Love Story: Volume One

season one: part five

Jonathan pulled out the photos he'd taken at Steve's, and handed them to Hopper. He sat there for a minute, observing the photos.

"You're saying blood draws this thing?"

"We don't know."

Nancy murmured. "It's just a theory."

Joyce motioned for Jonathan to follow her, and the two of them left the room.

"Would you mind leaving the room for just a bit kid? I need to talk to Wilkins here."

Nancy nodded, and gave Edwina a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I'll be waiting."

The door slammed shut, and Edwina sunk into her seat.

"Where are the kids?"

Edwina chuckled. "So about that..."

"I gave you one job kid." He flailed his arms. "Just the one."

"I know. I told them to wait, but they don't listen to me. To anyone. You know that."

"What was so important that you left them anyway?"

She winced. "I went to go get a coffee."

Hopper leaned forward, cracking his hands. "You went to go get a coffee."

"I told them to put aside their differences, and I'd be back in twenty minutes to chauffeur them around. But when I got back, Mrs. Wheeler told me they had left ten minutes ago." She crossed her arms. "I guess they had something pressing come up."

Hopper sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I'm sorry, Hopper."

"He rubbed his temple. "It's fine kid. There's nothing you can do about kids not listening. But now I want you to stay with those two." He sat back up. "I trust you to steer them in the right direction."

"Got it. Stay with them." She stood up. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. A coffee would be great."

Edwina glared and walked out.

"I'll wait!"

Nancy looked back at the Cheif's office. "What happened in there?"

"Typical Hopper shit. Now let's go kill some monsters."

...

Steve didn't exactly remember when he started to realize he was a bad person. He did know that it started around seventh grade, after the school dance when he saw that the mean boys got more girls. he didn't really think things through often. That was Edwina's thing. He really regretted everything that he had done in the past 24 hours. But he always regretted anything he did when he was around Tommy and Carol. They brought out the worst in him. Not that that was an excuse. He didn't even want to do that sign shit in the first place, but Tommy insisted everyone would find it funny. And Steve felt numb enough to not care at the moment. Carol just obnoxiously laughed the whole time. Now he was sitting outside a gas station, listening to more of their bullshit. Tommy handed him a cold pack.

"You owe me a dollar twenty." He pressed it to his sore eye. "Don't worry, he'll need more than aspirin when we're done with him."

Steve fought himself not to roll his eyes.

"Yeah. If the creep ever gets out. Did you see the look on his face?" She started messing around, fake punching Tommy to recreate the fight Steve had just been in. "Oh."

Tommy laughed. "He probably had the same look when he killed his brother, right?"

Carol started groaning. "Oh god. I just got the image of him making that face while he and Nancy are screwing. He's probably screwing that little bitch Wilkins too."