"Are you alright?"

As it turned out, Blair actually found herself wanting to go to the party later on that same night when she'd finally found herself back into the comfort of her home, eating some rather shitty tasting macaroni that Hopper had bought for her when he'd been out shopping earlier that week. And perhaps it was because she felt like she needed a break from...well, life in general which included babysitting and her wiccan nonsense, that she decided fuck it and clambered up the stairs and into her grandmothers room where she knew she could find something resembling costume in the old bars wardrobe.

And, as per usual, her intuition was correct as her fingers brushed against something velvety, something that felt nothing short of sinful against her skin, and when she pulled it out it was to find a rather beautiful little black dress with white Pearl's beaded along the neckline. It looked like something out of a movie, out of a book, out of a dream as she awed at it, a small smile dancing over her mouth as she held it against her body and did a little twirl in the mirror, biting down hard on her bottom lip to stop her grin from getting too large as she rushed back into her room as quickly as her legs could carry her.

She had an idea, as clique as it seemed as she began to rummage through her drawers for a pair of tights, mischief shining in her dark eyes as she smirked to herself...knowing that if the kids could see her costume they'd definitely like it, like it was an inside joke as she finally found a pair, tugging them up and over her scarred thighs with a quiet grunt before she slipped the dress on with a dramatic twirl in her own mirror, and the went thundering down the stairs for the final piece to her costume...after all, every witch needed a hat, didn't they?

Blair grabbed a random cloth from atop the kitchen table, flipping in through her hands as she practically danced over to her grimoire with a hum of consideration, waving her fingers and watching as the pages began to turn quickly, words beginning to jumble together to make sense to her eyes and only her eyes as she looked upon it with a light furrow to her brow, searching for the perfect spell to help her, feeling her magic as it settled in her bones like the promise of home, until finally, her gaze landed upon a glamour spell, and her smile was nothing short of blinding as she leaned in closer.

"Phantamogriphia Decorum."

The young witch whispered with her voice like silk, glancing down to where her scarred hands stayed, folded over the cloth gently and watching as it began to change ever so slowly, becoming darker, incky black shadows stretching over it and sinking in deep like liquid, the material stretching, becoming taller, longer...and then in seemingly no time at all it had completed its transformation, and in her palms, Blair held the perfect mock witches hat that she soon placed upon her head, fixing it so it lay crooked with an almost smug look on her pretty features as her boiling magic cooled.

However, just as she was starting to think about how the fuck she was going to be getting to the party and wondering if she could hound Hopper for a ride, the familar sound of a car pulling into her driveway breached her ears making her pause, brows furrowed into a suspicious frown as she slowly stalked towards the window, lifting up the blinds with a spell already resting upon her tongue...just for a grin to break out across her face as she saw Jonathan waiting in the car with an expression of absolute discomfort on his face at what he was about to endure.

She didn't even attempt to stop the excitement that blossomed inside her, practically dancing from foot to foot as she waved at him dramatically before spinning around, scooping some of her black boots from off of the table and throwing herself out of the door, limping her way towards the car as she tried to walk and put her shoes on at the same time which was a surprising struggle, and then the moment her ass was upon the seat, the Byers boy was driving off with a long suffering sigh of contempt as he listened to her listing off the directions...hoping that the night was over before it had even begun.

And then when they did finally arrive the party was already in full swing, loud boisterous music blaring and filled with drunken teenagers that where just as disruptive who Blair most definitely envied as she sighed happily, watching them though the safety of the car window as someone threw up just a few mere meters in front of them, glancing over to Jonathan who looked like he was already regretting his decision to come with her as she smirked at him in amusement, gesturing over towards the garden with a wink.

"Here we see teens in their natural habitat...getting completely and utterly fucked up."

