chapter two:
this is why hawkin's can't have nice things (2)
NIGHT TIME
THE BYERS DRIVEWAY
IT'S BEEN THIRTY MINUTES PAST 8 O' CLOCK. sam was still by the road waiting for matt to pick her up, constantly checking her watch. matt is never late, where is he? she thinks to herself. he could be in traffic? had a later shift? sam didn't know why he was late. she decided to wait for a couple of more minutes which turned into an hour. it was already 9 o'clock, and matt was still not there. she sees a car light from a distance expecting it to be matt's car, but it wasn't. the car drove passed her, but it stopped and reserved back. steve harrington had a confused look on his face. why is she out here alone?
"what are you doing out here waiting?"
steve asks.
"i'm waiting for matt. he should be here any minute."
"a date at 9 o' clock? i am not the one to judge peoples dates, but that's a bit too late for you to be waiting out here. especially after what has been happening. what time was the date?"
sam hesitates for a bit.
"eight..."
"and you're still waiting for him?"
sam stays silent. steve looks at her, she got stood up. she took all day to get pretty for matt only to get stood up. she didn't deserve that. she doesn't deserve to put it all to waste.
"get in."
he spoke.
"what?"
"get in, you probably took the whole day to get ready for him. i can't have you waste all this prettiness. i'm taking you out."
sam walks to his car and gets in the passenger seat.
"but where are you going to take me?"
"it's a surprise." he smiles as he drove to a diner that has a meaning especially to both of them.
HAWKINS 24 HOUR DINER.
sam felt uncomfortable. not by the location, but by the way she was dressed. steve noticed, "if you want to go somewhere else we can."
"no, this is great. it's just my outfit."
she admits.
"what about it?"
"i'm too overdressed and everyone is going to look
at me weird."
"if it makes you feel better, i'll walk in with my sailor uniform. " he says as he took of his jacket.
"you sure? you told me you don't want more people to see you in your uniform."
"as long as this makes you feel better. i don't care what others think about the uniform." he says and gets out of the car leaving sam speechless. he runs to the passenger door and opens the door for sam. he extends his hand as she accepts it, helping her get out of the car. sam accidentally trips on her heel, but steve catches her. "thanks." she says as she straightens herself. she looks at him, realizing their faces were inches away.
both of them not breaking eye contact. steve was melting just from looking into her eyes. he felt the palms of his hands get sweaty from how nervous he was getting. steve's eyes shift to her soft looking lips and sam did the same. she clears her throat once she realized what she did, breaking the eye contact. "we should order our food, i am a little hungry." she nervously laughs.
he does the same. "yeah, me too."
they both go in and not a surprise. instead of people looking at sam, everyone was looking at steve weirdly. who comes in with a sailor outfit? they go sit at a booth.
"everyone's looking at you weird."
sam says.
"who cares."
sam smiles as the waitress comes to take their order, and then leaves. leaving the pair alone in their seats again. "i can't believe you still remember this diner." sam says.
"why wouldn't i?"
he asks.
"i don't know, it's been years we've been here together and i didn't expect you to remember this."
"i'll always remember our moments together."
steve's comment made her smile.
"oh, this place has lots of memories." she says.
"like that one time we got free milkshakes just for being the cutest kids in hawkins." steve says
"uh, i think she was referring to me, she just had to give you a free milkshake because she felt bad to leave you out."
"oh really? i think my charm got us the free drinks."
"sure, whatever makes you happy."
the pair exchange laughs and memories they had when they were kids at the diner. then, all of a sudden sam went silent and steve noticed.
"sam?"
"hmm.."
"you okay?"
"yeah."
she says.
steve felt bad. of course he was the biggest hater of matt and didn't like how she chose him. but he did questioned too, why did matt stood her up? it wasn't something matt would do. he hated to admit, but he was worried about matt. "sam."
"i'm just worried about matt. i keep asking these questions to myself on why he would just leave me there."
