𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬. ༄ s. harrington

iv.

THE thunder roared, as lightning flashed across the dark sky. the rain was still pouring heavily and loudly. the strange little girl sat on the couch of the wheeler's basement, breathing heavily as she looked terrified. around her was mike's jacket, he lend it to her because she was cold. madeline and mike felt terrible for the poor girl whom the others did not know the name of yet.

"is there a number we can call for your parents?" mike asked.
dustin questionally asked "where's your hair? do you have cancer?"
"dustin!" mad quickly whisper-shouted at her brother and gave him a glare.
"did you run away?" lucas asked.
"are you in some kind of trouble?"
"is that blood?" before lucas went to wipe the blood off the mystery girl's nose, mike slapped his arm away. "stop it! you're freaking her out!"
"she's freaking me out!"

"i bet she's deaf" dustin stupidly said as he loudly clapped his hands at her making her flinch. "not deaf" he then shrugged. "dustin stop! you're scaring the poor thing" the older henderson sternly said. "alright that's enough okay? she's just scared and cold" mike snapped.

madeline looked behind her and saw a basket of clean clothes, she then looked back at mike. he nodded in response as she went and grabbed some clothes and came back, she handed them to the little girl. "here, these are clean, okay?" madeline softly said to the girl as she took them. she brang the clothes up to her face and softly ran them across her cheek, seeing how soft the material was. the older girl smiled a little.

the small girl stood up to take her "dress" off, the boys all screamed as mike and mad exclaimed, "no, no, no!" and stopped her. "oh my god, oh my god" dustin repeatly said as his back was towards the girl.

"see over there, that's the bathroom" mike stammered, pointing to the bathroom. "privacy. get it?" the girl took the clothes and went over to the bathroom, madeline following. as mike was going to close the door, the girl quickly stopped him. "you don't want it closed?"
"no." she softly replied.
"oh, so you can speak. okay, well...how about we keep the door, just like this?" mike said as he started closing the door a little but leaving it a little open too. "is that better?"

"yes." the girl replied. mike nodded and walked back to the other boys. "i'll be here, don't worry" madeline smiled sweetly at the girl, ensuring that she was here so she won't be scared.

while the older girl was waiting outside, she could hear the boys rambling about the girl.
"she just went like," dustin said as he mocked the small girls movements when she was just about to take her dress off, making his hat fall off his head. madeline shook her head and lightly chuckled at her brother's movements. the boys continued to ramble about the girl and mike came up with this plan that in the morning she would sneak around the house and ring the front doorbell. then his mom would take care of the rest.

as madeline, dustin and lucas were going up the stairs to leave the wheeler's basement, they stopped to look at mike with the girl as she got comfortable in the little fort he made her. "you really think she's psycho?" dustin asked. "no, at least that's what i think so. she might be different dustin, you never know her side of the story here." mad replied to his question. "well i wouldn't want her in my house" lucas said as he walked away. mad rolled her eyes as her and dustin continued to walk up the stairs, out of the wheelers basement to go home. on the way past nancy's room, madeline swore she heard steve talking, meaning he snuck in. and she's sure that mr and mrs wheeler have no idea about it.

-

the next day, as madeline walked through the front doors of hawkins high, she spotted nancy and barb. she smiled and walked up to them. "hey mad" they both replied in sync as they returned a sweet smile back at the blonde. "so, what are you guys doing?" she asked. "we're just testing each other with flashcards for the chemistry test today" nancy replied. "right. yeah, the chemistry test." it hit madeline that she forgot about it, and  she didn't study.

"when particles go through gold foil, they become..." barb continued reading off the card. "unoccupied space" nancy replied when steve came out of no where with tommy and carol and snatched the cards off barb. "i think you've studied enough nance, i'm telling you, you got this. now onto more important matters, my dad has left town on a conference and my mom has gone with him, cause you know she doesn't trust him." madeline mentally rolled her eyes because she knew where this was going.

just then steve's brown eyes met madeline's blue ones "oh, hey there senior henderson" he gave a small smile to her. "hi" she replied, returning the small smile back to him. tommy and carol just smirked at her, steve had told them the day before to not bug mad anymore. steve turned back to nancy, "so are you in?"
"in for what?" nancy obliviously asked. "no parents? big house?" carol said. "a party?" "ding ding ding"
"it's...tuesday" nancy said.
"it's tuesday, oh my god" tommy mocked nancy as he and carol laughed.

"come on, it'll be lowkey, it'll just be us. what do you say? are you in? or are you out?" he then turned to madeline.
"you too henderson" steve said. madeline opened her mouth as she was about to say something when carol disgustingly said
"oh god. look." madeline looked over to where she was looking. it was jonathan.
"oh god, that's depressing" steve said in disguist as well, his hands on his hips like some mom.

madeline glared at both carol and steve as she quickly rushed to jonathan. steve furrowed his eyebrows, feeling a tiny bit jealous. why would that freak jonathan byers be more important than his party?

jonathan was pinning up a poster, a poster to indicate will's missing. just in case anyone finds him. "jonathan!" the blonde exlaimed coming up to the byers boy.
"mad."
"any news about will?" she hopefully asked. "no, but last night uh...something weird happened." the boy said, his face covered with fear and worry.
"what is it?"
"someone called last night and my mom picked up, she said she apparently heard will breathing and all of a sudden the phone...i dont know, blew up?" he explained.
"oh..." madeline frowned, looking at the poster jonathan hung up on the board, she looked at will's picture that was on it. sadness filled her as she spotted that wide grin on his face, she really did miss that smile.
"hey" the two turned to see nancy.
"oh, hey" jonathan replied. "i just...i just wanted to say you know, um. i'm sorry about everything." she said then turned her head to the others, as they were all staring at them, well all except steve. he still had his hands on his hips but he was looking the other way, jaw clenching in jealousy.

"everyone's thinking about you. it sucks." "yeah" jonathan shrugged. in the meanwhile madeline was just staring at them, raising an eyebrow at them suspiciously.
"i'm sure he's fine. he's a smart kid." just after nancy had said that, the school bell rang.
"i have to go. chemistry test." she said smiling. jonathan smiled back only slightly, "yeah." "goodluck"
"thanks"
and by then she had left back to her boyfriend and his friends.

madeline still had a suspicious look on her face as she looked at jonathan. he nudged her elbow slightly, saying to cut it off.
"hey jon, i gotta go but please just call me if anything happens."
"okay" he replied, nodding. she waved at him before she headed off to chemistry. for a test. that she did not even study for.

♡.°୭̥ ୨୧

AUTHOR SPEAKS!
i'm very proud of how this book is turning
out hehe