THE TORRID AFFAIR OF JACOB IVES AND THE BLONDE RECEPTIONIST
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in which jacob ives bullies jim hopper and the party plan a surprise for their friend's homecoming
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nightmares | suzie, do you copy?
〖 now there's a ghost in the back of this room, and i don't like it, i fall asleep with my covers pulled up, and try to fight it 〗
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jacob latimore
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tw : brief mention of homophobic assault and domestic abuse
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JACOB BABBLED along to the song on the radio as he knocked the wooden spoon against the edge of his highchair in a pathetic attempt at matching the rhythm, much to the amusement of his aunt as she poured over the bills scattered over the kitchen table next to him and occasionally turned to question her sister on one payment or another, a pen flicking restlessly between her fingers.
Terry stood in front of the stove with a mixing bowl of pancake batter tucked against her hip, as one usually found her on a Saturday morning, dipping down every now and then to press a kiss to her son's forehead or prod at his chubby dimples, humming quietly to the soothing melody playing from the FM radio on the windowsill.
"That lawyer you hired for the court case is still sending us demands for-" Becky startled as her nephew suddenly tossed the wooden spoon to the floor and began to whine quietly, wide brown eyes glancing around in fear, hands slapping against the surface of the highchair frantically, "Hey, what's wrong, cub - if you want the spoon so bad, maybe don't launch it across the room, yeah? Ter, what's wrong with him?"
"I don't know." Terry left the mixing bowl on the counter, hunkering down next to her son and pressing her palm to his cheek tenderly only to gasp and draw it back slightly, "I - he feels... he's scared? Terrified-"
"What, is he having fucking heart palpitations or something? I'll call a doctor-"
"No!"
"... No? No?! Ter, he could die-"
"I won't let them take him from me again!"
"Oh, for fuck's s - nobody is after your fucking toddler!"
Jacob let out a sharp cry suddenly, fat tears beginning to roll down his flushed cheeks as he shook out his arm and wailed, drawing the two out of their argument.
"Your arm - does it hurt, darling?" Terry cooed, kneading the soft flesh of his shoulder, pulling her hand back when he began to cry harder the moment she pressed against his bicep, "I don't know what's wrong, Cubby, I don't know how to help, I-"
Caleb, can you-
Jacob began to take deep, quivering breaths as he sobbed, reaching out his other hand for the doll that had fallen to the floor, causing his aunt to scramble for it, cringing slightly at the sound of his miserable shrieks. He settled once the rag doll was placed in his arm but continued to whimper and cry, holding it close to his chest and snuggling into the worn fabric, "D - duh-"
"Jane."
Jacob whined again, looking to his mother with pleading eyes, "Hur-tuh, Mama. Dane hur-tuh."
Terry brought a hand to her mouth, tears in her own eyes, as she stepped away from him and turned her head the other way, feeling bile rise in her throat, "Wh - who's hurting Jane, s - sweetheart?"
"Doc-tuh." Jacob grumbled, clutching the doll tight as the pain finally began to recede from the side of his arm where the bad man in the white coat had pricked his sister with the large needle. He remembered the way his vision had blurred as he glanced around that white room, how cold it was, felt the needle puncture his skin and draw the blood from it without warning before his vision cleared and he was back in his kitchen, and he began to cry once more.
"This place will be good for you, Caleb - it's got really good reviews, and they're gonna keep you in the children's ward this time, maybe you could even make a new friend!" Melissa beamed, eyeliner smudged beneath her eyes and a noticeable shake in her hands as she turned the wheel of the car, glancing up at the boy in the rearview with his head hung low, "I - I'm sorry, hon, but I just want you to be okay. You hurt yourself really bad this time."
"Pennsylvania's so far away," Caleb sighed, slouching in his seat and pulling at the leather bracelet on his wrist, "they'll forget me, Mom."
"Now, why on earth would you ever think that?" Melissa tutted, frowning at him through the rearview, "They're your best friends, hon, they won't forget you - and you've gone further than Pennsylvania before! You were in California for ages, and they still remembered you when you got back, so don't go working yourself up over nothing, alright? You'll be just fine, I have a good feeling about this place."
"That's what you said all the other times."
"Well, I think that if you wish for something hard enough, eventually it will come true - especially if you wish upon a star." Melissa smiled, glancing back at the ten year old and chuckling softly as he rolled his eyes.
"So I'm relying on Jiminy Cricket to get me through the next two weeks?"
"If it comes to it, yes."
Caleb shook his head and turned to look out the window, thumb digging into the tattoo on his wrist. He watched as he traced his finger over the ink, tears stinging his eyes as his throat began to close, and he shifted the leather bracelet Will had made him for exactly this purpose so that it covered it and glanced back up at his mom to find the familiar navy walls of Mike's bedroom looking back at him.
I'm at sea again, and now your hurricanes have brought down this ocean rain...
"What's a Weimar Republic?" Mike grumbled, scratching at the back of his head with his pencil as he flipped through the U.S History pulled textbook open between them on the bed.
"That place in Italy that invented pizza, I think." Caleb replied, one leg hanging off the edge of the bed as he traced the wood patterns on the planks of the top bunk above his head and hummed along to the song on the record player, jolting suddenly as the boy thwacked him on the ankle with his notebook, "Hey!"
"Why the fuck would the place that invented pizza cause World War II?!"
"Because some pyscho started putting pineapple on it, I don't fucking know! Look, it says 'the failures of the Weimar Republic were one of the leading causes of Hitler's rise to power and eventually the devastation of World War II' - I'd start a war if people started putting carrots on fucking Poptarts! I thought it was supposed to be U.S History, why are these people so obsessed with the Italians?!"
"If I get one more fail, my mom's gonna kill me." Mike groaned, slouching against the wall, one leg pulled up to his chest and the other slung over his friend's extended leg. "I mean, actually kill me."
"She'll probably kill me too." Caleb snorted, shifting to take the discomfort off his back where a nasty bruise on his shoulder had blossomed following Tim's latest return home, "Your mom's been nagging me about my grades since I got back in school. She'd be doing me a favour, though, sick of this living bullshit."
"Can you - stop making fucking jokes like that, Caleb."
"Oh, will you relax already, it's not like-"
"But you have - you can't keep joking about it like it's normal or - or like it doesn't matter!"
"I honestly don't have the energy to have this fucking conversation with you right now." Caleb sighed, falling back into the pillow behind him.
"Too bad, 'cause we're having it-"
"Well, I don't want to-"
"You know that your life actually has some fucking value, right?"
