Crossfire - S.H. - Book 2

Chapter 1 - MADMAX

It had felt almost weird the first few days after Christmas break the year before, not having Steve hanging around with her all the time in school, but she had gotten over it. A few weeks into her break up, Shelley had gotten used to the lack of his company and, instead, just fell back on old patterns of moving around the school hallways by herself, having lunch in the library with her head buried in a book and just being seen talking to Jonathan - and, sometimes, Nancy - when he came to talk to her first, which wasn't all that often to begin with.

So, yes, during the first semester of her senior year, Michelle Byers had fallen all the way from the top of the popularity pyramid following her break up with Steve "The King" Harrington and went back to being loner, weird Michelle Byers, trying as much as possible to keep her head down and go unnoticed during the day so no one would bother her too much. And, for most of the semester that had worked just fine - which was great too, since she had been studying a lot more these past few months than she had during the time she was dating Steve; and she needed it too, keeping her grades as close to perfect as possible if she wanted even the slightest chance of a scholarship for Davis - but, of course, with Halloween just around the corner, all of Hawkins High was buzzing, parties and more parties being planned, teenagers getting shitfaced left and right while their parents stocked all the candy they could in their houses for when the neighborhood kids would come knocking on their door in a few days. And from that excitement, Shelley couldn't really hide from. At least, not while at school, already having been invited to Tina's famous Halloween bash the following night. She wasn't entirely sure she was really feeling up to a party these days, but accepting the damn invitation wouldn't kill her, would it?

Shelley was just closing her locker after putting the invitation to Tina's party inside and taking out her English book when she heard a noise to her left, causing her to jump at the sudden sound.

"Shit, sorry, Shelley." A familiar voice mumbled, causing Shelley to let out a breath of relief when she recognized it as the grave tone of Steve Harrington himself. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay." She said, finally closing the lock on her locker as she turned to look at him. "Just try not to throw your whole bag against the locker near unsuspecting people."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Steve smiled a little, his lips tight and his stance tense. "My bad."

It wasn't all that surprising, if Shelley was being honest... The fact that neither her nor Steve really knew how to act around each other anymore after almost eight months of almost complete radio silence between the two of them. Sure, they still talked when necessary - they did share a few classes after all and they were even partnered up for a Bio lab every Thursday but other than strictly school related stuff, they haven't really spoken at all. It was weird, of course, the way Shelley went from knowing Steve's schedule by heart and always waiting by his car so he could drive her home after school - and probably make out with her on the front seat before actually letting her go inside - to just never really meeting his eye anymore and always pretending to look busy to avoid any type of interaction with him at all. Their relationship used to be a pretty love story that Shelley couldn't wait to gloat over and tell other people about when they asked, but now that it was over, Shelley Byers was starting to realize that putting down that book was gonna be a lot harder than she had expected it to.

"Look, I... I just really need your help, please?" Steve finally spoke up after taking about a minute to just stare at the girl in front of him and let his mind wander back to when he could still call her his. "I... I really thought about asking someone else but I... I couldn't."

"What do you mean?" Shelley asked, suddenly feeling her stomach dropping when she felt the worry start to creep up on her. "Are you okay?"

"No, yeah, I'm okay, it's not... It's not like that." He said, his words enough to calm Shelley a little as she let out a breath of relief and just watched how Steve crouched down by his bag and fished out a folded paper from it. "I just... Okay, so I... So I wrote... I mean, I tried to write an application letter... For... College, you know? But... But you know me... I'm not... The smartest cookie out there and writing was never something I've been good at, but you are. And you're like... The smartest person I know, so I guess I just... I wanted... I mean, if you wanted to, of course... I just wanted to ask you to... Read? My letter, I mean?"