chapter twenty-one
short-wiring

🖤

RUBY'S WEARING HER FAVOURITE BIKINI when she heads down to the Hawkins pool, a black one with an extra-long tie around her back, making a pretty bow. The bottoms sit just right on her hips. She's got on her sunglasses, and the gold necklace Steve bought her for Valentine's Day. She smells of SPF 30 and vanilla perfume, as she walks out past the pool, taking one of the loungers near the lifeguard stand. Ruby sits her headphones over her ears, turns up the Dusty Springfield, and closes her eyes.

She loves the summer months. When she was in New York, she was talking to this other model obsessed with zodiac signs, and apparently, Ruby's a fire sign? Ruby doesn't really get that, but she was told she's a Scorpio, and she supposes it makes sense, how much she likes the warmth, if she is a fire sign. Ruby feels at one with fire, she thinks her powers gave her a real appreciation for it. Not to sound like a pyromaniac... That is, if she's actually a fire sign and that girl wasn't chatting shit...

A figure steps in front of her, blocking the sun. Ruby sits upright, about to sneer at a little kid, but instead, sees her ex-boyfriend, Billy Hargrove. She freezes for a second, before frowning, noticing the lifeguard outfit.

"Looking good, Brenner..."

"I know, it's kinda my job to be hot."

She puts her headphones back on, and lies back down. Even the pool is tainted now! Her auntie's one at home is indoors, she can't get a tan there! She could go to Steve's, but if he's working everyday, she's going to feel awkward lounging around his house on her own, when his parents might be there. They will be there, it's a Saturday! She feels so uncomfortable. What should she do? Should she just leave now, or wait it out? Billy will have his break soon, then he'll go away for a while. She drove this whole way, she left Steve to go to the pool, Billy being here is ruining everything for her!

This is a disaster—

"Hey, Ruby," another voice says, Ruby's headphones just quiet enough for her to make out the voice.

She opens her eyes, and pushes her sunglasses down her nose to see through. One of the girls on the cheerleading team smiles at her, her blonde hair wrapped into a bun, a hot pink bikini covered by a hot pink coverup.

"Oh, hey, Chrissy."

Ruby sits upright to speak to her, as Chrissy takes a seat on the empty lounger next to her. Honestly, Ruby barely knows Chrissy — famously Ruby told Chrissy to bleach her hair when she first started on the cheer team, and Ruby thinks Chrissy's so popular because of that makeover. Well... she's also pretty sweet, which would not be said for Ruby. They sort-of ran in the same crowd when Ruby was still in high school, only Chrissy's the grade below. Ruby, as reigning Spring Fling and Snowflake Queen hopes the mantles are passed onto Chrissy.

"I thought it was you," says Chrissy, smiling awkwardly. Ruby figures she's scared of her. Most people are. "My mom's over there, with my little brother, but I thought I'd say hi. How was New York?"

"Amazing," says Ruby, and beams. "I'm loving every second of it... How's your summer been, so far? I remember how weird it was, almost being a senior."

"Tell me about it." Chrissy lets out a nervous laugh. "Moving to college sounds so scary — but I was looking at places in New York, you're going to Parsons, right?"

Ruby nods. "Fashion Communications."

"I'm thinking of NYU, but it's a lot of money," she says.

"Yeah..." Ruby doesn't really know what to say about that. "But if you visit and I'm there, we should totally go for coffee! Hawkins Cheer Team takes New York!" Ruby raises her hands in enthusiasm, mocking the cheer team's old moves, which makes Chrissy grin. "Are you gonna try out for head cheerleader next year?"

Chrissy nods. "I never got why you didn't get it, though."

Ruby shrugs. "I already had head of newspaper, so I wasn't bothered."

This is a lie. Well, a half-lie. The first week of senior year, Ruby was convinced that Steve was gonna get captain of the basketball team, and since that role and head cheerleader have to constantly talk... Ruby wasn't having it. So, she lied, and said she wasn't interested, even if it could've boosted her popularity, since she was struggling until she dated Billy. Steve didn't even get basketball captain in the end, he went for swim instead... Not to mention Ruby hated being bossed around by Tina. Thank God Ruby got Snowflake Queen, because she had enough popularity on her own to tell Tina to fuck off during cheer practice.

"Oh, that makes sense," says Chrissy.

