"Wait, so how does she know again?"

They were all riding uncomfortably in Steve's car. Steve tapped his fingers anxiously on the steering wheel, Rowen sat awkwardly next to him with the bunch of roses at her feet, and Dustin leaned over her seat trying to explain everything once again. Even with the amount of room in the BMW, they felt squished together. Some more than others; the some being Rowen.

Dustin was too focused on the fact that he had to repeat himself to feel truly uncomfortable. He already explained his last-minute dishing out of everything that happened last year that she somehow managed to understand. He already explained Dart, finding him in his trash, keeping him in his turtle's tank for a week and then bringing him to school, only to bring him back home, then come back the next day to find he had grown four sizes bigger. And sure, leaving Dart in his room probably wasn't the best idea, and Rowen's appearance may have been untimely, but unlike everything else that had been going on, her discovery was an accident. It was that simple.

"Like I said: she showed up at my house when I was down in the cellar. She saw Dart in my room and freaked out."

"I did not freak out," she objected.

"Yes, you did." Dustin snorted.

"Why did you go into his room in the first place?" Steve asked, glancing in her direction.

"Because I heard weird noises. Who wouldn't go into a room after hearing weird noises?"

"Uh.. me. That's who."

"Oh, yeah," she scoffed. "Because you're so smart."

"This isn't about being smart. This about you snooping around."

"I wasn't snooping! I thought it was Mews. That's why I went in there."

"Mews? Who's Mews?"

"Dustin's cat," she told him. "And who are you to call people out for snooping? Mr. 'I can't mind my own business'."

"Okay, that is seriously over-exaggerating things."

"No, it's not."

"Why is this about me all of a sudden?"

"Guys!" Dustin silenced their arguing. "As much as I would love to know why the hell you're at each other's throats, you can argue some other time. Hopper's MIA. Will, Mike, and Lucas aren't answering. We're the only three that know about Dart and we have to figure out how to keep him in my cellar until someone picks up and comes to help us."

"Dustin, we've already covered all of that," Steve said. "What's your point?"

"My point is, you guys are gonna have to suck it up and play nice."

Rowen scoffed in her seat, poking a finger towards Steve. "I can do that as long as he keeps his mouth shut- Ow!" She flinched as Dustin swatted her arm.

"Am I the only mature one here?" Dustin asked himself.

"That's rich," Rowen said snidely. "Coming from the kid who whined when I tried to get him to work on his grammar."

"Hey!" he said defensively. "It was really hard, okay?"

"Dustin, it was one paper. One sheet of paper that you had to fill. It wasn't that hard."

"Yes, it was!"

Steve rolled his eyes. He didn't even try to defuse their arguing as Dustin had, letting his car fill with meaningless bickering and a soft tune from the radio for the couple minutes they flew down the streets. There was no point in trying to stop it. By the time Rowen finally got Dustin to drop the subject, they were already cruising towards his house. Watching the sun slowly dip behind the trees, they rolled up the driveway where the cellar sat waiting. The sky was already dark shades of blue and orange, which meant their time until Mrs. Henderson came home was shortening. But when Steve turned to pull into Dustin's garage...

"Shit. My mom's home."

They all stared at the yellow vehicle with different levels of nervousness.

Rowen looked down at her watch. 4:55 She turned around in her seat to look at Dustin. "I thought you said she would be gone all day?"

"I did. I thought she would be," he shrugged. "I guess she came back early."

"No shit, Sherlock," said Rowen as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

Steve killed the engine and all three of them climbed out at once. Dustin was quick to race to the garage, putting himself in front of Rowen. The porch lights were on, and she could see the flicker of the TV in the living room.

She crossed her arms, staring down at him. "You know you're mom's probably worried sick, right?"

Dustin jabbed a finger in her face. "Hey, that's not my fault. You were the one that said we should bike to houses." He scowled, but he didn't seem as annoyed with her as he sounded. His expression softened when she raised her hands in surrender. Then he looked behind him towards his house. "Okay, so, I'll go inside and come up with some explanation for my mom. She likes you, so if she knows I was with you, she won't be that mad. You and Steve go down to the cellar and wait for me. The key for the lock is inside, so I need to go get it anyway."

"Any other orders, Chief?" she joked, giving a mock two-finger salute.

"Yeah," he deadpanned. "Try not to yell at each other anymore."

