the other woman! - 𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 - 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐣𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲

disclaimer: there will be a lot of time skips to keep in pace with the actual show. also, there's major character plot armor in this chapter. a/n — this is seriously one of the longest chapters i've ever written (edit: did not age well at all)

*** tw!! mention of suicide!

It was a slow and early morning for a Wednesday. Steve's friends, Tommy and Carol, at his late night shindig decided to ditch after noticing the couple upstairs were "kicking it off" without them. After having fun with themselves first, of course. The house, that morning, after last night was a complete mess of red cups and cigarette butts on the concrete floor in the backyard. A usual lame party hangover.

Upstairs in Steve's bedroom, Nancy lay bare naked, but with a bra in the pile of blankets, with Steve asleep next to her. All she could do was look at the white ceiling, wide awake for the past 30 minutes. Not because she just had sex for the first time with an attractive guy, but felt "disgusted" with herself despite that. It bugged her how ashamed she felt even though it was something she hoped to do for quite some time. As if it was going to fill the void and make everything seem "normal". But instead, it made everything worse. It felt worse from how she treated Monica yesterday.

"... you're acting like I'm your girlfriend or something..."

Of course, she felt bad that she didn't really enjoy her time with Steve but, to be honest, he was her least concern at the moment. All she wants to do was to end their short fight and hang out again. But instead, she lies in the midst of Steve's usual cologne with his nude body toppled over her while he snores right in her face.

There was a slight hangover feeling when Nancy softly pushed Steve away to sit up straight, rubbing her head in a groan. It wasn't long before she realized that her mom must've been having a heart attack for the past hour and that she should go.

After taking a quick shower, she threw on a nearby sweater that Steve had lying around and locked her eyes on Steve's sleeping stance. She was weirded out by how unattractive she actually found him in this state. Felt guilty about how out of place she felt during the whole experience. The haunting thing for her was the possibility of it never feeling right. Not with Steve. Or any other men, in general.

She nudged him awake and told him that she needed to go home before her mom finds out. He groggily nodded a yes while drooling on his pillow. Nancy leaves his room and house disgusted with herself.

As she left, there was a sense of eerie anxiety that failed to be there before. It was as if she felt something was watching her like a stalker. Even if it seemed like nothing, something felt off. Something is terribly wrong. For the past few seconds, all she could stare at was the rustling bushes around the pool area. But mostly to her surprise, an ordinary bunny popped out of the bushes and hopped away. She then released a breath and walked her way home. Little did she know that one of her best friends was being slaughtered as she uttered a breath. She just couldn't see it in her own world.

—

Monica failed to realize wherever she was when she was lying there unconscious, minutes after the Demogorgon collected her as a treat. Alongside Barb, she would be in shock when discovering her potential fate. They both were stuck in the bottom of the pool as slimy, thick vines roots surrounded them and an awaiting starfished, flesh-eating monster to eat them alive. The creature crawls its way to Monica, sniffing her scent as it makes alien noises. It acted as if it was a dog tasting its meat before chowing down. Once the monster got closer and closer to her frozen skin to the point where its drool placed over her face, it magically seemed like it lost its interest in her and made its way over Barb.