chapter eleven
high school sweethearts

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THERE'S AN ANXIETY SWELLING IN RUBY'S insides when Steve pulls up to Dustin's house; the toddler reassured them that his mom was out, because she was still searching for their dead cat, which made Ruby a little more relieved. She doesn't know how she would explain this to an actual adult. Like, what if his mom called the police, AKA, her father? Then he'll start asking questions and sticking his nose in places it doesn't need to be. It's easier when adults aren't involved.

Ruby gets out of the car, and places her hands on her hips, waiting for Dustin to show them the way. "You know," she says to him, "If you're lying about this, I can and will kill you—"

"Why would I lie?" says Dustin with a glare.

"I don't know," says Steve, frowning back at him. "You could be trying to prank us."

Ruby nods. "Uh, exactly?"

Dustin rolls his eyes. "Believe me, I would not choose to spend time with either of you."

Ruby's taken aback. She exchanges a look with Steve, who's just as offended.

"We're actually, like, super-fun," says Steve, as Dustin starts to walk away from the two of them, towards his back-yard. Ruby moves to catch up. "So it would be your loss."

"Yeah, totally," says Ruby. "We're the funnest."

"Ask anyone," says Steve, nodding passionately.

Ruby snorts. "Well not Billy for you — or Tommy, or Carol, or—"

"Did you need to bring that up?" says Steve, frowning at her. She shrugs, and a looming worry about her lack of relationship with Billy makes her stomach knot. "You know, Nancy would say I'm fun."

Ruby gives him a look. He smiles. Is this because she mentioned Billy? Is he... No. He cannot be jealous of that?

"I take it back," says Ruby. "He's no fun. But I'm fun. I throw the best parties—"

"Everyone only goes because you're hot—"

"And that's a bad thing, Harrington? I should charge people to look at me."

"Yeah, well, you're not known for your hair—"

"Yeah, but—"

"SHUT UP!" shouts Dustin, spinning around. He looks like he's about to have a tantrum; he throws his arms up, exasperated already with the two. "Fun people don't have to prove it. You're so annoying!"

Ruby and Steve share another glance, before they both smirk a little at the ridiculousness. It begins to dawn on her that Steve just called her hot.

"OK, so where's this monster?" says Ruby, trying to return to reality.

Dustin points towards the basement's entrance; it's an old wooden door peeking out of the ground, where, no doubt, there are steep stairs leading down to a concrete room, a bunker almost. It's the best place to hold a monster, to be fair.

Ruby takes a look, and places her foot on the door, to see if the noise agitates the monster, making it move. It does not.

Steve stands next to her, and uses his bat to pick up the chains locking the door. He lets them fall back down, loudly, but again, no response. Ruby has a bad feeling about this.

"I'll go first," says Steve. Ruby opens her mouth to protest — because come on, she has powers! — he glances back at her, and says, "I'll whack you out of the way, Brenner." He lifts up his bat, with the nails hammered in.

"Jesus, OK," says Ruby with a grimace. Masculinity crisis, much?

She watches Dustin unlock the chain, and Steve opens up the door. Ruby braces herself from the monster to jump out at them, but thankfully not — instead, there's silence. She doesn't like this.

"Rubes, you come down when I say," he tells her.

Since when was Steve put in charge?

"I'll stay up here in case he... tries to escape," says Dustin.

Ruby and Steve both turn to Dustin, frowning.

"Give me that," says Steve, taking Dustin's flashlight.

She watches as Steve slowly descends into the basement, his baseball bag swinging carefully in front of him, as if to warn the monster. Ruby waits, expecting a cry for help to cut through the silence at any second. She doesn't know why she didn't argue against him going first, maybe she liked the fact that someone was willing to look out for her... But, still. She knows what these monsters are like, and if she's allowed Steve to go down there, to get killed—

"Steve?" says Ruby, after too long of a silence. There's no response, and Ruby starts to panic. "Steve—"

Steve reappears, thankfully, and shines the light up at them.

"It's empty," he says.

Ruby and Dustin go, "What?"

"How is it empty?" says Ruby, and she races down the stairs. To Dustin, she begins, "If you were lying about this, I am—"

And that's when she sees the gaping hole.

