WORD COUNT : 2.8k

Owen had gotten back home much later than midnight after walking home from the party. The house was quiet when she snuck through the front door, peeking around the room. Gordon was sound asleep on the couch, his soft snoring accompanying the sound of the television playing faintly in the background. She smiled faintly to herself, imagining that he had tried to wait up for her to make sure she made it home safely. However, he just looked so peaceful all sprawled out on the sofa that she couldn't bear to wake him up. So, she slipped her shoes off and padded towards her room, doing the best she could to avoid all of the creaky spots in their floors. Finally, she made it to her own room, shutting her door at a snail's pace to make sure it was as quiet as humanly possible.

Owen pressed her forehead against the wooden door, letting out a sigh of relief over being in the comfort of her own room. Her clothes were thrown into a pile on her floor as she changed into something warmer and more comfy before sliding into bed. Tears nearly flooded her eyes again at the feeling of her blanket wrapped around her snugly, every inch of her limbs relaxing. She nuzzled her face into her pillow in order to get more comfortable before sleep began to drag her under and she went along willingly.

✯

Fatigue hung heavy from Owen's limbs as she lumbered through the hallway towards her Chemistry class. For the first time since she moved to Hawkins, she was not looking forward to seeing Barb beside her in class. After everything that had happened at the party the night before, there was some tension in her chest regarding her only friend. It's not like they were the ones who had had a fight or anything like that, but some part of her still felt hurt by Barb. Perhaps Owen also felt shameful in a way for just leaving unannounced last night, potentially ditching Barb. Whatever the case, her footsteps were even more tedious than usual.

Strangely, when Owen rounded the corner and entered the classroom, Barb wasn't sitting at their lab table like she usually was. The pink-haired girl's eyebrows knitted together as she approached the table and cautiously slid into her seat. She could barely take her eyes away from the empty place beside her. Maybe she's just running late, Owen thought. It was rare for her chronically punctual lab partner, but still plausible. She distracted herself by getting out her notebook and pencil, busying her hands with her backpack. Although, her eyes continued to glance at the door, almost positive that Barb would rush in any minute now.

The bell rang just moments later, the seat empty nonetheless. And it remained empty for the rest of the class period, causing Owen to chew nervously at the inside of her cheek. Barb had never missed a single class in the entire time she had known her. Why was she missing class now? All kinds of thoughts and ideas ran through her mind as she looked for any sort of logical explanation for this truant student to break her likely perfect attendance. Maybe she needed to get stitches for that cut on her hand. Or she got in trouble with her parents for being out so late.

Or maybe she and Nancy weren't making up after all. The two girls could have easily had an absolutely astronomical fight after Owen had left. If the fight was drastic enough, Barb totally might've decided to just call it a wash and try to avoid Nancy as much as possible – even if that meant missing a day or two of school.

Clearly, she needed to go talk to the last person who had spoken with Barb in order to get the details on why she would do something as drastic as missing school for a whole day.

✯

Owen shoved books and papers haphazardly into her locker before lunch. After all, she had things to do now that she wasn't tethered to her class schedule for the next half an hour or so. She had already planned out everything she was going to ask Nancy the moment she tracked her down in the cafeteria. However, once she slammed her locker shut and turned to head towards lunch, the opportunity to talk to Nancy presented itself much earlier than anticipated. Just a few paces down the hallway, the girl in question stood at her own locker, accompanied by Steve Harrington, of course. Having to talk to Steve as well was not a part of her original plan.

Instead, Owen quickly reopened her locker and practically shoved her head inside. She stood like that for a couple moments, despite the odd looks she was getting from passing students. Finally, she slowly pulled her head out of the metal box and peeked over the door to see what the Harrington status was at Nancy's locker. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as the two shared a shy kiss, despite all of the kids filtering around them. Finally, Steve began to fully pull away before turning and swaggering down the hallway with a satisfied grin on his lips. Unfortunately, he was walking directly towards Owen and her not-so-secret lookout spot. In turn, she shoved her head within her locker once more and just hoped and prayed that that would be enough.

Steve was apparently too deep in his thoughts or just oblivious enough to stroll right past her and into the cafeteria. Owen decided to seize one of the few moments of alone time Nancy seemed to have during the school day, once again shutting her locker and hurrying upstream through the hallway. Just as she arrived, Nancy was shutting her own locker and turning to head the same way as everyone else, but Owen was standing directly in her way.

