𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 -- s. harrington

→ sixteen.

AS HOPPER PULLED pulled into the driveway outside the Byers's house, Andrea's heart was sent into overdrive. As she watched Jonathan's car shut off in front of her, her heartbeat got louder and louder in her ears as she waited for her sister to potentially exit his car. The back door opened up and Mike got out then reached his hand inside to help another person out. And when a familiar blonde head of hair poked out of the car, Andrea began to cry.

          "Steve," Andrea choked out and crawled over toward the front seat, grabbing onto the boy's shoulder. "Let me out."

          Steve looked back at Andrea and widened his eyes at the sight of her crying. "Andrea, what-?" He asked as he turned his head back toward Jonathan's car, watching as Valorie stepped out and he huffed out a sigh of relief at the sight of the young girl. Steve opened up his door as fast as he could, causing Valorie to turn her head and looked toward Hopper's truck.

          Valorie hadn't noticed anyone climb into Hopper's car, she was too preoccupied with calming down Mike who was on the verge of having a breakdown about the state of his best friend. As she stared at Steve Harrington, watching as he pulled up the seat of the chief's car, her leg jiggled nervously and her hands clenched and unclenched as she waited for her sister's head to be revealed. "Please," she whispered as tears formed in her eyes. "Please be alive."

          Andrea met Steve's eyes once more before climbing out of the truck and passing her bat to him. She tucked her hair behind her ear and stepped around him, her eyes landing on her little sister's body as she sprinted toward the older girl. Andrea ran at the girl and wrapped her arms around her tightly, running a hand over her hair. "Holy shit," she whispered into Valorie's hair and exhaled deeply. "Thank God you're okay."

          Valorie's arms closed around Andrea's waist and she cried into her sister's chest, her shoulders and body shaking violently with each sob that left her mouth. Being separated from Andrea was the worst feeling in the world, like something inside of her had been ripped away. "Please don't leave me," she choked out between sobs, causing Andrea to pull her closer. "I can't do this without you."

          "Believe me, I'm never leaving your side ever again," Andrea said and placed a kiss on the top of her sister's head as tears rolled down over her cheeks. A hand rested on Andrea's back and she looked over her shoulder to see Steve smiling slightly at her and she smiled back.

          "I told you," Steve whispered and ran his hand up and down the girl's back slowly.

          "You told me," Andrea whispered as her eyes dropped to Steve's lips for a split second before looking back up to his eyes again. She once had feelings for Steve Harrington, long before he met Nancy and the two started dating. The two first met when Steve hit Andrea in the head with a dodgeball during gym class in the fourth grade and when her eyes landed on his for the first time as he apologized profusely to the girl with the reddened forehead, she thought he was the cutest boy she had ever seen. Her crush lasted for years, right up to the ninth grade when she realized it was never going to happen between them and her feelings slowly disappeared until they were gone by the tenth grade, two months before he started dating Nancy Wheeler. But here she was again, somehow crushing on the boy she had just befriended. Andrea Matthews was crushing on Steve Harrington.

* * * *

The Byers's house was nothing like Andrea left it the other day when she and Valorie stopped by to see Will. The mood of the house was off-putting then, but now it was horrible. There were sketches of blue, purple and black taped all over the house like some kind of crazy map that directed you in circles - drawings that Andrea didn't understand and wasn't sure if she wanted to understand. She didn't want to ask because she knew it wasn't the time so instead, she stood in the kitchen, leaning up against the counter, with the kids. Her eyes watering all over the visible pieces of paper around her as she tried to figure out what it meant.