"Oh, go on and give us a self-worth speech, Mikey - go on, cure my depression with your inspiring words-"
"Stop joking around!" Mike brought the textbook down on the boy's knee, their revision now long forgotten, "It's serious, Caleb! I'm not... do you know what it's like to have to watch your best friend almost die and then fucking joke about it all the time? I just want you to get better, that's all I want - but it's like you're just so numb to everything now, you don't care about anything or anyone and-"
"I care about you." Caleb sat up quickly, face stern, "I care about you, and the Party, and Holly and Steve-"
"And I care about you - but you don't give a shit about yourself!"
CALEB, LISTEN-
"Why would I?" Caleb rolled his eyes, standing from the bed to fidget with the record player, "Can you just drop it? Please?"
There was no reply, only the scuffle of laminated textbook pages and a few quiet breaths, and he messed with the record player for a few more seconds until it began to scratch out the melody of Seven Seas before turning back to his friend with a self-loathing sigh, "Shit, Mike, I'm sorry."
Mike sniffled, wiping at his reddened nose in frustration as he forcefully turned the page of his textbook, "I'm not crying, I'm not a fucking toddler."
"No, you're just a stubborn idiot who picked the wrong fucking psycho to care about." Caleb breathed, scooting himself back on the bed until he was pressed against the boy's shoulder, and reaching out to entwine their hands, "I'm trying, okay? I really am doing better, I promise. You don't have to worry about me."
"I always worry about you." Mike dropped the textbook, resting his head on his friend's shoulder with a frustrated huff, placing their joint hands on his lap and tracing the thin scar on the back of his hand with his thumb, "Can't be fucking trusted with yourself."
"Mm, that's why I've got you." Caleb teased, earning a nudge to the ribs as he laughed and relaxed into him, laying the side of his cheek on the boy's hair. "You wanna go pull down your dad's Reagan sign again?"
"I don't get that politics shit."
"Me either, but I think your dad's on the asshole side - I'm bringing a marker, I wanna make some alterations."
"Someone's gonna find out that you've been drawing dicks on all the Reagan signs sooner or later, ya know."
"Not if you keep your mouth shut, dollface." Caleb winked, rummaging through the drawer beside the boy's bed and producing a half-wasted Sharpie with a menacing laugh, "Viva la Democratic Party!"
"You're insane."
"And I've got the records to prove it, sweetheart," Caleb slipped the marker into his jean pocket and jammed his feet into his sneakers, jostling the boy's shoulder to usher him out the door as he struggled to hop along, tucking his shoelaces into the stained trainers, "hurry, before the Republican returns from his cult rally!"
Mike tried to hide his smile as he pulled the door open, scoffing when his friend tried to shove past him, "No - Caleb, I'm serious, piss off, we can't both fit - go away-"
The pair let out a short yelp as they were forced out of the bedroom door they had managed to wedge themselves in and went sprawling on the floor, waiting with bated breath for a few moments for the familiar sound of Karen's disapproving yell and sharing a fond roll of the eyes when it came.
Caleb laughed out an insincere apology as he stood to his feet and turned to help Mike to his own, watching as a young man with long dark hair sat down on the cement floor in front of him with a tired sigh.
"You don't have to be scared of us, kid - we're on the same side here, you know?"
"Don't go in my head again." Twelve glared, curling into himself even more.
"I won't." Three held his hands up in defense, gnawing at his lip as he glanced around for a solution, "Jamie, Marcie! Why don't you guys teach Caleb-"
"Am Twelve."
"-that game you two were babbling about yesterday?"
The two girls brightened and scrambled over to him, shoving at each other as they sat down and waved Three away while the boy strolled over to where Six and Eight were finalising the details of the escape plan using the map of the building Three had coerced one of the supervisors into giving him using his powers.
"It's called 'Slap'!" Jamie informed him with a cheery smile, holding her hands together and gesturing for him to do the same, "Go on, I'll teach you."
Twelve eyed the two warily, still unsettled by their identical faces, and hesitantly mimicked her position, waiting for the game to begin. The supervisors played games with him sometimes, and Papa didn't even get mad at them for playing if he killed a Commie earlier that day - games could be fun.
"Not too hard, Jamie." Marcie whispered, frowning at him as she leaned towards her sister so he wouldn't overhear, "I think they hurt him real bad sometimes, he gets scared easy."
"I don't hit that hard, you're just a baby!" Jamie rolled her eyes, turning to face the timid boy with a sly smile. "One, two, three, go!"
Twelve watched her with a puzzled frown, waiting for one moment, two, and then yelping suddenly as the back of his hand began to sting, cradling his hand to his chest and backing into the wall with a sharp grimace.
CALEB.
"Oh, God, I'm so sorry!" Jamie cried, trying to take the boy's hand to assess the damage she had done to it only to be shoved away as he curled into himself again, "Please don't be like that, Twelve - I want to be friends, I didn't mean to hurt you that bad!"
"Jamie, you idiot, I told you!" Marcie hissed, crawling towards the boy and regarding him for moment before extending her hand carefully, "Can I?"
Twelve leaned away from her, watching the girl slide her hand into his with guarded eyes, expecting another slap to accompany her worried frown.
Marcie tutted, running her thumb over the scalded skin and smiling at him softly, "Jamie didn't mean it, okay? I won't let her play the game with you again, don't worry."
Twelve retracted his hand but gave a little nod, still mistrustful of the pair as he thumbed at the injured skin himself - it felt like it was on fire, but then again Jamie was always running on a high temperature, whether she wanted to or not.
"I'm really, really, super sorry!" Jamie gnawed at her lip, sniffling back the tears in her eyes, "I won't do it ever again, I swear!"
"Why does she cry?" Twelve mumbled, sending a quick glance the other sister's way, shifting uncomfortably as the older of them began to whimper, "Is her head loud too?"
"Uh... no. She just feels really sorry - she cries when she feels a lot, sometimes, Ricky always has to calm her down."
"I'm a bad friend!" Jamie sobbed, opening her arms and falling towards him, "I'm so sorry, Caleb!"
Twelve startled, holding up his hands to defend himself with wide eyes, "Stop! No more hurting me!"
Jamie sat back on her heels with a small frown, wiping the tears from her cheeks, "I'm n - not hurting you, it - it's just a hug, to say sorry."
"What is... hug?"
The girl blinked at him for a few moments, slowly raising her arms again, "It's... a hug, it's good. Like this."
Twelve hesitantly lowered his arms as the girl moved towards him again, brows furrowing as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "Hug is weird. Why do we hug?"
"Well, you have to hug her back, silly." Marcie laughed, taking hold of the boy's hands again and forcing his arms to settle around her sister's middle, "See? It's nice, it doesn't hurt a bit."
"Nice." Twelve mumbled, relaxing his arms and resting his head on the girl's shoulder, crinkling his nose as her hair fell into his face, "... How long?"
