Basic Instinct [stranger things]

38. Dart

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
DART

Kimmy was extremely worried for the youngest Harrington boy, fearful he would give himself a nosebleed from stress.

Despite his very evident stress, it was as if the boy simply could not look away from his brother who was outside, a worried expression on his face which refused to falter.

Kimmy grabbed ahold of his left shoulder, trying to avert his attention from the rising tensions going on outside.

"Aaron, don't look." Kimmy murmured lowly so Dustin wouldn't hear, but she assumed that he couldn't hear her anyway. "He's going to be okay-"

"No he isn't," Aaron stressed, not able to look away from the scene outside. "He is out there with a literal demogorgon and nothing but a baseball bat to defend him."

Kimmy winced, unsure how she was supposed to spin that into something positive.

In a brief moment of confusion, Kimmy gripped his shoulder tighter and ripped him away from the small window, the boy stumbling slightly.

Aaron looked to her with a look of great confusion, going to say something before Kimmy beat him to it.

"Aaron, listen to me." Kimmy spoke bluntly, trying to get the boy to take her words seriously. "Steve will be fine. He said he fought a demogorgon last year, remember? He'll be okay."

Aaron didn't seem to believe her, looking unconvinced as he stared back at her.

Kimmy sighed, searching through her brain for something to say that would bring even a slither of reassurance to the boy.

"He's going to be okay, Aaron." She spoke much more confidently than she was and definitely much more confident than she should have been. "He would not have gone out there if he had any doubts. Dustin and Lucas seem to be confident that he'll be fine, you know Dustin would be freaking out if he even thought for a second something would happen-"

"They don't get it though, he's my brother." Aaron stressed, a saddened yet anxious look on his face as he spoke in a low whisper so no one but Kimmy could hear. "He's my brother and quite literally the only person I have looking out for me. Asshole or not, I need him okay? My parents are never home, and I don't mean a weekend away every few months - I mean months at a time. If something happened to him I don't know what I'm supposed to do. They do not get it at all."

Kimmy was taken aback by his abrupt outburst but said nothing of it. The boy was quite clearly stressed beyond belief and obviously nothing the girl could say would calm him down.

"You don't have to think about what you would do if something happened, because it's not going to happen." Kimmy answered after a moment of silence had past between the two. "I know it's scary, but do your best to keep calm, okay. I promise you Steve will be okay."

Kimmy was more than aware that she could not promise the older boy would be fine, but she was doing everything she could to keep the boy as calm as possible.

Aaron hesitated, biting the inside of his cheek as he took a breath and reluctantly nodded. He would not take his eyes off of the girl in front of him, scared if he looked to his side and out the window he would spiral and the panic would come crashing back.

"What's he doing?" Max asked Dustin as she climbed down the ladder, returning from her spot on the roof.

Dustin shrugged, not looking away from his content spot in front of the window. "Expanding the menu-"