Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Dylan sat at her Aunt Celia's kitchen table listening to (or rather trying not to) her aunt drone on about her latest dating mishap. Dylan commended her for even having the ability to go on mindless dates in the current times they were living, but it wasn't something she wanted to spend her time focusing on.
Instead, Dylan was thinking about how fucked up her life was. This wasn't necessarily a new thought, but things always seemed to get more confusing and dark.
Laid out on the table was a stack of paperwork Dylan was still debating on filling out. She'd called the registrar last week and requested they send her the paperwork to un-enrol from the next semester. Next to the stack of papers was a blue ballpoint pen, lying untouched.
Here she was in the same dilemma she'd been in before: should she stay or should she go?
It was bigger than a boy now.
There were real consequences at stake.
Her mother pulled out the chair next to her, patting Dylan on the shoulder at the same time.
"Honey, you don't have to stay for us," her mother said with good intentions. Dylan couldn't argue she was debating staying in Hawkins for something much larger than losing a house. "You worked so hard to get into that program. You deserve to finish it. Your Dad and I will manage, somehow."
That was a lie, still said with good intentions, but a lie.
Both her parents were already looking for second jobs to help rebuild their house. Insurance was useless—the gigantic tear in the ground that split Hawkins in two was considered an "Act of God" and not covered by their policy.
Dylan had never really had a job. She'd had a few amateur modeling gigs that paid her a few bucks over the years, but never a real job. She figured now was probably the time to get one. Even if she did go back to school.
She only had a day or two more to decide before the paperwork had to be mailed, or she'd be penalized academically for dropping out.
Stay here in case Vecna came back, fight with the people she loved if he did, or run away back to California to selfishly finish a school program she might never need if horrible things kept happening in the world? A school program she probably couldn't even afford after the year already paid was through?
When she phrased it like that, the decision was an obvious.
Dylan grabbed the pen and began scribbling her signature on all required pages.
She sealed them in a brown envelope with her Aunt Celia's return address.
Her mother sighed but she didn't try to push Dylan into making a different decision.
Dylan thought maybe her mother knew it was the right choice, too.
"How's that friend of yours? The little one in the coma?"
