what should never be [s.h.]

16. birthday eve

{ October 30, 1984 }

The day before Townes's birthday was always more exciting than the actual day. During her first year in school, Janet Garder realized that no child wanted to watch a little girl presents when they could robbing candy from strangers. So every year up until eighth grade, her birthday would be celebrated on the day before Halloween, and Townes would get an insane sugar high those two days. Since Amber was still young enough to trick or treat, her birthday was still unofficially set on the 30th of October.

Slamming her locker shut, Townes gripped her Federal Government binder against her chest and prepared to shuffle her way to class. Turning on her heels, Townes heard someone shout her last name.

Before she even saw him, Townes knew it was Steve Harrington. He was the only one that used her last name and refused to call her anything else. Except the night she almost died. Townes fought down a blush at the thought. Leaning back against her locker, Townes waited to Steve to approach her.

He was wearing a blue jacket and sunglasses, despite the cloudy and dim weather outside. Pulling his sunglasses off his face, Steve tucked them into his pocket, "Do you think you could help me with my college essay?"

Townes smiled at his request, "I could try, but I think you and I only have five functioning brain cells combined."

After signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement, Steve and Townes virtually ignored that one week of November in 1983. Now they were actual friends, helping each other with homework and chatting occasionally. They couldn't hang out outside of school though, since Townes was still grounded from last year.

"You want to meet at the library during your study hall?"

Townes was eternally grateful for that period. To ensure that Townes wasn't actually staying late just to hang out with friends, Janet would pick both Townes and Amber up immediately after school got out. Study hall was the one hour of freedom she got every weekday.

"Yeah," Townes agreed. With that, she began to walk to her class. Steve's incessant gaze was getting harder to ignore. Every glance Townes felt guilty, like she was betraying Nancy.

Pushing down the shame, Townes willed herself to push Steve out of her thoughts. He's just a boy; that's all is.

"Wait," Steve called and grabbed her wrist, pulling her around to face him, "Are you doing anything tomorrow?"

"My mom might let me go trick or treating with Amber," Townes confessed.

Opening his backpack, Steve pulled an orange flyer out from in between his binders and handed it to Townes. She reluctantly took the paper from Steve and flipped the parchment over to see if there was anything on the back.

"There's going to be a party at Tina's house tomorrow. You should come. It's supposed to be really fun," Steve wiggled his brows, causing Townes to emit a laugh.