He snorted as he shook his head, grimacing just slightly when someone accidentally threw their cup of something that looked yellow and gross across the back of his car, drunkenly yelling out apologises as they stumbled away back into their group of friends who cheered and laughed at their misfortune, obviously just as hammered as they were with their clothes rumpled and hair messed anew, practically falling over themselves as they went back over towards the garden where she was sure she could see a hint of a keg through the bushes

"You're not going to get that drunk, right?" Jonathan asked carefully, though already feeling like he knew the answer just by the sparkle in the witch's eyes as she watched the shots being throw back, the red cups constantly being downed and the smoke billowing out from puckered lips, practically pressed up against the cold glass of the window and almost leaping out of her own skin in bubbling excitement as she laughed loudly, reaching behind her to grab her not so little black hat and place it upon her head with an over-dramatic cackle that made him question if she was already slightly tipsy.

"No promises, Johnny-boy. Now let's go!"

She opened the door and threw herself out, a grin tugging up at the corners of her painted lips as she heard the Byers boy sigh behind her before quickly climbing out of the car to follow her as she danced her way to the open doors of the house, flipping of Carol who glared at her with a scowl but keeping her eyes on the prize as she pushed through the throngs of people, cursing under her breath every time she felt one of the bastards clip her toes until finally the punch bowl came into view, and, definitely not caring what was inside it, she began to pour a hefty amount into her cup with a content hum.

Perhaps she was a bit too excited to be getting shit-faced, but in her defence she'd had a really shitty year and honestly, she thought she deserved to let loose for once. Between hardly sleeping still, babysitting some teens which were in the middle of their angst bullshit stage, dealing with Hopper and all sorts of wicca nonsense, it was safe to assume that she needed a little break as she threw the cup back, wincing at the awful taste on her tongue that literally reminded her of gasoline as she paused for a moment to hiss through her teeth in disgust before gulping the rest of it down and going back for seconds.

However, it was on her third drink that she finally did realise that Jonathan wasn't by her side as she grimaced, cursing some more under her breath because it seemed that in her rush to catch up to the rest of her peers she'd lost sight of her only friend, placing the cup down on the table and then standing on the tips of her toes to look over everyone's head for any sign of the mousy brunette...and finding him standing with his hands in his pockets talking to a rather attractive girl who was definitely trying to lay the moves on him causing Blair to smirk. Well then, looks like he didn't need her company anyway, she thought to herself, pretty content to drink on her own as she threw back another shot with a shrug.

And yet, just as that thought had entered the rather sad thing she called a brain, there was suddenly a body colliding with her and arms around her neck in some kind of twisted embrace, sending her crashing back into the kitchen counter with a grunt of pain and almost spilling her drink everywhere that she only just managed to steady, about to shove the offender back with her usual venom...until she recognised the figure currently hugging her like a leech and froze in confusion...at the fact that Nancy Wheeler was clinging onto her, laughing like she'd just heard the funniest joke as she pulled back away from her with a loopy smile.

"Blair! You made it- did- did you bring Jonathan?" Nancy slurred, and the young witch very quickly realized why the girl seemed to be so touchy with her all of a sudden as her warm breath washed over her face and all she could smell was just pure alcohol as she quickly began wafting her hand to try and brush it away, clearing her throat as she took a step back and looking over her shoulder swiftly in some kind of desperation, idly wondering where the hell Harrington was when she needed him before looking back over to Nancy with a blatantly fake smile.

"Where's your boyfriend, Wheeler? Shouldn't you have him on a leash or something?"

"Steve? Steve is- somewhere, who cares." The girl rolled her eyes, and then before she could even blink, taking the red cup from out of her ring-clad hands into her own and downing the cup like it was a shot, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and then wandering back over towards the punch bowl, all the while Blair stared off after her, mouth almost hanging open in shock and indignation and really not knowing what the fuck she was meant to do in that situation, her palm still half clenched as if holding the phantom weight of her drink as she tried to remember if she'd taken some kind of drugs as well as the alcohol.

"Nice costume...witch right?"

