017. 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀:
𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗹 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲.
"𝑻𝑬𝑳𝑬𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑰𝑺?" 𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐈 𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐃, 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐃. "Telekinesis. What does— what the hell does that even mean?"
Steve dropped a handful of raw meet onto the tracks, at the same time Dustin did, a few steps in front of them. The group of three were walking on the Hawkins train tracks, crunching on the dead autumn leaves that covered the wooden planks and it was some time in the afternoon now, the sky was grey overhead.
Lori had agreed to go with them. It was a conflicting decision, one that she wasn't certain about— but she was also uncertain with the option of staying home. She didn't want to know how it felt to sit at home, while her cousin and neighbor fight off a demon from an alternate dimension. But at the same time, she didn't want to be the one fighting off said-demon. She'd done it once— apparently she hit the baby demogorgon into the cellar when she was overcome by a crazed rush of adrenaline— but she couldn't remember that because she'd passed right out cold. So much for being a hero. She didn't know if she could be a hero again. She didn't know anything anymore.
But Lori Philbin hated a lot of things. And one of the things at the top of her hate list was curiosity. Really, it had only made it on the list when she moved to Hawkins, because there were so many questions she had that needed answers. It had been racking her brain for days. Lori never let anything rack her brain. Or torture her chest in hunger for answers. She needed answers about Hawkins on her first day, and she needed them now. More than ever. It was terrifying, nerve racking, and bewildering. But she needed to know everything.
So there she was, walking on the train tracks she hadn't even known existed, listening to the stories about Hawkins once again. Only this time, it was in great detail. They didn't miss a damn thing.
"She can move shit with her mind," Steve answered, calmly. "It's pretty awesome."
"Really awesome," Dustin commented, with a big smile.
"You've seen it?" Lori asked Steve, the back of her hand touching the side of his arm briefly. Her voice sounded in disbelief. "I mean— her? Like, you've seen her move things with her head?" she spoke uncertainly, because the words felt weird rolling off her tongue. She felt like she was telling a story, or that she was just talking about some random character in a movie. But she wasn't, and she knew that with grave bewilderment.
Up to date, they'd told her everything. Everything she needed to know. Answered all of her questions. They told her about Will and his story— how he was doing now — the upside down, the demogorgons, Nancy and Jonathan— and Lori finally learned the actual reasoning behind their alliance — how Steve had killed a demogorgon himself, the lab, the new tunnels, and now they were on their final stage: every single detail about Eleven.
At times, Dustin debated whether she should know everything. She was an outsider, yeah, but she wasn't just anybody. She was family, whether they were cushy about it or not. And after seeing her beat Dart into the cellar, he decided that she was, how do you say— worthy? — of knowing the truth. Somewhat. And even though he'd only known her for a little while, he knew with certainty that Lorraine Philbin was not a snitch. Sure, she wanted to call the cops when she first found Dart— but that's just because she was scared shitless and didn't have a clue what was going on.
"Not myself, no." Steve answered, and dropped two more pieces of meat. He glanced up at her with his eyes. "Only heard the stories."
"So where the hell is she now?" Lori said, her eyebrows narrowed. She was sort of having trouble keeping up with the stories, and with her racing heart. "With all due respect, she could be helping all of this— where is she?"
Dustin dropped two pieces of meat. "We don't know." he said, his voice low at that.
"You don't know?" she repeated, sounding baffled by that. "You don't know where the telekinetic bald girl is?" she said, as if those characteristics should allow Eleven to be pointed out anywhere.
"We told you, Philbs," Steve said, with a sigh. He'd sighed so many times during their walk on the train tracks. "Remember, about the school?" he turned his head to look at her. "It showed up at the elementary school— the demogorgan. I was at Jonathan's."
"It took her, yeah, I remember," she said, shaking her head quickly to keep the memory in place. "But she hasn't showed up since?"
"Nobody knows where she went." Dustin said, and then his voice got low. "Or if she's even alive." He paused now, and then his voice lowered so much that they barely heard him say, "Most likely, not alive."
