Edge of Seventeen • Steve Harrington

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Wendy Hargrove slipped down the headphones that were covering her ears, her Walkman paused as she observed the house that Billy had pulled up in front of in their shared car. Twisted vines traced up the walls and the paint was chipped in multiple places. The lawn was overgrown from not being cut in possibly months and shingles were missing from the roof. Overall, the place was a mess, but it was a step up from the former home of the Hargrove siblings.

"What a piece of shit." Her voice was hoarse from the hours of disuse and her eyes were bleary as she took in the way that her father was beaming at her stepmother from the front porch. The smile was so abnormal on his face that she had to do a double take to make sure that her tired mind wasn't making up hallucinations. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen the smile on his face actually reach his eyes, but she knew that it would probably never reach that high again.

"The house or him?" Billy questioned his twin sister, younger by twenty minutes, as he slipped the sunglasses that covered his eyes up to take in the picture-perfect view in front of them. Even she could see that the Billy was feeling as sick as she was by the sight in front of her.

"Both." Wendy replied sourly, her eyes locked on her father pressing a picturesque kiss against Susan's cheek. Susan was nice enough and had tried her best, but she could never replace her mother as much as she tried to. She couldn't fathom how Susan Mayfield had been tricked into marrying her father or how naive the woman had to be to not notice the monster that was lurking underneath the surface of his skin. Either she was naive, or she didn't care to believe them, the same way that no one had believed her the first and only time she had spoken to an authority figure of her father's abuse.

For as long as Wendy Hargrove could recall, her brother Billy had taken the brunt of her father's anger. No matter how often she would attempt to stand in the way of his fists towards her brother, Billy would send her to her room before flesh could hit flesh. Billy had always protected her from anything that could hurt her. He had tried to protect her from their mother leaving them with an abusive father and from teenage boys that looked at her the wrong way.

For as long as she could remember, it had been Billy and Wendy against the world, but something had changed once they hit seventeen.

Wendy remembered the months leading up to their big move from California to the middle of nowhere, Indiana. It hadn't happened all at once, but Wendy could recall the way that her twin brother had become more secretive and more prone to violent bursts of anger. It had been a gentle build up before slamming head on against the invisible wall that had led them to sitting in front of the small house in Indiana.

She could remember coming home from band practice, her Walkman blaring Stevie Nicks, to shit hitting the proverbial fan. Bellows louder than the gentle hum from her Walkman met her ears and she could remember the tears that were steaming down Susan and Billy's face as Neil spat profanities towards her older twin. Blood had stained his shirt and his face, and it was the first time that her older twin looked like the weight of the world had finally crushed him.

Something big had happened and Wendy Hargrove had been the last one to witness the final nail being drilled into the coffin. No one in her family had told her what occurred, not even Max who was cowering in the corner, a look of shame and absolute guilt on her young face. After that, Wendy was forced to pack up her stuff and shove it in the trunk of their car to make the trip halfway across the country. A trip that had been filled with tense silence and hissed threats towards Maxine by her older brother.

"We could always leave them here." Billy mumbled underneath his breath, his eyes glaring daggers towards the young redhead that was getting out of their father's car. It had been a common occurrence in the weeks leading up to the move, but once again, Wendy was left out of the loop on why Max was on the receiving end of his ire. "Go out and find the one gas station and grocery store this place has."