Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𑁍
"DO YOU know what it looks like?" Nancy asked Jackie, coming to stand by her side, hands tucked into her pockets as the five of them gazed upward. In front of them, was a radio tower. The manual claimed the remote head was at the top. The only problem, was...
"That thing is a mini Empire State Building," Jackie said, not really as a reply, just an observation, arms crossed and hair blowing in the wind. It was just below her shoulders now, she'd cut the grown out blonde and allowed it to resume its natural course, but it was too short to braid, too short to do anything cute with, really. "So it better be up there, or I'm gonna be pissed."
"It's fine," Steve assured her, hand on the small of her back. He began to shrug his jacket off, but Jackie stopped him. "What?"
"You didn't even know what a remote head was until two minutes ago. You think you're gonna know how to turn it off and on?"
Steve bristled. "Lots of faith in me there, Mayfield. Jesus, thanks."
She shot him a look. "I'm not being mean, Steve. I'm just saying."
"I'll do it," Jonathan spoke up, making her turn. "I know how it works."
"Nah," Steve dismissed, and this time his tone was something different. It wasn't the gentle way he spoke to her, something reserved for Jackie only, but it wasn't his normal tone, either. With Jonathan back in Hawkins, the tension between the two boys had spiraled off the charts. Jackie didn't really know why—maybe Steve's bitter feelings about Jonathan involving Nancy and how he'd swooped in and took her away still lingered. Or maybe it was the constant belittling Jonathan partook in, how he always had to act smarter than Steve. How Steve was so stupid and took nothing seriously. Jonathan didn't know him. He had no right.
Steve wasn't innocent, either. Jackie would have liked to defend him, but he could get cocky. Too cocky. And she could tell when he was purposefully being annoying, trying to get under Jonathan's skin just to start an argument. She knew why. The need to prove himself better than the man his ex girlfriend was dating was stronger than ever. And it wasn't about Nancy, no, not at all. It was about his ego.
Jackie shared a look with Robin and Nancy—these little feuds and disputes between them were more common than not these days, too. The boys had never been forced to spend this much time together before, so whatever mutual unlikeness they shared was shoved to the surface.
"No, no. Without a harness or anything, it seems kind of dangerous," Nancy mused.
