If there was anything Jenna hated doing, it was waiting around for a phone call.

August crept up faster than anticipated, and she hadn't heard from Steve since the candlelight vigil, which started to worry her. As much as she wanted to respect his space and give him more time to grieve, the impatient side of her wanted to pick up the phone and make him talk, which was what she did, worrying about the consequences later. However, she was met with disappointment when no one answered, listening to the Harrington's voicemail box and began to speak after the beep without a second thought.

"Hey, Steve, it's Jenna. It's been a while, so I'm just calling to check on you." She paused, "Don't shut me out like this, Steve. Please call me back." With that, she put the phone back on the hook and exhaled, leaning against the wall and glancing over at the calendar, her heart sinking at today's date: August 3.

Shit. It's Janet's birthday.

Widening her eyes, she stood straight back up and quickly picked up the phone and dialed the Harrington's phone number again, going through the voicemail again and talking once more after the beep. "Hey, it's me--uh, Jenna--again. Calling back to let you know it's Janet's birthday. Not that I didn't think you didn't know, but just in case you forgot. Not that I'm assuming you forgot, either..." She gave herself a quick moment to stop rambling and finish up her second message. "Anyway, if you wanna meet me at the cemete--"

Beep.

Groaning, Jenna re-dialed the number, impatiently listening to Mrs. Harrington's voice through the phone and went for it after hearing the beep once again. "Me again. Third time's a charm, right? Anyway, as I was saying before getting cut off, I'm going to visit Janet at the cemetery. Hope to see you there." She could feel the regret of her words the moment she said them. "Shit, that sounded weird. Fuck, I didn't mean to say 'shit.' Dammit, I didn't mean to say 'fu--'"

Beep.

Slamming the phone, Jenna huffed a sigh, giving up with the voicemails, as she already made herself a fool one too many times already recording them. She waited by the phone in the hope that Steve would hear the voicemails and immediately call her back. But not to her surprise, the phone never rang, so she decided to go see Janet at the cemetery on what would've been her eighteenth birthday alone.

It would be the first time seeing Janet's grave since the funeral, and she got sad just thinking about it on her drive to the cemetery. The lump in her throat was already making its appearance as she arrived, taking a moment before getting out of the car, walking through the aisle of headstones until she reached Janet's. She looked down at her name etched in the stone, then at her birthday and death date below, finding it hard to believe almost a month had gone by since Janet died, almost a month without her best friend.

"Happy Birthday, Janet," Jenna stated, sitting on the grass in front of her grave, where she noticed the set flowers leaning on the side of the headstone, most likely placed there by Janet's dad. "Sorry for not getting you flowers." She stopped talking for a moment, chuckling. "I don't think you'd be mad since you hated them, anyway." She paused again as tears formed in her eyes. "You know, I'm sorry for a lot of things..." Trailing off, Jenna felt the emotions come over her. "But I'm gonna be asking for forgiveness over this for the rest of my life. Because you should be here." She briefly closed her eyes, letting the tears fall down her face. "You should be here and not me."

When the words escaped her lips, the weight that was heavy on her chest finally lifted, but it didn't help the sorrow in her heart, with a hole that would never be filled. She continued to silently weep, too focused on looking at Janet's grave that she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her.

"Jenna?"

She jumped at the sound of the voice, wiping her eyes and looked up to see a familiar face standing over her. "Nancy," she stated. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to bring some flowers for Janet's grave," she said, setting them on the opposite side of the stone, matching with the first bouquet of flowers.

"They're pretty," Jenna commented, admiring the red and white pedals. "Today's her birthday, actually."

Nancy raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I guess today was the perfect day to bring them."

"Yeah," Jenna replied, sniffling. "She would've been eighteen."

The brunette's face turned sad as she sat on the grass next to Jenna. "How have you been?"

She shrugged in response. "Some days are harder than others."

Nancy was quiet for a moment, nodding her head before speaking up again. "You can talk about it with me, if you want. I know what it's like to lose a best friend. I've been through it...you know, with Barb."

Jenna, too caught up in her own emotions, had almost forgotten about Barbara Holland until now, realizing that if anyone really understood what she was going through, it was Nancy. "How did you cope after losing her?"

Nancy exhaled, then let out a chuckle in response. "By killing the monster that took her in the first place and exposing Hawkins Lab for not doing a damn thing about it." She paused, adjusting herself in the grass. "It wasn't exactly a healthy way to deal with it, but at least she didn't die in vain." Her smile slowly started to fade. "And neither did Janet."

"Except she wasn't supposed to die at all," Jenna said. "It was me that Billy wanted to sacrifice to that monster. The Mind Flayer was supposed to kill me, not her. How the hell am I supposed to live with that?"

There was a moment where Nancy was silent as her face fell, then she spoke up again, hoping to give more comforting words to Jenna. "Well, it's not gonna be easy. But you've a great support group, something I wish I had after losing Barb."

Jenna scoffed in response. "If only Steve would stop avoiding me."

Nancy gave her a small smile. "Let's be honest, Steve was never good at dealing with his emotions. He probably just needs more time to process everything and grieve before talking to you about it."