"hey..." he grabs her hand over the table. "he's okay. trust me, sam." he says as she sends him a soft smile "if you want, i can pick you up tomorrow and we can drive to his house to check on him or even ask his parents." steve adds
she nods.
"okay."
"you look great by the way."
he compliments her, hoping to cheer her up. "i want to say you look really beautiful, but i just don't want to make it weir—"
"steve. it's not weird."
she chuckles. "thank you. you look great too...i remember you telling me you wanted to be sailor as kids, but i didn't expect you to actual take it literal."
"at least i look amazing in it. girls have been all
over me at the shop."
"really? because from what i heard, it seems like someone is having trouble pulling out their charm."
"trouble with my charm? i have great charm."
steve says.
"that's not what robin told me."
"robin?" he says nervously. "what did she say?"
"she has this whiteboard where she keeps track on how many fails you've had with girls. your charm from high school is completely gone, your parents are disappointed in you for some reason she didn't want to say."
"so, robin didn't tell you about..."
"about what?"
"oh, nothing."
"wait, there's more?"
"no! i was just joking around."
he chuckles nervously as he lies.
"okay?"
there is more that you don't know. i am in love with you, and i hate seeing you like someone else. steve thinks to himself.
someone comes to their table that wasn't the waitress, but someone familiar. "great to see you two, again. you guys grown so much from the last time i saw you two." tony the manager of the diner said.
"good to see you too, tony."
sam smiles as steve does the same. he took a quick glance at her. which tony was the first to notice. he puts down their plate of food and one milkshake with two straws.
"oh, we didn't order that."
steve says.
"what? no cookies 'n cream milkshake? you guys use to order this all the time. are you two still nervous to be around each other?" tony responds.
"uh, no. actually—"
"i totally understand you two. when my wife and i first started dating, we were so nervous around each other. but it'll slowly go away." tony interrupts sam. "you two like each other very much especially you steve. so, i get it." he says.
"that's not—"
"the eyes don't lie, muchacho."
tony interrupts him. tony pats steve on the back and leaves the pair to eat.
steve looks back at sam, who was looking at him confused. "he's lying, i don't like you. i mean i do like you, but not in that way. you know how adults are. they just enjoy lying." he chuckles nervously.
"oh yeah, same here. i have a boyfriend. so there's
no feelings going on with you."
steve moves the milkshake towards her.
"you can drink it."
"you sure?"
"yeah, i'll just drink my lemonade."
he says as he takes a sip of his drink.
"are you okay?" sam says as she notices steve really nervous and sweaty.
"yeah. why wouldn't i?"
steve responded.
"you're a bit too sweaty."
"well, it's pretty hot in here. you know, hawkins
summer is pretty hot."
"yeah?"
tony comes back with a rose and hands it to sam.
"from steve." he says as steve's eyes go wide.
"oh?" she looks at steve confused. "thank you." she smiles at tony and steve. tony once again gets close to steve's ear. "you're welcome, bud." he whispers, patting his back.
"you didn't have to get me a rose, steve."
sam chuckles.
"uh, no problem, you deserve it."
he smiles and then glares at tony who gives him a thumbs up. then, smiles back at sam. they both eat their food as they continue to talk to each other and catch up on life after that awkward reunion. tony wouldn't stop looking at the couple he saw grow up. "that boy is so in love with her." tony mumbles to himself.
the pair finish their food and steve pays the bill after going back and forth on who pays it. they exchange their goodbyes to tony and leave. they head towards steve's car. the whole car ride was silent until steve had an idea. he opens up the compartment between them and pulls out one casset tape 'her favorite songs' with various songs of an bonnie tyler, abba, michael jackson and etc. he inserts it in the stereo.
total eclipse of the heart by bonnie tyler started to play. a smile started to slowly form on sam's face recognizing the song.
"turn around, every now and then i get a little bit lonely, and you're never coming 'round." steve sings.
"every now, and then i get a little bit tired
of listening to the sound of my tears." she sings along. her and steve sing to one of her favorite songs all the way home.
