╭ ╮

━━━━ " 📂 "

𝙄 𝘾 𝙀 𝘾 𝙍 𝙀 𝘼 𝙈 𝙎 𝙐 𝙉 𝘿 𝘼 𝙀

╰ ╯

LAURIE DIDN'T KNOW IF she was going to make it through this party. It was no fault of Tina's - no, she had ensured it held every perfect characteristic of an open invitation house party for a town like Hawkins; kegs, punch with a very odd ratio of alcohol to mixer, a varied mix of music blasting over the sound of teenagers and just the right amount of people dancing to those migrating to the designated smoking space out on the porch. Including Laurie, as she stood leaning against the railing.

"Hey - you're late, fuckwit." Robin's arm appeared around her shoulder, and she almost dropped her cigarette. "How long have you been here?" She asked, reaching for the cigarette and taking a few stilted drags herself, before handing it back. Lo-and-behold, to a surprise to absolutely nobody, Robin couldn't handle her alcohol and as soon as she took even a sip she turned into a social smoker.

"Five minutes?" Laurie questioned, snatching back the cigarette. "Maybe ten. Had to keep watch whilst Eddie did all his drug pushing for the night." During that time she had traipsed through the house to the bedroom Tina had drunkenly allocated under the request of Tommy H and managed to scope out the entire place and deemed it as the perfect party to round off October as a whole. As much as she disliked everything Tina and her posse of cheerleader stood for, she could easily admit she threw one hell of a party.

"Oh. Gross."

"Yeah. They all stank of cheap beer, sweat and weed." Laurie shivered. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Not a lot, swear, promise." Robin was almost to the point of slurring her words, hanging onto her friend like a lifeline. Her costume was askew, and the blood was more smudged than it had been the night before. "Come on - Drew, you know Drew, Drew from band, Drew with the drums - he's by the punch bowl, I think he's had too much to drink."

"Do you really?" Laurie asked, bemused as Robin began to guide her back into the centre of the party, where toilet roll hung from the rafters and Halloween decorations were half pulled down from the tape that hung them up. In the kitchen, which seemed to be even busier than everywhere else, this Drew person was stood wearing a floral-bedsheet toga and one of the laurel wreath headbands and waving around red solo cups.

"Robin! Robin! Robin!" He chanted as she approached. "Another?"

"No thanks, still got this one." Robin waved her cup about. "But Laurie... Laurie hasn't had anything. What's in it? I don't know. It's good."

Laurie only smiled, reaching out to seize a cup from the discarded stacks, and using the ladle to spoon in a cupful of the peach-coloured drink. She took a sip and winced. "What the fuck - that's disgusting." She said, her nose wrinkled. "What the fuck, Robin."

"No, no, it's nice!" She insisted. "You need more - come on, drink up."

"I need another cigarette." Laurie replied, avoiding the gaze of her friend as she forced another sip of the drink, and another, and surveyed the party instead. It was a mismatch of everyone she had ever seen, and in a corner she noticed Jason flirting with Chrissy whilst his lackeys stood to the side, mumbling to one another. Chase looked up for a moment and caught her eye, but quickly looked away. "Yeah, definitely need one."

"Nuh-uh!" Robin shook her head, hurredly. "Drew - fill her up."

"What? Robin, you don't know what you're-"

"Pure fuel!" Drew chanted, reaching for the ladle. "Pure fuel!"

And Laurie could only stand there and watch as Drew spooned in more of the incredibly alcoholic punch before Robin dragged her off to dance. A heavy beat pumped through the speakers as she forced her into dancing, the cheerleader outfit slowly becoming more comfortable as she got drunker.

Yes, the skirt was a little flouncy and certainly the top was shorter than desired and rode up to expose her stomach all the time but she didn't mind it. It was fun and it was stained red and could never be worn by an actual cheerleader again. Steve and Nancy smiled at her from the corner, although Nancy's smile look a little strained, and she didn't seem too happy.

"Laurie, hi!" Tina smiled as she approached, and Robin skirted off to go and get more drinks from Drew for the both of them. "Is that... what is your costume, exactly?"

"Er... some kinda of cannibal-zombie cheerleader variant." Laurie replied, as the girl pushed her more into a dance. "Borrowed the uniform from a friend." She added with a wave, and Tina's look of concern diminished.

