chapter two
halloween '84

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THE PAST TWENTY-FOUR HOURS have been stressful, for Lily. She's tried everything in order to help her father with the pumpkin situation, but even that seems hopeless.

The Chief had been over to examine the pumpkins, and told her dad he'd keep in touch — but, not long after, Merril gets a call from Eugene accusing him of poisoning his pumpkins, because he believed Eugene had poisoned his. Lily knows her dad didn't do it. But, it gets worse.

The poison of the pumpkins seems to have found it's way through everybody's crops — Eugene's, Jack O'dell's, Pete Freeling's, Rick Neary's, the Christensens'. Everyone's crops, dead.

And because Lily's dads was the first to be hit, he's now to put to blame by everyone else.

The youngest Wright had also approached the cafe she works in after school, yesterday, to ask for the possibility of any more shifts — and instead, she's been given the worst news possible. Not only can they not be able to give her anymore shifts, but if things don't improve for them by January, the cafe might have to let go of some of their employees — or, close for good.

So now, not only does Lily have to worry about the loss of money from her dad's work, but also the loss of her own. And now her dad's been accused of poisoning the crops of everyone else in town.

Things are not looking good.

The only bright side Lily can really look towards is the fact that her Carrie outfit looks amazing, if she does say so herself. The fake blood dried up nicely, and when she's got her makeup and hair done with it, and drenched herself in fake blood, Lily's sure this year's costume could in fact be her best one yet.

She leaves home early after school, in order to help Tina setup her Halloween bash. Vicki's picking her up and driving her straight there, and so Lily heads out to the pathway to find her friend's car parked behind the Chief Police's.

"What are the police doing here?" Vicki asks, anxiously glancing to the load of alcohol she's placed in the backseats.

"They've been everywhere, today," Lily says, nodding towards Chief Hopper and her dad, at the far side of the field. "They're putting markers down on all the dead crops, trying to see what the cause could be. I think Hopper's about to head back to Eugene's, though, so we should probably get going, if..." she nods to the backseats.

Vicki gets what she means straight away and starts the car up, the sound of vodka bottles clanging together as they pull off and begin to head for Tina's.

It's easier to not think about the pumpkin situation when Lily's putting up decorations, moving furniture and making punch for Tina. Not to mention, Tina is worrying about this party — so it's Lily's turn to help her out and calm her down. No time to think about her own troubles.

"We're about to run out," Tina stresses, as she strides into the room holding a string of fairy lights shaped like pumpkins. "There's not going to be enough to cover all of outside — oh my God, tonight is already a fucking disaster!"

"Calm down!" Lily says, placing down the bottles of alcohol she was arranging and heading over to help her best friend out. "It's fine! It all looks good!"

"Look, people are gonna judge tonight, and therefore me, as either a great success or a huge failure!"

"Look you've got punch. You're already one up against the one Tommy H hosted last year, just relax!"

"Also, it's very hard to relax knowing Billy Hargrove is coming!"

"Oh... okay, yeah, that makes sense," Lily gives Tina a smile.

Billy Hargrove, the new boy, seems to have settled in quite well, since he's only been here for two days. Already, Tommy H is at his side like a lost puppy, and the all buzz about him coming to Tina's party is sending her over the edge.

Lily's not too sure what all the fuss is about, but whatever. If Tina really likes him, then she hopes tonight her best friend will be able to get him — what with this over-the-top party they've spent almost a month planning.

At half five, Lily heads upstairs to Tina's bedroom to get into her costume which she'd brought with her. The blood stained dress is easy to slide into, and both her hair and makeup go fairly well — even when she has to head into the bathroom to douse fake blood all over herself and make sure she won't get any of it on the floor. It seems as though her costume going perfectly is the universe's way of repaying her for the stress she's had to endure the previous two days.

When she places her tiara as the finishing touch on her head, Lily sighs with relief, now that she's managed to get everything right with her costume. Let tonight be a really good night, please, she thinks.

Tina squeals when she sees Lily in all her Carrie magic, and Lily's heart starts to swell with excitement. Tina's dressed as 'Like a Virgin' Madonna, her dark hair now bouncing in many curls.

