CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER | j. byers

i. | madmax

        "Nothing much," he responded. Cassie already knew he was shrugging on the other side. "Can I come over tonight?" Cassie smiled.

        "You already know you can, you don't need to ask," she chuckled.

        "Yeah, but it's still nice to ask, you know?" he told her. She laughed.

        "You're an absolute sweetheart, Jonathan Byers," she told him. "Do you want me to pick you up?"

        "Nah, it's okay, I can drive," he said. She pouted through the phone.

        "But it'll just be easier for you. I can drive you to school tomorrow morning," she replied. "And Will has his appointment tomorrow so you don't have to drive him home after school."

        "Fine," he sighed, but Cassie knew that he was smiling. 

        "Great!" she exclaimed. "See you in 10." She hung up.

        Cassie slipped her shoes on, grabbed the car keys and ran out the front door without saying a word to her mother. She often did now, and Claudia didn't question it. Cassie would either call later that she was at the Byers or Cassie would come back with a bashful Jonathan behind her.

        Jonathan and Cassie had been spending almost every night together after last November. The two couldn't sleep without the other anymore. Cassie loved it, but she couldn't deny that the more time she spent around him, the more her feelings built up. Just last month, Jonathan had almost kissed her after she screamed the lyrics to Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely? (they were rudely interrupted by Dustin). When Cassie told Nancy about the sleepovers, Nancy had given her a confused look and Cassie reassured her that it was all platonic. She wasn't sure of it at all.

        She parked out the front of the Byers' house and watched as all three residents came out the front door. Cassie waved at Will and Joyce who were getting in her car. The two smiled and waved back. Cassie looked over at the passenger seat as the door opened.

        "Hey stranger," she smiled teasingly as Jonathan sat down and closed the door. He smiled over at her.

        "Long time no see," he responded with his cheeky smile reserved for her whenever present.

        "You're such an idiot," she told him as she began pulling out onto the road.

        "Me?" he asked her, his tone in mocking offence. His mouth opened and he put a hand over his heart as if he were severely hurt by her words. "I'm the idiot in this relationship? After you were the one who accidentally stole a loaf of bread?"

        "It was an accident!" she pleaded. "It was just in my hand and the girl didn't notice so it wasn't like I did it intentionally!"

        Jonathan laughed at her trying to explain herself to him. Cassie smiled at the sound she elicited from him. She wished she could record it and play it on a loop every day.

        "Whatever you say, Cass," he chuckled, shaking his head. The two sat comfortably, listening to the new mixtape Jonathan had made the previous week.

        Ruffling from Jonathan cut through the previously music-filled car. Cassie looked over at him briefly to see that he was rummaging around in his bag. She turned her eyes back to the road, not particularly wanting to crash her car. A click was heard and a sudden flash of light infiltrated Cassie's eyes.

        "Oh my God, stop with that!" she said, putting her hand on Jonathan's camera lens and pushing the camera away from her. "Why do you keep taking those pictures of me?"