Rowen watched as he scurried off, sheepishly opening the door where his mother awaited. She could hear Mrs. Henderson's voice from where she stood.

"Dusty! Where on earth have you been?"

Rowen smiled.

The door shut and she moved from where she stood, trailing to the back of Steve's car. She wasn't acknowledged. He unlocked the trunk, twisted the keys out and tossed them to her without looking up once. She didn't say a word as he searched through the things he left stranded inside, and neither did he. But when he pulled out a bat with nails that looked like they were hammered into the business end, she felt pulled to say a few choice words. Or rather ask a few questions which were now buzzing in her head. But still, she said nothing.

Although that didn't keep her mind from reeling. What kind of Demogorgon were they fighting last year to where they would need a spiked bat? How big did these things get? Would Dart get bigger?

After grabbing a flashlight, Rowen headed down the path to the cellar, hearing the trunk slam and Steve wordlessly follow behind her. She pointed the yellow beam towards a pair of red doors, held tight by rusted metal chains and a lock. There were no dents, no sign that Dart had attempted to escape. There was no noise, either. No shrieks that made a chill run up her spine. Maybe Dart decided to give up after being trapped for hours. Maybe he fell asleep... or did Demogorgons even sleep at all?

Steve stepped around her, his own flashlight in one hand and the bat in the other. He observed the cellar doors, bat pointed towards them as if something might break the chains and jump out without warning. She didn't blame him. Dart had screeched in her face without warning, too. But... as she recalled that night, she remembered he hadn't come after her. She expected to have become a second meal or at the very least an addition to his body count. After the terror that shook through her whole body, she feared she would have ended up like Mews. But now that she thought about it, Dart might have roared at her just to scare her; so he could get back to his "lunch" in the corner of Dustin's room.

Somehow that only made the thought of opening the cellar more terrifying. Dart no longer had an animal to munch on, so what if he charged at one of them?

"You sure this thing is trapped down there?" asked Steve.

Rowen shrugged. "That's what he said."

"What do you mean?"

"Dustin trapped him before I could get here," she explained.

"He did this by himself?" he gaped.

She nodded.

"Damn."

They fell back into silence after that. Steve took a step forward, turned his ear towards the door. He stood back and stared at it. Rowen crossed her arms once more.

He shook his head. "I don't hear shit."

Then a door shut behind them. Rowen turned her head to see Dustin run their way, down the steps and into the mess of leaves and concrete to join them. Keys dangled in his hand.

"Got 'em," said he, holding up the piece of metal.

Steve shushed him. He stepped forward again hesitantly. The door was poked by his bat first... then hit with a WHAM! But there was no response, no slam in return to let them know Dart was in there.

"Still don't hear shit," Steve said.

"It's in there," Dustin muttered.

"Dustin, are you sure Dart couldn't have escaped?" Rowen asked. "Maybe he found another way out of the cellar."

Dustin gawked at her. "Rowen, it's a storm cellar. You know? One way in, one way out."

"Sorry," she said defensively. "We don't have storm cellars in California."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Tornadoes aren't common there."

WHAM!

Steve whacked at the door again. He stared down at it for a few moments, bat dangling from his hand...

"Alright listen. I swear if this is some sort of prank you two put together..." he said, pointing his flashlight in Dustin's face. "You're dead."

"It's not-"

"Alright?"

"It's not a prank. Get that out of my face," said Dustin.

Steve turned the flashlight towards Rowen's face. Her eyes squeezed shut at the brightness of it. "Ow- hey! This isn't some stupid prank."

He only raised his brow.

"I'm serious. Why would Dustin tell me everything if it was?" she insisted, swatting at the light. "Shine that thing somewhere else. It's making my eyes hurt."

Steve still looked skeptical, but conceded, dragging the beam back to the door. "Ok," said he, glancing at Dustin. "Unlock this thing."

Dustin jumped into action, wiggling the key into the lock and dragging it off of the chain. Steve helped him unloop the chain from the handles, tossing it to the side. Rowen stood behind them, still wary of what they would encounter and standing a good distance away. One at a time, the doors opened with a loud creak. None of them made a move to go down the steps, but Steve kneeled at the entrance, casting the light onto the floor at the bottom.

Rowen took a few brave steps to stand behind him, peering over his head. She saw nothing; nothing but the concrete floor and absolutely no sign of Dart ever being trapped.

"He must be further down there," Dustin concluded. He didn't sound very sure of himself. "I'll stay up here in case he tries to.. escape."

