four; SHOVE YOUR 'PUMPKIN' UP YOUR ASS
[cw: mentions of physical and emotional abuse]
Alison had not seen Lonnie in over a year.
She hadn't even received a phone call from him in that time, even to talk to her and see how she was doing, and he'd never answered the times she called him. So reluctantly reuniting with him had a knot forming in her stomach. Alison knew Will would never willingly seek out Lonnie, and she would have been happy never to see him again.
Ever.
But they needed to know.
The ride was silent except for the quiet hum of the radio playing some new song by Reagan Youth that, on any other day, Alison would have cranked up and jammed out too, much to the amusement of her brothers. Instead, she slumped further into her seat, staring out the window as they left Hawkins in their rearview mirror.
She grimaced at the texture of her hair when she twisted a strand through her fingers due to the bun she'd pulled it into during her last two showers, with no motivation to wash it. She pulled her hair up and rested her head against the cool glass of the window, exhaling deeply.
Her breath fogged against the glass as the lead singer sang the final word, and an all too familiar guitar riff picked up where the previous song left off.
Jonathan inhaled sharply.
She lifted her head from the glass to look at him, watching the muscle in his jaw twitch and the skin stretch over his knuckles when his grip on the steering wheel tightened.
"Please can you put this on your mixtape, please!" Will had begged her only two weeks beforehand when he'd found her meticulously crafting yet another cassette, "It's the best song ever, and you know it."
"Wrong, I do not know it." Alison had laughed at him, "The best song ever is Comfortably Numb, and I'm not afraid to fight you on that."
"Nah-uh." Will shook his head stubbornly as Jonathan's shoulders shook with his suppressed laughter, "The Clash is where it's at."
"Careful, kiddo! Your Jonathan is showing."
A smile split across his face at her words. It was something he deemed to be the highest of compliments – being compared to his big brother.
"Dude, Comfortably Numb has been on every tape you've made since the first time you heard it. Switch things up a bit." Jonathan laughed at his sister as he looked down at the paper she'd been scribbling songs onto, "Ali, you can't keep putting your top four onto every new mixtape you make."
"I can and I will." She huffed, glaring playfully at her brother.
"Come on, Al." Will exclaimed, "It totally changed my life."
Alison giggled at his words. Those had been the exact words Jonathan had used a year ago when he'd introduced their brother to the song and gifted him his most prized cassette.
"Well." She pretended to sigh in mock consideration, enjoying staring at him while he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet, "If it totally changed your life, then I guess I have to."
"Yes!"
Alison set her head back against the window and closed her eyes tightly, ignoring the pressure she could feel.
"But you like The Clash? For real?" Jonathan had asked excitedly when he and Alison had finished telling him that he didn't need to conform to the societal norms if they weren't things he was interested in doing.
"For real," Will confirmed.
When Alison closed her eyes, she could imagine herself sitting cross-legged on the floor of Jonathan's bedroom, with her homework out in front of her. She'd ignored it in favour of watching her little brothers jam out to the song that quickly found its way into Will's heart and became his favourite song.
✦❀✦
"Christ, and Lonnie said our house was a piece of shit."
Alison made a face at the property her brother had rolled to a stop on the gutter. Considering the state of it, she figured Lonnie wouldn't have shit to say about their childhood home.
Jonathan cleared his throat to keep any amusement at bay as he pulled his keys from the ignition.
He turned to his sister, frowning at the look on her face and how pale she'd become, "Are you sure you're okay?" He asked worriedly.
Alison swallowed the lump in her throat as she avoided her brother's gaze, choosing to stare at the house with dead grass, which looked as if no one had mowed it in months.
Images and voices flashed through her mind, and she forced them away, eyes hardening.
"Y-Yeah." She nodded, any hesitation sliding away at the thought of her brother inside that house, "Let's find Will."
Jonathan returned her nod, and they both got out of the car, slamming the doors behind them.
They stared at the house for another moment before Jonathan crossed the road. Alison quickly followed him onto the path that led up to the door, weeds growing from the many cracks in the concrete.
Music pumped loudly from inside as they stopped at the poorly painted front door, and Jonathan stepped close to it so he could peer inside.
"No one there." He muttered.
Alison felt her stomach churn as she stepped closer to the floor and curled her fingers into a fist. Before she could talk herself out of it, she raised her fist and knocked.
They waited a moment before Jonathan sighed loudly and smacked his palm against the door.
"Hello!"
Alison took another step forward and practically hung from her brother's back to peer through the window as she joined Jonathan in his relentless knocking against the door. She was unsurprised by the beer cans or the take-out boxes, which littered the floor and every surface of furniture Alison could make out.
They continued to hit the door until a woman with dark, teased hair appeared in their sight, shouting that she was coming as she stormed through the living room, and Alison groaned in disgust, "Christ, how old is she?"
