CHAPTER EIGHT — DEAR BILLY
PART TWO
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THEY GATHERED in a circle, and Nancy dished out the file she was holding in her hands to Steve, who flipped it open to read the papers inside immediately.
Robin spoke first. "Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Notre Dame."
"I'm now Ruth," Nancy said, cocking her head to the side at Steve's questioning stare.
"And I'm Rose."
"Nice GPA," Dustin commented, passing the folder to Jackie.
"Thanks. So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics—"
"To which they said no."
"But! We landed a three o'clock with the director."
"And now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor."
"Then maybe we can rid Max of this curse."
"Wait," Jackie interrupted, flipping through the pages, and glancing up at the two girls. "You keep saying we. Where's mine?" Nancy's mouth fell agape, and she shared a look with Robin. Jackie's jaw clenched. "Are you guys serious?"
"Look, you call Steve a bad liar, but you're even worse," Robin said defensively. "Especially under pressure! Remember that one time you got caught sneaking out your bathroom window? And your mom asked what you were doing?" Jackie would've smiled at the memory if she hadn't currently been fuming. "You said 'drugs.' Drugs, Jackie! You are a horrible liar."
Her and Nancy chuckled, but when they caught sight of Jackie's expression, they stopped short. It was very clearly a lie. Jackie would have been hurt, but them just outright telling her she wasn't invited would've been preferred to the straight-up bullshit they were spewing.
"She's literally my sister!" Jackie bursted out, unable to keep herself leveled any further. "Not yours, if anyone should be running around and playing hero to save her life, it should be me! You never even spoke to her before all of this, Nancy!"
"That is not true," Nancy argued. "And I know she's your sister, but we know you're going through a lot too, I mean, we just wanted to lessen the load on you!"
"Lessen the load on me," Jackie snorted, nodding her head sarcastically, like she understood their thought process completely. She stood up without a word, and dropped the file onto the coffee table. "Nice. Thanks."
"Jackie!" Nancy desperately called after her, but the only sort of response she got was the hard slam of the back door.
She sat on the set of steps that lead up to the house, her knees drawn to her chest. She didn't know what was wrong with her—she knew she was being ridiculous, but she just couldn't get Max's horrified expression out of her head. That was her baby sister. She was Jackie's responsibility, and she was her entire world. She was bitter that someone else was trying to take that from her, and it was such a stupid reason to be mad, that Jackie became angry at herself, too.
The air was chilly for an afternoon in mid-March, and the sky was clear. Jackie pulled her legs closer, unprepared for the breeze. She was still too angry to go inside, but she wished she had brought her jacket out with her. Maybe she could just army crawl back inside and pray that nobody saw her.
She heard the door creak open, and instantly she straightened, trying to force the bubble off annoyance down, and tell whoever had come out to kindly fuck off. Until she saw who it was.
"Oh," she relaxed. "It's just you."
"Yup," Max's smile was small, but it was still visible. "Just me. Mind if I join you?"
Jackie was surprised by the question, but nodded regardless. Max took the open spot next to her, and followed her line of sight—up to the sky. "So, what were you writing in there?"
Max swallowed. "Letters."
"Letters?"
"Yeah. You know, incase I don't... incase I don't make it. They're filled with everything I want to say, but can't."
"Max," Jackie violently shook her head, refusing to even let those thoughts in. "You're not going anywhere."
"It's just a precaution."
Jackie buried her face into her hands, and Max fell silent besides her. Finally, she sighed, and lifted her head to look at her sister. "Max, I am so sorry for leaving you there. You're right, I was embarrassed. I didn't want people to think of me differently if they found out that I lived at a trailer park. But... all this almost dying crap? I'm learning not to give a shit. I mean, I never really have, but I guess some things still got to me."
"It's okay, Jackie," Max reached to squeeze her hand. "I'm sorry, too. I had no idea you were helping mom pay rent. I should've never said those things to you."
Jackie leaned forward to kiss her forehead, she wished they could stay right there, like that, forever. "I love you so much, Max."
Max nodded against her chest. "I love you, too." Smirking, Jackie took the sleeve of Max's jacket and wiped her nose on it. Her sister shrieked and pulled her arm away. "Jackie! What the hell?!"
It was the first stomach-hurting laugh Jackie had emitted in a long time. "That's what you get for making me cry, you asshole!"
