The Long Game━ (l. sinclair)

will's possessed ass

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

"Where the fuck are you?" came Corey's voice through the Byers' phone.

Sam sighed to herself, feeling guilty for how worried her cousin sounded. "I'm fine, Core. I'm at the Byers' house. It's a long story, and it's really hard to explain, but I'm... I'm fine."

"That sounded like a lie."

"Because it was," Sam deadpanned. "Did anything important happen while I was gone?"

"Well, you're at Will's, so I assumed you're filled in on him."

Sam eyed her drawings of the vines with an unpleasant look. "You have no idea," Sam snorted humorlessly. "But I'm talking about homework. Did I miss any important lessons?"

The line was quiet for a moment.

Then—

"Are you serious right now? Will's having episodes of a shadow monster in another realm, and you're worried about your homework still?"

"I don't want to fall behind on my grades!" snapped Sam, and then she saw Joyce send Sam a worried look, so Sam exhaled and calmed herself. "Also, they're not episodes. There's something more going on."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Sam looked around anxiously, before she opted on saying, "Like I said, it's a long story. I'll explain when I get home."

"And when is that gonna be? My mom left for a work trip this morning, so she won't notice, but my dad's still here being an ass. You're dead if he finds out you're missing."

"Corey, please," Sam began growing frustrated with the questioning. "I really don't know. Just cover for me, okay? I'm way more worried about Will right now than your stupid dad."

"Then something really must be wrong."

"Yeah," scoffed Sam, more-so to herself than anything. "It is."

The line went quiet again, and for some reason, Sam couldn't help herself from asking—

"How's Max?"

She could hear Corey suck in a sharp breath from the other line.

"Um, mad," Corey said, sounding disturbed. "Really mad. Not at you, though, somehow. You're like an innocent, little puffball, apparently."

Sam, for the first time in a few days, found herself smiling slightly at the information, despite being told Max was thoroughly mad with her other friends.

Then, for no reason, Corey added, "Justin was asking around why the chief took you out of school early."

Sam's eyebrows raised to their own accord, feeling a great deal of shock at the information. She didn't think Justin wanted to, like, publicly associate with Sam; let alone ask her cousin with the horrible, scary reputation about her.

"Really?" she wondered, not really believing it, to be honest.

"Yeah," snorted Corey. Then, sounding very amused, he said, "Lucas told him to shut up and mind his business."