𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎
— D'Artagnan —
❝This is some fucked up shit!❞

CHER WAS IN A VERY good mood. After a heart to heart with her new friend Steve the night before, where he spilled the nasty details about his fight with Nancy and how she drunkenly called their love bullshit, he'd picked her up in the morning to take her to school. And when Billy had ditched her after school, he gave her a ride home as well. If he continued like that, she'd become very dependent on him.

He was a nice guy, who didn't deserve to have his heart broken by drunken words from his girlfriend. Cher would try her best to keep his mind distracted. It was a great feeling - having someone trust in her completely.

Even though they'd only talked for a few hours, they'd told almost everything about themselves to each other. She knew about his parents and he knew briefly about hers - she didn't feel comfortable enough to talk about Neil in great detail, but she'd told him about her mom and her deadbeat birth father.

He'd invited her to hang out after his gym class, and since she had a free period, Cher decided she go and watch him play basketball. The only problem, was that Billy was also in that class and she knew he wouldn't like it when he found out she was spending her time with a boy. Normally, Billy didn't care who she hung out with as long as it didn't affect his reputation, but this was Steve Harrington, formerly the most popular boy in school and she knew for certain that Billy wouldn't take Cher's new friendship with his competition very well. But screw him, Cher could do what she liked, her step-brother did not control her or her friends, not this time.

So, there she sat on the bleachers in the gym, clapping along as Steve got the ball, watching in concern as he was blocked off by her step-brother.

"Harrington, right?" Billy asked, guarding Steve's back so that he couldn't go any further with the ball, "I heard you used to run this school. That true? King Steve, they used to call you, huh? Then you turned bitch."

Steve kept dribbling the ball, guarding it, "Hey, maybe you should just shut up and just play the game."

Billy didn't reply, he just stole the ball, knocking Steve to the ground, before scoring in the net. Cher rolled her eyes as Billy gloated, slightly embarrassed at his theatrics. Her eyes caught Nancy walking into the gym and calling Steve over.

Steve came back in a few minutes later, looking pissed, his talk with Nancy obviously not going very well and he finished the game. Billy's team won, and he didn't miss the opportunity to gloat in Steve's face.

She waited in the hallway, her backpack slung over one shoulder as she waited for the floppy haired boy to finish getting dressed. He came out of the boys locker room, his fingers combing back his wet hair as he approached her.

"You did great!" Cher grinned as they began walking through the hallways.

"Oh yeah, totally, 'cause losing to your douchebag brother is such an achievement." Steve groaned. His eyes widened when he realised what he had said. "Sorry."

"No problem, he is a douchebag." She shrugged, smiling at him as he opened the door for her. "So, what did Nancy want? Did she say sorry?"

Steve sighed, walking up to his car, he leaned against it, lighting up a cigarette. "No, she asked why I didn't pick her up this morning and when I explained what happened at the party and what she said to me, she said she was drunk. Like that's a perfectly valid reason for me not to be upset!"

For some reason, Cher began thinking about her step-father. When Neil got drunk, which was quite often, he had no filter and he said whatever he wanted. He'd called her names, told Billy what he really thought about him and said mean words, Cher knew he meant every one. So she always believed that drunken words were sober thoughts. She'd had no reason to believe otherwise.

"I have every reason to be upset with her, I saw the look in her eyes when she told me I was bullshit." He took several drags of his cigarette, "She meant it, I know she did. So why is she treating me like the bad guy?"

Cher gently took the cigarette from between his fingers and took a puff, coughing slightly as she hadn't smoked for a while. "Drunken words are sober thoughts." She murmured, looking at her heeled shoes. Cher dropped the cancer stick on the floor and crushed it with her heel before perking up and turning to him. "I know what will cheer you up! Milkshakes! It always works for me."

Steve just smiled and shook his head, he was glad he met her. "Well, ok, but you're buying." 

"I thought that was obvious." She grinned as they got in the car, throwing their bags in the back. Her smile dropped when she noticed Billy watching them from his car across the parking lot, glaring at her. She stuck her middle finger up at him and they drove off, away from school and away from a pissed off Billy Hargrove.

✦ ✦ ✦

"Is this really a good idea?" Cher asked Steve as they pulled up to the Wheeler house. It had been a couple days since Nancy had talked to Steve, according to Tommy H she'd last been seen ditching school with Jonathan Byers. Over those two days, Steve had decided he would apologise to Nancy for how he behaved, even though he'd had every right to be upset with her. So he'd picked up Cher, bought some flowers and forced her to come with him to Nancy's house for moral support.

"The guy is always wrong right?" He retorted, reaching over to the backseat and grabbing the bouquet.

"Most of the time, but not this time. She should be the one apologising to you? Is she even home? I thought you said she'd skipped school with Jonathan Byers?" She asked, stepping out of the car with him.