"Aw, it's cute!" She said, as she finished her drink. "Hey - hey, do you know where your brother is?"

"Er... probably not here?" Laurie wrinkled her nose. Of course that was the only reason why Tina was speaking to her. Reminded her exactly why she hated these things anyway and why exactly she shouted hate wearing the cheerleader outfit. "I think he's at that bar? The Hideout? Why?"

"I was just wondering if he had any..." Tina paused, hiccuped and continued, "you know... party favours for me and my friends." She gestured behind her, and Laurie stilled as she found herself being watched by Carol and Vicky, who was picking at her nails.

"Oh." Laurie frowned, and found that the punch certainly didn't help her mood. "Yeah, well I think you might want to tell Carol to fuck off and find her boyfriend."

"What?" Tina giggled nervously. "What do you mean?"

"You saw earlier, Tina, how Tommy followed him." Laurie replied. "Yeah, if you're looking for coke, or weed, or fucking xannys then you should ask him. Jesus."

"Right, yeah, it's just that Tommy doesn't do drugs."

"Oh Jesus Christ, go talk to Carol, won't you?" Laurie said. "I have to go fill up my drink."

"Oh - get me one!" Tina smiled, and held out her cup, only it fell to the ground as Laurie turned, finding that her head was already beginning to hurt. She pushed through the crowd, clutching at the red solo like a lifeline, keeping an eye out for the emerald green of the other stolen cheerleader uniform and avoiding the likes of Chase and his friends as they flirted through half the population of Hawkin's High girls. Only to avoid people in a crowd of dancing bodies was nowhere near as easy as it should be.

And for the second time that day, Laurie found herself bumping into the tanned, once again shirtless body of Billy Hargrove as he sauntered around the party dressed as some variant of the Terminator. Real original. "Jesus fuck, this place is douche central." Laurie pushed passed him just as he was about to come out with what was most likely a slurred defence, and found herself heading to the kitchen.

Robin was nowhere to be found, even through Drew was still chugging his way through cups, and Laurie laid eyes on Nancy following suit, Steve stood anxiously beside her.

"Take it easy Nance - Nance, Nance." Steve said, holding out his hand as Nancy backed away, mouth full of the punch.

She swallowed. "We're just being stupid teenagers for the night." She said. "Wasn't that the deal?" Nancy asked, scooping the cup into the bowl - the ladle had been lost somehow - and she tilted her head back to finish the glass, wiping spilt liquid from her cheek before disappearing into the crowd.

Laurie didn't say anything as she moved to fill her own cup before pausing and instead reaching for a half-empty bottle of Midori that had been left on the side. She unscrewed the top and took a couple mouthfuls before setting it back down, swallowing back the melon taste without wincing.

"You okay?" Steve asked. He looked a little dejected and tipsy.

"Yeah." Laurie wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. Her head pounded. "Fine. Is Nancy?"

"I don't know about that one." Steve replied. "Hey - your nose is bleeding."

"What?" Laurie reached upwards, pulling her hand away to see blood. She blinked, watched as that soulless dark blue clouded her vision, and blinked again. "Shit." She said, blindly wiping at her nose. "Shit." She continued, and began to stumble away. "Shit, shit, shit."

Steve disappeared from sight as she fell through the open kitchen door and out onto the desolate side porch, scrambling to a corner to sit and wait it out. This was not the place for another hallucination. And Jesus, her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that her body felt hollow and she clawed to pull her knees to her chest.

The world squealched and she couldn't hear the thumping of the party music anymore. The trees were plain silhouettes in the blue sky and spores flooded the open space. And then... and then this overwhelming loud sound, foreboding and gigantic and terrifying and she dared to peer over her shoulder and far-off in the distance something so utterly horrifying instilled a fear into her core.

There was something rising into the sky. Something chittering and utterly humongous. This insane shadowy creature that was bigger than anything she had ever seen. It hung over Hawkins before moving forward, leaning down to someone.

Her heart pounding and she squeezed her eyes closed and dared to open them and the blue flashed and turned back to amber glow and Girls On Film was playing too loud in her ears.

And she scrambled to dig her cigarettes and her lighter out of her pocket.

