STARCROSSED ▷ steve harrington

10. the dive - part one

Dustin snagged the bag back. "I'm trying."

Steve slapped the item to the floor one last time. Dustin held his hands up in frustration. Max gave him a thumbs up. "Nice one."

"What the hell was that for?" Dustin demanded.

Steve shrugged. "Fun."

"Oh, shit," Nancy murmured from the front of the vehicle, and all heads snapped in her direction. The target of her curse, was directed at the line of police cars that were parked outside of where Eddie was staying. There were quite a few civilians crowded around, too.

Nancy put the car into park, and they all hurriedly climbed out. She ushered them behind the news van, coming across Chief Powell making a statement into the microphone.

"—Reporting a homicide here on the lake. Officer Callahan here and myself arrived first on the scene. We made our way to the shore of Lover's Lake, about ten yards from that house you see behind me. It was there that we found the victim, an eighteen year old senior from Hawkins High, Patrick McKinney."

Lucas' eyes widened, but he said nothing.

"His limbs, his body, it was disfigured. There was an eyewitness on the scene. We've also identified a person of interest." Powell held up a picture of Eddie. "Eddie Munson. We encourage anyone with information to please come forward."

"Oh, man," Steve murmured. "This is not good. This is really not good."

He was right. Things had gone from bad to worse in just the matter of a couple minutes.

𑁍

Eddie was at Skull Rock—which they discovered after he called Dustin through his walkie. That was exactly the last place Jackie wanted to go, especially with how things were between her and Steve currently. That place brought back way too many memories, and yet Steve didn't even seem bothered by it.

It was incredibly hard getting a read on him now. She truly couldn't tell if it was his "act like you don't care" bullshit, or if it was genuine.

"Hey," Robin sidled up to her as they trekked through the woods. "So, now assuming you're done you know... PMSing, do you maybe want to talk?"

Jackie shot her a look. "PMS or not, what you and Nancy did wasn't cool."

"I know. And we're sorry, but it was the truth. You are a bad liar, and we could tell you were overwhelmed. I mean... Steve hasn't outright told me, every time I ask he gets all weird and snappy, but I know something happened between you two. Nancy, too. We didn't want to pile too much onto you. Incase you couldn't handle it."

"I think what I can handle is up to me," she retorted, still slightly bitter. "But it's whatever. I'm over it."

"Are you really?" Robin pressed on. "Because it's totally okay if you're not, I would completely—"

"Robin."

"Yes?"

"Be quiet."

Robin exhaled. "So we're cool?"

Jackie nodded. "Yeah. We're cool."

"I'm telling you," Steve was saying a couple of steps ahead. "This is the wrong way."

"Oh-kay," Robin huffed when the two leading boys turned into a different direction. "Guess we're changing course?"

"Apparently," Jackie snorted, hopping off a log. Dustin paused once he saw her, and when Steve realized he wasn't close behind, he stopped too. Robin fell into step with Nancy. "What?"