CHAPTER FOUR
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SNAPSHOT

UNFORTUNATELY, VAL
wasn't able to avoid Steve for very long, considering they had first period chemistry together. And she was all too aware that the very last thing he would ever do was put her out of her misery and sit quietly and mention nothing of their horrifying almost-kiss.

When he entered the classroom, morning sun casting shreds of golden light across his puffy, tired face, his eyes found her immediately. His grin was instantaneous, and Val's stomach rumbled at the sight.

"Hey, party-girl." As Steve plopped down in the seat next to her, he slammed his books down on the table top. Val winced, and he was met with a narrow, icy glare. This didn't deter him in the slightest, though, and Steve leaned in close to whisper, "have a late night, or something?"

"Ugh, leave me alone, Harrington." Despite the clip in her tone, Steve didn't seem to notice how much Val did not want to deal with his happy-go-lucky merriment at such an ungodly hour. He was more drunk than her last night—given his lowered inhibitions and whatnot—shouldn't he be just as miserable as her?

"Got a hangover?" He grinned conspiratorially, glancing around to see if anyone was listening. "Hair of the dog should fix that, ya know."

"No hangover," Val lied, peering down at her blank notebook. "I just don't wanna talk to you." Not having a hangover might have been a lie, sure, but it was an established fact that Steve Harrington and Valerie Fairchild were not friends. And Steve was acting rather chummy for a person who was such an adamant advocate for this fact, once upon a time.

"Did you get in trouble?"

"Oh, yeah," she answered, her stomach turning over at the reminder.

"Sorry," he winced, sucking a breath in through his teeth. "I thought hiding in Jimmy's closet was a better game plan than scattering around like chickens with our heads cut off."

"Well, it wasn't."

"You grounded?"

"Yes." Steve sighed regrettably, and he ran a hand over his mop of dark hair, the locks bouncing back into position despite being ruffled. Val rolled her eyes. He appeared to feel guilty, at least, with a tight wince and pursed lips.

"Look, Val, I'm really sorry."

"It's Valerie to you, Harrington,"corrected harshly, her frustration boiling over. At her harsh, unforgiving tone, Steve seemed to finally catch the notion that had been soaring over his head.

"Sorry."

"Just because we hid in a closet together doesn't make us friends, okay?"

"Okay." Val risked a glance at Steve. His chin was hung low, like he was a little kid who got reprimanded, on the verge of pouting. Perhaps if her head didn't feel like it was being squished in a vice grip she would be more inclined to go easy on Steve. It was clear that he felt regretful, and the fact that he wasn't arguing with her was a relatively good sign. But, Val wasn't really in a forgiving mood.

"And don't think that since I got drunk and found you slightly less barf-inducing we're cool, all of a sudden," she told him, watching his tired eyes harden, as if he were sliding down a deflective visor. "Got it?"

"Yeah, got it," he answered with a sigh.

"Good."

"Ya know, I'm not–" he faltered, and Val turned to stare at him narrowly. So much for not arguing. "I'm not some evil villain. You don't have to–you don't need to keep me shut off from your life forever." Val, in all of her indignant fury, let out a low groan.

Who died and gave Steve the right to suddenly carry all of this worldly wisdom? He was the one who drew this arbitrary line in the sand between them. He was the one who very pointedly told Val to stay over there with the freaks so he could have his time in the sun at the top of the food chain. It was her heartache she had to change herself to overcome, not his. He didn't get a say in how she found her footing once the rug had been ripped out from under her converse-clad feet..

And so what if she held him away, if she was more careful than perhaps she needed to be? Val already learned that harsh lesson. She knew what it felt like to walk blindly into a snare, kicking and flailing like a wild animal. Only to be pointed at and mocked as she hung there, scared and humiliated.

"You shut yourself off from my life, Harrington, in case you forgot."

"I was thirteen," he argued. "I was an idiot."

"Was?"

"Okay...ouch," Steve huffed, furrowing his eyebrows at the girl beside him.

"Just leave me alone, Steve," she told him tiredly. He opened his mouth to argue, to push or pull or something to get Val to open up. But, the shrill morning bell rang, and as their teacher entered to begin the class, Val thanked her lucky stars that she didn't have to listen to any more.

