this is kind of a short chapter, but y'all need to see Addie learn the truth

At lunch I sat with Steve. We sat in his car after he picked up In-And-Out for us. "What'd you want to tell me about?" I asked, munching on a fry.

"Well, it's about last year. It has to do with your cousins and Nancy," he admitted, putting his burger into the wrapper which was spread across his legs.

"What about?" I asked another question. Shut up, let Steve talk.

"Well," he began. "What do you know about last year?"

"I know that Will went missing last year in November, and some girl, I think her name was Barb, disappeared too," I looked up for confirmation in Steve's eyes.

"Go on," he motioned his hand to tell me that it was good.

"And then, everyone thought Will died," I remembered he funeral.

I remembered the tears I shed. I remember everyone weeping. I remember Aunt Joyce bawling into my filthy uncle's arms. But I recalled something, something important. "I remember something, Steve," I said quietly as though any ghost in the car couldn't hear.

"What?"

"I remember Jonathan told me something. He told me Will wasn't dead, but I saw Will's dead body, I saw it with my own eyes. Jonathan is generally a pretty emotionless human, so I didn't believe him. But, it turned out he was right. He also told me that Hawkins was cursed, and that bad things were happening," I admitted. "I also recall seeing Nance with Jonathan, but I never saw you last year. I mean, I didn't talk to her or anything, but I saw her."

"Is that it?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so," I began eating again.

He took a deep breath and began to explain EVERYTHING to me. He explained how when he and Nancy slept together for the first time, Barb was taken to this place, the same place where Will was when he went missing. That place is called the Upside-Down. It sounded like Hell to me. He embarrassingly admitted to me that he got beat up by Jonathan, which made me laugh hysterically. Steve then told me how when he went to apologize to Jonathan, him and Nancy were together. He told me how Nancy threatened him with a gun before he beat up a creature. A creature which he explains to be from the depths of Hell, a creature so horrifying, that it could scare the toughest man.

I sat in utter disbelief with the story he just told me. "Is that real?"

"Yes, as real as day," he answered.

"That makes a little sense, especially with Will actually being alive and not dead," I admitted to him. "What happened to Barb?"

"I think she's gone," he said looking at his hands as his leg bounced up and down anxiously. "That's one of the things Nancy said when she was drunk. She said that we were pretending like we didn't kill Barb, but, we didn't kill her. She was taken from us." He looked into my eyes. "I couldn't control that."

I felt like I was going to cry, but no tears would come out. "Steve," I rubbed his shoulders comfortingly. "I'm so sorry you went through that, but it's in the past, so there's nothing we can do now. Don't get me wrong, I feel bad, but that is in the past. And I agree, I think she's gone too."

He hugged me across the stick shift in his car. I hugged him back, until we noticed Nancy walk past with Jonathan. I pulled back, but he pulled me back in. She rolled her eyes and Jonathan put his arm around her comfortingly. We just rolled our eyes and then laughed.

When we finished lunch, I said goodbye and got out of his car. I walked inside and I caught the attention of Billy. He was standing with a group of boys, talking with them about Lord knows what. I walked past them, teasingly. One of the boys wolf whistled as I did. Billy excused himself to the group and ran up to me. "Hey, Byers. Where were you? I didn't see you the entire time."

"I was with a friend," I said.

"Who?" he asked staring into me as I continued walking.

"What's it to you?" I knew this would piss him off.

He stopped in front of me. "Oh nothing, unless its someone you shouldn't be with..."

"You don't need to worry about me," I said caressing his face with the back of my hand.

"But I want to worry about people I love," he pushed me softly against the wall.

My face flooded red as he pressed his lips to mine. At that moment, I forgot I was in the hallway at school, and I began making out with him, only taking gasps for air.