CHAPTER 24
⌗ 𓂃 𖥔༌ ᰷ ﹅birthday bash﹅ ᰷ 𖥔༌ 𓂃⌗
AROUND 1 MONTH LATER.
"...happy birthday to you," we all sang.
it had been around a month since the incident and vance had been released from hospital just in time for his birthday. his family, my family and a few of his friends were gathered at his house to celebrate.
he blew out his birthday candles and we all cheered.
"aww, wickle vance blowing out his birthday candles!" his friend, brock, with the long, dark hair squeezed his cheeks together teasingly. vance shoved him away with a grin.
"shut it, brock, your mom still tucks you in." brock whacked him upside the head with a matching grin.
"careful of wickle vance!" maddy exclaimed making him lash is hand out which maddy dodged with a smirk as their mom reprimanded them.
"stop it, you two! right, who wants cake?" everyone cheered again and clambered round her to get a good slice.
I stayed sat beside vance as his mom handed him and I a big slice each. the cake had blue frosting with white open star piping bumping the edges and the words 'Happy Birthday, Pinball Vance!!' written in swirly white writing on the top. it had been a joke between his mom and I that had given a good laugh.
"thank you, mrs hopper,"
"thanks, mom,"
vance and I began to tuck into our cake as gwen came and sat on my lap. she ate her cake with us while chattering to vance and I. brock and vance's other two friends — kalum and markus — sat around us. after a little while once we'd finished our cake, gwen went off to play with katy, olivia and sydney.
"so... you two done the deed yet?" markus asked with a smirk.
"fuck off, markus." I said.
"c'mon, dude," vance reprimanded, but his smirk gave it away.
"bro, you haveee!!" kalum clapped his hands together while brock laughed.
"high five, sex machine!" I denied brock's high five with a glare.
"dude, don't call my girlfriend that." vance's voice suddenly held venom and the three 'oooh'ed tauntingly at us. meanwhile, I covered my flushed cheeks and slumped in my seat.
"aren't you two cuties." kalum jokingly rested his arms on his knees and put his face in his hands like a girl listening to gossip. "have you said the l word?!"
vance and I shared a cheeky look.
"oh my god, they have!!"
"awww, so adorable!"
"ew, gross."
"shut up, brock, just cuz you get no pussy." I whacked vance's arm at his statement. "what?!"
"that's not all women are!" I exclaimed.
"no, but it's a great attribute." markus justified.
"an attribute that's just so gripping." the boys laughed at kalum's pun.
"wow, how not demeaning to women!" I laughed before raising myself from my seat. "I'm going to get a water, anybody want anything?"
the boys all said no and I headed off to the kitchen.
***
after presents had been opened, people began to trail off. it was late and brock, kalum and markus were first to go. as they announced their leave, vance moved to stand up.
"hey, lemme help you." I helped him up as he hissed slightly from the pain in his waist from his still-slightly-healing wounds.
"I got it." he clearly felt the slight knock to the ego as I took his arm.
we saw his friends to the door and said goodbye to them.
"would you guys like to head up? I get you might be tired, vance, it's only us so we don't mind." mrs hopper offered us.
"I might take the kids home, it's getting to 10pm..." dad looked at his watch as he thought. "yeah, we'll go, finney's got baseball tomorrow. you got your stuff, y/n?"
"yeah, it's up in vance's room," I nodded. I was staying the night with him in his room for the first time.
"oh, terrence, it was lovely seeing you!" mrs hopper rose from her seat to hug dad goodbye.
"and you, pam. andrew, see ya soon." dad and mr hopper shook hands as gwen hugged everyone goodbye and finney said his too. the two kids hugged me goodbye before leaving with dad.
after they'd left, I helped vance up the stairs to his room. we reached his room and I opened the door for him. he sat on his bed with a sigh and a smile. I sat beside him with a smile and rested my head on his shoulder as I took his hand in mine.
"I love you," I said.
"I love you too, sweetie." he pressed a long kiss to my head.
I pulled my head back and placed his lips on mine. as we kissed, things got a little heated and vance ended up pressed against his pillows with me crawling over him. his hands caressed my sides and I felt them lowering to my hips.
"you sure you wanna do this?" he mumbled against my lips.
suddenly, negative thoughts came seeping through to my head. I pushed them back and blinked hard.
"yes. yes, I do." I nodded before pressing my lips back to his.
vance's hand traveled to my waist and where he fiddled with my button and zipper. he slipped his hand into my panties and gently rubbed his fingers along my folds. with my eyes screwed shut, my head went to worst case scenario.
my heart froze for a moment as I was reminded of tom karls's hand fumbling blindly down there as I cried. I tried to push the thought away, but it wouldn't go. my heart began speeding up and my head started pounding. my breathing became shallower and I couldn't. I couldn't. I opened my eyes to see tom karls glaring back at me.
