chapter ten
lonely nights

🖤

SO. STEVE WOULD NOT STOP PUKING FOR, like, ten whole minutes, so the two swapped seats, and Ruby drove the rest of the stretch home. They concluded that this was because of breathing in the Upside Down, and that Ruby never reacted like that — well, because Ruby's Ruby. She felt guilty for not thinking about that before letting him follow her in there.

She pulls onto her driveway, and glances cautiously over at Steve. He last vomited three minutes ago, so she braces herself for another round. The smell makes her feel gross, too, but she keeps quiet because at least she isn't the one puking.

"If you puke in my house, Harrington, you're dead."

"No, I think I'm fine now," says Steve, looking pale.

Ruby raises her eyebrows. "Are you sure...?"

"I think so—" He stops himself, and pukes again into the plastic bag. Ruby covers her nose with her fingers, pinching her nostrils. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault," she says.

They end up going inside her house, Steve getting the last of the Upside Down out of him in the downstairs bathroom. Ruby quickly runs around the house to make sure it's all tidy; she doesn't know why she's so nervous, because he's been here more times she can count, but still. He hasn't been over like this in a long time.

She returns downstairs, where Steve's cleaning himself up. It's in that moment that Ruby notices that the two of them are covered in the weird, slimy goo that covers the Upside Down, and she frowns.

"I'll, uh, go home in a second—"

But the anxiety of sleeping here, home alone tonight, scares her so much that she tells him without a moment's consideration, "You can stay."

Steve frowns at her. "Uh..."

"I mean, you might be sick still... And—" Ruby pauses, and sighs, admitting defeat. "And I think I'm... uh... freaked out, still. So it'd be nice if you stayed."

He looks at her in surprise, this level of vulnerability being divorced from their friendship the past year. Ruby remembers before, on that night where she saw the monster whilst high, and Steve cradled her, because she was so scared. He just thought she was paranoid, but he still stayed there with her.

"OK." Steve nods, and he cracks a smile. "No funny business though, Brenner... I know what you're like."

Ruby's mouth opens into an O, taken aback. "What does that mean, Harrington?"

He walks past her to leave the bathroom, but pauses just as he reaches her. She looks up at him, and she knows he's only teasing her, pausing to lean in like this, but still, the closeness makes her skin prickly. "I think it was you that kissed me, right?" he says.

Ruby doesn't say anything, and he holds that closeness for another moment, before he grins and walks past her. "Can I, uh, shower here?" he asks.

"Oh — uh — sure," she says, stumbling over her words. Billy never made her nervous like that. "You use the main one, I'll use my aunt's."

That was so bizarre, Ruby thinks, after she's given Steve his towel, and locked herself in her aunt's ensuite. She takes off her clothes, planning to wash them ASAP the next morning, and jumps into the shower. She likes her showers so hot they boil her alive, and she closes her eyes in delight, feeling the hot water hit her skin, trailing down her. Ruby lathers her hair with shampoo, but whenever she looks up, she pictures the scene a few minutes before; her ex-best-friend (best friend again?) towering over her, enjoying the height difference, and holding the intimacy, just to watch her squirm. She thinks of when they kissed at Halloween, how nice it was. She imagines that combined with a few moments ago... She looks up, as she washes out her shampoo, and imagines Steve in front of her right now... Mmm.

But she tries to shake that out of her. What even is going on with them, right now? At Halloween he was claiming she liked him, but now, he just wants to be friends. And last Christmas, too... He professed his love for her, so surely, if he was acting the same a few days ago, that hasn't gone away? But he hasn't said a single thing about that, so maybe he isn't interested anymore?

The thought of him in the shower with her frustrates her. She shouldn't think of him like that, but God, imagine how sexy that would be...

Ruby cuts her shower short, namely to stop herself from fantasising over the boy next door. She uses her aunt's body lotion, the vanilla-scented one they both bought, as she gives herself a talking-to. These thoughts about Steve have to stop. She'll get herself into trouble — or, even worse, a relationship. She's just broken up with Billy, it's too soon for her to think about anything like that! She knows for certain that Billy would beat the shit out of Steve, too, if Ruby dated Steve that quickly; Billy would think she left him for Steve, which would be catastrophic. She doesn't think Steve would survive that sort of beating.

But that isn't a concern, because Ruby doesn't like Steve. Friends can appreciate the others' appearances without it being sexual... Friends can imagine friends in the shower with them, their wet chest glistening, soapy suds just covering their—

Enough.

Ruby covers herself with her towel, and walks outside of her aunt's bedroom to the hallway. But, just as she opens the door, so does Steve, from the bathroom opposite her aunt's room. He's wearing a towel, too. (Well, duh, she thinks, but the sight of him half-naked isn't helping her thoughts from a couple minutes ago.)

They both stare at each other for a second. Ruby has seen him without a shirt on before, but right now... Fuck. She looks up at him, and he looks at a loss for words.

Finally, Ruby clears her throat. "I'll, uh, get changed, then you can? I think I've got a couple t-shirts that'll fit you," she says, and she quickly slips past him towards her bedroom.

