looked at each other. "Do you know where he is?" Roxy asked in barely more than a whisper after El had calmed down a little. 

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The three girls drove up and down the streets, Roxy thinking that she'd have to get the damn car back any second now. When El abruptly told her to stop, Roxy hastily pulled over and they all got out of the car, walking (fast to not get wet in the rain) toward a house with a red door. As El was mentally unlocking the door, Max reached out to squeeze Roxy's hand, seeing how focused she was. Roxy looked at her stepsister and smiled weakly, receiving the same smile back. They all crept into the house, walking past pictures of what Roxy saw as a hauntingly happy family. "This is her house..." Max trailed off, recognising Heather's face in the pictures. They heard laughter from another room. Roxy thought she heard her brother's voice, and jogged to the noise.

"Roxy... Max." Billy said, in an almost knowing manner. The two adults at the table (who Roxy expected to be Heather's parents) looked at her strangely with fair reason. 

"Sorry to... interrupt." Roxy said, waving her hand dismissively. She was talking to Heather's parents but her eyes were set dead on Billy. "We knocked, but you couldn't hear us over the storm." Billy looked right back at her, still eating his meal. Roxy furrowed her eyebrows at him as if she was asking what he was doing and when he ignored that, she knew that something wasn't right. 

"I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" The older man asked Billy, pointing a finger at Roxy, who scowled back at him. 

Billy chuckled and placed down his fork, showing more table manners than Roxy had ever seen him perform at every other meal combined. "I'm sorry. Janet, Tom..." He signalled to each parent as Roxy widened her eyes at his gesture. She was polite in front of Steve's parents, but what she was seeing her brother do was more than completely out of character. "This is my sister Roxanne, and my little sister Maxine." He stood from the table and walked toward them. "What on earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?" He asked too kindly. Roxy could tell he still wasn't being sincere. She could see that he didn't really care if something was wrong. And even though she felt that it wasn't even her brother standing in front of her, she stepped forward quickly to embrace him. Whatever was happening with her brother, she knew she could help him now that they knew where he was.