A voice come from behind her, deep and sultry as she paused, debating whether or not she wanted to give them the time of day or just continue watching Nancy drink herself into oblivion before shrugging and thinking fuck it, turning around to quirk her brows up at...yeah, she had no idea who this was, he sure was pretty though, and strangely lacking a top, just showing his weirdly wet stomach and chest, kinda like a greased up pig as she smirked at him sarcastically with a mocking confused look plastered across her features. "What gave it away? Was it the pointy hat or the whole 'all-black-attire' thing I have going on?"

He laughed, tongue licking over his teeth sinfully slow as he looked her up and down, blue eyes nothing short of scorching as he lingered on certain...assets of her body, before he walked over to her with a certain strut in his step, saddling up beside her to lean across the bench, biting down un the plump bottom of his lip as she tilted her head at him, waiting for something, anything really. "Billy Hargrove, but I'm sure you already knew that."

"Ah, so you're the new kid who has everyone creaming their pants, great to finally put a face to the name." She said boredly, grabbing one of the unoccupied cans from off of the bench with a smirk as he grinned that seductive grin again, to the point where she was just starting to wonder if he actually really did have something in his teeth and was trying to pick it out as conspicuously as possible with his tongue but failing terribly as she looked off to the side to conceal the roll of her eyes...just to see that Harrington had seemingly finally found Nancy and was currently trying to take the drink from her trembling hands as she argued with him.

"Guess so, but uh, we haven't been introduced yet, have we? Which is a real shame, pretty girl like you-"

"Blair, Blair Jones." The witch interrupted him without really paying attention to a word he was saying, finding herself unable to tear her gaze away from the absolute train wreck that was the couple currently having a public melt down just a few meters in front if her, with Steve trying to calm his girlfriends worrying intake of alcohol by telling her to slow down and attempting to take the sloshing cups out of her hand while she seemed to want to rebel against everyone and everything, pouting and slurring her words as she cursed at him weakly.

"Uh-huh, think I've heard one or two things about you from Tommy." Billy said simply, looking up at her from under his long lashes where he was leaning his elbows against the sticky surface of the counter without a care in the world as she shot a dangerous glare down at him suddenly, already despising the almost smug tone in his voice and barely resisting the urge to scoff in his face. Of course Tommy would already be taking about her to the new kid, probably because she was the only thing interesting in his pathetic miserable life apart from all of the STDs on his dick...but she was sure he'd be keeping that information close to his chest.

"Oh, I can definitely imagine the things he's said about me, let me guess, something along the lines of being a fucking nut-job?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"Well, I'd rather be a nut-job than so focused on getting my dick wet that I'd slip it into anyone with a pulse, and not even that has to be a requirement. You know he got caught fucking a jar of peanut butter by his mom, right?" She smirked, wriggling her brows while his own rose up in amusement...and honestly, Blair wished she could say that that was a dramatic lie, but the truth is, Tommy's mom used to be a client for her grams...and oh, the stories she could tell just from ear-dropping through the crack in the door.

However, before she could even attempt to start embarrassing the nuisance who seemed to think her being mentally ill was the funniest thing in the whole of Hawkins, she heard the crowd of teenagers start laughing loudly and she quickly twisted her head to the side to see that the argument between Steve and Nancy had reached ahead with the Harrington boy spilling the drink on her whie dress, staining it red as she glared at him and then stormed away while everyone continued to laugh and point as he hurried off to catch up with her, desperately calling her name as he shoved people to the side.

"How the mighty fall, am I right?" The new kid smirked as she glanced back over to him with her brows furrowed in a frown, a question upon her lips that was quickly answered when Billy gestured over towards where the couple had run off too, tongue sliding over his bottom lip as he leaned in closer like he was telling her some great secret. "Steve Harrington, Tommy told me all about him as well. King of the school before he fell for princess over there...now he's just her little bitch."