"every now and then i fall apart. and i need you now tonight, and i need you more than ever, and if you only hold me tight. we'll be holding on forever, and we'll only be making it right. cause we'll never be wrong. together we can take it to the end of the line." they both sing in sync as he stops the car as they arrive home.
"thank you for tonight, i really appreciate you doing
this for me." sam says.
"of course."
he says softly
she chuckles."i still sing better than you." she says as she gets out of the car causing him to laugh.
"yeah, sure. tell that to someone who actually took vocal lessons here." he jokes.
"middle school choir doesn't count, steve."
"alright, miss douglas said i had the most beautiful voice in the class, and that i could be the next billy joel." steve defends.
"okay, keep dreaming."
she jokes.
"my guitar teacher also said i was pretty talented. he said with my vocals and my guitar skills, i could be the next billy joel too."
she laughs causing him to join. sam looks towards her house only to see tara, max, lucas, dustin, scott and axel peaking through the window. "i gotta go, these idiots are stalking me from the window."
"i'll come by and pick you up at 9 in the
morning." he says.
"see you in the morning."
she smiles and waves. she leaves the car and walks to her house and opens the door. just to be welcome by axel, scott, dustin, tara, max and lucas standing in the middle of entry.
"why did steve drop you off?"
scott questioned with his arms crossed.
"i didn't know matt wore a sailor outfit for the date." axel sarcastically said.
"did steve kiss you?"
dustin asks.
"what were you and steve laughing about?"
lucas joins.
sam sets her things down on the couch.
"nosy asses." she says. "i missed you, tara." she hugs her little sister. dustin clears his throat as he had his arms open. "i miss you too, dustin would be nice." sam chuckles as she hugs dustin. "i missed you too, dustin."
"okay, hooray for the reunion. now answer our questions, why did steve drop you off?" scott asks.
she totally forgot about what happened. she was having so much fun with steve that she forgot about matt standing her up which brought her mood down. axel being the first to catch the change in her face when matt's name was mentioned.
"did something happened with matt?"
axel asks.
she nods sadly.
"he never came to pick me up."
lucas and dustin gasp loudly causing everyone to look at the two boys weirdly.
"sorry!" lucas says.
"continue." dustin adds.
"what happened?"
max asks.
sam walks towards the living room as she flunks on the couch and everyone joined. "that's the thing, i don't know. he didn't call. i still don't know where he's at. i was waiting by the road for a whole hour waiting for him. then, steve drove by and took me out instead because he felt bad that i got stood up."
"i am going to kick mathew's ass."
axel says.
"i'm coming with you."
lucas says.
"me too."
"i have the nail bat."
"i'm going to murder that son of a bitch."
"me too."
"please don't, matt could of had a late shift at work. we can't just go to his house and beat him up over something that we don't know." sam says.
"late shift? at the community pool that closes at 7 at night? seriously? what happened to self-worth?"
scott questions.
"i don't know. he could of been in traffic or something."
"sam, there's hardly any traffic in hawkins."
dustin says.
"did you at least call his home?"
max asks.
"no, steve said he would drive me in the morning to matt's house and see what happened or at least talk to his parents."
"i don't know about you, but this isn't matt. he would never forget a special date. matt is on time to everything. i say tomorrow after girls day with max and el. we all go to the community pool and check." tara suggests.
"i already have boys day with steve at the ice cream shop. i wish i could come, but steve would be pissed if i cancel on boys day." dustin responds.
"i'd love to beat matt's ass, but axel just confessed to all of us that hopper might have a crush on joyce, and i really want to see if it's true." scott said.
"hopper likes joyce?!"
sam said shocked.
"it was so sudden, but i knew it was going to happen someday. one they were really close friends in high school and they would smoke together. two, after everything that's been happening at hawkins. they became inseparable. he even asked joyce out for dinner and she rejected him." axel says.
"ouch."
lucas said.
dustin giggles. "imagine being old and still getting rejected." which caused the boys to laugh.
tara scoffs.
"you guys are assholes."
"no one in hawkins can have nice things."
sam said.
