47. Chapter 47

Chapter Forty-Seven

By the time Monday morning came around Jessica was feeling a little better because her period had slowed to an almost nonexistent flow, but her back was still hurting. It definitely was feeling a little better, though, because she could bend over without shooting pain up her spine.

She really owed Dustin a comic book or something because he'd been helping her with her chores because of her back and because he knew she'd wanted to be there for Steve. He was a great brother. He hadn't complained once about it – or, well, he had, but not in a serious way.

One thing was different that day. She had to pick Steve up for school. He had tried driving the day before and his head had started bothering him and he'd gotten nauseated. He'd also said his vision had started acting up after a few minutes. He definitely couldn't drive.

They pulled into the parking lot and got out, started walking towards the entrance of the school. People stared at Steve and took in his injuries. Surprisingly enough, Billy hadn't said anything about why Steve had been absent from school, so no one really knew what had happened. There would be theories, of course, but unless Steve or Billy said anything, no one would ever know.

Steve was carrying both of their bags, and she could tell he was tense by the set of his shoulders. She grabbed his hand, slid her fingers through the spaces between his, and squeezed.

"Ignore them."

"Yeah. Right."

It was almost funny – or in another situation it might have been – that Steve Harrington, the guy who had basically run the school the previous year was now nervous having everyone's eyes on him.

"So, no one knows why you were absent last week," she said. "You can pretty much come up with whatever you want for why your face is the way it is. But, honestly, the truth is pretty awesome. You were protecting me and some kids from some guy that probably would've hurt us if you hadn't been there."

To be fair, there were still a few guys from the basketball team and the baseball team that would've gone after Billy together if they knew what he'd done to Steve – and to her and Lucas to be completely honest. Even though Hawkins was a predominantly white town, there were very few people who had a problem with colored people.

Jessica wasn't even sure Billy had gone after Lucas because he was black or if it was because he was the one Max had left his house with, the reason she'd sneaked out, and the reason he'd gotten in trouble. Either way, it was messed up that he'd gone after someone so young.

They stopped by their lockers before heading to first period, Steve dropping her off first and giving her bag to her at the doorway. She kissed his cheek before going into the classroom.

"Hey, I'll see you back here after," he called after her.

She smiled and looked back. "I know. See you soon."

She made her way to her seat and sat down. Billy was already in the seat beside her and he had a curious expression on his face.

"What?"

"You – I don't know. You seem happier than you were last week."

"Oh." Jessica shrugged. "I feel a little better. And Steve is back in school, so –"

"Yeah, I saw." Billy slouched in his seat. "I don't remember his face being that bad."

"Well, it was. It was actually worse because it was swollen the last time you saw him." She shook her head, remembering how messed up Billy had been as well because of the drugs he'd been dosed with. "Anyway, you don't need to carry my bag for me anymore. Steve is going to meet me here to take me to my next class."

"I figured."

She turned to him then to try and make eye contact, but he was looking at his desk and not at her.

"It was a nice thing you did, Billy. I appreciate it. My back appreciates it."

"It was whatever," he said. "It was my fault, anyway, so . . ."

"Yes, it was," she agreed. "But it was still nice of you to do that. It made it easier on me."

After a few seconds of silence, Jessica turned her attention to the front of the class. The silence didn't last long, though, because the person on the other side of her leaned towards her and asked what had happened to Steve.

"He got into a fight," she said.

"With who?"

"You'll have to ask him the next time you see him."

There was no way she was going to feed the rumor mill. There were plenty of people who would do that for her.

Steve and Jessica sat with Nancy and Jonathan at lunch since Jessica and Nancy had patched things up and because it was too cold to actually eat outside. Neither Nancy nor Jonathan had seen Steve since the night they'd come to the hospital, so they hadn't known how bad his face still was. They both gave him looks of sympathy when they saw him.

"I'm okay," he said.