And then Blair felt whatever interest she'd once had in the conversation dissolve quickly like ice on a hot day as she smiled thinly, a certain flicker in her dark eyes as her hands clenching into tight fists by her side, feeling the uneven grooves of skin with her fingertips where her scars lay. Only she got to call Harrington a bitch, and whoever this Billy was, he most certainly didn't have that right yet, she thought to herself in indignation, before she coughed a spell into the palm of her hand that made the cans next to his head explode, bathing him in beer as he leapt up with a curse, rage emitting off him in waves as she slipped away into the crowds at his distraction.

Seriously, she was getting so good at this whole witch bullshit, well, she had her moments, there was one time a couple of weeks ago that she turned herself pink but she wasn't counting that as a total loss because you could never know if that might come in handy one day.

She took a sip of the can, grimacing at the taste as her lips curled, dancing idly to the music booming all around her as she kept on drinking and drinking, excited at the prospect of getting so black out drunk that maybe she wouldn't have to deal with any nightmares or breakdowns or anything of the sort, pretty content to try and dance the night away with a grin on her face...until, of course, someone bumped into her and almost sent her flying flat on her ass, their large familiar hands scrambling to find purchase against her forearms to pull her up while hers grabbed the top of their jacket, pulling her upright until their bodies were pressed together as she grunted.

"Wow, where's the fire, Harrington?" The witch laughed as she recognised her so called savior, smirking up at him with her painted lips smudged down to the corner of her mouth, stepping back so they were no longer so close as she took another drink just to watch Steve's face sour with something awful as he shook his head with a scoff.

"I'm not in the mood for your bullshit Jones, alright? Just- bullshit, this is all fucking bullshit." He snapped darkly, voice trembling with something painful and raw as her face dropped in something almost resembling concern, but before she could even attempt to say something he was storming past her, pushing everyone away as he practically ran out of the doors while she stared off after him, seeing someone move out of the corner of her eye and turning just slightly to see Jonathan falling over himself to obviously play Nancy's knight in shining armour as she fell into his arms with a drunken mumble.

Fuck sake.

Blair dropped her now empty can onto the floor, crushing it beneath her boot before running after Steve, cursing repeatedly under her breath as she did so, wondering just when she'd turned so pathetically soft as she came outside and rushed out into the empty streets, just in time to see the boys car reversing from where he'd parked and getting ready to tear down the road, and so, after she quickly looked around to make sure nobody was looking, she glared back over towards the car with with her ring-clad hand outstretched as she focused down hard on the tingling call of her magic. "Morator."

The car jerked to a sudden stop, and even from where she stood she could hear Steve swearing up a storm, slamming his hand repeatedly against the steering wheel in frustration as she winced, watching him for a few moments until it seemed like he'd tired himself out before wandering over towards the car slowly, kinda like one would approach an injured animal as she gently tapped her knuckles against the glass of the driver-side window...and still staring off ahead into the darkness above, Harrington wound down the window, his jaw clenched and the glow of the street-light showing the tear tracks down his face that he didn't even bother to wipe away. "What do you want, Blair?"

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, anything, but everything just seemed to die upon her tongue and leave an ashy taste in her mouth as she stared at him, chewing down hard on the bottom of her lip as she tried to think of why she was even here on the first place. I wanted to make sure you were okay, I wanted to make sure you didn't do something stupid, I wanted you to have someone like everyone else seems to, I wanted you to just not to look so devastated, each answer came swifter than the last as she stood there, facing some internal battle before she gulped quietly and swallowed her nerve.

"Can you take me to the quarry, please?" Okay, that was definitely not what she'd wanted to say as she winced, resisting the urge to slam her palm against her forehead in an effort to bring forth the braincells she seemed to be missing, and it looked like Steve was just as confused as he finally turned to look at her, brows drawn in and upper lip curled into an expression of annoyance.

"What?"

