"Liz!" I hear a voice shout, waking me up from my deep sleep. I sit up, slowly and take in my surroundings. I am still in Steve's pool house from last night, with a horrible headache. "Time for school," Steve tells me before turning on his heel to leave. He stops at the door before turning back to me. He walks over to the pull out bed and snatches up his Walkman. "I'll be taking this back."

As he leaves, closing the door behind him, I hide underneath the duvet covers - not wanting to get up. I feel terrible. My head is pounding. My stomach is churning. My ears are ringing. This has got to be - by far - the worst hangover I've ever had. I begin to try to remember everything that happened last night, but nothing came to me. My mind is blank, almost like it's been wiped. All I recollect from last night is being pushed in the pool and playing chicken fights.

I decide I'm not going to school - I feel too unwell - and I stand up, heading over to Steve's house. I enter through the back door and grimace when the wind slams the door shut behind me. Steve looks up from his cereal in confusion. "I'm not going," I shake my head. "I feel like absolute shit."

"Right, okay, I'll take you home if you want? You can get a shower, get changed, have a nap, and if you feel up to it later, come into school and join me and the losers," Steve suggests. I just nod my head in response, heading out into the house to find my things. "All your stuff is in your bag, in my room."

I take that into a count, and head upstairs, getting my bag from his room. He grabs his keys and we both go out to his car. I climb in, closing the door, gently - to prevent it from slamming. Despite my efforts - Steve doesn't understand what I am doing and closes his door very loudly. I wince at the pain in my head, the ringing in my ears getting more prominent. Steve stops at my house, waving me goodbye. I head into the house and go upstairs.

"Morning, honey," Dad groans, almost like he has a hangover, himself. "You staying home, again?" I don't reply, just nod my head. "You get your hangovers from me, your mother could drink absolutely every gallon of alcohol in the world and still be fine the next morning." I nod my head, again, dropping my bag in my bedroom. "Do you want me to make you breakfast? I can do a full spread or I can make you something light."

"I think I'm just going to have a nap for a few hours," I tell him, sliding under my duvet covers. "Wake me up at 11?" I ask him, turning over to face the other way.

"Of course, honey," he nods his head, turning to head out of my bedroom door. He lightly closes my door behind him and I quickly drift back off into a sleep. I wake up again naturally, at 10:30, so I decide just to get in the shower and drag my ass to school. When I am finished getting ready for school, I head downstairs to find my Dad watching the TV. "You're going to school?" He questions me.

"Yeah, I don't feel too bad anymore," I explain, telling the truth. That nap and shower did me good. With that, my Dad drives me to school, stopping off at the store to get me some lunch. It doesn't take long before we arrive in the school parking lot. I learn forwards to open up the glove compartment and grab a pair of Steve's sunglasses I stole a while back. "See you later, Dad, love you." I wave him goodbye before closing the car door.

The rest of the day is pretty boring, not much happening at all. I have just finished English - the worst class of the day. Not because I don't enjoy English, but because Carol, Tommy, and Steve aren't in my English class, so it gets pretty boring every now and again - especially with all the analyzing we have to do. The final bell of the day rings and I quickly gather all my things, getting ready to go home.

I put on the sunglasses in my pocket and begin walking out of the school parking lot before I hear someone calling my name. I turn in the direction of where the voice is coming from and see, Tommy, Carol, Steve, and Nicole. "You don't want to miss this, Beth," Carol explains to me, but I furrow my brows in confusion. "Just sit back, relax, enjoy the movie."

"Hey, Lizzie," Steve greets me, but something about him seems off. Until something in him snaps. Realization. "Are those my sunglasses? I thought I had lost those a few months back."

"I kind of, maybe, sort of stole them a few months back," I admit to him. I shrug it off and take off the sunglasses, handing them back to him. "You can have them back if you want."

A coy smile appeared on his face. "No, it's fine," he shakes his head, opening them up. "They suit you more than they suit me, anyway." He places them back on my face, but a little wonky. I smile to myself and adjust them so they're straight again. The look on Steve's face changes automatically. I turn to see where he's looking and Jonathan comes walking from around the corner. He jumps off the back of his car and immediately gets in Jonathan's face. "Hey, man."

