Halley's comet | Steve Harrington

ii.xiv children have bad ideas

"𝑴𝒆?"

⇜☾✩☽⇝

Heart still beating wildly, Halley wandered through the heart of Hawkins, backtracking the trek she had taken only about half an hour ago. She needed to go home. Her brain was scattered, fried, and if anything else went wrong she didn't know if she could handle it.

"Halley?" She turned at the sound of her name. Her hands were shaking, worried that she was going to be confronted about what had happened. That somehow, someone had seen her. Them.

Lucas was pedaling toward her at a frantic speed. She stopped, letting him catch up to her.

"Hey." he came to a screeching halt in front of her, his face flush with the effort he had just put in. "I was, uh, I was on my way to your house, actually." He was half off his bike, with his feet on the ground, and was incredibly out of breath.

Figuring this was about her brother, Halley put on a fake smile, "Oh, yeah, Will's just—"

"No, no, I was coming for you." He had dismounted his bike, propping it up with the kickstand.

"Me?"

He nodded. "Yeah, you." he spoke as if it was obvious. It was not. Lucas sighed, rolling his eyes, "I need your help."

"Okay," she said, drawing out the word as if that would encourage him to further explain. He only stood there with wide eyes, waiting for a response. "Kid, I'm gonna need some more info."

"Right, yeah, obviously." He shook his head at himself, like he was trying to focus. This was the first time outside of a campaign that she had seen him so animated. "So, Max, right? She thinks we're jerks because we're keeping the whole... thing from her right," his voice got low, leaning closer to Halley to keep away any prying ears, "I want to tell her."

Halley stepped back, holding out a hand to stop him. "Woah. Hold on," she said, looking around. There was a woman on the other end of the street walking into a coffee shop; she didn't look at them. "Lucas, you remember what those guys told us." Even if he didn't, she did. And she remembered the threat they had given with full conviction. "I don't think government guys with guns are the best people to fu- mess around with."

Picking at a loose thread in his shirt, Lucas refrained from looking up at her. Halley wasn't naive though; she knew that he wouldn't give up that easily.

"I think she deserves to know. She's already seen two of Will's episodes and-"

Halley cut him off, "two? What?" She was well aware of what had happened at the school, she had been there after all. But what was the other one? She'd been under the assumption that she knew of every time there had been an episode. For the most part, Jonathan, Joyce or Halley were there for them, and when they weren't Will would, albeit, reluctantly, tell them about it. So when did this happen?