WORD COUNT : 4.6k

Owen's father's jacket that she had thrown on before leaving the house was the only thing protecting her from the November chill. Part of her midriff peeked out between the bottom of her striped long-sleeve shirt and the top of her ill-fitting jeans. Barb only had the heat blowing mildly warm so as not to fog up the windows, leaving all of them on the brink of shivering in their seats. Some song Owen had never heard played in the background of the car as they rode along in quiet anticipation over the night ahead.

Owen wasn't entirely sure what to expect in the coming hours. Her very first house party could be added to the multitude of firsts she had experienced since moving to Hawkins. Part of her wished that it was just a traditional house party full of a bunch of strangers chaotically dancing to whatever song was blaring through the speakers. Instead, she was stuck spending her evening with some of her least favorite people in Hawkins. She just hoped that her and Barb would be able to just keep to themselves without any issues.

"Barbara, pull over," Nancy requested, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Pull over!" Nancy repeated her request, her voice whiny and playful. Despite her hesitation, Barb followed the direction and pulled off onto the side of the road. She put the car into park before turning to the girl in the passenger seat.

"What are we doing here," Barb inquired, the question causing Owen to actually divert her attention away from her window in the backseat. She just presumed that Nancy was the only one who knew where Steve's house was, but the confusion in Barb's voice made it seem otherwise. "His house is three blocks away," Barb continued, saying it as though Nancy may have forgotten.

"We can't park in the driveway," Nancy reasoned, her eyes nervously glancing around the surrounding neighborhood.

"Are you serious," Barb wondered, sounding defeated. Judging by Nancy's expression, she was dead serious.

"Nancy, I'm not sure if you noticed but it's cold outside. And you're wanting us to walk three blocks," Owen piped up from the backseat. She was suddenly very much regretting wearing anything other than one of the droopy sweaters she would have typically worn.

"Yeah. I mean, the neighbors might see if we just park in the driveway," she insisted, eyes drifting down nervously to her hands in her lap.

"This is so stupid. I'm just gonna drop you off. Owen and I can just head home," Barb grumbled, clearly just as blindsided by the walk as Owen was. However, Nancy was set on not showing up to this party alone, her hand reaching out to grab Barb by the shoulder.

"Calm down, Barb. Come on," she blurted urgently. "You promised that you'd go. You're coming. We're gonna have a great time." Owen sighed audibly from the backseat, slouching as much as she could in the cramped space.

"He just wants to get in your pants," Barb retorted, still not totally sure why she even had to be there when that equation certainly did not involve her.

"No, he doesn't," Nancy replied, fighting the grin that wanted to creep onto her lips. Why she was choosing to be coy about her relationship with Steve never failed to confuse Owen. She had been present for only a handful of Nancy's stories about Steve's antics – everything from sneaking through her window to their multiple make-out sessions. Anyone with a brain knew where this was headed and that included Nancy.

"Nance...seriously," Barb trailed off, smiling knowingly. "He invited you to his house... his parents aren't home. Come on, you are not this stupid." Yet again, Owen could rely on Barb to voice their shared thoughts when it mattered.

"Tommy H. and Carol are going to be there," was all Nancy could supply as an argument, a shy smile still on her lips anyway. Owen had to literally hold back a groan at the mention of those two. She refocused her eyes back out of her window, looking for any sign of life in this quiet neighborhood as the other girls bickered back and forth.

"Tommy and Carol have been having sex since, like, seventh grade," Barb scoffed, shaking her head. "It'll probably just be, like, a big orgy."

"Gross..." Nancy muttered, starting to tug her sweater off. To Owen, that was the most confusing thing Nancy had done all night. If they really were going to have to make this walk across three blocks, the sweater seemed like a pretty important accessory.

"Alright, well... You can be, like, my guardian. Alright? Make sure I don't get drunk and do anything stupid," Nancy chuckled, pulling her other arm out of the sleeve of her sweater and pulling the whole thing over her head.

"Is that a new bra," Barb questioned, sounding totally unimpressed. Owen peeked at the front seat from the corner of her eye, nosy as ever. She looked over just in time to see Nancy's deer in the headlights expression over being found out.

"No." A simple white lie as Nancy cast her eyes down embarrassedly at the shirt she was changing into. Owen couldn't help the amused smirk that pulled at her lips upon watching that whole interaction. "Better get walking, shouldn't we?" Nancy pointed out with a clipped tone, effectively changing the subject.

