❝ in the seventeen years i've been on this earth, i've never met anyone as f#@!%^g stupid as you. ❞
in which two kids on the opposite sides of the social spectrum find solace in one another during a strange period of time.
ESTELLA COLLINS STAND ALON...
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CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR ; THE RETURN OF STELLA AND STEVE also known as; ( pre-episode one)
★☆
HAWKINS, INDIANA WAS THE KIND OF PLACE THAT MADE THE HAIRS ON STELLA'S NECK STAND ON END. Who could blame her? The small, allegedly harmless town had given her enough trauma to last four lifetimes, but yet, she still called it home. She knew the streets, the stores, the stop signs - all like the back of her hand. She'd been here her entire life, yet only a few years ago did she finally see everything wrong with it.
She sat in the back of her father's car, Steve in the passenger seat, enthusiastically chatting about the new song he'd learned on the guitar. Gary Collins nodded along to everything being said, showing a blend of amusement and genuine interest in what the young man had to say. However, his eyes still flickered into the rearview mirror, keeping an eye on his daughter. She chimed in once in a while, but there was a slight reluctance in every movement she made, every word she said. It was like the first step back into Indiana brought back a wave of horrible memories.
"You guys been keeping in contact with the kids here?" he asked, briefly glancing over his shoulder. Stella straightened up a little, blinking herself out her thoughts. She was watching the small drops of water connect on the window, left over from the small shower of rain when they passed the town sign. "You know, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Max?"
"Yeah, we've been writing to each other here and there," she responded, avoiding how Steve tried to meet her eyes. She cleared her throat, her hands squeezing her knees. "Will probably talks to me the most - he sends polaroids of the paintings he's been working on up in California."
It was mostly true. Will sent her letters every week, most of them accompanied by a small catch-up from El, who was living with him, Joyce and Jonathan in California. Back in Hawkins, it was only Lucas and Max who sent her something every so often. The other boys had started to drift, having started high school in the fall. Steve regularly corresponded with Dustin and Robin, but that was only because he bullied them into writing when they visited over Christmas. She couldn't bring herself to do the same.
Stella stared out the window again as Steve began talking to her dad about Robin. She could tell how much he missed their hometown and their friends. She did too, but she could feel that once she left, things had begun to change. It felt inevitable; not being needed by the kids anymore.
The party were growing up - Lucas had joined the basketball team, and all but Max were a part of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign run by Eddie Munson, a boy her age who was still trying to pass his final year of school. She remembered him in passing, how he'd storm the school dressed like a rockstar, his hair long and unkempt. He'd copied her homework a couple of times in the past, but she couldn't much recall him otherwise.
