Julie barely slept that night, her dreams being plagued with the sounds she kept hearing. Eventually, she had to turn up the volume on her walkman to try to get the sounds to go away.
When she did wake up, the sun was shining through her window. Julie pulled back her ratty old blanket, only to find that she fell asleep with her clothes on. She cursed herself mentally, before sliding out of her bed.
Julie picked out a pair of dark jeans paired with a dark purple blouse, leaving her mop of hair to rest against her shoulders. She pulled on new socks and walked to the kitchen to find Jonathan struggling with breakfast.
"Need a hand?" Julie asked softly, taking the pan of eggs from him so he could finish the bacon.
"Thanks." he mumbled softly.
Once the food was done, Jonathan and Julie made three plates, Jonathan taking Joyce's in his hand.
"All right, Mom. Breakfast is ready." Jonathan said softly, trying to get his mother out of her daze.
Jonathan tried to put the plate down in front of her. "What? No, be careful of the poster." she said quickly, moving it away.
Julie sat down on the other side of Joyce, taking her calloused hand in her soft one. "I can't eat." Joyce said after a second passed.
"We just need you to eat, Joyce." Julie said, Joyce pulling her hand out of Julie's grip.
"Listen, listen. The Xerox places open in, like 30 minutes." she sniffled, checking her watch. "And I don't want either of you to go alone..." she trailed off, Jonathan taking over.
"No, we know. I told you, we got it." Jonathan tried to reason with her.
"...so I'm gonna have Karen take you, 'cause I should be here." Joyce said again, swapping her gaze between the teens.
"Okay." Julie gave up, making eye contact with Jonathan across the table, who shrugged.
"We need to make, what, 200, 300 copies? How much is a copy? Ten cents?" Joyce ranted.
"Yeah, okay." Jonathan said, though it went unheard by his mom.
"Mom, mom." Jonathan tried to get her to stop. "Mom. Mom. Mom!" he raised his voice ever so slightly, holidng Joyce's hands. "You can't get like this, okay?" he stuttered as Joyce rubbed her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Joyce apologized.
"No, it's okay." Julie said, taking out a cigarette, about to light it when there was a knock on the door.
Joyce got up and opened the door quickly, revealing Hopper. "We've been waiting six hours." she sighed, opening the door fruther to let Hopper in.
"I know. I came as soon as I could." he said, closing the door as he walked into the messy house.
"Six hours." Joyce repeated.
"A little bit of trust here, all right?" Hopper suggested, and Julie rolled her eyes. "We've been searching all night. Went all the way to Cartersville." he explained quietly.
"And?" Joyce asked, trying to contain her emotions.
"Nothing." Hopper said.
Joyce walked around the living room, holding her hand to her mouth to keep her sobs contained.
"Flo says you got a phone call?" Hopper asked, talking about the call that Joyce told Julie about as she fell asleep.
Joyce nodded. "Oh, yeah." she said, walking closer to the burned yellow phone.
YOU ARE READING
1983 || Stranger Things
Fanfictiona kicked out twin, an unsuspecting family, a small town in Indiana where nothing bad ever happens. except everything bad happens in 1983. the life of every Hawkins resident was turned upside down in that year, and Julie was no exception. as much as...