"Nancy, I need to talk to you," she blurted, the script that she had prepared in her mind completely out the window. "Barb wasn't at school today and you know better than anyone that that's not typical Barb behavior. She's always here. Hell, she would get here before the teachers if she could," Owen chuckled lightly before continuing. "So, I was just wondering where she is, I guess? Last I heard, you guys were talking upstairs. But, it was getting pretty late and I needed to go home. So I just ended up walking instead of taking a ride with her –"

"Wait, you guys didn't leave together?" Nancy cut off her nervous ramblings finally, confusion written all over her face. The question caused Owen to scoff a little, shaking her head.

"No. I couldn't just wait around till you guys solved whatever fight you were having," she explained, stifling the desire to roll her eyes. But the brunette in front of her was clearly not understanding the point that Owen was making.

"Owen, what are you talking about?" One of Nancy's eyebrows were quirked, exasperation clear in her tone now.

"How many beers did you drink, Nancy? You can't even remember a whole conversation that you had with your friend?" Owen was more concerned than anything at this point. She had only seen the girl down one can of beer the whole night. Nancy was small, but she shouldn't be blacking out from that amount of alcohol. Sure, she didn't like Steve, but she never took him as someone who would sneak something into a girl's drink. Before she could get too fired up, though, Nancy was shaking her head decisively.

"I just had one beer. You saw the one I drank," she refuted, talking just above a whisper now. She glanced around the hallway nervously, clearly not wanting any damage done to her squeaky clean reputation. "But I barely talked to Barb at the party. The last thing I said to her was for you guys to just go home," she admitted, looking almost sheepish. It was now Owen's turn for her eyes to narrow suspiciously at the other girl.

"Carol told me that you guys were talking upstairs just before I left," Owen reported, realizing how dumb she sounded for trusting Carol so blindly.

"But I didn't talk to her upstairs at all. I was... changing clothes in Steve's room and then he and I got distracted talking," Nancy explained, searching for the right words to say in the moment. The blatant lie caused the pink-haired girl to openly roll her eyes now, arms crossing over her chest.

"Nancy, I don't care if you and Steve had sex or not, okay? You don't have to lie to me about that," Owen urged, completely nonjudgmental of the girl in front of her. Nancy's expression softened minutely at the comment, cautiously accepting of the kindness from Owen. "Besides, that's probably what Tommy and Carol were doing too, now that I think about it. I'm not sure why I thought either of them would have any sort of reliable information on Barb's whereabouts at the time," she grumbled, disappointed in herself for just believing Tommy and Carol of all people as quickly as she did.

"I'll ask if any of them saw or heard anything later that night," Nancy stated, nodding. "I'm sure she's fine. I mean, people miss school for all kinds of stuff, right," she reassured, not sounding as confident as either of them would like. Owen pursed her lips and nodded anyway, hand coming up to tighten around the strap of her backpack.

"I'll see if any of the band kids have heard from her," Owen offered, remembering Barb's other group of friends. Hopefully, those kids would be forthcoming with any information. 

The two girls stared at each other for a moment, surprised at their unification over locating Barb. Although they had been around one another for a few weeks now, they mostly just spoke to Barb. Any comments directed to one another were often inexplicably tense. Both Owen and Nancy knew this about their relationship, but just gave each other an understanding nod. Then, both girls headed towards the cafeteria and went their separate ways the moment they were inside, determined to find information on Barb's whereabouts.

✯

Questioning practically the entire school band turned up no results, unfortunately. Everyone said that the last time they had spoken with her were at various times during the prior school day. Such information was entirely unhelpful, as it gave no context for where she was post-Harrington house party. Owen just hoped that Nancy was getting something out of Steve, Tommy, and Carol worthwhile.

"Why the long face," Gordon questioned, grinning impishly as Owen practically melted into the seat beside him at lunch. Of course, he asked her this around the dry, cafeteria cheeseburger he was stuffing in his mouth. This just caused her face to screw up in disgust, leaning away from him to avoid potential flying crumbs.

"Barb isn't at school today. Nobody's heard from her since that party last night," she explained, dejectedly. Owen leaned her elbow onto the lunch table and rested her chin in her palm.

"Ooh, skipping school for the first time. Sounds like that party ignited a rebellious streak in her," Gordon's friend, Eddie piped up from across the table. This caused Owen to shake her head in disagreement almost instantly.

