"So what you're telling me is you got your ass kicked?"

"What I'm telling you is that I was caught off guard."

Steve sat across from Charlie at the kitchen table recounting some of the less important details of the story she'd heard at Hopper's cabin. Like giving Dustin girl advice and getting into a fight with Billy Hargrove. Though he wasn't exactly a skilled cook, boiling pasta and heating up tomato sauce being the extent of his abilities, Charlie seemed perfectly content with her meal. They were still sat at the table long after they finished eating, the sun outside well below the horizon. The longer they sat the more she began to open up. She tried her best to hide a smile as he told her about the fight but she failed miserably. The closer she was to smiling the more determined he was to make her laugh.

"So how did the fight end, then?" she asked.

"Basically Max, you remember her?" Charlie nodded, "She took one of the syringes that we used to knock Will out and stabbed him in the neck with it. He passed out on the floor and we basically stole his car for a couple hours."

Her smile grew too wide for her to hide it. Some of her intensity was lost when she smiled. Her eyes were less cold and everything about her was brighter. He dared to let him think that she was pretty. "That's crazy."

"What? You've never stolen a car before?" he asked sarcastically.

"I don't even know how to drive." She said before shifting in her chair and leaning over the table slightly. "Have you gotten in any other fights?"

"Yeah." He admitted, "But that one's not as fun of a story."

"Tell me."

Steve sighed and rested his elbows on the table. "My friend Nancy and I used to date. You saw the picture of her in my room. While Will was missing I thought she had cheated on me so I did something really stupid because I was upset. She was with Johnathan, who she's dating now, when it happened. He and I got in a fight because I thought she had cheated on me with him so I said some really mean stuff to him."

"Did you get your ass kicked then too?"

He rolled his eyes a her. "Not that bad."

Her gaze searched his face for a few moments before a small drop of blood trickled out of her nose. "Liar."

Steve felt his cheeks go warm. She had relaxed enough that it was easy to forget how scared she had been the day before, and why. "Yeah, whatever." He grumbled, leaning back in his seat.

"You're not mad at her?" Charlie asked him, her smile falling a bit. "After everything she said to you?"

He suddenly regretted telling her about what had happened between him and Nancy on Halloween, feeling embarrassed. "No, not really." He admitted. "She was only so harsh because she was drunk. If we'd both been sober she would have been a lot nicer. She's never usually mean."

Charlie didn't look convinced. "She still shouldn't have said that to you."

Steve's face felt warm and he quickly reached for his water. "We all say things we don't mean."

She shrugged her shoulders. Before she got the chance to speak again the phone on the wall behind her started ringing. Charlie jumped in her seat, whipping around to stare at the phone. He hurried to pick it up so the sound wouldn't continue. "Hello?"

"You didn't think to tell me you found a girl in your backyard and that she's living with you?"

"Hello to you too Nancy." He watched Charlie turn her back to him, something in her face he couldn't read. "It wasn't like I was never gonna tell you."

"I sure hope not." She said. "Mike just told me. Eleven told him."

"Of course she did."

"What's she like?"

Steve had never been a fan of talking about people in front of them. Especially when that person was someone as intimidating and cold as Charlie could be. "I don't know."

"She's right there isn't she?"

"Yep."

"Can we meet her?"

He glanced over at Charlie across the room. Meeting Hopper and Eleven hadn't gone over horribly, but it certainly hadn't been perfect. Would meeting Nancy and Johnathan, who was the other person in 'we', be too much for her? "Um… I don't know. I can ask her." He said, lowering the phone and putting his hand over the speaker. "Charlie?" She turned around in her chair to face him. "Would you be okay with meeting Nancy and Johnathan?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Your ex girlfriend and the one who beat you up?" she asked.

Steve cracked a small smile. "They're my friends. They want to meet you." He watched her think it over, her blue eyes falling to the floor. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

Charlie looked back up at him, her lips slightly pursed. "Where?"

"They can come here if you want." He said. Steve figured another trip to someplace unfamiliar might not be good for her.

"And you would be here?"

He felt something in him grow warm at the fact that she was comfortable enough that she wanted him there. "Yeah, I'll be here the whole time."

She mulled the idea over for a little bit longer before nodding her head. "Okay."

Steve held the phone back up to his head. "She said okay." He told her. "Do you guys wanna come over tomorrow?"

"Yeah sure, we'll come over around noon." Nancy said. "Is she cute?"

A choking noise escaped her throat. "What?"

From the other line he heard Nancy laughing. "I asked if she was cute. You're talking about her in the way?"

