Bullshit [Stancy]

Chapter 4

"Mom, I can explain" she said, trying to carefully scan each word and not make her voice tremble more than it should.

Her father, fortunately, had never been too interested in what she did with her private life. But her mother, well... Her mother was another story.

When she was in the middle of the living room, with more eyes than she was able to count on her, she decided that stirring up drama right now would be an excellent escape from the police's questions. So when her mother continued to stare at her with that admonishing gaze, which flashed between her and the window from which Steve's car was visible, she crossed her arms over her chest. 

"It's my life," she said, not caring that her scene was having a larger-than-life audience. She took a deep breath and stepped forward, not breaking eye contact with her mother. "That's my business."

"Nancy-" the woman's gaze was stern as well as concerned, but in her tone of voice she could also hear that she was.... Disappointed?

 However, she held her ground, hoping that everyone's attention was focused solely on this scene so that Steve could take advantage of the moment to leave.

"You and I are going to talk, alone," her mother said, with a voice that clearly expressed that hers was not a debatable option. "In the kitchen."

Nancy waited only a second longer, noticing that Steve's car was still where she had left it, then she sighed and followed her mother.

"Just a second," the police chief said, putting himself between the two.

His yes searched for Nancy. "I need to know what you were doing in the woods."

She lowered her gaze. She needed to think quickly. Surely she couldn't say here, in the middle of the living room and in front of her parents, that she was at Skull Rock with Steve Harrington.

"We went for a walk," she replied.

The police chief merely nodded his head, without adding anything else and heading for the door. But in the silent gaze of her mother, it was as if he could hear her words from three years ago.

"You lied to the police, Nance."

"It wasn't relevant," she had shouted, shaken by Barb's disappearance, by guilt, by the fear, later revealed to be true, that something terrible had happened to her.

Her mother, however, had continued to stare at her with that air of disappointment she couldn't stand, making her feel like she had failed. She, of all people, dared to look at her like that. Her mother, who had never really lived her life, who had always been content, whom nothing had ever happened.

And now what was the problem? That for once, just once, she had done something for herself and herself alone?

For once, she had dared not to be so perfect all the time. And as if what had happened to Barb wasn't enough to haunt her every time she closed her eyes, she now had to suffer the judgement of her mother's gaze.

No, no it was too much, it was-

The blood boiled in her veins, rushing up to her brain as the words came out of her mouth without her having control over them.

"Yes, we slept together," she heard herself say, advancing towards her as a knot formed in her throat. " Is this what you wanted to hear?"

"Nancy-" the woman had tried to say. But she had run to her room, or at least she remembered it had been that way.

Yet now, as she relived that memory, her mother was standing in front of her, looking at her, smiling. She spoke again, "it was you, Nancy," she said. "Barb warned you," she took a step towards her. "Yet you did not listen to her."