"The quarry...I've got some witchy shit I need to take care of." Blair lied, thinking on her feet as she shrugged awkwardly, dark eyes flickering as she glanced around once more to make sure no one was witnessing this mess of a situation as she swayed lightly on the tips of her toes. However, her rather pathetic excuse did actually give her an idea, probably not a great one, probably not even a good one, but it was something...and she'd rather have him looking at her like she was the biggest idiot on the planet rather than looking like he was about to start crying at any moment.

"The quarry- fine! Just- just hurry up and get in the car." Steve snapped tiredly, running a hand through his hair as she wandered over towards the passenger side and quickly climbed in, and almost the exact moment she'd plopped her ass upon the seats he was driving away like a madman causing her to curse, frantically scrambling for the seatbelt and then swiftly pulling in on while sending a dark glare into the side of his head in offence. He was lucky she wasn't that drunk, or else he'd be dealing with her spewing bile all over his windows and then he'd have a real problem on his hands.

The journey was quiet, really tense and awkward as they drove along, with Blair staring out of the window internally screaming at her own stupidity, playing with the rings upon her fingers in an effort to keep busy and to not say something...bitchy like she usually would end up doing. She wanted to almost be nice to Harrington, not her usual shade of cruelty, she just needed a few more minutes to decide how to do that without seeming like she was doing it to mock him...or to make him think that she liked him, she didn't want either of those things happening.

But finally, the quarry came into sight, well, it was pretty dark so it was less being able to see it and more just knowing it was there by the large lake alongside the steep cliff above them, and when Steve pulled the car to a stop, she continued to stare out at the dark waters gently rippling with the cold breeze, an idea slowly beginning to form in her mind as she watched the boy turn to her out of the corner of his eye with his brows furrowed in some indignant expression of annoyance. "Okay, now what?"

"Are you alright?"

"What?-"

"Look, you look...weepy, and it's making me feel awkward because I don't know what to do." She said with a grimace, arms moving around in some weird fashion that she really had no control over as she shrugged, her voice coming out in some quick defensiveness that rolled over her tongue in something that sounded half vicious, and there was a part of her, meek and quiet and constantly hidden in the back of her mind that begged her to soften her tone but she couldn't. She wasn't made to be soft, to be gentle, she would always be who she was and unfortunately...that was a massive bitch apparently.

"Then why the hell did you order me to drive you here?!" Steve snapped, almost shouting at her really which she supposed she kinda deserved, twisting round to look at her with disbelief splattered across his features as she floundered for an answer that didn't make her appear soft, like she cared about him or anything of the sort...but what came out of her mouth was definitely not that.

"Because I didn't want you to be sad alone, asshole!" Blair screamed back at him...and then there was silence once more as they both froze, obviously not knowing what to say or do after that rather dramatic confrontation, staring at each other in a rather tense quiet where the only sounds were the wildlife outside, the gentle howling of the wild, and the young witches heart pounding as her magic began to swirl under her skin like a haunting promise, feeling her uncomfortable energy and reacting in kind, getting ready to hex and curse at a moments notice as she swallowed tightly with a mouth that felt dryer than sand.

And then it seemed that Steve broke first as he sighed and leant back against his chair, running a hand through his already messy hair that fell over his face in a gentle caress all the while she stared at him, bottom lip held between sharp teeth and threatening to sink into the skin, before he looked back over towards her with an almost smile on his face that felt all sorts of hollow. "Thought we weren't friends."

"Yeah well...maybe not friends...but I don't exactly hate your guts anymore either so, progress." Blair shrugged again, and there was some truth to her words unfortunately, she hadn't been able to find it in herself to dislike him anymore, not after everything they'd all been through, not after he's saved her life. It was a strange feeling, because in all honesty she didn't really know what to do with...this, it's not like she was great at making friends, at least with people her own age anyway instead of the chief of police and a bunch of middle schoolers who she babysat for most weekends.

