The Babysitters ♡ Steve Harrington

Episode 2

Having school on Halloween sucked, but Tina's party tonight would make up for it. I stood in the living room as Mom took pictures of Dustin in his Ghostbusters costume.

"Oh! I want to see those pearls. Yeah!" Mom cheered, taking more photos.

I stood beside Mom in my normal clothes because I wasn't aware people dressed up to go to school anymore. Spoiler alert: they don't.

"Who you gonna call?" Mom nudged me with her arm as she sang.

"Not him." I grabbed my bag.

"I didn't know you already put your costume on, Athena. You already look so scary." Dustin insulted with his signature smile.

I stared at him for a moment. "I sure hope that ghost machine doesn't suck you up."

"It's a proton pack!" Dustin argued.

"It's stupid!" I yelled back.

"Hey, hey, enough!" Mom stopped us from shouting. "Athy, why don't you get a picture with your brother?"

"Yeah, Athy." Dustin mocked and I begrudgingly moved to his side.

"Smile!" Mom ordered.

My mouth lifted in a brief smile until I noticed Steve's car had pulled up outside. "Gotta go! Love you!"

I ran towards Steve's passenger door just as he got out of the driver's seat.

"Hey, Thena." He furrowed his eyebrows and sat back down in the car. "I was just coming to open the door for you."

"No need, Stevie." I smiled.

Steve groaned loudly and began to drive. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

-

Nancy and I were studying in the library. Well, she was studying, I was doodling in my book. Her pencil broke and she walked over to the sharpener.

When I realized she was still there two minutes later, I stood and noticed her staring off into space. I walked over and put my hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

"Hey, you okay?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

She looked over my shoulder once more before looking at me. "Come on." She pulled me into one of the private study rooms. "I can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?" I questioned.

"Pretending everything's okay." Nancy answered.

"What do you mean?" I shook my head.

"Barb. It's like everyone forgot. Even you." She whispered with crossed arms.

"I didn't forget. I can't even if I wanted to." I denied.

"Nobody, except you, me and her parents care. Now they're selling their house." Nancy continued.

"Nance-" I began.

"And they're going to spend the rest of their lives looking for her." She added.

"I know." I nodded.

"It's destroying them." Tears welled in Nancy's eyes.

"It's their daughter. They don't know Barb is dead, of course they're gonna keep looking for her." I cut in. "We can't do anything about it."

"We can tell them the truth." She suggested.

"No." I immediately stated and Nancy looked down. "Nancy, we can't. You know that. I have this...terrible guilty conscience, but...we can't tell them. Something could happen to us or them or our families. We can't risk it. Barb wouldn't want us to risk it."