𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒

thirteen

after everything that had happened a few months ago with the demo-dogs, with eleven closing the gate, and the whole mess with billy, sam was looking forward to finally getting time away from life-threatening situations. this summer was supposed to be one to remember, and, well, looking back on it, she supposed it definitely was.

sam had first started the summer by becoming a personal chauffeur for the party. dustin, was headed to his summer science camp, and everyone wanted to spend as much time with him before he left. the boy was thrilled to be going somewhere with people as 'competent' as him. the camp would teach him about coding and computers, among other things he was into. he was stoked to be leaving, and said goodbye only a couple weeks into summer.

this left many opportunities for the rest of the party to get comfortable. since the snowball, lucas and max had started a relationship, breaking up a few times here and there. of course they had gotten back together afterwards, and every time they were together they seemed only interested in each other.

her sister was also interested in her boyfriend. steve was perfect, and treated sam better than she could have ever imagined. their relationship was something that just came naturally to them; which was amazing, because things all just seemed to fall into place.

the couple, coincidentally, shared a lot of the same interests. they often had spent hours just talking about things they both loved. but they also had common grounding. the common grounding, oddly enough, had been the events of months prior. sam often found herself wondering if that's why steve and herself had been working so well. the trauma bond.

"what's wrong?" steve asked wrapped his arms around sam in a hug. "hm..what?" she followed, feeling steve hold her a little tighter. "what are you thinking about?" sam took a second to think before shrugging off his question, laying her head against his chest.

steve pulled away from her, a frown on his face. "hey. what's going on?" sam shrugged, avoiding eye contact. a few silent moments had pasted and when she still didn't look at him, steve put two fingers under samantha's chin to lift her line of sight to meet his own. he raised his brows as he scanned her expression for a hint of her somber mood.

"i'll always listen to you, you know that, right?" he asked, watching as she let out a sigh, finally releasing her tension and nodding at the boy.

"yes, i know." she replied, making him creep a small smile. "i just get worried sometimes, if that makes sense? like i don't feel like anything that's happened in the past year actually happened. i don't believe in ghosts or inter-dimensional monsters, you know?" she watched as he nodded. "so when nothing else seems real, i sometimes just wonder if this is." she gestured to the both of them, looking down at his hands, which were holding both of hers.

he nodded, his eyes filled with thoughts. "when you wonder if this is real," he began, bringing her hand up to his lips to kiss her knuckles, "and i promise you, it is. i will always be here, as long as you can stand me." sam then cracked a smile, and steve cocked a brow. "what?" he chuckled. "i just don't see myself ever not wanting you around." sam smirked as she watched a small pink tint creep onto steve's cheeks.

he shook his head in efforts to hide his blush, only pulling her closer to him in response. "promise me if you ever feel like this isn't real, or, or if something isn't working.. promise that we'll talk about it...about what might not be working?" he was still holding onto one of her hands with one of his, while his other hand had slipped to rest on her waist, keeping her body pressed against his as he leaned against his passenger side.