It wasn't like Jonathan counted, at least not really anyway, because it had started out as a friendship of convenience really, she'd never had one, far too quick to curse and swear and insult those who threatened to take a step too close to her wall of prickly thorns, and Jonathan had always been quiet, hidden in every corner of the room until one day she happened to just sit next to him and realise that they both were the best the other was going to get. They were close yes, and she knew she could count on him in a case of an emergency...but sometimes, she couldn't help but wonder if she stopped being the one to reach out, would he forget about her completely?

Steve suddenly snorted, bringing her attention back over to him as she cleared her throat, shoving those rather depressing thoughts at the back of her mind for a later date as she watched him glance out over towards the quarry, staring out at the calm waters with a slight furrow to his brows. "Okay then, so why did you really make me bring you here?"

"I told you, witch business. Come on."

There was a mischievous grin tugging at the corners of her lips, a twinkle in her eyes that was nothing short of magical as she stumbled out of the car, her vision only slightly blurry as the alcohol continued to consume her, making her feel almost euphoric, like she could do anything and everything as she breathed in the air and felt the call of magic as it twisted inside her gut with something that made her feet warm, hearing the door slam shut behind her followed by footsteps as Steve came up beside her, his hands in his pockets and jaw set as he looked around at nothing in particular. "Now what?"

"Close your eyes."

"What? So you can try and drown me?"

"If I wanted you dead, Harrington...all I'd have to do is utter one spell that would have your little heart stopping in your chest. It's not exactly rocket science." Blair smirked, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest to quirk a brow over towards Steve who was looking very uncomfortable indeed with that snippet of information he'd been blessed with, and she decided not to tell him that she wasn't quite there yet with her accurately of spells, in fact, she was pretty sure it was going to take a while before she was able to do such a thing without possibly dying herself, ignoring his mutter of that being reassuring as she huffed. "Come on, close them."

Once more, there was a mutter about her being bossy or something of the sort as he sighed and closed them with far more attitude and dramatics than she would of liked, however, he did it all the same. And so, she quickly turned around when she was sure he wasn't peaking, focusing down hard on the bubbling feeling in her gut, like when you'd had too much fizzy pop and could feel the gas about to release before taking a breath and pushing it out slowly, her dark eyes flashing with promise as the whole quarry began to glow. "Post tenebras spero lucem."

"Okay, now you can open them."

And when Steve opened his eyes, for a moment, just a single moment, he forgot about Nancy, forgot about the horrible pain in his chest that felt like someone had grabbed his heart with their vicious bare hands and molded it into two halves, he forgot about the bullshit, about him being bullshit, about the Wheeler girl not loving him and possibly never loving him in the first place...and that was because all he could do was stare in absolute awe at the multicolored balls of glowing light floating in the air all around the quarry, surrounding them completely and making the water below glow an iridescent blue in the shadow of the moon. "Holy shit."

"Oh, I'm so happy this worked. I've been practicing with this little bastard for like, three weeks now." Blair said in absolute relief, glancing over towards him to see that awed expression upon his face as he looked at what could only be described as stars within touching distance, bathing them in their beautiful hue of colours that had him completely and utterly ensnared by it. It was one of the weirdest things he'd ever seen, and it was like he could feel their magic, heavy in the air, heavy on his skin like something was touching him but not at the same time, and there was just something about it all that was captivating to the point he almost couldn't remember why he was so depressed in the first place.

However, he did eventually remember, hands clenching by his side before he quickly shoved them in his pockets in an effort to stop the trembling, staring out at the light show for a few more minutes and then finally turning his head to look down at Blair, looking at the glow of her eyes, that power that radiated from her in waves even before he knew she was a witch, and had to know the answer to his question as he turned towards her properly, wondering why the hell it was her of all people beside him in his, quite frankly, weakest moment. "Why did you want to show me this? Don't get me wrong its uh, it's pretty cool but-"

"I guess to show you that even in your darkest moments...there's always some kind of fucking light just on the horizon...because not everything's bullshit, Harrington, I'm certainly not, and neither are you."