ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʟᴀꜱᴛꜱ ꜰᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ ☆ ꜱᴛᴇᴠᴇ ʜᴀʀʀɪɴɢᴛᴏɴ

025.

[1984]
025. senior year

Annabelle walked down the road to the high school. She had her Walkman clipped onto her jeans, Starman by David Bowie blasted through her headphones.

The blonde was so much in her own head, flashes of last year in her mind. For the past few days it felt like she was going insane. She kept thinking that Liam would suddenly turn up. That he would be waiting outside her house so his brother could drive the three of them to school. Her thoughts were abruptly stopped when she bumped into someone.

"Oh, shit, sorry." Annie pulled the earphones around her neck and helped the girl up. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine." The red head scoffed, grabbing her skateboard from the floor.

"It's not. I'm sorry. Are you new?" Annabelle realised she had never seen her before. it was a small town. "Um, yeah. I just moved here." The younger girl looked down.

"Well I'm Annabelle." She grabbed something from her pocket, "Everyone calls me Annie. To make up for me knocking you off the skateboard, as an apology here's some coins for the arcade." Annie knew that most people in middle school was obsessed with the new Arcade. Multiple times has one of the boys from the party stopped by to see if she had any money they could borrow - more like steal.

"Wow, really, thanks. I'm Max." She pocketed the money.

"Nice to meet you. Sorry again." With a warm smile, Annie put her headphones back on and continued to the school while Max jumped back on her skateboard towards the middle school.

"I would come with you, J, it's just... I'm not really in the mood to celebrate Halloween this year." Annabelle replied back to Jonathan, putting the homework in their bags.

"That's not like you. You love Halloween."

"Just not this year. Maybe after we could hang out. We can get milkshakes then you can let me practice driving in the parking lot?" Annabelle smiled, following behind Nancy out the class.

"Hey. Be there."

The two stopped behind the brunette girl when she was handed a flyer by Tina. "Hey, Nancy, Annie."

"Hey. Thanks."

Annie smiled back and grabbed the flyer, folding it up to put in her pocket. "Oh, could I get one more?" Both Byers and Lewis stopped, waiting for Nancy to join them. When she did, she shoved one of the flyers to Jonathans chest.

"You're both coming to this."

"Come and get sheet faced." Jonathan read the flyer out loud. "No, I'm not. Neither is Anna because she apparently is going to stay home and watch movies." the boy shot her look.

"What! No. I can't let either of you sit all alone on Halloween. That's just not acceptable."

"Well, you can relax. I'm not gonna be alone. And neither will Anna. I'm gonna go trick-or-treating with Will then me and Anna are gonna go for milkshakes." Annabelle smiled, looking down. Of course Jonathan was going to agree just to avoid going to a party.

"Trick-or-treating all night?"

"Yeah."

"No, no way. You're gonna be home by nine, listening to the Talking Heads and reading Vonnegut or something. Annie will probably draw and listen to Bowie all night." Nancy explained to her friends.

"Sounds like a nice night."

"I agree."

"Jonathan, Annie, just come. I mean, who knows, either of you might even, like, meet someone."

Annie sighed, pulling her headphones out. "Nance, I love you, but I'm not in the mood for party's or people. I just want to sit in my own bed, listen to some vinyl's then sleep. I've gotta run." The blonde placed her headphones over her ears, passing Jonathans old cassette tape back to him.

The duo was left by Nancy's locker. "She's been different right. Since the end of last year?" the girl asked.

"I mean, kinda, I guess. I thought it was about Liam. But.." He got cut off as Nancy squealed, Steve coming up behind her and spinning her around, placing her down and kissing her. When they pulled away. Nancy was quick to ask him a question.

"Do you know what's wrong with Annabelle?" Steve swallowed the lump in this throat, straightening up a bit. "She just seems off since Christmas. I mean, she's barely spoken to me. I thought since you two are best friends, you'd know?"

"Um, no. I haven't really talked to her."

"That's weird. She wouldn't have ignored you. Maybe you could talk to her. Try and get her to come to the Halloween party." She smiled up to him. Steve scratched the back of his neck. The last time he spoke to or saw Annabelle was when he kissed her last December.

"Yeah, sure." - what could go wrong?