He really didn't know if he was, though. The noise from the students in the cafeteria was getting to him and the lights had been bothering him all day. His head had been hurting since they'd made it to school that morning, and it had only gotten worse throughout the day.

Now Steve was trying to focus on his lunch and not letting it upset his stomach. He kind of knew how Jessica felt when she couldn't eat lunch because of fear of getting sick now.

It didn't help his headache at all when Tommy plopped down right beside him in the middle of lunch. He slapped his hand against Steve's back in mock sympathy and it jostled Steve's head more than he was comfortable with.

"Jeeze, Harrington. Who demolished your face?"

Nancy and Jonathan had frozen for a few seconds when Tommy had sit down, but they were both tensing as they took in the scene.

"I bet it was Billy," Tommy said, not giving Steve a chance to answer. "He was getting awfully friendly with your girl last week."

"Where is Billy?" Jessica asked. "I mean, you've been following him around like a lost puppy. Are you having a lover's spat?"

Steve noticed Nancy trying to hide a grin from across the table. Steve had to admit he wanted to grin or smirk too, and he would have if it didn't hurt his lip to really do anything other than talk. He'd reopened his wound multiple times by yawning.

"Watch your mouth, Henderson."

"You watch yours, Tommy," Steve said, shoving at his side despite the fact that it hurt to do so. "You're the one over here starting trouble."

"Whatever. Can't believe you're okay with someone else making nice with Jessica, that's all."

"And I can't believe you still don't have anything better to do than try to get between me and Jess. What makes you think she didn't tell me exactly what Billy Hargrove was doing last week?" Steve rolled his eyes. "Her back was hurting and I wasn't here. He carried her bag for her. End of story."

Jessica grabbed his hand and squeezed before looking past him and at Tommy. "Sorry you don't have anything to gossip about anymore."

"Yeah," Tommy said, seeming to agree. "I guess it is a shame."

Steve thought that was it. Tommy was getting up now. But Steve should've known better, should've known that Tommy wouldn't just leave it. He did get up to start walking away, but as he was walking behind them Tommy was able to tip both Steve's and Jessica's trays over.

Most of Steve's food was gone, but his milk got all over him, and Jessica had hardly eaten anything so she had even more of a mess on her. She let out a small shriek when she realized what Tommy had done.

"Seriously?"

Both Steve and Jessica had jumped up from their seats as soon as they'd realized what was happening. Even Nancy and Jonathan had gotten up from theirs, more from shock than anything else.

Tommy seemed pleased with himself, was grinning as he walked away for real this time.

"No," Jessica said. "No, no, no."

She reached for the one thing that hadn't been on her tray – her fruit cup – and grabbed it up in her right hand. Before Steve knew what she was doing, Jessica had thrown the cup at Tommy. It could have ended badly – it could have – because Jessica's aim was terrible in the best of times. However, fate seemed to be on their side today because the cup reached Tommy and it bounced off the back of his head.

The cup had been untouched, unopened, but the force behind the throw had it opening and splattering into Tommy's hair. The boy stopped walking and turned back around, looking at them with surprise and anger – the surprise was from him finding out that Jessica had been the one to throw the cup at him.

He hadn't expected retaliation from her, apparently. Steve, maybe, but not Jessica, not the girl he considered too good to do something like that. To be fair, Steve was kind of shocked too.

The cafeteria had gone quiet. It had started to settle down the moment Jessica had screamed over the tray falling on her, but it was completely quiet now that she'd thrown the fruit at Tommy's head. They had the students full attention, it seemed.

They also had the attention of the lunch monitors. Two teachers were coming their way now, and they did not look happy. When they reached Steve and Jessica and saw the messes on their clothes, they looked at Tommy and ushered him over.

"Mr. Hagan. Do I even need to ask if you're responsible for this?"

"I was just walking by and their trays tipped over. They were messing around."

"That is so not what happened," Nancy said. "You pushed the trays off the table."

"And, Ms. Henderson, you threw the cup at his head."

"I – I didn't throw the cup at his head. That just happens to be where it hit him."

