𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐏𝐒𝐄
𝟎𝟏. 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐔𝐩
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"OW!"
"Your hair won't look pretty if you don't let me brush it," a woman called out jokingly.
"What good will brushing do if you rip out all my hair with that brush," a young girl replied.
The two were inside a childhood bedroom. The walls were decorated with light pink flowers that matched the soft hues of the bedsheets, still messy from sleep, and decorated with a teddy bear that had been thrown haphazardly atop a fluffy white pillow. The windows were slightly open, causing the white curtains to flow into the room with the spring breeze that had come with the morning light. The room itself was decorated just as a young girl's bedroom would be expected to be decorated.
Plushies were thrown all around, making the room look at times more like a kid's department store than an actual room. On the desk, which was tainted with scribbles that had slipped from under papers, there were a few school worksheets with math exercises written on them - all featuring the classic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems - nothing with algebra or trigonometry, of course. On the far side of the desk, there was a small record player, with the humming of a familiar ABBA song playing on the speakers.
"...slipping through my fingers all the time, I try to capture every minute..." a voice sang out, echoing across the room as it sounded out from the record player.
The dresser had a mirror resting on the wall directly above it, reflecting the hair clips, bows, and the hairbrush that had until a brief moment ago, been running through the hair of the young girl who owned the room. Speaking of this girl, her frown was the center image of the mirror as she stared straight into it. Behind her, she would oftentimes glance at the older lady who was squinting at the top of her head as she tried to figure out how to tie the blue ribbon on top of her head.
"Are you sure you know how to do this?" Lorelei asked, her brows knitted as her small fingers played with the hem of her dress, a light blue one that her mother was forcing her to use.
"Of course I do, your mother left very strict instructions - so there's no getting out of this," her grandmother replied, already knowing where this conversation was leading.
Lorelei huffed and rolled her brown eyes before looking back at her grandmother through the mirror. "But you're not her mother - you're Dad's! And he won't care-" she tried to reason.
"Lorelei."
"But I don't want to wear a ribbon!' She sighed, jaw clenched and eyes pleading. "I want to leave my hair the way it is!"
Her grandmother only shook her head, a smile of amusement pursed on her lips as her fingers worked on the final details of the bow. They were going to be heading to Lorelei's school presentation for the annual science fair. Initially, Lorelei was meant to be going with her father, but he suddenly had important business to take care of in New York - which was coincidentally where her grandmother lived. As for the mother, the woman had dismissed the science fair since she had a gala to attend for her friend's job.
Typical.
And so, her grandmother had flown all the way from New York City to be there for Lorelei. It had happened more than once, so much so that all of Lorelei's classmates were now more acquainted with the elderly lady than they were with Lorelei's parents.
"You know, someday - when I'm older - I'll do whatever I want to my hair," Lorelei tutted.
"I bet you will," her grandmother nodded as she brushed through Lorelei's head one last time.
Little Lorelei looked down at her lap with her lips tugged into a deep frown which was usually on her lips in one of two situations - either when she was very upset, or when she was thinking something over. "And I'll wear those cool jackets that Dad wears whenever he's not at work - and, oh! I'll be a lawyer just like him - so I can defend any little kid whose mother also forces her to wear things they don't like."
"Seem's as though you have it all planned out."
As she stood up straighter and looked at herself in the mirror, Lorelei imagined herself all grown up. She thought about how she would look - if her once short hair would ever grow long like her mother's, so she could wear all sorts of different hairstyles - and she thought about the clothes she would wear. Then, she thought about herself as one of the older kids - teenagers, she had heard her father call them - when she would finally be able to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
She imagined what her friends would look like - would she have many? Or just a good few? What school would she go to? Would she get into a good university? Maybe she could live in New York with her grandmother and go to school there - it would certainly be better than having to follow her mother's boring rules.
"I can't wait to get older," she decided then and there.
With eyes glistening full of unshed tears that she pushed back, her grandmother placed her hand on Lorelei's shoulder, squeezing it assuringly. "I wouldn't rush, Lorelei."
"Why not?"
"Growing up is scary-" the woman spoke. "You'll find yourself missing the days when all you had to worry about were playground rules and playing around in the sprinklers."