Jamie went to pull away with a sheepish look at this, but he tightened his arms around her and shook his head, placing it on her shoulder again, "Oh. Well, as long as you want, I guess. I've never really asked before. Ricky! How long does a hug last?!"
"Uh... yeah, sounds good! So, if we can somehow get a message down to Seven, he could create a distraction while we get the kids from their rooms..."
"And the guards upstairs will be busy with Twelve..."
"Caleb."
"Whatever, that should give us enough time-"
"Feel warm." Twelve mumbled into the girl's shirt, earning a giggle from the two sisters.
"You're kinda cuckoo." Jamie smiled, adjusting herself so that she was lying next to him on the floor to take the strain off her knees, hugging him from the side, "But it's a funny cuckoo."
"Cu-ckoo." Twelve sounded, turning to look at Marcie with a baffled shake of his head, "Friends are weird."
"Hey, what are you doing here?!"
He jolted out of his skin, the warmth from his side now gone, and swallowed hard as the warden approached him, his skin gone cold with dread, "Wh - what happened..."
Caleb, can-
"Get back to your room." The warden snapped, forcing the boy back inside and away from the horrific scene in the institute parking lot, "It's after lights out, you shouldn't be here!"
"I was looking for Joel-"
"No excuses, get back to your room now-"
"Who was that?"
"I said get back to-"
"Where's Joel?!"
"Listen, kid, I don't know who this 'Joel' person is, but-"
"Who hurt Joel?! Why does he look like that?! When will he be back from the hospital?!"
"Hey! You want solitary for a week?!"
Caleb shook his head, mouth clenched shut, and the warden nodded, dragging him along by the collar of his patient uniform and depositing him in the children's ward with one last demand to return to his accommodation.
He wrapped his arms around himself as he took a turn for the block he was supposed to be in - the urgent patient ward with the rest of the fucked up adults, as always - and cried softly, images of his friend's battered face plaguing his mind as he pulled the door open and stepped right into an endless abyss to find a once familiar face holding her hand out to him, panic in her eyes,
Twelve, please-
The radio hummed in time with his mother as she soothed the pancake mixture, swaying to the rhythm of Tennessee Waltz with a content smile.
"You hurt yourself really bad this time-"
Brenner slammed his hand on the table, "Tell me what he's thinking!"
The shock stick, burning the skin of his hip.
"You're kinda cuckoo."
CALEB.
"Stand by me, oh, stand by me-"
The door creaked open.
Twelve, listen to me, Brenner is-
"It's like I told you, plum, shepherds and sheep."
"Papa, no!"
"It's times like these that our faith is challenged. How, if He is truly benevolent, could God take from us someone so young, so innocent-"
"Nurse, up the voltage."
Slam.
"Jamie l - lost control, she hurt a doctor real bad, and she's in the m - med bay, Six said she won't m - make it-"
"Oh, stand by me-"
CALEB, HE'S COMING.
And the monster invited himself in.
"Hallucinations are a common side effect-"
Jacob gasped awake, the sound of a selection of trees splintering outside piercing his ears as he turned towards the body next to his bed, hand raised and blood pouring from his nose as he prepared himself for an attack, "Don't touch me!"
El flinched, peering at him through the darkness as she gently raised her hand to bring his own back down, fingers just barely curling around his wrist before she jerked back violently, biting back a pained scream, "J - Jake, you're hurting."
Jacob deflated, pulling down the defences he had unknowingly forced around his mind as he wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her close, peppering chaste kisses into her hair, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you - shit, Jane, I told you before, you can't come near me when I'm like this - are you okay, do I need to heal you-"
El shook her head, pulling away to press her hand to his cheek and brush his sweat-matted fringe from his face, "I am fine - but you're hurting, it felt like fire in my head. Are you okay?"
"Just... it was just a bad dream."
It was a while before El finally convinced him that he would need his rest and dragged him out to the kitchen, stepping lightly so as not to wake their guardian, sliding herself into a chair at their dining table while Jacob wiped the blood from his face with a cloth and gulped down a few Ambien with a glass of water. "It was worse this time, wasn't it?" She whispered, "Really worse."
"Yeah, it was." Jacob nodded slowly, staring blankly into the distance. It must have been that feeling he got back at the theatre, but he didn't want to worry her if it just turned out to be his paranoia acting up again. "I - I think I'm remembering again. More and more about - about the bad place. I remember there was a boy - an older one, he tricked people's feelings. Three, but his real name was Ricky."
"I... don't think I remember that."
"And the girl - the one with the red hair, Brenner called her - he called her Six. But she called herself something else - something... fuck." Jacob went on, placing the glass in the sink as he ran a hand over his face, "I can't remember."
"Papa kept me away from everyone else. I only knew Kali."
"No, there were two girls, you knew them. Two twins, like us. They had dark hair, I remember - I remember, one of them was only half a number. She was only half. Fucking hell, I talked to Owens about them, I did - why can't I remember this shit when I actually want to?" He in frustration, leaning his elbows against the set of drawers next to him as his head fell into his hands, "Jamie and Marcie, that was their names. I think - fuck."
His memory was a funny thing - borderline eidetic at times, yes, but also selective. If he focused enough on a memory, he could practically re-live it with how clear the details of it became in his mind, but it seemed that some memories did not want to be accessed, providing him with nothing more than blurred faces and conflicting emotions before he opened his eyes and even the morsel of familiarity he felt was whisked away, stored in the back of his mind with the other dark little thoughts he fought to keep under control more and more everyday.
This did not apply in his nightmares, however - he never got to choose what he remembered in his nightmares.
"I remember twins. Rainbow room."
"Rainbow room. That's - that's where they would take you! Take you away from me... we never even saw each other, not once."
El stared down at the table blankly, scratching at a mark in the wood, "Yes, I remember."
"Not all the pieces are there for me." Jacob shook his head, only partially listening to her, "I think I remember the break out, everything about that night. I remember Kali, and I can kind of remember the other one - Seven, he left with her but I was stupid, I tried to go back... home. Slept on the streets for... I don't know how long until I saw... I remember the sign, there was a sign, I tried to follow it but that was when the cops found me. Bloomington - the sign said Bloomington."
"Mama." El said.
"Yeah, Mama." Jacob breathed, settling into the seat across from her, "I - I knew because I was with her, for those three years. I was with her until we went to rescue you, and we were so close-"
El placed her hand over his on the table as her brother's voice caught in his throat, a pain in her own chest at the sight of his trembling shoulders.
"Oh, God, Jane, we were so close - I never asked you about what you learned when you went to Chicago and to see her, I didn't want to know. What happened to her after they took me away? Why is she... frozen like that?"
"They put Mama in a chair, like in your dreams. I see parts of them when you are sleeping, they... fried her. 'Up the voltage'."
