𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐲

vi. talk to me.

"It's nothing. Okay? I just... couldn't sleep." He explained and then tossed his cigarette to the side. Steve just stared at him, wondering why James couldn't just open up to him. "But you know, right?" Steve asked and James looks at him with a confused look. "Know?" He asked, unsure of what Steve meant.

"That you can talk to me... anything, yeah?" Steve says and glanced down before shifting his gaze back up to his ex. "Yeah. Fine. Sure." James says, but he's just too damn petty. Why does Steve move on so easily? Why did he already find dates the instant he got back? Or the thing with Nancy earlier? It makes James upset. Not even jealous or anything. Just upset Steve is able to move on so quickly.

Just as he'd done with Nancy, jumping into a relationship right away with James, barely even a week after Nancy told him he was "bullshit". "Here she comes." James says, changing the topic quickly when he spots Max and he and Steve got back into the car and wait as the redhead got into the car.

"What did she say?" James asked and Max glanced at her then over at Steve. "Nothing. Steve, drive." She says, looking out the window. "Okay." Steve complied as James stared at Max worriedly. On the way, Lucas had contacted them as James was just staring out the window, not paying much attention.

At the arrival at the school, James glanced around at them. "Is it cool I just hang back and chill? I--I don't wanna go inside." James tells them and Steve immediately glanced back at him. "Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah... I'll be fine." He smiled faintly at him and Steve nods, glancing at Dustin before they got out and Max hands over her Walkman. "If you get bored. I have other tapes too, not just Kate Bush." She smiles faintly and he nods. "I also have some Queen. If you're into them." She said before she hopped out.

James sighed, playing with the headphones before digging through Max's backpack since she gave him permission to look through her tapes. He fishes out the Queen tape which happened to be a Night At The Opera. His favourite. He took out the Kate Bush one carefully, inserting the Queen album tape.

He placed the headphones over his ears but stopped midway through when he heard that stupid grandfather clock again. "Oh, fuck off, brain." He put the headphones on, pressing play and Bohemian Rhapsody plays. He likes this song out of all of them, if he had to chose top three from this album, Boh Rhap, Love of My Life, then You're My Best Friend. He smiled, leaning his head back.

He always appreciated the music the British rock band made. God blessed Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon with all that talent. He stayed listening to the music for maybe twenty minutes when he heard loud knocking on the window of the door which startled him, quickly sitting up to see Robin.

"Shit, Buckley, you scared me! Nearly shit my pants." He said as he hopped out of the vehicle. "It's Max, come on," she grabs his wrist so he quickly tagged along with the girls, "Max? What's wrong with Max?" He asked. Robin explains how she and Nancy found out about Victor Creel information and how Nancy's "shot in the dark" was a bullseye to which he retorts, "as it always is," proudly of his friend.

And then, goes on to explain Dustin, in a panick, contacted them about Max and what she had seen. So there they were, standing in a hallway where she pointed at a wall. "It was here." She said, talking about the grandfather clock she saw. "Right here." She tells them. "It was so real." She says and James glanced at her. "And then when I got closer, suddenly I just..." She says. "I woke up." She added.

Same thing that happened to James. "It was like she was in a trance or something." Dustin says and James looked over at him right away. "Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy." He says before he looks at Max worriedly. "That's not even the bad part." She says, looking to the others before looking at James.

It goes unspoken in Ms. Kelley's office when James sat down onto a chair and Max stood beside him, a bit too closely. "Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Ms. Kelley for help. Uh, they were both having headaches, bad heaches that wouldn't go away." At this, James instantly looked up at her, his brows furrowed.

"And then... then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat." She says as James glanced away, remembering his bad dreams the past two nights before quickly looking up at Steve and Dustin. "And then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their pasts. And these visions, they just... they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually... everything ended." She explained and James' heart felt heavy, glancing down.

"Vecna's curse." Robin says, looking up at Max. "Chrissy's headaches started a week ago. Fred's, six days ago. I've been having them for five days." Max explained and James felt her hand go onto his shoulder. So he just put his hand over her wrist as a way of comfort.

"I don't know how long I have." Max's voice is shaky. "All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision. And I just saw that goddamn clock, so... looks like I'm gonna die tomorrow." She said and James just looks up at her.

It didn't make sense. If Vecna is coming after James... why did he see the clock? Wouldn't Vecna had come after him by now? His head hurts suddenly and he nearly winced as he squeezed Max's wrist gently before getting up so suddenly. "Are you okay?" Steve asked him the moment he had stood up.

"Yeah. Yeah. Just... just a lot to process." James says, glancing over at Max who's also staring at him with a worried look. "I'm okay." He reassured Max who just furrowed her brows together, distinctly remembering his nosebleed just yesterday at the boat shed. Almost as if he could read her mind, he repeats, "I'm okay," to her and she just glanced away.

A loud clank in the distance startled them all, especially after such an intense conversation topic like that, James immediately looked towards the door with fear evident in his face. "Stay here." James says, walking towards the door. "I'll come with." Steve followed, grabbing the nearest thing which was a lamp. "Oh, practical weapon, Harrington." James whispered towards his ex as they stepped out into the hallway, looking both ways.

"It's not even a funny joke anymore, James. I've seen all of us come too close to dying, especially you, for it to be just seen as a joke." He says and James snorts, walking further ahead of Steve. "Especially Nance, you mean?" He whispers back to retaliate.

"I'm serious, Jamie." Steve said, no longer whispering their silly little bickering, and pushed James back by his arm, going ahead of him as the others came out of the office, curiously. For a split second, James felt his heart flutter at the familiar nickname, blushing for a moment as he just glanced all around awkwardly.

He glanced back and saw a stupid smirk on Robin Buckley's face which made him roll his eyes and quickly turn back around. He turned back around and looked at the back of Steve's head who's holding up the lamp the way he use to with his bat he'd use to protect James. And the others. James smiled faintly, glancing away to look around when he heard loud, fast footsteps so Steve pulled him back gently as he now stands in front of James.

authors note i miss them together so bad but i wanna see volume 2 at the same time before i decide on most things 💔

+ i prewrote this b4 volume 2 and i just wanna say: i'm so fucking sad and so fucking emotional but i have everything planned out now so i think i'm gonna put the focus on this fic and paper cut and as it was i think. but honestly i just wanna avoid eddie's death scene but also rip off the bandaid while i can lmao. so... jeddie </3... i'm so torn apart over this man