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THE DOORBELL RANG ONCE. TWICE. Until the sound downed out. It was Saturday morning in early December, the time when Lorelei could relax before another hectic day of High School - senior year was turning out to be the most stressful time of her life - and it seemed as though the entire world was against her getting some decent sleep.
She was about to call for her Dad, but there she remembered he wasn't home. He had warned her that he would have to go into the sheriff's department that day - something about handling the money that Hopper had left for Eleven. It was up to her to open the door for whoever it was that was pestering her so early. However, just as Lorelei was about to get up from her bed and yell at the person at her door, an arm pulled her back down on the bed.
Landing with a huff, she turned to the side and rolled her eyes when she saw Steve lying there, a smirk on his face and red cheeks covering the slight moles on his face. She was still surprised every time she woke up to his face, not having been used to having anyone except for her in her bedroom. But to be fair, it wasn't as if she was exactly complaining, especially when he buried his head in her neck, his eyes still closed in hopes of savoring the remaining bits of sleep.
"I have to get up-"
"You don't have to do anything," he corrected her, and Lorelei could feel the shit-eating grin he had no by the tickle of his lips on her neck.
"Steve!" Lorelei laughed, her arms pushing against him in hopes of releasing her body from his grip, but he was relentless. "There's someone at the door."
He lifted his head from her neck now, eyes narrowed and ears perked up. For a few moments, Steve was silent, his eyes darting around the room and his hands on her waist, holding up his body, as he seemingly waited for something to happen. Nothing did.
"I don't hear anyone," he shrugged, hair bobbing slightly and making a few stray pieces fall on his forehead - a usual occasion in the morning when the Farrah Fawcett hairspray had yet to be applied.
"That's because you were sleeping like a log-" Lorelei spoke up.
Her eyes looked up into his as he angled his body directly atop of hers. His arms were the only thing holding him up, and his bare chest was on full display for her to see. But what really called her attention, and always did, were the small little dots that ran over the expanse of his body, all the way to his cheeks, still smushed slightly from sleeping atop the comfortable pillow.
He was an absolute masterpiece.
And he was all her's.
"What are you smiling about?" Steve asked with a tilt of the head to the side, his own curved smile creating dimples on his cheeks which made her heart ache with affection.
Lorelei squinted her eyes up at him, her hand reaching up to snake around his waist and pulling his body closer down on hers. "There's a boy in my bed," she grinned, teeth tugging on the inside of her lips in an attempt to stop herself from looking so incredibly lovesick.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but I've sort of become a recurring guest star in here," he joked, forearms bringing him down so that his nose nudged against hers.
"Nah- I don't think so," Lorelei scrunched up her nose as her fingers absentmindedly traced lines across his back.
Steve gasped slightly, his pink lips molding around his slightly ajar mouth as he tried to hold in a smile. "You don't remember me?"
"Oh, I remember you-" Lorelei nodded with furrowed brows. "I just don't ever remember inviting you in."
He rolled his eyes softly at her, having become accustomed to snide comments and jokes that tumbled from her lips at all hours of the day, including those early in the morning when most people would be too tired to crack jokes. It seemed like Lorelei instantly woke up in the mood for soft and teasing words every morning, even those when she was in an exceedingly bad mood, which despite it all, were Steve's favorites because she would always allow him to hold her for a little bit longer on those days.
Beneath him, her hair was fanned out across the white pillowcase, and the brown strands of hair that usually looked uniform in color were slightly lighter in some parts, a golden hue to them, due to the morning light that was creeping in through the curtains from across the room. He had seen her wake up like this countless times by now, still, it never failed to bring his heart to a complete and total rest.
Steve decided then and there that he was going to say it - those pesky words that had been eating him up ever since the first time her lips touched his. He had been holding it in, wanting to be sure of her affection for him before it slipped past his lips, but it was getting nearly impossible to hold it in when she was looking at him in that way. Differently from everyone else, who was only allowed to see the tougher parts of Lorelei most times, Steve had seen it all, and he could not help but adore everything.
