Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THE BOYS WERE WAITING IN the hospital for Will to wake up. Hopper and Joyce had found him in the Upside Down, but he was unconscious. All of the boys were so happy that their friend was alive, but the thought of April and Eleven always plagued their minds.
After the two had vanished with the Demogorgon, the boys tried to find them. But they had no luck. Mike kept calling out Eleven's name, and Chris eventually comforted the taller boy. Mike cried onto Chris' shoulder at the loss of their new friend, and Mike's first crush. Chris cried too, but for April.
He saw how traumatized she was by the world around her, but yet she still managed to find happiness in the smallest of things: compasses, leaf piles, chocolate. He thought that her and Eleven deserved better than the life they were given.
Janis Royales was so worried about her son when she arrived at the school. She looked around for Chris and panicked when she couldn't find him at first. When she saw the boy come out of the school with Mike, both having red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she ran over towards her song. Karen did the same.
Chris had wrapped his arms tight around his mother, crying softly into her shoulder. He gripped tighter when he thought back to what he had just seen inside the school. The men in that lab were murdered in front of him, and he saw his best friend die, too. Life was too short for some people. He just hoped that his mother wasn't one of those people.
In the waiting room, Chris glanced over at Dustin and Lucas. The Henderson boy was snoring on Lucas' shoulder. The two were both fast asleep. Chris couldn't bring himself to sleep. He was too anxious. His knee was bouncing up and down, and Mike stopped staring at the floor to look at the Royales boy.
"Hey," he whispered. Chris's attention drifted from his friends to the boy sitting next to him. "You okay?" Chris slowly nodded his head.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Mike gave Chris a look, earning a sigh from the latter. "I'm just nervous. I don't know why." He wrung his hands together and looked down at the ground. Mike put his hand on Chris' shoulder and gave him a small smile, something that hadn't graced his face in a while.
"Don't be. Will's gonna be okay," assured Mike. Before Chris could say anything, Jonathan had opened the door to the waiting room. Both Chris and Mike had sat up slightly, eager to hear any news about their friend. He nodded his head at the two boys that were awake.