I look at Carol in confusion and she is too busy looking at the scene unraveling in front of her to notice. I turn back and continue watching. "What's going on?" Jonathan questions, looking slightly uncomfortable by the situation - and it's understandable. I would probably look just as uncomfortable and Steve is my best friend.

"Nicole, here, was - uh - telling us about your work," Steve explains to him, looking very pissed off. I turn back to Carol, but again, she still isn't looking. Tommy catches my eye and he begins snickering.

"We've heard great things," Carol adds in, with a smirk on her face.

"And, we'd just love to take a look," Steve continues, clenching his fist by his side. "You know... As connoisseurs of art."

Jonathan shifts the weight in his legs, looking at me when he did so. I see a hint of betrayal in his eyes when looking at me, which strikes me with confusion. Jonathan sighs, turning back to Steve. "I don't know what you're talking about," he shakes his head, trying to shove past everyone. Tommy grabs Jonathan's bag and pulls it from his back.

"Yeah," I nod my head, while the boys begin fighting over the bag. "Neither do I. Does anyone want to fill me in on what the hell is going on here?"

Everyone ignores me. Tommy throws the backpack to Steve and he just laughs at Jonathan. "Man, he is totally trembling," Steve taunts him. I sharply hit Steve on the arm. Steve shrugs me off as he continues. "He must really have something to hide." He begins unzipping his back and rummaging through it. "Here we go. Ah!" He pulls some sheets of paper out of his bag, before resting it on the trunk of his car. "Here we go," he says another time, before flipping through the pictures.

"Let me see," I snap at Steve, snatching the ones he has already looked at. I examine them closely, to see they are pictures from last night, at the party. I flick past a close-up picture of Steve and me, play fighting, then one of Travis and me in the pool. I look up at Jonathan is disbelief. "Dude."

Carol walks up behind me, looking at all the pictures herself. "Yeah, this isn't creepy at all."

"I was looking for my brother," Jonathan replies, almost in desperation.

"No," Steve shakes his head. "No, this is called stalking." He continues looking through the pictures before stopping on one and Tommy begins hooting at it. I ignore them and keep staring at the two close-ups of me. I look like I'm having so much fun, but now I just feel like total shit.

"What's going on?" Another voice speaks up. I look up to see Nancy, sheepishly walking up to the group of us.

"Here's the starring lady," Tommy greets her, with a sick smile on his face. I look around in confusion.

"What?" She questions, just as confused as I am.

"This creep was spying on us, last night," Carol fills her in. I am completely lost for words. I have totally lost my trust in Jonathan and I feel sick to the stomach. Nancy looks at Jonathan in unease. "He was probably going to save this one for later." She hands the photo to Nancy and me. I just freeze up. The photograph showed Nancy's bareback. Clearly having sex with someone.

"See, you can tell that he knows that it is wrong," Steve begins, pausing afterward. "But, man, that's the thing about perverts - it's hardwired into them. You know, they just can't help themselves." Steve begins ripping up the picture and it all dawns on me. Nancy had sex with Steve. I feel a pang of jealousy in me and I just freeze, staring off into the parking lot. Tears fill up my eyes and I try to shake them away, but they all slide down my cheeks. "So... we'll just have to take away his toy," Steve says, turning back to his bag.

"No," Jonathan pleas. "Please, not the camera." Jonathan beggingly shakes his head at Steve. Tommy begins to throw himself at Jonathan when he tries to step closer to Steve.

"No, no, wait, wait, Tommy!" Steve speaks up. Tommy lets go of Jonathan and Steve nods his head. "It's okay." I know for a fact that Steve won't have it in him to actually break the camera. He stands there for a bit before holding out the camera in his hand. "Here you go, man." Just as Jonathan goes to grab the camera, Steve deliberately drops the camera.

"Dude, what the fuck!" I hiss, pushing him. Steve only stumbles a couple of inches, before standing up straight again. "What is wrong with you?!" I scream at him, tears streaming down my face. "Why would you do that?!"