Steve scoffed at her. "What way?"

"Like you're only half paying attention to me because you're staring at her."

He moved his eyes to look at the floor since he was indeed looking at Charlie. "Whatever Nance. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Don' forget to give her a goodnight kiss."

Steve rolled his eyes and hung up the phone before going back to the table and taking their empty plates and setting them in the sink. When he turned back to face her she was covering her mouth while she yawned. "Are you tired?"

"No."

"Liar."

A small smile made its way on her face. "Fine." She said, standing up. "Can I shower?"

"Yeah of course." She followed him upstairs and stood in the doorway while he grabbed a change of clothes for her. Steve showed her how to work the shower and got an extra set of towels from down the hall. "Just shout if you need anything."

Steve wandered back into his room and changed into more comfortable clothes. His eyes lingered on her backpack sitting on the floor next to his desk. He briefly debated doing a bit of snooping before he remembered she could easily found out and sat down on the sleeping bag he'd laid out for himself instead. From his room he could hear the water from the shower running, though the sound was heavily muffled. He thought back to everything he had learned about her from her conversation with Eleven and what she had told him on the ride back to his house. Try as he might to get the image of a younger, much more frightened Charlie locked in a room all by herself out of his mind it stayed put.

Is she cute? Steve hoped Nancy wouldn't say something embarrassing in front of her. Of course she was cute, in a sort of way he never anticipated being drawn to. Meeting her gaze directly made him feel paralyzed. He felt like she could see right through him, and not just because she could read his thoughts. Even when she was drenched from the rain and sitting at his kitchen table, not daring to even look at him, she was cute.

He heard the shower shut off less than ten minutes after she'd closed the door after him. The floor creaked under her feet as she made her way back into his room. Her cheeks were pink from the hot water and small drops of water dripped from her hair. "Better?" he asked once she came into the room.

"Better." She agreed, crossing the room to sit on the edge of his bed. "Why does everyone wanna meet me so bad?"

Steve turned to face her, wrapping his arms around his knees. "Well it's not every day someone who can read minds comes to town."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You already have a telekinetic living fifteen minutes away."

"Yeah but that's not the same."

She cracked a small smile. "Whatever." Charlie moved up towards the head of the bed and pulled the covers over her after reaching over and shutting off the lamp. "Try not to talk in your sleep tonight."

His eyebrows raised high on his forehead. "I talk in my sleep?"

"No. I was kidding."

A wide smile broke out on his face and he wished he could see her. "Oh, so you're making jokes now?"

"Goodnight Steve."

xXx

Charlie spent the entire morning pretending not to be nervous while Steve spent the entire morning trying to get her to admit she was nervous. She sat on the floor in front of the television and flipped the channel every few minutes, seemingly unsatisfied with each one. She hardly ate anything for breakfast and he had a feeling she only ate as much as she did since he was pestering her the whole time. The closer it got to noon the antsier she became.

"You know I can call and cancel if you want me to." He reminded her a half hour before they were supposed to come.

"I'm fine." She said, though it didn't convince him at all.

When the doorbell rang a little past noon she straightened up and turned towards the door. Steve glanced at her, unsuccessfully trying to gauge her emotions, before getting up from the couch to answer the door. She stayed a few feet behind him down the hall and he could practically feel her nervous energy bouncing off the walls. If he had learned anything about her he knew it was better to pretend he didn't notice how nervous she was. She would only deny it if he were to bring it up.

He pulled the door open to a grinning Nancy and more subdued Johnathan standing on his doorstep. Their eyes immediately drifted behind him to Charlie, Nancy's smile only growing. Steve stepped to the side so they could come in and closed the door behind them. He watched Charlie shift her weight from one leg to the other as they approached. She was a good deal shorter than them all, but it was more than that that made her look so small.

Nancy held her hand out once she reached her. "I'm Nancy. It's really nice to meet you."

Charlie hesitantly glanced at Steve before taking her hand, looking not quite sure what to do with it. "Charlie." She said simply. Johnathan stepped towards her once Nancy let her hand go. A small smile twitched on her face. "You're the one who kicked his ass?"

Johnathan grinned at her, "Well I don't know about that."

"I do." She said, letting her hand drop to her side again. "I saw."

Steve cut in before his face could turn any warmer. "Why don't we eat something for lunch?" he said, quickly leading them into the kitchen.

Charlie lingered next to his side as they walked through the house and Steve could practically feel Nancy's eyes staring holes into the back of his head. She sat at the table with Nancy and Johnathan while he dug through the fridge for something to eat.