Lori's eyebrows softened. "Well, what happens if she does show up, does she know how to stop this? The tunnels, that thing— whatever it's gonna do?" she said, her voice growing urgent.
"Don't know yet." Dustin answered calmly, keeping his focus on the bucket in his hand.
"Holy shit," Lori looked down at her feet, her eyes wide with all the information she'd heard in the last hour. "Shit, okay. Shit,"
"You okay?" Steve slowed his pace, turning his head to look at her seriously.
"That is a very vague question to ask right now." Lori reached her hands up and placed her fingers on her temples, rubbing slowly. "Very, very, vague."
Steve let out a small laugh. "You said you wanted to know everything. That's everythin'."
Lori nodded, and took in a long breath. She exhaled slowly, feeling the air slip from her lungs.
She was walking beside Steve, as he held a bucket of raw meat and dropped pieces onto the tracks with yellow gloves. Dustin was a few steps in front of them, doing the same. They decided to let Lori off easy, deciding she didn't have to partake in the meat-dropping, partly because leaning the truth about Hawkins was gross enough, and partly because they only had two buckets. She still wore the yellow gloves up to her elbows anyways.
"So there's a girl, somewhere, who can move things with her mind," Lori said out loud, her words slow, as if making herself believe it. "And where did she come from, again?"
"The lab." Dustin answered, with a drop of meat. "You ever seen that big building, the tall, dark, scary one? We just talked about it, like, fifteen minutes ago,"
"Sure," she said, even though she had no idea what the lab looked like. She'd heard the stories about the lab about fifteen minutes ago— about it's involvement with the monsters, and Will Byers' involvement with it.
"And her name is a number." she furrowed her eyebrows.
"If you wanna back out, now's your chance." Dustin reminded her, calmly, as he did every quarter to make sure she was okay with everything. "There's no turning around when we get to the yard." he said, not harmfully.
"I already told her," Steve said, his voice soft.
"Okay—" Dustin let out a grand sigh, as if they were concluding. "So we're all on the same page now?" He looked back at them.
"Just, give me a minute," Lori said, staring at the ground.
She could see Steve looking at her from the corner of her eye, watching her face for something. His eyes trailed around her face to her shoulders, his eyebrows knitted with the concern he always had.
She stared at the ground, as her feet continued their steps on the wooden planks. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and her mind was on overdrive — putting it lightly. Last night was something. And she knew it was only going to go up from there. Lori was scared. Scared shitless. Afraid— of what could happen, and afraid of what had already happened before she even arrived in Hawkins. Every few minutes she thought about the monster in Dustin's room, its gaping mouth and rows of sharp, flaring teeth. Every few minutes she thought about Will Byers and how batshit crazy his life was. Every few minutes she thought about this so-called "Upside-Down". And no matter how many times she told herself it was real, there was still a part of her that was in disbelief.
She was walking on the train tracks, in the middle of this ludicrous town— feeling the lingering presence of danger around her, and the salty taste of fear on her tongue.
She swallowed, hard. The liquid of her mouth traveled over the lump in her throat. She inhaled strongly, the November air sipping through her nose and into her lungs, before she pushed it right out again. She shoved her yellow gloved hands into the pockets of her jacket and shut her eyes for a moment.
She didn't know how, but now she was a part of it all. Maybe in the smallest way, in the tiniest manner— but she was apart of this. And that meant she couldn't back out now.
When she opened her eyes again, many moments had passed. Turns out, they'd actually given her more than a minute, and walked in silence as she contemplated her life's decisions. Steve glanced to her every few seconds, to make sure she was visibly okay— no tears or signs of throwing up.
She opened her eyes and inhaled again, exhaling slowly with her mouth in an "O" shape.
"Okay," she breathed, trying to keep it steady. "Okay."
Steve and Dustin didn't know what that meant, but they glanced to each other anyways.
"Okay," Dustin repeated, nodding once.