Max rolled her eyes, but she was laughing too. Once the giggling had dialed down between them, Max shifted on the concrete. "Steve looked really upset when I came back into the living room. Did you guys get into a fight or something? I'm surprised he didn't come after you like immediately. I couldn't tell if he was constipated, or debating internally with himself on getting up to check on you."
Jackie snorted, but it felt less genuine than her laugh just a few moments before. "We're not fighting. We are, um..."
Max eyed her suspiciously. "Yes?"
She sighed. "I broke up with him. Unintentionally, intentionally."
Her sister blinked in astonishment and shook her head. "That makes zero sense."
"Like, look, okay," Jackie struggled to find the words, and Max nodded at her encouragingly. Jackie shoved her. "Shut up."
"I said nothing."
"I don't want us to be over, like, for good. I just needed a break. I still do, everything that is going on... I need to focus on you, not a boy. And that's not fair to him. I didn't want to feel like I was stringing him along but.. that's what it feels like I'm doing now, anyway."
"You haven't even looked in his direction in the last seven hours," Max scoffed. "I think you're good." Jackie pursed her lips and said nothing. Max blew a strand of hair out of her face with a huff. "How do you feel about going to East Hawkins?"
"Absolutely not," Steve had dismissed Max's idea the second she brought it to light. But Max was known for her stubbornness if not anything, and pulled Jackie by the arm, out the door, and ignored his calls of protest behind them. "No!"
"If you think I'm going to spend what is most likely the last day of my life in the armpit that is Mike Wheeler's basement, then you're out of your mind."
"Jackie." She almost froze at the sound of her name coming from his mouth, but she only glanced back, trying not to let her surprise show. "You're not siding with her on this, are you?"
The familiarity of the conversation brought up another memory. One that had been stored away much further than the last.
"Seriously?" Steve had asked. It was funny, she realized. He was wearing the same jacket then, as he was currently. "You're taking their side? What the hell? We're a team, Jackie."
"We are on the same side," she insisted, wanting so badly to take a step closer to him and grab his hands reassuringly.
Jackie blinked back into the present. It was strange how the universe worked, because two years later, the situation could not be more different, but yet it was entirely the same.
"Max is in danger," is what she said. "She's right, staying at the Wheeler's isn't safer than any other place right now. Vecna can get her anywhere. But we're not letting that happen, right?"
"Sort of inevitable," Max muttered, but Jackie gave her a sharp look. "Right. Yeah, whatever. And I'm not staying in that goddamn basement for a second longer. So, you're either gonna take me where I want to go, or you're going to have to tie me down which is technically kidnapping of a minor. And if I live to see another day, Steve, I swear to God, I will prosecute."
"Yeah. Unlock the car."
"Hell no."
"Harrington, open the door!"
"I know a good lawyer," Max informed him, darkly.
Steve grunted, and finally unlocked the vehicle, watching Max climb in. He caught Jackie's gaze before she shrugged and got in as well. He sighed in annoyance, and fell into the drivers seat. Lucas squished in next to Jackie, while Dustin took the passenger side.
"You know," Steve started before he turned the car on. "You two are a lot more alike than I thought. And I hate it."
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The trip back to the trailer was quicker than Jackie had expected it to be, though she wasn't sure how accurate her mental time-frame was, because she had spent the entirety of the time they were there hiding in the backseat in order to avoid her mother.
When Max returned to Steve's car, her entire attitude had changed. Jackie shot her a questioning look, which she studiously ignored. Lucas caught Jackie's eye, who gave him a look that warned him to let it go. Max would elaborate when she wanted to, there was no pressuring her into anything.
"So," Steve broke the silence. "Where to now?"
"Just drive," Max told him shortly. "I'll tell you where to go."
Steve hesitated before putting the car into drive again. Jackie stared ahead out the windshield, while the two beside her looked out their respective windows.
Max lifted her head after a few minutes of traveling further into East Hawkins. "Turn here."
"Here?"
"The cemetery?" Jackie questioned. Her only sort of response was a nod. Dustin was still turned in his seat with raised brows. "Yes, here."
Steve did as he was asked. Max was silent as she collected something from her bag. They stared at her in confusion.
"Should we go with her?" Steve asked. Lucas had his own way of answering, because his door swung open, and he chased after her. Steve nodded. "Well, looks like he's got it."
Jackie eyed him for a moment, trying to ignore the gut-wrenching feeling in her stomach. She had been fighting off tears all morning, and whether they were because she missed him, or because of everything else happening, she didn't know. But what she did know was, Steve was acting completely normal. Maybe it was his dumb defense strategy where he acted like he didn't care, but he should've known by then, that with her, that would cause more harm than anything.