✯

The walk from Barb's car had ensured that the chill had fully settled deep into Owen's body. Her teeth were clenched and her arms were wrapped snugly around herself as Nancy rang the doorbell. Owen was just hoping and praying that the Harrington family was not one who liked to keep the house cold all year round because she was going to need some time to defrost. She could hear music coming from inside of the house, which only magnified in volume when the front doors swung open.

"Hello, ladies," Steve greeted them, that signature cocky grin on his face as he held open the doors. Owen could easily mark down that moment as the first and only time she had been actually excited to see Steve Harrington. Although, that excitement may have just been brought on by the chill-induced hysteria fogging her brain in that moment.

As Steve's eyes scanned over the girls on his doorstep, he counted one more than the two he was expecting. A look of surprise appeared on his face the moment he made eye contact with Owen, who was on his doorstep of all places. A house party didn't seem like her cup of tea one bit – especially when you considered the people who were on the guest list. Snapping back into host mode, Steve stepped out of the doorway, extending an arm dramatically.

"Come on in...Wouldn't want you ladies to freeze out there before the party's even started," he invited, offering a cheesy grin as the girls walked in.

"Too late," Owen grumbled, finally stepping into the warm house behind the other two girls. Despite her tone, she was gaping openly at the house, impressed by the sheer size of it. She was pretty sure that her family's house would fit inside of the Harringtons' multiple times. Something about the house did feel lonely, though. It was almost like there was no sign of life throughout the whole place, like it had been set up as a museum of what an upper middle class family home would look like.

It just reminded Owen of what Steve had said about his parents earlier that day at school. His mom went on that business conference with his dad because she didn't trust him to be alone for the entirety of the trip. They both just left Steve in this big empty house in Hawkins. It seemed like he didn't have any siblings to watch over or anyone to watch over him, either. Perhaps that loneliness that she could sense within the house went even deeper than just the set-up of the furniture or the spread out nature of the floor plan.

"You guys can hang your coats up over here," Steve noted, breaking Owen out of her thoughts. She shrugged off her own jacket as Steve slid Nancy's from her shoulders, placing it on the coat rack. Owen followed suit, placing hers directly beside Nancy's. She glanced over at Barb, seeing the girl lost in her own thoughts and making no move to hang up her jacket. Figuring the redheaded girl was keeping that extra layer on for speedy defrosting, Owen didn't question it. "Tommy and Carol are around here somewhere," Steve explained, leading all of them into the living room, where the music was emanating from.

Yet, even over the music, a shriek could be heard from the backyard. All four of them snapped their attention towards the source of the scream. Steve's nonchalant chuckle broke through the immediate tension as he shook his head. "Guess we know where Tommy and Carol are," he laughed, sauntering towards the back of the house. "Here, let's head out there."

Out there?

Steve was already sliding the backdoor open and letting a cold gust of air into the room before Owen could protest. Nancy followed closely behind him and Barb closely behind her, leaving the pink-haired girl no time to go and grab her coat before being left behind. She threw her head back indignantly, blowing a puff of annoyed air through her nose before following.

Of course Steve Harrington has a pool, Owen thought to herself upon seeing where he was leading them. It was no small pool, either. People like Steve always had a big, empty house with two stories and a huge pool in their backyard – the perfect house party set-up. The blueish-green light from within the pool lit up the entire backyard, giving everything an eerie glow. That included Tommy and Carol, the reason the rest of them had come outside in the first place.

"Tommy was trying to throw me in," Carol explained breathlessly, giving a light smack to the boy's shoulder. He had his arms twined around her middle, likely having been dangling her over the water just moments prior. This gave him the perfect leverage to lift her again, swinging her over the pool's edge. Just like before, Carol let out a couple horror movie-esque screeches, clutching onto her boyfriend's shoulders. Her screams just caused Tommy to laugh harder.

"One! Two! Three!" He counted aloud, amidst howling laughter. Nancy, Barb, and Owen settled themselves in chairs that lined the pool, watching the show that the couple was putting on.

"Stop it, Tommy, no! Don't!" Carol was begging at this point, despite the giggles she was letting out. Finally, Tommy settled her back down on the ground, unwinding his arms from around her as she shoved him away. "You're such an asshole, Tommy," she fussed, still grinning at him despite his behavior. Barb and Owen made eye contact, sneaking secret smiles at one another in agreement with Carol's statement for once. A swift pop and a following fizz caused the two of them to look in Steve's direction, just in time to watch him shotgun a cheap can of beer.

