Crossfire - Book 1 - S.H.

Chapter 2: The weirdo on Maple Street

That morning the house was quiet. Shelley, Jonathan and Joyce were all together in the kitchen, but while Jonathan finished up breakfast and Shelley tried to set the table while not bothering her mom with the papers spread all around her, no one said a word. That usually wasn't how it was at the Byers household, but with that one important piece of their family still missing, it was no surprise that that was the case.

"All right, girls." Jonathan announced, turning around from the stove with the eggs in his pan as he tried to put some of it in Joyce's plate. "Breakfast is ready."

"What?" Joyce frowned, snapping back to reality as soon as she heard Jonathan's voice but stopping him from serving her, almost desperately. "No, be careful of the poster."

"Yeah, okay." Jonathan mumbled, pulling the pan back so his mother wouldn't burn herself, but probably having been already mindful of the poster the three of them had spent most of last night making considering not one of them had been able to sleep at all. "All right. Here, Shell."

Shelley smiled slightly then, offering her plate out to Jonathan as he served his sister and she nodded.

"Thanks, Johnny." She mumbled, turning to look at her mom as she scrunched up her nose when she noticed the lit cigarette in her hands. "Don't you want some of the eggs, mom?"

"I can't eat." Joyce shook her head, responding almost automatically, as Jonathan sighed.

"I just need you to eat something, mom." He insisted, trying to fill her plate again, only for Joyce to shake her head and reach for a little pile of money nearby with her free hand.

"Listen. You two, listen..." She said, causing Jonathan and Shelley to exchange a worried glance with one another that Joyce definitely missed, being completely out of it at that point. "The Xerox place opens in, like, 30 minutes and I don't want you to go alone..."

"No, we know." Jonathan tried to reassure her. "I told you, we got it."

"So I'm gonna have Karen take you, 'cause I should be here." Joyce continued, as though she hadn't been interrupted at all. "We need to make, what, 200, 300 copies? How much is a copy?"

"Mom..." Shelley called, once she noticed her mom was just this close to losing it. "It's okay, mom."

"Ten cents?" Joyce muttered to herself. "If we... Ten cents..."

"Mom. Mom!" Jonathan called, a little louder this time and a little more forcefully, causing Joyce to finally stop in her tracks as she lifted her teary eyes up to her son. "You can't get like this, okay?"

"I'm sorry." Joyce mumbled, once she took a second to notice the expression on her children's faces. "I'm sorry, guys."

"No, it's okay, mom..." Shelley tried to sound optimistic even if she was completely blowing it, most likely. "We just... We just need you to calm down a little, okay? And maybe... Maybe have something to eat and..."

Before Shelley could even finish her sentence, however, there was a knock on the door and none of the Byers wasted a second before rushing toward it. As soon as Joyce pulled the door open and saw Hopper standing there, she let out a heavy sigh.

"We've been waiting six hours." Joyce complained.

"I know." Hopper admitted, stepping inside the house once Joyce allowed him and trying to pretend the eyes of all the Byers on his every move didn't bother him at all. "I came as soon as I could."

"Six hours." Joyce repeated, as Hopper sighed.

"A little bit of trust here, all right?" He said. "We've been searching all night. Went all the way to Cartersville."