✮ ✮ ✮
EL SIGHS AS SHE WALKS BACK TO HER HOUSE for the fifth time in the morning. she walks towards the phone to call mike.
"are you okay?"
hopper asks.
"yeah." el says as she waited for someone to pick
up the phone.
"hello, this is the wheelers."
mrs. wheeler answers.
"is mike home?"
el asks.
"yeah, just a sec." mrs. wheeler says. "mike phone!"
she yells.
el waited for another couple of seconds until she heard mike's voice. "hello?"
el sighs, as she walks to her room with the phone to her ear. "it's 9:32. where are you?"
"sorry, i— i was just about to call...i...um...can't
see you today."
"what...why not?"
"it's my nana. she's very sick."
"but hop said that your nana was okay that it was
a false alarm."
mike was quiet for a couple of seconds. "yeah, that's...what...we thought it was at first, but then she took a real turn for the worse."
"oh."
"yeah...we think she might die."
"what!?"
mrs. wheeler said on the other line.
"mom! get off the phone!"
mike yelled. "how many times?!" el heard mike yell.
"did nana call?"
mrs. wheeler asks.
"no, mom! just get off the phone!"
he yells. "sorry about that." mike chuckles nervously.
"was that your mom?"
"yeah. she's so upset, and she's making no sense because we have to go to the nursing home. to see nana"
"you can come over after?"
"no!" mike yells. "i mean, i— i just think...i need to be alone today with my...feelings?"
"do you lie?" el asks not really believing what
he's saying.
"what? no. friends don't lie."
"but you aren't my friend? you're my boyfriend?"
she says confused.
"what, mom?" he yells, ignoring what she said. "my mom's calling me. better go, talk you tomorrow. miss you already. bye!" mike hangs up. el walks out of her room confused and annoyed at the same time. she puts the phone back as she walks to room.
"what's going on?"
hopper asks.
el ignores him and slams the door.
a smirk started to form on hopper's face,
his plan worked.
✮ ✮ ✮
HOPPER RUNS TO JOYCE'S JOB, excited to tell joyce and axel the news. he pulls the door forcibly, "emotions have been shared." he walks inside the store. "boundaries have been set. order...has been...restored."
"wait, wait, it worked?"
joyce asksZ
"uh, this is the first day in six long, excruciating months that they will not be seeing each other." he yells and begins jumping around. "yes, i think it worked! yes!" joyce, axel, and scott clap for hopper.
"no, stop you guys." hoppers says. "it was all you guys. i'm a puppet, you guys are the masters."
"so you remembered everything? even my advice on mike?" axel questions.
hopper laughs nervously.
"yeah...yeah, i mean...i had to improvise a little bit, you know? it turns out getting to mike was the key."
"and you didn't yell at him?"
joyce questions.
"and—"
hopper interrupts axel. "i'll tell you everything over dinner. i was thinking, you know, enzo's, tonight at seven o'clock." hopper says as he looks at joyce.
axel nudges scott's shoulder.
"i told you." he whispers.
"hop—"
hopper interrupts joyce. "hey, before you say no, i'd like to make one thing crystal clear. this is not a date."
"that's what they all say."
scott blurted out, receiving a look from hopper.
"wait, a date?" joyce says. "you never said anything
about a date."
"i know, i didn't say anything about a date. i just wanted to clear it up in case there was any confusion on your part."
"there's not."
"great. it's just two friends getting together for a nice dinner to talk about their children. i mean, we've earned it, haven't we?"
"i can't be out late."
joyce says.
"what are you thirteen? come on joyce, you two deserve to go out. me and axel will be looking out for the teens all night." scott tries convincing joyce.
"fine, i'll meet you there."
joyce says.
"seven o' clock. enzo's. meeting there. deal."
hopper says before axel and his walkie started to go off. hopper answers it and after a few minutes he trips over some magnets on the floor heading towards the exit.
"axel, we gotta go."
he says as they both run out the door.