"I lo-"
The words were halfway past his lips when scratching sounded out from the closed bedroom door, interrupting him and capturing Lorelei's attention. Before Steve could even process his disappointment, Lorelei slipped out from underneath him, and he fell atop the pillows with a muffled groan of annoyance.
He could hear the sound of her bare feet padding across the floor, and then her hand reaching to open the door and allow the pest that kept stealing her attention to walk into the bedroom. All through that, Steve rolled his eyes, his teeth biting into the inside of his cheek as he heard her speaking in baby voices - baby voices that not even he had much access to hearing - to the animal that was now preparing to jump atop the bed.
Bowie had been a gift from Lorelei's grandmother when she turned eighteen. The woman had been unable to come in from New York due to prior engagements, but she had sent over someone to deliver the cat to Lorelei's home in Hawkins. Steve, of course, had been there when the bundle of joy, or whatever it was Lorelei called him, had arrived. At first, he had been excited about having a little pet to play with whenever he visited Lorelei - but after a month, it was clear that the cat didn't like him all that much, Steve guessed it was because Bowie was jealous of the attention he got from Lorelei.
The rescue kitten jumped atop Lorelei's bed, his paws digging into Steve's bare back as he walked towards the left side of the mattress before lying down there. "That hurts," Steve complained with a frown, his head turning to the side to see that the cat was already staring straight at him.
"Aw, Bowie didn't mean it-" Lorelei defended, once more with a baby voice, as she walked over to the cat and petted its head. "Did you? No, you didn't!"
"He looks like he meant it," Steve grumbled before standing up.
Lorelei watched in amusement as her grumpy boyfriend walked over to his discarded shirt that was lying on the floor of her room and slipped it over his head. She glanced over at Bowie, who was also observing Steve with narrowed eyes, and laughed at the idea of her boyfriend and her cat fighting for her attention - as if there wasn't enough for both of them.
"He's jealous," she whispered to Bowie, who quirked his head over to the side, before patting the black fur on his head for a few moments and standing up.
Before she headed out of the room, Lorelei placed a familiar red sweater over her head, smiling as the smell of Steve's cologne washed over her. She quickly tied her hair back and ran out of the room to follow Steve as he headed down the stairs and towards the kitchen, with Bowie following close behind.
The sound of the coffee machine was enough to indicate that Steve had already reached the kitchen, and Lorelei was proven correct when she wandered over to the counter and the smell of fresh coffee invaded her sense. She sat down on the counter, her legs dangling in the air, bare from the white sleep shorts she was wearing and slightly cold from the temperature in the lower part of the house.
She watched as Steve prepared both coffees, his back muscles moving underneath the thin shirt he had on and he walked over to the fridge. Her arms were bundled under his red sweater that she had put on, feeling its warmth soak through her body like a warm hug, contrasting with the skin from her legs that were feeling all too frigid and bare.
"There were some things on your doorstep-" Steve spoke up as he gestured to the small stack of papers beside her. "I think the doorbell ringing was the mailman."
"Why didn't he just leave everything in the mailbox?" Lorelei asked under her breath.
She missed the shrug of Steve's shoulder as she reached over and grabbed the five envelopes that were stacked neatly together. The first two were bills, typical and boring, the third was a letter from her father's office which she knew not to open, followed by a newsletter that always arrived around the holidays. Lorelei sighed, about to place the envelopes back down for her father to deal with when her eyes caught the last envelope.
Her name was written on it, a Miss. Lorelei Keller in large and bold lettering. But that wasn't what made her heart stop in her chest. What really did was the stamp and return address written along the crisp white paper. New York University, NY, New York.
With a gasp, Lorelei tried to contain the hammering in her heart. She had decided to send in an early decision application to the university, partly due to the fact that she liked the idea of studying there for her undergraduate course before going to law school, partly because she wanted to live near her grandmother, and also partly because she wanted to experience the independence of living in a big city.
She looked up and sighed in relief when she saw that Steve was still prepping their coffee, his back turned to her and his voice humming the words to an old Beatles song. Glancing back at the paper, Lorelei took a deep breath before she opened the envelope and pulled out the letter that was encased within it. Her eyes were squinting in narrow lines, making it almost impossible for her to read anything - just the way her fear was making her crave. But she caught it.
