CINEMA ( steve harrington! )

007

cinema——
unexpected visitor

007

Kenra was feeling a sudden sense of deja by as she scrubbed all of the goop off of her skin for the second time that week. Nancy had offered her to stay the night at her house but Kenra declined and told her she'd really rather just go home. She felt sick in the same way she had at the beginning of the week and she just wanted to cry herself to sleep again.

She grabbed a tank top to put on with her sleep shorts instead of a t-shirt because of how strangely hot she was feeling. She took a seat on her window bench and curled her legs up to her chest. Kenra was shaking as she tried to pull herself together. Her mind was playing through all of the events from the other night and tonight together.

She couldn't help but think that if it's true, if Will and Barbara really are stuck in that place where Nancy was tonight, was there even a chance they'd find them alive? Her mind was running a million miles per second. Her body was over sensitive and she was suddenly all too aware of the feeling of her clothes on her body. Her dripping wet hair on her bare back and the water soaking into the material of her tank top. Her hands were cold but her body was hot and she almost felt sweaty.

Her mind was brought back to the real world by a knock on her window, startling her almost to the point that she fell out of her seat. If there was something there, coming to get her at her window, she figured there wasn't much she could do about it considering. But she also couldn't think of a single person she knew that would come knocking at her window at almost midnight.

Kenra shook her head as she peeled back the curtain just a smidge to see out. She tilted her head, confused by the person on the outside. Steve Harrington. Kenra flipped the lock on the window and pushed up on it so he could climb in. "Hi?" She mumbled as Steve stumbled in and almost fell into the floor.

"Hey." Steve collected himself and cocked his head at her. Kenra closed the door behind him. "We're friends, right?" He asked her. Kenra stood up straight and looked at him, covering her chest with her arms.

"Yeah, I mean.." She shrugged, still confused with what he was doing in her room.

"Well, can I talk to you about something?" Steve asked her. "Sure." Kenra muttered, if Steve wanted to talk about his miniscule challenges in life, she would let him, because at least then Kenra wouldn't be thinking about her life or death ones.

Steve glanced around her room, observing the light colors and the flower print on her comforter. It was comforting. He did notice that unlike Nancy's room, Kenra didn't have very many pictures pinned to her walls. The only photo in the entire room was one of Kenra when she was maybe in middle school, and an older man who Steve assumed to be her father. He settled on sitting down on her bed and Kenra followed and leaned back against her pillows, facing him.

Maybe if Steve knew a little bit more about Kenra he'd realize that the reason she doesn't have any pictures with her friends in her room is because she doesn't have any. Just because you're kind and pretty doesn't mean people will be nice enough back to actually warrant being your friend.

The reality of Kenra's life was that she was pretty sad and lonely most of the time. That's why she spends so much time with her brother and his friends.

"So, I went to check on Nancy to see if she'd changed her mind about going out tonight and I look in her window and I see her and Jonathan Byers all cuddled up on her bed." Steve's words were fast and rushed but Kenra kept up with them easily. She would be more concerned with the fact that Steve had come to her to talk about this but Kenra learned to not question most of Steve's choices because the greater majority of them were extremely strange.

Kenra thought about the series of weird things she'd witnessed between Jonathan and Nancy over the last two days and part of her could see a part of Nancy that clearly liked Jonathan, and it's pretty obvious to the whole world that Jonathan likes Nancy. Kenra however just felt like she couldn't tell Steve that, it wasn't her place, so she shrugged. "It's probably nothing."

Steve nodded. Something about the way Kenra talked was so comforting and kind. Steve had thought about what he was about to say before, but he'd obviously never had a chance to bring it up. "Why is it that we've never hung out before?" He asked.

Kenra furrowed her brows and shrugged. "I feel like that's more of a question for yourself." She told him. "I mean, I was dating your best friend for almost two years."

Steve chuckled lightly. Then he realized that's the exact reason why he'd never been all that friendly with Kenra. Jessie was always too adamant on keeping Kenra to himself that no one else could ever even talk to her. It was almost to the point of controlling her.

Steve cleared his throat as he thought of something. Something he'd wanted to actually talk to Kenra about. "That uh.. it actually made me think of something." Steve reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded up paper.

As he unfolded it Kenra realized that it wasn't a paper, it was a photo. "I saw this the other day, Jonathan took it the other night." Steve handed her the picture. Kenra grabbed it hesitantly and looked over it. It was when she and Jessie were fighting on the back porch just before she'd left. Jessie's hand was squeezing her arm and even in the grainy photo you could see the evident fear on Kenra's face.

Kenra slipped her hands over her face and shook her head. No one was supposed to see this. Not after two years of her hiding it from everyone. "Kenra, was Jessie ever... I don't know, like, hurting you, or something?" Steve asked her hesitantly. He didn't know how to word it and he figured that if she had been abused she probably wouldn't want to talk about it anyway.

She lifted her head up and looked at him. "You know what, it's over, and I don't really want to talk about him, ever." Kenra said, her tone had changed drastically and she was clearly aggravated. Steve looked at her, she did react just how he thought. Kenra realized her outburst, which hadn't even been that bad, it wasn't like she yelled or called him a mean name or something. "I'm sorry, I.." She shook her head.

"No, it's okay. I'm sorry, that I never.." Steve tried to say he was sorry he never noticed. He felt guilty because how do you spend almost everyday with someone and not notice they're in an extremely harmful relationship.

Kenra reached out and grabbed Steve's hand in hers and squeezed it. It felt strange, Steve's hand was so warm but it didn't feel bad because she was already so hot, his touch felt good. "Thanks, Steve." She smiled at him, she pulled her hand away quickly before it could get weird and Steve managed a small smile as well.

She stood up from her bed and walked over to her desk where she then rummaged through her drawer until she pulled out a lighter. Kenra walked back over and plopped down on her bed. She held the picture up in her hand and flicked the lighter on with the other. Steve and her both watched carefully as the flame came in contact with the picture and slowly melted it. That is one chapter of Kenra's life that was officially dead.