The door was ripped open. The woman who stood on the other side looked between the siblings with irritation dripping from her expression as if they were dog shit she'd just scraped from the bottom of her sandal. Smacking some gum, she looked at Jonathan, eyes raking his appearance before she turned to Alison and sneered at her.
"Can I help you?" She exclaimed through her obnoxious chewing.
"Yeah." Jonathan answered stiffly and the woman, who couldn't be any older than twenty-two, finally turned her harsh glare off Alison, "Is Lonnie around?"
"Yeah, he's out back." She snapped, "What do you want?"
"To look around," Jonathan responded, and he was quick to push passed her and into the house.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" She exclaimed, and Alison flashed a fake smile before she slid by her to follow Jonathan inside the house, "Hey!"
"We'll be fast." Both siblings told her before they shared a look, and Johnathan was disappearing the way they'd seen the woman appear.
Alison looked around the living room, ignoring the woman's shouting as she made her way to the hall leading to another area of the house.
"Will!" She heard Jonathan yell.
The hallway was small and had no doors, so Alison walked to the end, which found her in a laundry room. It contained three baskets, all different colours, all filled with clothes on one counter on the left side of the room and an old top load washer on the other.
"Will, it's Ali." She called softly, "Are you here?"
Alison made her way to the counter and bent so she could open the cabinet doors beneath it to reveal nothing but chemicals. She straightened, looked at the baskets with a frown, and quickly rifled through each of them, finding nothing belonging to her brother.
She smacked one of them onto the black and white tiled floor, caring very little for the clothing now scattered everywhere. She groaned in frustration and spun on her heel to face the washer.
Her face fell.
"You wanna talk like that, huh? Then you can stay in there."
A chill ran down her spine as she quickly crossed the linoleum tile. Alison paused in front of the machine before she breathed deeply through her nose and quickly opened the lid.
"Wil–" Her shoulders sagged in relief when she found nothing but a few pairs of socks. Hands shaking, she exhaled, taking a few steps back from the machine.
She turned to make her way back to the living room, and when she passed the television, she heard a bang coming from the direction Jonathan had gone in. Her eyes narrowed at the sound.
"J?" She called, "Jonathan, you okay?"
"Get off!" She heard her brother shout.
"Damn, you've gotten stronger." Anger pooled in her stomach at the familiar voice and the words he'd spoken, and she rushed down the hall.
She immediately found her brother standing, a little too close to the man they were looking for, appearing as though he'd rather be anywhere else. The woman stood by the kitchen door, looking between the three in utter confusion by the events of the afternoon of the two teenagers barging into her house. Alison finally looked at the man who, unfortunately, was her father.
The year had not been kind to Lonnie Byers. He hadn't shaved for at least a few days, which was extremely clear by salt and pepper stubble littering his cheeks and chin. His hair which had been greying when he left, had greyed further. His clothes were grody and stained, at least a size or two too big, and his skin was sallow, and Alison took great pleasure at the miserable look in his bloodshot eyes.
Jonathan and Alison locked eyes, and Lonnie, now noticing Jonathan wasn't paying him any mind, glanced to his right, where he finally spotted Alison with her arms folded over her chest.
"Hi, pumpkin." He grinned.
Alison felt her spine straighten at the old nickname, and she glared at the man.
"Will someone please explain what the hell is going on?" The woman demanded. Alison could only assume she was Lonnie's girlfriend by the way she'd bristled at the pet name Lonnie had used.
"Jonathan, Alison, Cynthia. Cynthia, this is Jonathan and Alison. My eldest two." Lonnie spoke, and Cynthia's face fell into surprise as she looked from Jonathan to Alison, who nodded at her, a fake smile still in place. Lonnie's grin was wide as she grabbed his son by the shoulder and pulled him to his chest, "Come here."
He'd barely held Jonathan to his chest three seconds before her brother was shoving himself away from him.
"Get off me, man."
Jonathan glanced around the hallway, and it appeared he'd spotted something because he was quickly walking toward Alison and maneuvering around Cynthia to get into the kitchen.
"What the hell is he doing?" Cynthia snapped at Lonnie, who shrugged.
He looked at Alison, his smile never faltering despite the withering look on the teenager's face.
"How've you been, pumpkin?" He asked as he stopped before her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
She stepped out of his grip, not wanting him to bother attempting the shitshow of a hug he'd tried to give her brother.
"If you'd picked up a phone ever in the last year, you'd know, but it's cool. You don't care, so don't feel obligated to ask now that I'm standing, right here, in front of you." She sneered at him.
"Pumpkin, you could have called me." He scoffed, scratching the back of his neck as he avoided Cynthia's confused gaze.
"I did, so much that it bordered on pathetic." She responded, tilting her head when she heard a door open somewhere in the kitchen, "You never answered."
"Pum–"
"Don't call me that." She exclaimed. Having had enough, she walked past Cynthia and into the kitchen where her brother had disappeared.