Jacob pulled away from her touch as if she had scalded him, eye watering, "Don't say that, please. I... they - oh, God. Fuck. Fuck, Jane, we could have-" he dropped his head into his hands again, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and tugging at it stressfully, "-we could have been with her, Jane. We could have been happy, we could have been safe, and we were so close and - fuck, I'm gonna be sick. I'm gonna be sick."
El hurried to his side to pull him into a tight embrace and they sat like that for a long time, silently rocking back and forth as tears stained their cheeks, unaware of the burly man who had been standing by his bedroom door listening, his heart breaking a little more with every word.
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"Now, don't dramatise it..."
"I'm not, stupid, this time it's serious - think of the worst thing that could ever happen!"
Jacob stirred, grimacing at the sunlight flitting in through the grimey windows as he shifted his weight slightly only to find it being held down by his sister's head, The Parent Trap - one of their favourites - VHS tape replaying for what must have been the fourth time on the TV, and a blanket thrown over them that he knew had not been there when they drifted off.
He groaned softly at the discomfort in his neck from the awkward angle he had fallen asleep in, guiding his sister's head onto the softest cushion he could find and pausing the tape to prevent anymore damage than it had ready endured from the countless rewinds before standing to his feet with a yawn.
Internally thanking a god he had lost faith in long ago that it was his day off and he had free reign of his morning until the surprise for Dustin at 1, Jacob made his way to the kitchen and pressed on a few slices of toast, retrieving his medications from the small shelf Hopper had built in over the stove while he waited.
He strolled around the kitchen a few minutes later as he prepared another few slices for his sister, the telephone snug between his ear and his shoulder as he popped a capsule into his mouth and began slathering the butter over his breakfast, rolling his eyes good-naturedly at the words coming from the voice on the phone, "Yes, Aunt Becky, I got the records you sent - thank you, by the way, but my birthday isn't until next month."
"Yeah, the bullshit one your little friends gave you - your birthday is in June, for the last damn time."
"Oh, yeah? What date?" He challenged, halting his actions for a moment as he awaited her usual response.
"... You know I'm not good with dates."
"So those photographs you sent of me drooling on a birthday candle last month are just bullshit? Did you and Ma just pick a random date each year and think 'good enough'?"
"Listen, once you reach a certain age you stop lookin' at calendars, alright? It's... sometime in June. Let's say the 26th."
"That number makes me uncomfortable."
"Everything makes you uncomfortable, just pick whatever one you want - hell, pick today, happy birthday!" Becky muttered, and he could tell she was rolling her own eyes by the tone of her voice, "I sent back that book you gave me, by the way, don't know when it'll get there."
"I'll ask Steve if anything came to the house the next time I see him - what'd you think of the book?"
"I think you need serious mental evaluations - or more of them, whatever. This Nabokov asshole almost made me sympathise with a literal pedophile, Jacob - what kind of bullshit do you have me reading?!"
"Told you it was fucked up," Jacob smirked, capping his second bottle of mood stabilisers as he swallowed the blue pill in his mouth, "it's written so beautifully, though - that's the worst part."
"It really is - thought I was in for some heartwarming masterpiece romance novel from the first line, but it all went downhill from there."
"Mm, 'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins - my sin, my soul'," Jacob recited with a small shake of his head, cutting the toast diagonally because it always tasted better that way, "and then he just casually throws in the fact that she's like, twelve."
"'Like, twelve', he says, as if he hasn't memorised the entire novel."
"Well, it's not by choice-"
"I bet you could recite that like, four page long fucked up poem he wrote about her right now without even breaking a sweat, you freak of nature."
"... I - well, yes, but I shan't - hey, how did that date with the guy from the tech store go?" Jacob pondered aloud, finally capping the last prescription bottle and making a note to pick up his next one soon after seeing how few pills and tablets were left, sending a nod of acknowledgement his guardian's way as the man shuffled into the room with his pyjamas rumpled and his beard matted to his face with drool. "Hey, Grandpa."
Hopper gave a dreary nod in return, coughing to clear the sleep from his throat as he ducked into the fridge to retrieve the necessary ingredients for a more suitable breakfast, discreetly keeping his ears pricked on the conversation taking place across from him.
"It was okay, actually - better than the library clerk, anyway-"
"Anyone is better than the library clerk - I'd literally rather you start dating a full on nazi than a guy who genuinely believes that Creedence Clearwater Revival deserved that NME award they won in '71."
"Hey, they had a few hits!"
"Shut up, Jim, this doesn't concern you."
"I told you to stop calling me that."
"And I didn't listen, now shush."
"How am I supposed to ever actually be in a relationship if you disapprove of every single guy I meet?"
"Try women." Jacob said dryly, taking the phone with him as he settled back down on the couch, stretching the cord over the back of his seat and waiting for the medicine flooding his system to take effect as he brought a slice of toast to his mouth, "Men are assholes, I don't want you near them. Or Jane. From now on, I declare all women lesbians - it's for your own safety, you'll thank me one day."
"Jesus, kid, how many amphetamines do they have you on this time - shit, I gotta go, Declan's here."
"Who the fuck is Declan-"
"The tech store guy!"
"But I haven't interrogated him yet, you can't go out with him until I ask him the red flag questions!"
"Not happening, you scared off the last three! I have to go - goodbye, I love you, talk soon - and happy birthday!"
"Becky-"
The phone gave a despairing crackle and then the line fell flat and he sighed, standing back up and slapping the receiver into the cradle as aggressively as he could without breaking it.
"Your aunt putting herself back on the field again?" Hopper hummed, starting up the pan for fried eggs and bacon, stealing a piece of toast from his sleeping daughter's plate that had been left on the set of drawers for her.
Jacob laughed softly, running a stressed hand through his hair and shaking out his fringe, huffing when it fell right back into his eyes, "Yeah, you could say that - wish she weren't, though, she went out with a guy who said he preferred Trek over Wars last month. It's blasphemy, Kojak, I won't stand for it anymore."
Hopper chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair as he walked past him to get to the eggs from the small coup-style cupboard Jordan had bought him as a joke to tease the chief's new domestic lifestyle, "Don't think you have much of a choice in it, kid."
"Like hell I don't, there's nothing but a 40 minute drive and a few criminal laws between me and manslaughter if she ends up with some asshole - the second I pick up a bad vibe, I'll already be halfway in a jail cell."
"Maybe not scheme about murder around the Chief of Police."
"I plead insanity!" Jacob called, pulling open the fridge and taking out the carton of orange juice, turning to retrieve three glasses from the cupboard above the sink, "Jordy coming for breakfast today?"
"Nah, had to get to work early - think he said he'd stay here tomorrow night, though."