✧

There she stayed on the porch. Robin didn't appear from somewhere this time, and Laurie hoped she had found some more of her bandmates to drink away her anxieties with. She just smoked and stubbed out a cigarette and returned to the kitchen to locate a bottle of something and found vodka, returning to her position on the side.

Blood smudged, dry, under her nose and she tried to wipe it away as she focused her attention on a leftover can, focusing hard to tip it over and empty it. It slowly lifted, floating in midair and wobbled hesitantly as she tilted her head. It mimicked her movements.

And then the door was pushed open and it clattered to the ground.

"Geez. You're looking a bit rough." Laurie deflected, as she looked up to see Steve pushed the door closed behind him. "Fight with your girlfriend?"

"How did you know?"

"Because the deal was that you two were supposed to be acting like stupid teenagers for the night and someone looks a little too sober to fit into that category." Laurie quoted and Steve let out a sigh.

"Yeah... yeah." He said, and came to sit down beside her. "This yours?" He asked, eyeing the bottle.

"Feel free." Laurie said, handing the vodka over. "You wanna talk about it?"

Steve didn't say anything for a moment. And then he was pouring out a story about how him and Nancy were having this continuous arguement over something nondescript and they agreed to just push it to the side for the night only they couldn't and then the drink spilt and locked in Tina's bathroom Nancy let it all out. That they were acting like they were in love, like they were in love, not that they were in love but like they were? And Steve left to allow Jonathan to take her home, because she was drunk out of his mind and despite the serious look on his face he still had enough alcohol in him to not be able to drive for a bit. Besides, Nancy didn't even want to look at him, let alone let him drive her home.

"Jesus - have some more." Laurie pushed the bottle into his hand. "She doesn't love you? Can't say I saw that one coming."

"Neither." Steve said, blankly. "Can't say I saw you and Chance dating."

"Please, we hardly even dated." Laurie replied with a wave of her hand. "He just used to pick me up and we'd go sit in his car up at Lover's Lake to make out. You can't say you're dating unless you can actually be seen in a public place together and one ignores the other all day at school."

"Suppose not. Seems like he cares though." Steve shrugged. "More than I can say."

"Of course Nancy cares about you, idiot." Laurie shook her head. "She obviously cares about you."

"Not enough to love me though."

"Okay, let's change the subject, c'mon, drink some more." Laurie said. "Favourite costume? I've seen about five Dorothy's and The Wizard of Oz creeps me out."

"I kinda like your zombie cheerleader." Steve grimaced as he swallowed another mouthful of vodka. "At least you actually tried, the fake blood looks pretty convincing."

"Thank you, made it myself." Laurie said, picking at the hem of the skirt that sat high on her thighs. Her legs stretched out in front of her, bare save for rolled white socks beneath tennis shoes on her feet. Steve sat up a little and he could see the black ink of tattoos on her knees.

"What are they?" He asked, tapping on the skin there. Laurie hadn't even realised they were sat that close, and when she straightened her legs out and upwards to show him, her hand fell on the deck to balance herself a little too close to his thigh.

"Band-aid." She said simply. "Devil horns."

"You do them yourself?"

"Yeah. You kinda gotta lean into it when some freak forced one onto you as a child." Laurie sat back, holding out her arms. She didn't mention the numbers but all the same, Steve stared at the familiarity that he didn't quite understand. "I like to pretend I'm really into those Bond films, but I'm not really into Sean Connery."

"Yeah, didn't think you would be." Steve stared, before he forced his eyes way. "What about these?" He asked, reaching over so that his fingers brushed against the cold skin of her forearm.

"Three of swords - its tarot. Magic eight ball, a spider, this pretty stamp I found once. Er... not a lot of them have meaning." Laurie said, taking a drink of the vodka. Behind them, the house rumbled under the invasive bass of the Scorpions. "Speaking off... a scorpion here, bats, a cat, stars, the whole thing, really."

"And you do them all yourself?"

"Pretty much. Why, you want one?" Laurie tilted her head, smiling as she asked. "Can give you one when you come get your ID done again. I'll give you a discount price, package deal."

Steve shook his head. "No... no, my parents would kill me, first of all." He said.

