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Always The Babysitter - Chapter Nine: MADMAX

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Steve Harrington x Olivia Henderson(OC) (eventually) Word Count: 3,611 Warnings: lil’ bit more angst, fluff if you squint Smut: no | yes; A/N: Hi, friends! We get more Dusty in this episode!! If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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October 28, 1984. Just a few days before Halloween. Was I excited? Hell no. Halloween really isn’t my favorite time of the year. Mainly because the last two years, I’ve spent a good portion of my Halloween nights from around 11pm to 1am in a jail cell, not booked.

Anyway, I was sitting on my bed reading a book and listening to my favorite record when I heard Dustin walk down the hall saying, “Son of a bitch,” over and over again. Sighing, I got up and followed him through the house, trying to see, as well as asking, what he was looking for.

When we made it into the living room, he started looking in the couch cushions. “Another stupid penny.” He threw it, causing our cat to meow.

“Dusty, watch it!” Mom said. “You almost hit Mews.”

“Can I please check under your cushions?”

“Dustyyy.”

“Mom, please! It’s an emergency!” he whined.

They sarcastically moaned at each other as Mom got up.

“Why do you do that?” I asked.

“Do what, Livvie?” she asked.

“Give in to him.”

“Livvie,” she warned.

I put my hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry.”

“Love you, Mom,” Dustin said. “Liv, come here.”

“No.”

I went back into my room to continue reading. I didn’t make it a whole chapter before Dustin came bursting into my room. “Liv, you’re coming with me.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the front door, grabbing Mom’s car keys as he did. “We’ll be back later!”

“Dustin, what the–”

“Drive me to the arcade,” he said.

I gave him a look that read excuse me?

“Please.”

“Well, since you dragged me out here, I guess I have no choice.” When we got in the car, I started it up and made my way to the local arcade, Dustin trying to make small talk on the way.

“Thanks,” he said. “You don’t have to stay, though. You can go see Steve.”

Steve and I started hanging out again after the events that went down last year. It was nice. He made time for me again which was something I definitely wasn’t used to when he became King of Hawkins High.

Was he still King? Yes. Was I still Queen? Unfortunately, yes. I didn’t want to be Queen and told people to direct that title to Nancy, since she was Steve’s queen. They all ignored me. But, it’s whatever. I’m getting used to it.

Steve and I had those sleepovers last year for a few months. Nancy walked in on us sleeping one morning, and confronted us both about it. We explained that it meant nothing and that we were just friends. We did it more as a comfort thing and all we did was sleep and nothing else. She was upset for a few days, but she didn’t really have room to talk since she was still hanging out with Jonathan when she wasn’t with Steve.

It was nice for things to be back to normal, but feelings that I was sure weren't there… ended up being there. When I stayed at Steve’s one night over the summer after a party, I thought long and hard about it. I even went as far as making a list that just confirmed everything. But I wasn’t about to let those feelings show.

“Dusty, I don’t wanna go see Steve,” I said. “I wanna spend time with you.”

“At the arcade?” he asked, incredulously.

“Yes. At the arcade.”

When I pulled into a parking spot, I noticed Joyce’s car sitting in a spot, so I walked over to her just as Will was getting out. I told Will that I would be inside in a moment and then I said hey to Joyce, telling her that I’d give Will a ride home if she or Jonathan didn’t come sooner.

When I walked inside, I immediately found all four boys at the game Dragon’s Lair.

Dustin played for a while before the cartoon princess… person said to use some magic sword. “Oh, I’m in uncharted territory here, guys.” “Down, down, down,” the boys yelled.

“I’m going, I’m going!”

They were all directing Dustin on which way to go as I just stood and watched the screen, the animated characters not doing what Dustin was wanting them to do, which resulted in his character dying.

“No, no, no!” Dustin exclaimed. “I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!”

I giggled at Dustin’s antics, not really upset that he was using such language. Like I had room to talk.

“You’re just not nimble enough,” Lucas said. “But you’ll get there one day. But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine.”

“Whatever,” I said. “At least he’s still good in Centipede, while I’m the reigning champ on Dig Dug.”

“You sure about that?” Keith asked.

I quickly turned around, looking at him, watching as he munched on Cheetos Puffs. “What?” When it hit me like a bus, I said, “You’re fucking kidding me,” and ran to the gaming console that became my stress relief over the summer.

Seeing the score above mine made me furious. “No, no, no!”

“They beat you by 300 points!” Mike said.

“751,300 points!” Will said.

“No one’s been able to top my score of 751,000 for months!” I exclaimed. I went searching for Keith, which I didn’t need to because he followed us. “You tell me who the hell MADMAX is right now, Keith!”

“Yeah, spill it, Keith!” Dustin said.

“You want information, then I need something in return,” Keith said.