"So where have you been staying before you came here?" Nancy asked, leaning her elbows on the table and watching Charlie with wide and curious eyes.

"I was in Indianapolis for the past few years. But before that I was in Pittsburg for a while."

"Did you have an apartment or something?"

He heard Charlie snort. "No. I mostly slept under a bridge in this one park. Sometimes when it was cold I would go through apartment buildings trying to find a party to sneak into so I could pretend to pass out so I could spend the night."

Steve turned and saw the confused expressions his friends wore. "So you were homeless?" Johnathan asked.

"I guess." Charlie said with a short shrug.

"For how long?"

She looked over at Steve, a silent request for him to answer for her. "Five years." He said. "She left the lab right around the Lennon shooting."

Both Nancy and Johnathan nodded. Anyone and everyone remembered the Lennon shooting as if it had only happened one or two years ago instead of five. "So what made you come back here?" Johnathan asked her.

"I had a dream about the lab a couple nights in a row. It was bugging me. I thought I would come back and try and get some closer." She glanced at Steve. "I didn't expect it to be shut down."

Steve quickly put together four sandwiches and sat down at the table with them. He could tell Charlie was doing her best to keep the focus of the conversation off of her. She asked about school and what kind of things they did in their spare time. Johnathan told her about his photography and Nancy admitted she was thinking of going into journalism. Charlie tried a few times to ask Steve wanted to do after high school but he avoided the question just like she did every time one was directed at her. Johnathan and Nancy were very aware of his utter cluelessness on what to do with his life and helped him avoid it.

When Nancy started telling her about the Christmas party her family threw every year he practically saw a lightbulb go off above her head. "You should come." She said to Charlie. "It's pretty much just going to be us, the kids, and Hopper and Johnathan's mom. And my parents of course."

Charlie glanced at him, likely looking for an excuse to say no, and shifted in her seat when he didn't offer her one. "Maybe." She said. "I've never celebrated Christmas before. I know what it is," she quickly added, "I've just never done it before."

"Don't worry. It's not a big party or anything." Nancy assured her, "More like a hangout with food. And I bet everyone's going to want to meet you."

"What about your parents?" Johnathan asked. "They don't know about any of this. How are we supposed to explain how we know Charlie?"

Nancy shrugged her shoulders, looking at Charlie from across the table. "We can say you're a friend of Steve's."

Not so long after Steve quickly excused himself to go to the bathroom, trying to ignore the pleading look Charlie gave him silently asking him to say. He made a note to tell her once they left how good of a job she did meeting both El and Hopper and Nancy and Johnathan. Despite how visibly uncomfortable she was she was going an amazing job at contributing to the conversations.

When Steve opened the bathroom door he didn't expect to see Nancy standing in the hallway. He raised his eyebrows at her, "Were you listening to me? Weirdo."

She rolled her eyes at him and pushed off the wall. "Charlie's really cool. I knew she was cute."

"So?"

Nancy glanced down the hall towards the kitchen where Charlie and Johnathan still were. "Are you gonna ask her out or something?"

Steve scoffed. "Nance, I appreciate the enthusiasm. But I'm not asking her out."

"But you think she's cute! And I can tell you like her."

He looked down the hall. "You know she can read minds, right? Do you seriously wanna talk about this when she's around."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Do you want me to talk about it when we get back in the kitchen."

"Absolutely not." He said instantly. Steve leaned on the wall across from her, crossing his arms. "She's not exactly emotionally available, okay? And she basically said that she's not staying in town for too long. Not to mention she almost punched me in the face yesterday when I brought her to Hopper's place."

"She was scared. Can you blame her?" She took his silence as a yes and continued. "Look, I'm not a mind reader like she is. But I know how girls act around you when they like you. She may have powers but she's still a teenage girl. And she likes you."

Steve rolled his eyes but decided to humor her. "And what makes you think that?"

Nancy held up her hands and counted off her points on her fingers. "She's been looking at you since we walked in the house. She's terrified of us but already comfortable with you after two and a half days. I've seen her smile once since we got here and it was at the stupidest joke you've ever told. Should I go on?"

"No because none of that is proof." Steve said. "We should go back before she starts listening."

Though he had every intention of brushing off Nancy's words they were stuck in the forefront of his mind as they made their way back into the kitchen. Charlie offered him a microscopic smile when he sat back down next to her, one that made his stomach do a summersault. He could feel his cheeks turning pink and made a point to not look at Nancy for as long as possible.