I walk onto set kind of nervous. How is Joe going to act around me in front of the others? How do I act around him?
I know he was affectionate with me in front of the others the other day. I know he was very affectionate with me outside the cafe, yesterday.
But, I can't help but worry. I still don't know where I stand. What are we? Can I call him my boyfriend? I know he wanted to take it slow, but I don't know how slow, and I'm too scared to ask him in case I'm disappointed in the answer.
I'm probably overthinking this.
Okay, I'm seriously overthinking this.
After everything, I should just enjoy our time together. A few days is too soon to do the clingy "what are we?" talk, right?
As I walk into the break room, I see Maya standing by one of the arcade games with a look of fierce focus plastered on her face.
I walk over to her and attempt to say hi, but she shushes me.
"Shhhhhhhh. Shhhhhut your face Charlee," Maya says putting one hand over my face for a moment, before bringing it back to her joystick, "Just shut it for one... more... second... Ahhh! Again? Seriously!?"
Maya slams her hands down on the dashboard of the game, and turns to me, her face red.
"Are you okay Maya?" I ask her nervously. The look on her face is... intense.
"I will be, once I beat Noah's score. How does that little shit have such a high score!" She groans, starting the game up again.
"Why do you want to beat his score so bad?" I ask.
Her face is intense again as she focuses on the game.
"Gloating rights," She says, as if that is a perfectly acceptable, and obvious answer to the stress she's putting herself through for this.
"Okay..." I respond.
"Well... How was your hike yesterday?" I ask her, hoping to dull some of the tension she's feeling. That intense face was scaring me.
She turns her face to me for a moment and flashes a smile, before going back to the game.
"Oh really good! We were walking for like 6 hours, plus breaks. Robert kept getting annoyed because I was beating him, and he claims it wasn't a race, but if it wasn't a race, then how did I win? Exactly. That's right. I beat him, case closed," Maya rambled.
"SIX HOURS!?" I blurt out, astounded.
"How did you have the energy to hike for so long? And race Robert?"
Maya finishes her level, then turns to me sheepishly.
"What?" I press.
She bites her lip.
"Maybe, I made more double strength coffee. And maybe, I put it in a one litre thermos and brought it with me," She tells me, turning back to start the next level.
My jaw drops in horror. One double strength coffee, plus a one litre thermos of double strength coffee equals... I'm not even sure I want to try work out how much caffeine she's consumed.
"Maya, you could have had a heart attack," I tell her.
Suddenly, a hand slips into mine. The fingers intertwining with my own, sending sparks throughout my body. I look over to the culprit, and see Joe smiling down at me with a grin.
"Hey," I say to him with a cheesy smile of my own.
"Hey," He says back, leaning down and giving me a soft peck on the lips.
Okay well, that answers one question. Public displays of affection is definitely fine with him.
"What are we talking about?" Joe asks me.
"Mayas over-caffeination problem. She had lord knows how much double strength coffee yesterday," I explain to him the horrors of what I just heard.
How did Robert survive her in that state? I suddenly wondered. I should remember to check on him today.
Joe groans and runs a hand down his face.
"You're still doing that? I thought I weaned you off the stuff," He complains.
Maya ignores him as she focuses on the game.
I turn my face to him, jaw open again.
"This isn't the first time she's done this?" I ask him.
He shook his head.
"How do you think Robin was so jittery in the show? It wasn't a part of the script, Maya just wouldn't stop with the double strengths," He explained to me.
"Maya!" I exclaimed.
She slams her hands on the dash again.
"He must cheat. He must cheat! How else can this kid have such an impossible score to beat?" She complains, before turning to me.
I stare at her.
"What?" She asks.
"You've got to look after yourself Maya. Your heart can't take that much caffeine, you'll send yourself to an early grave like that," I tell her.
"Oh it's fine! I'm only young. I should live a little now, because getting older means watching everything you eat and drink. Must be boring, is it Joe? Is it boring?" She asks him with a smirk.
"Calling me old? Really?" Joe laughs.
I'm about to make another attempt at convincing her to be more careful, when I feel weight over my shoulders.
I turn to my side, and see Gaten with his arms over both Joe and I.
"Hey lovebirds," He says grinning.
I lean my head on him as some form of a hug.
"Hey Gaten," Joe and I both say hello.
"I'm glad we've all got a scene together today. But, I just need to remind you guys who the star of the show is," He says.
Joe looks at him.
"Millie?" Joe asks, confused.
"Me, Joe. Me. So no upstaging me with your little chemistry presentation! The people want to see Dustin save the day, yet again," Gaten informs us.
Gaten ruffles our hair, then walks over to Millie and Finn, presumably to give them a similar talking to.
Maya, Joe and I all look at each other and laugh, shaking our heads.
*****
Maya and I are sitting down on the floor of the video store set, preparing for our scene. She leans her head on me as she lets out a big yawn.
"This is called the comedown," I tell her.
"Are you still lecturing me about that?" Maya asks me, rolling her eyes.
"I just don't want anything to happen to you. You're my friend, and you mean a lot to me. I don't want to lose you," I say softly.
Maya lifts her head up, off of my shoulder and looks into my eyes.
"Oh sweetie, is this about Drew?" She asks me.
I actually feel the colour drain from my face at the mention of his name. I shake my head.