We all turned to look at Mike, who was looking at me. “Don’t you dare look at me,” I whispered.

“No, no, no. No way,” Mike said. “You’re not getting a date with her.”

“Mike, come on,” Lucas said. “Just get him the date.”

“I’m not prostituting my sister!”

“But it’s for a good cause!” Lucas and I exclaimed.

“No, don’t get him the date,” Dustin said. “Ya’know what, he’s gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family.”

“Acne isn’t a rash,” I whispered.

“And it’s not contagious, you prepubescent wastoid!” Keith said.

Stepping in front of Dustin, who had an arm in front of me, I said, “Hey, no one insults my brother or these snot nosed pre-teens but me, you understand?”

“Liv, calm down,” Dustin said.

“You can’t go back to the station,” Mike said.

“I’ll have his head mounted on a stick!” I exclaimed.

Mike and Lucas had their hands and arms in front of me and on me, trying to keep me from killing Keith, who just stood there like this happens every week… because it does happen every week between him and I.

“Okay,” I said, still feeling everyone’s hands on me. “Okay. Okay! I’m good.” I turned around to walk outside when I noticed that Will wasn’t around. Worry instantly hit me like a bus as I looked for him. When I saw that he was outside, I walked out, saying his name.

When he turned to face me, I asked him if he was okay.

“Yeah, I just…” he said. “I just needed some air.”

I nodded. “Me, too. I was about to rip Keith’s head off.”

“Again?” he chuckled.

I chuckled with him, “Yeah. Come on. Let’s see if you can beat my score on Dig Dug.”

He smiled. “You’re on!”

~~~

I had to go to the station the next morning to log in some community service hours since I got “busted” for “shoplifting”. The charge was bullshit. Carol had put something in my bag without me knowing and got me busted for something I didn’t do.

I watched as Murray Bauman followed Hop through the station, as well as Flo following Hop. She took his cigarette out of his mouth and put it down, which I picked it up and took a drag from it. She then took the donut from him and gave him an apple.

Blowing out the smoke from another puff I took, I said, “Ya’know that doesn’t do you any good, Flo.”

Putting the cigarette out, she replied, “And I’ll do the same with you.”

Hop walked closer as he was telling Murray that he had five minutes to talk to him and not a second more before he looked at me and said, “Liv, go to school.”

I sighed and picked up my bag, telling Flo, “Duty calls.”

What I didn’t expect to see was Steve and Nancy parked outside. I walked up to them, confused, as Nancy rolled her window down. “Uhh, y’all here to file a complaint against someone?”

Nancy chuckled. “No. We’re here to pick you up.”

I furrowed my brows a little. “That’s very generous of you, thank you.” I got in the backseat and brought out my homework that I missed last night to finish doing, making small conversation with Steve and Nancy on the way while stealing glances at Steve.

I was done with my homework by the time we got to the school, so when Steve brought out some papers to discuss with Nancy, I was fixing my makeup and playing with my hair in the rearview mirror.

“It’s crap, I know,” he said.

“No, it’s not crap,” Nancy lied. She looked at the papers again, skimming over them.

“It’s… not good.”

“Let me see,” I said, reaching over to grab the papers from Nancy as she said, “It’s going to be.”

“This needs major reorganizing,” I muttered. “Nance, let me see your pen.”

She handed it to me and I started to write some suggestions.

“Hope it’s okay I mark on this,” I said, focusing on what I was reading.

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve said.

“Okay,” I said, leaning forward. “So, in the first–”

“Liv,” Nancy said, softly.

I looked at her, seeing with her eyes that she wanted to be the one to help him. I nodded and handed her the papers back, as well as her pen. Going back to messing with my hair, I sighed.

“In the first paragraph, you used the basketball game versus Northern as a metaphor for your life, which is great, but then around here where Liv marked, you started talking about your granddad’s experiences in the war. And I– I– I just don’t see how they’re connected.”

“It connects because…” Steve said. “Because, ya’know, we both won.”

“Steve,” I whispered, hanging my head for a moment.

“Should I start from scratch?” he asked.

I wasn’t sure who he was talking about, so I looked up, seeing his eyes connect to mine in the mirror. “No. Just rewrite it and talk about the basketball metaphor. When’s the deadline?”

“It’s tomorrow for early application. Can you come and help me tonight?”

“She can’t,” Nancy said, without missing a beat.

We both looked at her, at least mine asking why. “We have our dinner tonight, remember,” she said, looking dead at Steve.

Nancy and I were on touch and go terms. When we both were around Steve, it was like she was fighting for his attention, but when it was just her and I, Steve wasn’t mentioned and we were like the best of friends.

Steve sighed, saying, “Oh, my god!”

“We already canceled last week,” Nancy said.

Tension. That’s all I felt was tension whenever I was with them.

“You don’t have to go,” she said. “Just work on this.”

“What’s the point?” Steve asked, grabbing the papers from Nancy. He crumbled them up as Nancy and I told him to calm down.

“I’m calm,” he said. “I’m calm. I’m just being honest. Ya’know, I mean… I’ll just end up working for my dad anyway.”

“That’s not true,” Nancy and I said, albeit she was a little louder.

“I don’t know, Nance, is that such a bad thing?” he asked, as I sat back. “There’s insurance and benefits and all that adult stuff. And if I took it, ya’know, I could be around for your senior year.”

“Steeeeeve,” Nancy said.

“Just to look after you for a bit. Make sure you don’t forget about this pretty face and stuff.”

Nancy chuckled as I rolled my eyes and looked out the window, trying to hide a tear that wanted to fall from my waterline.

“Nance, I’m serious.”

I was unsuccessful as I watched from the corner of my eye Steve lean over and kiss Nancy.

“I love you,” Steve said.

“I love you, too,” Nance replied.

An engine revving had my attention. I quickly wiped the tear away as I opened the door and stood up, leaning my arms against the top.

Everyone in the parking lot watched as a beautiful blue Camaro pulled up and parked into a spot, a little red-headed girl getting out and skateboarding to the middle school.

A dirty blonde boy with a mullet got out, taking a drag from his cigarette before flicking it off and heading into the school.

I hadn’t noticed that my tongue was running across the corner of my top lip before Nancy got my attention. “Hmm? What?”

“Wipe the drool,” she said.

“But check out that ass, Nance,” I said. “Look at it go.”

