THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT ｡ STRANGER THINGS

21 - RETROUVAILLE

"Why are you suddenly acting like a jerk again?" Daisy snipped out, dropping her packed bag by her feet so she could stare up at him, ready to push against his chest if he continued blaming her for everything. "Is this really about my mother not knowing? Why does that even matter? Who cares if she hates you?"

Steve threw up his hands. "I care, okay? I don't want your mother hating me anymore than she already does. She probably blames me for Marigold running away, knowing I was the very last person to see her that night now. I don't need her having yet another reason to blame me for corrupting her children."

Daisy was already laughing. "Corrupting her children? We all know you didn't corrupt Marigold, if anything it was the other way around." The anger was fading away quickly though, Daisy folding her arms over her chest. "What's this about, Steve? You wouldn't remotely care if my mother hated you. Is this about Nancy?"

A strangled sigh left the boy's lips. "God, why would you even bring up Nancy?"

"I know you guys are getting back together." Daisy confessed lamely.

Steve shook his head. "That has nothing to do with this." Already he was walking away from the blonde, who picked up her bag and went after him. The motel loomed over them, an eerie feeling floating around them. "This is about you lying to your mum about the trip, about us. Okay? She's honestly going to murder me when we get back home."

Daisy frowned. "If she already hates you, what's the harm?"

"You don't get it, do you?" Steve spun around, his voice suddenly quiet. "What happens when we do get home, with or without Marigold with us? Your mother will hate my guts for pushing away one daughter and running away with the other. She'll forbid me from even seeing you, or Marigold. She's crazy scary like that. Then everything will go back to the way it was this year, me looking in from the outside. I don't want that."

Maybe it was the sleep talking, maybe it was because the teenagers were a very long way from home but, the confession slipped from Steve Harrington's lips, a fear that had nested in his heart. He had spent so long being away from Daisy, and he had almost grown over it. But with the unusual events that had occurred in Hawkins and with the mystery Marigold had left behind, he had gotten Daisy back, and now he wasn't sure he could let her go again.

Suddenly, with the words floating around them, Daisy had nothing to say. Her mouth had snapped shut, her heart feeling like it weighed ten bricks in her chest. She honestly didn't know what to say to him. When the moment stretched on far too long, Steve was hanging his head and pointing towards the reception. "Come on, it's cold out here. Let's just...get a room and sleep it off."

It wasn't until they were safely under the warm blankets of a shared bed, did Daisy finally open her mouth. She was staring at the ceiling, her mind twisting and turning with too much confusion. "Things won't go back to the way they were."

"You don't know that." Steve admitted.

Daisy rolled onto her side, glancing across at him in the darkness. She felt nervous about spending a night lying beside him but apparently, all the two seperate beds rooms were booked for the night and Steve wasn't about to sleep on the floor. "I do, though. Things won't ever be the same again, not after everything." She sucked in a deep breath. "I know because I don't want them to go back to the way they were. We're friends again and I want that too."

Steve turned his head, his lips turning upwards. "Just friends, huh?"

A laugh chilled the air. "Well, yeah. Is that a problem for you, Harrington?"

The tension that had somehow grown between them was dying away and suddenly, they were just two kids again. Two kids that were both doing their best to be alright. "No problem at all. Can just friends spoon though?"

Daisy was rolling her eyes. "Dream on, lover boy."

***

In the daylight, two teenagers finally made their journey to Memphis. The city built on the edge of the Mississippi River, where it was famous for blues, soul and rock 'n' rock music. It was a city that Marigold Lonsdale could fall in love with, that was for sure.

Steve Harrington had already slipped in his tiny amount of doubt into the air, wondering just how they would even find the missing girl in such a place. But Daisy Lonsdale had a different air of hope running through her veins because just driving through the city was already confirming her theories. She had once helped her older sister dream of a time where she would finally move away from Hawkins. A time where Marigold would live in a dazzling city, in a tiny apartment with a fire escape and live happily. It was a simple dream, which could land the girl in a number of cities in the world. But there was one tiny detail about Memphis which had drawn Marigold in that nobody knew a part from Daisy.

"This is insane, we're never going to find her here." Steve was saying, his own hope dashed.

Daisy just smiled. "Our grandfather used to tell us about this enchanting grand carousel in Memphis. He liked to say his own father helped build it back in the day. Also, that's where he proposed to our grandmother. Marigold used to think it was so romantic, you know? We always used to say we would visit that place together." The blonde girl paused, her fingertip paused on the map they had brought from a souvenir shop hours ago. They had been walking around the city for a while now and stood in an empty park. "The Memphis Grand Carousel was taken down when Libertyland closed in 1980 though. We never got to see it in person, only in old photographs."

Steve shoved his hands into his pockets, wind nipping at his exposed skin. "Okay? That's a sweet story, but what's that got anything to do with this park?"

Daisy looked up from her map. "This is the very place the carousel used to be."

Around them, only a few odd people milled around. An old lady was perched at a wooden bench feeding some squirrels that bounced in the grass. A few children were playing on an outdated swing set. But a part from just them, they were the only people who looked like they didn't belong. "There isn't anybody around, a sort from that lady and the squirrels. She's not here."

The youngest Lonsdale girl wasn't about to give up hope just yet. Quickly, she was folding up the map and tucking it away in her jacket pocket. Aimlessly, she started walking and naturally, Steve had to follow. The entire time he went on that it was getting late and that surely, Marigold wouldn't just hang out in old parks all day everyday. But Daisy stayed in the park, even when Steve left to buy some coffee and snacks.

By the time Steve arrived back, holding a takeaway bag and fresh coffee, the sun was falling behind the thick clouds promising some rain. Daisy Lonsdale had found herself standing in the very centre of the place where the old carousel would have been. Her fingertips felt frozen, her skin dry from the cold too, but hope still remained. When she heard Steve's footsteps, crushing against dead leaves, her attention snapped around but that's when she spotted two lonely figures standing a few feet away. One was a tall boy, blond hair slicked back from his forehead. He towered over the girl he stood beside, who had matching blonde curls.

That's when Daisy's heart sang, with the very sight of Duncan Downings and Marigold Lonsdale. Her apparently dead cousin and her missing older sister.

"Marigold?"

The girl turned around, a pretty smile touching her painted red lips. Already, Daisy was running towards her family while Steve Harrington stayed behind, the coffees he had been holding falling from his hands with the sight of his best friend. When the two girls finally reunited it was magical. The sun and moon returning. "You found me, Daisy. I knew you would."