𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬. ༄ s. harrington

x.

AN hour after steve had called, madeline suddenly changed her mind and decided to go for a walk out in hawkins. she decided that staying in her room wasn't gonna do any help, plus her room was getting a little stuffy and a little bit too quiet since no one was home. madeline didn't really like being alone. she got up from her soft, bouncy bed and grabbed her red sweater. she slipped in on her body, went downstairs, and swiftly grabbing the keys, shoving them in her pocket.

the sun was still out, and madeline was walking around the town for over half an hour. as she was walking past a forest, a bunch of tall, green trees were towering over her as she walked on dried up leaves, making a crunch noise every time she took a step. madeline admired some small birds that were sitting along a branch of a particular tree, she took notice of how they would jump from branch to branch and when they spotted another one of their species they'd make loud piercing chirps, trying to get the attention of the other. as she kept admiring them, a loud sound startled madeline, the loud sound made the birds fly away too which made her frown. the loud sound, sounded awfully like a gun, so madeline and her curious self started walking to where the direction of the gun shot was.

as she kept following as she heard a few more gun shots, madeline debated whether or not she should continue following. she came to a stop when she saw a person through some bushes, with a gun, shooting at some beer cans. she took a closer look when she finally realised it was jonathan.

mad sighed in relief as she walked closer to the boy shooting cans, but he really wasn't shooting directly at the cans, he was shooting in the spaces between them.
"hey." she said as jonathan jerked his head to look at her.
"oh, hey." he said as he shot another bullet.
"what are you doing?" madeline questioned.
"uh...practising." he replied.
"for what?"
"well, my mom was telling me the other night that apparently she saw some...faceless creature come out of the wall in will's room. i thought she was going crazy until nancy came and told me she saw a similar thing that my mom was going on about in steve's backyard. she went there because, well, you know those photos i showed you of barb that i took? behind her in those pictures was that thing."
madeline's eyes widened, "what?" she huffed in disbelief. "a faceless creature come out of the wall and a faceless creature in steve harrington's backyard and it was behind barbara on the night of steve's party. okay, woah."
"yeah, we're gonna go look for this thing. tonight." jonathan explained.
"oh."

he continued shooting between the beer cans a couple of times until the two heard a familiar voice of nancy wheeler, "you're supposed to hit the cans, right?" she came closer, dropping her bag of — whatever it was — onto the floor, along with a baseball bat. nancy made eye contact with mad as they both smiled at each other as a little greeting.
"no, actually, you see the spaces in between the cans? I'm aiming for those." jonathan said.
"ah." nancy nodded.

"you guys ever shot a gun before?" the light haired boy asked as he reloaded the gun.
"well yes, one time, when i was twelve with dustin's toy gun. oh god, i remember dustin whining to mom because i hit him in the head." madeline said, giggling. the other
two laughed lightly.

"what about you?" jonathan asked nancy.
"have you met my parents?"
"yeah, i haven't shot one since I was ten. my dad took me hunting on my birthday. he made me kill a rabbit." jonathan sighed, "i guess he thought it would make me into more of a man or something."
"i remember you cried for a whole week." the blonde girl said, looking down, frowning at that memory.
"jesus." nancy mumbled.
"what? i'm a fan of thumper."
nancy laughed, "i meant your dad."
"yeah. i guess he and my mother loved each other at some point, but...i wasn't around for that part."

as nancy reached for the gun in jonathan's hand, madeline thought about her parents. she didn't remember much but all she could remember was her dad leaving.
"my parents did love each other at one point. i found their wedding pictures in the basement, in a bunch of boxes two years ago and they looked so happy. i don't know why my dad left us, i don't know how he is or where he is. but I'm assuming he's somewhere, possibly alive."

jonathan gave nancy the gun. "i don't think my parents ever loved each other."
"they must've married for some reason."
nancy pointed the gun at a specific beer can, "my mom was young. my dad was older, he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. so they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac, and started their nuclear family."
she explained.
"screw that." jonathan said.
"yeah, screw that." the brunette girl said as she finally shot, hitting a can, making it fall onto the floor with a clank.
madeline high-fived nancy as the three all looked at each other, smiling and letting out a small laugh.

-

the trio were walking in the woods for quite a while now and the sun was slowly going down. most of the time madeline barely said anything due to the other two having a conversation of their own. leaving the blonde to third-wheel but she didn't say anything because she knew how much jonathan liked nancy.

their conversation was about a picture at first then it went to nancy trying to be someone else because she was dating steve and how jonathan didn't like him and her saying how good of a guy he is. they kept bickering back and forth for a while that madeline couldn't even keep up with their conversation anymore. jonathan was now stomping off, nancy closely behind, leaving madeline last in her thoughts.

the only person in her mind was steve the hair harrington, she didn't know why but she remembered how much she wanted to be his friend back in the beginning of middle school.
how she sat next to him in chemistry for the whole of sixth grade and how she would try to engage into a conversation with him but yet he never said one single word to her.

students were all rushing around the classroom, trying as hard as possible to sit next to their friends. unfortunately for madeline she had no friends in her chemistry class. she remained standing at the front of the room, trying to find any empty spots. there, she finally found an empty spot on the second last row of the left side of the classroom. next to that empty spot, sat a boy with a mop of beautiful brown hair with a straight face, no smile. she went over to him, taking the seat next to him.
"hello." she greeted, but he still had that straight bitch-face. madeline tried to ask about his name or his interests and stuff like that, but still no reply from him. she did this every day for almost the whole entire year, she got frustrated at one point. why won't this boy talk to her? she didn't do anything wrong.

"why do you hate me so much?" madeline's voice clearly sounding irritated.
steve hesitated, "i don't hate you. i simply don't want to talk to someone like you. why? because you seem like those annoying girls that absolutely never stop talking whatsoever in which you are that type of girl. you seem to be that nerdy girl that has no friends and digs her face into a fat novel because they have nothing else to do with their lives. you get called names behind your back almost everyday and if i talk to someone like you, people will start talking about me too. now, i don't want that, alright? from now on zip your mouth shut. got it?" he turned his head back to the front and continued doodling on his notebook. madeline was shocked, she bit her lip and blinked her tears away. from that day on she never wanted to talk to steve douchebag harrington ever again.

but unfortunately a year after, steve found more douchebags as friends and they started picking on madeline every day in seventh grade. oh, those horrible times. but she's happy that it's over now, steve may want to be her friend now and maybe they could get closer. madeline secretly hoped she could be friends with steve, maybe closer than friends.

what? no. what am i thinking? no. she shook off that thought. madeline henderson definitely was never going to be something more than friends to steve harrington. ever.

♡.°୭̥ ୨୧

AUTHOR SPEAKS!
ya girl is backkkkkkk 🥳