"You planning anything for his 18th?" Jacob asked, pulling himself onto the counter next to the fridge and sipping from his glass, "Mack and Jonathan already have a little surprise party thing sorted out for after his shift at the pool, so think of something to keep him out of the cabin for a while, alright?"
"I'm bringing him out for dinner with the Byers at that fancy new restaurant that just opened up and then he wants another tattoo, said I'd pay for it - he didn't ask for anything else."
"Really? Why is that literally all he ever asks for?"
"Beats me." Hopper shrugged, dropping two eggs into the pan, "Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually saving up to get him a proper car - upgrade him from that deformed Volks he's dragging around."
Jacob raised his brows, humming as he placed his glass on the surface beside him, "Very impressive - what about me?"
"What about you?"
Jacob leaned over to throw his arms around his guardian's shoulders, persistent against his batting hands and cautionary grumbles as he perched his chin next to the man's collar with a teasing grin, "Do I get a shiny new Porsche for my 16th, Pops?"
"Hell no," Hopper scoffed, failing to shrug the boy off once again as he flipped the eggs over, "you are the last person I would let behind a wheel."
Jacob gasped as he retracted his arms and used them to sit a little straighter on the counter, mouth dropped open in disgrace, "Now that's just fucking rude, Jim!"
"Do not call me Jim, for the hundredth damn time."
"It's your name."
"But you're a kid, so you don't get to use it."
"This is why everyone likes Joyce better than you." Jacob scowled, taking his glass in his hand again, "Even Ted lets me call him by his first name, you swot."
"Do you want an egg spatula to the forehead, kid?" Hopper raised the utensil with a playful glare, waving over to the couch with it before sliding a fried egg onto El's plate of toast, "Shut up and go wake your sister."
"JANE, get the fuck up!"
"I could've done that."
"Then why the fuck did you ask me to?" Jacob pulled a face at him, hopping off the counter and making his way to the living room area where he saw his sister start to stir, brows creased, and bent down to shake her shoulder gently, "C'mon, love, breakfast."
It was no longer than five minutes before they all found themselves back in the living room with their plates of eggs and toast in their hands, El curled up on the recliner and Jacob laid across the double seater with his legs thrown over Hopper's lap, an I Love Lucy re-run on the flickering television.
Jacob sat himself up properly as he reached over to rest his empty plate on the wooden trunk they used in place of a coffee table, "So, Jim."
"What do you want now?" Hopper tossed his head back with a groan, lifting it slightly to point his fork at him, "And stop calling me that."
"So, Grandpa," Jacob started again, "I told you about that surprise thing we're doing for Dustin today, right?"
"Yeah..." Hopper narrowed his eyes at him, tone wary, "What about it?"
"Well, I was wondering if Jane could come with me - it will just be the Party and I'll take her through the woods and she can wear one of my beanies until we get to his house so nobody sees her and we'll be really really careful and if you say no I'll stab you again."
Hopper looked at him for a second, giving away none of his emotions, then shrugged as he shovelled another forkful of food into his mouth, "Okay."
"... Okay?"
"Yeah, sure."
"... Hop, were you diagnosed with a terminal illness recently?"
"What - no."
"Then why are you being weird?"
"I'm not being weird, I'm being... lenient."
Jacob shared an incredulous look with his sister then turned back to him, brow cocked in disbelief, "Lenient?"
"Yeah, I figure it's no use fighting when you obviously aren't giving up anytime soon - and you'll only act out more if I keep trying to punish you, and compromising and establishing a communicative relationship with you in which both of our opinions and wishes are valued is very important to me." Hopper recited with a small frown, "Or something like that."
"... Oh! Okay, now everything makes sense - alright, carry on, it's all good, I get it now."
"Get what?"
"Get that you're guilty of plagiarism - Karen literally gave Wheeler that exact same speech when he started acting like an asshole in school last year - and she got it from this talk show about maternal struggles." Jacob took the fork from the man's hand and thwacked him over the head with it, "You've been calling her again, you ass!"
"Hey! And no, I-"
"You're getting mom advice from Karen."
"No, I had an adult discussion with a... fellow guardian, and we debated suitable approaches to situations involving young teenagers and their increasing hormones-"
"Oh, my God, you're getting puberty advice from her too - please, for the love of everything that is decent in this world, just let Nancy or Mack give Jane the talk." Jacob wailed, slouching in his seat dramatically.
"She already did." El called boredly, causing her father to blanch in horror for a moment as she ignored him in favour of paying close attention to the witty sitcom.
"I'm not getting... puberty advice from Karen!"
"You admit that you're getting mom advice from her, then."
"W - no, I never said that."
"So you're not denying it, either."
"Jacob-"
"Hey - deep breaths, you'll pop a grease vessel if you use your lungs too much," Jacob tutted, standing up and gathering his cutlery and dish, "just shut up and admit that you're bugging Karen for advice on how to get through to me because you're out of all other options, Jim."
"... I'm not admitting that."
Jacob nodded in satisfaction, giving the man a boyish grin and tapping him on the head as he crossed into the kitchen to put his plate in the sink, "You're getting there, Kojak, you're getting there."
Hopper sighed, shrinking into the couch and taking a deep calming breath, pretending not to hear the stifled giggles of the girl sat on the recliner.
↬
It was fairly empty in the parking lot of Starcourt as Jacob shuffled towards the building in search of his bike, coming to a stop beside the bicycle racks and staring in disbelief at the empty spaces for a few moments before cursing to himself and marching into the building towards Roddy's before he could even question himself.
"Uh, hey, Jacob - you're not working today, are you?" Rian frowned from her spot behind the register, brushing a strand of bleached hair from her face.
She was one of Mack's favourite co-workers to bother other than Jacob, though she chose flirtatious advances and vulgar humour instead of teasing jabs or persistent nicknames when it came to the older girl, and he couldn't necessarily blame her - Rian was gorgeous, delicate fae-like features from her Korean heritage, curved waist, always wearing ripped fishnets and distressed band shirts, a fucking walk-off from a page of Mack's favourite magazine.
Even Jacob found her ridiculously attractive, and he had gone off women as early as seventh grade.
"No, no - I was looking for Mack but I'm guessing she's either hungover or bothering Steve over at Scoops since she's not here."
"Not like a hangover ever stopped her," Rian chuckled, checking off something on a piece of paper laid in front of her, "she actually called in to warn me this time, said she just didn't feel like it - don't ask me why Lloyd even made her assistant manager in the first place - but what do you need her for? Anything I can help with?"
"Well, it actually sounds kind of stupid now, but I was gonna tell her that some assholes stole my bike so she could beat them up - I mean, now I realise that's kind of dumb 'cause I could really do that myself, so I was probably just gonna end up ranting to her and breaking something..."
