𝐃𝐀𝐃𝐃𝐘 𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐄𝐒 [Stranger Things x Billy Hargrove]

// ten //

"It's finger-lickin' good" - Steve Harrington

As I watched Billy make a hasty retreat to his blue Camaro I couldn't keep the smirk from my face. No matter how small it may seem, this definitely felt like a victory. I was one step closer to learning more about who Billy really is and it was time to initiate plan: infiltrate the deepest, darkest corners of Billy Hargrove's mind.

"Andie- uh! Earth to Andie!" Steve Harrington's lighthearted voice snapped me out of my Billy induced trance as he repeatedly claps his hands in front of my face. 

"Uh- what? Sorry Steve, what did you say?" I blinked, surprised to see him standing before me. I'd almost forgotten that we were on speaking terms again. He must have snuck up on me while I was lost in my thoughts. 

Steve gives me a pointed look and narrows his eyes slightly, "I know that look Andie, although I haven't seen it since you came up with that stupid plan to dye Mrs Henderson's cat blue, after she gave you a shitty tip at the diner. Nothing good ever comes from that look, what are you up to?"

I grin, -mostly to myself- as I remember the day that Steve is talking about. It was a great plan, I didn't execute it quite as well as I'd hoped to though. Dustin's mother caught me just as I was about to dump her stupid cat in the bucket full of hair dye.

I may have been a model student and a perfect, pretty cheerleader on the outside, but I still knew how to have fun. I'll never forget the look on that nasty woman's face as I held her precious 'Mews' over the bucket.

"What? Nothing, Steve! And hey, that was a good plan. It may not have gone the exact way that I'd pictured it, but that lady deserved it." I laugh, missing the way my life used to feel not so long ago. Before Steve and Nancy, and before Jim. 

Steve didn't say anything at first, he only stared at me with a glimmer in his eyes that I couldn't place. 

"What? Have I got something on my face?" I half joke, scrubbing some imaginary dirt off of my cheeks. Steve smiles lightly and grabs my hands pulling them away from my face gently. "No Cassie, I'm just happy. I missed you- being like this, like yourself. I don't know what's happened to make you this way but whatever it is, I'm glad. You deserve to be happy again."

I don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't that.

It was extremely rare for me to be caught speechless but this was one of those moments. All I could do was stare back as I slowly digested his words. My first instinct was to shut him down and say that I'm not happy and I'm definitely not becoming my old self again but he wasn't entirely wrong.

It was nothing significant yet but something had surely changed within me, I didn't feel as hopeless today as I had this same time last week. I could only pray nothing would happen to change that.

I realise at this point that Steve is still standing there watching me with a half smile while I stand motionless with my mouth slightly ajar. I quickly pull myself together and slap on my best unbothered smile.