"see you tonight and clean up on isle four!"
hopper yells.
scott walks towards the mess hopper was referring to and helps joyce clean up by putting the magnets back to the board, but they fell back down. "hey, joyce?" scott continues trying to put them on the board, but they kept on falling down.
"what's wrong, honey?" she walks to scott and she sees him trying to place the magnets on the board, but they fall to the ground. she tries to stick them herself, but the same thing happened.
"aren't magnets suppose to stick?"
scott questions
✮ ✮ ✮
STEVE AND SAM were driving to matt's house to find out what happened about last night. sam felt nervous to go talk to matt after him forgetting about their date. steve parks his car in front of his house.
"do you want me to come with you?"
steve asks.
"no, i'll be fine, thanks."
she softly smiles as she gets out of the car heading towards the door of his house and knocks. his dad, chandler opens the door. "oh hey, sam. it's good to see you!" he smiles.
"good seeing you too."
she smiles back. she notices matt's dad wearing a coat and scarf. "why the winter gear?"
"it's really cold inside the house. matt got home and turned the AC at its lowest temperature. jackie tried changing it, but he came off aggressive towards her. we were actually going to call you and ask, if anything happened between you two because he wouldn't tell us anything."
"this is the reason why i am here. we never went on the date because matt never came by to pick me up and i wanted to ask you guys if he was okay or if i can talk to him."
"sure, come on in. just be aware about his aggressiveness right now. he hasn't been wanting to talk us all morning and he's got work in a couple of minutes."
"okay."
sam smiles as she walks towards matt's room and knocks. "hey, matt? can we talk?" he doesn't open the door. sam welcomes herself in to see matt packing his work bag. "babe?"
"what the fuck sam!" he yells. "have you heard about knocking before coming in?" sam startles from the sudden aggressiveness. his dad was right. matt doesn't look like himself. his eyes are dark, they weren't the dark brown eyes she fell in love with. they were different. he has eye bags, which he never had before. he has cuts around his face. he looks really pale. he isn't smiling like he always does. what happened?
"i did knock, you just—"
"oh you're blaming it on me? couldn't you wait till i open the fucking door!" matt angrily grabs his bag and tries to leave, but sam was in the way. "move out of the way, bitch!" he yells.
"can we talk?"
she says as she stops him.
"i said get out of the way!" he yells as he pushes sam hard causing her back hit against the wall. mr. miller came running towards sam and helps her up. "matthew!" he yells, but matt was already out the door. "i am so sorry." he apologizes.
"it's okay, i should go." she says as she leaves the house. she walks to steve's car and her eyes begin to water.
"hey, what happened?"
steve asks as he softly rubs her back and she flinches.
"don't do that."
she winced in plain.
"what did he do?"
his voice became serious.
"he pushed me, and my back hit the wall pretty hard." she says softly. "his dad said he's been aggressive since he got home. he was even aggressive towards her little sister and when i tried talking to him all he did was yell...steve, that wasn't him. his eyes were dark, but that evil kind of dark. he had eye bags like if he never slept. his face was drowsy, he didn't even smile for one second. something's wrong."
"do you want to follow him to work?"
steve asks.
she sighs. "no, tara said her, max and el will go check on him at his job, and see what's going on with him. we should probably drive to work right now."
"come here." steve says as he hugs her. "give him time. you can call his house every morning and check on him. i can drive you to work every morning, so you aren't alone right now."
"i'm worried."
"i am too."
"there's more. his dad told me the reason why matt yelled at his little sister was because matt had turn the AC at the lowest setting and jackie was complaining how cold she was. so, she went to go turn it off and matt got aggressive towards her. doesn't that sound familiar?"
"no?"
"will. when he was being controlled by the mind flayer, will wasn't aggressive because he wanted to be around the cold and avoid any warm areas.."
"you're probably paranoid right now. nancy, jonathan and joyce got rid of the mind flayer from will. nothing has happen for almost a year. there's no way matt is being controlled by the mind flayer."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
this is only the beginning of DELICATE 3 ;)
that's all i have to say.