In the corner of the basement, there's a massive hole, the monster having chewn through the walls. Ruby crouches down, and takes hold of Steve's flashlight. She points it inside the hole, revealing a tunnel burrowing further and further away. Her brows furrow, as she tries to spot anything of note inside the tunnel. But, to her dismay, there's only one thing she can say:

"I've never seen this before..."

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IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT RUBY is bricking it. She has no idea where that monster burrowed off to, if it's lurking in the depths of the earth, waiting to strike at the most crucial time. Ruby really doesn't understand. Like, she doesn't want to blame everyone for their involvement, but for many years, Ruby just saw the monster, kind-of flickered between her world and the Upside Down, and that was it. The monster was a threat in the shadows, but it wasn't going to hunt her down, not really. And she wasn't going to bother killing it. They lived in suspicious harmony of the other, both being the other's ultimate weakness.

So Ruby doesn't fully understand what is going on right now. If this is normal for monsters, if it's even the same as her monster... To her knowledge, there was only one monster, and that was the one she always saw. So, is this slightly smaller one the new thing the Upside Down is churning out, because the last one died? Or has it always been there? Because, surely, wouldn't Ruby have seen it before?

One thing is for certain, though: the Upside Down is becoming a crisis. Like, bad perm level of crisis. (Not that Ruby would ever get one. She's a blowout girl through and through.) And this, much to her dismay, is why she's spending her Saturday walking through the woods outlining Hawkins, leading the way to her and Steve's old hangout.

It makes her a little sad that they've both agreed to sacrifice the junk yard they lovingly called the library, even if she hasn't been there in a year (aside from the other night, anyway). But what can she do? Refuse to use the literal junk yard, when that is the perfect spot to lure this monster? It's far away from town, the bus provides good enough shelter, and with all of the scrap metal around, they can barricade the bus pretty too. There's cars dotted around, so they're not completely out in the open. It is, unfortunately, perfect. It just feels like she's killing something pretty sentimental for something undeserving. Is there not another dumping ground in these woods?

They're walking along the old train tracks. They were close enough at Dustin's house, and they figured it would be easier to leave the car there, especially if the monster goes anywhere near it and damages it. This monster is a dick, but Steve's dad is even worse. When they first started going here, though, it took them six months to realise the drivable route further up the hill, so luckily, Ruby knows the walk here pretty well. She lets the boys walk behind her, leaving a trail of raw meat to attract the monster... Or a bear, but Ruby prays that doesn't happen.

She can hear them talking about girls, which makes her cringe. Apparently Dustin's got this major crush on a redheaded new girl, and he kept this monster to impress her.

"I don't know," says Steve to the kid. "I just feel like you're trying too hard."

"Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?"

"It's not about the hair, man," Steve tells him. "The key with girls is just... just acting like you don't care."

Dustin seems impressed. "Even if you do?"

"Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts."

Ruby thinks she's far ahead enough that they think she can't hear them. Part of her is grateful for this, because this is hilarious. Steve cannot be any further from the truth when it comes to girls and their feelings.

"Then what?"

"You just wait until you feel it," Steve tells him. "It's like before it's gonna storm, you know? You can't see it, but you can feel it, like this, uh... electricity, you know?"

"Oh, like in the electromagnetic field?"

"No, no, no, no, no," Steve says, and she can imagine him shaking his head. "Like a... Like a sexual electricity."

Ruby covers her mouth with her hand, trying to contain a laugh. This is amazing. This is just like when Steve was encouraging Tommy to ask out Carol, and the girls heard the whole thing. She remembers Steve going, "You're the man, Tommy!" Ruby's stomach hurt, she was laughing so much.

"Oh," goes Dustin, in awe.

"You feel that — and then you make your move."

Dustin begins, "So that's when you kiss her—?"

"No, whoa, whoa! Slow down, Romeo!" says Steve. Ruby is suddenly thankful she agreed to helping out with this. Steve 'The Hair' Harrington giving all his tips on girls — the most ridiculous, ineffective tips Ruby has ever heard, which aren't even true considering the way he's approached her recently! "Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a... I don't know, like a lion. But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a... like a ninja."

"What type is Ruby?"

Suddenly, this stops being funny.

