A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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Ryan sat on the Byers' couch, both Aaron and Peter staring at her. She had gotten inside after the kiss with Steve, mind swirling like a hurricane. She had just kissed her best friend; not only was Steve her best friend, but Nancy was becoming her best friend too, meaning she had kissed her best friend's boyfriend? Fling? She had no idea what Nancy and Steve were. Either way, she had kissed him or, rather, he kissed her and she had kissed him back.
She had walked to the couch in a daze, ignoring Peter's stern lecture about fighting in alleyways and monster hunting without telling them. Every word went in one ear and out the other. Her mind kept drifting back to Steve in the car. Now, both Aaron and Peter were staring at her expectantly, like she was supposed to give a speech.
"Why do you guys keep staring at me?" She shifted awkwardly on the couch.
"Why are you being so weird?" Aaron shot back, tilting his head, trying to see if he could understand what had happened before she told him. Neither him nor Peter had ever seen her act like that before.
"I'm not!" Ryan exclaimed loudly, getting up from the couch to get a bottle of water from the refrigerator, Peter and Aaron following behind her. "God, you guys are weird."
"Don't even get me started on weird, Miss Daydream. What on Earth were you thinking?" Peter followed Ryan back into the living room, standing in front of her as she sat on the couch, taking a long drink of water. "No, really you are being so weird."
"Look, I wasn't thinking anything other than I wanted to help, okay?" Ryan sighed, leaning forward, her elbows propped up on her knees. "You two weren't around! I did what any normal person would do in this situation!"
"A normal person wouldn't decide to band together with two other teenagers that also don't know what the hell their doing!" Peter yelled. "A normal person would stay out of it!"
Ryan stood up, shaking off the aftermath of her kiss with Steve, glaring at Peter. With everything she had been through in the past few days, she was not about to let him snap at her like that, especially not when he was nowhere to be found when she had finally wanted to come clean, when she was being chased by a damn monster through a cold and dark dimension.
"It is not my fault you decided to never be home when I FUCKING NEEDED YOU!" She snapped, yelling the last part. She was out in the woods, hunting a monster to protect the town and her family, both of her brothers seemingly disappearing into thin air. "We might not have known what we were doing, but at least we were trying! And really? Being absent after the funeral? After everything I went through? You don't get to lecture me on poor choices."
The room fell silent after her loud outburst. It had been years since Ryan had actually fought with her brothers. There were little fights here and there about random, stupid things, but never one about Ryan's life choices. Peter had never been one to judge anything Ryan had ever done.
