Sweater Weather

Chapter 7

"Nicky. Nicky, get up, we need to go." I heard, intruding on my dreams. My eyes slowly opened to see Kevin, fully dressed with a backpack on, ready to go. 

"What time is it?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand. 

"Almost noon. Get up we have to go." He said, pulling my blankets back. I sat up and stretched, letting out a yawn. 

"Get changed. I'll meet you in the living room." He said, leaving my room.

 I rolled out of bed and quickly got dressed, pulling on a pair of ripped jeans and a black and white striped crop top. I tugged on some combat boots which were loosely tied and grabbed my keys before walking into the living room. 

"Let's go." I said, nodding my head to the door. 

"You don't bring a weapon or anything?" Kevin asked, looking at me like I was crazy. 

"What should I bring?" I asked, looking back at him, unamused. 

"Here. I'll let you borrow my bat." He said, heading to his room. He quickly returned with a metal bat in hand. 

"Alright. Now we can go." He said, leading the way to my car. 

We met up with Steve and Dustin and began walking down the railroad tracks. We were tossing out pieces of raw meat and Steve was giving Dustin and Kevin relationship advice and hair advice. I started to laugh at the three of them when Dustin and Kevin started bullying Steve for using hairspray to get his hair to stay the way it was. 

"Come on Steve, I don't even use hairspray." I said, joining in on the bullying. 

"That's why Billy likes you, he doesn't have to worry about his hand getting stuck in your mane." Steve said, turning to look at me and winked. 

"So you are dating Billy?" Kevin asked, shocked. 

"No." I said, glaring at Steve. 

We finally made it to the actual junkyard when Lucas and Max showed up to help us. Dustin, Kevin, and Lucas ducked behind a car to have a private conversation leaving Max, Steve, and I to chat and build a trap. 

"Steve this is Max. Max, this is my best friend Steve." I said, introducing the two. 

"How do you know her?" Steve asked, smiling at Max. 

"Max is Billy's sister." I said, awkwardly. 

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you were a time traveler and that she is you from the past." Steve said joking. 

"It's because we have red hair, isn't it? We look nothing alike." I said, rolling my eyes.

 We continued to build the trap that we had started when Steve walked over to the three boys and asked why we were the only three working on this. Dustin, Lucas, and Kevin all came over and started lending a hand while mumbling about Steve. We piled metal sheets onto the old abandoned bus, moved some old metal barrels around it, poured some gasoline, and boarded our safe house.

We all sat around on the bus, waiting for something to happen. 

"So, you've fought one of these things before?" Max asked as I watched Steve flick his lighter. 

"Yep." I said as Steve nodded his head, not taking his eyes off his lighter. 

"And you're like, 150% sure it wasn't a bear." She continued, still in disbelief. 

"Shit, don't be an idiot. Of course, it wasn't a bear. Why are you even here if you don't believe us?" Dustin asked, irritated with Max. "Just go home." He said before she could respond.