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CHAPTER FOUR Mismatched Puzzle Pieces
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OF ALL THE ways her night could've gone, the least Rhiannon expected was to find herself sitting in the passenger seat of Steve Harrington's car — a boy she hadn't had a full-blown conversation with in months, if she didn't count the one they had before this.
When she found him outside, standing on the porch with a cup in his hands, he looked like he just had his heart split in two. It was a sight she never thought she would see before.
Steve Harrington, with his pretty brown eyes and strong nose and full lips, had always been handsome, unfairly so. Because of this, he would only need to flash a smile to get someone to do something for him. Whatever he wanted, it didn't matter. There was a reason girls at school ached for him, willing to carve a part of themselves just to feel his touch; and there was no shadow of a doubt in anyone's mind he had broken many hearts here and there. He'd catch interest, make them feel a little weak and like they could worship him, fuck a few of them in parking lots or other questionable places, never call back, and then leave an open wound in the rift between their ribs where the knife cut in.
It was clear for everyone to see - his reputation preceded him. He was, by all accounts, sure of himself (or full of himself, at least).
But at that moment, on the porch, he looked different. Defeated. His eyes were dark and sad. He was wallowing in self-pity.
Rhiannon approached him partly out of curiosity and partly to return a favor. You see, there was a similar situation last year, before the incident, when Steve found her crying in the stairwell. She never forgot it.
Some context: she had stayed at her dad's for the weekend, the dilapidated trailer he called home, and he came stumbling through the door on Sunday night, cradling an empty bottle of whiskey, rambling about stuff she didn't understand. Spewing rants about her half-sister Sara, who died after she got sick. About the family curse and being like his father. She spent the night hauling him around and sitting on the opposite side of the bathroom floor as he emptied his guts into the toilet.
