the next day, nancy wheeler walked through halls feeling different. she felt as if all eyes were on her. like everyone knew about the events that had transpired the night before and were judging her and scrutinizing her every move because of it. as she walked to her locker, with every step she felt self-conscious. an all-consuming feeling that plagued her mind.

on the other hand, lydia henderson walked through the halls painfully hungover. she had spent the night at steve's and had him drive her to school due to her immense headache and nausea. halfway through the drive, she demanded that steve pull over so she could vomit on the side of the road. despite the medicine she took before leaving, the pounding against her skull was still unbearable. she wished she was still feeling as euphoric as she did last night with her nice outfit and all the alcohol in her system, she felt like she was invincible. now she was standing with her head in a locker in steve's hoodie and steph's leggings and she wanted to die.

"how're you feeling party animal?" lydia took her head out of the locker and faced stephanie. she shook her head very slowly before walking with her friend to class. the girl knew better than to talk while the brunette was in this state. it was best to just be there for her and walk in silence. so that's what they did.

~

by the time lunch time rolled around, lydia was feeling much better. her pounding headache had subdued to a dull ache and she no longer felt like death itself. however, she was still exhausted. steph was finishing up kaminsky's test which left her with no one to talk to at a table full of people. she leaned her head on steve's shoulder with her eyes shut, trying to find some peace but this was very difficult for her considering she was "friends" with tommy and carol who lacked volume control. luckily, she had tuned out most of the conversation but became interested when she heard nancy say barb's name.

"hey tommy, when you left did you see barb?" tommy, being as useless as ever had no idea who nancy was talking about. "barbra. she's not here today." when she heard this, lydia sat up straight, ignoring the rush of blood to her head.

"i seriously don't know who you're talking about." she rolled her eyes and leaned over to flick tommy square in the forehead. "ow what the hell, henderson?"

"come on, don't be an ass, man. did you see her leave last night or not?" steve was clearly done with the the couple's bullshit and everyone could see it. tommy finally gave a real answer.

"no, she was gone when we left." lydia mentally thanked him for finally complying and bringing some peace to the table. however, it didn't last for long because carol decided to open her mouth.

"probably couldn't stand listening to all that moaning." she said before both her and the freckled teen proceeded to make obscenely loud moaning sounds. lydia was still too hungover for this shit. she slammed her fists down on the table, making everyone jump.

"listen here wastoid's, i am too hungover to deal with your bullshit right now so i suggest that you two stop being complete dickheads before i kick your shit in." the girl was relatively well-mannered and was known for keeping her cool when a situation went south. but she was not going to take shit from tommy and carol when her friend was missing, especially not when she was hungover. the two went quiet at her sudden outburst as steve smirked at her in amazement. he turned his attention back to his girlfriend, reassuring her that barb was fine. but the two girls next to him had serious doubts.

~

still exhausted from lunch, lydia sought to find a dark quiet place to spend her free period. so, she went to the obvious spot. the dark room. on her way there she bumped into jonathan byers who seemed quite frazzled. he muttered a quick sorry before running off. she shook it off and entered the room and was greeted by one of carol's friends, nicole.

"hey there, henderson. were you at steve's last night?" the red head asked her.

"yeah, why? did carol tell you about it?" she sat down in a chair and placed her bag on the table.

"uh, yeah." she hesitantly responded. lyds put her head down on her bag and got ready for a nap before nicole interuppted. "what do you think of jonathan byers?"

"i think he's a nice guy. he just happens to be entangled in a lot of unfortunate incidents, you know?" nicole quietly agreed before leaving the room, letting lydia take her nap.

~

steph ran into the dark room after witnessing the confrontation that was occurring outside. she shook her friend's shoulders violently in a desperate attempt to wake her up causing the brunette to wake up in a confused state. looking around to get her bearings, she remembered where she was.

"what's going on?"