Steve knew she hadn't meant for that to come out as smart as it sounded, but it had, and the teachers didn't seem to appreciate it.

"All three of you need to come with us to the office. We'll call your parents to bring you some clothes. Mr. Hagan, Ms. Henderson, the principal can decide what to do with you, but there will be discipline reports written up about this."

"Tommy –"

"Was the instigator. That will be taken into consideration."

Jessica noticed as they were being led to the office that Steve began squinting his eyes, so she leaned in closer to him.

"You okay?"

"I think I – the light, ya know? And I have a headache. I've had a headache all day."

"Well, why didn't you say anything?"

"It's not like I can just go home. I missed all last week, and if I went home because of a headache, I'd probably be gone this week too."

"But, I mean . . . if you need that time to heal –"

"I'll be fine, Jess. Leave it alone."

She couldn't stop the tightening of her stomach as hurt hit her from Steve's tone. She didn't like when he was angry at her, especially when he was angry because she was worried about him. Even though he'd been working on letting her in, he still sometimes fell back on old habits of pushing her concern away.

"I just don't want you to be in pain, Steve. You can't take pain medicine while you're in school. Sorry for caring, I guess."

"Jess –"

She walked ahead of him now, ignoring as he called after her. She had tears in her eyes and didn't want him to see.

The two lunch monitors and Tommy were slightly ahead of her and she didn't want to walk with them either, so she stayed in the middle. Steve stayed behind her and seemed to realize she needed a minute. Or maybe he needed a minute, she didn't know. Either way she was glad for the time alone she had before going into the office.

The three students were told to take a seat once they were inside so the office administration could get everything in order. They had to call their parents and also write up reports on Jessica and Tommy. Her whole school career and she'd never had a discipline report written up on her and here Tommy was ruining that in her senior year.

Billy was already in the office, slouched in a chair, when the other students came in. They were placed in chairs beside him and he gave Jessica a look of surprise when he noticed one of the students was her.

It wasn't hard to tell what had happened. Both Jessica and Harrington had food down the front of their clothes, and Tommy kept messing with his hair. Somebody had started a miniature food fight.

Jessica ended up being seated right beside him with Harrington on the other side of her. Tommy was placed at the end of the line of chairs, so he was obviously the troublemaker in this scenario. Neither Jessica nor Harrington were talking to each other, but it seemed to be mostly because Jessica was ignoring him, her head down so she could stare at the floor. They had been so happy and in love that morning, so what had happened?

They tried getting Steve's mom on the phone, but there was no answer at his house. Jessica didn't look at Harrington, but she said, "My mom can bring him some clothes, just ask her when you call her."

Billy noticed that when Harrington reached for her hand she moved it out of reach. That was interesting. What had Pretty Boy done?

"Trouble in paradise?" he asked. "And you were so excited for him to come back."

Jessica didn't so much as look at him but she did let out a sniffle. She was trying to keep from crying and not succeeding very well.

"What'd you do to your girl, Harrington?" he asked. "It's not nice to make girls cry."

"Hargrove –"

"Billy, why are you in here?" Jessica asked.

He smirked. "I wanted a smoke. Got caught sneaking out."

"Hm. Maybe next time wait until after school. And maybe don't ask about me and Steve. That's really not a good topic for you to talk about. Ever."

Billy put his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Whatever you say, Jessica."

"Great."

Steve and Jessica were in the office all of gym class, which neither of them minded, while Tommy was dismissed once they realized the only thing messed up with him was his hair. He could wash off in the locker room showers.

Jessica's mom almost threw a fit when she realized Jessica was getting in trouble when Tommy had tipped her tray onto her on purpose. She still wasn't having it when Jessica admitted to throwing the juice cup at him and hitting him in the head with it.

"Ms. Henderson, the fact of the matter is that Jessica retaliated. She has to be written up."

"Jessica has been dealing with Tommy picking on her on and off for over a year. She's retaliated because this school has never done anything about it."

