21. Three's A Crowd

Karmen let out a content sigh as she felt the warmth of the sun pierce through her window, her first thought being that the storm must have finally stopped. The second thought was wondering why her pillow was moving up and down. Her eyes shot open as she realised her head was against Steve's chest, and looked down to where their legs were touching, only being kept apart by the thin tracksuit bottoms that Steve was wearing. She knew she should move, that it would it was weird for her not to, but it felt so good. However, it was over far too quickly when Steve began to stir, and she had to push herself away.

"Um, when did I get into the bed?" Steve frowned.

"You were cold" Karmen shrugged, not being able to look him in the eye.

"Oh…thanks for letting me stay over last night" Steve exclaimed, his voice deep from only just having woken up.

"No problem" Karmen said with a small smile, as he stood up.

"You want a lift to school?" Steve inquired.

"Yeah, sure" Karmen nodded.

"Alright, I'll go bring the car around and then grab some clothes from my house" Steve announced, as he left the room.

Karmen frowned, confused as to why Steve seemed so desperate to leave the room. Had she done something wrong?

Steve let out a deep breath when he finally left the room and bit his lip. With Karmen's cute messy hair, and bare legs, he needed to get out of there quickly. It was making him feel things he knew friends weren't supposed to feel.

The whole day had been awkward for the both. The usual comfortable silence in the car on the way back from school was becoming unbearable. They had both noticed that Nancy and Jonathan were still not back in school and figured that the pair had probably gotten back together. Karmen thought that she would have rather been in the car with them than Steve at that moment.

"Hey, look it's Dustin. Hey, Dustin!" Karmen called out, winding down her window.

She was desperate for any buffer between her and Steve, and the thirteen-year-old boy fit the bill pretty well.

"Oh, thank Jesus. We've got a code red, Karmen! A code red!" Dustin yelled, as he ran over to them.

"Woah, woah. Slow down" Karmen exclaimed, as he reached the car.

"No time. Steve, do you still have that bat?" Dustin questioned.

"Bat? What bat?" Steve frowned.

"The one with the nails" Dustin mocked, waving his hands about.

"Why?" Steve queried.

"I'll explain it on the way" Dustin answered, as he opened the back door and hopped in.

"Are you going to sit there with your mouth gaping or start driving?" Dustin insisted, a moment later.

"Okay, okay. No need to get your panties in a twist" Steve rolled his eyes, turning the gas on.

"Thirteen-year olds, am I right?" Karmen joked, making Steve laugh.

In response, Dustin took off his backpack and threw it at her, as she yelped out in pain, and rubbed her arm.

"Alright, play nice you two" Steve told them.

"He/she started it" The both mumbled, as Steve tried not to grin.

Dustin looked between the pair as night fell, Karmen who was awkwardly twiddling her fingers and Steve who was intensely staring at the road.

"So…good day at school?" He questioned, as they both shrugged.

"It was alright" Karmen stated.

"Been better" Steve added.

"Huh, looks like a full moon tonight" Dustin realised, trying to think of anything to stop the silence.

"We're going monster hunting on a full moon, that's just…great" Karmen pointed out.

"So, hold up. How big?" Steve inquired.

"First it was like that. Now's it like this" Dustin explained, showing that it had doubled in size.

"Kinda like your hair over the past year" Karmen joked, as Steve fake laughed.

"I swear to god man, it's just some little lizard, okay?" Steve suggested.

"It's not a lizard!" Dustin maintained.

"How do you know?" Steve retorted.

"How do I know it's not?" Dustin clarified.

"Yeah, how do you know it's not a lizard?" Steve insisted.

"Because his face opened up and he ate my cat" Dustin informed them, as Steve took a few moments to process.

"Okay, I'm sold. Definitely not a lizard" Karmen agreed.

"Well how did you manage to catch it then?" Steve inquired.

"You've got the hair, I've got the brains, Steve" Dustin replied, as Steve looked offended.

"Hey!" Steve exclaimed.

"Yeah…you've got nice hair too, Dustin" Karmen grinned, as she ruffled his curly locks a little.

"Remind me never to be in a car with you two again" Steve groaned.

They soon arrived at Dustin's house, as Steve got the bat they had picked up from the back of his car.

"Do you really think that? That I'm dumb?" Steve couldn't help but ask, as they got closer to the cellar doors where the creature was supposed to be.

"What…I was just joking, Steve. Honestly. You're not dumb. At all" Karmen replied.

"I wasn't good enough for Nancy-" Steve started, but she cut him off.

"Then Nancy's dumb! Okay, any girl would be lucky to have you. You're good looking, caring, smart, you have your own car…" Karmen trailed off, when she saw the look that Dustin was giving her.

"Oh…girls really dig that stuff?" Steve frowned.

"Definitely" Karmen told him, as he began to bang on the cellar door.

"What was that about?" Dustin asked, a mischievous smile growing on his face.

"Don't go there, Dustin" Karmen warned him.

"Someone's touchy" Dustin grinned, as Karmen glared at him.

It had always been obvious to Dustin that Karmen liked Steve, but she had always seemed oblivious to her own feelings. But he could tell something had changed.

"Alright kid, I swear if this is some Halloween prank…your dead" Steve announced, shining the light in Dustin's face.

"It's not. Get that out of my face" Dustin grumbled.

"You got keys to this thing?" Steve questioned.

A few minutes later, Steve opened the doors and used his torch to peer down the stairs. Karmen was ready for a large creature to run up and attack them but it never came.

"Gentleman first" Karmen offered.

"You know that's not the phrase" Steve pointed out.

"In this situation it is" Karmen responded, giving him a sarcastic smile.

"He must be further down there. I'll stay up here in case he tries to escape" Dustin exclaimed, as Steve turned to give him an exasperated look.

As Karmen followed Steve down the dark stairs, she found her eyes drifting to the older boy's ass and scolded herself mentally. Eyes on the prize, Karmen, she thought to herself.

"I was really hoping it was prank…" Karmen trailed off, as she saw Steve hold up some shredded skin with his bat.

"Get down here!" Steve yelled to Dustin when he noticed something in the corner.

"Oh, shit" Dustin groaned, when he saw the skin on Steve's bat.

"Oh, shit!" Dustin said louder, when Steve gestured to the hole in the wall.

"No way" Dustin frowned, as Steve shined his torch down the long tunnel the creature had created.

"We are seriously screwed guys" Karmen panicked.

Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! These three are so much fun to write, so I couldn't resist. It seems like things are finally going to start to heat up for Karmen and Steve's relationship. Please leave a review:)

Micky-Moo: Aw, thank you:) I'm so glad you like this story. Steve really is so cute isn't he? Haha.