She stood, on the pavement, waiting for him to appear. She knew he would be here any minute now. It was just unfortunate that it was dark earlier since they were in the later months of the year. On the bright side, she'd almost completed a year of therapy, and served her sentence. And she was more than thankful to Hopper for keeping her out of jail. Even though that event very well brought some of the best moments of her life, it also brought the worst. She shuddered everytime she thought about it. Everytime she thought about those words.
"You are the upside down."
She didn't believe him. How could she? It seemed too far fetched to be true. And yet, as she stood, on the pavement, waiting for him to appear, she looked up, and found the sky was no longer just dark, but it was now red too. She turned her head, finding a thick layer of dust in the air, and a completely empty street around her. The crack of lightning cause her to look back to the sky, and as it sounded again, the outline of a figure could be seen lurking above Hawkins. In was huge, standing on more that eight legs. It looked almost as if it was made out of clouds. Not that she could tell if it had a face, but she knew with every cell in her body that it had seen her, and it was looking right at her.
"You are the upside down. And the upside down, is you."
She was caught by surprise when a pair of arms snaked around her waist, causing her to turn her head, a smile then coming over her face when she heard his voice.
"Hello, my gorgeous girl." He spoke.
"Where've you been, I've been waiting." She said, the world around her -or lack there of- completely slipping her mind.
"I know, their doing some work on the next street, the traffic's been backing up." He sighed. She turned to face him, draping her arms around his neck and his hands found her waist. "How'd it go today?"
"Good, I think." She shrugged.
"She ask about the crash again?"
"That's all she wants to talk about. I mean, I get it, but... I don't wanna relive it anymore, y'know."
"I know."
"We did talk about you though, actually."
"Me?" She nodded. "Why?"
"Because you're my medication, Harrington, and it's best that she knows that I'm being looked after."
"Well, I do try my best." He smiled, pressing his lips against hers for a moment. "Alright, c'mon. We're picking up Dustin next."
"Are we?"
"Yeah, he called me and asked if you were with me for a ride home, and I said no, and he then very passive-aggressively suggested that if I don't pick him up, there's a strong possibility he's gonna murder me, and act sad when you tell him I'm missing so..."
"He said that?" He nodded. "That litte- you don't have to do him any favours, y'know."
"He's your brother, and you love him more than life, and if we're gonna be together, we're gonna be together, we've gotta learn to get along, me and him. 'Cause what's he gonna do when we get married? Is he still gonna hate me then?"
"Doing what he tells you isn't a good way to win him over... he knows you'll do whatever he says, whenever he says it because you're after his approval, which you don't need, by the way."
"You don't get it, and it's fine, why would you."
"Steve-"
"Look, it's not that I'm after his approval, it's just that he's not okay with the fact that there's another man in your life, and I want him to know I'm in it for the long run, alright, so if he wants a ride home, he'll get a ride home."
"I..." She began, and he just looked at her. "I don't deserve you." He smiled, kissing her once again, before stepping back to open the car door for her.
"Madame."
"The princess treatment, I like it."
"Screw that, this is the Queen treatment."
-----
The next morning, after some very stern words with her brother, Steve picked her up, as he did every morning since, and he'd asked her to proofread his college essay before he turned it it. So she sat quietly in the passenger seat, trying so very hard to make sense of what she was reading. And from the look on her face, he knew it wasn't good enough.
"Okay..." She began, then paused as she searched for what words to use to sound like she wasn't ripping it to shreds.
"It sucks, doesn't it?"
"No!" She quickly assured him. "It's just... it doesn't make sense. See, here you talk about your basketball team in the big game, but then down here you talk about your grandfather's experience in the war. What's the link there?"
"We both won." He shrugged.
"Wh- I... When's the due date?"
"Tomorrow for early submissions." He sighed, taking it from her hands and screwing it up. "Forget it, whatever."
"No, no, it just needs some tweaking." She said, attempting to straighten it back out. "I can help you. In fact, I'll do it for you."
"What?"
"I'll do it for you, tonight. Just don't get used to it, this is a one time offer."
"I'm gonna fail anyway."
"Hey, don't say that."
"It doesn't matter. I'm just gonna end up working for my dad. Which is great, because then I could stay. And we could have a real future together." She shifted in her seat to face him.
"You know that I love you, and you know that the thought of you leaving breaks my heart... but don't you dare give up your dreams for me. No matter where it is that you go, I'm always gonna be here waiting for you. I mean, let's be honest, my home-sickness would never allow me to leave Hawkins. But if you don't take this while it's being offered to you, I swear to god, I'm gonna kill you. Okay?" He didn't respond, just nodded. "I believe in you. You're gonna do great."
