There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

NINE

"Yeah, so?" Nancy crossed her arms over her chest.

"My parents are gonna murder me!" Steve exclaimed.

"Big deal!" Catherine sighed throwing her arms up in the air, irritated with the boy.

"Are you serious right now?" Nancy asked.

"You don't understand. My dad's a grade-A asshole."

"Doesn't mean you have to be." Catherine snapped, blowing smoke into his face.

"Barb is missing! And you're worried about your dad?" Nancy yelled at him.

"Okay, just... When you talk to the cop, just... don't mention the beers. It's just gonna get us all in trouble, and Barbara's got nothing to do with it, okay?" He stepped closer to Nancy as Cat rolled her eyes. Why'd she have to crush on someone who doesn't care about anyone other than himself and his stupid reputation?

"Actually, some of us didn't touch the stupid alcohol..." Cat mumbled, taking yet another drag of her cigarette, resting it between her fingers.

Nancy scoffed. "I can't believe you right now." She started to walk away. "I can't believe you."

"Nancy. Nancy, wait!" Steve called out to her, watching as she walked away.

"Well done, asshole." Catherine snapped, throwing her cigarette to the gravel and hurrying after her friend, hoping she would be able to provide some comfort to her.

***

Both Nancy and Catherine were sat in the empty cafeteria next to Mrs. Wheeler as the cops asked them both questions about the night Barbara went missing. They had both explained what happened that night, Cat making it very clear that she left before Barb and so had no idea what happened just before the girl's disappearance. She had stopped answering any of the questions that were directed at her, so the cops- who Cat knew quite well from the fact that she's been brought into the station multiple times on account of theft- had started focusing on Nancy.

"This argument you and Barbara had?" Powell began, "What exactly was it about?"

"It wasn't really an argument." Nancy told them. "Barb just wanted to leave. I didn't, so, I... I told her to just go home."

"Then what?"

"Then I went upstairs to put on some dry clothes."

"And the next day, you went back and... saw a bear, you're thinking?"

"I don't know what it was, but... I think... I think maybe it took Barb." Cat could sense her friend getting upset and so she rubbed a hand over Nancy's back. "You need to check behind Steve's house-"

"We did." Callahan cut her off. "There's nothing there. There's no sign of a bear."

"And no car." Powell added.

Cat's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Nancy let out a "What?"

"Look." Callahan started. "We figured that Barbara came back last night and then she took off, went somewhere else."

"But she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't just leave. That's-" Catherine cut herself off, distressed as to why her friend would just leave her without saying goodbye. If that's really what had happened.

"Has she ever talked to you about running off? Leaving town, maybe? Maybe she mentioned it to you, seeing as Miss Henderson believes that's not something Barbara would do." Powell asked Nancy.

"No." Nancy answered, confused. "If Barb ever spoke about wanting to leave, she'd have said something to the both of us." She told the officers, pointing to herself and Cat. "Barb wouldn't do that, ever. She wouldn't just leave."