Jessica and Steve went to change while her mother did whatever she could to get Jessica's name cleared. Steve stopped her at the entrance to the girl's bathroom.

"Jess – can we . . . talk? I mean –"

"You told me – you told that me caring about people is your favorite thing about me. So why do you get mad sometimes when I care about you?"

"I'm not mad that you care about me. I'm – that wasn't about you at all earlier, and I shouldn't have acted that way. I just – I already missed one week, like I said, and I've been feeling kind of useless. I can't even drive myself to school."

"Well, Steve, that won't be forever. But the harder you push yourself while you're healing, the longer it's going to take to heal. And I mean . . . you could always bring the headache medicine to school even if you can't bring the pain medicine. If you really want to try to stay in school. But if it's the light that's bothering you –"

"And the noise," he admitted.

"See, that's why you need to be home . . . where you can control the noise and the light. You getting better is more important than any stupid grade."

"Right." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So . . . Am I forgiven?"

Jessica sighed as well. "Of course you're forgiven. Just . . . I know I can be a lot when I'm worried. Okay? So . . . if you could just remember it's because I love you and not snap at me in the future, I'd appreciate it."

"Yeah. I'll do better." He bit his bottom lip. "Can I kiss you now?"

She grinned. "Yes, Steve. You can now kiss your girlfriend."

Billy was still in the office when Jessica and Harrington got back, freshly changed and now holding hands. Whatever had been bothering Jessica, it obviously wasn't bothering her anymore.

Girls were always so moody, which was one of the reasons he didn't stick around long enough to get to know them. They couldn't get moody if you only hung around them for a few days.

Billy had been sitting there alone for about ten minutes – well, not with other students anyway. The administration and Jessica's mom were still trying to settle things. Tommy had been escorted to the locker rooms so he could wash his hair, but the monitors had returned without him, saying he should be back shortly.

Once Tommy was back, he took the seat next to Billy and gestured at Steve and Jessica, who had taken the seats down at the end of the line of chairs.

"That was fast," Tommy said, quiet enough for only Steve, Jessica, and Billy to hear. "What happened? You went out of here fuming and now you're holding hands again. What'd you do to cheer her up, Harrington? Give her a little something in the bathroom?"

Jessica tensed up but didn't say anything. She did glare at Tommy across the room, though, like she wished she could say something and would have if they hadn't been in the office. Harrington looked the same way.

"Hagan, if you don't shut up, I'm gonna make your face look like Harrington's over there," Billy surprised pretty much everyone by saying.

Jessica glanced at him, let a small smile grace her lips, and then went back to paying attention to Steve.

Tommy leaned closer to Billy, getting into his personal space. "Not you too!"

"What do you mean? And get out of my face."

"You're letting her get in your head, man!"

"She's not getting in anything." Billy leaned in closer, so he could speak more quietly. "She just happens to be the least annoying person in this town. Leave her alone."

To prove how much he didn't want to deal with Tommy at the moment, he scooted his chair away from the other boy and sat there quietly the rest of the time.

The rest of the school day went by without much of a problem. Jessica was still written up, but it wasn't like it was really going to go against her, so she didn't really care. Her mom was more upset about it than she had been.

Steve met Jessica at her last period so he could carry her bag to her locker for her and once she got done they went to his locker as well.

"I have to drop off the doctor slip to Coach before we leave. If he doesn't get it, I'll definitely get kicked off the team for skipping."

"Okay."

Taking the doctor's excuse to the gym to give it to Coach Williams wasn't a problem. The team was still in the locker room, so there was no one there to cause any drama. They were able to leave the building without a fuss. Once they got to the parking lot, however, was a different story.

Hopper's police truck was parked in the grass near where her car was parked and he was standing in front of it. He didn't make a move towards them, but Jessica could tell he'd spotted them.

"Jeeze, what now?" she heard Steve mutter.

"Well, it's – it's obviously nothing bad or he wouldn't have just been waiting."

