ru·mour

noun

a currently circulating story or report of uncertain or doubtful truth.

"I heard she kissed Nancy's boyfriend."

"Steve Harrington?"

"I bet they have foursomes, you know, since the creep had those pictures of Nancy and all."

"I feel bad for Nancy."

"I heard she went home with the Byers kid!"

"Like trading boyfriends? Ew."

"Billy Hargrove said Emilia slept with him in his car last week."

"What a slut."

The rumours were like a disease, like the bubonic plague spreading from rat to rat, person to person. It was ceaseless, and Emilia heard it ringing in her ears the moment she stepped out of her car in the parking lot Monday morning. It grew louder, like a ringing, as she stepped into the school. She should have known, that driving Steve home would lead to something like this. However, those rumours could so easily be squashed by Emilia and Steve, Nancy and Jonathan. It was innocent, even the kiss that Steve had drunkenly planted on Emilia's lips had meant nothing. She knew it, he knew it. He was upset about Nancy, and seeking something elsewhere.

She did go the long way to avoid walking past his locker, though.

By the time she reached her locker, that was when she heard the completely untrue and brutal lie that Billy was spreading. How dare he say he had slept with Emilia, just jealous and upset that he could never win her over with his pathetic attempts at hiding who he really was. She saw right through him, and though she had been conned in the beginning, she wasn't buying it now. Having called him out on it, that had pushed him to start lying, like a coward.

Emilia kept going past her own locker, enraged as the words "Emilia and Billy" bounced around the halls, unavoidable and they ricocheted back and fourth, slamming her down each time. Eyes were on her, relentless as they ripped apart her every move. People pointed, laughed, snickered, gasped.

She hadn't been this popular ever before, and she hated the feeling. It was like a layer of skin around her that needed to be shed, and she didn't know how to deal with it. Even if she told people none of it was true, that she was faithful to Jonathan and always would be, people would still believe what they wanted to. Her words would mean nothing.

Coming around the corner, she saw Billy leaning against his locker, talking to two other kids. They were laughing about something, and Emilia heard her name a few times being thrown around like it was the word of the day. She went beet red, and bee-lined it towards Billy. Suddenly, arms were wrapped around her and she was pulled back, out of sight of Billy and the other two kids he had been with. Emilia fought off whomever had grabbed her, turning in a rage, for they had no right to stop her from calling Billy out.

It was Steve, and he had dark circles underneath his eyes. "There's no use, Emilia."

"Do you hear what he is saying!?" Emilia's voice shattered, it was the first moment she realized that she wasn't mad, she was broken. She handled two years of Carol, and it had only been Carol who verbally assaulted her. Emilia couldn't handle six months of the whole school thinking she was a cheater.

"Yes! And I'm so sorry, but Emilia... it'll blow over. We've seen that Billy is nothing more than the dirt on our shoes, alright? It won't take long for the rest of the school to figure it out." Steve had his hands on her arms, pinning them to her sides.

"Oh, I have to find Jonathan before..."

"I haven't spoken to Nancy yet," Steve admitted. "Look, I don't even remember what happened the other night, but from what people are saying... I'm sorry."

Emilia shrugged him off of her. "You're not really the problem right now. But you should talk to Nancy."

Somehow, Steve had managed to calm Emilia down long enough for her to forget that Billy was just around the corner, telling the other Hawkin's High students that they'd had sex in the back of his car. As if Emilia would ever set foot in that car ever again.

She shuddered at the thought, and decided that yes, she did need to find Jonathan before he heard all of this from someone else. Because none of it was true, except for the part where Steve had kissed her, but even that had been blown out of proportion. And so she turned on her heels, mumbling to Steve to have a good day and to try to let the rumours die, and bee-lined it for Jonathan's locker.

The bell rang before she arrived, however, and Jonathan was actually a very good student when he wasn't loitering with Emilia. She realized, as she stared at the empty hallway that she had made a big mistake. Jonathan had obviously heard what people were saying, people had likely asked him what he thought about it too. There was no way he had made it through the parking lot, through the halls, lingered at his locker -probably waiting for Emilia the whole time- and to his class without someone having pestered him, without the words billowing up in the air to his ears.

And Emilia hadn't been there to shut them down.

Emilia had been with Steve.

Guilt raked through her, dragging along her flesh and through her veins. Before she allowed herself to panic, Emilia threw her bag on the ground and crouched down. She ripped apart her bag until she found a notebook. Yanking out the paper inside of it, she jotted down a note for Jonathan to find at lunch if he got to his locker before she did, and if he was mad about what he had heard, he might not stick around to hear her explanation.

She'd stuck around when he had taken photos of Nancy, hadn't she?

She hadn't even done anything.

She calmed herself down, and then raced to the class she'd inevitably be late to.

"Meet me at the photography lab at lunch."

Thanks for reading! Guys, I finally watched an episode! It's actually easier than I thought to find the time, because I mostly scroll along to reach the scenes with Jonathan, and I was able to skip the first two episodes because I've already written beyond them. And we all know I can skip episode 7. So my goal for today after my kick boxing class is to watch the important scenes of episode 4 and write chapters alongside it! 

Question of the Day: What did you guys think of episode 7?