Seven o'clock soon comes around, and as time ticks, more and more people start to fill Tina's house, with the alcohol flowing and the music playing loudly. Lily believes she is truly in her element at the moment, as she watches with joy as everything she's planned becomes a success.

She'd never really thought about her future career, before — but Lily supposes event planning wouldn't be a bad idea.

It's now later on in the night. Shout at the Devil by Mötley Crüe is playing, and Lily is well into the depths of a drunken state as she dances with Vicki (Carol and Tina have vanished to watch Billy Hargrove perform a keg stand). Lily still hasn't caught sight of Reed, yet — despite him promising he'd turn up around eight.

"I saw him, earlier," Vicki says, after Lily expresses her confusion. "Like, half an hour ago. I told him where you were, did he not come and say 'hi'?"

"No, he didn't," Lily says. A bad feeling begins to reoccur in her stomach. "I haven't seen him once,"

Vicki frowns. "Maybe he got distracted... look, here comes Billy, I bet he'll be with them..."

Just as Lily turns around, a huge group including Tina and Carol enters the house chanting 'Billy' — the girl scans the crowd for her boyfriend, trying to look out for a Johnny Lawrence costume, but Tommy H is the only one who appears to be wearing one, at the moment.

"We've got ourselves a new Keg King, Harrington," he says, as they reach Steve and Nancy who are leaning up against the wall.

"Yeah, that's right!"

"Yeah, eat it, Harrington!"

Lily lets a small smirk slip. The fact that they're fighting over a keg is funny, but the fact that it's against Steve is even funnier to her. She's glad someone's starting to put him in his place — even if she's not one hundred percent sure what she thinks of Billy, yet.

Karma.

She and Vicki continue to dance, Tina soon joining them, as more and more songs start to play from Lily's mix, such as Beat It, Thriller and Lucky Star — the girl adores Madonna and Micheal Jackson.

Lily's trudging back and forth to the kitchen to fill up her cup with more drink. She's spent most of the night drinking either her punch or vodka cokes, and so decides, in her alcoholic infused brain, she should try something else.

If there's one bad habit she has whilst she's drunk, it's mixing drinks.

There's an unopened bottle of champagne behind her, one that she had brought, and she picks it up.

"Make it shower!" Tina calls from behind her, catching many other's attention. Several others shout in agreement, and Lily grins, clumsily climbing up on the counter nearest to the crowd. Her shoes start to slip against the smooth marble, but she's too out of it to care.

"Who thinks I should open it?!" she calls down. She receives more cheers, as others start to acknowledge what's going on. "Do you want me to open it?!"

Another chorus of cheers sound and Lily starts to laugh, stumbling backwards slightly.

Tina begins to shout a countdown from ten that everyone starts to follow. Billy Hargrove and his gang join the commotion, and Lily takes the opportunity to once again look for Reed. He's still nowhere to be seen.

"Three! Two! One!"

Lily pops the cork and whoops as everyone else cheers, champagne spraying all over the crowd that have gathered below her. She then lifts the bottle to her mouth and takes a few gulps, before lifting the bottle up into the air and entertaining everyone with another cheer.

As arrogant as it sounds, Lily's absolutely loving this. Sometimes, she thinks Drunk Lily is the best Lily — and then she realises how bad that sounds, and forces herself to believe otherwise.

She climbs down from the counter, as a separate commotion is happening beside her.

"Get off!"

"No, you've had enough, okay!"

"Screw you!"

"Nance, I'm serious — hey, hey, hey, stop. No — I'm serious—"

Lily doesn't want to listen to him. She decides it's time she tried to find Reed.

She pushes past the quarrelling couple and stumbles through the crowd, as Girls on Film blasts through the speakers. She looks around to try and find any familiar faces, and spots Tommy H, who is practically all over Billy Hargrove, surrounded by the rest of their gang. She stumbles over.

"Hey, have any of you guys seen Reed?" she slurs. "I haven't seen him all night?"

"Uhhh..." Tommy H says slowly, his voice a higher pitch than usual. "I dunno... I don't think so..."

