HAVEN - stranger things.

iii. THE POOL.

iii. wendy's outburst!

a half eaten pizza, an opened box of sno caps, and a can of coca-cola were sprawled out on the harrington coffee table as wendy carmichael and steve harrington watched star wars episode iv: a new hope.

the harringtons had gone out of town for spring break and left steve to have the house to himself. wendy felt her boyfriend press a kiss to her cheek and then to her jawline. her eyes were glued to the television as she stared at princess leia. wendy thought back to the halloween party where she kissed billy hargrove for the first time.

"what's wrong?" steve's eyes glanced over wendy's facial expression. something had shifted in her face.
"wh-what?" wendy's attention snapped to her boyfriend.

"you tensed up. did i do something wrong?" steve was concerned, he didn't want to make wendy uncomfortable.
"no, no, my mind was just...can we go for a swim?" wendy asked, standing up.

"yeah, sure, let me just clean up a bit first. i'll meet you out there." steve nodded.

wendy walked over to the patio door, opening it and walking out to the harringtons' pool. the girl pulled off her shoes and pulled her shirt off of her body. going off to college had made things easy for wendy—if you're constantly busy, you don't have time to think about your dead ex-boyfriend. yet being back in hawkins made her think about him. she didn't want to tell steve, she knew it would only upset him.

"i only have your mixtape to play. is that alright?" steve asked, holding up a casette tape.

for wendy and steve's one year anniversary, he made her a mixtape of songs that reminded him of her or songs that they loved to listen to over the years.

"that's fine." wendy said as she stripped out of her shorts, almost instantly diving into the pool.

steve harrington inserted the tape and changed into his swim trunks before diving in behind his girlfriend. wendy carmichael stayed under the water as she heard a muffled version of 'good old fashioned lover boy' by queen play.

she knew that she should let steve know that he hadn't done anything wrong earlier. the girl swam to the surface, pushing her wet hair back. steve had been playing with the water, he knew that something was off with wendy.

"it wasn't your fault. i just...do you remember that one halloween party? the one where nancy called your relationship bullshit?" wendy got closer to steve.

he thought back to that night, steve hadn't really thought of nancy wheeler since he started dating wendy. he never felt the need to.
"yeah." he nodded, waiting for wendy to continue.

"well, i went as princess leia that night, you remember...anyways, that was the night that billy and i kissed for the first time. i thought that i was over all of it, the nightmares and shit," steve watched as wendy's eyes became glassy. "i want to be over it so bad, steve," wendy's voice broke.

steve harrington frowned as he watched his girlfriend cry, he let her continue, he knew she needed to break down in order to build herself back up again. 

"i'm so tired of...of crying over him! i'm so sick of having nightmares about the demogorgon and billy and and...fuck!" wendy yelled out, hitting the water.