When The Sun Goes Down (Steddie)

Life Is a Mix Tape

The tension was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. Dustin, Mike, and Lucas avoided Steve like the plague for the next few days. Will could sense that something was wrong, though he had no idea what it was. Steve sure as hell wasn't going to tell him that his friends had planned to get high, most likely without him because Steve knew Will had more sense than that. Jonathan would kill him if he thought his brother was smoking weed. And the other three boys weren't going to tell him because they knew he'd get mad. They'd talked about it in the past and Will had made his feelings known. He was adamantly against drug use.

Even Jason Carver and Patrick McKinney, the other two counselors in Steve's group, noticed it. They were well aware of Steve's friendship with the boys. And in years past, they always hung out with Steve at camp more so than with anyone else. But now they acted like they didn't even know him. When they hiked or swam or brought out the canoes, the boys just kept to themselves and let Steve do his thing as a counselor without bugging him to death like usual. Patrick just assumed it was because they were getting older and didn't want a chaperone all the time. But Jason knew them a little better than that. Steve had been his mentor when he joined the basketball team a few years back, and now that Steve was out of high school, Lucas was on the team with Jason and Patrick, and he'd gotten to know him pretty well. He knew that Lucas and the others idolized Steve.

"What'd they do?" Steve looked up at Jason as he sat down on the dock next to him. The ten boys in their charge were in the lake swimming with Patrick, and Steve was just watching. "I saw Henderson and Wheeler sneaking away the other night and you going after them. What'd you bust them with?"

"They were trying to buy weed," Steve said. He trusted Jason enough to know he wouldn't say anything to anyone. "I found them in the woods with Eddie Munson."

"That freak better watch his step," Jason growled. "Aren't they in his cult or something?"

"It's not a cult," Steve told him. "It's a club for nerds. And Eddie's not so bad. He's harmless."

"A club? Harmless?" Jason laughed bitterly. "That freak has you so snowed. It's all a lie. A lie designed to conceal the truth."

"Yeah?" Steve knew Jason and Eddie were enemies. Rumor was that Eddie had a crush on Jason's girlfriend, Chrissy Cunningham, and she had a soft spot for Eddie. She'd tutored him through most of the last school year. If it hadn't been for her, Eddie would not have graduated. Again. "What is the truth, Jason?"

"The truth is that Eddie is the devil." Steve rolled his eyes at that. "Or a vessel for the devil, at the very least."

"The devil isn't real." Steve had no place in his life for religion and prided himself on being a non-believer.

"I know you've heard about how satanic cults are spreading through our country," Jason said, his tone deadly serious. "And Eddie Munson is the leader of one of those cults that's operating right here in Hawkins." Jason shook his head sadly. "People say our town is cursed. I think it's just under the influence of Eddie's satanic cult, Hellfire." Steve shook his head as he rolled his eyes again. He didn't want to argue with Jason. "I'm glad we're getting out of this place when the summer's over. I can't wait to get Chrissy far, far away from here."

"Where are you going," Steve asked. He was thankful for the turn in conversation. He was afraid Jason was going to start quoting bible verses. He did that sometimes, being that his father was the pastor at the Presbyterian church in town. "I'm headed to Notre Dame."

"Berkley," Jason answered. "Chrissy and I both got accepted there."

"It's a good school," Steve told him. "You'll do well there." Jason just nodded. "Where's Chrissy? I've seen her a couple of times the last few days, but she hasn't been hanging out with the other counselors."