"Liz, he's a fucking creep, why are you sticking up for him?" Steve replies to me, pushing me back, lightly. "Why are you crying? You need to chill out." Those five words make me snap. 'You need to chill out'. I gather up all my anger for him and push him, hard. "Liz! What the fuck!"

"Why?!" I scream at him. "Why did you have sex with her?!" I yell louder and louder, hitting him in the chest. "Why would you do that to me?!"

"Liz, she's my girlfriend!" He snaps. "I'm allowed to have sex with my fucking girlfriend! At least I didn't have sex with my best friend's boyfriend!" I look at him in disbelief. As if he fucking said that. I look at Tommy and he looks white. I look at Carol and she is beyond pissed off. I turn back to Steve and slap him across the cheek.

"I fucking hate you, Steve Harrington," I say, before walking away.

"I don't fucking think so," Carol yells, before pulling me back, by the wrist. "You little, sneaky, bitch!" She squeezes my wrist so hard I actually think she's going to break it.

"You can't be mad at just me!" I shout at her, tugging my arm from out of her grasp. "It takes two people to have sex, Carol!" She raises her hand and I don't realize until her hand meets contact with my cheek. She doesn't hesitate to wrestle me to the ground and begin hitting me, constantly.

"Carol!" I hear someone yell as I try to cover my head. She has a fistful of my ebony black her in her hand and punching me, hard, with the other. She begins kicking me in the rips and I feel like I'm about to throw up or pass out. "Carol!" The voice yells again. It's Tommy. "Don't just fucking stand there! Help me break this up!" A few moments later, I feel Carol being ripped from me. I look up to see Steve and Carol holding her back.

She looks at me in disgust and spits at me. She pulls her arms out of Tommy's and Steve's hold and leans forward, pointing at me. "Don't you ever talk to me ever again, you slut."

"Come on, let's go," Steve says. "The game is about to start." I begin to stand up off the ground and follow him. "I wasn't talking to you." He shakes his head before walking off. I feel the tears filling my eyes again, but as they slide down my face, they sting my cheeks from all the scratches and cuts I had. I wince at the pain and catch Nancy and Jonathan looking at me in the corner of my eye.

"What are you looking at?" I cry, sounding angry. I'm not angry. I'm fucking devastated. I've lost all four of my best friends in the space of three minutes. I knew I shouldn't have come to school. I have no clue what to do. I can't go to class, otherwise, the teachers will see me and question what happened and I don't want Carol to get into trouble, it was my own fault. I can't go home for a few days otherwise my Dad will want to know what happened and I know for a fact Elaine will try to cause some shit that doesn't need to be caused. Carol's Mom already hates Elaine because of what she did the last time we fought like this.

How can it be only now that I've realized I don't have many friends - I just know a lot of people. I've just lost the only friends that really had my back. Usually, Steve would be the one who sticks by me, no matter what, but I stepped too far out of line today. I don't know what came upon me, I've never felt that jealousy before - I've always been fine with him dating Nancy, so why am I acting up all of a sudden?

"Elizabeth," a soft voice calls from behind me. I turn around to see Jonathan approaching me. "Are you okay?"

"No," I snap, holding my hand up at him and taking a few steps back. "You can stay away from me. I can't trust you again. Not after this."

"Elizabeth, please just let me explain," he says, calmly and quietly. I look around and Nancy has gone, it's just Jonathan and me. "I know taking pictures of you guys was wrong, Steve made that very clear, but I didn't go out there to stalk you all. I was looking for my brother."

"No, Jonathan, I don't want to hear it, right now," I shake my head, my eyes stinging from the tears. I put my hands on my head and realize Steve's glasses are missing. I look around, frantically, for the glasses. "No, no, no, no," I say to myself in disbelief. "Where are they?"

I get on the floor and begin looking under all the cars for the black shades, but there is no sign. "What are you looking for?" Jonathan asks, reluctantly. I ignore him and continue looking for them. "Elizabeth, the least I can do is help you find whatever it is you're looking for."

"I don't need your help, Byers," I uncharacteristically snap at him. He sighs, nodding his head. He picks up the debris of his camera and leaves me in the parking lot. Alone. I've never felt so alone in my life.