"no. no!" I pushed myself off of him and scrambled backwards. as I looked back at the boy infront of me, I realised it was just vance. my vance. we looked at each other for a second before tears welled in my eyes and I clasped a hand to my mouth. my voice came out in a raspy whisper as I spoke again. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
I began sobbing as vance rocketed towards me, ignoring his own pain in his waist and held me to his chest tightly. he whispered comfort to me as he rocked me gently from side to side. he reached down to redo my zipper and buttons.
"hey, hey, it's ok. we don't have to. look, let's do these up again. there we go. all better, don't worry. i've got you, nobody's gonna hurt you." I sobbed more and cried as vance held me against him, his own heart hurting from watching me hurt.
"I'm sorry..." I cried out.
"no, no, hey. look at me." vance lifted my chin to look at him. "none of this is your fault. you don't need to apologise."
"if I had just told you, you wouldn't have been shot." I whimpered.
"oh, y/n." he pulled me back to his chest as he thought for a second. "it doesn't matter if you told me or not, knowing him, he still would've been creepy to you. and in that situation, if I was someone else, I wouldn't have hit him. I might've ran off to get someone to help or ran off full stop. but no, cuz I'm me, I hit him cuz that's my initial reaction. anger. I didn't see the gun—"
"but it's not your fault!" I cried.
"the only person who carries fault and blame for this situation is tom karls." vance's voice was harder and firmer now, the mention of that boy's name carried a lot of negative weight in our relationship and our families.
the cops caught him a couple of weeks ago. he had been hitchhiking up to california and had been halfway there in beaver, utah there when the cops busted him. he'd been charged with stalking, indecent public behaviours, harassment and my sexual assault. vance, a few other girls that had been called by tom and I had been called into court to make statements against him. it was hard to see his face again and I had had a panic attack outside of the courtroom but vance had helped me through it. as he was 16, he was sentenced to do 15 years in prison instead of juvie.
my life has been good now that it was tom-free. at the very start, I stayed holed up in my room. I hardly left. I'd have panic attacks a lot and would lie wrapped up in my covers for days. I'd shower a lot, too. feeling disgusting, I would sit in the boiling water and let my skin turn red from the boiling water and the scrubbing.
when the therapist started visiting, I left my room more. I'd still take my compulsive showers, but I would eat more. some days, I would rearrange my whole room. I'd take everything off of the shelves and put them back. I'd throw things out only to root through the bins later and pull them back. vance would visit when he could.
eventually, I started going out again. I began feeling more comfortable in my own skin, I'd wear clothes that didn't make me look like a walking tent, I'd take normal showers, I'd meet up with my friends, I'd go out with dad and the kids. I became happier. I still got the panic attacks, but they became less and less frequent.
this was the first time vance and I had tried to do anything since the incident. the thought of anyone touching me where he had made my skin crawl and I felt basically set back to square one.
"I'm sorry that we can't..." I trailed off.
"don't be sorry, you can't control this." vance assured me.
"can we... go to bed? it's late and I'm tired." I murmured.
"of course, baby," vance and I got dressed into our pyjamas. I had retired to his conjoining bathroom to change, suddenly extremely self aware and insecure.
I could tell vance was upset that I was upset but was trying not to show it because he didn't want me to become more distressed.
I came out of the bathroom in vance's hoodie and some shorts and climbed into bed where he was already tucked under in his pyjama bottoms. he held me to his bare chest as we lay down and kissed the top of my head.
"I love you, y/n." vance said, a note of hope in his voice. I smiled and closed my eyes before answering.
"I love you too, wickle vance." I replied.
"ok, not funny." he said, but his laugh contradicted him.
"yes it is!"
"no, it's not."
"ok, why are you laughing then?"
"cuz it's dumb."
"you're dumb."
"shut up, bitch."
"you're the bitch!"
"bitchsayswhat?"
"dickheadsaysbitchsayswhat?"
"shut up, y/n!!"
"ahaha!"
***
YAAAAY HAPPYYY
also I wrote the last chapter in advance for this book, omg I'm so sad that this book eventually has to end :(
but we still have melting ~ steve harrington!
also, I have a multifandom oneshot book that's gonna be an 'x reader' type thing in my drafts, would you guys like to see that? if so, comment some more characters for me to write on this paragraph:
(if idk them I can't write them sorry)