Rowen and Steve shared a look. Sure, if Dart charged up the stairs it would be best if he stayed up there. Standing right in his path.

Steve shook his head. "Rowen, you keep an eye on Mr. 'I'll stay up here'."

"Gladly," said she, feeling just as scared as Dustin sounded.

Steve took a few moments, but after standing to his feet, he began to tread carefully down the steps, bat held defensively in front of him.

Rowen knew there was a reason he went slowly. They didn't know much about what Dart could do, and he could potentially attack them. But with her anxiousness and nerves ready to burst any second, she kind of wished Steve would go a little faster. Seconds felt like minutes with the amount of tension built up around them.

Eventually, it got to where they could no longer see his unmoving head of hair. They could barely catch the flashlight when he reached the bottom, but even that disappeared after a while. Rowen and Dustin waited. A faint light clicked on below. They heard no growling or inhuman gurgling, but somehow that only made her more nervous.

"Steve?" Dustin tried.

It was dead silent.

"What's going on down there?" he called.

A light suddenly beamed into their field of vision, making both of them jump.

"Shit," Rowen cursed, a hand placed over her chest. Her heart was pounding a mile a minute.

Steve stared up at them with a grim look. "Get down here."

Rowen glared at him, Dustin cursed under his breath, but they both did as asked. With Steve acting as a reassurance that there was no other-dimensional creature ready to pounce, they trailed down the steps at a much quicker pace than he had. Dustin reached the bottom first.

"Aw shit," he muttered.

When Rowen stepped to his side, she scrunched her nose. There on Steve's bat was the same, gross, dripping goo that had hung from the tank Dart once occupied. And with it... was some kind of skin.

She cringed. "What is that?"

"Dart shed again," Dustin informed her.

That was when their attention was drawn to the corner of the cellar. Steve pointed both bat and skin to a pile of bricks, broken and thrown to the floor after being clawed at harshly. There was a large hole, behind it a tunnel.

"No way..." Rowen mumbled.

They all walked towards it. Steve kneeled before the hole, Dustin crouched to peer inside. The tunnel was long and narrow, going for an unimaginable amount of feet. Maybe even miles. But as the guys gaped at what they were presented with... all Rowen could think of was how Dart was not there. She moved away from the tunnel, looking up the stairs to the backyard above them. She heard nothing, saw nothing. But the hairs that stood on the back of her neck made her wonder if Dart wasn't as far as they thought. Along with the million other things they did not know about these creatures, their intelligence was another. Steve and Dustin may have come face to face with a Demogorgon before, but they still knew very little of what they were capable of.

She climbed up the stairs.

"Rowen?"

Reaching the top of the cellar, she stood at the entrance, looking left... looking right... spinning on her heals to peer into the growing darkness with her flashlight. The sun was set now, and the thought of Dart being out there where she couldn't see made goosebumps rise on her arms. Dart couldn't always screech and growl. She knew he couldn't. He could be quiet, sneaky... and he could just as easily be miles away as he could be only a few feet away from her... or a few feet away from her house.

Max.

"Rowen?" Dustin had come up next to her, stepping out of the cellar with a concerned expression thrown her way. "What's wrong?"

Soon Steve stepped out of the cellar, too.

"I need to go back to my house," she told Dustin. "Max- I need to... Max is home alone and Dart could be anywhere. I need to go."

Giving him no time to answer, Rowen began to look for her bike. She looked in the garage, peered behind Steve's car, pointed her flashlight down to the grass. But it wasn't there... and that was when she realized.

"Shit," she cursed, throwing her flashlight to the ground. "Dustin, we left our bikes at the Wheeler's."

She could hear him curse, too. "My mom's gonna kill me. That was my third bike this year."

"Don't worry, short stuff. I can get it for you."

They both turned their heads towards Steve.

"Are you sure?" asked Dustin.

"Yeah. I'll just swing by and stuff it in my trunk," Steve shrugged, clicking his flashlight off. "I can strap Rowen's on the roof."

Dustin grinned, nodded his head and accepted the offer with a, "Awesome. Thanks, Steve. You're saving my ass."

But Rowen wasn't so willing. "No, you don't have to," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "I can just grab mine and ride it back to my house. I'll be fine."

Dustin threw her a worried look. "But.. what about Dart? He might show up."

She threw him a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine, Dustin," she repeated. "Seriously. Don't worry about me."

