1983 || Stranger Things

ғᴏᴜʀ | ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀʟᴋᴇʀ

      Crumpled on the floor, Julie was blasting her loudest songs on the particular mixtape that she was listening to, in an attempt to drown out the voices and the screams. It worked eventually, and after two hours of body wracking sobs and hazy sleep, Julie stood up and dusted herself off.

      She put her schoolwork away and retreated to her room after checking on Joyce, who was now awake and crying to herself. It seemed that Jonathan had forgotten about Julie. He hadn't called, he hadn't come home.

      Julie set her things in her neat bedroom, collapsing on her bed and staring at the wall, trying to make sense of what she was going through. She had to have been dreaming. That was the only realistic explanation. Julie was under a ton of stress with the whole Will situation. She dozed off doing her homework and heard Will's voice.

      But it was so real, Julie thought, playing with the necklace she had tightened around her neck after Steve had gotten ahold of it. The necklace had a very interesting story, one that Julie laughed at whenever she thought about it.

       Her grandmother, who had a love for seashells ever since she grew up on the Jersey shore had been given the necklace by her mother, and then gifted the necklace to Julie's mother who had a love for the ocean. Her grandma had engraved the bronze necklace with the words, "The seashells don't compare to you". During her high school days, Julie's mom had misplaced the necklace, going as far as to search every square inch of her house with a magnifying glass. Julie's grandma had ended up having to get a back brace from the bending down for months at a time.

      Julie's mom always wore the necklace, and Julie herself had taken an interest to it when she was six. It was on her and her brother's sixth birthday, on the beach near their house, that Amanda Hargrove had passed on the necklace to Julie. The only think that was added was in Amanda's small handwriting, "my Juliana Lorelai", Julie's name. The necklace was rarely taken off of Julie's neck, and was hidden when it was off.

      "Julie! Are you home?" Jonathan yelled, barging into her room and shaking her out of her daze.

      "Don't be so loud." Julie reprimanded as she sat up, Jonathan sitting on the edge of her bed.

      "I'm sorry I left today." he apologized, releasing a weight he had been carrying since he started his car.

      Julie waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Why are you in a hurry now?" she wondered.

      "We have to go search the woods near Steve Harrington's house. And my mom probably won't let me go alone, so I need you." Jonathan explained.

      "So we're stalking?" Julie questioned incredulously.

      Jonathan shook his head quickly. "No, we're not stalking. We're looking for Will." he clarified, and Julie nodded sarcastically.

      "Uh-huh. You're telling your mom. Meet you in the car." Julie said, ushering the boy out of her room.

      Julie took her necklace off. If she was going into the woods, it wouldn't be wise to leave it on, considering how easily Steve had taken it. She placed it in her underwear drawer and laced up her converse that we thrown in her room at random.

      She snatched her jacket from her doorknob and put her walkman away. When she left the confines of her room, Jonathan was leaving Joyce's room.

       No words had to be said, and the duo exited their home in pursuit of the person that binded them together.

•••

      "Jonathan, this is so creepy." Julie said as Jonathan parked the car on the side of the road.