"I don't know. Maybe she's avoiding me." He shrugged, "Now I need your opinion on what I should say to her. How about, Listen, I've been thinking. I love you, I'm sorry." She raised a brow as she walked with him towards the house, "No, you're right, what the hell am I sorry for?"

"Steve." A voice called to them and they stopped in their steps. A boy approached, around Cher's sisters age. Now that he was closer, she realised he was one of Max's admirers. He had curly brown hair, a baseball cap and he was missing his two front teeth, causing a slight lisp when he spoke. From that description, and what Max had told her, she knew this boy's name to be Dustin.

Dustin pointed to the flowers in Steve's hand, "Why are you hanging out with Cher Mayfield? And are those for Mr or Mrs Wheeler?"

"No."

"Good." Dustin grabbed the flowers and chucked them into the back of Steve's car.

"Hey, what the hell?!"

"Nancy isn't home."

"How do you know this kid?" Cher asked Steve in confusion as they went after him.

Steve ignored her question and asked Dustin, "Where is she?"

"Doesn't matter." The younger boy replied, opening the passenger door, "We have bigger problems then your love life." He looked at Steve and nodded towards Cher, "Is she cool?"

Steve looked between the two before nodding, "Yeah, she's cool."

"Good. Do you still have that bat?"

This certainly peeked Cher's interest, "Bat? What bat?" She asked.

"The one with the nails." Dustin elaborated.

"Why?"

"I'll explain it on the way." He said vaguely before getting in the car.

"Now? With her?" Steve asked, knowing this had to be something bad. And he really didn't want to involve Cher, but he guessed he wasn't given much of a choice.

"Now!" Dustin exclaimed, shutting the passenger door.

"I guess we're doing this now." Cher said to herself as she climbed into the back. She was completely confused, why was Steve friends with a thirteen year old boy, why on Earth did it involve a bat with nails and why the hell was she going along with it.

The sky soon turned dark and Cher was in a state of disbelief as Dustin told them about his pet reptile-that-wasn't-really-a-reptile, D'Artagnan.

"Wait a sec, how big?"

"First he was like that." Dustin made a small gesture with his thumb and forefinger and then made it bigger, "Now he's like this."

"I swear to God, man, it's just some little lizard, okay?" Steve huffed as he drove.

"It's not a lizard."

"How do you know?" Cher asked, leaning forward between the front seats.

"How do I know it's not a lizard?" Dustin repeated incredulously.

Steve agreed with Cher, "Yeah, how do you know it's not just a lizard?"

"Because his face opened up and he ate my cat." Dustin retorted in a louder voice, followed by a small awkward silence. The car pulled up at Dustin's house, his mother was still out looking for Mews, the cat that Dustin's creature had ate.

Steve hopped out and opened the boot, throwing his car keys to Cher, who almost dropped then as she wasn't expecting it. he pulled out the spiked baseball bat, a couple flashlights and a golf club that they'd retrieved from his house, and he handed one of the flashlights and the club to the ginger girl, who took it reluctantly.

She didn't really believe what Dustin had told them, but she'd play along for now. It was better than being at home anyway. Neil didn't like his kids coming home to late or missing dinner, but he'd give Cher some slack if she said she was studying.

"I don't hear shit." Steve said as he looked down at the storm cellar's doors.

"He's in there." Dustin promised.

Steve banged on the red doors with his bat and when he heard no sound in return, he turned to the boy. "All right, listen, kid. I swear, if this is some sort of Halloween prank, you're dead."

"It's not. It's not a prank. Get that flashlight out of my face."

Steve gestured towards the padlock holding to doors shut, "You got a key for this thing?"

Dustin ran inside the house and came back with the key, stepping back next to Cher as Steve swung open the doors and looked down into the dark cellar. 

"Let me see that." Steve grabbed the torch from Dustin, casting light down the steps. They didn't see any sign of Dart.

"He must be further down there." Dustin told them. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to escape."

Steve sent Dustin a look before sighing and creeping down the steps with Cher close behind him. "Stay behind me." He instructed as went down.

Cher rolled her eyes, but complied, her grip tight on the gold club as she followed him. She heard a squelching noise beneath her feet and she squealed in disgust when Steve turned the light on. She stepped back and with her club, she picked up what looked to be slimy skin.

"That is disgusting." She groaned, wiping the slime off her shoe with her jacket's sleeve.

"Cher? Steve?" Dustin called from above, hearing the former squeal. "Steve, what's going on down there?"

Steve appeared at the bottom of the steps, making the boy jump, "Get down here."

Dustin walked down the steps, groaning as he spotted the shed skin on Cher's golf club. "Oh, shit." Steve then pointed out the hole that had been dug out of the wall. "Oh, shit!" Dustin exclaimed again. "No way."

"This is some fucked up shit!" Cher said as she pointed her flashlight into the hole.

❝I LIKE THIS BOY, AND HE LIKES SOMEONE ELSE.❞