Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen: You Belong With Me

Annie stood in front of her bathroom mirror, scrutinizing every last detail of her hair and makeup before leaving. "Annie, come on! Let's go!" Steve called up the stairs. He couldn't believe he got roped into driving two children tonight, even though he didn't entirely mind. It was this part that was annoying.

"I'm coming, I promise! Just three more seconds!" she called back, adjusting a brown curl to frame her face better. Once it was how she liked, she smiled and hurried (carefully) out of the room. As expected, Steve was leaning against the wall at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for her.

"That was more than three seconds," he deadpanned as she hurried past.

"Well, now you're falling behind. Let's go! We still have to get Dustin," she said. Steve sighed and followed Annie out to his car.

Once they were in and on the road, it was quiet. They seemed to do that a lot now, not out of awkwardness, but out of still attempting to process all they've been through. Steve was even more protective of her now, even though the lab was all taken care of and Billy wouldn't dare go near any one of Max's friends. But it made them both feel better.

He wasn't always there at night, though, when the nightmares came by for a visit. They used to be a lot worse right after it all went down. She didn't sleep for two nights in a row and had to stay home from school the next morning. Since then, she's been better, but not perfect. Something like that would never go away completely.

Steve knew about her nightmares, and she knew that every now and then he'd have one, too. They were different than hers, but existed all the same. She and Max talked after they saw A Nightmare on Elm Street about how that movie was scary, but nothing beat what they lived through.

Annie took it as a way to watch all horror movies now, knowing they couldn't compare to her real trauma.

The only good thing that came from that day was her friendships. She was obviously still friends with Holly and Meghan, but now she was friends with Max and was starting to rebuild her friendship with the others. Trauma bonding is a great way to make friends.

When they arrived at Dustin's house, Steve went up to ring the doorbell and grab Dustin. It took a second, but when he came out, Annie had to stifle a laugh. She cleared her throat and didn't say a word when Dustin first got in the car.

They made very small talk on the way there, mainly listening to the Christmas tunes on the radio. Annie hummed along and moved her head back and forth to the beat as they pulled up to the school.

Steve parked right in front of the entrance and looked at the kids in his car. He looked at Dustin first, giving his shoulder a nudge. "So, remember, once you get in there..."

Dustin nodded. "Pretend like I don't care." Annie suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

"You don't care."

"I don't care."

"There you go, you're learning my friend. You are learning," Steve said. They were quiet for a moment, then Dustin moved the rearview mirror to double check his appearance. "Hey."

"What?" Dustin asked, moving his hand away.

"Come on. You look great, okay? You look... great," Steve reassured while readjusting the mirror back to where he needs it. "Okay, now you're gonna go in there..."

"Yeah."

"Look like a million bucks..."

"Yeah!"

"And you're gonna slay 'em dead."