The sheets rustled as Anna turned over in bed for what felt like the millionth time, trying to find a position to get comfortable so she could manage at least a few hours of sleep. Despite her attempts of tying the belt around her doorknob to keep her locked inside her room not working the night before, she'd still done it out of habit, praying that this time, it might do the trick if needed.
However, every time she shut her eyes, the feeling of fire burned up in her lungs as she remembered the water coursing through her system in the pool, the initial rush of chlorine waking her up from her dreams of Barb and the Demogorgon. She released a shaky breath as she buried her face in her pillow, forcing her eyes shut even as her mind continued to race at thousands of miles per minute.
Finally giving up on her attempts to sleep, afraid of her subconscious once she would eventually drift off, Anna pulled aside the covers, rising from her bed and pulling on the sweatshirt that lay draped over her desk chair before grabbing her car keys. She pulled on an old pair of sneakers lying in her closet and, moving slowly so as not to make a sound that would get back to either her mother or Dustin, slid open her bedroom window and climbed outside into the cool summer night.
She started up her car, a nervous feeling settling in the pit of her stomach as she backed out of the driveway, hoping that, if Claudia were to wander out in the middle of the night for a glass of water or to feed Mews, she wouldn't look out the window leading to the driveway to discover her daughter's car missing. With each turn at every intersection, Anna fought the urge to turn around, though she knew there was only one person that would understand her struggle to fall asleep, and maybe be able to do something about it.
She parked her car a block over from the Harrington house, killing the engine and stepping out into the night. She cut through the neighbor's backyard as she ran through the dewy grass, praying that none of them had motion sensor lights to alert the neighborhood of the sixteen-year-old girl sprinting through their yards. By the time she reached the backyard, Anna froze for a moment as her gaze found the pool, but she forced herself to shake it off as she moved for the trellis propped up against the side of the house, grabbing hold of it and beginning to climb.
As she climbed up onto the roof, she began to crawl, first passing Becca's window, her usual stop, and instead pausing at the one she knew to be Steve's. She knocked lightly against the glass, holding her breath as she waited for any sign of the boy inside, or if she'd accidentally woken up any other member of the Harrington household. After a moment, a light flooded from the other side of the blinds, and they opened to see Steve looking back at her with a curious expression as he quickly pulled the blinds up and slid the window open.
"Everything okay?" Steve asked, his eyebrows furrowing together, voice low so as not to wake up anyone else inside the house. "You didn't sleepwalk again, did you?"
"No," Anna said, shaking her head as she looked down nervously, suddenly regretting her decision to come over. "It's just... would it be okay if I stayed over again? I actually managed to sleep last night, for a little bit, thanks to you."
"Oh," Steve mused, a look of understanding crossing his face as he nodded, opening the window a little wider to allow the girl inside. "Yeah, come on in."
"Thanks," Anna said gratefully, climbing inside and stepping further into his room. "Sorry if I woke you up."
"You didn't," Steve assured her. "But happy to help."
"Thanks," she said. "I don't know, I just feel like I'm trapped in a cycle of needing to sleep, of wanting to sleep, but every time I do I'm back... there. But having someone there, I feel safer. Like if I start sleepwalking, someone's there to catch me and make sure I don't wind up back in there. Does that make sense?"
Steve nodded. "It makes perfect sense. If I was in your shoes, I'd probably do the same thing, honestly. But come on, it's late, and we've got school tomorrow."
Steve turned the light on the desk lamp back off as Anna climbed back into his bed, and he followed suit, the two once again lying back to back in the dark as a silence settled between them. At the feeling of his presence, Anna began to feel a sense of calm wash over her, knowing that, if she were to sleepwalk again, she at least wasn't alone, and had someone to keep her safe. She finally began to drift off, sleep rejoining her as an old friend, rather than the enemy she'd been running from for months.
Anna wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep, but as the sound of knocking pounded against Steve's bedroom door, her eyes flew open, the sunlight streaming in through the still-open blinds. "Steve!" Becca yelled from the other side of the door, causing the boy to sit up quickly in bed as Anna hid under the covers, not wanting to be seen in case the blonde girl opened the door. "First day, let's go! I'm leaving in twenty minutes!"
"Shit," Steve hissed. "Yeah, yeah, I'm up!" he yelled back to Becca, the sound of her retreating footsteps fading away as she walked back to her room.
"I need to go," Anna said, popping back up from the covers as she jumped out of bed, reaching for her shoes. "But thank you, seriously."
"Don't mention it," Steve assured her as she slid the window back open, precariously climbing back outside onto the roof and making her way back to the trellis.
Anna paused outside Becca's window, glancing at the glass briefly to gauge if the coast was clear. On her to-do list for that morning, having to explain why she was sneaking out of her best friend's cousin's room just before they needed to pick up his girlfriend on their way to school was nowhere near the top. To Anna's relief, Becca's blinds remained closed, and the Blondie song playing from Becca's stereo was enough to muffle the sounds of Anna crawling the rest of the way to the trellis.
As she climbed down to the ground, she hit the grass running as she sprinted back to her car, still in the same place on the side of the road as she had left it the night before. She sped back to her own house, hoping that Claudia and Dustin hadn't noticed her absence, parking her car in its usual spot and sneaking under the living room window on her trip back to her bedroom.