It was unbelievably unfair to hear Steve being so...civil. When just a few years ago he reached into her chest and ripped out her heart with his bare hands, and he pushed her to the outskirts of their little, adolescent society. Part of her suspected that he was lulling her into a false sense of security just to turn around and humiliate her yet again. The thought made her chest constrict treacherously.

When class ended, Val shot from her seat like a bat from Hell, too fast for Steve to even get a word out edgewise.

Lunch wasn't really less unlucky for Val. She was able to dodge Steve in the lunch line, thank goodness, but as she gripped her plastic tray and made for the library, unmistakable, taunting laughs echoed along the hallway walls. It was Tommy and Carol, of course, because why wouldn't it be? They were taking up a few benches that lined the walkway to the gymnasium. Which was the only hallway that would get Val to the library. Go figure. She hesitated just around the corner, before eyeballing the door to her left. No classroom sounds could be heard and the plaque on the door read DARK ROOM.

Quietly, she balanced her lunch tray in one hand and turned the knob with the other.

"Hey, watch the light!" A frantic yell caused Val to lurch, her tray tipping over and sending her ham and cheese sandwich toppling to the floor. In a panic, she tightly shut the door, sending the room back into darkness. She stared down at her lunch with a frown before turning towards whoever had assaulted her ears.

He was familiar, vaguely though. His hair was sandy brown and hung over his forehead and his eyes were dark like two chunks of amethyst. Val squinted at him in the dim, red-twinged lighting, trying and failing to place those familiar eyes.

"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly, hastily picking up her blitzed lunch.

"You're...fine," he peered at her, his eyebrows furrowed deeply, thrown. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine." Val guessed that she might've looked a bit flushed, with wide eyes and high eyebrows. Perhaps she even resembled a doe in headlights. "Just, avoiding someone," she assured him, expelling a deep exhale.

After she took a second to collect herself—and dispose of her sad lunch in the trash by the door—Val let her eyes roam. Strung up along the walls were ropes with dark pictures pinned to them, and intricate film equipment littered every available surface. The boy she intruded upon was currently bent over a tub of solution, his hands gripping a pair of tweezers like a vice, an undeveloped photo pinched between the metal prongs. "Cool pictures."

"Thanks," he said sheepishly, turning back down to his work.

"Is it for a photography class?"

"No, they're personal. Mrs. Sanders lets me develop my film here when her students aren't working on any projects," he explained, still not looking back at Val while he focused on pinning his current project up on the rope above their heads.

"Honestly, I didn't even know we had a dark room." This caused the boy to rear his head back towards the mousy teen.

"Really? I use it all the time." And despite everything being drenched in a wine colored glow, as Val finally got a good, close up glimpse of this strange boy, she was finally able to place where she's seen those eyes.

"You're Jonathan Byers, aren't you?"

"Yeah..." Jonathan cocked his head to the side, unsure. "Do I know you?"

"I hope so, we used to take baths together." Val drew a great deal of satisfaction from Jonathan's confused, borderline affronted expression. A thick line sprouted underneath his fringe, creasing his forehead, and his mouth opened and closed a few times, like he was figuring out what to say.

"What?" A few moments went by, with Val just grinning conspiratorially up at Jonathan and him just growing more confused by the second. Swiftly, as though he'd cycled through every person he ever met in a matter of moments, it clicked. "Valerie."

"Ding ding ding."

"Wow," he remarked, leaning back on the table and folding his arms, observing Val as if he was trying to place all of her features, trying to relate them back to when they were four. Perhaps there are snapshots of them as tots tucked away in the Byers' attic, all round faces and pudgy limbs. Photos that no one has laid eyes on in over a decade. That is, if Joyce even held onto them in the first place. "It's been a long time."

"Apparently," she said, making a show of rolling her eyes. "How's your mom?"

"She's good. Working a lot, but good."

"And your dad?" While talking about his mom had sent an easy smile crawling across his mouth, the mention of his dad made him retreat back into his protective shell. The muscles in his face tensed up as he spoke and his eyes turned down to the grain of the table below him.

"Out of the picture," he said stiffly.

"Good, he was a total asshole, if I remember right."

"Yup, that's him." They descended into silence for a few breaths, the stillness of the room crackling like static on a television.

It'd been many, many years since Val had spoken with Jonathan. She'd seen him around school, but never sought him out. Their mothers had a terrible fight when they were just toddlers, Val was only four and Jonathan was just on the verge of turning three.