"Hm, wouldn't be the first time one of you got carried away with your rambling - wait, your bike? Oh shit, yeah, she said something about that - that Steve guy hid them all in the back, said there was a group of kids lurking by them when he came in for his shift this morning." Rian informed him, adjusting her septum piercing, "Two of your friends came by for theirs' already, and some guy came over to pick up one for that Will kid that's always here - Jordan, I think."
Jacob sighed, kicking himself in the ankle, "Well, now I feel fucking dumb - thanks, Ri."
She smiled at him in response and went back to her checklist as he ducked under the colourful Rasta tapestry acting as a partition and entered the spacious alcove they used as a storage unit to find two bikes leaned against the wall between the metal shelves of packaged Vinyls waiting to be stored on the racks outside and the dusty old filing cabinet stuffed with documents their boss refused to trust the store computer with.
Jacob untangled his own bike from the other one, jerking it this and that way for a few moments until it finally pulled loose, causing him to stagger slightly as he cursed the thing for its difficulty and straightened out the saddle that had been forced the other way.
The fire exit door creaked open behind him and Jacob jumped, turning quickly to see Levi marching in with an annoyed look on his face, jamming something into his back pocket before finally taking notice of the other presence in the room and blinking at his co-worker, a calm demeanour washing over him.
"Uh... you're not supposed to be here."
"I - you - bike." Jacob twisted the handlebars, smiling awkwardly, "I mean, I came for my bike. It's... sorry."
"Why are you apologising?"
"I don't know - you're not, uh, you're not supposed to work until tomorrow, I thought..."
"Yeah, well, Mack bailed on Ri, so..." Levi lifted his shoulder in a dismissive shrug, nodding to the younger boy's bike, "You goin' somewhere?"
"Uh, yeah, my friend Dustin is coming home from summer camp today so we planned this surprise thing for him, it's just a banner and a few confetti poppers - I wanted to bake a cake for him or something with my sister but the last time we tried to bake something we blew up the stove, and then I figured I could just buy one but they all cost like $14 and I don't get paid until Friday so that was really shit because I really wanted to do something for him 'cause he's amazing and he cares about everyone and he's the biggest dork I know but I love him and I have to make up for the time I bailed on him at that camp when we were like, eleven, because I realised the other day that I never actually apologised and I'm a shit friend because he would never forget to apologise for something like that and he was so excited to have someone there with him and-"
Jacob stopped himself, pursing his lips when he noticed Levi looking at him with an almost teasing smile, nodding his head in false agreement every few seconds.
"Sorry, I ramble when I'm nervous."
"Why would you be nervous?"
"I'm n - I meant... shut up."
Levi raised a brow in amusement, his piercing shifting with the movement, and held his hands up in defence, "Alright, alright - I was just asking a question..."
"Yeah, well... don't." Jacob grumbled, staring at the cement floor and cursing inwardly as his began to heat up, shaking his head at the sound of the boy's laugh, "Shut up, Lee, I'm serious."
"I didn't say anything!"
"You're laughing at me!"
"I'm not, you're just cute when you're all nervous."
"I'm not fucking nervous!"
"You're the one who said it!"
"Wait, did you call me cute?"
"... Perhaps."
Jacob blinked, cheeks flaming once again, and hurried to adjust his bike so he could make a quick getaway, "I - uh, I don't know what I'm supposed to... your piercing's cool."
Levi failed to hide a smile, bringing the back of his hand to his mouth, and gave a thankful smile, "Uh, yeah, thanks - Rian did it for me, actually, at this party a few months ago. She's the one who got me this job."
"Oh, that's... yeah, she's really cool, that was nice of her." Jacob fought against the acid taste in his mouth, adjusting the bike again and making a move for the door.
"Yeah, she's a great friend." Levi looked at him strangely for a few moments, that stupid gorgeous smile still on his face, "And also even more of a lesbian than Mack, so I kind of missed a chance there."
"Oh." Jacob frowned a bit, trying his best to look casual as he leaned his body forwards on his handlebars and raised his shoulder in a slight shrug, "So, you - you're not like-"
"Nope."
"Okay. Cool."
"You say 'cool' a lot."
"I really don't, I think it's the weirdest fucking word ever and I hate it, I don't know why I keep saying it so much - are we actually just one big shop of queers, should I be expecting an announcement from Isaiah soon? I don't know why I said that either, oh my God, I'm leaving, I'm leaving, goodbye-"
"You really are cute when you're nervous, y'know."
Jacob stopped, throat tight for a moment, and shook his head, "You're a horrible person, you're doing this on purpose."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do. Is this what you do with your life? Just... go around, smiling at desperately queer guys and ripping any last hope of them being attracted to women to shreds?"
"Are you tryna tell me, something, Jacob?" Levi stuffed his hands into his jean pockets, frowning in mock confusion.
Jacob shrugged, a smile of his own teasing his lips as he failed to appear casual, "Depends on what you want to hear."
Levi coughed out a laugh, apparently in disbelief, and caught his bottom lip between his teeth with a small shake of the head, "You've been spending way too much time around Mack."
"Mm," Jacob weighed his head from side to side, "not enough, she hasn't turned me straight yet."
"Yet? Should I be worried?"
"Why would you be worried?"
The two stood for a moment, assessing each other silently, and then the fire door pushed open again and Mike Wheeler stepped through and ruined fucking everything.
It was obvious that he had interrupted something - Jacob had began to cool off as the sudden boost of confidence kicked in and his blush had receded to just above his collar but he was still watching Levi in slightly guarded anticipation, and the older of them was no better, looking like he was fighting very hard not to fulfil that anticipation - but Mike just glanced between them before looking back to his old friend, eyeing him with a flat expression, and pushing past him to retrieve his bike.
Jacob straightened, clearing his throat as Levi dropped his eyes to the floor and scratched at the back of his neck, where the slightest hint of a tattoo was peeking out of his collar, "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, of course."
Jacob gave a small smile, ducking his head again as he trundled his bike along out the back door, feeling like a giddy school girl - was this the part where he relented what had occurred to his best friend over the telephone and they both shrieked like mating geese?
No, Max would turn him into a kebab if he tried anything of the sort - perhaps Will would entertain him, he just had to officially come out to him first.
He was fighting against the urge to let out an actual fucking giggle when a familiar head of dark hair joined his side, face tight.
"Who's that?"
"Nobody you need to know." Jacob sniffed, composing himself and propping a foot up on his pedal, "I'm just gonna pick up Jane and we'll meet up at yours."
"Caleb," Mike caught his arm as he attempted to mount his bicycle, dropping it back to his side at the boy's small flinch, a hurt look in his eyes that he tried his best not to show, "sorry, I meant - look, can we..."
