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NANCY WHEELERʼS EYES WENT A little wide at the sight of the girl in front of her, but she didn't even think before running past the police tape ahead, only pausing when she got to Kali. She didn't bother to notice the others standing behind, all she saw in that moment was Kali Hopper. Her Kali Hopper. Back in Hawkins.
"H-hey," she said, not sure if this was a smiling matter or not. Nancy shook her head. "I didn't even know your back."
Kali shrugged, her face straight. "Yeah, well, it's Coleʼs birthday —"
"Tomorrow." Nancy nodded. Kaliʼs muscles relaxed slightly when she finished the sentence for her, causing the girl in front to send her a soft smile. "I kept count."
Kali nodded, but didn't respond.
They stared at each other for a couple more moments, not sure how to feel. Kaliʼs stomach was pouring with a million different emotions and Nancy could feel it hit her back in the chest. Things weren't good when they left them, but being together again just felt right. Neither one of them could ever describe it, but life simply never seemed like life without the other.
On top of that, Nancy could see Kali wasn't doing well. She could see that she still wasn't over everything that happened last summer, and she knew for a fact that she was still blaming herself for it all. It broke her heart to see her this way, so caught up in her own head that she felt the only way she could survive was to push out her emotions. Nancy knew exactly how Kaliʼs mind worked, and she knew exactly how she'd been acting since losing her brother and father. Nancy knew she was right to be worried. Kali wasn't doing good at all.
But what she didn't know was that by simply just being in her presence again lifted a lot of that negative energy away from Kaliʼs mind. It made her think of things, other than killing Cole. It made her think of all the happier times. Times when she'd lay in bed for an entire day with this girl, giggling and smiling, so happy that she barely even recognised herself. Kali missed those times. She missed Nancy.
"Hey! Princess!" Robin broke up the moment, causing Steve to shake his head at her. She didn't notice him, too busy waving her hand in the air and jogging towards her fellow woman lovers, although they had no clue that she was part of that group.
Nancy flinched at the other voice, and Kali finally broke the eye contact, causing the other girl to frown. She covered it up with a small smile as Robin Buckley greeted her with a pat on the back. "Hi," she said quietly, her eyes falling back on Kali, who was staring at the sleeves of her shirt with a blank expression.
Riley joined them next, whispering a sad ʼHeyʼ to her best friend, who wrapped both arms around her in comfort. Then, Max and Dustin, who didn't give her anything other than a nod.
Lastly, Steve Harrington joined the group, smiling at Kali first before making any move for Nancy. He wanted them back to normal. Nancy was a moaning mess without Kali and Kali was extremely boring without Nancy.