Chrissy ends up leaving to sit with her mom, and the second she does, Billy sits down on the foot of Ruby's sun lounger. She grimaces at him.

"Yes?" she says.

"Woah, woah, woah," he says. "You're at my work."

"Yeah, that used to be mine," she says. She leaves her headphones sitting around her neck, as she picks up her things to leave. It would've been nice to tan, but she isn't spending another minute talking to this asshole.

But as she walks away, she hears the line of moms go, "Hiiiiii, Billy..." So, she figures that he's following her. Ruby sighs. For one month, he left her alone, living by the promise he gave to Max. But ever since the Winter Formal, ever since the two had to dance together because they got Snowflake King and Queen, it's been relentless. OK, maybe relentless is an overstatement. But he's spoken to her every couple of weeks, at least, which is annoying. She doesn't get why he won't drop it, especially when she's clearly taken.

She supposes that's the whole reason why he's still trying, to get back at Steve. Ruby wants to tell him that it was never a competition between the two of them, it was always Steve, but she thinks that's a little mean, even for her.

"If you don't leave me alone, I'm going to rip you a new asshole."

... Yeah, and saying I always preferred Steve would be mean.

"Ooh, you're feisty today," he says. He looks down at her chest, at the necklace she's wearing. It's five small rubies, sitting together to make a flower. Tina broke up with Billy after Valentine's Day, and apparently it was because Billy didn't get her something nice like this. So Billy's aware of the necklace's history, and he picks it up, holding the flower between his fingers. "Had an argument with Harrington?"

He — somehow — really likes you... The voice is back, weirdly enjoying this. Do you not see the power you hold, Ruby? That you've still got him wrapped around your finger?

"Suck my dick," she tells him, and steps back.

"Well, if there's ever a problem between you and Harrington... You've always got a shoulder here to cry on." This would be sweet, but he says this with a God-awful smirk, like he's trying to seduce her. She rolls her eyes. He's got every hot mom in Hawkins crushing on him, why can't that be enough? For the first time in her life, Ruby wishes she wasn't so hot, everyone liked her.

But the world revolves around you, doesn't it?

Ruby's walking back to her car by the time the voice says that. She shakes her head, feeling even worse. Why is the voice talking to her? What does it want, to just piss her off?

I want you, little Ruby. I want Subject X to join me.

"I don't even know you," she says aloud, just as she returns home.

Oh, but you do...

Her first thought is her grandpa, because he could have miraculously survived in the Upside Down, but the voice is oddly... pervy. And her grandpa wouldn't say this stuff to her. She tries to rack her brain as she turns on the shower, turning the heat on full. She always feels better in the warmth.

You don't even remember me, Ruby? But I thought I was your favourite...

Ruby rolls her eyes, her palms feeling hot. "Fuck off."

She steps foot in the shower, the hot water beating down on her, and the voice disappears...

🖤

... THE VOICE IS STILL SILENT, WHEN SHE waits for Steve to arrive. She's dressed in comfier clothes now, since it's starting to get late: a pair of satin pyjama shorts, a lace camisole, and an oversized shirt, all black. She feels like a goth Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

It's around eight now, and she's thrown her hair up into a ponytail. She's just rang her dad a half-hour ago to tell him that Carrie's a day late — neither will fact-check this with each other, because Carrie hates him still — and he asks if she wants him to pick her up, to spend the night at his, but she tells him she'll survive. "I'm gonna ask Nancy to stay over," she tells him, and she quickly rings the Wheeler's, to ask Nancy to cover. Nancy says sure. "I normally, uh, go to Jonathan's anyway, so if you can drive me there, no one will know...?"

So, this is why Ruby's driving over to the Wheelers', praying that Steve's going to be late. She left a note on her porch, in case he shows up. Thank God no one robs houses around here, because Ruby's basically invited burglars in. But, anyway.

Nancy gets into the passenger seat, holding a box of Tupperware. "My mom, uh, gave me these... for our sleepover," she explains, and she raises the box, revealing two rows of brownies.

Ruby's eyes light up. "Yum."

"So, why did you need me to cover?"

Ruby quickly explains; she didn't on the phone, scared Mr or Mrs Wheeler would overhear and tell her dad. But it's nice, that Ruby never feels awkward talking to Nancy about Steve, because she knows they're both over the relationship now. Ruby thinks back to that time last year, how no one was dating the person they actually wanted to. Well, maybe Billy was, the voice sneers. Ruby thinks back to him, well, duh, he was dating me!

