"Steve!" Talia calls his name and he turns around upon recognising the voice. "You okay?"

"It's all bullshit, apparently," he tells her, waiting for her to reach him before he keeps walking towards his car.

He stops when he gets to the vehicle and just leans against it as she asks, "what's bullshit?"

"Mine and Nancy's relationship, she said it's bullshit. I asked if she loves me, she said it's bullshit," Steve explained, clearly upset.

"She was drunk, maybe she didn't mean it, maybe...maybe she was confused or something?" Talia racked her brain for something to say to make him feel better, not liking seeing him in pain.

"Drunk words are sober thoughts," he shrugs.

It was quiet for a moment until Natalia moves to lean against the car next to him, "I'm sorry, Steve. That's really shitty."

"Yeah," he sighs. He looks around, and notices Billy's mullet in the crowd of people inside. "You want a ride?"

Natalia glances back at the party herself before looking back at Steve, "sure, if you don't mind."

"Not at all, get in," despite the sadness in his eyes, he still gave the girl a small smile.

Natalia walks around the car and gets into the passenger seat. Steve turns the radio on at a quiet level for background noise.

A few minutes into the drive, Steve voices his worries that Nancy won't get home safely so Natalia reassured him that she saw Jonathan before she left and that he was heading up to go find her as she had come outside.

"So, you send out your application?" Talia asks him in attempts to distract him from the topic as she didn't like to see the sad frown on his face.

He smiles, "yeah, all sent. I probably won't get in though."

"Why's that?" Talia wonders.

"I'll need to get my grades up," he sighs, his eyes never leaving the road.

"I can help you study if you want," she shrugs. "I'm pretty smart."

"You'd really do that?" Steve asks her.

"Why not, but you'll owe me even more than you already do, Harrington," Talia smiles.

He turns his head for a moment to meet her blue eyes, "I'm okay with that."

Whilst he drives, she gives him directions to her house but she tells him to park a few houses down from her own (in case Neil is still awake, she wouldn't want Steve hearing anything).

"Hey, do you have your house keys?" Steve suddenly realises she has no coat or pockets or belongings with her and hasn't done all night.

"Nah, I don't need one," she tells him confidently.

He pulls over and parks, saying a goodbye as she opens the door and steps out.

"Hey Steve?" Talia peaks her head in.

"Yeah?" Steve leans forward from the drivers seat to meet her eyes.

"Talk to Nancy tomorrow, when you're both sober," she suggests and he nods.

"Goodnight, Carrie," he gives her a genuine smile.

"Goodnight," she closes the car door and makes her way down the street, passing three houses before standing at her own house.

She turns to see Steve's car still there, having waited until she got to the house.

Steve watches, however, as she doesn't walk towards the door but instead towards a window, knocking lightly against the glass.

He sees it open moments later and she climbs in, but not before waving a goodbye to Steve. Once she's inside the house, he drives off.

Max helps (a slightly tipsy) Natalia into her room through the window, "what're you doing? Mum and Neil aren't home."

"Oh, they're not? Well, I don't have my keys anyway," Talia brushes off her dress as she plants her feet on the ground. "Where are they?"

"Halloween party for Neil's work," she replies. "How was your party?" Max asks, sitting back on her bed after closing the window.

"The usual," the blonde shrugs. "Drinking, dancing, a possible breakup, new Keg King."

Max scoffs, "Billy?"

"Of course," Natalia lies down on the bed beside Max whilst the redhead sits up with her back against the bed frame. "How was your night? Find the boys okay?"

"Yeah, it was weird though," Max proceeds to tell her about how they found one of the boys, Will, crouching beside a wall terrified before this other boy, Mike, took him away. She had asked the boys what was going on but they didn't tell her.

"Will," Natalia racks her brain. "The Byers kid?"

Max nods, "I think so."

"Well he's the one who went missing, maybe he has like ptsd or something about whatever happened," Talia suggests.

"Yeah, maybe," Max sighs, lying down beside her sister. "I read it."

"Yeah? What'd you think?" the blonde turns her head to look at the redhead.

"It was really good, gave me chills. The way you wrote it? Genius," Max grins at the older girl. "You should definitely publish them one day."

Natalia sighs, content in the moment, and then decides to sit up before she falls asleep on Max's bed, "don't eat too much candy, yeah?"

Max nods, watching the older girl leave the room to head towards her own bedroom.

She grabs some shorts and a jumper before tying her hair up into a messy bun atop her head and walking to the bathroom, refusing to get into her comfy bed whilst she feels dirty from the party.

She strips the pink material from her body and hops into the shower, letting the warm water run down her skin. She washes the makeup from her face and rinses her body from the gross feeling of a teenage party.

When she gets out, she quickly changes into some underwear and shorts, pulling the jumper over her head, and returns back to her room before Neil gets back.

She heard the door open and close so she jumps into bed and shuts her eyes, hoping that Neil wouldn't be too drunk.

However, by the lighter sounds of the footsteps she assumes it's not Neil but Billy.

Her point is proven when the door opens and Billy calls out into the dark room in a soft voice, "Nat?"

He sees movement under the covers as a hand reaches out and turns on the bedside lamp, "what's up?"

"Sorry, didn't wake you, did I?" Billy asks quietly.

She shakes her head, "no, I just got back like a half hour ago."

He nods, "well I was just checking you got home alright, night."

"Goodnight Billy," she tells him as the door closes.

She turns the light back off, wishing that he would show this side of himself to more people. It doesn't take long for her to drift off into a deep sleep, she doesn't even wake up when a drunk Neil throws the door open and checks she's there. Seeing her asleep, he grunted disappointed and went to check Billy's room too before following Susan to their own bedroom.