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STEVE HARRINGTON WAS SICK OF EVERYTHING at this point.
He was sick of his parents never being around when he needed them the most. He was sick of school giving him such a hard time. He was sick of his basketball team never following through and winning when they had every chance to do so. He was sick of Tommy and Carol never treating Nancy with the dignity and respect she deserved.
He might have seen Nancy as a quick fling at the beginning, but she had become so much more to him. He was falling for her, which was why he had been so hurt upon discovering her with Jonathan after she'd declined to go to the movies with him. So he masked his pain by standing there and letting Tommy spray those foul words onto the marquee for the whole town to see.
But that other girl – Amara – she said she'd been with them last night, so perhaps Nancy wasn't cheating on him after all? Steve didn't know the whole truth but he wanted to. He wanted to know what Nancy was doing with Jonathan and Amara but Jonathan had been arrested and they had gone with him. And it was all his fault.
His face ached from blows he knew he deserved. Why couldn't he have just listened to Amara instead of letting his emotions get the best of him? Perhaps it was a curse from his parents never being there, learning to keep his feelings buried in a locked box in the back of his mind, only for them to come flooding out the second he opened his heart to the possibility of being trampled on. His head was still throbbing but he was thinking so much clearer, now able to see that Nancy would never cheat on him. He was the one that didn't deserve her, in spite of what Carol and Tommy said about him being out of her league.
As he drove far away from the alley and the police, all he could think about was making amends, even if Nancy wouldn't have him back. He needed to make things right, if not for her then for himself.
"I found this," Carol simpered as soon as they'd parked the car and stepped out at Fair Mart, shoving a folded piece of paper into Steve's hands. "It was sticking out of that other girl's pocket. Wonder if she's a stalker, too."
"Maybe she writes love letters about the creep," Tommy inferred, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and lighting a cigarette. "God, how sad would that be."
Ignoring their comments, Steve let his curiosity get the better of him and unraveled the paper, not expecting to find what he did. It was a drawing of the woods, only it had noticeable differences. The sturdy tree trunks and fallen leaves were still there but were overrun by ropelike tendrils that looked like vines. The atmosphere was dotted with particles that looked almost like snow, only none of it was sticking to the ground. A layer of fog obscured the trees in the background. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen before.