Ruby almost freezes. But they would notice that, and they would realise she can hear them. And... Maybe Ruby wants to hear what he's going to say. She's a little surprised Dustin's put her into the category of 'girls Steve is interested in' because that makes things seem rather obvious, but still, she supposes Dustin saw Steve sleeping over, and presumed they were together. What type is Ruby?

"Ruby's different," says Steve. "She's different than the other girls." Is that meant to be a compliment? Ruby is exactly like the other girls. Ruby likes Madonna and wants to screw Bowie. How more normal can she get? "We've got a lot more... history. We used to be best friends, and all, until last year — I don't know why I'm telling you this. But she's different to everyone else. And if you tell her any of this, your ass is grass."

"Geez, I won't!" Dustin exclaims. "She seems pretty special, I guess..."

"She is," Steve tells Dustin, and Ruby can feel two sets of eyes gazing on her. She feels awkward now, because she didn't expect him to say all of that. Ruby wonders if it's because he never told anyone about it — Ruby didn't, either. Why would she? Carol would exclude her, or Tommy would bully Steve, if they knew that Steve was in love with Ruby, like he told her last Christmas.

"But this girl's special, too, you know," Dustin explains. "It's just, like... something about her."

Ruby thinks they've stopped walking, but she doesn't want to turn around, in case they realise she was eavesdropping.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not falling in love with this girl, are you?"

"Uh, no," says Dustin, alarmed.

"Okay, good," says Steve. "Don't."

"I won't?" Dustin tries.

"She's only gonna break your heart," says Steve. "And you're way too young for that shit."

Ruby has flashbacks to last Christmas. To Steve, asking to hang out on Christmas Eve; how they sat upstairs in her room, and he told her how much he loved her, how he would fight fifty monsters if it meant keeping her safe. Ruby almost kissed him, but then he mentioned the lab, and she detached herself. She told him to leave her alone, and he did... Until now.

She knows it seems obvious — of course he was heartbroken, she dumped him as a friend and never looked back — but it takes her by surprise, hearing him say that. She's only gonna break your heart. She broke his heart? In all their years of being friends, she never saw him upset like that, upset enough to describe himself as heartbroken. She can't even imagine it... But she's felt it herself — she felt it when she told him to leave her alone — and she feels awful, knowing he felt that because of her.

"Fabergé," she hears Steve tell Dustin, and the two start to talk about hair products. Ruby experiences this dreadful feeling in her stomach, something she doesn't think she's felt before... Guilt? She always stands by her actions. The way she says it, if she doesn't, she'll get manipulated and turned into some psycho killer. Guilt is for the weak, because guilt is self-doubt. But Ruby does feel guilty about this...

Ruby imagines what it would've been like, if she had accepted his offer last Christmas. She would've lost all popularity, and she would've had no idea what to do as a result. Ruby's idyllic alternate reality is cut short by one simple fact — there was a reason why Ruby couldn't allow her and Steve to become something. Because he had become a loser, and she couldn't lose her popularity — her badge of normality — for anything.

She imagines what it could've been like, though. If they had started dating when he was still cool. She can imagine Carol and Tommy making fun of them and saying how obvious it was, how much they liked each other. (They said this anyway — Carol was convinced, summer before junior year, that Ruby and Steve were at least fucking.) Steve Harrington and Ruby Brenner would be Snowflake King and Queen, Spring Fling, Prom... Ruby would be hottest girl in school with the hottest boyfriend. They'd be the best power-couple to grace the halls of Hawkins. Ruby, in this romanticised world, imagines the two like countless couples in Hawkins, her parents (once upon a time) included. High school sweethearts, quickly pregnant and quickly married. But it'd be nice...

... But if Steve hadn't ditched them, he wouldn't have... changed, the way he has this year. He wouldn't be giving a middle schooler advice on how to get a girl, that's for sure. So maybe that ideal scenario isn't ideal, because the Steve in that world isn't like hers, because she didn't fuck him off for a while...

Ruby finally arrives at the old junk yard, and breathes a sigh of relief. She can put these thoughts to rest now, and instead think about the most important thing: killing the monster.

"And this, Henderson," says Steve, "is the library."

God hope Ruby gets through this bullshit.

hi!! let me know what you thought!!! <3 (also thoughts on season 4?!?!? i loved it!! i am SO excited to write ruby for it!!)