"I don't know, maybe. I don't think about him that much really. I just appreciate you," I tell her with a smile.
Maya doesn't look convinced, as she brings her arm around my shoulders and pulls me in for a hug.
Before I can ponder too much about whether losing Drew was affecting my friendships, the others walk on to set and Shawn starts telling us our places.
Maya gets up off the floor and walks over to Gaten. Joe comes and sits next to me on one side, while Millie and Finn sit on my other side.
"Action!" Shawn yelled.
Steve is sat next to me on the floor, his knee touching mine. We both watch as Dustin paces across the floor, his cap in one hand and his other hand ruffling through his hair. He stops, and turns to Eleven and Mike.
"So you didn't see it? You just heard it?" Dustin asks them.
"And felt it. Will felt it," Mike told him, looking at El to confirm. She nodded her head.
"And Will is where?" Robin asks.
Mike and El look at each other, panicked.
"We.. lost.. him," Eleven answers sombrely.
Dustin's face becomes panicked.
"She means we accidentally parted ways. He's not dead, we just don't know where he is. He was with Jonathan and Nancy though, so I'm sure he's safe," Mike quickly interjects.
I lean back as I take in the scene, placing my hands on the cold floor. I've heard of these kids before, but didn't really know them. They seemed as brave as Robin and Steve had told me though.
Steve's hand moves next to mine, his pinky brushing mine gently.
"So, where's Lucas?" Mike asks.
Dustin shakes his head.
"We haven't seen him yet. We've been held up here," Dustin explains.
Mike lifts his eyebrows.
"Are we safe here?" Mike asks.
Dustin puts one hand under his chin and nods.
"Yeah, we're pretty safe. We usually have one person on watch. Max is up there now," Dustin explains.
Steve leans in closer to me, and whispers into my ear.
"Two when I'm on, right?" He teases.
I screw up my nose and give him a little shove.
"Wait..." Dustin says, making Steve and I snap our heads back to him.
"What were you doing on the roof Kaya? You were supposed to do morning shift," Dustin asks me.
I glance over at Steve, who gives me nothing but a raised eyebrow.
"I couldn't sleep, so thought I'd help Steve keep watch," I tell him, turning back to him. Steve nodding along with me.
Dustin pauses as if to ponder this, before asking more.
"But why couldn't you-," Dustin begins to interrogate before he is cut off.
"Come in Dustin, come in Dustin, for the love of god, please come in Dustin!" A voice echoes through the room.
Everyone looks around, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from.
"That's Lucas!" Steve exclaims.
A look of recognition comes over Dustin's face as he realises where the sound is coming from, and he lunges toward his backpack sitting on the counter. Triumphantly, he retrieves his walky-talky.
"Lucas? Is that you?" Dustin asks over the walky-talky.
"Yes it's me! I thought we'd lost our walky-talky at some point, oh my god I am SO glad to finally speak to you. Some really crazy shit is going down man, really crazy shi- Hey!" Lucas speaks through the walky-talky, echoing through the room, before being cut off and some rustling sounds.
"Give it to me, you're wasting time! Dustin, it's me Erica. We have some real My Little Pony season 4 episode 23 shit happening here and we NEED you to come and get us," Erica says through the walky-talky.
"Erica, I don't understand that reference," Dustin says.
Erica sighs. Mike raises his eyebrows at Dustin.
"What? I don't!" Dustin says to Mike, seemingly defending himself.
"Fine. Where are you?" Dustin asks Erica over the walky-talky.
There is more rustling sounds, and shouts coming over the walky-talky again.
"You tell him, you're the one who got us here," I hear Erica say.
"Dustin... We're uh... We're in the upside down," Lucas tells him.
Everybody looks at each other with a look of dread on their face. I'm confused. What is the upside down?
"Okay cut!" Shawn yells out.
We all begin to relax as we get out of character.
Joe stands up, and reaches down a hand to me. Once I take his hand in mine, he pulls me up. The second I'm standing, he pulls my body closer to me and grins.
Joe runs a hand through his hair before talking.
"Do you want to discuss something in the store room with me?" He asks.
I press my lips together before answering.
"Same thing we discussed last time?" I ask.
Joe nods at me with a smirk.
"Sure," I tell him, intertwining my fingers with his.
Joe pulls me to the store room by my hand.
—————
(Authors note: This Sunday upload is about 4 hours earlier than usual this week and I'll tell you why. I'm exhausted, I've been working all weekend. I proofread this laying down in bed, barely able to keep my eyes open. So if there's any mistakes I missed, that's most likely why. I apologise. Forgive me. I'm crashing harder than Maya after way too much coffee.
I love doing the Stranger Things universe chapters, they're fun characters to write for and it's cool trying to make up your own version of where the story could go (remember I started this before season 4 came out) I totally called a couple of things. It's cool having an alternate story though, means no spoilers for anyone reading.
I am thinking about making a book about this version of Stranger Things when I finish this book. I am also thinking about doing Joes point of view but starting earlier on the timeline so we can see him pine. Heck, maybe even a Robert and Maya book. We'll see.
The next chapter is ready to be uploaded on Wednesday, so get ready for that. It's a heavy one!
As always thanks for commenting and voting. Don't forget to add the book to your library so you can be notified when I update!
I'm going to drift off to sleep now. Good night xxxxx