𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚² | steve h.

014.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
— core four —

the group made their way back to the railroads. they really didn't know where they were going but they needed to get away from the junkyard.

"he could've died, guys." amelia repeated herself. all the kids groaned and threw their heads back, hoping for mercy and for amelia to quit droning on about steve throwing himself at dart.

"please don't start again!" dustin whined. "your reasons make sense! we get it! we understand why you were mad at him!"

"amelia, we needed to take action and steve stepped up." lucas stated. amelia chuckled vaguely and stopped walking. "okay, so, i guess you think him kissing me made me feel any better from the fact that he could've gotten himself killed?"

the kids looked at each other nervously. none knew who was gonna be the first to say it, but dustin ended up breaking the short silence.

"yeah." he nodded.

"it kind of looked like it did for a minute." lucas shrugged.

"you guys make a really cute couple." max grinned.

amelia scoffed at the three agreeing kids and turned back to steve with a look of astonishment. he simply shrugged, making her roll her eyes away from him and huff as she walked.

"yeah, you should calm down, lia." he put the bat over his shoulder and smirked at the girl. "unless you're really just acting up over.. something else?" he teased.

"that's.." she shook her head and slowed her walking. she was lost with her words. "no!"

steve wore his proud smirk. he was actually waiting to get a minute for himself to explode over what just happened between him and amelia, but for now, he has to keep his cool. not in front of amelia, but in front of dustin.

he has to prove his point of 'acting like you don't care'.

"the point is, is that you could've died in front of us." she softly hit his shoulder, not loosing his smolder. "whatever, shitbreath."

she rolled her eyes as steve raced up ahead of the group, now walking next to amelia. "you're bullshit." she muttered.

steve still wore his closed smile as his hand intertwined with hers. she couldn't help but blush even though she thought everything was happening too fast.

"y–you're positive that it was dart?" lia asked, not distracting herself anymore. "yes." dustin answeeed. "he had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt." he replied.

amelia furrowed her brows. "so i didn't kill dart?" dustin nodded. "it's doesn't matter anyway," steve sighed. "there's more of them."

"he was tiny two days ago." max said. "well, he's molted three times already." dustin mumbled.

"malted?" steve repeated incorrectly. "molted," dustin corrected the teenage boy. "shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."

"well, when's he gonna molt again?" max asked.

"it's gotta be soon. when he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it." dustin explained. amelia chewed on her lip. "and so will his new friends." she shivered.