"come on, we gotta go it's steve and jonathan." lydia wiped the tiredness out of her eyes and followed her friend out to the parking lot. their group plus nicole stood around jonathan's car. as they sifted through the photos, steve found a photo of lydia. it was her on the lounger smoking, seconds before he had dragged her in. it was the moment where he couldn't stop staring at her because she looked like the most beautiful girl in the world. and here it was, preserved forever. he folded up the photo and stuck it in his pocket, hoping no one noticed.

"what is happening here?" lydia demanded.

"here's our other starring lady!" tommy exclaimed he handed her a few photos. she tuned everyone out as she looked at the photos that were taken of her. one was of her in steve's room. she was at the window and through the blinds you could see her standing there without a shirt. she couldn't believe it. she was shocked that a picture like this was taken without her consent or knowledge. but when she looked at the picture again, she saw steve staring at her. the look on his face was something she couldn't describe. she flipped to the next picture of herself chugging from the beer bong. again, steve was staring at her. almost like he was in a trance. she flipped to the next picture and it was of steve shotgunning his beer. she was sitting next to steph, and her expression looked as if steve was the only person who mattered in the world. if anyone else were to look at these photos it could very easily be presumed that the two were together. she shook her head to try and rid herself of the thought and flipped to the last picture. it was steve jumping into the pool with her in his arms. they both looked so, happy. she folded up the photos and shoved them in her bag as discreetly as she could.

fortunately, the group was too focused on the older byers boy to notice lydia. the three girls stood away from the car, slightly separated from their friends. they watched as steve ripped up the photos and threw them into the air.

"so, we'll just have to take away his toy." lyds watched as her best friend walked towards jonathan's bag. the boy pleaded to him, begging him to not break the camera. the older henderson couldn't stand to watch it occur knowing how important and expensive the camera was.

"steve." he made eye contact with her and held her gaze. he could see her practically begging him not to do it. "don't." her voice was stern, and cut through the eerie silence. he nodded to her and held out the camera to jonathan. she thought that he was being the bigger person, but she was wrong.

he let the camera drop right before jonathan was able to grab it, and it shattered to the ground. lydia breathed deeply. she knew that steve could be an asshole but she also felt violated that there were pictures of her taken without her permission. the three girls stood, unsure whether to follow their alleged friends or to stay and help jonathan. nancy bent down to pick up the photos and paused when a specific remnant caught her eye.

barb.

"nancy! lyds! steph!" steve yelled from behind them. they all began to walk over to their friend, leaving jonathan to pick up the rest of the pieces.

~

the gaggle of teens lingered in the hallway as they waited for the game to begin. carol and tommy were resting on the bench, nancy and steve were by the lockers, and steph and lydia sat on the ground with their legs propped up on the wall next to the bench so their bodies made a 90 degree angle. carol was telling a dumb story about some dumb teacher that lydia couldn't be bothered to listen to. while the four conversed, the two girls had a conversation of their own.

"so are you coming over tonight to watch movies?" steph asked.

"yeah, i'll get my car from steve's then i'll just go home and freshen up and i'll come over around dinner."

"do you want me to order some pizza or pick up some kfc?"

"yeah, whichever one you want i'm down for whatever." while the two girls planned their night, nancy wheeler couldn't stop thinking about her missing friend. although she didn't support the pictures he took, jonathan byers captured a photo of her friend that was very likely the last time anyone saw her. she had to go back and investigate.

"whoa, nance, where you going?" steve questioned. the girl struggled to conjure up a lie and just said the first thing that came to mind.

"i totally forgot, i-uh told my mom i would do something with her." she stammered. he stood up quickly in an attempt to stop her.

"well, what do you mean? the game's about to start." nancy uttered an apology as she rushed out of the school. the girls on the floor were propped up on their elbows now, watching everything play out.

"what the hell's wrong with her?" steve questioned, looking back at the four. lydia and steph shrugged their shoulders while tommy suggested that she "freaked when you went psycho on the psycho." which earned him a well- deserved punch to the calf from lydia.

"what'd you expect, dating miss perfect?" carol asked as she blew a pink bubble. the brunette couldn't help but roll her eyes at the situation, something she found herself doing often around tommy and carol. she got up from the floor and stood next to steve.

