In The Stars / Steve Harrington 3

Chapter 10

We get to Ms. Kelly's house and Steve parks on the street in front of her house. "Okay, wish me luck." I say as I get out of Steve's car. "Good luck." Steve says while Max gives me an encouraging smile, and Dustin gives me a thumbs up. I sigh as I close the passenger side door of Steve's car and walk to Ms. Kelly's front door.

I ring the doorbell and after a few seconds Ms. Kelly answers. "Bella hi." Ms. Kelly says as she gives me a questioning look. "Hi, I'm so sorry to bother you on break, but do you have a minute to talk?" I ask. "Um, yeah, of course, of course." She says as she steps aside to let me into her home. I look back at Steve's car and nod to Max, Dustin, and Steve. I walk into Ms. Kelly's house, and she takes me to a room, and I sit down as she sits at her desk.

Steve's pov

"Alright, she's in." I say, seeing Bella's nod and her go inside Ms. Kelly's house. "I'm missing collar bones, not eyes." Dustin says sarcastically. I nod and keep my eyes glued on the house.

"So we gonna talk about it?" Dustin asks. "Sorry, talk about what?" I ask as I tear my eyes away from the house. "Your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at Bella." Dustin explains. "Okay, first of all, that's not what happened." I say. "Pretty sure that's what happened. It was pretty public, Max and I were here the whole time." Dustin says, and I send him a glare. "Yeah, we're both witnesses." Max says, and I redirect my glare to her. "Are you implying that I still have a thing for Bella?" I ask.

"No, we're not implying we're stating, and as it relates to your steadfast refusal to date anyone else, it's pretty much the only logical explanation." Max says with a shrug. "That's not the only reason." I say with a sigh. "And as for Bells, I was just worried about a friend." I say, trying to come up with a lie. I look in the rear view mirror to see both of them noding sarcastically. "A friend, you two. Okay?" I say. "Okay." They respond sarcastically in unison. "I don't want to find her in the morning with her eyes sucked out of the front of her skull by this Vecna creep." I explain.

"You're like bright red in the face right now." Dustin says with a laugh. "No, I'm not." I defend myself. "I don't want to talk about it. I'll punch you so hard in your face that your teeth will fall back out." I say as I look away from him. "Woah, too far." Dustin says, and I look back at him. "Not cool. Sorry." I apologize. "It's okay." Dustin says quietly as Max laughs.

Bella's pov

"It's just, with everything that's happening, with all the murders, it's - it's making everything worse again." I explain to Ms. Kelly. "You've experienced trauma, Bella, and when you keep your feelings, your pain, bottled up the way you do, it doesn't take much to trigger them again. So now when it rains, it storms." She explains, and I nod. "Yeah, I know." I say thinking about everything that's happened recently and how I've been feeling.

"Do you think you're ready to talk more about that night?" She asks, and I think about that night at Starcourt Mall. I shut my eyes tightly, and I see him. I always see him. I quickly open my eyes and look back at Ms. Kelly.

"I live next door to where it happened." I say quickly, trying to change the subject. "I'm sorry?" She asks. "To where Chrissy was murdered." I say to clarify. "The cops asked me a bunch of questions. Did they talk to you?" I ask her. "I mean, I know you were seeing Chrissy." I say, trying to get some form of information about what Chrissy could have been seeing. "Bella, you know I can't talk about Chrissy or any other student." She says, and I mentally groan in frustration. "Yeah, but I mean, what if there was a serial killer on the loose in my neighborhood?" I ask. "Did Chrissy mention anything? Anything about who might have done this?" I question further. "Bella, I- I'm sorry. I really can't discuss this." Ms. Kelly says as she puts her hands up.

"You wouldn't want me talking to any other students about you, right?' She asks. "If I were dead and it would help catch the killer, then yeah, I most definitely would." I say in frustration. "Well, let's leave that up to the police, shall we?" She asks, clearly annoyed. "Yeah, you're right. The police totally have this under control." I say as I stare at her.

"Can I use the bathroom?" I ask, trying to come up with a way to get out of this situation. "Sure, up the stairs to the left." She says. "Thanks." I say as I get up and walk up the stairs. I see a bowl of keys in her kitchen, and an idea sparks in my mind. I turn around to make sure Ms. Kelly isn't watching me, and once I see that she isn't, I walk over to the bowl of keys. I grab the keys that say 'office', and I quickly shove them in my pocket and walk down the hallway and out of her front door.

I run back to Steve's car and quickly get in the passenger seat. "What'd she say?" Steve asks me. "Nothing, just drive." I say to him as I put on my seat belt. "Nothing?" He questions. "Steve drive!" I yell at him. "Okay." He says as he quickly puts his car in drive and drives away.

"What the hell happened?" Max asks. "We need to get to the high school, now." I say quickly. "Uh, why?" Steve asks. "She wouldn't tell me anything willingly, so we're going to take the information we need." I say as I hold up Ms. Kelly's office keys. "Bells." Steve scolds. "You can yell at me like a child later, Steve, right now, we need to get to the school." I snap at him. He sighs in defeat, and we drive to the high school.