~~~

After third period, I hunted Tina down, wanting one of those orange flyers I was seeing around school. Once I had one, I went hunting for Steve, knowing he already knew about it, but couldn’t find him.

I did find Jonathan and Nancy, however, so I walked up to them right as Nancy handed him a flier.

“You’re coming to this,” she said.

“Come and get sheet faced,” Jonathan read. “No, I’m not.”

As Nancy was telling Jonathan that she just couldn’t let him sit at home alone on Halloween, people were saying hey to left and right. Was it because of the Queen status I apparently held? Yes. Was I used to it? No. Was I getting used to it? Eh, kinda.

Jonathan telling Nancy that he was taking Will trick or treating brought me back.

“No, you’re not,” I chuckled. “Let me predict this for a second. You’re gonna be home by 8, listening to the Talking Heads and reading Vonnegut, or whatever the hell you read.”

“Sounds like a nice night,” he said, a small smile on his face. The smile I held died at seeing Steve sneak around the corner from Nancy’s locker where we stopped.

“Jonathan, just come,” Nancy said. “I mean, who knows, you might even meet someone.” Her words were cut off by Steve wrapping his arms around her and pulling her away from her locker. She turned around, shoving his shoulder while telling him to take his sunglasses off as I felt a hand on my back.

I sighed and looked at Jonathan as Steve was telling Nancy he missed her. He leaned his head closer to mine as he said, “He’ll come around one day. Don’t worry.”

~~~

As I was sitting on my bed doing my homework, my personal landline rang. Confused, I picked it up and answered, “Hello?”

“Can you come with us tonight?”

I sighed. “Why? So that I can drive while you two fu–”

“Okay, that was one time and it was… unexpected.”

“Yeah, because no guy in their right mind would just get a random raging boner,” I said.

“Happens more often than you think.”

“Gross, Steve.” After a few seconds of silence, I sighed. “Fine. What time?”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, I love you, I’ll pick you up soon,” he rushed.

I couldn’t even get my next words out before he hung up. “Oh, okay..” I sighed again, getting off my bed and putting on a jacket and my shoes. When I made it to the living room, Mom asked where I was going. I lied and told her that Steve wanted me to help him with some homework, which she believed.

A few minutes later, Steve showed up with Nancy in tow. Being around the both of them was awkward enough, and I had been doing it a lot lately. I said my hellos and got comfortable in the backseat. I hadn’t realized I’d fallen asleep until I felt a hand on my knee, softly shaking me.

“Liv, wake up,” Steve’s voice said. “We’re here.”

I opened my eyes, breathing in deep before I leaned my head up to get out of the car.

Steve, Nancy and I walked down the walkway to Barb’s front door. We all stood there for a moment before Steve asked, “Okay. Ready?”

“Yeah,” Nancy answered. “Liv?”

I looked up from staring at my shoes to Nancy, my brain taking a moment to process what she asked. “Oh. Yeah. Sure. Let’s do this.” I sighed, putting my hands in my jacket pockets.

Steve sighed, “Okay,” and rang the doorbell.

Mrs. Holland answered the door, surprised to see me standing with Steve and Nance. Once we went inside and took our jackets off, we hung them on the coat rack before following Mrs. Holland into the dining room, KFC buckets sitting on the table.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t get to cook,” Mrs. Holland said. “I was gonna make that baked ziti you guys like so much, but I just forgot about the time, and before you know it, ‘oh, my god, it’s five o’clock.’”

I chuckled as Nancy said, “It’s fine. It’s great,” while Steve said, “Right. I love KFC.” I felt their eyes on me as I put a biscuit and a piece of chicken on my plate. Looking at them, Nancy’s eyes were wide as she waited for me to answer. “O-oh,” I stuttered. “Yeah, this is great.”

Making conversation, Nancy said, “So, I noticed a For Sale sign out in your yard. Is-is that the neighbors, or…”

Mr. and Mrs. Holland looked at each other for a moment before Mrs. Holland said, “You wanna tell them.”

“Go ahead,” Mr. Holland replied.

Mrs. Holland looked back at Nancy. “We hired a man named Murray Bauman. Have either of you heard of him?” She looked between the three of us.