Steve looked at her face, noticing the tense muscles in her cheeks.
"You're sure you're not just messing with me?" Lori said, finally. "This isn't a joke, right."
They let their heads fall back, and she got her answer.
Lori let out another breath, this time it came out with a shiver. "Okay, I need you to revise the plan." she said, trying to keep her voice leveled. "In great detail. Where are we going and why are we going there."
"I think you know why we're going there," Dustin chuckled.
Steve hit the back of Dustin's head, with the back of his glove.
"We're gonna lure Dart to the junkyard," Dustin corrected himself. "Hopefully he'll follow this bait."
"Then what." She said, pressing her lips together.
Steve leaned in close to Lori's side, bringing his chin close to her ear. "Dustin doesn't want me to say 'kill it' yet, but I mean," He whispered, leaving his sentence open. She knew what that meant.
She turned her head as he pulled away, catching his eye and they shared the same look.
"Then we'll see what happens." Dustin told, dropping meat.
"And Lucas is meeting us there?" she asked. "Because Will and Mike are at the lab, right now? With the Chief of Police?"
"As we speak." Dustin nodded. "And just call him Hopper."
"And Nancy and Jonathan are..." Lori trailed her voice off. Carefully, she switched her eyes to Steve.
He looked down at those words, his lips pressing together as he focused on the bucket in hand.
"Beats me." Dustin shrugged, nonchalantly.
Lori sighed again, and looked away from Steve. "There's one last thing to go over."
"And what's that." Dustin said with a laugh, as if he believed there was nothing left.
"You still haven't explained why, why you kept a— what is it?— an inter-dimensional slimeball in your bedroom for days." she said, casually.
Dustin let his head fall back in a sigh, "Okay -- "
"And you just decided to keep it?" she said, putting her gloved hands out at her sides. "It ate your cat."
Steve looked up from his bucket.
"I know that, Lori— you don't have to remind me!" he said. "And I already told you, was small and ridiculously cute at first!" Dustin turned around, exclaiming. He was walking backwards, facing them. "So what? — I kept him as a pet,"
"Yeah— a pet that you found in your trash can," she rebutted.
"That's what you're worried about? That I kept Dart as a pet?" Dustin said, scrunching his face. "I thought we were over this, we were literally over this just two seconds ago,"
"What I'm worried about— is that it's somewhere running through town, underground, probably ready to inflict mass carnage on all of us," Lori exclaimed.
"I know how it looks," Dustin pursed his lips, squinting his eyes at her. "But we can stop it! Steve's done it before! We can get it under control,"
"Hopefully," Steve winced to Dustin.
Lori put her gloved finger up. "I'm just having a real hard time understanding why you kept a demon from an alternate dimension in your bedroom! That's the whole reason I got dragged into this shit."
"If you wanna back out, Lor, now's your chance," Dustin said, putting his hands out, "We told you many a'time,"
"I'm not backing out," Lori protested. She crossed her arms.
"Are you sure?" Dustin said, bitterly. "It sounds like you wanna back out!"
"Hey," Steve narrowed his eyebrows at Dustin.
"This is just— a lot!" Lori said, her eyes squinting. "Okay? It's a lot."
"Relax, Henderson," Steve whispered to Dustin. "Kay? Remember— you asked her to come with. We both did."
Dustin let out a breath of air through his nose and shifted his eyes to Lori. "I'm sorry," he said, sort of hesitantly, but they could tell he meant it.
Lori didn't know what to say now that she'd gotten that off her chest. She pressed her lips together and nodded lightly, the tense look always on her face, letting her eyes fall from her cousin's and down to the ground. She bit hard on the inside of her lip.
Dustin turned around at that, and the three of them continued their walking.
It wasn't until a few moments later when Steve thought of something. "Wait," he said, his voice confused. "I don't mean to retract on the touchy subject -- but you didn't tell Lori about the girl?" he asked, to Dustin.
"Oh my god— we're done talking about Dart! Why would you bring it back up again, man," Dustin looked to Steve, scoldingly. "You people, I swear to god!"
