The Babysitters ♡ Steve Harrington

Episode 2

Today is Halloween.

I stood in my living room, watching Mom take pictures of Dustin in his costume. He was one of the Ghostbusters. 

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

I stood to the side, not in costume because that would be ridiculous.

"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 yelling. "Athy, why don't you get a picture with your brother?"

"Yeah, Athy." Dustin mocked.

I moved to his side as Mom said "Smile!"

I looked out the window as Steve pulled up. "Gotta go! Love you!" I shouted, running outside. 

"Hey, Thena." Steve smiled.

"Stevie." I smiled back.

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

In school, Nancy and I were studying in the library. Well, she was doing school work. I was doodling in my book. Her pencil broke and she walked off to the sharpener. 

I looked over, because she was taking a hell of a long time, and saw her staring into space. I got up, walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She jumped.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked. 

She looked over my shoulder once more before looking at me. "Come on."

She pulled me into one of the library offices, a more private room.

"I can't keep doing this." She sighed.

"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 looked up at me.

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

"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. Nancy, we can't. You know that." I said and she looked down. "I know, 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."

"Okay." Nancy caved. "You're right."

I opened my arms and we shared a hug.

After school was the Halloween party. Steve and I were dressed as characters from the movie Risky Business. I, so badly, did not want to dress up, but Steve was really excited so I agreed. Nancy joined us, she was dressed as Barbie. 

Steve and I stood in the mix of everyone. Nancy was dancing to the music as Jonathan showed up to the party. Suddenly, Billy, the new guy, came up to us with Tommy by his side.

"We got ourselves a new Keg King, Harrington." Tommy told us.

"Yeah, that's right!" Another guy shouted.

"Yeah, eat it, Harrington." The guy on Billy's left added.

Steve removed his sunglasses, staring right back at Billy.

They were having an intense stare off as I stood to the side rolling my eyes.

Billy's eyes traveled over to me and he smirked, removing the cigarette from his mouth and giving me a wink. I just continued staring blankly.

They finally walked off without another word.

"Did he wink at you or me?" Steve asked.

"Definitely not you." I looked back at him. "Ignore him, he just wants his five minutes of fame 'cause he's new. I want a drink, come with me." I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the kitchen.

I saw Nancy scooping punch into her cup.

"Easy girl." I watched as she chugged the cup.

She looked back at me, wiping the rest of the drink off her chin and walking back out.

"No controlling that one." Steve looked back at me.

I watched as Steve grabbed a new cup and scooped some punch into it.

"My lady." He handed me the cup.

"How sweet." I smiled back, chugging the drink.

"Oh, come on. Not you, too!" Steve whined as I chugged another cup.

"Wanna dance, party boy?" I smirked.

"With you? Always." He nodded, following me back onto the dance floor. We danced to the music and he spun me around.

I watched Nancy push by Jonathan and walk back over to the punch. 

Jonathan looked over at me and I got the hint to help her. I walked over.

"Nance." I pulled her arm back.

"No, get off!" She pushed my arm away but I grabbed her again.

"You're drunk. You can't keep drinking." I grabbed her arm again. 

She scooped more punch into her cup and I tried to grab it from her.

"Nancy, put it down." I told her.

"Athena, stop!" Nancy whined.

She pulled her hands out of my grip and it resulted in her cup flying back and spilling red punch all over her dress. Everyone around us gasped.

My jaw was dropped and Nancy looked up at me.

"What the hell?" Her words were slurred. She ran off to the bathroom. 

Jonathan followed her.

I closed my eyes as I let my hands drop to my side. I looked over and everyone was staring at me.

"What?" I questioned, raising my voice. Everyone looked away.

Steve walked up to me. "At least I didn't spill red punch on your shoes again."

I glared at him. Not the time.

"Yeah, sorry." Steve muttered.

I waited until I saw Jonathan walk Nancy out of the bathroom and passed by saying he would take her home.

"I want to leave." I told Steve.

"Yeah, okay, let's go." He nodded, taking my hand and leading me outside. We walked to his car in silence and then he spoke when we got inside. "Are you okay?"

"I embarrassed my best friend by spilling punch all over her." I put my head in my hands.

"Oh, my God." Steve gasped. I looked up at him. "You're me."

I furrowed my eyebrows, then I realized...I was him.

"I am you." Horror was written across my face. 

"Then again, she didn't throw any back at you so there's a difference." Steve shrugged. "You know how to make it up to her, don't you?"

I sighed. "A milkshake."