CHAPTER FOUR
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     SOMETHING was still bothering Emily, even after her visit to Mike's. Of course Lexie didn't think that all of the stuff with Will would be fixed and fine within a one day period, but she thought that spending more time with her friends would lighten her spirits at least a little bit. But things didn't seem to change.

     "Look out for her," her mother had whispered to her as they had walked out of the door, Lexie nodding in understanding. She would do anything for her sister, but was completely helpless in this situation.

     They had barely made it to the end of their street on their daily walk to school when Lexie opened her mouth to mention the strange silence. Pushing it wasn't her preference, but now she was getting desperate

     But a car had pulled up next to them and the window rolled down to reveal a smirking Steve. "Need a ride?" he asked innocently enough. Lexie glanced down at her sister, who looked confused.

     "That would be great, Steve," she said, gesturing for Emily to get in the back of the car.

     "You know him?" he sister asked curiously, Lexie dismissing the question with another wave of her hand. Once they were both in the car, there was a moment of silence before Lexie and Steve started up a quick conversation that Emily intentionally ignored.

     She was quick to try and get out of the car when they pulled up to the school and Lexie got out just as quick.

     "Emily!" she called out, her sister turning around impatiently with an expectant look.

     "What?" she snapped, the same grumpy expression plastered all across her face. Lexie stepped up closer and her voice got quieter.

     "Are you ever going to tell me what really happened last year? Or are we going to keep pretending that nothing is going on and I keep playing dumb?" she questioned, her voice sharper than it usually was. "I can't help you if I don't know anything, Em."

     "Maybe I don't want your help, Lexie," Emily answered angrily before turning on her heel and stepping away in a huff. Lexie gaped at her until she walked far enough away and turned around to find Steve still standing near his car.

     "You okay?" he asked.

      Lexie nodded hesitantly. "I just don't know why she's hiding things," she said simply. "Those kids went through something horrible last year and I just wish I could help."

     They began to walk toward the school and Steve nodded while he listened. "You're pretty cool, you know that?" he said suddenly after she finished her sentence.

     Lexie shot him a confused glance as they stepped through the doors. "What?"

      It was even more surprising that King Steve Harrington was willing to been seen with her in front of everybody. She supposed those days were further behind him than she thought. The lack of Tommy and Carol also did help.

     "We haven't been friends long — and we're friends, okay? — but you have this thing," he explained, grasping the air with an abstract gesture. Lexie was still confused, and for many more reasons than before. "You help people without them even asking. You go out of your way to be good and it's just...cool, you know?"

      The way he was smiling was making her feel very analyzed and she just shrugged, putting on a smile of her own. "Thank you? I mean I'm not doing anything special...I think you're good too, Steve. I just don't think anybody really...cares to find out‍."

     He seemed to think on that for a minute and they reached her locker. She shifted around a few books in there and replaced them with some that were in her bag.

     "So we're friends, huh?" she asked, almost embarrassed to ask it.

     "Definitely," he replied with the same stupid smirk he had when he had picked up her and Emily. "I told you way too much about my love life for us not to be friends."

     She laughed at the joke and nodded, closing up her locker and looking at him directly.

      "Then if we're friends I have to tell you that wearing your sunglasses indoors really does make you seem like asshole."

__________

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the doors to the police station open and surveyed the area as quickly as she could. Things were mostly the same. The station smelled of coffee, officers were bustling in and out, phones were ringing, and Flo looked bitter.

But there was nobody in Hopper's office. Lexie rushed up to Flo's desk. "What are you doing here, Abernathy?"

"No Hopper?" she asked, quick to cut to the chase. Flo shook her head and Lexie huffed, immediately heading to his office.

Everything was untouched. The desk was still slightly messy, multiple papers scattered around it but not bad enough to where she felt the need to clean it at that moment. A pen was out on top of one of the papers uncapped. There was a mug of coffee half full sitting on the desk. The chair was still pushed out.

Lexie hesitantly stepped forward and glanced at the papers over the desk, picking up a report about the owner of the local pumpkin patch. How irrelevant, she thought.

Looking up, a few officers sat at their desks idly. Was no one worried? She rushed out of the office and asked around and Hopper had been missing for about a day. They couldn't file a report yet, is what they told her. She told them to call her as soon as they heard anything.

Leaving the police station, she had nothing but a sinking feeling in her stomach.

__________

When she arrived at her house, worryingly enough, there was no one there. Emily was the main concern, as she just figured that Iris and her mother were working late running the bakery once again. They always got particularly busy when the holidays were right around the corner. But the completely empty house made her feel even worse about, well, everything.

It seemed as though that was happening more and more lately and she was left to try and hold the pieces of everything together, no matter how much they were begging to fall apart. The phone rang and she picked it up, hoping it might be some news about Hopper.

"Abernathys," she immediately answered, waiting with bated breath for the person on the other line to respond.

"Lexie? It's Emily," her sister announced, voice slightly shaky on the other side. Immediately, Lexie's heart dropped in worry, brows furrowing intensely.

"Em? What's wrong?" she pressed immediately, ready to dash out of the front door at any sign of trouble.

"Everything's...everything's f-fine. I just wanted to let mom know that I-I'm staying the night at Will's — Mike and I are spending the night at Will's," Emily explained, sounding very much like she had been crying recently. Wrapping the cord around her finger over and over again, Lexie turned to look at the very dark night.

"You guys are okay? Not out too late?"

"Will is having some trouble and we just wanted to be there for him," her sister replied quickly. "He didn't want to be alone."

"I'll let mom know, okay?" Lexie assured, knowing deep down that if something was wrong, she probably wouldn't tell her anyway. "But check in tomorrow. I know it's a Friday but if you're staying over the whole weekend we gotta know."

"I promise," Emily swore. "Love you." The line went dead.

"Love you too."