Shadows of the Night •a Stranger Things story•

So, You Gonna Tell Him

November 1st, 1984
Hawkins, Indiana

The morning of Chris's birthday she wakes up in Steve's bed with a slight hangover. It doesn't take long for her to nurse the headache away, to shower, change, and eat breakfast with Steve. His parents were already on their way out the door. Steve pushes some long curls off of Chris's shoulder. She's wearing a vibrant blue sweater, tucked into blue jeans and a white turtleneck underneath. Her white converse shoes are laced on her feet to match. The two of them are facing each other at the kitchen table, sharing coffee and strawberry pancakes Steve's mother made for Chris's seventeenth.

"You ready?" he wonders, staring at her with gorgeous brown eyes.

Chris hums slightly, watching his fingers play with the hemline on her blue sweater. She shivers a bit and shakes her head. "What if we skipped?"

Steve smiles widely. "You know, once I know I'm getting into college I'll take you up on that deal." He rises from his chair, finishing the last of his coffee. He holds out a hand for Chris to take. She grabs it, noticing the difference in their body temperatures.

"Wow, Steve." Chris grips his hand in both of hers, rubbing their fingers together. "You're a little cold."

He furrows his eyebrows together, tilting his head. Some of his hair flops on his head. "Could've said the opposite to you, Chrissie." Chris pauses for a moment, thinking. Steve shrugs his shoulders, piling their plates into the sink. "Must be the sweater."

Not letting her thoughts wander, Chris bobs her head, and moves to help him clean their breakfast.

Nancy and Ronda are sitting in the bleachers during second period, not paying much attention to Steve, Robbie, and a few others in their class playing basketball during their gym period. Nancy and Ronda have their knees pressed together, turned toward each other. They're speaking in low voices.

"Tell me again what happened last night?" mumbles Nancy, her doe eyes filled with anxiety. She hadn't been drunk like that; she was so stressed out that consuming alcohol seemed like the easiest solution at the time. It turned out that it wasn't, and made her feel worse in the long run.

"Well..." Ronnie pauses. She too was anxious about the Halloween party the night before. As far as she knew, no one had any idea that she made out in the bathroom with Robin Buckley. She was grateful for that, however, she wasn't so sure that Robin wouldn't say anything to anyone. To be completely honest, Ronnie hardly knew anything about Robin, and did not want the girl telling others what they did in the bathroom under the influence of way too much alcohol.

"You drank a lot...which is fine, but then you spilt punch. The boys tried to help you in the bathroom. You started telling us it was bullshit. That you and Steve killed Barb. You basically told him you never loved him. Got mad at Robbie for him not caring about any of it." Ronda shrugs. "It's okay though."

Nancy bows her head, groaning slightly. "I can't believe I said that." She huffs in frustration. "Who brought me home?"

Ronda stares over at Steve and Billy, who are getting heated about something. "Jonathan. I think." She lifts an eyebrow at her friend behind her glasses. "So, you gonna tell him?"

Nancy refuses to respond.

Later that same afternoon, Nancy finds Ronda and Johnathan sitting on the hood of his car, eating lunch. Ronda is chewing on a ham and cheese sandwich slowly, staring out at the parking lot. It's Chris's birthday, but she has yet to say anything to Chris. She can feel Chris pulling away from her and Robbie, but Ronda is also pulling away from her brother and her friend. She continues to feel lost and in between people. She doesn't know when she won't feel this way again. It's a scary thing to be alone and lonely.

It scares her to think that she may not find any answers about her younger brother; and if she does find answers, or even find her brother, what will everyone do? Her brother and father will be just as confused as she is now. Her step-mother and her little sibling that hasn't come into the world yet will also be confused. She may find answers with her little brother, but there will be plenty of unanswered questions left.

Ronda doesn't want to think of the possibility of using the search for her little brother as a way to feel less lonely and to give herself a sense of purpose in a world where all of her friends and family seem to have a place.

"You need to cut yourself some slack, okay? People say stupid things when they're wasted," Johnathan's voice floats in, shifting Ronda's focus away from her thoughts. "Things they don't mean."

"Yeah, but that's the thing. What if I did mean it? All this time, I've been trying so hard to pretend like everything's fine, but it's not."

Nancy huffs, sitting down on the other side of Ronda. "I—I feel like there's this I don't know, like this—"

Ronda takes another small bite of her sandwich, offering the other half to Nancy. "Like there's this weight you're carrying around with you," she mumbles. "All the time."

Jonathan squints against the cool autumn sun. "I feel it, too."

"Yeah," agrees Ronda. "But it's different for you. Will came home."

"Yeah." Jonathan bows his head. "Yeah, he did. But he's not the same. I try to be there for him, you know, to help him, but I don't know. I mean, maybe...maybe things just can't go back to the way they were."

"Doesn't that make you mad?" wonders Nancy, waving her sandwich.

Ronda leans away from her for a moment, avoiding being knocked in the shoulder by the food. She glances at Jonathan. "Mad?"

"Yeah," continues Nancy, picking at the crust of her sandwich. She tosses a piece in the grass. A moment later, a small black sparrow swoops in and flies away with the crumb. "That those those people who did this, who ruined so many lives, they just get away with it."

"The people responsible for this—they're dead," says Jonathan, giving Nancy a pointed look.

Nancy rolls her eyes, taking another bite. She throws more crust in the grass. "Do you really believe that?" Nancy chews again. Ronda finishes her sandwich and wipes her hands on her jeans. Nancy looks up at Jonathan again. "Your mom's boyfriend. He works at RadioShack, right?"

"Yeah. Why? What are you thinking?"

Nancy raises an eyebrow at the two of them. "Do you wanna skip fourth period?"

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