You could hear his gulps over the soft background music, causing Owen's lips to twist into a disgusted scowl. He tossed the finished can away before leaning back lazily in the pool chair directly beside Nancy. He plucked the cigarette he had been saving for later from where it sat atop his ear, placing it between his lips as he searched for a lighter. Strangely, it seemed as though his gross, overdone masculinity did not have the same effect on everyone as it did on Owen. It was difficult to find the chugging of alcohol to be anything but depressing after seeing similar behavior in her father for years.

"Is that supposed to impress me," Nancy inquired, smirking at him knowingly.

"You're not?" His tone, paired with her past interactions with the boy, made Owen unsure whether he was truly insufferable enough to say that.

"You are a cliche, you do realize that," Nancy stated more than asked, a lilt in her voice. Somehow, Owen felt like she was third wheeling despite being a part of a whole group at this "party". No matter how much she directed her eyes elsewhere, she was just within earshot to hear every single flirtatious comment from the both of them.

"You are a cliche. What with your...your grades and your band practice," he retorted, finally finding a lighter for the cigarette in his mouth.

"I'm so not in band," Nancy laughed, shaking her head at the comment. This just made Owen to peek over at Barb, who was in the school band. Her chest ached at the redheaded girl's dissociated expression. It just looked like Barb wanted to be anywhere else in the world right now and Owen couldn't blame her one bit.

"Okay, party girl. Why don't you just, uh, show us how it's done, then," Steve propositioned, handing over the knife that he had used to puncture his own beer just moments prior.

"Okay," Nancy accepted the knife without much thought, getting to her feet to grab one of the beer cans.

"You gotta make a little hole right in-" Steve started, speaking around the cigarette.

"You know, you did make us all watch you do it just a second ago. So, I think she's got it," Owen interjected, rolling her eyes before he could explain something as simple as shotgunning to the smartest person at this party.

"Yeah, I got it," Nancy added softly, smiling still.

"Yeah, she's smart, you douche!" Even Tommy was backing her up on this, which surprised Owen. But before she could be impressed for too long, the freckled boy smashed his empty beer can against his skull before tossing it at her feet. That dumb chuckle escaped him just seconds later, as he pulled Carol tighter against his side.

When Owen looked back over at Steve, his eyes were already fixed on her. His gaze was unreadable, like there was a confusing mixture of emotions behind his eyes. She figured he was mostly just annoyed over making him look dumb in front of his girlfriend. In response to his look, she just knitted her brows together and formed a grimace on her lips, giving him her staple side-eye in hopes that he would look away before she did. That familiar pop and fizz from Nancy's beer can was what actually ended up tearing his eyes away, a proud smile on his lips at the sight of the girl downing the beer swiftly.

"Chug, chug, chug, chug!" Tommy, Carol, and Steve chanted in unison. However, in Owen's ears, Barb's silence beside her was the most deafening. As she looked over to check on Barb, the sound of Nancy's finished beer can rattling against the concrete caused the redheaded girl to openly roll her eyes.

"We can leave whenev-" Owen started quietly before Nancy spoke over her.

"Barb, you wanna try?" The question was unexpected for everyone, causing Owen to look over her shoulder at the girl with her eyebrows raised nearly to her hairline. Barb's face likely had a similar expression due to the idea.

"What? No." Her response was quick and decisive, but clearly not enough for Nancy, who was already grabbing a couple of beers. "No, I don't want to. Thanks," she continued, shaking her head.

"Come on..." Nancy beckoned, giving a toothy smile as she approached. "Owen will do it with you. It's just one beer," she urged, shoving one of the cans into Owen's hand. Barb continued to shake her head, clearly not interested in participating.

"Nance, I don't want to," she murmured, practically begging with her friend.

"It's fun. Just give it a-"

"Nance, I really don't-"

"Just...just give it a shot."

Barb sucked in a breath, finally giving into Nancy's pleading. She took the knife and stood up in front of the group, eyes fixated nervously on the can. Everyone glanced around at each other in anticipation, not expecting Barbara Holland of all people to be shotgunning a beer on a school night. Owen waited for her turn with the knife, switching the cold can back and forth between her icy hands.

"So you just..." Barb trailed off, poking around unsuredly with the knife. When she finally went to press down and puncture the aluminum, the sharp edge of the knife simply slid across the smooth surface of the can and sliced the girl's palm instead. Owen audibly gasped, immediately jumping to her feet, her own beer can forgotten on her seat.

