fireworks - steve harrington

1.08

EPILOGUE
BITING THE DUST

"I'm sorry, who is this?"

"Oh, sorry, Mrs. Holland. It's Ren. Are, uh, are you alright?"

"I think you'd better come over, sweetheart."

"Is everything okay?"

"It's Tammy. Ren, I'm so sorry."

He wrote a note for Steve, saying there was an emergency and he had to run home. But he didn't go home. He ran straight for the Hollands' house. At least three cop cars were parked on the street. When he walked in, Mrs. Holland immediately hugged him and told him what happened.

Ren was numb. He couldn't feel anything. He had just seen Tammy the day before. And now she was gone.

He hadn't called Nancy. He wasn't sure what had happened between them, but it certainly wasn't good. And he just went to school like normal because his mom refused to let him stay home and grieve. His best friend had just killed herself. He would walk into school each day and pretend like everything was fine. Steve knew it wasn't, but they didn't talk about it. He knew that Ren would eventually break down and he was determined to be there for him when it happened. And it happened almost a full week later.

They'd been unofficially dating for about a week, so Steve was over at Ren's house all the time, especially with Tammy gone. One night, they were studying on Ren's bed when it happened. Ren had picked up a book from his floor and a picture had fallen out. A picture of him, Barb, Nancy, and Tammy. He hiccuped once and then the tears started falling. Steve dropped everything and brought Ren into his lap where he cried for what must have been hours. Steve spent the night just holding him until he fell asleep, and then when they headed to school the next day, he drove right past the school and to his house where they stayed until later that night.

Steve was the best boyfriend Ren could ask for, and he wasn't even technically his boyfriend. But that was a problem for another time.

Three days later, he went to the funeral. Nancy wasn't there. He wasn't sure why he expected her to be there, but she wasn't. The hole in Ren's chest that was originally caused by Barb's disappearance just kept getting bigger. He couldn't say he didn't miss Nancy. He knew, or at least he thought he knew, that she was just as much of a wreck as he was. But still no contact. Maybe that was his biggest regret. No. His biggest regret was not knowing there was something going on with Tammy.

He had literally been at her house hours before she took the pills. And when that didn't work, she... No. He wouldn't think about it. There hadn't even seemed to be anything off about her that night. In fact, she seemed overly happy, which should have worried him. But it didn't.

"Steve?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"What did I do wrong?"

Steve shook his head and held Ren tighter in his arms. "Nothing. You did everything you could."