Young and Menace the companion book

🖤🔎: sick day

"Language!" Liza and Kelly both said, giggling as they did.

~x~

After dropping Kelly - with her donut and juice - off at her school, the two teens pulled into the parking lot of Hawkins High. They had at least twenty minutes to kill so Liza lit a cigarette as they watched the other students of Hawkins High arrive. The pair pretended to be Mike and Dustin when they watched them parking their bikes, mocking their voices and conversations they had heard the pair have.

When a maroon BMW pulled into the parking lot, Gareth saw Liza freeze and slide down slightly out of the corner of his eye. When he looked closer, he could see the blonde's friend Robin hop out of the car while laughing. Once she had stepped out of the way, Gareth saw the reason for Liza's reaction, Steve Harrington.

"Ugh, I don't know what you even saw in that douchebag." Gareth scoffed, taking a sip of his own coffee.

"It's complicated." Liza huffed, peering over the dashboard to see Steve pull away.

"Then uncomplicate it." Gareth looked over to the girl. "The shitbox is a safe zone. You can talk as freely as you want, Liz."

"It's just, everyone really only sees him as who he was when he was still hanging out with Tommy and Carol but no one took the time to relearn who he was when he ditched them. That wasn't the Steve I dated, I dated a really sweet, caring guy." Liza began, turning in her seat to face Gareth. "Like he was such an amazing boyfriend, he was genuinely such a good guy. We barely ever fought!"

"You keep saying 'was'." Gareth pointed out, his brows furrowed as he thought his next words carefully. "What changed?"

"It wasn't so much that it changed. It was that he got insecure, he saw what he thought was a similar situation to a past relationship and he took it as fact." Liza explained, pausing to take a drink of her coffee. "He saw Eddie as a threat and in his defence, he had been given information that made Eddie out as one. Instead of talking things out with me though, he took the wrong path and ended things."

Gareth listened as Liza let out what seemed to be pent up emotions. He knew she wouldn't talk bad about Steve and it was clear in the way she was wording things but it was also showing that she was still very hurt by the situation. The boy also couldn't understand why Steve would ever think Liza would cheat or leave him. From what he had seen of the relationship, Liza never even looked at other guys and from what he had experienced with her and Eddie, she was the type who put all of herself into her relationships.

"He was a dumbass to leave you. No, don't go to defend him. You do it enough with everyone else because you don't want to tear their friendships apart but I have no ties to him." Gareth stopped Liza before she could say anything. "In my eyes, he was and still is a massive fucking douchebag. If he couldn't see that you are an amazing girl who would have done anything for him then that only cements it for me."

"But-"

"No, Liz. You're not changing my mind." Gareth huffed, glancing at the clock. "However, a few good things came out of him being a douche. You came to Hellfire, became our friend and I don't think I've ever seen Eddie so happy. You also seemed to come back from your little depression stronger, I get that it sucked to go through it but you did and how you seem happy again."

"Yeah, I guess some good things did come from heartbreak." Liza grinned as she looked over to her friend. Gareth smiled back at her before glancing at the clock again. "We're late aren't we?"

"Yeah, our little talk ran long." Gareth chuckled.

"Oh well."

~x~