ᴛᴀᴛᴜᴍ'ꜱ ᴘᴏᴠ

The sweet sweet relief left my body the moment I saw Nancy follow Steve up the stairs to get 'dry clothes'. I was going to say something but thankfully Barb had finished in the bathroom and spoke up for me.

"Nance. Nancy! Where are you going?" Barb said firmly from the bottom of the stairs, I stood next to her shivering in my towel.

"No where.. Just upstairs to change. I fell in the pool." Nancy smiled. Her tone of voice was weirding me out.

Barb looked at me, "You fell in too?" She questioned looking me up and down as shivered.

I nodded and started to walk upstairs after Nancy, "I'll go with you." I offered. I looked back at Barb and mouthed, "I'll make sure they don't have sex."

She rolled her eyes at me as I scurried up the steps. Nancy and I followed Steve into his bedroom, Steve walked over to his dresser and handed out random pieces of clothing to me.

I grabbed the clothes from him, "Thanks." Then I walked out of the room, as he started to dig for more clothes to give to Nancy.

I walked into the bathroom and started to change as I took off my soggy clothes and set them to dry because I would have to put them back on before I got home, or else my mom would be think I didn't even go to the ceremony for Will.

Once I had finished changed I walked out of the upstairs bathroom and wandering through the loft till I got to Steve's room.. and if that sweet relief already left me before then I don't know what left me now because it left like I got the soul sucked out of me.

The bedroom door was closed, the light under the door was off, and I could hear those squelching noises that kissing made. I felt sick to my stomach, I walked down the stairs completely zoned put. I stumbled at every step.

How could I be so stupid? Just get over him. It's not like he was mine anyways, I can't chain him to me because I liked him a couple years ago, but even then Nancy should known, but how could she know because it was a silly middle school crush, but I guess I had never even thought or worried about Nancy because I never would have guessed Steve would go for a girl like her.

"Tatum?"

I looked up to see Barb with a thick cloth wrapped around her hand. I frowned, "Hey, is your hand actually ok?"

"Tatum, who cares about my hand! Where is Nancy?"

"Yeah, so I went to change and I got back and all of the sudden the doors locked and the lights are off."

"Weren't you supposed to make sure those 2 didn't have sex?"

I sighed, "Yeah, I was.. sorry. I mean I guess it's cause I wasn't expecting to happen that quick. Plus, my mind was somewhere else."

Barb started to speak when she was interupted by a thudding coming from upstairs.

"Ew. OK, I'm going to go outside and wait ingfor Nancy to be finished so I can take you guys home. Coming outside with me?"

I thought about it. I kinda wanted to be alone right now, but I didn't wanna do it in hear the things that were going on just up the steps I stood beside, "Actually, you have the keys for your car? I left something in there, and I wanna grab it."

"Yeah, sure." Barb dug into the pockets of her coat until she found the keys and handed them to me.

"Thanks, I'll give them back in a sec." I said, and after that Barb and I split our separate ways. I walked over to the front door and opened it then quietly snuck out and walked the 3 blocks till I got to Barb's car. I hummed a little tune as I walked down the cold, and dimly lit street. I heard a crack, like a crunch of leaves or a twig snapping. Then I relaxed when I realized I was in one of the safest parts of Hawkins. I mean, why should I be worried? This was Hawkins.. nothing ever happens here.

Once I arrived at Barb's car, I unlocked it and reached in the backseat for my Walkman. I was so relieved when I saw it. I grabbed it and pushed my hair behind my ears before placing the headset onto my head, and pressing play on the tape. It was like muscle memory. I locked Barb's car behind then I sang along with the lyrics of the song that was playing while I walked back up to the house. The music that blasted through my ears blocked out the thought of Nancy and Steve and the sound of them as well.

Once I got back I opened the front door, I saw Barb sitting out by the pool, dipping her feet in the warm water. I glided out the sliding back door and handed Barb her keys back. She gave a soft smile and pushed them back into the pocket of her coat.

I sighed as I sat down on a pool chair.

Barb's turned to me, "Are you ok? Becuase you have seemed kinda off recently. Like every time I see you, you aren't at ease."

"Yeah.. I'm fine, I just.. I don't know about this Nancy and Steve thing. It seems off to me, but I'm honestly probably just being completely and utterly stupid." I paused for Barb to speak, but then the word vomit started to rise up, "I don't know, but recently every thing has been really weird ever since Nancy and Steve have been together and I'm slightly worried, but also probably just angry, even though I shouldn't. Like I'm upset for, I think actually the stupidest reason to ever upset at some one for on this earth, and then on the other hand I'm still worried for Nancy. But I mean, why should I be worried for Nancy of she wants to get her heart broken by Steve then so be it. Also I'm talking really fast, sorry. But anyways, does Nancy even like Steve or is she just using him to make me feel bad? But then why would she waste he time to make me feel bad that's stupid so she probably does actually like him. And then there's also the thought of-"

"Tatum, stop." Barb said cutting me off.