She climbed back through her bedroom window, finding her belt undisturbed around the doorknob, the rest of her belongings just as she'd found them the night before. Breathing a sigh of relief, she closed the window behind her, quickly changing into the jeans and purple shirt she'd laid out the night before in anticipation of her first day of junior year.
As she quickly applied a coat of mascara and grabbed her backpack, she undid the belt from the doorknob, coasting into the kitchen to find Dustin munching on a piece of toast while Claudia watched the morning news with Mews in her lap, purring contentedly.
"Good morning, Annie," Claudia greeted. "You better hurry, you don't want to be late for your first day of school."
"I'm ready, I'm ready," she assured her mom, grabbing an apple from the bowl of fruit resting on the counter. "Dusty, you're riding your bike with Mike and Lucas, right?"
Dustin nodded. "I'm ready," he smiled, flashing his new front teeth. "Ready to show off these bad boys."
To punctuate his point, Dustin began to purr, showing off his teeth further, and Anna chuckled, shaking her head as she went to put her shoes on by the front door. "Well I'm out of here." she announced, quick to grab the rest of her things before either of them had a chance to point out her absence from the night before. "Have a great day, Dusty. Mom, I love you, bye."
"Bye!" Claudia called as Anna shut the front door behind her, breathing out a sigh of relief as she spun her car keys around her index finger, heading towards her car as a newfound source of adrenaline coursed through her veins.
At Hawkins High School, the air was buzzing as a new school year began, its student body saying goodbye to their summer vacation and preparing for the semester ahead. As classes started, Anna found herself sitting behind the long-haired boy who'd given Landon a ride to Jason's party in her first hour history class, who drummed on his desk top for the majority of class rather than taking the notes Mrs. Click had laid out for them. She'd realized Steve had been in the same class as well, sitting in the back row eating a bagel, but in her haste to get to school on time that morning, she hadn't had a chance to talk to him about the night before.
By the time the bell finally rang for lunch, Anna dropped off her new textbooks in her locker, spying Becca at the end of the row doing the same before waiting for her friend to join her. The two girls made their way into the noisy lunchroom, spying Landon already seated at their usual table with Michelle and Jonathan, and Steve and Nancy making their way over to join them.
"I see what you guys were always talking about with Kaminsky," Michelle said to Nancy as Becca and Anna slid into their seats next to her. "This class is going to be impossible, I can already tell."
"I think I still have my flashcards if you want them." Nancy offered. "He's tough, but as long as you take good notes, you'll be alright."
"So guys," Landon began, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Anyone here going to the football game on Friday? It's a home game."
Anna's eyebrows furrowed together slightly at Landon's words, and she exchanged a quick glance with Becca before looking back at the blonde boy. In all the years she'd known him, she'd never known Landon to be particularly interested in sports or school spirit, nor had he even most likely even set foot on the football field with the exception of smoking under the bleachers once or twice.
"Yeah, I'm going," Steve spoke up before Anna had a chance to interject, not seeming to think twice about Landon's newfound school spirit. "Nance and I'll be there, right?"
"Yeah," Nancy said, nodding. "Anyone else?"
"I think I'll be skipping, but you guys have fun." Jonathan said.
"Lame," Becca teased Jonathan. "Yeah, I'm in."
"Me too," Michelle agreed.
Anna glanced around at them all one last time, shaking off her skeptical thoughts as she nodded. "Yeah, sure, why not? I'm in."
The group busied themselves with their lunches as the conversation began to lull, scarfing down sandwiches and listening to the hustle and bustle of classmates greeting one another after the summer months, swapping stories about different jobs they'd worked and parties they'd thrown since the end of the last semester. By the time the bell rang, Nancy was the first one out of the room, claiming she needed to stop by her locker before trigonometry, and one by one the others followed, until it was just Steve and Anna packing up the rest of their lunches.
"Hey," Anna spoke up uneasily, setting her fork down on her tray. "I, uh, actually wanted to apologize for last night. I'm sorry if me staying over again made you uncomfortable at all, but I'm grateful you let me stay."
"You didn't make me uncomfortable." Steve assured her. "That's what friends are for, right? You needed help sleeping, and I was able to help with that."
"Yeah," Anna agreed. "Right. That was the first good night's sleep I've had in a really long time. I forgot what that felt like, honestly."
"Then I'm happy to keep helping you out." Steve offered. "You need someone to make sure you don't sleep walk, and I'm a light enough sleeper to do that."
"You don't have to do that," Anna assured him. "I'm sure I can figure something else out so I'm not taking up half of your bed every night just to be able to sleep."
"Anna, I think you also forget that I was there the other night when you fell in the pool." Steve reminded her. "I'm not overly excited for a repeat of coming outside in the middle of the night to find you like that. Believe it or not, it'll probably help me sleep better too, knowing that I can stop it before it starts."
Studying at him for a moment in an attempt to discern the expression on his face, Anna was awestruck for a moment when she realized he was serious. "I owe you one." Anna said finally. "Seriously,"
"And seriously, don't even mention it." Steve assured her. "So, same time tonight? I'll leave the window unlocked."
Anna thought for a moment before she nodded. "Y-yeah, sure." she agreed. "Same time tonight."