𝐖𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐍. ˢᵗᵉᵛᵉ ʰᵃʳʳⁱⁿᵍᵗᵒⁿ ¹

016

016. 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗺𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮
𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴.

"What has gotten into you?" Maureen Philbin said, at ten-thirty in the morning.

The woman was standing in the middle of the bedroom, her hands on her hips and her loafer-covered toes pointed towards the bed. The pearls around her neck were glinting in the sunlight that was spilling through the window - after she'd just ripped the curtains wide open. She stood at the edge of the bed, neck tilted down, frown on her perfectly lined lips, nostrils flared, glaring at the half-asleep teenager lying before her.

"I mean, seriously, what has gotten into you!" she scoffed, exclaiming.

Lori let out a grumble, her eyes peeling open. They were weighted down by a heavy tiredness, and she couldn't bare to open them up. Mostly because she was tired, because she didn't, really didn't want to face her mother's angry wrath at ten thirty in the morning— but also because when she was asleep, she felt alright. And now, even in the first few seconds of waking up, she was remembering everything that happened the night before, everything about Hawkins, and everything she'd seen.

"Lorraine Philbin." Maureen said, sternly.

"No," Lori winced, with a groggy voice. "No."

With a groan and a tight expression, Lori kicked her blankets higher on her body and turned onto her other side. She let out a huff of air, and closed her eyes as she faced the wall.

"Lorraine!" Maureen exclaimed, her voice sounding fed up. She reached for the bed covers, grabbed them, and tossed them to the end of the bed. "Do you have any idea of what's happened?"

"Not now," Lori grumbled, digging her face into her pillow. Her eyes knit together with tension, as cold air trickled up her legs. "Please, not now."

"We need to talk," Maureen told her, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lori squeezed her eyes shut, as hard as she could. She didn't want to talk, she didn't want to turn around and face her mom, she didn't even want to get out of bed. She didn't want to do anything in the moment.

"Tell me why I've just gotten a call," Maureen said, starting off with a bitter tone of voice. "From your aunt— saying that my car, my car, is parked in her driveway."

Lori didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. All she could do was think about last night.

"How did it get in Claudia's driveway?" Maureen said, but sounded like she already knew the answer. "I know I didn't drive it there," she said, putting her hand out to the side. "Because when I woke up yesterday morning — it was gone."

Lori hummed.

"And so were you." she said, as the final punch. "Would you care to tell me why that is?"

"I can't do this right now," Lori said, her words muffled from her pillow.

"Too bad, we are doing it now." Maureen tapped her foot on the wooden floor. "I'm not leaving this room without an explanation. An explanation for why my car disappeared in the middle of the night, why you were missing— missing!— all day long, and how it winded up sitting in your aunt's driveway after several, several hours, and I didn't even hear a word from you the entire time!"

Lori formed her lips into a tight line, pressing them together hard.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was?" Maureen said, more delicately now. "And the worst part— I had to help your aunt find her stupid cat all day because I didn't have the guts to tell her you ran away on me again!"