"Yeah, he's upstairs," Billy says casually, completely flattening Tommy H's attempt at lying. The rest of the boys look at him in shock.

"Thanks," Lily says to Billy, before giving Tommy H a dirty look and walking off.

"Why did you do that?" she can hear Tommy H ask Billy.

"Funny," Billy replies. Lily's stomach lurches. What's funny?

She really doesn't want to know why Tommy H was trying to cover for Reed. But she's not going to ignore the fact that he's hiding something... just please, don't let it be what she's thinking of. Please, please, please...

Lily bangs her fists on several doors upstairs as she storms through, listening out for the kind of voices on the other side that shout, 'Leave it!' or 'Go away!'

She reaches the door second from the bathroom upstairs and brings up both of her fists, before thumping them on the wooden door.

"Don't you know what a locked door means?!"

Lily knows that voice.

With trembling hands and shaky breaths, she slips off one of the rings on her fingers and slots it into the lock of the door, slowly twisting it to unlock.

Part of her wants to leave the door closed — she doesn't want to know what's happening on the other side. Whilst she has a clear idea of it in her head, opening that door will confirm it. Her heart's getting ready to shatter, the very few parts of it she'd tried to tape back together after her last breakup ready to become unstuck, once again. It's about to drop into shards at the bottom of her stomach.

Lily's not sure if, when it does drop, she'll be able to pick it back up, again, and put it back together. If something breaks, over and over, there will come a time where it's not mendable. Lily fears this might be that time. The last time.

Still, she opens the door. And her heart does indeed fall to pieces, her limbs still tremble, and her breath hitches in her throat. And all she sees is red.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," her voice shakes.

Her eyes pierce Reed so harshly, the hairs on his arms stand on end.

He's on the bed with a girl called Nicole, who — when the door opens — rushes to grab her shirt (which had obviously been taken off) and puts it back on, quickly. Reed's pants are also unzipped.

Lily's truly a horror villain, in this moment — all in her Carrie magic. Covered head-to-toe in blood, so full of rage she's frozen, her eyes presenting the indication that she's turning mad. Insane. She's going to kill someone.

Maybe if she glares hard enough she'll end up possessing Carrie's telekinetic powers — and Tina's party will end up looking like that prom.

"Oh, shit, here we go..." Reed says.

And this sends Lily over the edge.

"Is this actually for real?!" she sneers.

"What? What?"

"You're cheating on me?"

"What? I was just having a conversation with her!"

Reed's attempt to lie is embarrassing.

"A conversation?" Lily says, through a very nasty, sarcastic tone. "With what, the zip of your open pants, you freak?!"

The boy looks terrified. He quickly zips up his pants — he must've forgotten about them, until Lily had mentioned it.

"Is that how much of a fucking idiot you are?!" she continues.

People are starting to hear the yelling, now, and begin to gather around with curiosity. Tommy H and Billy Hargrove are amongst the few rushing upstairs to get a glimpse of the argument.

"What's going on?" Tina arrives, a concerned look on her face. Reed starts to stand up, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

"Don't even think about going anywhere, you cheat, I'll rip your fucking throat out," Lily threatens.

Reed stands back. Tina doesn't need to listen for long to understand what's going on.

"That's fucking rotten," she says.

"I'm not cheating on you!" Reed tells Lily. "I'm just trying to—"

"I had a fucking feeling, as well!" Lily sighs, exchanging a glance with her best friend whose expression is growing more sour by the second.

"I'm not cheating on you!" he repeats. "I never even said that I liked her!"

"You're about to fuck her, Reed! How are you this stupid?!" Lily shouts. Her voice echoes around the house.

"It's fucked up!" Tina backs her friend. "How do you have absolutely no respect for her?"

"What do you mean?"

Lily's lost for words. She can't function properly. She's yelling, and she's angry, and him acting clueless is just making everything worse.

Nicole starts to laugh.

"Listen—" she begins, but she's cut off immediately.

"Don't you fucking start," Lily rounds on her. You can almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. Nicole flinches, the smirk on her face vanishing completely.