"you didn't have to break the camera you know, you could've just left it at the pictures." she said in a hushed voice. he quietly agreed. she knew why he did it though. he did it for tommy, carol, and nicole. he did it to show off and bolster his reputation in the shittiest way possible. she intertwined their fingers and gave his hand three quick squeezes before letting go and gesturing outside.

"let's go watch the game."

~

once the game had concluded, steve and lydia drove back to his house. the car ride was mostly quiet which was unusual for the two considering they always had something to talk about. some random song was playing on the radio and lydia tapped her feet to the beat.

"so, what are you doing tonight?" steve asked, breaking the silence.

"just going over to steph's to sleepover."

"that's cool, that's cool."

"yeah." another awkward silence fell between the two. they were usually talking about anything and everything, now it felt like they were total strangers.

"how are you and lawrie?" steve asked again.

"yeah we're good. i miss him, but he'll be back in a few days." steve hummed in response. "is something wrong?" lydia looked over at the boy as they stopped at a stoplight.

"yeah, i think. i don't know i just feel like something's wrong with me and nance. like, it was all so good last night and now she's acting weird and i think it's because of what i did to byers."

"i'm sure she just needs some time to cool off from the whole situation. just talk to her tomorrow. i'm sure she'll be fine." she assured her friend. with some of the tension diffused, the rest of the drive was filled with their normal banter and jokes which made both of them feel much better. they pulled into the driveway and steve turned the car off. but instead of getting out, they stayed put. something about them wasn't right, they could feel it.

"are we- uh, are we okay?" lydia finally asked. he nodded quickly, ignoring the feeling in his gut that said that something was wrong.

"yeah, why wouldn't we? we're probably just having an-uh, an off day or something. it's been weird couple of days don't you think?" she agreed with him silently, before he asked another question. "do you want to come in real quick? my parents aren't going to be home till later and i really don't feel like sitting in the house alone for 3 hours."

"yeah why not, i have time to kill." they got out of the car and headed inside. lydia went straight to the kitchen and grabbed a coke out of the fridge before hopping up on the island. steve walked in and threw his hands out in a disgraced manner.

"you're just gonna steal my food like that?" he asked jokingly. she shrugged and continued to sip her soda. "it's what you do when you're at my house." she pointed out. he ignored her statement and stood in front of the girl. she held the coke out and he took a sip, handing it back. he moved her legs so that he could stand between them and held her knees, lightly shaking them back and forth as he tried to clear his head. lydia put the can down and put her hands on top of his, making him look her in the eye.

"what's wrong. it's not just nancy, i can tell." he sighed and placed his forehead on hers. it was a moment of peace in their otherwise hectic life.

"i know i said that i love nancy, and i genuinely think i do. but it feels like sometimes we just don't click, you know? like you always used to talk about how everyone has someone or like everyone has a soulmate or whatever. but what if nancy's not mine? what if i'm meant for someone else? i don't wanna break her heart because i'm confused. i just," he took another deep breath and leaned back to rub his hands over his face. "i don't know how i feel." lydia grabbed his hand and pulled him into a much needed hug.

"i don't know what you're feeling, steve. but you're right, i do believe in soulmates. but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a romantic relationship with them. it's like," she paused and struggled to find the words. "like there's this connection with this other person. and it's nothing like you've ever felt before cause there's this kind of love between them that's indescribable because it's like you were made for each other. that person that knows you for you and loves you without expecting anything in return, you know?" steve hummed in response. he knew exactly what she was talking about because it's what he felt with her. he thought about all the moments he had shared with her. all the secrets they exchanged, all the laughs they had shared, everything. she was his everything, and he was hers. there was no steve without lydia and there was no lydia without steve.

"lydi," she hummed in response, smiling at the use of her nickname. "i think you're my soulmate." she let out an airy laugh and broke eye contact before looking at him again.

"and you're mine." she burrowed her head in his shoulder and enjoyed the feeling of being with him. with steve's nerves calmed, he felt at ease for the first time all day but lydia's heart ached at the thought of her best friend ending up with someone else, but she wasn't exactly sure why.