"Who cares?" Laurie sat up, meeting his eyes, and reaching for his sunglasses to steal them.

"Hey-" His protests fell on deaf ears as she slipped them over her eyes. "Fine, say I don't care. I don't even know what I'd get."

"You can get absolutely anything, anywhere. That's the magic of it." Laurie said, leaning forward as he sat up. "Luckily for you, I can draw anything."

"Yeah?" Steve asked and watched as she nodded. He paused, pondered for a moment. "Maybe... yeah, I don't know, it's kinda stupid."

"Bet it isn't." Laurie pushed. "Go on, what is it?"

"I used to love when my dad would take me and my mom up to Chicago when I was a kid." Steve said hesitantly, like somehow this was revolutionary information that would change her entire opinion on him forever. "The route marker, 66, with Illinois at the top."

"Yeah, I could do that." Laurie nodded. "See, something meaningful. And thanks for not calling me crazy."

"Huh?"

"It's kind of the go-to when people find out I got a tattoo as a kid."

"Yeah, well it wasn't by choice." Steve said, somehow all-knowingly, as if he knew exactly why and exactly how she had ended up with it. "Why would I call you crazy?"

"You called me freak like five times last year. In the same conversation."

"I was a dick last year."

"You won't hear me arguing against that." She said, hands held up in mock surrender. "You smoke?" He didn't answer for a second. "Look... it wasn't personal or anything, I'm just surprised by how much more bearable you are. If you weren't a nice guy I wouldn't be offering. Besides, you have just enough braincells to hold a conversation and so little you won't really take much away from it." She held out the cardboard box

"No... it's not that." Steve reached out to take one. "But... er, thanks, I guess."

"Hey, if you take it as a compliment then I'm not gonna stop you." Laurie dug into her pocket, thankful the headache was gone and all that was left was that pleasant buzz in her stomach that made sure she didn't care at all about her actions. Out emerged a lighter and the flame flickered as she lit the cigarette, balancing it between her lips as she leant to the side to help Steve light his.

"You're..." He stared at her with some kind of indescribable look on his face as a puff of smoke left her lips. "Frighteningly honest."

"Ah yes, either a blessing or a curse. People tend to lean towards the latter, I can hurt feelings easily."

"No - no," Steve paused to blow out smoke staring at the devil horns above her knee. The light above them made her skin appear all rosy, but the harsh lines stood out amongst faded freckles. "I would say it was the first."

Her eyes flickered up at him then, all heavy and fake with smudged eyeliner. The sunglasses sat forgotten on the porch beside her, teetering on the edge of falling into the grassy abyss. "Yeah?"

"I like honesty. Honesty is good.." He stumbled over his words for a moment. "I like that."

"Then you wouldn't mind me saying that I hope you're not trying to create feelings, Steve."

She said his name so softly that it was a surprise. "What?" He asked.

"You broke up with Wheeler today, right? The priss spilt punch on her shirt and was all drunk and whatever and you broke up." Perhaps that wasn't what Laurie's take away should have been from his story from earlier, but she couldn't help it.

"She's not a priss."

"Hey - dude - I don't want to spend the night bitching about a girl who's actually been nice to me a couple times." Laurie said, deciding to leave out the part where she told him that she thought Nancy always came off as a bit snobbish. "But you have every right to. You said it yourself."

"She told me she didn't love me."

"Hey, Harrington?" Laurie said sharply. "Look at me, yeah? Don't start fucking digging yourself into a depression now, 'kay? Don't think about it, just do it, complain, bitch, whine, but don't fucking think about it dude, that just fucks you up."

Steve was silent for all of a moment before letting out a chuckle that was lost to the air of the night. "You're so wise." He told her, shaking his head.

"Oh, I do try."

Steve sat there for a moment, all cigarette smoke and hair falling over his eyes, the rampant memories driving him silent and what remained of the party sat in his silhouette. "...How honest are you?" He asked.

She didn't reply instantly either. His tone now was different. More vulnerable, less sober, and Laurie was less likely to know what to say. "Blessing or a curse." She repeated.