Lily turns to leave — she can't stand here and shout anymore, she needs to get out. All of these people make her feel like she can't breathe, her vision's gone all blurry — she needs to get out.

"Cunt," she mutters, pushing past the people in the doorway.

"Did she just call me a cunt?" she can hear Nicole say behind her, through the mumbles of those watching.

"Yeah, I did call you a fucking cunt!" Lily stops shouts back, before she storms down the stairs. "Stupid bitch,"

She's not sure if anyone's following her. She's drunk, and she's seething, and she needs to get out.

The instrumental part of 'You're So Vain' by Carly Simon is playing as Lily reaches the bottom of the stairs. It's her favourite song. She would usually stop and dance her little heart out, but not tonight.

She needs to get out.

Lily grabs the open champagne bottle on the side and continues to march out of the door, not looking over her shoulder once. Her ears are ringing, she wouldn't be able to hear if anyone is calling her name. She can barely hear a thing.

She continues to walk, stumbling on her heels until she rips them off of her feet, completely, and goes barefoot.

The streets are empty, now. Empty, except for the rumble of the music and the party a few houses back. Empty, except for the blonde girl covered head-to-toe in blood. Her baby pink dress is ruined, her tiara is on a slant. Her hair is tangled in the crimson, her feet are bare and cold as they walk along the concrete road. Her hand is clutched around an open bottle of champagne — it's label is now stained with red finger prints.

She's not marching, anymore. She's walking slowly, bringing the bottle to her lips once every few moments and gulping. She's swaying as she walks.

Her mind is blank, an empty space. Every emotion she had, she left back at Tina's.

Lily had believed, in her drunken state, that she would be able to walk home, from here. Despite her house being miles away, her alcohol contaminated mind had told her 'It's not that far...'

But she soon finds her legs entirely numb, and sits herself down on the sidewalk.

Everything's starting to catch up with her, now she's sitting down. Every emotion, every word, everything.

It's just all too much for an alcohol ridden girl. Her family business getting ruined for this Halloween, her father being accused of poisoning the farms of others, her cafe revealing they might have to close or let her go. If she can't help her dad, nobody can. Because that's the way it's been, forever. Merril and Lily. Father and daughter. Her favourite pairing, forever.

Her mother left her when she was three. She didn't know why. She'd never asked, because she knew it was a touchy subject for her dad. Plus, the less she knew about the woman, the less it hurt, in her eyes.

You should be used to this, by now, she tells herself, thinking back to Reed. You shouldn't let it affect you so much. It's happened so many times, you should know how to deal with it.

And still, it comes as a surprise when Lily finds herself being betrayed, again.

She leans forward and buries her face in her hands, which are propped up by her elbows leaning on her knees. The sobs soon follow.

She's sick of it, she's so, so sick of it.

Lily knows she shouldn't be this upset, not about Reed. Only yesterday morning was he pissing her off so much she'd actually rushed to get to chemistry — the worst lesson in the world.

But it's not Reed that she's hurt by. She just can't understand what makes her so unlovable that people find it so easy to leave. Yes, Reed was annoying her, but she thought she'd made him happy. She thought, on his part, he was enjoying their high school relationship. She thought she meant a little more to him, than for him to give the past few months up in one night.

What was the problem? Why was it so easy for people to replace her, to leave her alone?

Was she a little too much? Or was she a little too boring?

She thinks she'll spend the rest of her years attempting to understand why.

Someone sits down next to Lily, on the sidewalk. She doesn't know who. She's still bawling her eyes out into her, now drenched, hands. She can feel the mascara and the fake blood running and smearing all over her face. She can taste the makeup on her tongue along with the salt of her tears that pick it up as they run down her cheeks.

The person sitting next to her doesn't say anything, for a while, yet she feels like their presence is familiar. But she can't figure out who it is, not without looking at them.

She raises her head slightly and her tear-filled eyes dart to the side.

"Oh," she says, bitterly. "It's you,"

She forces herself to stop crying, and sits up, as though it'll make her seem more composed despite the tear stains and smudged makeup and small sniffles.

Steve Harrington doesn't reply. In fact, he's unsure why he's ended up sitting next to his ex-girlfriend (and childhood best friend) also.