"What girl?" Lori looked up. "Eleven? We just talked abou—"
"Not Eleven," Steve said, glancing to her. "The new girl."
Dustin let out a sigh. "No, Steve, I didn't tell my cousin about a girl. That's worse than telling you,"
"Woah," Lori's eyes widened. "Are we talking about a girl girl? Like a, like a," Lori wiggled her gloved fingers.
"Please stop talking," Dustin dropped a handful of meat. "I'm begging you."
"Well lay it on me, Hagar," Lori said, her voice monotone. "This fucked up conversation can use some comic relief, I think."
"It's not really relief," Steve shook his head. "It all ties into everything, so don't hold your breath." he said, meaning that the girl was correlated to this mess. "And who's Hagar?"
Lori pointed to the back of Dustin's head, meaning him. "Sammy Hagar." she said, her voice neutral.
"Look— it's not a big deal, alright?" Dustin said, before Steve could comment on the nickname. "It's the least-biggest deal out of all this."
"Well, I'd say it's a pretty big fuckin' deal if she's the reason you kept that thing," Steve said, dropping meat. He raised his eyebrows.
"What?" Lori said.
"Alright, y'know Billy?" Steve said, and turned to face Lori. He spoke the name with a tone of resent. "Hargrove? That new guy. Transfered at the same time you did."
Lori shuffled back in her mind, past the stories about Hawkins and the images of Dart— to remember Billy Hargrove at the Halloween party, and Billy who always sped in the blue Camaro. Her mouth twisted into a grimace at the sight of him.
She nodded.
"Yeah, well he's got a sister." Steve said, shifting focus between Lori and his bucket. He pointed to Dustin, meaning the sister was the girl.
"Oh," Lori said. "You like her?"
Dustin let his head fall back, "It's not like that, it's not, just—"
"And you kept Dart, in your room, because of her," Lori said, slowly growing outraged at the fact. "See! I knew you weren't telling me something, Hagar— this is ridiculous!"
"Okay, now I'm with Lori on this one, kid," Steve said, reaching into his bucket. "You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress," he paused, putting his hand out. "A girl... who you just met?"
"All right, you guys are... grossly oversimplifying things," Dustin said, staying calm.
"I mean why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Steve narrowed his eyes.
"An interdimensional slug?" Dustin corrected. "Because it's awesome,"
"None of this is awesome," Lori said, her face grimacing. "Does she know that your interdimensional slug is probably gonna kill all of—"
"Well even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't," Steve said. "I... I just. I dunno— I just feel like you're trying way too hard."
"Oh my god, are we talking about dating advice now?" Lori turned to look at Steve, squinting her eyes. "The way you guys just shift from the possible destruction of our world as we know it, to dating advice is more terrifying than all of this," she said, honestly. "And I mean that."
She winced at the thought of everything.
"Well what would you rather talk about, Lori?" Dustin said, his voice sarcastic. "You didn't seem too ecstatic with the interdimensional stuff, now did you. Besides, you know everything now so there's nothing left to tell anyways. "
Lori rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. She supposed he was right— they'd gone over everything and there was nothing left to explain at this point. She didn't really want to retract on the inter dimensional stuff, really didn't want to. This was the best option.
She shifted her eyes to Steve and he met her own, and he gave a little shrug and small smile to tell her that it was okay how she was feeling.
"Now not everyone can have your perfect hair, alright," Dustin said, lowly.
"It's not about the hair, man," Steve said. He turned to look at Lori and stopped walking. "Do I have permission to give him girl advice? Kinda feels weird talking about girls in front of a girl, y'know?"
Lori stared back, and blinked.
"Lori doesn't count." Dustin called back, still walking on ahead. "C'mon Steve, you and I know that. She knows that."
Lori agreed to that too, but somehow all she could do was shrug as she stared back into Steve's eyes. She didn't know what to say, and she didn't know why she couldn't just laugh or say "yeah". Then she got a feeling deep in her stomach, and thought about everything that had happened in the last days with Steve who stood right in front of her— ready to give girl advice with her as a bystander.
