CHAPTER FOUR —
bye bye byers

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When Steve sat in the library for thirty minutes straight without any clue as to where Lorraine was, he felt as if she was making a joke out of him. He was rather serious about needing help, but after what happened last night Steve wasn't surprised if Lorraine decided not to teach him that day. But it was surprising that she wasn't at school till the last period, Lorraine never missed school. The last bell rang, and the boy was the first one out of the school. It wasn't until he walked to his car that he noticed Lorraine was talking to Jonathan again, the two in distress.

It was a bad idea, and Steve knew that. But he decided to overhear the conversation between the two. "I don't know—"

"What do you mean? Jonathan, he's supposed to be here."

Jonathan could only sigh. "I know. You saw him leave for the Wheelers right?"

"I talked to Mrs. Wheeler— went over there," Lorraine started to rub her cheek out of distress. "She said Will left after they finished playing last night."

"Well, shit."

"I could go ask the Sinclairs," the girl suggested, Jonathan nodded in agreement. "And then I'll meet you back at your place." She watched as her friend wasn't even paying attention to her words, prompting Lorraine to place a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find him, Jonathan. Will wouldn't have gone too far."

"Holy shit, the Byers kid is missing," Carol said behind Steve, her and Tommy appearing out of nowhere– to Steve at least. The pair were already with him, listening in as well. "What do you think happened?"

Tommy shrugged at his girlfriend's question. "The kid probably ran away."

"So now it's down to two weirdos." Tommy and Steve laughed, walking back respectively to their cars. "The news probably isn't out yet, isn't it?"

"Well, if it were we would've heard something," Steve told Carol, sitting in his driver's seat. "So I'll see you guys in a few days for the party?"

Of course, Carol and Tommy agreed enthusiastically before Steve drove off to his house, not before noticing Lorraine straying from her usual path home. Again, it wasn't in Steve's concern to be thinking about what Lorraine was doing. For all he knew, he'd be with Nancy Wheeler that night to supposedly help her study. But something in him compelled the boy to keep following the girl, watching her abandon her bike and run into the woods.

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"Will!" Lorraine screamed, birds scattering out of the trees. That morning, she accompanied Joyce to the police station to talk to anyone about Will's disappearance— whether it was her father or Chief Jim Hopper. But because it was too early, none of them placed any real effort into the conversation for a few hours. When Joyce got the conversation she wanted, the girl went to the Wheelers to ask the same questions. Luck doesn't come to Lorraine as easily as it does for most people, so with no answers to her problems, the girl took it upon herself to search the woods.

"Will!" she screamed again, and yet no answer. Lorraine was slowly getting angry, sitting on a tree stump to catch her breath. The girl began to bite down on her nails, "fuck." But she looked up at the sky before continuing her search. The clouds seemed to be darker than they were a moment ago, and there was nothing that Lorraine's mother could hate more than mud in their home. She decided it was time to get home before a storm, turning around to leave. But a quick snap of a twig drew her attention up. "I'm not even gonna ask," she told Steve, walking away from him.

"Hey, you're the one screaming in the woods." Lorraine pushed past him, not caring too much if he was following her. "Is it about Byers' brother?"

"It's— you can't just, it's nothing," the girl told him. She then stopped in her steps, shamefully turning to look at him. "Steve?"

He raised his eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Would it be—"

"Come on." She followed him out of the woods, her head hung low as Steve led the way to his car. Once there, the girl picked up her bike and placed it in the trunk. He, out of instinct, opened the door for her. Of course, she mumbled a 'thank you' before taking her seat. "Where to?"

Lorraine pondered for a moment. "Just... Drop me off by Benny's Burgers." He didn't say anything else, easily driving off to where Lorraine wanted. For a while, the only voice they could hear was from the radio. Both wanted to talk but neither of them had anything else to say. "I'm sorry about—"

Steve only shook his head before she could even respond. "My fault, not yours." Lorraine nodded, not wanting to start a whole 'no, it's mine' conversation with the one sitting beside her. For some reason, A Day at the Races still plagued the Hawkins radio station— much to Lorraine's pleasure. The album by Queen was her guilty pleasure. Quietly, she hummed to Somebody to Love, the music blasting thanks to Harrington. He looked over at her, his eyebrow quivering upward. "You like Queen?"

"Hm?" Lorraine's attention turned back to Steve. "Oh, my parents used to love them. Their songs are amazing."

"You could say that again," he agreed as they pulled up to the parking lot. "Here we are. You live close by?"

The girl shrugged, stepping out. "Close enough, I'll see you at school, Harrington," she told him as she took her bike out of the trunk. Lorraine was gone before Steve could say anything else, allowing himself to sigh. She was, to Steve, one of the most annoying people ever. More so of her uptight attitude towards him, to Steve, he didn't know why she was so closed off. This year he tried to be nicer towards her, to make amends of some sort. But he wasn't able to get into her head no matter how hard he tried.

Thankfully his mind was at ease when he remembered he had to be at Nancy's— to help her "study." He only started dating the girl a week or two ago, but boy was Steve all around her. Kisses in the hallway, making out in the bathroom, it wasn't like any other girl he had been with. But was it love? Infatuation? Lust? Harrington wasn't too sure, maybe it was none of that, and yet he wanted to believe she was the one. Because only love would bring him here, trying to climb up to Nancy's window, whilst she sat on her desk trying to study for a test the next day. It made him smile at how focused she looked, and almost guilty for disturbing her. But there wasn't any moment to waste. He was right there, right now.

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If Steve made it to Nancy's safe, Lorraine made it home safe. Her mother's car was parked outside, which surprised the girl. Her mother was never home that early, but it wasn't like she was complaining. The door creaked open, soft footsteps entered the house. That's when the girl noticed her mother on the couch, completely and utterly wasted. It brought a sigh out of Lorraine, picking up her mother's coat from the floor and hanging it on the rack. "Rough day?" She asked, but her mother couldn't respond, Lorraine only brought a blanket over her and gave a quick kiss on the forehead. There wasn't much to be done, other than manage herself. Sometimes it was her mother, her father, it was somehow her new normal. Her parents weren't always like this, there was a time when they were a happy functioning family. But it was far from reality to Lorraine, much harder now to reach.

The rain quietly started to trickle down, and Lorraine was happy that she had gotten home earlier, for she had not prepared for the weather. Her late-night shower brought her some ease about the situation at hand– and helped her take her mind off many things. But even a few minutes of hot water running down her body didn't help the fact that Will was still missing. For every minute that passed by, Lorraine began to blame herself even more for his disappearance. "I could've done something," she whispered to herself, hiding her face in her hands as she lay on her bed.

Guilt eats people alive, it manifests itself in many ways. Sometimes it could be slow, other times it could be fast. But for Lorraine, it was going at the speed of light. She didn't even manage to sleep a wink that night.

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