My hero ☆ Steve Harrington

chapter 4

Julia walked into school simply wearing a sweater and jeans. Her hair wasn't down like it usually was, it was placed in a messy pony tail. She kept her head down as she wandered the halls to get to her locker.

Steve took a quick glance at her as he was having a convorsation with Nancy. He knew something was wrong, Julia was one to always smile at people she walked by, her head was always up.

But today she kept her eyes focused on the floor. Steve pecked Nancy on her lips and headed over to his best friend. "Hey Jules, are you okay?" Was the first thing he said as he walked up to her.

She avoided eye contact with him as she forced out, "yeah, yeah I'm okay. Just didn't get enough sleep." Which was not lie, she could not sleep due to her crying. Her receding sobs and hiccups kept her awake for so long, she only got an hour's worth of rest.

She looked up for a moment and saw the concern on his face. Steve had seen her puffy and red eyes. He lightly held her face to get a better look. His index finger holding on to the bottom of her face. His thumb gently rubbing the sife of her face.

"Hey hey? Were you crying?" His soft voice soothed her ears. The sound made her knees weak, but she couldn't show she was crumbling because of him.

"It was over this book I was reading, yeah not all of them have happy endings," Julia faked a laugh, hoping Steve had bought it "don't worry, I'm okay." She finished.

He nodded and pulled her into a hug. His arms wrapped around her figure. She took in his colonge sent like she always did. He didn't like the thought of her crying and being sad. He feels like he let her down which he never wants to do.

She held onto him as if once she let go, he would disappear. Steve rested his cheek on her head. His hand rubbing up and down her shoulder, this feeling she got when he touched her warmed her.

She wanted to ignore him, she wanted to get over him, she knew she had no chance with him. But he was a light and she was a moth constantly went back, no matter how many times she got hurt.

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The final bell rung signalling it was time for everyone to go home. Julia began walking to her car, but she stopped when she saw Steve, Carol, Tommy, Nancy and this girl Nicole crowded around Jonathans car.

"What's going on guys?" She asked, walking up to them. "Ah perfect timing. We heard about some great photos Jonathan took, and we wanna take a look." Steve said.

As Jonathan walked up, he asked what's going on. "Nicole here was uh, telling us about your work. You know, we just love to take a look at it you know, of connoisseurs of art."

Julia stood back confused, Jonathan kept his head down and tried to open his car door. However Tommy had snatched his bag. "Please give me my bag." Tommy passed it to Steve. "Steve, give Jonathan his bag back." Julia said, trying to reason with him.

"No. Oh man he's like totally trembling. He must have really something to hide." Steve opened Jonathan's bag and pulled out a small stack of photos.

Julia gathered closer to Steve to take a glance. The photos were of the small group at Steve's house the previous night. Julia was puzzled as to why Jonathan took these photos.

Looking through them, she saw one of her getting out of the pool, her chest fully exposed to the camera. Only in this photo, she saw Steve looking at her with a big smile on his face, the smile he has when he looks at Nancy.

In another photo, it was of her in Steve's bathroom, she was half way through changing and had her shirt off, only leaving her in her bra in the picture.

Steve's eyes looked at the photo Julia had in her hand. Carol grabbed the one of Nancy in her bra, holding it up to the one in Steve's hands. "He was probably gonna save these 2 for later."

Julia reached out and quickly grabbed the photo from her hands. She was too flustered to think at the moment.
Steve continued looking through the photos to see the last one, that made him more mad and upset than the other photos.

The last photo that was of Julia, when she was crying in her car. Jonathan had taken the picture as her most vulnerable moment. The people looking at the photo easily could see the pain in her eyes, the tears that left her cheeks.

Her nose that was red, the guilt and disappointment that was painted on her face. Her face scrunched up in pain as though someone has taken the world from her, because they had.

Julia stood there, her body froze up. Steve's eyes softened for a moment as he looked at her, before she ripped the photo from his hands, folding it up and putting it in her pocket. Steve was ripping up the other photos in his hand.

"Well just have to take away his toy." Steve reached into his bag to get Jonathons camera. "Please! Not the camera." Jon begged. Tommy put his hands on his chest and pushed him back.

Julia stepped between the two. "Don't fucking touch him like that." "Woah Julia is sticking up for the pervert? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Carol mumbled out.

Ignoring Carols snarky comment, Julia spoke "Steve. Just give him the camera." Steve sighed and held it out. "Here you go man." As Jonathan went to reach it, Steve let it roll out of his hand.

Julia attempted to grab it, but she didn't make it in time. The sound of shattering glass was the only thing that they could hear for the moment. Julia glared at Steve, he could feel a burning sensation as if her eyes were lasers.

Julia watched as Tommy, Carol and Steve walk away. Nancy stood there for a bit before reaching down and picking up a few ripped up pieces of the pictures.

What bothered Julia was that Steve now saw that she had been crying at his house, but he hasn't spoken a word about it.
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Julia had locked herself in her room as soon as she got home. So many questions flooded her thoughts. 'Why did Jonathan take those pictures?' She placed her bedroom, biting on her thumb nail.

'Why did Steve not say anything when he saw that picture?' Julia threw herself onto her bed and stared at her ceiling fan.

'Why was Steve looking at me like that?' That was one thought she had since she had seen the pictures. The smile on his face, that god damn smile was always giving her this feeling.

Her thoughts were scattered when she heard the front door slam shut. Unlocking her door and opening it, Julia stuck her bed out in the hallway. She saw Dustin with his head hung low.

"Dust?" She asked, walking towards him. As she got closer, she noticed the tears dripping down his face. "Oh Dustin..."

She wrapped her brother in a hug, her hand on the back of his head, holding him tightly to her body. She could feel him trembling in her arms.

"It can't be him... it just cant."Dustin cried out. "Shh. Just take some deep breaths Dustin." She attempted to calm her down.

The kid just lost one of his best friends, she herself felt like she had lost a little brother. Squeezing her eyes shut, she just held her brother in her arms as he cried into her chest. "It'll be okay Dust." Her fingers ran through her hair, a single tear leaked down her face.