History Must Repeat Itself

Chapter 43

          As we got closer to Hawkins, I finally noticed the destruction that Vecna caused. The gates destroyed the whole town. There was no grocery store. No Melvald's. No records store. No more Family Video. Steve would be excited to find another new job. But at the same time, Steve was going to be pissed to have to find another job. My head turned at the sound of a familiar car horn. Madison rolled down her window as Steve pulled up beside us.

"Do you want to drop your car off and just take mine? We'll have to go out of town."

I nodded, and we took the back roads towards my house in one of the unaffected neighbourhoods. I don't know if that made us lucky or not. There was no urgent need to leave Hawkins with our house still standing.

          The grocery 'superstore' we walked into was picked over. This was one of the closest places to buy food that Hawkins residents could get to. I grabbed a shopping cart and looked at the others.

"Stick close, okay? Don't get trampled or kidnapped. I'm going to grab some other stuff too, in case we have to evacuate," I said.

"There's a shelter at the high school. I was planning on stopping by the kids' houses tomorrow and picking up donations," Steve told me, following me into the store. Robin ran off with Dustin and Madison, already grabbing things.

"That's a good idea. When you leave in the morning, I might give you a box. Or I'll drop it off. I want to go see Max and get a hold of Susan," I said, grabbing some remaining boxes of pasta.

"When I leave in the morning?" Steve grabbed a few varieties of pasta sauce with a brief glance at the expiration dates.

I froze with my hand around a huge bag of rice. "I'm sorry. I just assumed you were staying the night. It's fine if you aren't. Don't feel pressured to."

"No, no, I will. I was going to. I just assumed you didn't want me to."

I shrugged, continuing down the aisle. "I mean, I like having you over. I just didn't know if you'd feel comfortable. I thought you'd go to the Wheelers or something."

"Why would I go to the Wheelers?"

I glanced at him, dropping a couple boxes of popcorn into the cart. "I mean, you and Nancy probably have a lot to figure out."

I continued down the aisle, but realized after a moment that Steve wasn't beside me. I glanced back at him. He was staring with his hands stuffed into his pockets. His tongue poked out between his lips, thoughts running wild in his head. I stared, waiting for an explanation.

"I thought Robin was exaggerating," he said, snapping out of wherever he'd gone.

"What do you mean?" I started walking again, making my way towards the fresh food.

"Robin kept saying you thought Nancy and I got back together or I'm in love with her."

"And?" I didn't look at him, keeping my eyes on the apples in front of me. I forced myself to consider the bruised-ness of each instead of wanting to shake Robin.

"Do you really want to talk about this here?"

I sighed out my nose. "Might as well. Neutral territory."

In my peripheral vision, Steve crossed his arms. As I put bananas into a plastic bag, Steve grabbed a bag of red grapes. He shifted the bag between his hands, walking next to me.

"Nancy was my first love. Our relationship did a lot to my head. I don't know if you heard what I said to her in the woods, but I thanked her for making me realize I used to be a real asshole."

"I did hear that." I glanced up at him. "I'm sorry, the forest was really quiet. It was hard not to."

Steve shrugged. "What else did you hear?"