I didn't get much sleep that night, the vision of the red storm still dancing in my head. Nothing like that had ever happened before, only ever the nightmares, which worried me. What if this wasn't just some psychological reaction to trauma, what if this was a real threat? What if something else was coming?
My main reason for thinking this was the fact that the storm didn't feel like a storm. It felt like it was alive, like it had this thirst and this desire to kill. Not me necessarily, but just kill in general. Kill us, kill people. It was a strange feeling, and I still don't know why I know what a storm from my imagination felt like.
I shut my alarm clock off when it rang, already awake and quickly got dressed before going into the kitchen to figure out breakfast. Dad was already in there, sitting at the table with the phone in his hand.
"Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, we'll be there. No problem, Joyce. Bye." I furrowed my eyebrows at the mention of Joyce Byers' name.
"What did Joyce want?" I asked, putting a Poptart in the toaster. He sighed, rubbing a hand over his mouth.
"Will had another episode last night," He explained, "Apparently he saw the same thing that you did." My eyes widened.
"What?" He stood up.
"Riley..."
"Dad if he saw the same thing, what if it wasn't just a flashback? What if there's actually a threat, what if something is coming, what-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, kid, calm down." He said, standing up and walking over to me. "We're all gonna go to the lab this afternoon and have Dr. Owens take a look at both of you. He'll be able to tell us what's up." I pushed my hair back out of my face with both hands. "You sure you're good to go to school today?"
"Yeah...I have a test this morning, I have to." I said.
"Riley." He said pointedly.
"Dad, I'm fine." I told him. The Poptart popped out of the toaster and I jumped, putting a hand over my chest and leaning against the counter.
"You sure about that?" I nodded.
"I promise. The toaster just caught me off guard, that is not a good example."
"Ok...just tell me if you're not ok, alright?"
"Yeah...yeah, I will." He nodded.
"Do you want me to pick you up, or do you want to just meet us at the Lab?"
"I can meet you there." I said. I put the pop-tart on a napkin and put two Eggos in. "Eleven! Eggos are in the toaster! I'll see you later."
"Bye." I took my pop-tart and grabbed my messenger bag, heading out to my truck and starting it up to drive to school, attempting to put the weird vision out of my mind.
~~~
I pulled up beside Steve's car to see him and Nancy still inside. I got out and watched as Steve threw his head back in frustration. I knocked on the window, prompting them both to look at me. Steve rolled his down.
"What's the matter, HAIRington? Did you just realize that you look like a cabbage patch kid?"I asked, leaning on the window.
"Ha-ha." He said dryly. "No, I just asked Nancy if she could help me with my college essay tonight, and she reminded me that we're having dinner with Barb's parents tonight."
"No!" I exclaimed.
"We already canceled last week." Nancy pointed out.
"Yeah, I know, because why would I want to sit there around their dinner table and listen to them trash talk my Dad for two hours?" I asked.
"Look, you guys don't have to go, just work on this. Riley can help you."
"No, no, no. What's the point?" Steve asked, crumbling it up.
"Hey, calm down!"
"I'm calm. I'm calm. I'm just being honest, you know? I mean I'm just gonna end up working for my dad anyway."
"That's not true." Nancy told him.
"I don't know, Nance, is that such a bad thing? There's insurance and benefits and all that adult stuff. And if I took it, you know, I could be around for your senior year."
"Steve..."
"Just to look after you a little bit, make sure you don't forget about this pretty face and stuff." I made a gagging noise.
"This is getting serious and couple-y, that's my cue to leave." I stood up, leaning against my truck as Steve leaned over and kissed Nancy. I furrowed my eyebrows, looking down at my feet at the surprising feeling of discomfort I got watching him kiss her.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a loud, roaring engine. I looked up and Nancy and Jonathan got out of the car to see a new one pulling into the parking lot. It was a 1979 Chevrolet Camero. The door opened and a guy got out who I had never seen before. He was dressed in head-to-toe denim, with black motorcycle boots, and his blonde hair was styled into a mullet. A red-headed girl, that looked to be about Mike and the boys' age got out of the passenger side with a skateboard in her hand.
She put it down, and the boy watched her go before glancing at Steve, Nancy, and I. His eyes fell on me, travelling up the length of my body before winking at me and walking towards the school. I scrunched my nose up in disgust.
