𝗨𝗚𝗟𝗬 // 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

024

POV CHANGE - THIRD PERSON POV

Your love
Is liftin' me higher

Music blasts through the radio as Steve's hands grip tighter to the steering wheel of a car so classily named 'Todd father' thanks to its number plate. Steve had been in a happy mood despite the circumstances due to his upcoming date and had proclaimed, "screw Todd, Steve's her daddy now."

"Jesus how far is this place?" He frustratedly let's out, earning an quick reply from Dustin, "relax, we're almost there."

"Suzie must be pretty special huh? I mean, if you built this thing and lugged it all the way to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her?" Robin questions, looking back at the boy who smiles, love struck, "I mean nobody's scientifically perfect but Suzie's about as close to being perfect as any human could possibly be."

Steve smiles to himself and the words slip out before he can stop them, "I'd say there's other perfect humans out there."

Everybody in the car shares a look, Robin snickering slightly as they all know who Steve is talking about.

***

Ruby sat there on the star court mall benches, an impending doom passing over her, a sort of sinking feeling in her stomach as she realised what was happening based off of context.

Billy Hargrove must be a part of that monster.
Meaning it had found them.

She found herself crouching besides Nancy as the girl prepared herself, cocking a gun in her hand, striking a sort of surprise to come across Ruby's face. She never knew Nancy wheeler carried a gun, let alone knew how to use one.

"You're gonna kill him aren't you?" Max asked, concerned causing the older Wheeler to give her a sympathetic look, "it's just a precaution."
Ruby could understand the inner turmoil Max must be facing at that moment, Billy Hargrove was a bully, but he was also the girls brother, blood or not.

She supposed that must be difficult.

As the kids and Jonathan made their way to the crashed car from earlier, Nancy continued fiddling with her gun besides Ruby.
"You know.. we're gonna be okay."

Maybe the curly haired girl could sense Ruby's discomfort, maybe her slumped shoulders and shaking leg were giving her true emotions away.
"We've faced things like this before and we've always won."

Ruby took in the girls words.
Nancy had faced these things.. these seemingly horrible things before, all this time she'd been thinking Nancy Wheeler was some porcelain doll with a perfect life, but people with a perfect life don't learn to use a gun, let alone feel they have to.

And so what if Nancy Wheeler was a porcelain doll?
From what Ruby could see, she was a pretty cool one.

But it did strike her to know how blind she'd been, in fact a sort of guilt waved through her stomach as she realised just what trauma the girl besides her must of been through.

She found herself remembering Miss Cooks words from a couple weeks ago,
You know in a way.. all women are alike.

"Thank you, Nancy." She spoke to the girl for the first time in a while, a slight smile appearing on her face, "what for?" She's cocking an eyebrow, confused.

"For this, for being such a good protector. I feel safe knowing you're here." And Ruby truly meant those words, no matter how much they seemed to take Nancy back as her eyes widened.
But then they became soft, "thank you, I uh.. I really appreciate that."