CHAPTER NINE 009. secrets of hawkins LESS TEETH MORE TITS- LUNACHICKS
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
14 YEAR OLD ADELADE spent most of her time in a state of confusion that was hard to shake.
It was a confusion that flowered from a root of natural jealousy, and seemed to bloom in the sun of spring, during their freshman year. The petals remained a blood red colour until the middle of summer, when there was a change that seemed to accumulate into one night; a night her and Heather had spent with Emma and Tammy for their monthly sleepover.
It was the night that Emma awoke to Adelade's quiet worry, as she laid with her mind fixated on an overbearing thought only she could see. It was the night when the two truly opened up to each other; the night when they discussed a process of thought that neither of them would ever have the heart to reference again. The night when Adelade truly became hidden to everyone around her, besides Emma.
As Adelade stood currently, glancing at Eddie and then to Emma's terrified face inside the boat, she imagined she felt the same way Emma had back then. It was a feeling of motherly nature that formed from the hopelessness of it all, and the inevitable spiral that she couldn't shield her friend from. It was through no fault of her own that Emma was left to hide out with the town freak, but she would pay the price for it, if it became anything other than a well kept secret.
Addie would take Emma's secret to her grave, as she had.
"Eddie stop! Eddie." The kid who Addie barely recalled continued to call for his friend to stand down.
It was almost like the boy was shouting through water to Adelade, who walked briskly in the direction of Emma as soon as she saw the top of her golden head over the boat. She was trembling when she reached her - scared shitless until the very moment when she caught the sight of the Indian girl she called her friend, and let out a short gasp. It was loud enough to tug the invisible string between her and Munson, whose face turned sour the second he spotted the mean girl.
Like Steve and Robin, there was a less than pleasing reaction that overtook him when he noticed it was Adelade Thompson in front of him. A built in reaction to years of hearing her life story, and assuming everything that went unsaid.
"It's me. It's Dustin."
"Addie...?" Emma could barely whisper, lip fumbling every syllable.
The two had completely separated themselves instantaneously from the group. Old social circles fell into place; the popular girls enclosed themselves in each other's long worn perfume as they crumbled before the eyes of anyone who dared to watch them. In a perfect duality, it was Emma who sobbed uncontrollably when the two found each other. The year before, she was the one who was forced to push away her grief for the sake of another - in many ways, Chrissy was Emma's Heather.
In many other ways, she was not.
"Chrissy. . . she's. . ."
Addie hushed her friend, who buried her dirtied face in the side of her expensive jacket. She could feel each jump in her bones as the two connected, with the old wood of the boat separating the two's stomach's from moulding into each other entirely. It was an awkward hug - the two had been friends for so long that phrase was rarely muttered - but a hug all the same, which anchored both girls to a reality that'd become all too painful.
