❁

she had tried to play it off as if it was a dream. after all, there was no way she had actually hugged steve harrington, right? and what was worse than hugging him was that she actually wanted to be there for him, and found herself hugging him in not only a yearning for his touch but in a desire for his happiness. she wanted steve to be happy; but she didn't know if it was just out of care for him as a friend.

immediately after the hug, meadow had chuckled awkwardly, shuffling away from him. steve had a soft look in his eyes, almost as if he viewed meadow as a delicate piece of glass. maybe that was why he was always saving her; he found her to be breakable. she didn't know if she liked that consideration or not.

on the one hand, it meant that he cared about her, which made her feel a lot less uncomfortable with caring about him. but, on the other hand, it meant that steve saw her as weak, which she most definitely wasn't.

meadow was quick to hop off of the hood of steve's car, briefly looking over at him. "have a good night, steve." she smiled, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear before walking over to her own car before he could reply.

while meadow was sitting in her room thinking about her feelings towards steve harrington, her brother was outside, discovering something much more dangerous than feelings. meadow listened to the sounds of him come home from trick or treating, and heard her mother insist that she wanted to know every little detail of his time out.

since his sister didn't want to be a bad sport, she joined them in the living room, listening as dustin described what had happened with max and will. "and mike wouldn't even let us help him, he just left." as he spoke, the contraption in dustin's hands started rustling, moving side to side.. almost as if it was alive.

"what's that?" meadow asked as she pointed to the object in dustin's hands, and the boy feigned confusion, looking down at it. she crossed her arms, raising a brow; she knew him better than that.

claudia nodded, confused. "you're acting weird." she inisted, and meadow nodded her agreement.

"oh!" dustin exclaimed, clearly making an excuse up on the spot. "yeah, i actually, i, uh, i added a motor to make it move so that it looks like i caught a ghost. just like in the movie."

while their mother laughed at his "invention", meadow furrowed a brow, clearly not buying a thing. dustin joined in on their mother's laughter for a moment before retreating off to his room. "i told you to keep quiet. all you had to do was stay quiet for one minute. one minute!" dustin said just as meadow walked into his door behind him.

"what the hell did you do?" she asked her brother, looking at him as he turned around.

he quickly moved to cover his turtle cage from her line of sight. "um, nothing! nothing, i did nothing!"

"then why is yertle on the floor?" meadow asked as she gestured to the turtle, who had scurried under a pile of dustin's clothes. "and what the hell is that?" she approached yertle's cage, seeing a small slug-like creature in his place in the glass container.

"i found him!" the younger boy insisted. "he was in our trash can. i think he needs me!"

meadow sent him a baffled look. "are you out of your mind? look at that thing! you don't even know what it likes to eat, you can't just keep it-"

dustin, wanting to challenge her reasoning against him, picked up a 3 musketeers bar he'd gotten, tossing it in the cage. "see!" he exclaimed as the creature moved closer to it, eating up the pieces. "he likes nougat. i'll feed him that!" he turned as meadow rolled her eyes, fed up with the boy's antics. "look at him! isn't he cute? i'm naming him d'artagnan."

his sister raised a brow, unimpressed. "okay. well, if he kills you in your sleep, don't say i didn't warn you."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

the next day at school, meadow immediately ran into steve. she had just pulled into her usual parking spot when she noticed that he had parked his car next to hers, and she climbed out of her vehicle, smiling a little. "this isn't your usual parking spot." she told him, pulling her hair into a ponytail before grabbing her backpack from her back seat.

"figured i'd try something new for a change." steve said as he smiled back, getting out of his car to walk her to the school. "you never pull your hair back." steve commented, looking over at her. "i like it."

meadow shook her head, unable to help the small smile that spread on her cheeks at his compliment. "figured i'd try something new for a change." she said, repeating his phrase from before.

the school day was as long and tedious as always, but meadow couldn't avoid the way steve stared at her in the hallway. or the way he smiled at her when she looked back at him. what was he doing? she couldn't help but wonder if he had always done this, or if he, too, had developed a connection to her after their conversation in the moonlight.

a force on the locker next to meadow's brought her out of her thoughts, making her look up to see steve, who had lightly slumped his shoulder onto the locker so that he was looking at her. "i talked to nancy." he informed her.

"what did she say?" meadow asked, looking up from her books to see that he wasn't smiling. "oh, what did she say?"

steve sighed. "she doesn't remember any of it! so i took the benefit of the doubt and i asked her if she loved me, and she couldn't even say it."

meadow frowned. "i would hug you, but you're all sweaty." she ruffled his hair with a hand before closing her locker. steve chuckled, watching her walk away.

of course the girl felt for steve. to have an unrequited love was the worst feeling, she imagined, and she greatly admired his strength in the scenario. even though she had told nancy not to get back with steve, she had seen steve prove just how much he cared about those around him, including meadow herself (who he seemed to care about a particular amount). she chose to shrug that fact off, though.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

soon enough, the school day was over, and meadow went home to see her brother home before her, which was a rarity. "dart got lost in school today, so you gotta keep him a secret." dustin told his sister, who was appalled.

"you took him to school?" she asked. "that's like.. mary had a little lamb!"

dustin gasped. "well.. mary didn't get kicked out of school, the lamb just had to stay outside!"

"okay, imagine mary had a little lamb, but mary gets killed by her lamb!"

"that's not a very good lamb!"

meadow shook her head at his response, pushing past the boy to get into his room. she was shocked to see dart sitting in the same cage as before, but now looking completely different. "jeeze, what the hell happened? dart grew?" she asked as dustin peered into the cage from next to her. "you are not taking him to school again, okay? and if anything else weird happens, we're throwing him out."

before dustin could reply to argue, meadow had stormed out of his room, confused by the nature of dart. the whole scenario couldn't stop giving her flashbacks to the demogorgon. but, surely, that had been finished and done with, right?

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"you stay away from that billy hargrove." steve said the next day as he got out of gym class, walking over to meadow's locker.

she looked up, confused by his statement. "steve, i thought we'd talked about this. you don't control my life, and i-"

"- and you don't need me saving you all the time, i know." he finished for her. "but he was talking to me in the showers. he was saying all this stuff with tommy about how nancy and jonathan.." he trailed off, collecting his words. "about how nancy and jonathan are together now, or something, and billy was talking about other fish in the sea and he mentioned you.. something with him just being a misogynist shit.. look, i don't want you to get hurt by him-"

meadow raised a brow, chuckling at his slight rambling. "i appreciate the concern, harrington, but i'm not going to get hurt by him. i'm staying clear of billy, dude. he tried to run over my brother, for goodness sake! you have nothing to worry about, steve, i swear."

he nodded, and she could see the relief flooding his features for a moment. "i'm serious, meadow." he said as she looked back up at him. "just.. please stay safe."