"Gnarly..." Tommy breathed, chuckling in surprise.

"Remember the conversation we had about not voicing every stupid fucking thing that comes to mind, Tommy," Owen snapped, eyes burning into him from over Barb's hunched shoulder.

"Are you okay," Nancy stressed, stepping towards Barb in concern.

"Yeah," Barb answered quickly, still eyeing her wound.

"Barb, you're bleeding..."

"I'm fine, Nance." A tense pause was held between the two girls, likely a culmination of stress from the eventful evening. "Where's your bathroom," she inquired, directing her attention to Steve instead.

"Oh, it's...it's, uh, down past the kitchen, to the left," Steve replied, hopping up to lead the way. But Barb was already on the way inside, with Owen at her side to help in any way. Before he could even follow them in, Owen whipped around to face him. He nearly bumped into her upon her abrupt stop, looking down at her in surprise.

"We've got it, okay? You'll probably be more useful if you just stay out of the way." Owen was still acting bull-headed and glaring at him despite their height difference. She watched as his expression hardened at her comment, eyes narrowing and jaw clenching. The look on his face did nothing to hinder her. Instead, she spun on her heel and continued to march into the house to find Barb.

Just as she stepped in through the door, another scream caused her to whip around towards the pool again. Tommy had shoved Carol into the pool finally, following closely behind her and diving in head first himself. Watching silently from the doorway, Owen saw Steve single-handedly push Nancy into the pool before jumping in after her. The four of them all laughed openly, Barb seemingly forgotten already. Owen simply pursed her lips in disapproval before finally slipping into the house in search of her friend.

✯

Owen had dug through nearly every drawer and cabinet in the Harrington kitchen in search of some sort of rag or towel to stop the bleeding from Barb's hand. She stared hesitantly at the final drawer that she hadn't scoured, hands placed expectantly on her hips. Deciding to just bite the bullet and face her potential lost time, she tugged the drawer open and sure enough, a folded pile of dish towels and decorative linens sat inside. Owen couldn't determine if she wanted to sigh in relief or groan over the fact that she had wasted so much time looking through all that other storage.

Before she could grab something out of the drawer, an uncomfortable chill ran up the back of her neck. Towels forgotten, her attention was immediately drawn to the woods behind Steve's house. She could see the dark, looming expanse of them through the kitchen window above the sink. There was nothing that she could pick out amongst the shadows, the trees too far away to be illuminated by the light of the pool. Shoving that feeling of unease into the back of her mind for a moment, she swiftly turned from the window, grabbing one of the fanciest decorative towels in the drawer and headed toward the bathroom where she had left Barb.

"Here, this is all I could find," Owen admitted, coming to lean against the doorframe to the bathroom. Barb had her back leaned against the countertop, studying the wound on her hand closely. The gash seemed to have gone pretty deep, as blood was still spilling from it readily. She nodded slowly to acknowledge Owen, taking the towel from her with her good hand.

"Thanks, Owen," Barb murmured, not fully making eye contact with the other girl. The bathroom was silent for a moment as the girls stood together. However, Owen couldn't stop thinking about that feeling she had about the woods in the backyard. She didn't want to leave Barb at a time like this, but that itching feeling wasn't going away. After another couple moments of silence, she deduced that Barb may just want to be alone right now. She hadn't been like herself all evening, anyway.

"I'll let you clean up, okay? I just need to go check on something and then I'll be right back," Owen promised, offering Barb what was hopefully a comforting smile before she slid away from the doorway. Her footsteps were hurried as she made her way through the house, her mind focused on one thing only. Before she was able to get to the backdoor, she practically ran into the rest of the group. They were all soaking wet and toweling off in the living room, clutching themselves in order to preserve any kind of body heat. Owen would have been lying if she said she was even a little bit jealous of them.

"Is Barb okay," Nancy blurted, just as Owen went to step out through the sliding backdoor. Owen nearly felt her eye twitch in pure annoyance as she slowly turned to face the group, giving a forced, tight-lipped smile.

"Why don't you go ask her yourself," she quipped, before finally tugging the door open and stepping outside. There was absolutely no reason for her to have not grabbed her jacket this time. Her arms encircled her body as she walked further outside, staring directly into the forest with a critical eye. She scanned everything that her eye could see multiple times over. There was ultimately nothing but many, many trees to see. Owen chewed at the inside of her cheek, embarrassed at her dramatics. What did she think was going to be out there? She felt silly for having trusted her gut feeling so blindly, causing her to roll her eyes at her own antics before ambling back indoors.

