it's always gonna be her <3

ten

***

the two girls noticed that another girl, nicole, was standing with them. she was telling steve about something but the girls couldn't hear her.

dylan stood in the middle of steve and soph before turning to her brother,"what's going on stevie?"

"you'll find out soon enough," he said in an oddly calm voice. he didn't look at her so she followed his line of sight and saw jonathan walking to his car with his head down.

dylan sighed,"steve what're you gonna do?"

he didn't say anything. instead he waited till jonathan was in earshot,"hey man."

nancy looked over at dylan. her jaw was clenched and her eyes were basically burning holes in the side of steves head, like she was trying to use their twin telepathy to tell him to knock it off.

jonathan looked at the group, then at steve,"um, what's going on?"

steve stood up from where he was sitting on his car,"nicole here, was uh, telling us about your work."

of course carol had something to say,"we've heard great things."

and of course tommy h chimed in,"yeah, sounds cool."

jonathan looked at his feet.

steve ran a hand through his head,"and we'd just love to take a look. you know, as connoisseurs of art."

the byers boy took a step back and gripped the strap of his bag,"i- i don't know what you're talking about."

steve gave him a fake frown,"oh no? oh," he stepped towards jonathan and grabbed his bag off his shoulder.

"hey!" jonathan shouted, but quickly got quiet again,"please give me my bag," steve opened the bag,"no just-" jonathan looked like he was about to start crying or crap himself, or both.

tommy laughed,"man, he is totally trembling. he must really have something to hide."

steve pulled out the photos,"ah, here we go," he laid them out on the trunk of his car. everyone turned to look at them.

these picture were sick.

the kids shotgunning beers.

them swimming in the pool.

barb sitting on the diving board.

and the worst ones.

nancy in steve's room.

changing.

steve scoffed,"yeah, this isn't creepy at all."

"i was looking for my brother," jonathan tried to explain.

"no man, this is called stalking," steve turned to grab the picture of nancy in her bra,"yeah, he's probably gonna save this one for later."

dylan had to try her best not to clock jonathan in the jaw. she looked at him with a glare that could make a grown man cry,"jonathan what the fuck is this?"