-----
Lunch was finally upon them, and Antionette was having a peaceful stroll down the hallway to her locker. She pulled it open, changing last periods books to next periods books. She stopped, when she heard a whitle, causing her to turn her head. She set eyes on a boy, one she'd never seen before, in a crowd of the well-known, not-very-well-liked kids. He sent her a smile, and a wink, but she simply turned away from him. She couldn't stand boys like that. Ones that thought they were hot shit. One of the reasons she hated Steve for a long time. Because of how entitled he was. He would walk around like good things would come to him just because he was Steve Harrington. But since everything last year, he stopped caring about his image, and more about the people he surrounded himself with. The people who loved him. She was broken from her thoughts when there was a slam against the neighbouring locker, and she once again turned her head.
"Can I help you?" She spoke.
"What's a girl like you doing carrying her own books to class, huh?" He spoke, chewing on a piece of gum.
"You think I need a man to carry a few books for me?" She scoffed. "How helpless do you think I am?" He smirked, letting out a slight chuckle.
"I'm Billy. Billy Hargrove."
"And what can I help you with, Billy, Billy Hargrove?"
"A name would be great." He said. "And maybe a date, too."
"You're not my type." She shrugged. "And even if you were, I have a boyfriend."
"Of course you do."
"You sound like you don't believe me."
"No, I believe you." He nodded. "But I'll bet I could treat you a whole lot better than he does, huh." She slammed her locker door, turning her body so she was fully facing him.
"I highly doubt it." She said, narrowing her eyes at him. "You don't know what he does for me."
"You sound frustrated." He continued, moving closer to her. "I could keep you real satisfied, y'know." He smirked, taking a piece of her hair between his fingers.
"After this morning..." She began, leaning towards him. "I'm plenty satisfied." She whispered, and he breathed a laugh, not knowing what to say. "Later, Hargrove." She smiled, walking away from him.
-----
That afternoon, as Toni arrived home, she backed into her bedroom due to the high amount of books in her arms. However, she wasn't expecting the boys to be sat in there waiting for her.
"What is going on in here?" She sighed, dropping the books to the bed.
"We have something for you." Lucas said first, a wide smile on his face, matching those of the other three boys.
"We hope you like it, Dustin wasn't that helpful in the choosing process." Mike shrugged.
"It's not my fault! I don't know what she likes." Dustin scoffed.
"I'm very confused, and... a little bit worried, so... can someone just fill me in." Toni said, still looking amongst them. Will took something out of his pocket, handing it to her. It was a small box, with a piece of paper taped to it.
"Happy birthday." Will smiled, and her face dropped.
"It's not my birthday until tomorrow."
"Well, we figured, you always make a big deal on our birthday, so we wanted to make this one special for you." Mike explained. "Read the note first."
"It just says 'thanks'."
"We wanted something short and sweet to sum up how greatful we are for you." Lucas nodded. "So... it was thanks. Now open the box." She carefully opened the box, and she felt her eyes begin to water as she looked inside.
"It's... it's beautiful." She said.
"We made it." Will squeaked. "We thought you'd like it better than anything else we could find."
"I love it." She smiled. Inside the case sat a thin chain with a small, metal ant attached to it. "You guys made this?"
"Yeah... well, we know a guy that makes things out of scrap metal, and he did it for a good price." Dustin informed her. "And you have to wear it all the time, for the rest of your life. Take it off, we die."
"My god." She said, clipping it around her neck. "You guys are so great, hug me." All four of them pilled in for a group embrace, and Toni couldn't stop herself from smiling. After all, these little munchkins were the best gift she could ever really ask for.
-----
How had it gotten so dark so fast? It still seemed so early, and yet night had fallen in at an abnormal pace. She climbed off of her bed, wandering to the kitchen for a glass of water. However, as she stood by the sink, her gaze shifted to the window. It looked almost as if it was snowing outside. And then she realised, it looked as if it was snowing inside too. At a second glance, she caught the huge storm cloud coming this way, the thick red lightning lighting up the sky as it mercilessly struck the ground. And through the lightning came a figure. A huge, dark, shadow-cast figure that emerged seemingly from nowhere. One arm turned to two, that turned to four, as it seemed to keep growing. Not that she could see its face, but she knew that, once again it was looking right at her. Or perhaps it was still looking at her. And as it did, she felt a burning sensation start at the base of her neck. Like there was something scratching at it from the inside of her skin that desperately wanted out. Yet the longer she looked, the faster it spread to her skull, and it wasn't long before she was clutching at her head in utter agony. Until physically, she couldn't look any more, as her vision had blurred over and she dropped down to her knees, the smashing of the glass ringing in her ears. The light switch flicking on alerted her of her brothers presence.
"Ant, what are you doing?" He asked, and she looked to him. The burning had stopped, and the snow had vanished. Yet her cheeks were damp with tears she didn't know she was shedding, and as she looked over the counter through the window there was nothing. No storm, no creature, nothing. "Are you okay?"
"Um, yeah." She said, pulling herself up. "I think maybe I was just sleep walking, that's all, I'm fine." She shrugged, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. "You go back to bed and I'll clean up this glass."
"Okay." He nodded with great reluctance. "Get some sleep, okay." She put on a smile for his sake, and he pottered off back to bed, still concerned. After all, Toni had never sleep-walked in her life before tonight, so what was going on? What was really going on?