Steve took in a deep breath, and turned away, continuing his steps down the tracks. "If you'd have asked me last week for girl advice, Henderson, I guess I would'a told you that the key with girls is to just act like you don't care." he said, sounding proud and real advice-giving.
"And what would you tell me now," Dustin said, confused. He dropped more meat, and it splattered on the ground.
"It depends on said-girl." Lori spoke, crossing her arms tighter over her chest.
"Yeah— exactly," Steve agreed, trying not to sound so taken aback by her words. "It depends on who you're dealing with. "With some, acting like you don't care just drives em' nuts,"
"Okay so with them... then what," Dustin turned to look at both of them.
They were now walking in a line of three, with Lori in the middle, her arms crossed and eyes pinned on anything but the two boys.
"And then you just wait, until you, uh," Steve said, and then paused. "Til' you feel it,"
"Feel what?" Dustin questioned, casually.
Steve took in a breath, sounding just slightly uncomfortable. "It's like before it's gonna storm, you know? You can't see it but you can feel it, it's like this, uh..." he squinted, and thought. "Electricity, you know?"
Lori swallowed the air in her throat. She'd never experienced said-electricity, but she knew what he meant from all the books and movies she'd seen. She also wasn't an idiot.
Dustin nodded, smiling, "Oh, like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere—"
"He means sexual electricity, kid." Lori cut him off, speaking with a sharp tone of voice. Still, she didn't look at them, and trailed her eyes around the trees. She pressed her lips together.
"Oh," Dustin's eyes went slightly wide.
Steve couldn't think of what to say for a moment, as he tried not to look at Lori. "Yeah, okay. So, uh— you feel that and then you make your move." he said, trying to sound confident.
Dustin was slowly nodding at the information. "Okay, so then what about the other type of girls?"
Steve cleared his throat, and looked down. "Some girls," he said, trying hard to find the right words. "You just need to... um,"
"To what, Romeo?" Dustin dropped more meat.
"Sometimes you just need to talk, I guess," he said, shrugging. "But it really depends, Henderson,"
Lori crossed her arms harder. She winced when a gust of wind brushed past them.
"Well that's kinda boring," Dustin said, reaching into his bucket.
"No it's," Steve paused. "Just, with girls who are kinda different, y'know, it happens kinda differently. Maybe it'll take you a year to get what I'm sayin'."
"Is that what Nancy was like?" Dustin questioned, turning to look at both of them. "Different?"
Suddenly, the air went quiet. All that could be heard was the sound of their feet crunching on the leaves, the dropping raw meat, and a few birds.
Steve cleared his throat. "No — I mean, yeah, I dunno," he said, struggling to get the words out.
Lori suddenly felt unsettled, as if the stories of Hawkins hadn't already made her feel unsettled enough.
Dustin looked over at Steve, his eyebrows narrowing. "I thought she was special," he said, confusedly.
Steve was looking away. "Yeah, she was— or she is," he said quietly, but didn't sound like he meant it. It was obvious to both of them, that even he didn't see a truth to his words.
Lori turned to look at him with sudden furrowed eyebrows, noticing the way his face was tense. She looked away after a second.
She didn't like the unsettled feeling in her stomach, and she didn't want to think about how Steve missed his chance with Nancy because of her passing out.
"Moral of the story, kid," Lori mustered up words, her voice coming out surprising leveled, despite the awkwardness. She placed her hand on Dustin's shoulder. "There's no easy way to categorize the female species from a male perspective. Always remember that." Lori said, her tone of voice coarse. "Coming from an actual girl— just do whatever the fuck you feel is right, okay?"
Dustin nodded, and Lori took that as a sign to start walking again, trying her best to keep her chin up as they stood there on the tracks. Steve stared at the back of her head, feeling that same unsettled feeling in the very pit of his stomach but not really knowing why— not really knowing why.