Remember Me | A Steve Randle Fanfiction

Chapter 10 | Downhill

🌻Juliana's POV🌻

What the hell was Peter doing here?? How did he find me?? Is he gonna take me back home?? I had to think quick.
"Can I help you?" I asked, trying to pretend like I didn't know him.
"Juliana-" he started, but I quickly interrupted him.
"Uh, I'm not who you think I am. You have the wrong person." I said, but I knew he wasn't that dumb.
"Jill, we just talked two weeks ago. I'm not an idiot. We've been best friends since we were really little. We grew up together. I know exactly what you're doing, but I need to talk to you."
"Is everything okay?" Steve asked as he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I knew he was just trying to make Peter go away.
"Yeah, everything's alright." I said.
"Who's this?" Peter asked. I didn't know what to tell him. I sighed.
"Peter, just...what do you want?"
"Can we talk in private?"
"Yeah.." I hesitantly agreed. "Steve, give me a second, okay?"
"Alright." Steve whispered, and pecked me on the head. He stepped back, and I went onto the porch with Peter. I shut the door, but stayed close.
"What do you want?"
"Okay, please don't get mad, but once my shift ended, I followed you, just to see where you were going, because I noticed how bulky your bag was, and I got concerned. So, I followed you to the office, the bus station and here, but I got off before you woke up so you wouldn't see me. I was looking for you the past couple weeks, and I saw you coming back here last night and I just needed to tell you that you need to come home. Your mom misses you." That last part made me ignore when he said "please don't get mad". Did he tell my mom???
"My mom?? How does she know where I am??"
"I called her and told her. Jilly-"
"You told her???" I border-line screamed. Steve and Soda quickly ran out to the porch.
"What's going on out here??" Soda asked frantically.
"Peter, do you realize what you just did??? I came here to get away from that toxic house! I didn't want my mom to know where I was!!!" I was breathing heavily, and I felt like my heart was gonna pound out of my chest. "She's gonna come looking for me and she might call the cops on Darry, Soda, and Pony thinking they kidnapped me!! You ruined everything!!"
"Baby, calm down." Steve begged me.
"I think it's about time you leave." Soda said to Peter in a firm voice. Steve held me, petting my hair, trying to get me to stop freaking out. My body ached. I didn't want to leave the gang. I was terrified. I thought any second I would black out.
"Juliana, I'm sorry." Peter tried to tell me.
"Look, man, I said you need to leave." Soda was getting closer to him, trying to make him go away. Peter looked intimidated, and he left, taking one quick pitiful glance at me before turning around and walking to his rental car. Soda crouched in front of me, and took my hands. My breathing wasn't calming. "Hey, just breathe. In," he said as he took a deep inhale, trying to get me to follow along. I did. "Out." he slowly exhaled, and I did the same. We took a couple deep breaths together, until my breathing went back to normal. He looked at Steve. "Are you two together?" he asked, actually thinking we were. Steve shook his head.
"No. I was trying to get what's-his-name to lay off."
"Peter." I mumbled.
"Yeah, Peter." Part of me was really wishing Steve and I were together. It would lighten things up a little. For me at least. We all just agreed to start walking to school, except Soda was walking to the DX. I then started to wonder how long it would be until my parents came to look for me. But then I remembered, Peter didn't mention my dad. Did something happen to him? Does he know? Does he even care? My mind was filled with questions. Lost in my negative thoughts, I subconsciously took Steve's hand and held it tight. He stepped a little closer to me, and rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb. "What's wrong?" he asked quietly.
"Everything's just going downhill."