I took a moment to pause because I was out of breath from talking too much, "Sorry."

Barb widened her eyes at me, "Are you ok?"

"No."

There was a small pause, then Barb start to speak.

"Hey, you know who you remind me of?" Barb asked.

"Who?"

"You probably don't know her, but she used to be my bestfriend and she would ramble just like you, execpt she'd do it all the time, and I bet you don't do this like 5 times a day."

"Not out loud, I don't but in my mind... that's a different story." I said with a sighed.

Barb nodded instead of verbally replying so we kinda just sat in silence again. I looked at my watch, shit it's already 10:18!

I looked up back at Barb, "I'm gonna head home."

"Can I come with you?" Barb joked, "I've been dying to go, but I didn't wanna leave Nancy so I was just gonna wait, but I can drive you home then come back to get Nance.

I smiled softly, "Thank you, but I'll just walk. You have done enough for me today.. listen to me ramble, drive me over here."

"You're welcome"

I sat up from my seat and started to walk back towards the back door that led into the house, I stopped myself when I felt the urge to say something. I turned back to Barb, "You're a good friend, Barbra. I'll see you tomorrow. By the way, I hope your hand heals up."

Barb and I shared a soft glance then I walked back inside and then out again through the front door. I put my Walkman back onto my head and started my walk home, then The street lights above me start flicker. I shrugged it off thinking that they probably should just install some new lights, but this is also the rich part of Hawkins so usually these neighborhoods are the ones that are kept in the best shape. I moved on from the thought as I kept walking closer and closer to my house when it hit me.

I'm still wearing Steve Harrington's clothes. I needed to change before I got home. I started to jog up the street hoping for a sage place to change my clothes when I saw Benny's Burgers in bright lights.

"Thanks gosh!" I mentally said.

I used to come here all the time with my dad, and I knew Benny well enough so I'd just ask to use his bathroom and change in there.

I jogged up to the front of the store and saw that it was still open thankfully. I pushed the door and sniffed the air expecting it to be the familiar scent of fried food all to be disappointed by a tremendous amount. It smelt absolutely terrible.

I looked around to see Benny, sitting at a table, resting his head on the top of the table.

"Hey, Be-"

My stomach dropped to the floor. I couldn't believe the sight in front of my eyes. I immediately ran back out of the restaurant and took a deep breath before walking back in. I tried to ignore the sight of Benny and reached for the phone they had in the store. I dialed the number of the local police station

"Hello." I said.

"Hey, what seems to be your issue?" The operator asked.

"I'm at Benny's Burgers. There's.. uh.." I tried to hold myself together, "There's been a suicide. It's Benny." I sighed.

"I'll send officers your way, miss."

"Thanks you so much." I said as I hung up the phone. I walked back outside and sat on the bench that was out front.

Just as I thought today couldn't get any worse, it got worse. I remembered my original purpose for coming here and that I still needed to change, so I quickly walked back inside, practically holding my breath until ai got to the bathroom, where I changed clothes super quickly. I shoved Steve's clothes into my bag and scurried back outside to the bench, as ai waited for the authorities to get here.

I sat in my thoughts and realized my clothes were still damp, but I also realized, once of the placed I used to valua so much as a kid, was now destroyed. I started to let out a cry. Hot tears fell down my cheek. This wasn't a sad quiet cry. This was a loud, gut-wrenching sob that I definitely needed considering I haven't cried in a really long time. I usually do well at keeping myself pulled together most of the time, but I didn't care right now. I just let myself wail like a little baby. I started to wish that I let Barb drive me home.

When the cops got there they asked me a few questions of how I got here so I said I was at a friend's and started to walk home when I needed to pee so I decided to stop here and then I found Benny. The paramedics and firefighters took care of Benny, while I was answering the questions, and after my small interrogation they let me head back home. And when they said head back home and basically ran. I just wanted to be snuggled in my bed. As I ran my feet started to give out and more tears streamed down my face. My throat started to get dry and my nose started to run. I just walked the next few blocks after that.

The moment I walked into the door my mother was on the couch holding her cat. She came rushing over to me, "Honey! Are you ok? What took you so long and why are you crying?"