Barb met her at the door to the pool, looking absolutely crushed. Owen blinked confusedly at her through the glass before the door was pulled open.

"Nancy said we can just head home," Barb announced, sounding dejected. The redhead had had possibly the worst night out of all of them. After all, it seemed as though her fears of being outcast by Nancy were coming true.

"Okay, we can head home if you want," Owen agreed, trying not to sound too enthusiastic at the idea of getting the hell out of here. "In fact, I can go get the car! You just wait right here and I'll be back before you know it," she reassured, hand reaching out to pat Barb's shoulder. Barb gave a quick nod in acceptance before Owen slid past her to finally grab her neglected jacket from off of the coat rack. She shrugged the jacket on, fully buttoning it up and stepping out through the front door.

Her feet swiftly carried her down the dark and deserted street, few street lights even on to guide the way. Owen hadn't realized how bleak the neighborhood was when she and the two other girls were making the walk together. However, she was certainly aware that she was deep within first-death-in-a-horror-movie territory. If her life was a movie, the whole audience would be screaming and calling her a total idiot right about now – especially with the kidnapper in town still at large.

Owen was nearly halfway to the car when that awful feeling in her stomach returned, causing her to literally stop in her tracks. She spun around completely, desperately checking her surroundings for anything that seemed off. Nothing stood out as being especially strange, not even a stray car driving by. Owen's eyebrow quirked, feeling around in her pockets for a moment before realizing she had never even grabbed the key for Barb's car before she left. She rubbed her hands over her eyes in pure exasperation before turning to head back to the house. As much as she wanted to be helpful, it seemed like she and Barb could have left even sooner if they had just walked together.

As Owen got closer and closer to the house, a ringing in her ears seemed to continually increase in volume. When she eventually reached the sidewalk in front of Steve's house, the ringing was almost painful. Her lips were tightened into a grimace at the sound, but she approached the front door nonetheless. Luckily, it had been left unlocked, allowing for her to slip inside easily. Owen looked around near the front door for a few minutes, hoping Barb had just left them laying on a table or something. However, the redhead was smarter than that, as it seemed she had just kept the keys with her.

Owen hadn't expected how difficult it would be to locate Barb, though. She looked in the bathroom she had been in earlier, in the kitchen just in case she was replacing the towel on her wound, in the living room where they had spoken last, and even by the pool where she was most recently headed. All those locations turned up no results, causing Owen's eyebrows to scrunch together in confusion. Finally, she just returned to the entryway, just in time to see Tommy and Carol descending the stairs and giggling to themselves. Giving in to her last resort, she figured that the lovebirds may have at least a clue to where the other girl was.

"Hey, have you guys seen Barb?" She questioned, effectively breaking them out of their two-person bubble.

"Who?" Tommy drawled, causing Carol to erupt into laughter. But Owen wasn't laughing one bit.

"The girl with the glasses who came with me and Nancy," she specified, deadpanning.

"I just heard her and Nancy talking," Carol shrugged, as Tommy's arm curled tighter

around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "Hope that helped," she giggled, her boyfriend dragging her towards the kitchen. Something told Owen that Carol didn't actually care whether that was helpful or not.

Nancy and Barb were probably in one of the many rooms in Steve Harrington's house, talking it out and making up already. They hardly seemed like the type of friends who could be upset with one another for very long. Something like jealousy twisted deep inside of Owen's chest. Even after the way Nancy had treated Barb this evening, they were still going to be each other's first choice as friends. No matter how kind and social Owen tried to be, it wasn't going to top the years and years that the two other girls had known each other. She should have known this, but it was still a hard pill to swallow.

Suddenly feeling suffocatingly alone in this big house, Owen knew that she just wanted to head home and get into her bed as soon as humanly possible. Without another word, she spun on her heel and marched out of the front door one more time. As she left, the foundations of the house probably rattled from the force of the slammed door. However, Owen could hardly find it in herself to care. She knew she should feel lucky to have a friend like Barb at all, but it never feels good to be someone's second choice. Tears burned at the edges of her eyes as she walked home. And yet, Owen bit down on her quivering lower lip in an attempt to stifle the emotions that were rushing rampantly through her body.

As it turns out, house parties were overrated, anyway.