"No, you're not biking home." Steve interrupted, shaking his head.

"And why not?"

Breathing out a sigh, Steve let the spiked end of his bat hit the ground. "Listen. I'm not gonna enjoy it any more than you are," said he. "But you said it yourself: this thing could be anywhere. So, it's probably better that I just drive you home."

She turned to Dustin, but he only shrugged. "Better safe than sorry."

Rowen looked between them. She exhaled, catching the look Dustin was giving her. She knew they were right. Dart quite literally could be anywhere, waiting in the brush on the side of the road, walking right in the middle of the road. It didn't matter how she imagined it. By biking home, she was putting herself at risk no matter which possibility turned out to be true. Even if none of them were.

Her hands plopped to her sides. "Fine."

"Okay. So, since my mom's home, we can't look for Dart tonight," Dustin said. "But we should meet back here first thing in the morning."

"To do.. what, exactly?" Steve shrugged. "Ride through the whole town until we find a Demogorgon casually wandering around?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Well..." Steve started off strong as if he was ready to spew out this grand idea. But he fell silent. He had no ideas, they could see that as clear as day. "Okay, but I'm not using up all my gas so we can find this thing. If we even find it at all. By the time we come back tomorrow, it could be miles away."

"You don't know that..."

Now Dustin and Steve were bickering. Rowen bit her lip, turning away from the two. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark by then, being able to see the limbs of the trees brush together, wind combing through the leaves that had yet to fall. The branches almost looked like hands, ones that might stretch out to grab them while their backs were turned to drag them into the brush. She hadn't realized how intimidating Hawkins could be at night. Had Steve and Dustin not been bickering, they would have been surround by a near-dead silence; nothing but the wind to howl in their ears. It was quite the makings of a horror movie.

Teens find monster. Teens trap monster. Monster escapes and leaves teens to wonder where in the world it could be, and how in the world they would catch it. If they could at all. Trapping something that hid in the shadows was a risky game. Looking for it was even riskier... but the biggest risk of all, probably, was letting it run loose. They had to real Dart back in somehow, maybe lure him with another cat body or something-...

"We could bait him," Rowen thought aloud.

They stopped bickering.

"What?" asked Steve.

"Bait him. You know, like another trap," she explained, turning to Dustin. "What did you use to trap Dart in the cellar?"

Dustin wracked his brain. "I lead a trail of baloney from my room to the doors."

"Right. So, if we led a trail of something else Dart likes to eat to..." she shook her head, "wherever we choose, then we could find him that way. It would make it easier for us and save time."

"Okay..." Dustin said. "But if that does work, what happens when he shows up?"

"We're going to have to kill it."

Back to Steve. He had his hands placed on his hips, a grim expression across his face once again. And he noticed when Dustin sported a crestfallen look.

"Listen, Dustin. We fought off the Demogorgon at Jonathan's house last year, sure," Steve said. "But we didn't kill it. All that damage we did only made it run away. So who knows what it takes to kill these things. You said Dart was.. what? The size of a small dog? That was before it shed, so it's probably bigger now. We have to kill it before it can grow again."

Dustin was trying his best not to look upset over Steve's words. Rowen could tell. Not even a week ago he was talking to her about the thing like he was his little buddy. A pet he cared about the way he cared about Mews. And why wouldn't Dustin talk about him like that? He told them the thing looked like an innocent little slug when he first found him. But now... Dart had a face that opened up like a flower and a desire to eat anything he came into contact with. Rowen couldn't understand why or how Dustin had managed to form some kind of bond with the thing, but the look across his face still made her squeeze his shoulder.

Dustin nodded reluctantly. "Okay."

"So we'll meet here tomorrow?" Steve asked.

"Tomorrow."

ii:

In a span of fifteen minutes, Steve managed to both stuff Dustin's bike in his trunk and tie Rowen's on top of his car without any problems. Of course, as they both expected, the Wheelers noticed when headlights peered into their windows and two teenagers stood in their driveway with bikes in their hands. It was Mr. Wheeler who gave Steve the rope that stretched around his car roof, after all. He even offered to help which, to Rowen, had been a weird experience. The man she saw in front of her was a stark contrast to the one she saw talking to Dustin a few hours ago. But Steve let him help anyway, let Mr. Wheeler clap him on the shoulder and invite him to dinner "sometime soon", throwing Rowen a nod and saying "make sure you get Nancy's friend home safe, Steve". All of that and then some, just to hide the gross reality that was Steve's relationship status with Nancy. Clearly, her parents knew nothing about their breakup, and it was obvious that Steve didn't want to be the one to tell them. Rowen was barely acquainted with Nancy and yet he made an effort to make sure Mr. Wheeler thought they were the exact opposite.

