|Rule The World| Steve Harrington

Chapter two

"Mom, I'm going to Steve's!" Melissa shouted to her mom as she went down the stairs. She grabbed her car keys from the counter next to the door.

"Wait a second." Her mother's, Donna's, reply made Melissa stop in front of the door and turn around. "Just promise me you will be careful, okay? It's just... with Joyce's kid going missing, I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Mom, don't worry. I'll be fine." Melissa gave her mother a reassuring smile. The girl was pretty confident in her self-defense abilities, so she wasn't really worried. Plus, she will be in the safety of her car.

"Yeah, okay. I know that you're a strong girl. I'm just really scared for you. Jim said that kids rarely go missing in Hawkins." Worry was written on Donna's face.

Melissa engulfed her mother in a hug. "Don't worry. You won't get rid of me that easily." The response made Donna smile. The woman was happy to have such a daughter.

"Also, as you know, tomorrow will be six years since your father's death. So, I was thinking that we could visit him tomorrow, and then Jim will be coming over for dinner." Donna informed her daughter with a serious tone.

Melissa's father and Jim Hopper had both served in the military, and since then they have been really close friends. Well, until Melissa's father's death. But even after his death, Hopper didn't forget the girl and her mother. He would always check up on them whenever he was free.

And he always cleared his schedule on November 9th to have dinner with the Reyes girls in memory of his friend.

"Yeah, of course. I'll be home tomorrow by 3 p.m." Melissa kissed her mother on the cheek and ran out to her car.

As she pulled away from the driveway, she thought about her father. The girl still hasn't gotten used to the fact that her father was gone. She often caught herself sitting in the living room, watching intensely at the front door, and hoping that her father would come back one day. The girl turned the radio up to get rid of all the sad thoughts. She started playing the rhythm of the song with her fingers on the steering wheel.

After about five minutes of driving, the headlights of her car flickered for a few seconds. Melissa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but brushed it off when the lights came back to normal. She looked through her rearview mirror and saw a man standing in the middle of the road, several feet behind her car. "What the fuck?"

Melissa just gripped her steering wheel tighter and pushed her foot on the gas pedal, trying to get to Steve's place faster.

Melissa and Steve have been friends since elementary school. Steve was the one who made the move to befriend the girl, and since then, the two have always been by each other's sides. Each time somebody badmouthed Melissa, Steve got into a fight with the kid. And since Steve didn't really know how to fight, Melissa had to step up into the fight to defend her friend.

When she arrived at her friend's house, she went straight to the backyard since she knew that everybody would already be there, and with the music so loud, they probably wouldn't hear her knocking. She saw Steve, Carol, and Tommy H laughing about something. "Hey guys."

"Melissa, heyy," Steve greeted her back.

She saw that Nancy and Barbara hadn't arrived yet, so she went to Steve's kitchen to make a cocktail for herself and then went back out to sit on one of the sun-loungers. Melissa took out a cigarette, and as she lit it up, Carol came over to her, and the two girls immersed themselves in a conversation, mostly talking about school drama and how Mr. Thompson wouldn't extend Carol's assignment's due date.

Melissa wasn't really fond of Carol. The redheaded girl didn't know when to shut up, which annoyed Melissa. But Melissa enjoyed her company when the four friends hung out. She would choose spending time with Carol any day over spending time with Tommy H.