Or he just wasn't acting. Maybe he really didn't care.
Max walked off sometime during her and Lucas' conversation, and Lucas returned to the vehicle. He didn't climb back inside, though. He sat on the hood, and soon Dustin joined him too. Jackie couldn't handle sitting in the car with just Steve, so eventually she got out as well.
Max was still visible over the small hill. She was sitting before a headstone, one that Jackie could recognize even from afar. It was Billy's. She tried not to think about him much, because every time she did she'd attempt to justify his shitty actions in her head. And she wouldn't allow her brain to convince her that he was a decent person for just one single act of good.
It was still weird not having him around, though. She'd gotten used to the burning smell of cigarettes coming from his room, or the sound of him using his punching bag. Blaring some shitty old Motley Crew song. She didn't miss him, exactly, but she had become accustomed to his presence.
It'd be a year in July. It was so odd how fast time moved. And how so much had changed since last summer. His birthday was in less than a week.
"I don't like this," Jackie announced, wearily. "She's been up there for too long."
"Just give her another minute," Lucas said.
Steve tapped on the door anxiously. Jackie couldn't stop pacing, and she could feel his gaze on her the whole time. He pushed open the door. "Okay, it's been long enough."
"Give her some time!" Lucas insisted.
"We already have," Steve answered.
"Yeah," Jackie pushed herself off the hood of the car. "I'm sick of waiting. I don't like being away from her this long."
"We're calling it. If she wants to get a lawyer, she can."
Lucas and Dustin stayed put, but Steve followed closely behind. Now that they were closer, Jackie could see that Max no longer had the letter in her hands, instead she was just staring at Billy's headstone.
Jackie's pace quickened until she was nearly jogging. "Max," she said once she was within earshot. "It's time to go."
"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Come on."
Her sister didn't move. Jackie's stomach churned, and she crouched down next to her. Max's glossed over eyes almost made her fall back in fright. "Oh my God. Steve."
Whether it was the rare use of her saying his first time, or the panic in her voice, Steve bent down hurriedly, blinking in shock. "Max. Max! Max, wake up!"
"You two!" Jackie called back to Lucas and Dustin. "See what Nancy and Robin found out! Vecna's got Max!"
The teens sprinted, Dustin grabbed his walkie and spoke into it. Everything that happened in the following couple of minutes was a total blur. Jackie shook her sister by the shoulders and begged her to return. Dustin's terrified voice into the device sounded muffled from far behind.
"Is anyone there?" A younger version of Dustin screamed into his older version of a walkie. "Mike? Will? God! Anyone?! We are at the old junk yard, and we are going to die!"
Jackie glanced away for the briefest of seconds to see Dustin sprinting back with a bunch of tapes, and Max's set of headphones.
He scrambled to the ground, dropping the belongings in his hands onto the grass. Jackie shook her head frantically. "Dustin, what the hell?!"
"What is this?"
"What's her favorite song?" Dustin demanded.
"Why? Why?!"
"Robin said that if she listens—It's too much to explain right now. What's her favorite song?"
"Anything by Kate Bush," Jackie answered immediately, and she watched Dustin search through the tapes hurriedly. "I don't understand."
Nobody replied, Dustin plugged the jack into the tape and stuck the headphones around Max's head, and they fell back in horror as Max rose from the ground instantly afterwards.
Jackie reached for her sister's shoe, but it slipped between her fingers. "Max!"
The scream that came from her could've shattered glass. They repeated her name desperately. Tears streamed down Jackie's face, any hope she previously had was gone. Max was unresponsive in the air. Jackie was petrified.
Vecna can get her anywhere. But we're not letting that happen, right?
"Max! Max, wake up!"
As if on cue, she fell back onto the ground. Lucas caught her, and they all rushed to swarm around. She was hyperventilating in his arms, reaching for Jackie with her free hand, who grabbed it like she was never going to let go again.
"It's okay," Lucas assured, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anything. Someone's hand brushed Jackie's shoulder gently, and she didn't have to look back to know whose it was. "It's okay. I thought we lost you."
Max, still gripping Lucas and Jackie, shook her head. "I'm still... I'm still here."
"Holy shit."
"I'm still here."
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authors note
jackie 🤝 fighting with everyone and their MOTHER
connecting things from the previous seasons to jackie's inner thoughts is my one lone talent in life