But Rowen said nothing of it. She didn't say much of anything really. Not when they left Dustin's house, not when they left the Wheelers. The only thing to break their awkward silence was the radio, which spewed out a low tune of Queen. Though, she wasn't sure if it was as awkward as it was tense. Sure, their last conversation didn't end on anything close to a good note, and Rowen just watched a very questionable scene unfold before her eyes. But all she could think of was reaching her house before that thing did. Dart, Demogorgon, "freakish lizard monster"... unlike Dustin, she didn't care. If there was one thing she and Steve could agree on, it was that they had to kill it. She wanted to kill it as soon as possible, in fact.

For now, though, she was forced to sit in his car yet again.

"So, what's your address?" Steve asked after many minutes of silence. "'Cause I don't want to drive in circles all night."

"We live on Cherry Road," Rowen told him. "It's a straight shot when you turn left off Maple, so I'll just tell you which house it is when we get close."

She only heard a hum in response. He began tapping his finger on the steering wheel, same as when they were going to Dustin's house, only now it followed the beat of "Hammer to Fall". The tapping didn't annoy her then, it shouldn't have annoyed her now. But somehow it did... and it was confusing. Rowen assumed she'd be grateful for the lack of conversation, any noise that wasn't his voice. Yet, as she sat there she found herself wanting him to talk again. Even with the music and his tapping, it was still too silent. Silent enough for her to actually want to listen to him.

Rowen found it funny... but she hadn't realized she'd laughed at it.

"What?" Steve's voice broke her out of her thoughts.

She shook her head. "Nothing..." she said. "I just didn't expect you to be so quiet. No questions."

She heard him huff through his nose, muttering, "Yeah, well... you made it pretty clear you don't like it when I ask questions."

She bit the inside of her cheek, the memory all too clear in her head. "...Right," she mumbled.

Rowen chanced glancing over at him. Steve looked straight ahead, the remains of a scowl on his face. She looked back to the road, too.

"Listen..." Steve exhaled. "I know I'm pretty much the last person you want to talk to right now but, for what it's worth... you were right."

Rowen frowned, tilting her gaze towards the radio. "Right about what?"

"All of it. Pretending like everything's fine and everyone's friends. It's a bunch of bullshit," he said, his hand lifting off of the steering wheel. "And when you started to get mad at me, I... I shouldn't have pushed it. You said you didn't want to talk so I just.. shouldn't have talked. I should've dropped it."

She huffed. "Yeah, well... I didn't exactly make things better by yelling in your face."

"It's not like you didn't have a good reason to yell."

"Maybe, but it was a stupid reason."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked, glancing between her and the road.

Rowen pursed her lips Do I really want to tell him this. She shook her head. It was too late to take it back now.

She let her head fall back on the headrest, letting out a long sigh. Her hands lifted from her lap only to plop back down with a pat. "I was... tired, and annoyed, and my day was already shitty as it was. Billy left Max at school so I had to pick her up and then, of course, he called me right before I left the station because he thought I messed up his stupid car, so I got even more annoyed and.. then I lost track of time, so I was rushing and-" she broke off, shaking her head. "You just.. caught me a bad time."

"I could tell," he huffed.

Rowen exhaled deeply, rubbing at her temple. "Sorry you had to get the brunt of my bad day," she muttered out sheepishly.

"No, I kind of deserved it," Steve confessed. "I shouldn't have asked you all that stuff."

Rowen sat silent, chewing at her bottom lip.

"Besides, every time I caught you was a bad time," he joked weakly, laughing under his breath. "I mean, the punch? Knocking you over? Billy getting in my face when I tried apologizing? I had your journal for almost a week just so I wouldn't have to deal with him again. And it still went bad."

Rowen couldn't help but feel somewhat amused. She wondered what exactly Billy might have said or done to him to make him do so. "...Guess you could say we got off on the wrong foot more than once."

"The really wrong foot," he agreed.

"Really, really wrong."

A long pause followed.