"It's a long story." I sniffled. My mom set Mews down and pulled me into a hug. If there was oneB thing I loved about my mother, it was that she 100% knew how to comfort you in any situation.

I only explained to my mom how I found Benny, because I couldn't mention a thing about Steve's house. After that I headed straight into pajamas then my bed..I was too tired to shower and I just wanted this day to end.

●○●○●

The next morning my eyes were puffy and red, and I had a zit on my jaw that I didn't even notice. My mother had to yank me out of my bed, and the whole walk to school I dragged my feet and slouched.

When I through the big glass doors of Hawkins High I saw Nancccy and Steve but no Barb. Nancy look like she was about to freak out. I walked to my locker getting my things and trudged over to my Spanish class. I was actually early for some reason, but of course Steve was late... which I didn't mind because I didn't really want to see his face anyway, but there it was the moment he through after the late bell had already rung.

"Late again, Mr. Harrington." Mrs. Rodrigo scolded.

Steve just shrugged, and glided over confidently to his seat, I tried to avoid all eye contact with him the entire class, till he leaned back into his seat, "Hey Henderson, you have fun last night?"

"Oh, yeah." I said with a fake laugh.

"What's wrong with you?" Steve asked me with suspicion, "You seem weird today."

"You seem kinda weird today, too." I smirked at him trying to play off my bad mood. Steve shook his head and smirked back as he turned back in his seat.

After Spanish Nancy stopped me in the hallway, "Hey, Tatum."

I plastered a smile across my face, "Hey, Nance." I said reaching into my locker to grab my anotmy books.

"You haven't seen Barb have you?" Nancy asked worriedly.

"No... I mean, shouldn't you know? I thought you guys had English together."

"Yeah, we do. She wasn't in class. Are you sure ypu just like haven't seen her anywhere like bathrooms, halls..?"

I shook my head no, "Sorry Nance." I shut my locker and headed off to my science class.

I sat down in my seat as my teacher, Mr. Isaac, started to speak about what we were going over in class. Anatomy was pretty boring most of the time because I didn't have anyone I knew in that class execpt Keith.. and I wasn't trying to socialize with him often so I was pretty much alone until I could make some friends.

After Anatomy crawled by I had year book with Carol, which actually always seems to make me laugh. Carol was the friend who was so clueless that it was funny, but she was also a good friend when she wasn't influenced by Tommy. Once Yearbook was over Carol and I walked over to lunch together. We headed over to the table that Tommy and Steve already were at. I sat down and Carol sat down next to me so she was in-between Tommy and I.

The four of us start chatting until Carol lifts her foot onto the table and everyone groans at the sight of her ankle.

"Ew what happen?" I say.

"I totally think this is frostbite." Carol says.

Tommy scoffs with a mouthful of pudding, "It's the heated pool."

"Ok, well if it's not frostbite then what is it?"

I looked over to see Nancy walking towards us.

"I don't care what it is, people are eating her. Get that off the table!" Steve tells Carol. Tommy goes to poked the red patch on her ankle with his spoon when Carol smacks his hand and puts her foot back down on the floor.

Nancy had already sat down at this point and she was giving Tommy a weird look, "Hey Tommy? When you left, did you see Barb?"

"What?"

"Barbra."

"I seriously have no idea who you are talking about." Tommy and Carol chuckled and I held back a smirk.

Steve glared at Tommy, "C'mon don't be an asshole. Did you see her leave last night or not?"

"No. She was gone when we left." Tommy said while shoveling another bite of his food into his mouth.

Carol start to smirk to herself,."She probably couldn't stand all that moaning."

Carol and Tommy start to moan Steve's name, and this time I couldn't help from laughing a little, meanwhile Nancy looked like she was about to cry and her face was red as a tomato and Steve had a funny flattered smirk. After s couple more seconds of Carol and Tommy Steve quieted them down, "I'm sure she's fine. She probably just like skipped or got sick or something."

"Yeah, probably." Nancy said with disappointment on her face.

All of us (execpt Nancy who seemed to be staring off into space) started laughing again soon after that weird moment of silence.

●○●○●

Once the day was over and I finished all my classes, I need to go pick up some photos for yearbook that I had been devolving. I slipped into the red room careful to not let any of the outside lights seep into the red room.

"Wait!" I heard some one yell. I glanced out the door to see Nicole. She was also in my yearbook class. I held the door open for her as she quickly walked in. Once i walked over to my photos I realized Jonathan was in there with us.

"Hi!" I said. Jonathan was didn't have very many friends, so I always tried to be cordial and friendly with him.