"What, Wheeler?" Jacob sighed, looking at him boredly as he sat himself in the worn leather saddle, "Can we what?"
"... Nothing." Mike rolled his eyes, climbing onto his own bike, jaw ticking, "Just be careful who you throw yourself at - there's an epidemic going on, you know."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Jacob scoffed, watching him cycle off with wide eyes, "Mike, what the fuck?! You're gonna pull the fucking AIDS card? Oh, go on, fucking run off - go fuck yourself, alright? Asshole!"
Jacob watched him go and swallowed the lump in his throat, wiping at his eyes hurriedly before setting off for home, a sick feeling in his stomach that refused to leave the entire journey back to the cabin.
↬
El smiled as the late morning sun graced her features, arms folded around her brother's middle and chin perched on his shoulder as they cycled through the woods, freeing one hand to adjust the beanie that kept slipping into her eyes, "Your head is too big."
"So is your attitude."
El rolled her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder again, letting out a long sigh, "... Mm hm, mhm hm hm-"
"Is that the Flintstones intro? Kojak's really got you watching all the senile cartoons, huh?"
"Shut up, I like it."
"Hold on." Jacob braced the bicycle against the large rock protruding out of the ground, jerking the bike to the right to avoid another one and dodging various fallen branches and jagged pebbles until the path finally smoothed out again and they broke out of the boscage of trees surrounding Maple Street, "Told you this way would be quicker."
"More messy." El huffed, picking a few twigs out of her hair that had already began to friz up in the summer heat under the beanie that had been forced over her head, much like her brother's, who had fastened his fringe back with one of her bobby pins at last second, hair tended to. He looked ridiculous, but he embraced it.
"Messier."
"What?"
"Nothin'," Jacob smiled, coming to a slow stop outside the square letterbox and gesturing for his sister to climb off as he pulled the bobby pin from his hair and shook out his fringe, "We gotta take the side door, if Holly sees me we'll never make it out in time for the surprise."
"Jacob," El hummed, smiling softly as he plucked the beanie from her hair and smoothed down the curled strands, then pushed them out of her eyes with the rusted pin, "your house."
Jacob turned to where she had pointed, to that grand pale suburban home just down the end of the street, and watched the children running around the front garden with their cheap plastic water guns and deflating kiddie pool for a moment before shrugging, "Not really, hasn't been for a long time. How'd you know I used to live there, anyway? I never took you there when we first found you."
"Told you, see parts of your dreams sometimes." El fidgeted with the hem of the oversized navy sweater she had pulled from her brother's drawer, pushing up the sleeves and shifting the blue hair tie her father had given her so it was rested on her wrist again, "Saw other house, too. The one you don't tell them about."
Jacob looked at her quickly, "No, I... I haven't had any nightmares about that place in forever, I don't even think about it-"
"Wrench." El mumbled, reaching out for her brother's arm and forcing the sleeve of his light flannel up to his shoulder, tracing over the pinkish scar that sat just below his clavicle bone, the skin stretched over itself tenfold in an attempt to repair the gash that had been left by the curved edge of the mechanic's tool, "You bumped off the car, the man got angry."
Jacob jerked away from her involuntarily, tugging the dark fabric back down to his wrist and turning back to the bike, beginning to lug it across the lawn as he ignored his sister's watchful gaze, "C'mon, we're late enough as it is-"
"He's gone."
"Excuse me?"
"Man who hurt you, is gone." El informed him, falling into step beside her companion, "Tried to find him in the dark place-"
"Dustin thinks we should call it the Void 'cause it sounds cooler-"
"-so I could make him hurt, too - but he is gone."
"... And the woman?"
"Was with another man, looked like they were wrestling. She made weird noises-"
"Okay, that's enough!"
"-but happy noises, laughed a lot-"
"So she's happy, that's good, you can stop now!"
El frowned in confusion but resolved to just following after him in silence as he tossed the bike aside and guided her towards the other side of the house, stopping at the door that they had used to make their escape from the men in suits all that time ago.
Jacob nudged the door open, ushering her inside and smiling fondly at the sound of that familiar bickering, shutting it closed with his foot and watching as his friends struggled to yell over each other, gesturing to the homemade banner laid out on the ground.
His eyes found their way to Mike, who had gone dead silent when they entered and showed no signs of remorse or guilt and simply stared back, and then pointedly looked away from him and nodded towards the expansive piece of paper on the ground, "What're you idiots getting all shout-y about now?"
"Lucas spelled Dustin's name wrong." Max informed him, arms crossed over her chest as her face fell flat.
"You what?"
"I was distracted, Baywatch was on!" Lucas spluttered, gesturing to the TV on the other side of the room that had been left there from their last movie night, yet to be returned to the living room, which was currently playing a re-run of Happy Days.
Max looked at him slowly and raised a single brow, "You said that Mike was making faces at you and you 'lost track of your lettering'."
"... I realise that I've made a mistake."
"Jacob, can you mind control my boyfriend into being less of an asshole, please?" Max sighed with a roll of her eyes, receiving a quiet snicker from Will, who was sat with his legs crossed on the floor filling in the lines of the greeting words, hands smudged with blue and red marker ink.
"No, but I can offer you a much better one." Jacob winked, causing Will to flick an uncapped marker at him that he just about dodged, "Hey! Careful with the jeans, I only have twelve other pairs!"
"Idiot."
Jacob nudged the boy's head roughly as he sat down across from him and took up the marker that had been thrown at him, setting about finding a way to change 'Dustn' into its correct form, "Did he try comm yet?"
"Not yet, think he's still out of range."
"Fuck's sake."
"Hey, you've been gone longer than that before!"
"Yeah, but I didn't know how it felt - I was usually off in an institution by the time he left! I had to deal with Steve all by myself this month, Will, don't tell me I'm being dramatic."
"You are being dramatic - you're the one who got to talk to him whenever you wanted!"
"I actually try my best to stay out of teenage boy's minds, thank you very much - Luke and Dustin have left me with more mental scarring than Brenner ever could."
"Spare me the details." Will grimaced.
Jacob laughed, just about to respond when the words turned to a disgusted retch in his mouth as his sister sidled up to Mike and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek, his dramatised response earning a giggle from the boy across from him.
El reached out to prod at his arm, "Shut up, won't think it is gross when you are same with Lee."
The boy stumbled to his feet to slap her shoulder, eyes widened in alarm, "Stop saying shit like that, it's weird! I don't like Lee!"
He was grateful that she at least had the sense not to make it obvious that they were talking about a boy while they were in front of the others - he had talked to her about it the night before while they sat on the couch, asked her what her attitudes to men liking men were, only to discover that she found no difference between a man liking a man and a man liking a woman.
El had simply frowned and asked, 'Is not all same thing?', and he had been positively floored.
