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chapter six: girls like you
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SERENITY WAS TERRIFIED.
Dustin had said Serenity and Steve could sleep over his house for the night, considering it was pretty late and they all wanted to go hunting for Dart the next day (well, Dustin had said that — Serenity and Steve didn't want to, but alas, they were roped in.) He had gone back to his bedroom after a couple long moments of comforting his mother, who had come home crying because she couldn't find Mews. Apparently she thought the cat was lost, not dead by a Demogorgon.
She laid on the couch of Dustin's living room where she had spent so much time in. There was a pillow underneath her head and a blanket on top of her. Her hands were clasped together and she was staring at the dark ceiling, not sleeping whatsoever. It must've been at least midnight by now, but how could she sleep when this was happening?
Steve was next to her, laying close to the couch on the floor. She could hear his even breathing, which meant that he was asleep. Well, at least one of them would be more awake tomorrow. She turned her head on the pillow to see him stirring, trying to get comfortable on the hard floor. At this point, they should've just switched, but Steve insisted she take the couch. She averted her gaze back to the ceiling as she saw his eyes slowly flutter open.
"'Renity," Steve said, his voice slightly raspy due to sleeping. "You need to sleep."
"Can't," Serenity responded. "Every time I close my eyes, I see . . . it."
Steve went quiet for a moment. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." She shook her head on the pillow. "It's been going away, Steve. Slowly, but I've gotten better. At least enough to sleep through the night."
"I know."
"But this . . . it's bringing all of it back," Serenity voiced. "It makes me frustrated with myself that my brain can't just let it go."
"Hey," Steve cut in. "I — I know it's frustrating, but Serenity, you witnessed an actual monster. And one of the kids that you care about so deeply was taken into some weird ass parallel dimension said monster was from. You can't just get over something like that so easily. It's okay to take time."
"I've just been making so much progress," Serenity whispered. "And it feels like I'm rewinding. I feel as awful as I did that night, Steve. I can't do this again."