"But the last thing I want is for him to be alone through all of this."

"And he won't. Not with you as his best friend. If anyone can make him open up, it's you."

Jenna raised her eyebrows. "You really think so?"

"I know so," she replied with assurance. "Because there's no way in hell you're gonna give up on him that easily."

A weak smile came across Jenna's lips as she lifted her head. "No, definitely not." She turned her head and glanced at Nancy. "Look, I know this is the last place you probably wanted to be at, and we're not exactly close, but..." The gratitude started to show in her eyes. "Thanks for being here, Nancy."

She continued to look at her with soft eyes. "You're welcome, Jenna."

*******

For the rest of the afternoon, Jenna stayed at the cemetery, where she expected to see Steve waking up to join her, only to be left disappointed when he never showed up. Instead of going home when the sun was setting, she found herself at Forest Hills Trailer Park, driving through the small neighborhood. She slowed down once she reached the Attaway's trailer, noticing that Janet's car was in the driveway, and she wondered if her dad would ever have the heart to sell it. The longer she stared at the car, the sadder she got over the fact that it would forever belong to the one person who was no longer here to drive it. When Jenna finally turned her head away and was about to keep going, her eyes went across the road at Eddie Munson sitting on the steps of his own trailer, a joint in one hand and a Dungeons & Dragons book in the other, glaring at Jenna through the windshield. While she was curious as to why he was giving her that dirty look, she didn't have the energy to go find out as she continued making her way through the trailer park and back out onto the main road, where the night sky was now upon her. She was about to head home when something told her to skip the turn and keep going straight, the feeling in her gut only growing more intense the longer she drove. It wasn't until she made it to the quarry when she realized why she got that feeling, as the answer was in the form of a maroon-colored BMW parked at the edge, with Steve leaning against the hood.

I should've known this is where he'd be today, she thought.

Stopping the car and shutting it off, Jenna was hesitant to get out, waiting for Steve to turn around and see it was her. But when he didn't, she took that as her cue to open the door and step out of the car, slowly making her way towards him, still keeping some distance between them.

"I told you I'd call when I was ready to talk," Steve stated in a bitter tone, barely even glancing at her.

"I got tired of waiting," Jenna replied.

"How did you even know I was here?" he asked.

"I didn't. Something told me not to go home just yet."

"Well, you should. I wanna be alone."

Jenna didn't move from her spot, folding her arms over her chest. "Do you know what today is?"

"Sure do. I got your voice messages," he slurred. "And I'm doing exactly what Janet would've wanted to do if she were here."

She glanced over at his hand, furrowing her brows as she noticed the half-empty bottle of tequila. "Are you drunk?"

He finally turned to look at her, extending his arm out to offer the tequila. "Have some. Maybe we can make out later. We weren't exactly in the right state of mind the first time, remember?"

She wanted to take his words as a joke, but his wet and swollen eyes were telling her otherwise. "That was different."

"Oh, really? How's it any different than what we just went through on the Fourth of July?"

"We were teenagers going through breakups," she pointed out. "We lost our best friend to a fucking monster. They're not the same, Steve."

"Yes, they are," he snapped, shooting up from his car, stumbling a little. "Because I could've prevented them from happening. Maybe if I had stopped pretending like everything was okay after what happened with Barbara and was there for Nancy when she needed me, then we'd probably still be together right now. Just like if I wasn't so busy throwing stupid fireworks at that monster, then I could've..." He trailed off, shaking his head and turning away from Jenna.

"You're angry," she commented, taking a few more steps towards him. "Believe me, I get it. I replay what happened that night in my head, thinking of ways I could've saved Janet, and I'll always feel guilty about it." Jenna stopped talking for a moment, waiting for Steve to look at her again, though when he didn't, she continued on. "So if you want to blame anyone for what happened to her, blame me. Because it's my fault that Janet's dead, not yours."

Steve let out a shaky breath, sniffling as he spun back around, his eyes now soaked with tears and bloodshot from the tequila. "I could never blame you, Jenna." His lip began to quiver, dropping the bottle and attempting to shield his face once again.

Finally seeing his wall cracking, Jenna walked up to him and lightly pulled his arm so that he turned and was staring at her like before, taking a whiff of his alcohol breath. "You don't have to pretend with me, Steve." She lifted her hands up to each side of his face, wiping the tears away.

It was at that moment when those words came out of her mouth that Steve collapsed onto the ground, taking Jenna down with him. She was quick to move her arms around his neck as he buried his head into her shoulder, letting him weep and hold her tightly.

"She's really gone, Jenna," he whimpered in between his muffled sobs.

"I know."

"How the hell are we gonna move on without her?"

Jenna blinked, causing a few tears to fall onto Steve, the twinge of pain shooting to her chest. "I have no idea," she admitted, her voice cracking. "But we'll figure it out together."

So the two continued to hold each other as they grieved their best friend, with the tequila running through the dirt and dripping over the rocky edge.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Well, that hurt. A lot.

What did we think? I've had this chapter planned for a hot minute now.

Comment, vote, it's getting fluffier after this chapter, I promise. ;)

-A