𝐙𝐄𝐑𝐎 ✯ steve harrington¹

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 : the taming of the girlfriend

WORD COUNT: 3k

"Steve is probably waiting for me," Nancy finally spoke up, breaking the silence. Neither of them knew where to go from here, that was obvious. It felt like they were at a literal and emotional stand-still over Barb's whereabouts. But clearly, they needed to move quickly if finding Barb was the priority. The longer they waited, the more danger Barb was in.

"Steve? That's who you're worried about right now," Owen scoffed, face scrunched up in confusion. "Barb may be missing, Nancy. We need to tell someone – her parents, the police, anyone," she pointed out, urgency in her tone. Nancy crossed her arms over her chest tightly, a firm line settled on her lips.

"She also may actually just be at the library. Or maybe she stayed home and her mom didn't know she was there," Nancy argued, clearly in denial about the whole situation. Without another word, she stepped past Owen and began walking towards the student parking lot. Her behavior caused Owen's eyebrows to shoot up to her hairline in shock before she hurried to catch up with the other girl.

"Do you hear yourself right now? Neither of those theories make any sense at all," Owen snapped, her eyes fixed on Nancy's obstinate profile while they walked. "I mean, I'm willing to go check out both of those places ourselves to rule them out before we go to the police, but I have a bad feeling that that's not what you meant," Owen tried to compromise.

However, before the conversation could continue much further, they were approaching Steve, Tommy, Carol, and some other redheaded girl all circled around that kid, Jonathan Byers. Owen immediately bristled at the scene in front of her, not liking the way any of them had treated Jonathan previously. Something bad must've really happened in order for all of them to approach the Byers boy like this.

"What's going on..." Nancy inquired when they stopped in front of the group. She must've been apprehensive about the whole interaction as well, as she nervously clutched the strap of her backpack.

"Here's the starring lady," Tommy acknowledged with that typical shit-eating grin.

"What?" Nancy's eyebrows dipped just slightly, a timid smile on her lips as she tried to understand what the hell was going on.

"This creep was spying on us last night," Carol explained, her bubblegum smacking in her mouth while she was pointing to the pictures in her hands. "He was probably going to save this one for later," she continued, a smug grin on her lips. She handed over a single picture to Nancy, holding intimidating eye contact with Jonathan as she did.

Owen peeked over Nancy's shoulder at the photograph that was now in her grasp, completely unsure of where Steve and his goons were coming from with this sudden exposé. Nancy's bare back through a singular lit window was not at all what Owen was expecting to see. Her stomach turned at the fact that this picture was taken without her knowledge, with the potential to be used for all sorts of nefarious things. Owen shot a glare at Jonathan, who was not making eye contact with anyone around him – especially Nancy.

"See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but... Man, that's the thing about perverts... It's hardwired into them," Steve pointed out, speaking for the first time since the two girls had walked up. He stepped closer to Jonathan, looking down on him both literally and figuratively. "You know, they just can't help themselves," he sighed, shrugging before tearing up one of the photos he was holding and letting the shreds float to the ground. Naturally, Tommy giggled openly behind him, just spurring Steve on.

"So, we'll just have to take away his toy," Steve announced, turning around and returning to what looked to be Jonathan's bag.

"Steve..." Nancy choked out, speaking just above a whisper.