"No, Barb's not like that. I don't think she has a rebellious streak in her whole body. Like, there's nothing to ignite there," she explained, picking up a limp french fry from Gordon's tray and popping it into her mouth.

"Maybe she's sick, then," Gordon offered, shrugging. "It is flu season, you know."

Owen let out a dramatic sigh, sinking further against the table and now pressing her cheek into the palm of her hand. She knew Gordon was probably right. People get sick all the time, especially in the cold season like this. But she couldn't shake this sinking feeling in the bottom of her stomach whenever she thought about Barb. Being out of school was already worrying enough, but her complete lack of contact with any of her friends was also out of character. Although Owen knew this in the back of her mind, she just nodded despondently and gave Gordon a lackluster smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right," she agreed only halfheartedly, still feeling worried about where Barb could be.

✯

"Anything from the kids in the band," Nancy queried, coming up from behind Owen as she pushed open the doors to the parking lot after school. She shook her head in response, giving an apologetic, lopsided smile. "Tommy just said that she was gone whenever he and Carol left."

"All the band kids just said that they had talked to her most recently at school on Monday," Owen replied, turning and stopping underneath the breezeway to talk. Her arms folded in front of her in response to the cool air outdoors. You could practically see the cogs turning in Nancy's head as she considered their next move. Clearly, she wasn't someone to leave a job unfinished and just hope for the best. Without saying a word, she turned and began swiftly walking down the breezeway. Owen trailed behind her, doing her best to keep up.

"Got an idea?"

"Why not just get information from the source instead of a bunch of he-said-she-said," Nancy explained, coming to a stop in front of a payphone. "Do you have some quarters?" Her eyes looked hopeful again, which gave Owen some of the optimism she had been lacking throughout the day, despite still not fully understanding the idea. Her hands quickly scoured her jacket pockets, turning up two quarters exactly that she handed over happily. Nancy pushed the money into the machine and dialed a phone number that she seemed to know by heart. Then, the brunette brought the phone back and held it directly between her and Owen's ears, allowing for both of them to hear the dial tone.

"Come on, come on, come on..." Nancy whispered, already tired of hearing the phone ring over and over. Finally, a woman's voice filtered through the speaker.

"Hello?"

Nancy and Owen made thrilled eye contact with one another over the answered call.

"Hi, uh, Ms. Holland. It's Nancy." Realization painted itself on Owen's features over the identity of the woman on the line. God, Nancy was a genius. Directly calling Barb's house would surely give them an answer as to where she was all day long.

"Oh, Nancy, how are you?" Of course, Barb's mother sounded just as sweet as her daughter.

"Good, I'm good," she answered quickly before continuing. "Um, I was just wondering, uh, is Barb there?" Nancy and Owen practically held their breath after the question was asked, peeking at each other from the corner of their eyes.

"Mmm... No, she hasn't come home yet."

"But she did come home, right? After the vigil?" Nancy inquired, pushing through the sinking feeling that was settling within the girls' chests. However, Owen was stuck on the whole vigil thing. Had they really lied and said they were going to Will Byers' vigil when they were going to a party?

"No, she said she was staying with you last night," her mother told Nancy, suspicion beginning to curl around her words for a moment.

"Oh! I forgot. She actually ended up going to Owen's last night. I'm sorry," Nancy apologized, causing Owen's eyes to widen over her suddenly being brought into this lie. But her expression didn't stop Nancy. "I mean, did she come home this morning? She left some textbooks there and said she needed to pick them up before school."

"Oh, um, no. I haven't seen her," Ms. Holland confirmed. Nancy and Owen fully turned to look at each other now, uneasiness covering their faces at the information.

"D-Do you know what? I just... I just remembered... She's at the library," Nancy lied, stumbling over her words for the first time during the call. Her lips tightened into a grimace and her eyes squeezed shut, absolutely terrified about what this could mean about Barb. Owen watched her closely, her own lips set into a grim line.

"Nancy, will you please have her call me as soon as you find her?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I will," she promised, her expressive eyes darting around anxiously. "Sorry to bother you," she added breathlessly before hanging up the phone.

The two girls stared at each other in tense silence, back to an incredibly bleak square one. Each of them were racking their brains, trying to think of where to go and who to talk to next. But they were both coming up empty. Between the two of them, only one thing was clear: Nobody had seen or heard from Barbara Holland since she left the party last night.