"If they're Hargrove's," Steve remarks, "I'm sleeping naked."

Internally,Ruby thinks, Yes puh-lease!

Externally, she says, "Ew, don't be gross!"

She closes her bedroom door, and has to take a deep breath. She needs to stop this, right now. Maybe she's just touch-starved. Ruby quickly throws on a pair of pyjamas, finding ones that cover her better than the normal satin cami, and reminds herself that she does not like Steve like that. They are friends. That is all. He's here because she's scared and he was puking. There is nothing romantic about this.

Ruby picks up an old pair of pyjamas, ones that she thinks Steve left here a year ago. She steps back out into the hallway, and smiles awkwardly at him. "You're in luck — these ones were yours."

"Did Hargrove ever...?"

Ruby smiles sweetly, knowing this'll annoy him. "Hargrove slept naked. Yum—mee!"

"You are gross, Brenner!" says Steve, and Ruby laughs.

This is nice. This is normal. This is just like how things used to be, before Steve started dating Nancy, Nancy and Ruby tried to find Nancy's missing best friend Barb, and Ruby's identity as Subject X became known to people other than her grandpa and lab officials. Ruby realises how all of this past year felt weird, and maybe that was because she was waiting to return to this. Maybe everything's been shitty because she didn't have Steve.

He walks into her room after a little while, and she's sat on her bed — perched, in fact, like this bedroom isn't her own. Steve frowns. "Should I, uh, sleep here, or...?"

Ruby knows they're both being weird, and the memory of her Halloween party replays. She remembers not just how they kissed, but how he said he liked her — or even last Christmas, when he said he was in love with her, and she told him to leave her alone. She remembers how resentful the two had been the months after Christmas, too, especially when Steve started dating Nancy again. Ruby had rejected him, sure, but she still hated seeing them together, and scoffed every chance she got. Or how this year, when Billy caught her attention, how she enjoyed seeing Steve jealous, how she thought, karma's a bitch, huh!

She knows that things have changed, and she can tell he's thinking the same. But if they don't ignore it, that means they'll have to have an entirely new conversation, and really, Ruby is not in the mood for another relationship. She wouldn't mind having her best friend back, though.

So she thinks what they used to do, and decides to act that way. "Just sleep here, I don't have cooties," she says, nonchalantly so Steve doesn't realise the length of brain-power it took to reach that response. He looks suspicious for a second, before giving in and lying down next to her, resting on his front. "Wanna gossip about boys? That's what me and Carol do."

"Oh my God, you have sleepovers with Carol now?" says Steve, grimacing. "That's my replacement? God, I would've handed myself over to that monster if I was you."

Ruby snorts. "She's not that bad!"

"Uh, yeah, she's worse," says Steve.

Thankfully, though, this makes Ruby feels a little less on-edge. She lies down on her back, and looks over at him. For some reason, Ruby's always had strong feelings for boys with strong noses.

"OK, so, why did you and Nancy actually break up?" says Ruby.

"Where did that come from?" he says.

"Uh, my constant state of nosiness?" she says. "Go on. Spill."

Steve sighs. "I wasn't into it, she wasn't into it. I think we were both kidding ourselves over the whole thing... You've seen her with Byers," he tells Ruby. "But at your party, she got super wasted and told me that our whole relationship was bullshit."

"That's shit," Ruby says.

"How about you and Billy?" he says.

"He called me a slut," says Ruby, and she shrugged. "He tried to apologise last night, actually — hold on." Ruby glances over at her window, and focuses as hard as she can, until she hears the lock click. The curtains scrape across the curtain rod, so no one trying to get in can see who's already inside. Namely, Steve. "He'd kill you if he thought we were... You know."

"Screwing?"

Ruby almost chokes on her spit. "Yeah, that."

She stops herself from imagining that herself.

"He was so jealous of you," says Ruby. "He thought you were gonna become the 'King' again just to throw him off."

Steve rolls his eyes. "I don't see the point with all that anymore," he says. Ruby feels uncomfortable, because she definitely does. "I mean, did I ever really like Tommy, or Carol? No. But I forced myself to, and to go along with it when they were being douchebags."

Ruby grumbles. "It's OK for some."

"All I miss about that stuff is you," Steve says.

She looks over at him, and she feels as though her heart is melting. She really missed him. But as she looks at him, her eyes glance down to his lips, wondering what would happen if she just moved a little closer... But she stops herself, and smiles awkwardly.

"I'll bet you do," says Ruby. "Time for bed."

She reaches over to turn off her bedside light, and the room falls into darkness. She lies on her side so she doesn't have to look directly at Steve, but she can hear him tossing and turning to make himself more comfortable. Eventually she hears him drift off, and in the silence, she does so too.

🖤

THE NEXT MORNING BEGINS ON AN ODD foot; as Ruby stirs, hearing someone banging on her front door, she opens her eyes to see Steve, doing the same. She moves to rub her eyes, but realises that her hand is holding onto something — and, at the same time Steve notices, she looks down to see their hands, holding one another. Both jump away from each other. Ruby feels her cheeks glowing red.