I stopped mid-chew, seeing Nancy and Steve’s eyes on me. I swallowed my bite before taking a sip of my drink. “Yes. I kinda know him. He’s been coming into the station on a daily or weekly basis.”

“We haven’t,” Nancy said.

“He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago-Sun Times,” Mrs. Holland explained.

“He’s pretty well-known,” Mr. Holland said, handing Steve Murray’s business card.

“Anyway, he’s free-lance now, and he agreed to take the case.”

“That’s… that’s great,” Steve said, mouth full of food. “No, that’s really… that’s great, right?” He looked at Nancy as he paused for a moment.

“Uhm, what exactly does that mean?” Nancy asked.

“Means he’s gonna do what that lazy son of a bitch Jim Hop–” Mr. Holland said.

I cleared my throat, to give Mr. Holland a chance to redeem himself… since almost everyone in town knows about me doing community service at the station. Mrs. Holland put her hand on her husband’s arm.

He looked in my direction, saying, “Sorry.” He exhaled. “What the Hawkins police haven’t been capable of doing. Means we have a real detective on the case.”

I put my napkin to my mouth, clearing my throat. Feeling something lightly hit the tip of my shoe, I looked from my plate up to Steve, seeing in his eyes that he doesn’t want me to start anything. “Would you excuse me for a moment? I need to get some air.”

Steve and Nancy both whispered my name, but I ignored it as I put my napkin down on the table and went to the front door, getting my jacket and putting it on. Once the cool, fall weather hit my face, I took in a deep breath before walking back down the walkway towards Steve’s car. I laid myself on the hood and looked up at the stars.

I guess I had fallen asleep again because I woke up to Steve softly saying my name again.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked.

“What?” I asked, groggily.

“You keep falling asleep,” he chuckled.

“Yeah,” I said, sitting up. “I’m fine. I guess I just haven’t been sleeping well.”

He sighed and leaned on the car next to me, asking, “Nightmares again?”

“No,” I shook my head. “It’s the weirdest thing. I’m not dreaming about that anymore. It’s… it’s something else.”

“Like what?”

I was quiet for a moment before he nudged my shoulder, saying, “Come on, tell me.”

I chuckled before saying, “Okay, I’m not gonna go into detail or anything, but let’s just say that I wake up from these dreams… breaking a small sweat.”

Looking at him, I saw the confusion on his face. I laughed, like, actually laughed for the first time in a really long time. “Do I need to break it down for you?”

He looked at me like he needed me to explain, causing me to laugh again. “What are you dreaming about?” “Sex, Steve,” I laughed. “I’ve been dreaming about sex.”

It almost felt like jealousy was coming off of him because he slightly stiffened before asking, “With who?”

“I’m not telling you!” I quietly exclaimed, the smile never leaving my face.

It was nice to sit here with Steve like this. Just talking and laughing… being best friends again. But, it was nice while it lasted because a throat clearing had both of us looking at the responsible party; Nancy.

Steve quickly got off the hood and stood up, as did I. I could tell she was upset, and not wanting to poke the bear, I made my way to the backseat, where I fell asleep on the way home… again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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~~~

A/N 2: hi, friends! i have no excuse why this late. i really don’t. but, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox.

Additional Note: there’s kind of a deleted scene in this episode where hop and liv talk. if y'all are interested, i can write that scene for you!! also, i know that some of y’all are waiting to see your requests, and i promise i’ll get to them. the writer’s block hit really bad with them. atb is the only thing i have motivation to post for at the moment.

~~~

Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak

Steve Harrington Taglist: @madaboutjoe

If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know.

~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

All characters, story lines, and plot aside from y/n and her storyline & plot, are all of the work of The Duffer Brothers.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

No part of these works may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

Posted on January 7, 2024

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