"Hi." He quietly greeted back. I glanced over to see what he was working on and saw familiar faces, and then it hit me. He was taking photos of us last nnight. Nicoleust have noticed the photos to bevause she gave me a horrified looked. I shrugged it off and tried to act like a didn't notice, which was when Jonathan started to quickly take down the photos and storm out of the room.

"Thay was creepy as hell." Nicole said.

"I know." I replied, while picking up my photos.

"We should tell Steve and Nancy. Most of those photos are of them."

I shrugged, "Maybe."

If you want to know one thing about Nicole is that she is very pushy, "C'mon!" She said grabbing my arms and her photos.

The 2 of us walked out of the school building towards Steve's car which was where Steve, Tommy and Carol were standing and chatting. I knew Nancy would be near, so I looked around for her while Nicole started talking to the 3 of them about Jonathan. The group started to walk over to Jonathan's car to wait for him.

I spotted Nancy at the payphone outside the school and waved over to her. She gave a wave back.

I refocused my attention over to where Nicole was with everyone else.. which was when Jonathan walked by. Steve got up and walked over to him, "Hey, man."

"What's going on?" Jonathan asked with fear.

"Nicole here was telling us about your work."

"We have heard great things." Carol muttered, I gave her a little smile.

"Yeah, so we would just love to take a look. We are connoisseurs of art." Steve said placing his hands on his hips.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Jonathan says, he attempts to walk towards his car but Tommy quickly snatched his bag off his shoulders and tossed it to Steve. Steve started to open the bag when he looked up at Jonathan who had the most guilty look on his face ever.

"Oh shit. He is like totally trembling he must really have something to hide." Steve opened up Jonathan's bag and dug around for the photos, "Found em."

I looked over Steve's shoulder observing the photos as he flipped through them.

"That's totally not creepy." Carol said with disgust.

"Lemme see." Tommy said. Steve handed some photos to him.

"I was looking for my brother!" Jonathan defended. I stayed quiet but that was a lazy excuse. This was creepy.

"No, this is called stalking." Steve scoffed.

Just then Nancy walked up, "What's going on?"

"Here's the starring lady."

"What?"

"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol spoke while giving Joanthan a dirty look, "And he was probably gonna save this one for later." Carol handed Nancy the photo of her shirtless. Nancy looked uncomfortable.

"See, you can tell he knows it was wrong, but that's the thing with perverts it's hardwired into them." Steve tauntingly fixed the collar of Jonathan's jacket, "They just can't help themselves.." Steve tore up the photos, "So.. ypu have to take away their toy." Steve walked back over to his bag and pulled put the camera.

"Please not the camera." Jonathan lunged foward to stop Steve but Tommy pushed him back.

"No, no, no, Tommy, wait. It's okay." Steve instructed, Tommy put his hand away from Jonathan, "Here you go, man." Steve held out the camera and just as Jonathan went to reach for it Steve let it fall out of his hands.

I winced as the camera shattered onto the floor.

"C'mon the game is about to start." Steve walked off with everyone following him.

Nancy stood on the verge of tears as she saw the ripped up photos and shattered camera. I started to walk off, "C'mon, Nancy." I shouted. She picked up a part of a photo and she jogged over to the rest of us.

●○●○●

"So I told Mr. Mundy the solution of ten plus Y equals blow me." Carol giggled.

Steve scoffed, "Bull! If you did that you would be in retention right now."

"Saturday."

Tommy leaned his head against the wall that the bench we was sitting pressed against, "I bet Mr. Mundy is still a virgin."

"Oh he is so a virgin." Carol laughed.

"Maybe you should blow him, Carol. It'd help your grades a bit." Tommy smirked.

I couldn't help but laugh a little. I glanced over at Nancy who was standing up between Steve and I who were sitting on the floor. She was staring off in thought until Nancy just started walking off.

"Nance, where you going?" Steve asked.

"I totally forgot.. I told my mom I would do something with her." Nancy said quickly.

"What? The game is about to start-" Steve stood up stepping closer to Nancy.

"Sorry." Nancy started to run off.

Steve turned to us, "What's wrong with her?"

"Maybe she freaked out when you went all psycho on the psycho." Tommy suggested.

"No, she's probably just upset Barb wasn't here today. They have like every last together she was probably lonely." I said. I knew that this probably wasn't the reason but it definitely had something to do with Barb. Gosh, the past 2 days have been the worst days of my life. It got me thinking if coming back to Hawkins was worth this.

A/N: Hi guys!! Sorry for taking so long to update lol I hope you enjoyed this one it was kinda like another filler but Tatum went through the damn ringer so, I am wishing you liked the chapter. Thank you to all my readers

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