She hears someone banging at the door again, and she scrambles out of bed. Half to answer the door, half to get away from this catastrophe.

Ruby throws on the nearest sweatshirt, and Steve clears his throat. She turns to him, her defensive grouchiness kicking in, and he goes, "Uh, that's mine..."

She looks down. She feels even more embarrassed.

She tears it off and throws it onto his head, giving up on any added modesty to whomever's at the door. She's got a t-shirt on, it'll do. If she doesn't turn around, they won't notice the lack of fabric on her short-shorts.

Ruby runs down the stairs, as the banging continues. "I'm coming, Jesus!" she shouts. Some people have no manners. Someone better be dead. Someone better have a lost limb, or no head, or a guy in a mask chasing after them but will never catch them because they're a virgin—

"Oh," she says when she opens the door. It's Dustin, one of the kids from last year. "Why are you here?"

"I need assistance," he says.

Ruby raises an eyebrow. "In what, changing your diaper?"

"I'm in middle school," he says, starting to look annoyed. He's still a head shorter than her, so the anger doesn't cause much intimidation. "I've got a supernatural-level problem."

"So why can't you ask your friends?" asks Ruby, as Steve appears, walking up behind her. "I don't do that shit."

She glances to her side, as Steve puts his hands on his hips, frowning at Dustin. "What's the problem?" says Steve.

Dustin frowns. "Since when were you two dating?"

Ruby grimaces. "We're married with three kids," she says dryly, and echoing Steve, adds, "What's the problem?"

"I can't get to my friends," says Dustin. "And I thought you'd want to know what happened, anyway."

So Ruby frowns. In this world, there aren't many things she would find interesting that Dustin would. Does he appreciate a fine leather bag? Probably not. Or a crisp issue of Vogue? Also no. Because of this, she asks, "Why?"

"Because I thought you were the most connected to all this?" says Dustin.

Ruby pauses. "Yeah, so?" It doesn't mean she has any interest in it. She'll repeat herself: is it a fine leather bag? Or a crisp issue of Vogue? Or a particularly well-photographed Playgirl, depending on the day?

"Don't you know what to do?" asks Dustin.

"... Yeah, so?" she says again.

Dustin looks fed up. Which is good, because it means that her plan is working. Ruby's good at annoying people so much they leave her alone. It isn't a superpower, but it is a cultivated talent.

Dustin begins, "Well maybe you can stay here with the kids and your husband can help—"

"Ruby—" says Steve, but she interrupts both.

"Look, now is not the time, OK? Ask Hopper, or something, it is not my job to fix everything around here," says Ruby, and she starts to close the door—

—But Dustin stops her. It takes her by surprise, that he even has the balls to do that, so she stops, and raises an eyebrow.

"What?" she says.

"I think my pet is a demogorgon."

Ruby's heart stops. It fucking stops. She doesn't even think she's exaggerating, for a second her entire body freezes. Another monster? She killed that other one, how are there more? She killed her monster last year, that was supposed to be it!

... What if there's more out there?

She can see Dustin talking, his mouth mouth open and closed, but all she can hear is static. It's as if she's about to faint; everything feels so distant, like she's watching her vision from a screen elsewhere. She can feel her heart pumping in her chest. The gravity of all of this has hit her like a tonne of bricks.

"I need you to help me find it," says Dustin.

Ruby shakes her head. "No," she says, and before he protests she keeps talking. "You need me to kill it. C'mon." She gestures for Dustin to come inside, and she glances at Steve, telling him that his clothes from yesterday will be dry by now. She trudges upstairs, wishing she could scream.

This is the worst week of her life. First, she kisses the doofus downstairs, then she breaks up with her hot boyfriend, and now all of this stupid lab shit is happening again! Can she not catch a break?

Ruby quickly gets dressed, trying not to overthink things. She picks out the first jeans she lays her eyes on, grabbing a sweatshirt she knows is hers and rolling up the sleeves. She brushes through her hair, thanks God her curtain bangs don't look too bad, and laces up her Converse. She wishes boys realised the art in getting ready.

"OK, this better be good," says Ruby with a glare as she walks downstairs, where the two boys are waiting for her.

"Is she always like this?" says Dustin, to Steve.

"This is her on a good day," says Steve, picking up his bat.

She steps outside onto the porch, gesturing with her hands to make the two hurry up out of the house. The second Dustin crosses the threshold, she uses her powers to slam and lock the door behind him, making him jump. Ruby starts walking down her porch, towards Steve's car; she looks over her shoulder at him. "You're driving, right?" she says.

Steve stumbles over his words as he goes, "Uh, yeah, sure! Let's take my car...!"

"Whipped," says Dustin under his breath.

Ruby's week is getting worse and worse.

hi!! this was written/finished the night before the next season comes out! so this is gonna be up when it's out!! i don't wanna ask opinions in case i get spoiled lol but happy stranger things day!! 💖