"N - well, yeah, kind of, but some people don't think that. So you just - nobody can know, alright? People... boys like me and girls like Mack, they get hurt for stuff like this - I don't need the whole town coming for my head. Especially Hop, you can't tell Hopper."
"Dad would not hurt you, Jacob."
"... I want to believe you, but I honestly have no idea where he stands on shit like this so can you just - just don't tell him, alright?"
"Okay. Okay, I promise."
"Thank you."
"... Can we watch The Parent Trap now?"
"Lee? Who's Lee?" Lucas smirked, breaking out of the scolding he had been receiving from his girlfriend to pull his friend into a playful headlock, ruffling his hair, "Do you have a little lady friend you're not telling us about, Jay?"
Jacob untangled himself with flushed cheeks and a roll of the eyes, shoving the boy aside, "No! She's just being dumb - shut up, Jane!"
"Don't tell her to shut up." Mike narrowed his eyes, receiving a confused nudge of the ribs from his girlfriend.
"Don't talk to my brother like that." She shot back, a toothy smile on her face, not recognising the tense atmosphere that had settled over their small group.
Jacob glared, jaw clenching, and stared at the boy for a long moment before turning to his sister, molding his expression into a playful scowl that she jovially stuck her tongue out to in reply.
"Seriously, though, who's Lee? Is she ya love-ah?" Lucas knocked his shoulder against him, wiggling his eyebrows in that ridiculous goofy way that caused his own girlfriend to thwack him over the head.
"Fuck off, Luke." Jacob groaned, pushing him away once again, "It's nobody! Just drop it, alright?"
"... Jay and Lee, sittin' in a tree-"
"O-kay! Let's get going, Dustin will be heading off to camp again by the time we leave at this point.."
"Yeah, yeah." Max tossed arm over his shoulder as they all began to pile out of the basement, giving him a moment to relax under the sudden touch before leaning in close, voice low, "I better be getting some fucking information about this 'Lee' person later on."
"It's not like tha-" Jacob stopped himself, sighing in defeat as she arched a brow at him with an incredulous glare, "Okay, it's like that. He's the guy from work, I mentioned him a few times..."
"Oh, the city kid! Didn't you say he w-"
"Can you shut the fuck up, please?!" Jacob hissed, digging an elbow into her side, "Fucking loudmouth, are you trying to get me hate crimed?"
"Promise full details or I start singing Elton John songs."
"I promise, just shut it-"
"What are you two whispering about?" Will pushed himself between the pair as they all walked towards their friend's street, a large, false smile on his face. "This mysterious 'Lee' that I was told absolutely nothing about?"
"Me either!" Max scoffed, adjusting her arm so that it was slung over them both, forcing the trio into an uncomfortably tight hold, "He never tells us anything anymore, Bo, it's like he's replacing us with all his little work friends! Confess, Ives - you're two-timing us!"
"I would never!"
"It's true." Will sniffed, "I caught him fraternising with that receptionist he told us not to worry about - he was never faithful!"
"The receptionist?!" Max gasped, letting out a cry of denial, "No wonder he's been taking up all those 'late shifts!"
"I - oh, I just couldn't help myself, I'm only a man, after all!"
"No excuses," Will held his chin high, huffing indignantly as he turned to Max, their heads almost bonking off each other due to the human sandwich they had formed, "I'll contact the attorney, you break the news to the kids."
"Is that how it went when your dad left, Byers?"
"Is that how it went when yours left, Mayfield?"
"Touché, touché - but at least my parents could afford an actual divorce."
"And how did that work out for your dad? Been a while since you went to visit his squat in LA."
"You ever get around to meeting that teenage girl your dad was keeping on tab?"
"No, she was too busy neglecting my brother."
"The drug addict or the alleged photography perv?"
"While we're on the subject of addict family members, how's Billy's sadism addiction?"
"How's Jordan's?"
"My brother does not have a sadism-"
"Now, think about it, Will - are you the one who has to blast their Walkman everytime they hear Jordan's shitty Volkswagen pull into the driveway? No, so don't tell me what I do or don't know about your brother's sex life because I know a lot more than I want to-"
"Oh my God, no, stop! Stop, you win, you win!"
Jacob reached over the shorter boy's head to give the girl a congratulatory ruffle of the hair and she grinned, nudging into Will's side.
"You admitting defeat?"
"... I think we should avoid turning our trauma into games from now on, it really isn't healthy-"
"Coward!"
"Oh, shut up - if Jay was playing, you would have lost too." Will grumbled, pulling back when Mike called out to him to ask where the banner was, "Oh, shit, I dropped it! Shit, shit, shit!"
"He never cursed this much before he met you." Jacob tutted, closing the space between them to press against her side once the boy scurried back to look for the fallen banner, "You're a bad influence on everyone you meet, sunshine."
"As if, you scumbags are the ones that have been tainting him since before I showed up - I'm a fucking saviour as far as you pinheads are concerned."
"That you are, lovely, that you are." Jacob pressed a kiss to her temple, steering her in odd little circles and shapes as they neared their destination, the girl chuckling at his idiocy as they marched back and forth for no reason before continuing on as usual, shaking her head in bafflement at his spontaneous mannerisms.
It took no longer than five minutes of this for Lucas to jog up to them and Jacob sighed, wordlessly peeling Max's arm from his own shoulder and fitting it over Lucas', stepping away from the two, "Relax, man. Still not into her."
"I didn't say anything!"
"But your actions said everything." Max grinned, pressing a sloppy kiss to his cheek with an exaggerated pout. "You know youre the only one for me, Lukey-poo!"
"No. Never again. Refused. Denied. No, Max-"
"Oh, shut up, I was kidding."
"Never again."
Jacob shook his head at them and glanced back to see what the others were doing, regretting the decision when he spotted Mike and El giggling to each other at the very back of the group. He caught Will's gaze and tilted his head towards the couple with a roll of his eyes, acting out his best impression of a bubonic plague victim hacking up a lung.
Will supplied him with a few amused laughs, rolling up the banner he had finally managed to locate and tucking it under his arm before retreating back into his own thoughts while the two friends shuffled along side by side.
Jacob found himself feeling the slightest but alone, and for once he didn't hate it that much.
The quiet was comfortable now.
↬
a/n :
sooo sorry this is so uneventful especially after the longer wait,
i was going to add all of dustin's surprise and building cerebro etc in here but it got wayyy too long so i had to break the chapter in half - but that also means that i've got a good bit of the next chapter written already so i should have that up soon!
i'm half asleep rn and i'm probably gonna pass out the second i hit publish, so i won't be replying to any comments or anything until tmrwww
also, if i had to see this, so do you
~sweet dreams~
that's all for now, darlings x
- georgia