Alison spied the back door left open. She strode over to it, peering out into the backyard.
Jonathan crossed the messy yard, littered with yard furniture, spare car parts, and more dead plants than she'd seen out front. She followed him, hearing Lonnie tell Cynthia to do something or other as he followed Alison.
Jonathan had stopped near a car, staring at it as if lost in memories, when Alison caught up to him. She supposed he could have been, as she found herself slammed with so many since stepping into her father's home. Lonnie wasn't far behind her, and he grinned at his children, gesturing to the vehicle.
"Take a look at this beaut." He exclaimed with more pride in his tone than when he talked about any of his children. It disgusted Alison that he could talk about anything other than his missing twelve-year-old, "Should've seen it when I got it."
Jonathan seemed to snap out of his thoughts at the sound of Lonnie's voice, and he stormed over to the vehicle, looking in the windows and peering under the car at the grass.
"Took me a year. But it's almost done." Lonnie boasted, and Alison watched curiously, dread weighing at her, as her brother pulled the trunk open, glancing inside. Lonnie scoffed, "Really? You want to check up my ass, too?"
Her face fell slightly, wondering if he had checked it in the same sense she'd checked the washer.
Jonathan finally looked at Lonnie as he slammed the trunk closed, a little harsher than necessary, and Alison flashed him a fake smile, "If it meant we'd find him, I'd do anything."
"I'll tell you the same thing as I told those cops. He's not here." Lonnie said, "And he never has been."
"And thank Christ for that," Alison muttered, returning Lonnie's withering look with one of her own.
Jonathan stomped around the car, "Then why didn't you call Mom back?" He demanded, stopping next to his sister, a few feet in front of the man.
"I don't know." He shrugged carelessly, "I just...I assumed she just forgot where he was, you know? He was lost or something."
Alison scoffed, kicking at the grass beneath her feet, "Mom's not that fucking stupid."
"Watch your language." Lonnie warned her before he turned back to Jonathan, not seeing Alison roll her eyes, "That boy never was very good at taking care of himself."
"This isn't some joke, all right?" Jonathan spoke, and Alison could see he was trying very hard to keep a level head. She did not have that type of handle on her anger and was trying her best to stay quiet, to not snap at the man who abused and abandoned them, "There are search parties, reporters..."
Lonnie didn't look concerned.
"Hopper's not still chief, is he?" When neither teenager confirmed or denied his question, he shook his head, "Tell your mother she's gotta get you out of that hellhole. Come out here to the city. People are more real here, you know?"
"Oh yeah, you kept it real when you left." Alison laughed harshly.
Lonnie continued as though he'd never heard her, "And then I could see you more, both of you." When Jonathan shook his head with a scowl and Alison didn't look at him, biting her lip to keep from laughing, he frowned, "What, you think I don't want to see you?"
"We know you don't." Jonathan snapped firmly.
He looked at Alison, who glared back at him, and his eyes narrowed.
"See, that's your mother talkin' right there." He said.
"That's us talking." Alison responded, "You don't call us, you don't answer our calls, you don't write, and you don't show up to anything, even when you were still in Hawkins."
"She even know you're here?" Lonnie didn't acknowledge Alison. Typical. "Oh, great. So one kid goes missing, the other two run wild?" He paused before he looked at them with that smirk that sent shivers down Alison's spine, "Some real fine parenting right there."
"At least she's parenting." Alison matched his tone, and Jonathan nudged her warningly.
Lonnie sighed, "Look, all I'm saying is, maybe I'm not the asshole, all right?"
Alison glared at the grass as Jonathan's jaw clenched. She felt his arm brush against hers and allowed her gaze to flicker to the bag he was digging around. He pulled out one of the missing flyers.
He took two steps forward and slapped the paper to Lonnie's chest, "In case you forgot what he looks like."
He brushed by their father, and instead of walking back to the house, he veered left and took the path around it.
Alison watched Lonnie for a moment as he looked down at the flyer, and she noticed Cynthia was walking toward them.
"See you in another year, I guess, Lonnie." She muttered without malice as she stomped after her brother, wet grass squelching beneath her boots.
She caught up to him as he unlocked his car, and they each opened a door. When they dropped back into the car, they both sighed, glancing at each other as they calmed their racing hearts.
"Asshole." They said in unison, and Alison laughed to herself as Jonathan smiled at her.
"You okay?" She asked him.
"No." He shook his head, "You?"
"No."
Jonathan sighed, "I guess we should go then."
"Yeah, I don't wanna stay at this shithole any longer." Alison scoffed. She shifted in her seat and turned her head to face Jonathan, "Can you drop me to work on your way home?"
Her brother nodded as he twisted his key in the ignition, and the car spluttered to life.
"Yeah, okay."
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the byers siblings deserve all the love and protection. also fuck lonnie byers, all my homies hate lonnie.
thanks so much for reading!
~r