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CHAPTER SIXTEEN | 'THE MONSTER' EXPLAINED
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your eyes are made for war, your bones are made to love.
-thoughts #94 // r.m
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Jackie Hanlon was not a happy camper. She was in the passenger seat of Steve's car with her arms crossed and a bouquet of stupid roses on her lap as she and Steve drove towards Nancy's house. He wanted to apologize to her, which Jackie thought was plain, old stupid. What did he have to apologize for? Nancy was the one who dumped him!
"Okay, you have to apologize to her, sure," Jackie huffed, "but why did you need to spend almost twenty bucks on flowers for her?"
"I just feel bad," Steve said. "I was— I was wasting her time."
"And she was wasting yours!" Jackie exclaimed. "You said so Wednesday night after she called you bullshit! You remember that? She was mean, Steve. She should be the one apologizing! Not you!"
So, maybe Jackie was a little biased, but she couldn't bring herself to care. It was selfish — really, truly selfish of her — but she wanted nothing less than for Steve and Nancy to get back together. Again. Her heart had been broken this summer when Steve got back with Nancy right as she was starting to believe she actually had a chance with him.
God, she needed to get over herself. He was never gonna love her like that.
"Why do I feel like you're more upset than I am?"
"Because you don't have enough self-worth to understand how shittily she treated you," Jackie snapped, curling her hands into fists. Her temper rose, and as it did, all the windows in the car rolled down. "Shit."
"Jesus, Jack," Steve sighed. "Calm down, okay?"
She nodded, unclenching her fists. Slowly, the windows rolled back up.
"And, I do have some self-worth," Steve said.
Jackie looked at him, eyes wide and starry. "You deserve the world, Steve Harrington. Got it?"
He grinned. "I deserve the world."
A moment later, Steve pulled up the the Wheeler's house. Jackie glanced out the window and saw a disgruntled Dustin storming down the yard. She rolled down the window and stuck her head out.
"Dustin! Hey!"
"Hi, Jackie," he said, not sounding as cheerful as usual. In fact, he sounded a bit miffed. His eyes wandered to Steve, who'd begun to make his way up the driveway. "Steve!" Dustin yelled. "Are those for Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler?"
Steve looked down at the flowers. "No."
"Good." Dustin grabbed the flowers and started towards the car.
