Wonderwall // Steve Harrington (COMPLETED)

19

"Look what the cat-" Dustin began before making a face, remembering his cat that was eaten alive. "Look who finally came back. You broke up with Steve ? You were going to leave us, sorry, me here and move to Chicago without a goodbye ? You told Mom and Steve but said goodbye to neither ?" Dustin shouted the second she walked in the door. He feared her leaving forever more than any monster he'd been faced with over the years. "Why, Delilah ?" he continued as her whole face break, she was still in an extreme state of shock. "Steve told Dusty before I could. He's just hurt I guess, in shock" her mother said as Delilah took a breath to keep it together, she couldn't let the weight of the information she had obtained and it's impacts show on her face. Dustin had been through more than enough for just being fifteen years old.

"I didn't break up with Steve" she mumbled as the boy stood up. "Sorry, sorry went on a break with him or will it even be that ? Is it over ? Is it really just a break" he asked as their mother shushed him. "Lilah's just come off a long flight, why don't we give her time to settle back in before bombarding her ?" she began but Delilah cut across her, she had so many unanswered questions that had been eating her mind alive on the plane ride home. "Can I speak to you ? Privately." she asked as the woman nodded, she knew her daughter knew. She left Dustin confused, usually he'd be her go-to person of the two, for her to call her mother aside, something was really wrong. "Delilah ?" he asked softly but she ignored him. Her mother followed her to her bedroom where she sat on the bed and prepared what she needed to say.

"Arnie called. I know you know" Lil said slowly as the girl on the bed burst into tears. She told her mother everything, how she felt shamed by him, how he just expected her to put the pieces of the imaginary puzzle together herself. "Well, that's Arnie all over for you" her mother said through a breath before taking a seat on the bed. "Why didn't you tell us ?" she asked, she was hurt and her mother was now cradling her crying daughter. "We wanted our kids to be kids. Packing up and moving to a new town is bad enough without feeling different to the other kids or worrying about things you didn't to" she was trying to come up with reasons but didn't actually have any. She wasn't ready for this conversation because she thought it would never come, that her kids would live in total oblivion forever. The reality of Lil Henderson not telling her children was to avoid opening a can of worms she didn't want to open, to avoid having that conversation and all that came with it. She didn't want to look her two babies in the eye and admit that their home, their sense of security fell apart because she wasn't enough for her husband in her eyes. "I couldn't look at Dustin" Delilah said honestly as the woman nodded. "I couldn't look at either of you either for a while. Both of you had his eyes and it hurt too much knowing how innocent you two actually were. How you two didn't question that we moved all of a sudden and he didn't come, that you just believed he was at work providing for us and he'd join us. But I got over it, I had to" she said, remembering the grieving process.

"I want him to know but I don't. Dustin's not a kid anymore but he is. I just don't want to imagine that look on his face but it's all I can see-" she began as the door burst open and Dustin walked in. "Is this about mom and dad splitting up because I knew this, years ago" he said through a shrug, she felt so out of the loop. "H-how ?" Delilah asked, he seemed so fine with it, she couldn't understand. "First of all, who moves to a different state for an AV program ? Second of all, mom dropped so many hints like taking down pictures of her and dad. Third and finally, what dad who's supposed to be earning big bucks doesn't even chip in for his own kids teeth, what dad only sees his kids one Christmas in the how many years he's been gone ?. Nothing added up" he said, unfazed before sitting on the bed. This shocked both her and her mother but he was smart, of course he figured it out.

"In your moment of realisation did you not think to tell me ?" she asked as if her mother wasn't there. "Honestly no, you didn't believe a word I said back then, it would've been no use and it just would've upset you. I was hoping you'd help me with the reason" he said as they both looked at the woman sitting on the bed. "You said you met an Angeline ?" she asked defeated as Delilah nodded. "Arnie, your father loved his computers and his tech just like you Dusty. I thought he was a wizard at them, going to change the world with a few clicks of some buttons. He wasn't, he was on dating sites and he met Angeline. That's kind of it, we argued, he packed up and he left" she said sadly as Delilah hugged her mother instead of it being the other way round. Her husband left her for another woman except she still had the burden of being his wife.

"Was I the only one out of the loop ?" Delilah asked frustrated as her mother looked down. "Nope" she said through a sigh. "That's why it stays our secret, just between us. Grandma knows, that's it. He didn't even tell his own family" she said, still defeated as Dustin joined in on the hug. Like them, she'd been through enough too. They all savoured the hug for another while until Lil decided to make dinner and let them talk. She knew she'd cry if she stayed there any longer.

"Dusty, I'm so sorry" she said instantly as her brother shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. Steve told me about why you left, I just wish I knew" he said as the girls heart slightly ached at the thought of Steve. "How is he ?" she asked instantly as the boy made a face. "Um" he began before fighting with himself in his head, did he tell her what Steve wanted to or the reality. "He's so good. He's still at the Video Shack, girls flirt with him now-" he began, saying Steve's version because he thought it would what she'd want to hear until he saw her face. "You want the truth ? He's been miserable. He didn't go to work for a little while, nearly lost his job, me and Robin had to sweet-talk Keith. We mentioned you to win him over, Steve cried like a baby because of mentioning you. He even went back to Scoops because he told us the ice cream would numb the pain. What an idiot" Dustin explained and just like that she was crying again.

They say and talked for a little while more, she was sobbing into his shoulder and he let her. She'd been through just as much as him but she'd never admit it. Their mother appeared about thirty minutes later, they thought it was to say that dinner was ready but the look on her face told them different, she was trying to figure out what to say. "S-Steve's in the living room" she finally just said which made Dustin mentally face-palm. "Shit, I forgot I was hanging out with him. It was just all this. I'm sorry" he began as the girl shook her head and wiped her face. "I want to see him"

"Okay, so Steve. Somethings about to happen, you can't react" Dustin warned the boy the second he got down the stairs. "What the hell Henderson ? You can't just say that" he began as Dustin rolled his eyes and looked towards the stairs. "Delilah ?" he called as Steve's whole face lit up, there were even tears brimming in his eyes. "Delilah ?" he whispered in shock as the girl slowly walked down the stairs. She stood at the bottom staring at him and he stared right back at her. "Steve" she whispered back with the same tone and expression that he had. They didn't know what to do. Did they hug ? Did they kiss ? Did she lay everything out on the table ? Or did she just stay silent ? Everything was still so fresh, she didn't want to open it all back up to him for her to decide it was too much down the line. She didn't want to put him through any more pain so she walked straight back up the stairs.