CONFUSION| steve harrington x oc| BOOK 1

chapter 7- pictures

Phoebe would've skipped the rest of her classes, but she had a test in her last class that she couldn't afford to miss. After class she hurriedly walked to her car, but Carol stopped her in the hall and pulled her into the nearest bathroom.

"What the hell? Why didn't you tell me you and Steve had sex?" Carol seemed upset that Phoebe had kept what would've been vital information from her. Phoebe, not wanting to bring up these feelings too much again in the same day, sighed.

"Because we didn't. That was him and Nancy," Phoebe explained through gritted teeth. Carols hands flew up and covered her mouth in shock. She quickly wrapped her arms around her friend as a tear trickled down Phoebe's cheek. 

"It's okay," Carol consoled her friend. The two girls walked out of the bathroom, but Carol was quickly snagged by Tommy. She looked back to Phoebe for confirmation, even though Tommy had said he only need to talk to her for a second.

"It's all good, I have to grab something from my locker. I'll meet you outside." The girls nodded at each other.

After Phoebe retrieved her belongings from her locker she slowly made her way to the parking lot. She scanned the parking lot and found her friends in their usual spot leaning against Steve's maroon BMW, but it wasn't just the three, or four now. There was a mysterious fifth person amongst them today. She started towards them, but just before she reached them, Steve had stopped Jonathan and was talking to him. Phoebe was officially very confused, Steve and Jonathan never spoke.

"What's going on guys?" Phoebe asked as she joined the group.

"If it isn't the starring lady herself," Tommy said with his shit grin as he handed her a stack of photos. Phoebe quickly looked through them, grossed out because they were all of her and her friends in Steve's pool last night. About half way through the stack her eyes became saucers as she saw a picture of herself in her underwear looking out of Steve's window. She snapped her head up to Jonathan who was basically cowering as they all stared him down.

"This creep was spying on us last night," Carol stated the obvious. 

"What the hell, Jonathan?" Phoebe asked, mortified.

"I was looking for my brother!" Jonathan explained, which struck something in Phoebe. She knew how torn up Dustin was about Will missing, she couldn't imagine how Jonathan was feeling.

"No. No, this is stalking." Steve accused.

"He was probably saving this one for later," Tommy jeered as he grabbed one of the photos of Phoebe and tore it up. 

"See, he knows what he did was wrong. That's thing with perverts. They know it's wrong but they can't help it, it's hardwired into them." Steve said, a disgusted look on his face.

"But it's okay, because we can stop him," Tommy interjected.

"We take away his toy," Steve said as he swiped Jonathan's camera from his hands.

"No, not the camera!" Jonathan plead.

"Here," Steve offered the camera back, but just as Jonathan extended his hand Steve let the camera roll out of his fingers, smashing on the ground. Jonathan bent down and frantically picked up the pieces, almost crying. Phoebe had been so lost in thought that she hadn't notice Nancy join them. There were pictures of her in there too. Phoebe had shoved those to the bottom of her pile, not wanting to see them, but Tommy had thrown all the photos on the ground as they walked away. Phoebe thought about staying behind to help him, but Nancy beat her to it. Phoebe watched her bend down and then turned, jogging to catch up to the others. 

"Are you okay?" Steve asked when they were back inside the school.

"I mean, I guess. I've never had anyone do something like that, I'm not really sure what to say or how to feel." She leaned her head against Steve's arm, needing some extra comfort in this moment. She hated how vulnerable she felt, both last night and now. And she hated seeing it in a picture almost as much as she hated experiencing the feeling. The two stood in a comfortable silence until Tommy and Carol rounded the corner. They separated before anyone saw them and followed their friends out, Tommy saying that he was hungry and wanted to go out for burgers. The friends dropped Phoebe's car at her house before the piled into Steve's for the night.

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After they had eaten, they decided to go for a drive. Music played quietly, nobody spoke. Soon they turned into a neighbor hood that Carol didn't recognize. She glanced at Phoebe as Tommy asked, "Where the hell are we going, Harrington?"

"I just want to check on something." Steve replied. Phoebe leaned forward and instantly knew where they were going. The house at the end of the cul-de-sac was pretty hard to miss and the pile of bikes outside was the same one Phoebe had seen a million times before.

"What are we doing here, Steve? I thought Nancy said she was busy tonight," Phoebe asked, annoyed. The last person she wanted to see right now was Nancy. 

"I'll just be a second," Steve assured as he got out of the car and began climbing the side of the Wheeler home. Phoebe chuckled to herself, she had never seen Steve climbing up to a window from this side. There had been a couple times where he had snuck over to her room and they would hang out. It usually happened when Steve's parents were out of town and he didn't want to sleep alone in his big house. Shaking herself from her memory she glanced back up at Steve who was frozen outside of Nancy's window. He quickly jumped down and stalked back to his car.

"Everything okay...?" Carol hesitantly asked just before Steve slammed his foot into the gas pedal, sending the car flying down the street. 

"Yep." Steve's answer was short and Phoebe knew that everything was definitely not okay.

"What happened Steve?" Phoebe asked as she put a hand on his shoulder and felt him relax under her touch. She wanted to move her hand, but she knew he needed the comfort right now. 

"She was in there..wi-with Jonathan."