The feud between Jolene and Joyce became old news amongst the townies by the time Val got old enough to really care, but she had to admit, she was curious. "Can I ask... Do you know why our moms stopped being friends?"

Jonathan gave the girl a shrug and shook his head, peering up at his photograph as the image finally started to develop. "I was too young," he told her, pursing his lips.

Val watched an empty swing-set, desolate and abandoned, ryegrass overgrowing around its steel support beams, blossom into focus on the paper strung up over her head. Melancholia bloomed in Val's chest, a farewell to childhood innocence. She felt a constrict bubble up into her throat, and she had to clear it away before speaking.

"Yeah. Well, anyways. It was good seeing you, Jonathan Byers."

"Yeah, you too, Valerie."

–

Despite being threatened with even more unsavory punishments if Val were to disobey her mother and not go straight from school to Benny's, she was at the mercy of her flaky, older brother.

Well, it wasn't really fair to say that Buddy himself was flaky, not entirely. Mostly these days it was the unpredictability of being a police officer. How being a cop in Hawkins, Indiana, of all places, was all that unpredictable, Val would never understand. What could have possibly been demanding his undivided attention to the extent that he forgot to pick up his little sister from school, she couldn't be sure.

So on the curb she sat, with her books in a pile on one side of her and her two year old backpack on the other, waiting. Surely he wouldn't completely forget about her, right? Surely he'd glance at his watch and realize that he had somewhere to be, right? Right? There was no way to be sure.

Val contemplated using the payphone to give her mom a ring at work, and see if she was able to step out and drive her to Benny's. It was Jolene's punishment that left her in this predicament in the first place, wasn't it? But, the thought of sailing Buddy up the river wasn't a very attractive one. She'd need someone on her side during these cold, contentious circumstances she found herself when her mother was pissed off. Making an enemy in the only person she knew with a car would not be a very wise decision.

With a frustrated huff, Val gathered her belongings, watching as the last of the cars in the student parking lot peeled away, and stomped back towards the payphone.

"Hawkins' Precinct, this is Flo."

"Hey, Flo, it's Val," Val sighed into the phone, causing it to crackle back into her ear. "Is my brother there?"

"No, dear. He's out on patrol." Val swore under her breath and dropped her bag to the concrete in defeat. "Did you need me to call him in?"

"Yeah, could you–" as Val was ready to tell Flo to get her brother to the high school, ASAP, because he had precious cargo to haul to Benny's, she saw a familiar face roll up beside the payphone, his car engine rumbling loudly in the September heat. He gave her a small smile and beckoned her over. "Actually, Flo, no. Everything's fine. Just tell him that he owes me, okay? Big time."

"Sure thing, Val." And before Val could even blink, the line was dead.

"Wow, glad there isn't a gun to my head or something," she grumbled before setting the phone back on the hook. The sun was out in all of its unmerciless glory, and Val squinted as she ambled over to Jonathan Byers' Ford Galaxie, the hood frosted over with rust and the muffler clanking, as if it were on the verge of falling onto the pavement as he idled there.

"Hey, Byers. Got room for one more?" Jonathan sent her a half smile, his lips tucked up into his mouth, and nodded towards the passenger side of his car.

"Hop in." Without another second of hesitation, Val trotted around as Jonathan leaned over to pop open the door. Through the back window Val spied a young kid, his hair and dark eyes a near spitting image of the boy behind the wheel. When she plopped down into the vinyl seat, she sighed, dropping her things on the floor between her legs. "This is my brother, Will. Will, Valerie."

"Hey," Will said quietly. Val turned in her seat to peer at the boy. He was young, maybe eleven or twelve, and Val sensed that her presence was an affront to his space. His Skeletor t-shirt seemed a few sizes too big, and there was a food smudge on the fabric under his chin.

"You can call me Val," she told the younger boy, smiling at him over her shoulder. Will met her eyes, but the smile he gave her didn't quite reach up into his eyes. She bit her lip, and turned back to face the windshield. "You know the diner out at Kerley and Dover?"

"Yup."

A / N
And there's chapter four!!!
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And thank you so much everyone for 50k reads!!!
Also: I added a little background story to the intro chapter (.000) and I definitely recommend giving that a glance if you haven't already.
Thank you so much and
happy reading!