But, anyway. She doesn't feel weird, which she's grateful for, because she doesn't trust any other girl friend like she does Nancy. Secretly she wishes she could make another friend, so that her best friend wasn't her boyfriend — but that's the annoying thing about dating your best friend. It's nice, sure, that her boyfriend treats her like a best friend, just with more affection, but what happens if things go sour? She'll lose her boyfriend and best friend.

"Ah." Nancy smiles, just as Ruby slows to a halt, reaching a stop sign. "So you guys are doing well?"

"Uh, yeah..." Ruby frowns. That's a bit of a loaded question.

"I was just asking, because the other night, he rang me," says Nancy. She waves her hand dismissively, but Ruby looks across at her, waiting for her to continue. "He was saying all these things, how he missed me, how you weren't good enough—"

Ruby's heart plummets. "What?"

She blinks, and she's still at the stop sign, the previous conversation fictitious.

What was that?

"Ruby? Are you OK...?"

Ruby blinks a couple times, trying to sort herself out. "Uh, yeah, sorry," she says, weakly. "I think I just, like, short-wired for a second... Were you saying something?"

"Um, no... Are you sure you're OK, Ruby?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she lies.

She doesn't understand what is going on. Why is this voice being so persistent, after months of silence? She remembers what it showed her last year, the scene of her friends dead, her boyfriend begging for her to stop, and she's worrying that that was a premonition of sorts. There was a monster that the kids talked about last year, that gets into people's minds to enslave them... God, what was it called? Maybe they were onto something...

Ruby decides to give it a day. She'll wait a day, see if it gets any worse, and then she'll tell someone what's going on. It'll be fine. She's got, like, zero insecurities — look at her, she was the Spring Fling and Snowflake Queen — so it's not like this monster can prey upon anything major... Right?

... Right?

"Are you sure you don't want any of these?"

Nancy shakes her head. "I need to climb through Jonathan's window, I'll get brownie everywhere if I take them," she tells Ruby.

"More for me and Steve." Ruby smiles.

"Yeah, uh... Let me know if you need anything, OK?"

Ruby frowns. "Uh... Sure."

She shifts awkwardly in the driver's seat, as Nancy lets herself out, quietly closing the car door so no one hears her. Ruby tries to keep the noise down, too, as she creeps away from the Byers' house. It would be annoying if Nancy got away with sneaking in, and it was Ruby that gave it away.

She'd hate you for that, the voice tells her.

"No, she would not," she says back to it. "God, you're such a dick, who even are you?"

I'm you.

"I don't have a voice like a smoker," she retorts. If this is the... monster (she forgets the name) that they were talking about last year, maybe she can just bully it into leaving her alone. That could work, right? "Get a grip. Who are you?"

You know who I am.

"Well, I don't remember."

Maybe you should think more about others and less about yourself. Maybe that's why everyone hates you.

"No one hates me."

Are you sure about that?

Is she sure about that? Yeah, she's pretty sure. Who hates her? Like, maybe some people hate her because she's pretty, but her actual friends? None of them hate her. She'd know. She has friends that care about her, a sister she's always dreamt of, a boyfriend that loves her to pieces. There's nothing wrong with her life. Like, yeah, she was a little worried about Robin earlier, but that's fine. If she has an insecurity about something, who cares? She isn't going to let this little parasite worm its way into her brain.

She pulls back into her driveway, to find Steve waiting on the porch. He's changed since work, into one of his sweatshirts and a pair of jeans. He's got a couple changes of clothes hanging around here, anyway, from times like these when he needs to sneak past his parents. A change of clothes would be too suspicious.

"Hey, sailor," she says, already feeling better, now that Steve's here.

The issue with parasites, though, is that they're fast learners. Take away one entrance to the host, and it'll find another. Ruby Brenner has her insecurities, but she has friends too good to let her fall? Fine. Let that be. But her boyfriend will not always be around, and when he's gone... There's one thing this parasite is yet to try, one thing it knows will make her give in.

Rosemary Hopper.

the bit with steve was meant to be this chapter, too, but this felt like a natural conclusion. but i hope you enjoyed!!! what's going on with ruby?? ooooooh (also these past few chapters have all been prewritten and the next one? steve n ruby 4eva)