Broken & Pretty..Steve Harrington

033.

"Yeah! You're one of those people!"

"Well, I don't know why you'd think I'd reject you. I can't reject that hair." Tiffany ruffled up his hair and Steve let out a tiny laugh. They looked into each other's eyes. Their faces started getting closer until... "TIFFANY!"

They stopped leaning towards each other and they backed up a little. "I have to, uh..."

"No, yeah, go ahead." Tiffany walked into the living room. "What could you possibly want?"

Lucas pointed at Mike. "Get him to stop pacing."

"Mike, stop pacing." Mike stopped pacing and Lucas and Mike started arguing. "Look, you guys weren't in there, okay? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."

"Excuse you, I was there."

"Yeah, after they were gone." Tiffany rolled her eyes. Steve then came in with a tea towel in his hands. "Listen, guys, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. Alright?"

"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."

"Yeah, so...so...so my point is...Right, yeah, we're on the bench so there's nothing we can do."

"That's not entirely true. I mean, these Demodogs, they have a Hive Mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away." Tiffany then spoke up. "Yeah, by me."

"But what about the ones who weren't with us? They would've been called away by something else too. If we get their attention...maybe we can draw them from the lab." The kids started to catch on. "Clear a path to the gate."

"Yeah, and then we all die."

"That's one point of view."

"No, that's not a point of view, man. That's a fact." Mike started walking around the vine drawings all over the Byers' house. "I got it!"

Mike pointed at a vine drawing. "This is where the chief dug his hole. This is our way into the tunnel. So..." Mike walked back to everyone else and pointed at a vine drawing on the floor. "Here, right here. This is like a hub. So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire..."

"Oh yeah? That's a no." Nobody was listening to Steve. "The Mind Flayer would call away his army."

"They'd all come up to stop us."

"We circle back to the exit." Steve was still trying to get their attention. "By the time they realize we're gone."

"El would be at the gate." Steve did the clapping thing that Tiffany uses. "Hey, hey, hey! This is not happening!"

"But-"

"No, no, no, no, no. No buts. Me and Tiff promised we'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what we plan on. We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand?"

"This isn't a stupid sports game." Steve took the tea towel off his shoulder and pointed it at Mike like a mother. It was like Tiffany was their dad and Steve was their mom. "I said, does everybody understand that?! I need a yes."

They heard an engine revving. They rushed over to the windows and saw Billy's car pull up. "It's my brother. He can't know I'm here. He'll kill me."

"I'll handle it. Steve, stay inside." Tiffany walked outside and saw Billy. "Tiffany? Why are you here?"

Tiffany stayed on the porch and he stayed in front of his car. "I babysit the kid that lives here and I'm friends with his older brother. I'm here all the time."