Lily's lost in her thoughts, yet again. Being drunk makes everything so worse. She was an affectionate drunk, a few hours ago. She was wrapping her best friends up in the tightest hugs and telling them how pretty, or funny, or kind they were. She would've been an affectionate drunk all night — but the person she had saved all her kisses for was upstairs, kissing someone else.

And now she's crying. And her thoughts are getting more miserable by the minute.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she says quietly, after a long silence. She's still slurring slightly, in her drunken state, but she's stopped sobbing, at least. The tears are streaming silently, now.

"In what way?" Steve asks softly. He's treating her like a bomb. Like if he says the wrong thing, she'll explode. He would be right.

"I don't know why I can't make people love me,"

Steve turns his head to look at her and another silence fills the air. He doesn't know what to say — he's staring at the girl with a strange look in his eyes and she's avoiding looking at him entirely.

The sorrowful feeling seems to be taking up the entire sidewalk. Two teenagers, sitting and feeling sorry for themselves, ignoring — just for a moment — that they hate each other's guts.

"Why aren't you with Nancy?" Lily asks, after a very long, noiselessness few minutes. Her tone is less gentle than before.

"Uh, well..." Steve begins slowly. He's not sure whether he wants to explain. "She just told me she doesn't love me. And also that I'm bullshit,"

"You are bullshit," Lily says bluntly.

Steve doesn't retaliate, however. A soft expression overcomes his face, instead, and he tries to change the subject.

"Carrie?" he asks, gesturing towards her costume.

She glances at him with an expression that suggests he's the most stupid boy in the world. Sometimes, she thinks he is.

"No, Jason Voorhees," she says sarcastically. There's an annoyed tone to her voice. "And what are you?" she adds, eyeing up his entirely black outfit. "A priest?"

Steve laughs, and Lily curses herself for it. Ever since the day things ended, she'd sworn to herself she'd either never speak to him again, or she'd give him hell. Is this what hell was? Making him laugh?

Get it together, Lils.

"Tom Cruise from Risky Business, obviously," he replies.

Finally, Lily's eyes meet his for a second and the realisation that she's talking to Steve Harrington almost completely sobers her up.

She stands up abruptly, as though she's just snapped out of a trance, and picks up her bottle of champagne.

"Don't you think you've had enough of that?" Steve says, his eyebrows creasing slightly.

Lily gives him a dirty look, and takes another gulp.

"You don't get to tell me what to do," she responds, nastily. "Actually, I don't know why I'm talking to you,"

Steve frowns, like he's forgotten in the past few moments that he and Lily haven't been friends for years.

"You better not tell anyone that I — that this happened," Lily says bitterly.

"Like I'd want to?" Steve retorts.

"I mean it, Steve," the girl continues. She's starting to bubble, once again. "I'm not walking through the school halls tomorrow and hearing you talk about me to other people again. I'm not hearing 'Oh, she's been following me around since we were little' and 'Yeah, she's kind of annoying, really' to Tommy H and Carol, or whoever you're friends with, now,"

Something shifts in Steve's expression. A subtle flicker in his eyes, maybe. Whatever it is, it seems as though something has just clicked, for him. Like he's just found the answer to a very complicated puzzle.

And then his face falls, just slightly.

"You were there?" he asks quietly, his voice in disbelief.

Lily can't look at him. She feels like she's either about to throw up, explode, or start crying. She turns away and starts to walk, still stumbling as she does so.

Steve lets her go, but only for a moment or two.

He stands up and rushes after her.

"Hey, hey," he says, stopping her in her tracks and slowly removing the champagne bottle from her hands. "You can't walk home, it's miles away,"

"It's not that far," Lily retorts.

"Yes it is, and you're way too drunk to go by yourself—"

"I don't need you to look after me, Steve," she raises her voice.

"Just let me drive you home—"

"In fact, I haven't needed you for a long time!"

"I don't care!" Steve argues. "You won't get home by walking, not in this state,"

"Just leave me alone!"

"No!"