Dear Miss. Lorelei Keller,
We are delighted to inform you that...
Lorelei felt her hands shaking as she read the rest of the letter, her mouth hanging open in shock. When she had been mailing the application, she had never expected that she would actually get in - college seemed too far away from her reality. But now, her future was staring her straight in the face and she didn't know how to react.
"Do you want orange juice?" Steve asked from behind his back. "Lor?"
He turned around to see her looking down at a letter, her eyes wide and turning slightly red from tears. The coffee mugs in his hands were immediately discarded as he ran towards her, worry seeping through the second he saw her looking so emotional.
"What is it? What's wrong-"
Lorelei looked up at him, her mouth quirking into a small smile. "I got in."
"Huh?" He furrowed his brows for a moment. Then, his eyes glanced down at the ripped envelope, catching the sight of the well-known crest of NYU.
"I got in," she repeated when he looked back up at her.
"Holy shit!" Steve exclaimed suddenly, his mouth transforming into a large grin. "I knew you would! Shit- this is amazing!"
Lorelei could barely register anything when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her up from the counter. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tangled her hands on the hair at the back of his neck, yelping out in surprise as he picked her up and spun her around.
Their laughs echoed across the room, the letter was long forgotten on the floor as Steve kept his grip tight on her, holding her up and close to his body. She buried her head in his neck, her laughs tickling his skin as her hands clutched onto him.
"I'm so proud of you," he said when he pulled her head out from the crook of his neck to look at him. His eyes said it all, the honey-brown hue of them glistening with complete adoration and glee.
With one last laugh, Lorelei placed her hands on his cheeks, which were warm under her touch. She pressed her lips against his, not even noticing as he placed her back on the counter and moved his hands from around her waist so they were resting atop her hips. It was nearly impossible to kiss from the smiling that both of them were doing, but they both refused to part their lips for even a moment.
After smiling between messy kisses, both of them suddenly turned serious, and as a result, their kiss turned slower. It suddenly computed in Lorelei's mind that moving to New York would mean she would be far away from Hawkins - far away from Steve. She felt the gleeful hammering in her heart stop at the image of leaving him at the airport, her brows furrowing and creating a crease against the skin of her forehead.
She had hated moving to Hawkins at first - never having believed it would ever be a home to her. But now, wrapped in his arms as he kissed her languidly - once, twice, three times - Lorelei knew that she had found a home both in the small town and in Steve Harrington. The thought of having to finally grow up and leave it all behind was increasingly terrifying.
As he pulled away, Steve leaned their foreheads together and opened his eyes. His breathing had turned a bit quicker from the kissing, and he realized that Lorelei still had her eyes closed. Bringing up a hand to rest on her cheek, he tried to push away the fear of losing her to the far back of his mind.
Ever since they had become close friends, he had feared this day. The day she would finally leave him behind to go chase her dreams while he stayed put, forever in Hawkins, forever trapped with his parents. But now wasn't the time to think about that, not when his girlfriend had just gotten into her dream school.
"How're you feeling?" He asked softly, thumb caressing the skin of her cheek.
Lorelei opened her eyes, a nervous smile dawning on her lips. "Excited. Anxious. Scared-"
"You're gonna be amazing," he mumbled, eyes boring into hers with such honesty that her heart clutched in her chest. "You are amazing."
She nodded her head at him, too overwhelmed to think of any remarks that she would make. Instead, Lorelei smiled lightly before tugging on his neck to bring his lips back onto hers. It was now more certain than ever that her dream of growing up had finally come true - but it didn't feel as empowering as she thought it would. It felt more like the death of her childhood mixed with the excitement of fresh opportunities - grief and joy mixed into one confusing and utterly heart-wrenching combination.
Growing up is scary, she remembered the words of her grandmother.
But as Steve tore his lips away from hers to start a trail down her cheeks and neck, Lorelei pushed any thoughts about college and moved away to the back of her mind. In that moment, he was all that mattered - and she wanted to make every second with him count. So, her head leaned back, allowing him more room to brush his featherlight kisses against her smooth skin, hands tangling in his hair and the overpowering comfort of Steve Harrington bringing her momentary peace.
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