Stephanie Hargrove was eccentric, and artistic. She loved everything - the littlest things made her happy. She was sassy, but in a funny way which made everyone automatically like her. She wasn't the most popular girl in school, not as popular as he...
I stood behind max helping Susan sort her hair out, I placed a clip in her hair and she winced, "ow". "It'll be worth it, I promise" I say moving her around to make her look nice.
Billy walks past max's room and looks at the both of us, I looked to max then Billy. He seemed like he wanted to say something but didn't and just walked away.
Susan finally walked off and allowed me to do the rest and I could now ask my question I'd been dying to ask, "sooo, who's the lucky boy". "What?" She looks at me through the mirror, "what do you mean what? Who are you going to kiss at the snow ball".
She shakes her head and laughs, "n-no one". I raise my eyebrows, "really, because right now your cheeks are extremely red and you're smiling to yourself, max I'm not blind, you're my sister, you think I wouldn't notice when you like someone".
"Well, I don't even know if he likes me back", "Lucas?" She nods, I looked down remembering what Dustin said about him liking max and I felt so bad for him, however it's not my choice who max does and doesn't like, "oh yeah, he is definitely into you, you should see the way he smiled when he noticed the two of you were holding hands".
She smiles a bit, "what about you? Any special boys?" I look at her and laugh, "no! No way". She slaps her head and shakes it, "you are literally the worst liar ever".
"I'm not ly-", "Steph", "fine. There is this one boy, Steve-" her eyes widened and my words, "STEVE!"
I place my hand over her mouth, "shut up! Billy is going to hear you!" I whisper carefully taking my hand off her mouth. "Steve, as in Steve Harrington?"
"Is there any other Steve's in Hawkins?", "oh my god, I don't even know why I'm surprised you guys have been flirting the past few months".
I shake my head, "no we haven't, it's called interacting with someone", "no it's definitely flirting"
-
The drive there was actually really fun. We blasted music and were screaming the words. I began to lower it down as we pulled into the parking lot. "Okay, I don't want major snogging on that dance floor, a little peck on the lips will be fine you're only thirteen a-", "we might not even kiss".
"I can't believe you're still doubting it" I say while shaking my head. She looked through the review mirror and puffed her hair up, "how do I look?".
"Perfect" I say smiling, "thank you". I brought her into a big hug, "have fun okay? I'll be out here when you get out". "Okay bye Steph!" She says, I wave in return.
I sit int he car for at least ten minutes bored out of my mind, I probably should go home but I don't want to be in the house while max isn't there. When max is there, dad would rarely hit me, he didn't want max to feel frightened.
Over the past month he's hit me more than usual. At least once a week, and most of the time it was for the littlest things. I supposed he was still mad about the whole bring max home really late thing. I have a black eye and a small cut on my lip but nothing major, everything else had healed, thankfully.
I looked around for some entertainment but there was nothing. I huffed. However I noticed Dustin and Steve pulling up. They were a couple cars away from me and I got out of my car, locking it before walking over towards them.
I leaned next to Steve's window and tapped on it, scaring them, "Jesus!". He rolled down the window allowing me to see better, "you nearly gave me a heart attack".
"Steph please explain to Dustin that he looks fine and needs to stop stressing" Steve said looking at Dustin. I turned my view from Steve to him, "Dustin you look fine, honest, I really like the hair actually".
"You do?" His face lights up, "yeah did a really nice job". I loved it when I gave Dustin confidence, it really cheered me up.
He looked at the door and breathed in and out, "hey look, you look amazing, just go in there, act like a million bucks and have fun". He nods and gets out the car.
I backed away from Steve's car and he got out. "How are you?" He asked. We hadn't seen each other in over a week and hadn't been able to catch up about what's going on in our lives, "I'm good actually. I still haven't spoke to Billy, or my dad-"
"You dad? what did your dad do?" I looked at Steve's car and noticed wipes. I shoved my hand through his open window and grabbed the wipes. I carefully wiped it over the concealer and lipstick to reveal my black eye and the cut on my lip.
His eyes widened when he saw it, "y-your dad did that?" He stuttered, I nod staring into space. He was lost for words, he didn't know what to say in these sorts of situations.
I then realised what I'd just told him, I never normally spill that kind of information just like that, "woah, I'm sorry, I uh I didn't mean to just let it all put like..that" I rambled on.
"No no it's okay, I'm, I'm sorry like that he does that, you don't deserve it" he mutters, "no it's okay, I'm used to it by now".
"I guess he just sees my mom in me, probably, well that's what I've always believed anyway" I kept replaying every time he hit me back in my head. I didn't want to cry, I didn't want to seem weak in front of Steve, I also didn't want to put that all on him. I looked up at him at he was already looking at me. I feel he could tell that I wanted to go home and just forget everything thats happens.
He pulls me into a hug and puts his arms around me. I bury my head into his chest and manage to hold back my tears. We both pull away from the hug and talk about random stuff.
It seemed like we only had ten minutes to talk due to fast the time went. I saw all the kids beginning to exit the building. "This was nice, Steph, see you later" he says getting in his car, "see you Steve".