"Do you really think I'm that bad of a person?" He asked, turning towards her. They leant on one another now, somehow less divided in some way now, unable to find a crutch anywhere else in that world. Laurie was going crazy again, plagued by hallucinations of worlds that didn't exist and nightmares of a hospital and indescribable events and Steve... Steve's girlfriend, with who he had gone through so, so much with since they started seeing each other and Will Byers going missing, was pretending to be in love with him.

Laurie stared down at where his head rested on his arm. His hair brushed against her bare shoulder and suddenly she felt like the cheerleader outfit was suffocating. "If I did would I be sat here?" She said, her voice softer than she had heard it for oh-so long. "It's Halloween and I'm sat here with you. Everyone in that party, save for a few idiots, barely treat me as human because my brother deals drugs to them. I might have made a couple of digs about you being a huge douche to me in the past but geez, Steve, I'm happy sat here."

Almost in instinct, she swallowed a mouthful of vodka from the bottle that hung loosely from her fingertips. She didn't know how much either of them had drunk, and she knew it was nowhere near fill when she got it, but only the last few dregs of the horrific liqueur remained and she stared at the remains.

"Even though I was a dick."

They had made a decision, at some point in their somewhat drunken stupor, that honesty was a necessity, and Laurie only played further into it. "You could have been the biggest dick in the entire world and I still would've be sat here." She told him, and her fingers were brushing against the rough material of those stupid jeans he always wore. "Just because you can act a bit stupid sometimes doesn't mean you don't have feelings. I mean... in this past year you've changed a lot. For the better."

"Yeah?" He asked, looking up at her. His eyes were bright in the apricot glow and she smiled, stupidly, so, so stupidly as he pulled his hair back with a hand.

"Yeah." She nodded, still smiling.

"You're pretty." He murmured, and somewhere before Laurie would have decided that this was an entirely stupid decision but she was a pool of emotions and she leaned into the hand that curved around her jaw. A year before and maybe she would have decided this was an entirely stupid decision as she watched yet another girl fall for 'King Steve' and all his flirting. But maybe sometimes she wanted to be flirted with a little.

"Thanks." She almost blushed. "You won't regret this, will you?" She asked, her voice low as his hand trailed over her bare thought. "Honestly." She added.

"Honestly?" He repeated, head leaning back. "Everything is bullshit anyway, doesn't matter if I regret anything or not."

"You're real good at definitive answers." Laurie replied.

"Oh yeah?" In a sudden few movements, she found that he was pulling her into his lap, legs spread over him and that flouncy little cheerleading skirt rising high to the tops of her thighs. "How's that for a definitive answer, Munson?"

Laurie quite liked how that feeling of warmth fizzling in her stomach flared all the way up, and she got comfortable, shifting around on his lap and smiling - no, smirking - because in the silence of the faded party behind them she could hear the quiet, breathing out of a groan. "Since when were you all... I don't know, unserious... joking around." She asked.

"It's all part of my charm, Munson." Steve hummed. His hands clutched at her waist, fingers pushing into her skin. "So you gonna let me kiss you or not?"

"Might. Haven't made my mind up." He leaned up into her, and she tilted her head away, falling back against her wavering will as his lips brushed against her cheek, her jaw. Her breath came out all hesitant and stilted, like she was teenage girl with a silly little crush and God, in that uniform that was the only thing she needed.

"What can I do?" He asked, looking up at her as she pulled hair from his eyes.

"Hm... favourite band?"

"What?" He blinked, taken aback. But his fingertips were brushing against her bare skin and he could feel those goosebumps rise below her skin. "I... Tears for Fears."

"Yeah, I can work with that." Laurie replied. "So, you gonna kiss me now, or what?"

He didn't, right away. A hand left her waist behind to cup her cheek, brush a curl of dark hair behind her ear, trailing brushes of touch tracing her features, and Laurie was sure it was as if to somehow commit what he may regret to memory, regardless of how stupid it was. The feeling of his thumb pressing against her bottom lip grounded her all too much.

"You're pretty." He said.

"You've told me that before."

"And?" He murmured, and leaned forward to bridge the gap between them and kiss her, his hand resting hesitantly on the curve of her neck. Laurie decided then that she didn't really care how stupid it all may be, the uniform, the flirting, none of it and all of it, none of the regrets they may have in the morning, the fact that she was kissing Steve Harrington off all people, none of it mattered.

So she let all of her worries go.