"I mean it, Harrington, I swear, I'll—"

"I'm not leaving you alone unless you let me drive you home." Steve says, sternly. "The more we stand here and argue, the more time we have to spend with each other. Just let me drop you off at your house, and I'll drive home, and we'll never have to talk to each other again. Deal?"

Lily glares at him, and crosses her arms. She supposes he's right. And she wants nothing more than to be left alone right now — the last person she wants to be spending her time with is Steve goddamn Harrington.

"Have you been drinking?" she asks him.

He almost laughs. "No, I have not,"

And so she agrees.

She gets into the passenger side and shifts so she's leaning against the window, not having to look at the Harrington boy who's taking her home.

"Do you even remember the way?" she asks bitterly.

"Do I even remember the way?" Steve repeats, a small smile playing on his lips. "Shit, Lils, I knew the road to your place like the back of my hand, all those years ago,"

Lils. Only Steve has ever used that nickname. She hasn't heard it in years — hearing it again makes her feel like she's been stung. Did he have to call her that? And did he have to bring up how he always used to be at her house?

Lily doesn't say anything else. She feels sick.

The drive to her house is silent, for most of the time, except for the mixtape in Steve's car's radio. It bothers Lily that a lot of the songs on there, she'd introduced him to, when they were around fourteen. But whatever.

Steve starts to frown as they pull up, the headlights illuminating the mangled pumpkin patch. Lily sighs. That's all she needs — Steve Harrington, all up in her business.

"What happened?" Steve asks. His voice is actually concerned.

"The pumpkins are enchanted to decay at midnight after Halloween, every year. We hire the same fairy godmother as Cinderella," Lily says sarcastically, opening the car door.

Whilst Steve is slightly amused at her joke, he can't help but still stare at the field with curiosity. Something's happened, here. Something bad.

Lily steps out and feels something under her shoe (she'd put them back on, in Steve's car). She removes her foot and sees a tiny, white card.

She picks it up to see a business card, of sorts. It reads, 'Dr. Sam Owens' and holds a phone number beneath it — his number, she assumes. She flips the card around to see a logo for Hawkins National Laboratory on the back.

She guesses the Chief must've dropped it today, whilst investigating the pumpkin patch. Was it really that bad, that they were going to contact a Lab about it? What the fuck was going on?

"Why is there a Hawkins Lab card outside your house?" Steve asks uneasily. Lily supposes he must've read the back, before she'd flipped it around.

But he's acting weird, now. Almost afraid.

"That's none of your business," Lily responds.

Like she said before — she doesn't need him to know anything. She doesn't need rich boy Steve knowing her poor little farm isn't doing well.

"Thanks for the ride. Goodnight,"

She closes the car door, and heads towards the front door of her house. But, seconds later, Steve's out of the car and chasing after her.

"What happened to never talking to each other again?" Lily asks with an irritated tone, but the look on his face makes her stop talking. He's scared.

"You don't understand," he says. "The lab..." but he can't say anything. He can't explain anything. He can't even warn her.

Lily gives him a weird look. "Goodnight, Steve,"

And Steve stands defeated, letting her go inside and close the front door behind her.

But the idea of Hawkins Lab interfering with Lily Wright and her father imprints itself onto his mind permanently. He's worried — extremely worried, in fact, he feels sick.

He needs to get to the bottom of what the lab wants with her. He needs to know if she's in danger.

Especially now that he understands what made Lily Wright disappear from his life, all those years ago.

He regrets not reaching out to her when she'd become so distant. He regrets letting her go.

Because he'd thought, up until tonight, that it was all her. He though she'd made new friends, she didn't want anything to do with the boy she'd grown up with, anymore.

But now he knows. It was him. It was him, all along.

And the guilt he feels now, he's sure it'll never go away.

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AUTHORS NOTE

💖 lmao a lotttt happened this chapter — but we got steve and lily's first interaction!! they realllyyy hate each other lol ;) like, actually despise each other ;) ;)

💖 next chapter will give the proper backstory as to what actually happened between steve and lils, so hopefully that'll clear a lot up for you, if you're confused!

💖 anyways, I hope you enjoyed! let me know what you thought <33