Brave Like You (Steve Harrington)

Thirty-Nine.

-Steve-

We headed to an empty field so we could prepare our weapons. Max helped Nancy saw off the end of her new shotgun, Lucas and Erica were making spears, Dustin and Eddie were making shields, and Robin, Candace, and I were making molotov cocktails to throw at Vecna.

I noticed Candy watching her brother and Dustin, when Eddie rushed Dustin playfully and Dustin shouted at him not to give him a wedgie, and she even laughed a bit. Robin was still obviously upset about Vickie, so I tried my best to make her feel better. "It just doesn't make sense. That was Dan Shelter. He graduated like two years ago."

"So?" Robin said.

"So he's in college," I reminded her. "Which means he was visiting on spring break, Fast Times was returned like, I don't know, a week ago? Right? Unless she's got some horndog little brother we don't know about. Which is possible. Or she's just, like, really into Judge Reinhold?"

"Steve." Robin said, stopping me,

"What?"

"I don't care," Robin insisted, "I don't understand why you do either with everything that's going on. Honestly, this feels like the perfect time for that little pull of the rug because in the face of the world ending, the stakes of my love life feel spectacularly low."

"Yeah," I agreed, "I mean, I get you there, but I still have hope."

"Not everything has a happy ending," Robin said as she took the finished cocktail from me.

"Yeah, believe me, I know," I reminded her.

"I'm not talking about failed romance," Robin says, "I just...I have this terrible, gnawing feeling that it might not work out for us this time."

"You think we shouldn't be doing this?" Candy asks.

"I think we're mad fools," Robin admits, "The lot of us, but if we don't stop him, who will?"

"To killing Vecna," I said, holding up one of the cocktails.

"Slash Henry," Candy said, holding up another.

Robin grabs her own, "Shlash One."

Once we were all ready, we got back into the Bago and headed back to the trailer park after dropping Max, Lucas, and Erica at the Creel house. Nancy went over the plan for us one more time. "Phase one: we meet Erica at the playground. She'll signal Max and Lucas when we're ready. Phase two: Max baits Vecna. He'll go after her, which will pull him into his trance. Phase three -"

"Eddie and I draw the bats away," Dustin said.

Nancy took over again, "Four: We head to Vecna's newly bat-free lair and -"

"Flambé," Robin finished, holding up a cocktail.

Nancy nodded, "And none of us move onto the next phase until we've all copied. Nobody deviates from the plan no matter what. Got it?"

"Got it," we all replied.

We used the rope in Munson's trailer to get back into the Upside Down. I went first, and I looked at them and shrugged. I could hear Robin sputter, "What does he want us to do, applaude?"

I grabbed the mattress and laid it down. They began throwing weapons and one by one we climbed the rope until we were all in the Upside Down again. I stood before Eddie and Dustin and in my best leader, bossman attitude, I said, "If things go South, I mean, at all, you abort. Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep them busy for a minute or two. We'll take care of Vecna. Don't try to be cute or be a hero or something. You guys are just -"

"Decoys," Dustin finished for me. "Don't worry, you can be the hero, Steve."

Eddie looked at Dustin, and then back to me, "Absolutely. I mean, look at us, we are not heroes."