Hopper took in Steve's face once they reached him. He didn't say anything about it, just opened with, "When are you both free to meet me at the Byers place? I'll need you guys and the kids. Official lab stuff – documents to sign, all the stuff from last time. We're not allowed to talk about what happened and all that."

"Uh, I have to work today. Tomorrow I'm off. We can bring Dustin and the others."

"That works. Uh, I probably shouldn't have showed up at your school like this, but I didn't want to risk calling and having parents asking questions."

"I get it."

"Yeah, my mom would freak if you called her," Steve agreed.

"Alright, just so we're clear, Max was never there. No one important saw her and as far as anyone really knows, she was stranded at the Byers because Will was sick and Joyce had to take him to the hospital. She had no way home. That's what I told her mom, and that's what I told Mr. Hargrove."

Jessica had been wondering about that, about what story they had come up with when Hopper had taken Max home and when Billy had driven himself home. She wondered if their parents had bought it. Billy had been out of it and had at least two marks on him that had been evidence of a fight.

"El is also still a secret. She wasn't there. We don't mention her."

"Of course. How – how is she? I know she was really worn out when –"

"Closing the gate took a lot out of her, but she's rested up now. Dying to get out of the cabin, but not wanting to run away anymore."

"She ran away?"

Jessica realized then that their groups had never really had a chance to sit down and discuss the whole of, well, everything that had happened. Each group had their own side of the story to tell and they had never been able to come together since that night when El had closed the gate. They needed to do that so that they could all make the pieces fit together. Though, to be honest, she was mostly interested in the whole El situation and how it was living with Hopper when he was almost never home.

"We had an argument and she took off. It was – we both said things we shouldn't have and I think I really hurt her feelings, but she came back on her own and that's what matters. Anyway, we can talk things out tomorrow. Just bring the kids when you can. They'll need to check in with their parents and make their excuses. It'll probably take a while."

"Yeah, okay. We'll catch them when they come out and let them know what's going on."

"Thanks, kid."

"Yeah. Hey, Hop? Maybe think about bringing her with you tomorrow. I mean, if it's only gonna be us and no lab people. Mike would probably like to see her again. And you said she does want to get out for a while. It'd be good for her to be around other people and not cooped up in one house. She's been locked up her whole life. She doesn't need to be locked up at home too."

"It's the only way I know to keep her safe, at least for now."

Jessica probably could have taken Steve home and gone to her own house to get ready by the time the kids came out the front doors of the middle school. They must have stayed behind for AV club or something.

Max was with the three boys, a smile on her face but still very much not part of the group yet. Jessica had wondered why Billy had come out and leaned against his car rather than just drive away after he'd come out. Now she knew he must have been waiting for Max.

She and Steve went over to them when they reached the bike rack and they automatically knew something was up because she usually didn't do that.

"Hey, so ask your parents if you can go to the arcade tomorrow," she said to the boys. "Hopper needs us at the Byers' house so we can go over everything and sign the forms and all saying we won't tell anybody what happened."

"Nobody knows I was there," Max put in.

"Yeah, that's what Hopper said, so you're good to go." Then to the others, "Tell you parents you'll be with me and Steve and let them know we'll be getting you dinner. You guys can ride your bikes to my house and then we'll go from there."

The boys agreed – mostly because they wanted to see Will, anyway, and hadn't been able to over the last week – and Jessica and Steve started back towards the high school parking lot.

Max trailed after them.

"So . . . how's Billy treating you?" It was Steve who had asked.

"We haven't really talked since . . . you know."

"Since you threatened to castrate him with a bat?" Jessica grinned. "Most guys would steer clear of a girl who did that."

"Yeah, I wish I could've seen that," Steve admitted, causing Max to smile a little.

Jessica didn't mention the way Billy had been acting towards her lately. She just let Max know that if Billy started mistreating her again to let them know. Though, to be honest, Jessica was pretty sure Max could handle herself now that she'd stood up to him once before.

The first time was always the hardest.