slow ride | STEVE HARRINGTON.

8. for the popcorn

"Nancy! Nancy!"

"Just leave me alone!"

When the door of her bedroom slammed shut, Karen covered her face with her hands, exhaustion starting to settle in. She barely remembered the other teenager in the room, who had been silent during the ordeal. The small sound of whimpering met her ears, and Karen lifted her head to see her niece crying quietly down the hallway, trying to keep quiet.

"Oh sweetie," Karen cooed, shuffling towards her and wrapping her arms around the blonde securely. Ringo hugged her back eagerly, desperate for a sense of security.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry- I didn't mean for anything bad to happen," she sobbed into the older woman's shoulder, who soothingly rubbed her back to calm her.

"Of course you didn't, I know that," she murmured to her.

"I drank because I wanted to feel comfortable with myself and I haven't felt like that since I got to Hawkins," her voice was hoarse from crying and occasionally her words stuttered from sobbing. "Please don't kick me out, I can't go back home."

"You're not getting kicked out," Karen squeezed her tighter. "Maybe it's all for the better, right? You would have got in trouble for underage drinking, anyway."

After a few moments, Ringo pulled away, wiping her cheeks quickly in embarrassment. It felt like she hadn't stopped crying lately, and for once she wanted to feel stronger than she was. 

"Why don't you go and take a shower, and then we'll go out and bring back some take-out for tonight, how does that sound?" Karen cupped her cheeks, smiling warmly.

"Okay," she forced a smile, touched by her kindness. Karen Wheeler's actions were how every mother should have reacted to a child being upset, trying to understand the teenagers actions instead of jumping to blame them for it.

✵

A knock at her bedroom window caused her to gasp in surprise. Ringo shot up from her cot, tossing aside the comic book she had stolen from Mike. After flicking through one of them in the basement out of boredom one day, she had found herself addicted to the series, and occasionally rifled through his bedroom for the other issues. Mike had caught her one day, of course, completely freaking out about her shuffling through his bedroom.

Ringo huffed when she saw Steve Harrington's face through the glass, sliding the window up and raising her eyebrow at him.

"Nancy's not here," she told him, marching back to her cot and flopping down on top of it, bringing the comic book above her face again to read.

"What do you mean?" He asked in frustration, looking disappointed. Steve climbed through the window none the less, trying to be as quiet as he possibly could with his gangly limbs.

"She said she was out with a friend," the girl shrugged, flicking through another page, eyes skimming over the text and graphic images.

"We had a fight," Steve sighed, sitting down on Nancy's bed and scraping his hand through his mane of hair.

"What did you do?" Ringo asked knowingly.

"How do you know it was something I did?"

Ringo smirked and looked over at him, her face saying it all.