𝗨𝗚𝗟𝗬 // 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

025

The crash is louder than bombs but it successfully stops its target, smashing into Billy long enough for Jonathan to start the car.

"Get in!" Nancy calls to Steve and Robin as a large shadow begins to loom above us once more and Billy's car starts again, the boy somehow waking up after being hit.

They fall into the car, Steve taking the empty space besides me in the boot as I find myself wrapping my arms around him. "You're okay!" I breathe out, lungs aching from anxiety, his eye is more swollen then before and his head seems to be swinging, but he still gives me a charming smile that makes my stomach flutter.
"Of course I'm okay. I promised you didn't I?"

I feel my breathe hitch, "w-what?" My eyes are widened and face hot and I find the rest of the world disappearing once more, except us.
"That you'll never lose me."

There's a silence and looking back at that moment, I know I would've kissed him, and I know he would've kissed me too, especially since he was leaning in.
Until..

"Ew! Gross! God, There's other people in here!" Robin slaps him across the side of the head from her seat in front of us, causing him to turn abruptly and glare at her, a shot of laughter fighting itself inside of me.

"Can you guys stick to the problem at hand? Jesus." She breaks us from our spell once more and with her words I realise the predicament we're currently in. The car is speeding down the roads as that thing follows us, but Billy isn't there anymore. I'm the only one that seems worried by that.

We speed like that for a while, trying our best to distract the thing from the kids still inside the mall, hoping it'll leave them alone long enough.

There's a crackle from the radio, "Dusty Bun you copy?"

"Yes I copy Suzy-poo."

"Suzy..." me, Steve and Robin breathe out at the realisation of what we're hearing, a sense of pride seeming to run through Steve's face.

This must be the girlfriend Dustin never stop talking about..

"She is real!" The popular boy smiles and bounces slightly from besides me, Robin smirks and sighs in disbelief.
"Wait- you two didn't believe she was real?" I state in  shock, mouth hanging at their rudeness, "oh come on, you did?" Steve smirks.

"Yes."

"No you didn't! No way!" He's teasing me as always and I can't help but tease back,
"Yes I did because I'm a good friend!"

"Oh come on you never doubted it once?"

"I would never!"

"Yeah sure-"

"Guys! Not the time for this!" Robin snaps us back once more, clearly already annoyed with our flirting. "I miss when your crushes were secrets."
The comment makes my face go red and from Steve's fiddling besides me, I sense his has done the same.

"Turn around.."

"What the fuck?" Steve's head snaps to the noise.

"Look at what you see..."

"Is this.. never ending story?" I find myself questioning, confusing rising through me.

"In her face, the mirror of your dreams.."

Robin raises her brows, "kids not a bad singer."

Another voice joins the song,
"Make believe I'm everywhere, given in the light!"

"What is going on back there?" Nancy shouts from the front, the whole care now listening to the singing and seeming to contemplate their lives.
We're still being chased as the pair sing, Steve fiddling with the off button to try get the singing to stop, but it doesn't, clearly the world is playing tricks on him.

Somehow, in all of this nonsense, the monster turned itself around and began trudging its way back, following the road to the mall once more.

"Shit." Jonathan breathes out and turns the car around.
In moments like these, I used to panic, I used to lose my breathe and wish for the world to swallow me wherever I was. But I'm not shaking anymore and my stomach isn't sick like it used to be, instead, all I'm thinking of..

Is saving those damn kids.

I know I'll still get anxious and I know the world will still throw obstacles at me, but somehow everything else seems smaller now that I've been chased by a giant monster, so I'm gonna help as much as I can.

This isn't the bucket list experience that Barb expected, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind a couple changes to the plans.

In all of the commotion I don't realise that the sharp turn had knocked me into Steve until I feel another heart beating beneath my own chest and look up to see I'm now fallen on the golden boy.

I cough awkwardly, pushing him playfully and scratching the back of my neck, "heh.. cliche right?"
Small talk was my best defence from embarrassment right now.
"I like cliche." I wasn't expecting him to reply with that though. He pulls me in again, keeping me by his side as the car twists and turns down the road. Everyone else falls over in their seats, but not me, Steve protects me, holding onto my waist, I wish I could tell him he didn't need to worry, that I wasn't going to willingly let go, but by the time I could we're outside the mall.

The lights flicker inside the building, sounds of glass shattering from inside as darkness seems to cross overhead.
We're helpless, no clue what to do, standing there like rusting statues until Lucas speaks up,

"I have a plan!"

***

A/N:
Hey guys I wanted to end this chapter by apologising for not updating in a while I've been very busy doing photoshoots (I'm a makeup artist)
Also I'm sorry it's kind of short but I wanted to space things up accordingly to the plot.

We're almost at the end of part one by the looks of it! I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for everything, this fic blew up bigger than I ever expected!
I based a lot of Ruby's experiences and self doubt on my own and to see so many people liking this fic, sets my ego a little bit higher than it was <33