𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗲, steve harrington

25. DAZED AND CONFUSED

Coming home the previous night had found the house still empty, and she used the time to make sure that Steve's clothes and her Halloween dress would be washed and dried as soon as possible, before setting her homework out on the little space left on her desk and digging out the supplies she would need to help Steve in the library the next day. When bringing out the books and folder to her car, Dustin came crashing up the driveway, discarding his bike under the shelter before hurdling inside without anything more than a 'hello'. Which was odd, to say the very least.

It was in the siblings' nature to be curious; it was her curiosity combined with sisterly instincts that prompted Sadie to agree to help Mike, Lucas and Dustin with Eleven the year before, and it was her curiosity that plotted the very beginnings of the complex structure of knowledge within her brain. That was often mirrored in Dustin, although he was a little more conflicted with the ideas of friendship and popularity that Sadie had surpassed and settled into (up until that point, that was), who found his interests in zoology and furthering that into cryptozoology and shared all that with Sadie. But now, he wasn't sharing anything with her.

It was no joke how suspicious Sadie could be... but not in relation to this. After a few moments of confusion, she had chalked it up to teenage hormones and let him be, ready to greet her mom with dinner halfway prepared as she leant over the kitchen counter and did her homework, leaning up for a greeting as Claudia took over.

Something that Sadie had always appreciated about her mom was the level of trust developed. Claudia Henderson truly loved her children and vice versa; there was a relationship there that she knew wasn't mirrored with many others her age. And for that, the younger girl didn't worry that it would end in a reprimand and was quick to inform her mother of most events of the night before. She didn't care what she drank - Sadie was smart enough, inebriated or not, to control that - and she didn't care whose house she ended up sleeping at. As long as she was safe, informed her mom of where she would be for the majority of the time spent out, and returned home within a day of leaving, Claudia didn't mind.

And Sadie supposed that it was the first time seeing that approval which made her feel better about things. She couldn't quite bring herself to tell her mom about the misgivings that came from some of her actions, nor did she inform her just what those actions were, but somehow they seemed to dull down after a while.

Waking up the next morning felt like some form of miracle had happened. She felt as though she could relax her shoulders the same way Nancy felt after admitting her true feelings despite it being behind an intoxicated veil; a weight had been lifted by admitting something to someone, and although Sadie was far too confused within the swirling musings of her own to actually be able to say anything else. So despite her feeling far better than she did, there was still something nagging at her that she couldn't address yet.

Claudia hadn't mentioned anything when she found clothes she didn't recognise in her washing machine, instead quietly folded them and left them on Sadie's desk, in her direct eye line as she woke up the next morning. She would later forget them and have to return to get them that evening, but the sentiment remained and the blonde share glances at them as she sifted through her own closet to find her own pair of favourite jeans and shirt, tucking it into the bottoms and pulling the old brown leather jacket over it, hoping she would be warm enough. Just in case, she brought one of her own sweaters, shoving it into the bottom of her bag.

Leaving her bedroom was fine - she didn't have the same headache as she had when leaving Steve's room the day before - however, it happened to coincide with the exact moment that Dustin was disappearing into his room. And she was just a little too curious and quiet frankly, concerned to not have a proper conversation with him after what he had dubbed 'the best night of the year'.