"If it's any consolation, I don't normally explode like that," Rowen added. A sigh escaped her lips. "It's just... everything around me, from Billy, to my job, to those douchebag friends of his. I let it all get to me and get me worked up which is just so... so-"

"Stupid?" he guessed.

"Yeah," she breathed.

Now it was Steve's turn to sigh. "Still, I'm... I'm sorry for all that," he apologized.

Rowen shook her head, looking out the window. "Don't worry about it."

They let the low tune of Queen silence them. Steve began tapping his finger against the wheel once more. Rowen could spy familiar houses come up to their right, eyeing her own come up slowly.

"There," she pointed. "That's the one."

The car slowed. Steve pulled up to the curb.

"So... should we let bygones be bygones?" he offered.

"'Let bygones be bygones'?" she echoed.

"Yeah. Start over, you know?" he said. "So we can help Dustin trap Dart without... I don't know; arguing him to death or something."

That got a chuckle out of her. "He looked like he was ready to explode in your backseat."

"He might've if he didn't stop us."

They both smiled.

"But yeah," Steve continued. "We trap that thing, we find a way to kill it. We find Hopper... then we can go our separate ways, I guess."

Rowen turned her gaze down to the console. She nodded. "Sounds good."

Steve nodded in return.

"For better or worse, you won't have to see me after that," he assured, suddenly finding the knobs on his radio very interesting. "Don't worry."

Rowen scoffed. "Oh, don't sound so down in the dumps. We'll see each other again." She uncrossed her legs, fiddling with her seatbelt.

Steve paused in what he was doing. He threw her a look, brows drawn together. "'We'll see each other again' as in... what? We're friends now?"

Rowen let her head fall against the headrest, eyeing him. "We're not friends, Sunglasses." She sat up, unbuckling her seatbelt and clicking the passenger door open.

"I mean it's a small town," she clarified. "We're bound to see each other at some point."

Steve huffed, dipping his head. "Right," he muttered. He looked down to his radio again, messing with buttons and checking the dials for any imaginary problem he might have to fix. It was a habit, something that would distract the complete mess that was the connection from his brain to his mouth. Something that would keep every little thought from spilling out. No more stupid questions, he told himself. Just leave her alone. Worry about your own problems.

He wasn't even sure why he asked her everything that he did, to begin with. Sure, he was as curious about the newcomers as the next guy. He knew he wasn't the only one who came up to her. But every time he talked to her, everything he said, it just came out like word vomit and, when she told him she didn't want to talk, that only seemed to make things worse. As if being told "no, I don't want to have a conversation with you" was the bain of his existence, something he could not let happen. Of course, he could let it happen. She was one girl, one person who didn't trail over to his corner. It wasn't supposed to nag him. It shouldn't have nagged him.

After last year, people began flocking away from him in twos and the idea of high school popularity began to look less and less appealing. He spoke to fewer and fewer people, hanging out with not only Nancy but Jonathan Byers who- not even a week before battling a Demogorgon in his house -had been labeled as a stalker by none other than Steve himself. While the title still stood, he hadn't been "King Steve" in a while. He was no longer one to make friends left and right, bringing up a crowd behind him like he used to. He didn't want it anymore.

Yet, after he returned her notebook and got thrown those words... that want began to nag him. Oh, did it nag him. And he dealt with it in perhaps the worst way possible which, was probably why the connection from his brain to his mouth snapped in half and he found himself spewing out any and every question just to get an answer out of her that wasn't "I don't want to talk to you".

It was as if he couldn't accept that as his answer, and couldn't realize he wouldn't get any other until she yelled in his face, calling out the entire town for what it was: Bullshit. That was when the connection from his brain to his mouth returned. Because Rowen was undoubtedly right. The partying which doubled for a distraction, sweeping everything under the rug, getting everyone to talk and be friends whether they wanted to or not... it was all bullshit. Which made Nancy right, too.

They were right. And, in short, he let his old wants and his old habits go to his head, let Rowen's answer get to him as she had let Billy and his friends and her job get to her, making her yell in his face. It was all just... stupid. He was being stupid. Which was why he felt all the better when Rowen agreed to forget and move on... even if that meant she still didn't want to talk to him. We're not friends...

He repeated those words in his head as he helped her untie her bike from the car roof, as he drove down Cherry Road with the same tune that made the awkward space between them bearable.

It was as Dustin said. They had bigger problems.

A/N: sorry for the shorter chapter! next few will be much longer (: