Chapter 015: Daisy And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

A/N: Please be advised that this chapter contains violence and heavy cursing.

If there was one thing that pissed me off, it was Jonathan Byers. He had all but snubbed me out of the whole plan, which was a pretty stupid thing to do if you ask me. There's no doubt that I would be their key to survival, but I guess that's just it. I wasn't here to contribute. I was just here to be the backup in case they fucked up. Speaking of that, Nancy hadn't said more than a couple words to me the whole time. Don't get me wrong, I still didn't like her, but you'd think saving someone's life would make them warm up to you at least a little bit. Whatever though. I had decided it was better for me to wait outside in the car while they went on their little hardware store escapade.

As I sat around sulking in my anger, I noticed a familiar figure passing by and looking incredibly suspicious. Steve and his little posse had just turned the corner into an alleyway with cans of spray paint in their hands. They were definitely up to no good, and there's no doubt that none of it was my business, but as Jonathan had told me multiple times, I always have to stick my nose where it doesn't belong.

When I got out of the car and crossed the street leading to where they had disappeared, I caught sight of the marquee above the movie theater and couldn't believe what I saw. I had stopped right in my tracks as I read the words 'Nancy The Slut Wheeler'. "Jesus Christ," I muttered. Men really just did not know when to stop, did they? I mean, yeah, she's an unsufferable priss, but did she really deserve all this?

Anger started to boil in my blood as I all but stomped towards the alley that I had seen those assholes disappear into. I felt my hands ball up into tight fists just as I saw them. Steve was lurking behind the despicable Tommy and his girlfriend, Carol, as the former had just started spray painting even more insults onto the brick walls.

"Are you kidding me," I shouted.

Each head immediately swiveled in my direction, looking a little surprised but still lacking any sign of empathy. Carol was the first to speak. "Oh, the perv's little girlfriend decided to join the fun," she said.

"Shut up," I spat back.

"Oh, she speaks."

"I said, shut up," I repeated before rearing right towards Steve. "How fucking old are you? Is this really how you think you should handle this? Here I was thinking, hey, maybe he's not the insufferable little prick everyone thinks he is. Well obviously I was wrong."

"Oooh, somebody's mad," Tommy mocked.

The two of us ignored him. "Get out of here, Daisy," Steve warned.

I glared at him, seething with anger. "Or what? You'll spray paint some shitty messages about me? Grow the fuck up, Steve."

"Looks like somebody's grown some balls," Carol commented.

I reared over to her, fed up with her little side comments. "Do you have a problem with me or something? Because we can fix that right now," I threatened.

She looked me up and down as if she had something smart to spit back, but instead, she stayed quiet. Steve stepped towards me, stopping just a couple inches away so he was now towering over my much smaller figure. "I said get out of here," he reiterated.

I scoffed and, before I knew it, I had roughly pushed him away from me, causing him to stumble a little bit. "Maybe you should get out of here, jockstrap. Save yourself the embarrassment."

He opened his mouth to say something back but was cut off by the star of it all. I turned to follow everyone's line of sight as I saw Nancy storming over towards them, Carol offering a condescending, "Hey there, princess."

"Uh-oh," Tommy said. "She looks upset."

In the blink of an eye, she pushed past me and landed a firm, cold slap across Steve's face. I nearly applauded her. "What is wrong with you," she asked through gritted teeth.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you," he shot back. "I was worried about you. Can you believe that I was actually worried about you?"

"What are you talking about?!"

Carol stepped in once again with a shitty smirk on her face. "I wouldn't lie if I were you," she said. "You don't want to be known as the lying slut, now do you?"

"Speak of the devil," Tommy then interrupted.

I turned around to see Jonathan trailing behind. I felt my heart drop. Even though I was mad at him, I didn't want to see him in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that's definitely what this was right now.

Nancy turned back towards Steve as realization washed over her. "You came by last night."

"Ding, ding, ding," Carol mocked. "Does she get a prize?"

"Look, I don't know what you think you saw, but it wasn't like that."

"What? You just let him in your room to 'study'?"

"Probably for another pervy photo session," Tommy added.

"We were just—," Nancy started.

Steve was quick to interrupt her, stepping closer. My senses immediately went into high alert. "You were just what? Finish the sentence."

"That's enough, big shot," I butted in when he took another step. He was now just inches away from her face.

He ignored me and instead continued to glare right into her eyes. "Finish. The. Sentence." A few beats passed in between. Nancy took a bit of a breather. I would've killed to know what was running through her mind at that moment. Steve took another look at her before finally stepping back. "Go to Hell, Nancy."

"Come on, let's just leave," Jonathan said, reaching out to her and speaking for the first time.

"You know what, Byers," Steve started. "I'm actually kind of impressed. I always took you for a queer," he paused, starting to shove Jonathan over and over again, "but I guess you're just a little fuck-up like your father." Oh-kay.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That house is full of screw-ups. You know, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. A bunch of screw-ups in your family."

"Steve, stop," I tried to interrupt, but he just kept going.

"I mean, your mom…I'm not even surprised what happened to your brother." My soul caught fire at just the mention of Will. He had no right to say anything about him. "I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you, but your family is a disgrace to the entire—"

In just the blink of an eye, Jonathan was swinging at him. I gasped, holding a hand to my chest out of surprise. It took only a couple seconds for Steve to react, spinning right back around and shoving him to the ground. Nancy was shouting for them to stop the whole time, looking at me like I was supposed to do something. I mean, what did she expect me to do? Barbecue her boyfriend right in front of everyone? Absolutely not. All I could do was beg them to stop, watching the two go at it as Steve threw punch after punch. Still, Nancy was giving me a helpless look, so I begrudgingly helped her out.

I marched over to them, grabbing the back of Jonathan's shirt before reaching out to shove Steve away from him, yelling at the two to knock it off, and that's when it happened. It was so quick that, if you blinked, you would've missed it. My jaw popped, a searing pain bursting through my cheeks as I realized I had been punched right square in the face by the one and only Steve Harrington. It felt like the whole world had stopped, everyone letting out gasps and just standing there gawking at me. I brought a hand to my face, rubbing the brand-new tender spot on the side of my jaw. I felt a tear start to fall from my eye. I was ready to run away and never see any of them again, but I didn't have a chance. Before I knew it, Jonathan was nudging me to the side and tackling him to the ground, throwing punch after punch after punch. I was surprised he was still conscious.

Nancy grabbed my arm and pulled me away just as we heard sirens, followed closely by a cop car. Jonathan was still on top of Steve, punching him over and over again, unaware of anything happening. Nancy and Tommy had attempted to pull him off, but nothing could stop him. Two policemen jumped out of the car and went straight into action. A smaller one went for Jonathan, getting punched in the nose in the process. It was a struggle, but the two policemen were able to pry him off just in time for Steve and his friends to take off sprinting in the other direction.

"I got this one," one of the men shouted, but the other was already chasing the others down the alleyway.

Nancy, with tears in her eyes, ran her hands across her face as I placed mine on my aching cheek. I felt a little bit bad for her, with an emphasis on the little part. Sure, I was still upset that Jonathan had completely ditched me to stay with her, but that didn't mean she deserved any of this. As jealous as I felt, I still trusted that neither of them had done anything other than sleep in the same room as each other. She hadn't even looked over at me when the cop had slapped a pair of handcuffs on Jonathan. It looked as if she was on the verge of a panic attack. Ugh, fine.

I reached an arm around Nancy's shoulders and pulled her into a loose side hug. She seemed hesitant at first, but quickly collapsed into it. I caught a whiff of vanilla radiating from her, which was incredibly fitting. She tensed up when the cop roughly shoved Jonathan into the back of the cop car. He turned back to us, tilting his chin down to look at us like we were a couple of scared children.

"You the girlfriend," the cop asked, his eyes focused on Nancy.

"Uh—I," she stammered.

"I am," I quickly interrupted, a little spiteful.

He cocked his head, looking me up and down before offering a slow head nod, as if I was lying or something. "Right, well I suggest getting his car to the station before someone has it towed."

"I—uh—I don't know how to drive."

"Not my problem," he replied, taking a step back towards his car.

"But then how—"

"I can drive," Nancy offered, her eyes still glossy.

I was hesitant at first, but it didn't seem like there was much of an option. "He leaves his keys in the glovebox," I said simply.

To say the drive to the police station was the most awkward experience of my life was an understatement. The more I thought about it, I couldn't remember one time when it had been just the two of us. There was always a third person around, so we were never alone together before. It was also very uncomfortable after the whole spying on her with her—now presumably ex—boyfriend and losing my shit on my unofficial boyfriend, who I was still suspicious had feelings for her. The whole thing was a big mess, and if there was one thing about me that I knew for sure, it was that I always did everything within my power to avoid the messes I've made in my own life. Of course, she had never encouraged any of this, but at the same time, she had also never discouraged it. Did she not like me either?

"So," she finally said, slicing through the thick silence in the air. "How did you and Jonathan meet?"

I rolled my eyes, though she couldn't see it. "We live next to each other, and then his mom and my uncle started dating for a while."

"Your uncle is Jack Clearwater, right?"

The pain in my jaw surged as she asked the question. I was suspicious of her to say the least. "Uh, yeah. Do you know him?"

She shook her head. "No," she said, "my mom said she knew him a long time ago."

I raised my brow at her. "Your mom didn't hook up with him, did she? Because she does not seem like his type."

She chuckled lightly, and I could feel the density start to fade away. "She said he used to live here before either of us were alive."

"Yeah," I replied. "My grandparents are from Hawkins. My mom, dad, and uncle all grew up here. My grandparents died, and then my mom and dad just disappeared, and I never heard anything about them until last year."

"When they got arrested," she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah," I answered, "but even before that, I can only remember talking to them on the phone. I don't think I could even tell you what they look like in person."

"You don't have any pictures?"

I shook my head. "The only pictures I've seen are just Jack. My family didn't get along with each other very well. He only put up with them for me, and then when everyone ended up going their separate ways, it was just the two of us."

"You guys must be pretty close then," she asked.

I looked down at my fingertips, a dried-up blood droplet having ran down the length of my thumb. Mentioning Jack had always made me happy. I idolized him from the time I was a toddler and to this day. It was different now though. Things had changed. Just saying his name felt like a knife to the gut. "Yeah, we were," I muttered, feeling a tear start to roll down my cheek.

Nancy glanced my way a few times. I didn't know if Jonathan had told her anything about my uncle's disappearance, but judging by the look in her eye, I could tell she had heard about it from someone. "I forgot to thank you, by the way," she quickly said, trying to change the subject to something a little more uplifting.

"For what?"

"Saving my ass," she replied with a smile. "What you did was amazing."

I could feel a blush creeping up on me. I had been upset that no one had mentioned that all day, but now that someone had, I wasn't sure how to react. "Oh, yeah. It—uh—it's no big deal."

"No big deal," she scoffed. "Daisy, you're like a superhero."

A soft smile spread across my face at the compliment. "I don't know about a superhero. I'm not even sure what I'm doing half the time."

"Have you always been able to do that?"

"No. It started out as a couple visions, and then I just started shooting whatever the hell it is out of my fingertips. One of the times I was in the other world—"

"Wait, you've been there before?"

I shrugged, unsure of what the real answer was. "I think so. I'm not really sure if I'm there in person or if it's just, like, some kind of astral projection, you know?"

"Well, I think you're the bravest person I've ever met, because there's no way I'd want to keep going back to that place, conscious or not."

I smiled again, my eyes falling to my fidgeting hands. Maybe I had been being too hard on her this whole time. I had never had a real conversation with her before, but now that I was, and now that she was actually listening to me, she didn't seem so bad. Nobody had ever seemed to actually care about what I was saying. It was refreshing to feel heard.

By the time we pulled into the police station parking lot, things weren't going too bad anymore. Of course, all of that washed away as soon as we were reminded about what we were here for. My cheek started aching at the thought. It was as if my nerves had just remembered I was supposed to be in pain. I attempted to pop my jaw while Nancy was the first to get out, leading the way through the doors that I had walked through way too many times this week.

Jonathan was sitting at one of the desks in the corner of the room, handcuffs shackled around his wrists. His face was a little bruised and bloody, but it wasn't anything severe. When our eyes met from across the room, my heart sped up. I was so happy that he was doing okay, even if he did piss me off sometimes.

"Hey," he said as soon as we had made it over to him.

"Hey," I replied awkwardly.

A beat passed, and an unbearably awkward silence fell between us. Nancy looked between the two of us. "I'm going to go find some ice packs," she said with a forced smile.

This left me and Jonathan to ourselves. He was the first to speak. "How are you feeling," he asked.

Bringing a hand to my now swelling face, I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of it all. I had just defended Steve to him this morning, and then he punches me right square in the jaw. "It's not that bad," I lied. To be honest, it hurt like a motherfucker.

"I, uh, I wanted to say I'm sorry," he said.

"No, I'm sorry. I should've trusted you."

"Daisy, you have every right to be upset."

I sighed in defeat. "No I don't. I've been so obsessed with the thought of you having all these feelings for Nancy. I didn't put any faith in you."

"You think I have feelings for Nancy?"

"Do you?"

"I—"

"Daisy Clearwater?"

I turned on my toes and saw that same police officer that had just arrested Jonathan making his way over to us. I cocked a brow at him. What did this asshole want? "Why," I asked venomously.

He put his hands up in defense. "Your uncle called."

My heart felt like it skipped a beat. "M—my uncle? He's home?"

"Uh, yeah? He said he's been waiting for you all morning. It sounded like an emergency."

I looked over at Jonathan, who seemed just as surprised as I was. My uncle had been missing this whole time, and now he had decided to come home out of the blue like this? I mean, I definitely was not complaining, but I was still incredibly confused. Something really weird had to have happened.

"I have to go," I said to Jonathan.

I didn't even wait to see if he would say anything back. I was already rushing outside in just a matter of seconds. My whole mood had changed, and suddenly I didn't even care about the searing pain in my jaw. My feet were moving so fast that I was basically sprinting back to my house. I couldn't wait to see him.

As I passed down a familiar alleyway, I was cut off by a white van that said something about a light company on the side of it. The driver and his passenger seemingly stared right through me before offering a smile and a quick wave of their hands. As I curved around it, I returned the gesture, though much more rushed than he had been. There was no time to exchange pleasantries with strangers right now.

My steps sped up the closer I got. I couldn't wait to see my uncle and to put the whole disappearance thing behind us. I had been so worried that I was the reason he disappeared, and it was so relieving to know that he was finally okay. I kept imagining walking in and seeing him with his signature toothy smile. The thought even made me smile. These past few days, I would've given anything just to see him walk in the door from a long day at work and go straight to his watering can. I had never understood his fascination with plants, but I now cherished all of the gardening advice that I had previously thought to be useless. From here on out, I wasn't going to take a single second with him for granted.

I turned the corner only to be greeted with the same white van that I had just seen, though the passengers in this one were different. I raised a brow but quickly brushed it off. Maybe it was just a busy day for them. It wasn't until I noticed a third one trailing about a mile behind me. Then came a forth, all with different people wearing similar black outfits. I quickly started to understand that something fishy was for sure going on now. When I noticed a fifth one waiting at the end of the street, I started getting scared. There was no doubt in my mind that this had to do with Hawkins Lab. They were the only people who knew about me outside of my friend group.

My pulse was going a million miles an hour when I made eye contact with a man in the fourth van. He looked so familiar, but I just couldn't place where I had seen him until I saw him stepping out of the van. Then it hit me. He was the one I had seen in the flashback with the girl from the lab. His hair and his outfit looked identical to how it had then, puffy white hair and a nice suit. I offered him a kind smile as I started trembling on the inside, even stopping to wait for him as he started to make a beeline towards me. It wasn't until he was in speaking range, pursing his lips as if he was going to say something, that I took off in a sprint.

Whatever these people wanted from me, I wasn't going to give it to them. Sure, I didn't have much of an advantage, as they were in moving vehicles and I was on foot, but there was one thing they couldn't do, and that was weave in and out of some very tight spots, so that's exactly what I did. I bolted through every alleyway, every yard, anywhere I could find that might throw them off of me. It seemed to be useless though, as they were able to find me again each time. I was about to give up hope until I was cut off by some familiar faces, nearly smashing right into them. Will's friends seemed to be running from the same people. I steadied myself as they started to realize what was going on.

"Get on," the curly headed one, Dustin, shouted without a single ounce of hesitation.

I didn't even think it over as I jumped onto the back of his bike. Whatever was going on, I knew I wasn't safe anymore. None of us were.