𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥〡STEVE HARRINGTON

10

"I did call." She said bitterly, her face as straight as an arrow. "But you didn't answer." Tears burned in her eyes but she pursued. "I presumed you were either at work or passed out drunk. The second one more likely."

Hopper pointed an enraged finger at his daughter. Raw anger shot through him. "You don't speak to me like that."

"Whatever." Andy muttered. She shoved past his legs and towards the bathroom. "Come back here!" He yelled after her, but she didn't stop. She headed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it. Hopper's fist pounded against it, but it was half-hearted and defeated. After a few seconds, she sensed him slink away.

Andy scrambled out of her clothes and angrily threw them into a bundle on the floor. She stepped into the shower, turned it on and let the hot water cascade over her. Steam filled the small room and the sensation of the hot water boiling on her skin and tears rolling down her checks eventually made all her anger flood away. Andy decided to apologise when she was all done. She had overreacted. Let her emotions get the better of her when she was the one to blame after all.

Afterward, Andy changed into a fresh set of clean clothes, a pretty yellow shirt dress to be exact, and returned to the living room, but Hopper had gone. Andy glanced out the window to check, but his truck had gone too. So much for saying sorry she thought. She looked around the trailer and sighed. She wanted to be out of here, not forever, just for a little bit.

She grabbed her bag and left. She wasn't thinking about where she was going, she just let her subconscious guide her feet. Andy eventually stopped in the town, directly out the front of the movie theatre. It made sense why her intuition brought her here. It was one of the places she had been with Steve and watching any movie was always a good distraction.

Andy gaped up at the move sign to see what film was currently playing. The movie was All The Right Moves, however, underneath the black writing were the words 'Starring Nancy the Slut Wheeler' in red spray paint. Andy didn't know why the words were there, what it meant or who had done it, but the sound of laughter emerging from the alleyway next door met her ears, and she rushed off to see what was happening.

In the alley, Andy made out the figures of Nancy and Jonathan confronting Tommy, Carol, and Steve. Tommy had a can of spray paint in his hands, he must have been the perpetrator but the onlookers weren't innocent either, and Andy noticed red paint smudges on the fingertips of Steve.

No one had yet seemed to notice Andy was there, so she watched on.

"Look, I don't know what you think you saw, but it wasn't like that." Nancy exclaimed, desperate to understand why Steve would humiliate her the way he had. She stood on the balls of her feet trying to get to his height but she fell short.

"What, you just let him into your room to...study?" Steve questioned bitterly.

Andy didn't understand why this was happening. Steve had spent the night with her. Why did he care what Nancy had been doing? He had told her over and over again that Nancy wasn't his girlfriend, so what was this public humiliation for?

Andy stepped forward, entranced in the encounter and desperate to find out more. She started to feel cheated, crushed at was she was witnessing. Why was he acting like this?

Jonathan who had noticed Andy's presence, put his arm out protectively to stop Andy walking further forward. At this sudden movement, Steve's attention turned away from Nancy and to Jonathan, and then consequently Andy. Right away his stomach dropped. She wasn't meant to be there. She wasn't meant to see this.

"We were just-" Nancy's mouth opened and closed, but she couldn't find the right words, and Steve's attention was drawn back to her away from Andy's broken expression. "You were just what? Finish that sentence. Finish the sentence."

The boy in front of Andy was not the boy she had spent the last few days with. He was not the boy she made love to the night before and he was certainly not the boy she had feelings for. Tears pricked at her eyes and she felt her heart being broken inch by inch.

"Go to hell, Nancy."

Even though he wasn't speaking to her Andy felt every word like a dagger to the chest. Steve glanced at Andy, she looked devastated and that killed him. He wanted to run to her, or reach out, and say that all this was a point being proven and a tad of revenge, nothing more. That last night was everything to him, but he knew he couldn't. No one here had an inkling of what had gone on between them.

Jonathan reached towards both girls and took them into his grasp to get them out of the situation. It was a nice gesture, but seeing him touch Andy in that way stirred up something in Steve. "You know what, Byers? I'm actually kind of impressed."

The three of them, Andy, Nancy, and Jonathan, turned back round to face Steve, who shoved Jonathon with a single hand. "I always took you for a queer, but I guess you're just a little screw-up like your father."

At his side Jonathan's fist curled into a ball, but he continued to walk away, not rising to Steve's bait. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, that house is full of screw-ups. A bunch of screw-ups in your family. I mean your mom... I'm not even surprised about what happened to your brother."

Every word was a step too far. His voice was pure poison and he repeatedly shoved the back of Jonathan. "I'm sorry I have to be the one tell you, but the Byers, their family, it's a disgrace to the entire-"

Andy's anger sprang to life and rage began to pulse through her veins. How dare he speak like that about the Byers. She spun on her heel to hit Steve, but Jonathan got there first.

His fist collided with Steve's jaw with a deafening crunch. Andy's hands flew to her mouth in shock. Steve slumped over a bar, breathing heavily and trying to recover from the punch. A second later he stood up, wiped his mouth and lunged at Jonathan. He slammed him down onto the hood of his car, before tackling him roughly to the ground.

"Steve!" Andy screamed but her cries fell on death ears. "Stop, please! Steve, don't!"

Andy watched on with horrified eyes as the two boys fought it out. They whacked each other repeatedly, lips were bleeding and cheeks were bruised. Tommy cheered Steve on fiercely, but everyone else begged and pleaded for them to stop. Jonathon got the upper hand and punched Steve so forcefully it knocked him off his feet. Jonathon continued to throw punch after punch.

Andy didn't know what spurred her on. Whether it was a part of her hating to see Steve get hurt or wanting to protect Jonathon from getting into trouble, but all of a sudden she hurried over to the boys and grabbed onto the back of Jonathan's jacket and tried to drag him off Steve.

"Get off!" She screamed, but Jonathan kept hitting and hitting. Andy was so determined to stop the fight she didn't even hear the police sirens arrive. A pair of arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her off the ground. She thrashed about in the person's arms. Her limbs flailed wildly and soon her elbow came into contact with the person's groin.

A man's voice groaned and Andy stopped resisting. She looked over her shoulder to see Officer Callahan. Her stomach dropped. Callahan lowered her feet back to the floor and held her arms. He pulled a pair of handcuffs out his belt and slapped them over Andy's small wrists.

"Oh, the Chief's gonna love this."