𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 -- s. harrington

→ one.

ANDREA MATTHEWS ALWAYS had a great life. She had everything she needed because her dad had a good job, she had a close group of friends that she adored and cherished and she had her kid sister Valorie and her loving father, she had good grades in all of her classes and she had a great job babysitting for Claudia Henderson - her life was perfect. Note, her life was perfect right up until her best friend Steve Harrington started dating Hawkins High School's princess and goody-two-shoes, Nancy Wheeler.

          Andrea and Steve were best friends for as long as either of them could remember. It started at a family barbecue that the Matthews family had and Andrea's father invited the Harrington's and their only son over for dinner that night. At first, though, Andrea and Steve didn't like each other. Andrea thought Steve was a spoiled rich boy and Steve thought the same thing about the blonde hair, green-eyed girl with braces. But the more family barbecues either family had, and the more that the other family was invited, the closer Steve and Andrea got and that was when their friendship bloomed. Almost a decade later, Andrea fell in love with Steve only to have her heartbroken when he started dating the Wheeler girl.

          When the two teenagers drifted apart, it was like a piece of Andrea's heart was ripped from her chest by Steve himself and crushed into dust like a small piece of chalk. She felt empty and had felt that way since she stopped talking to her old best friend a little over a year ago when Steve had first met Nancy and developed a crush on the brunette. Still, to this day, Andrea felt as though she could feel the dust of her broken heart flowing around her whenever she saw Steve smiling with Nancy. It made Andrea's chest tight whenever she saw the couple smiling and laughing with each other and kissing in the hallways. She could never hate Steve or Nancy because they had been nothing but nice to her for her whole life, but Andrea could definitely dislike them both and that's how she lived her life from the end of the eleventh and into the twelfth grade, right where she was now.

          "Andy," Jonathan Byers said from the driver's seat of his car. Jonathan glanced over at his blonde friend who was staring out the passenger's side window as if she was lost in a daze and couldn't shake out of it. "Andrea," he said, this time a little louder. With a sigh, he reached over and poked her arm, not taking his eyes off the road as he drove them both to school.

          Andrea blinked rapidly and snapped her head toward Jonathan, her heart racing from the scare of him touching her arm. She let out a small laugh and smiled lightly at him. "Sorry, I was in a bit of a daze there," she said and patted her new best friend's shoulder as he drove. She dropped her hand and looked back at the road ahead of her, the yellow lines dashing underneath the side of the car as they drove were almost hypnotizing as they sent her spiralling back into her thoughts about how much she disliked Steve.

           "You're thinking about Steve again, huh?" Jonathan asked and glanced over at his friend again, nudging her thigh with his fingers as she slipped back into a daze. Jonathan wasn't stupid, he'd known Andrea for a while since her little sister would hang out with his brother and his nerdy friends and Andrea would always be the one to pick Valorie up from the Byers's house each evening and Jonathan knew when Andrea was upset. The two had only gotten closer over the last year but Jonathan could read the girl like a book now and he knew that she was very upset. "Talk to me Andy, I'm here," he said softly and looked back at the road, sighing as he pulled into the parking lot of the high school, knowing that he wouldn't get any information out of the girl now.

          Andrea looked back at Jonathan and reached into the backseat of his car, grabbing her bag and yanking it up into her lap. "I'm fine, Jonathan," she stated and flashed a fake smile that she knew Jonathan recognized all too well from all the times she had used it. Lately, Andrea had been off. She missed her best friend and wanted him back more than anything but she knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.