Butterfly

017-Bitches

Teddy was laying out by the Henderson's pool whenever her dad called from the station. Steve was the one to answer as he was inside making himself an afternoon snack. It was too cold for the pool for him, especially since his parents decided to stop paying for it to be heated since they were never home.

"Hello?" Steve answered the phone with his mouthful of chips.

"Is this where Dorothea Hopper is?" The voice on the other end said, obviously already on the verge of going off on someone regardless of who it was.

"Um... who is this?"

"The chief."

Steve choked on his food before swallowing to give a clear answer. "Right. Yeah, Teddy is here. I can go get her for you."

"No need. I can't wait, just tell her to stay away from home for a couple of days. There's some things going on at home, and it's better if I took care of it alone."

Steve looked out the window confused at the cryptic ways in which the chief spoke. However, he knew enough to know it wasn't in his best interest to question him. Regardless, he wanted to talk to Teddy anyways. He needed help with this whole Nancy situation, and with Cleo off who knows where, this was the perfect time.

"I will let her know," Steve answered, and with that the line went dead.

Steve grabbed the cold sandwiches he had made and the half empty bag of chips, and headed back out to where Teddy was laid out by the pull. He placed a sandwich next to her as she squinted up at him. 

"Thanks." Teddy sat up, pulling a sweatshirt she had stolen from Steve's room over her head, and then picking up the sandwich.

Steve smiled, "No problem. Oh... your dad just called. he said to stay away from home for a couple of days. He wanted to take care of something by himself."

Teddy sighed, setting the sandwich down and shaking her head. "Of course he did. I gotta go. can you take me to Tina's, I need to get my car."

Steve shook his head, chasing after Teddy as she headed to the door. "Wow. Wow. Your dad said to stay here, what do you mean you're going to get your car?"

"Yeah, and he's gonna make a rash decision that's going to make everything worse," she answered, trying to squeeze past Steve who had blocked the door.

"No. We're going to listen to your dad."

"Why?"

"Why? Cause he's the chief of please, Dorothy. I would rather not get shot by your father today."

"My father won't shoot you."

"No, I really think he would. I think he's been trying to get something on me ever sense the whole fight thing last year. Anyways, he seemed pretty frustrated, and I'm sure you want to stay away."

"That's exactly why I need to go. I need to make sure that he doesn't-" Teddy cut herself off, hoping and praying that Steve didn't ask her what she was about to say, but that was too much toask for. 

"Doesn't do what?"

"Nothing," Teddy backed off. "Whatever. I'll stay here. I need to figure a few things out anyways. Maybe I can get ahead on homework or college applications. I can help you with yours did you still need help?"

Steve grabbed Teddy's arm, and looked her directly in the eye. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"What?"

"First you go get drunk at Tina's party last night, and now you refuse to talk about whatever the heck is going on with your dad, and you try to distract me with college talk. Listen, you may be my sister's best friend but that doesn't mean I don't know you."

Teddy shrugged him off, an anger rising in her as he discussed last night. She hadn't meant to get drunk. She never wanted to do it again. But she also was worried that she was loosing Cleo if she didn't. Maybe Eddie was right, she was changing way to fast and she was leaving everyone behind. She just needed to talk to Cleo get everything off of her chest. She didn't want to loose her friend, but she also did not ever want to get that drunk again. 

"Look, Steve. There's just a lot going on, and I don't know how to deal with it, okay? Ever since last year things have been weird. I just want things to go back to normal."

Teddy pushed past Steve and bottled up the stairs to Cleo's room. Steve watched her go mumbling, "I do too."

And that was it for the rest of the night. He hadn't meant to make her angry, or frustrated, or whatever was going on with Teddy. He was just worried. There wasn't enough time in the world to ever understand what was going on in her head, but he wanted to figure it out, just to give her some peace. But that wasn't going to happen, he just needed to focus on himself, and maybe Nancy. Fix one problem at a time.  

The next morning things got off to horrible start. Teddy woke up in a mess as Steve barged into the room, frustrated that she wasn't up yet, telling her that he was going to leave in five minutes with or without her. She through on some pants, keeping his hoodie on from the night before, brushed her teeth, and was out the door. 

"Where's Cleo?" Teddy asked, as Steve hit the gas on his car and headed to school. 

"No clue," he huffed. "I screamed for her all around the house, I guess she just never came home last night. Best bet she's probably just with Lane or Eddie. I don't care I just need to get to school."

Teddy rolled her eyes, turning to her side. "Just wake me up when we get there."

School went on in a drag. When Teddy finally made it to gym class she thought she was about to die. Teddy chose to walk around the court with some other girls while the boys played basketball. Steve immediately broke into a sweat, trying his darndest to keep up with Billy, but it was clear to Teddy that that just wasn't going to happen. Billy was just more athletic, end of story. 

That wasn't all that was holding Steve back though, but no one else knew that. Billy got under his skin in ways that were just too hard to explain. And he was at it again today. 

"King Steve everyone!" Billy announced. "Playing tough today, I like it."

"Jesus! Do you ever stop talking? Come on!" Steve retorted, trying to loose himself in the match. If he could just stop thinking for two seconds everything would be great. 

"What? Are you afraid the coach is going to bench you know that I'm here? Huh?" Billy lunched, knocking Steve to the ground, and going for a layup. He went back over to Steve, holding out his hand as if to help him up. He lifted him far enough so that only Steve could hear. "You were moving your feet. Plant them next time. Draw a charge." Then he shoved him back to the ground. 

The mind games didn't stop there though. As Steve stood in the shower, letting his mind fall into the abyss, Bill came up right next to him. "Don't sweat it, Harrington. Today's just not your day, man."

"Yeah. Not your week," Tommy chimed in. "You and the princess break up for one day, and she's already running off with the freak's brother and your gay sister."

Steve huffed, trying to ignore the taunts. He didn't need to hear about Nancy or whatever snide remarks Tommy had about his sister. None of it was ever true, so why give him the time of day? 

"Oh shit. You don't know," Tommy smirked. "Johnathan, Cleo, and the princess skipped yesterday. Still haven't shown. But that just must be a coincidence, right? Or maybe you planned it so you could get into your sister's best friend's pants"

Billy rolled his eyes at the boy. "Don't take it to hard man. A pretty boy like you has got nothing to worry about. Plenty of bitches in the sea. Am I right? I'll be sure to leave you some."

Steve hit the water back on, he was not going to let Billy get to him today. Not about Nancy. Not about Cleo. And not about... Teddy.

A/N- Wow. It's been a hot minute. I'm not gonna promise to start updating super regularly again, but I do want to finish this eventually. But sophomore year of college is kicking my butt. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know things are kind of a mess, but it is important to the plot to have them all here so everyone is where I want them to be. So just bear with me please. 

Anyway. Have a great day!