"Did he just...wink at you?" Nancy asked. I nodded.
"That's...gross."
~~~
I sat down in my math class first thing, Steve sitting beside me, and the whole time I could feel eyes on me. I tuned out the lesson, glancing over at Steve, who was staring over his shoulder with a irritated look on his face.
"What is your problem?" I whispered, pretending to be taking notes.
"My problem is that the new guy has been staring at you all class." He hissed, glancing over his shoulder again. I turned around to look, ending up making eye contact with the kid, since he was staring at me. He flashed me a flirtatious smile, which I returned by furrowing my eyebrows and facing forward, sinking low in my seat.
"Why do you care if some random dude is staring at me?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at Steve.
"I wouldn't care if staring was all he was doing, but I know that look Barbie. He's undressing you with his eyes, its disgusting."
"Still struggling to see why that annoys you." I said, causing him to look at me. He shrugged.
"I don't know...you're my friend and...I just get bad vibes from him." I nodded.
"Right. So if he tries to talk to me, I'll be sure to tell him that I can't talk to him because my friend had a 'vibe'." I said sarcastically. He scoffed, shaking his head. "Don't worry about it HAIRington. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."
The bell rang and I stood up, beginning to gather my stuff. I bent down to put my books in my bag, knocking my pen onto the floor. I went to pick it up, but another hand beat me to it, standing up. I stood up too, putting my bag over my shoulder and looking up to see that it was the denim guy, standing in front of me twirling my pen between his fingers.
"You dropped something." He said. I nodded.
"Astute observation. Can I have it back?" I held my hand out.
"Ooh! Blondie's got a little bite to her. I like that."
"Don't call me Blondie." He smirked at me.
"What's a matter? Your boyfriend doesn't like it when I call you that?" He glanced at Steve.
"He's not my boyfriend." He nodded, looking at Steve for a long while before looking at me again.
"His loss." I reached for the pen, but he held it out of my reach.
"Dude, come on, just give her the pen." Steve said.
"I will...once I get her name." I raised my eyebrows. "You said nto to call you Blondie. If I can't call you that, I need something I can call you. What's your name, sweetheart?"
"Riley," I said, crossing my arms, "Not Blondie, not sweetheart, or any other incredibly demeaning nickname you can come up with, now can I please have my pen back? I'm late for class."
He smirked, holding it out to me. I reached for it, but he yanked it out of my reach again, leaning down to put his lips right beside my ear.
"Billy Hargrove ." He carefully tucked the pen behind my ear and walked past me out of the classroom. I rolled my eyes, taking the pen out from behind my ear and leaving the room with Steve.
"Are you ok?" He asked.
"I told you, I'm fine. I can handle that guy."
"You're not actually into that kind of thing, are you?" I furrowed my eyebrows, looking at him.
"So what if I was? What does it matter to you?"
"It doesn't, I just think that guy clearly thinks he's hot stuff, and he seems arrogant. I think you can do better."
"I think that's none of your business." He shrugged, putting his sunglasses on and sneaking up around the corner to scare Nancy.
"Jonathan, just come," I heard Nancy say, "Who knows, you might even like...meet someone-"
Her words were cut off by Steve wrapping his arms around her waist and picking her up, causing her to scream. I stepped up beside Jonathan. He put her down, leaning against the locker and she slapped his arm.
"Oh my gosh, take those stupid things off." He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him.
"I missed you." He took them off.
"Its been like an hour."
"Tell me about it." He grabbed her face, kissing her, and I looked down, feeling the same weird, uncomfortable feeling I felt this morning. Why would Steve kissing his girlfriend make me uncomfortable?
Jonathan and I shared a look before making our way down the hallway together.
"You ok?" I asked, knowing full well that he had feelings for Nancy. He nodded.
"Yeah. Are you?" I furrowed my eyebrows, stopping in my tracks, but he kept walking. What does he mean 'Am I ok'? Is he insinuating...
No. No, no, no, no way. I do not have feelings for Steve! I barely know Steve, all we do is joke around and insult each other. We don't have a real relationship where we talk about real things, and...besides, he's dating my best friend. I would never do that to Nancy, ever.
Not that it matters...because I most definitely, without a doubt, do not have a crush on Steve Harrington...
Right?