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TWO. OCTOBER 31ST, 1984
⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

Jude Monroe kind of feels like she's about to simultaneously explode and freeze to death.

She's starting to regret every decision she's made so far today. She regrets letting her mother and friends talk her into going to a party. She regrets wearing the costume her mother picked out for her. And she especially regrets leaving the house without a jacket.

"Don't worry, Judy-Jude, by the time we get in there, you'll totally warm up." Sena tries to comfort Jude as the three friends walk along the sidewalk. "Or, judging by how good you look, maybe you'll be the one warming everyone else up."

"What does that even mean?" Roxanne asks, sounding exasperated.

Jude looks down at her costume, and feels dread begin to pool in her stomach. Her mother's genius costume idea, it turns out, is Sandy from Grease. But not the poodle skirt, high ponytail wearing Sandy, who Jude actually thinks is a bit similar to her. No, her mom chose Sandy's look from the end of the movie. The skin-tight leather pants and off the shoulder, deep cut top. It's so completely different from anything Jude owns, it stuck out in her room like a sore thumb.

She can't believe her mom gave her such a costume. Weren't mothers supposed to be against these kinds of outfits?

"It means she looks smokin' hot, Roxy!" Sena snaps.

Her friends' costumes are much more tame than hers. Sena chose to dress up as Ariel from Footloose, all the way down to her red cowboy boots. Then there's Roxanne, who's dressed up as The Karate Kid. They're both extremely recognizable, but neither of them look quite as over the top as Jude.

"Ahh, I'm kind of starting to think this is a bad idea..." Jude grits out, and comes to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk.

Sena and Roxanne exchange a look, then look back at the blonde.

"Come on, Judy-Jude! I promise, it's so much scarier in your head than it is. Once we get in there, you're going to have so much fun, and think it was so silly you were ever scared!" Sena grabs Jude's hands, and gives them a firm shake to wake her up. "Please, just trust us!"

Roxanne is quiet, but nods in solidarity. The fact she seems to agree makes Jude feel a bit better, knowing she's just as socially anxious as she is.

Jude reminds herself what Mrs. Kelley told her, once. You're still a teenager, Jude. Take advantage of these years, and step outside of your comfort zone. You're going to feel so much better when you do. She really hopes she was right, and this night will make her feel so much better.

She sighs and nods in agreement. "Okay. Okay, yeah, you're right. It'll be fun." She tries to smile, though she knows how weak the expression must be.

Sena squeals then takes off into a run, dragging Jude behind her. The blonde glances over her shoulder at Roxanne, who they left in the dust, but she doesn't seem too bothered. Instead, she maintains her pace and Jude thinks she's even smiling—though the lack of light makes it hard to tell for sure.

Once they reach what's obviously the busiest house on the street—made obvious by someone dressed as Gandalf the White passed out on the lawn, a couple making out in front of the garage door and the alcohol stains covering the cement driveway—Sena releases Jude so she can catch her breath.

"Wow, you would think that after so many years of dancing and cheerleading, I would be able to run twenty feet without nearly passing out." She huffs, her hot breath visible against the cold October air.

Jude laughs, and glances around to get a good look at the crowd. Most of the partygoers seem to be inside—which makes sense, because of how cold it is—but she can still spot a few familiar faces outside. What really shocks her is when she sees her  little brother's best friend's older brother, Jonathan Byers.

"Woah, Jonathan Byers comes to these things?" Jude asks just as Roxanne catches up to them.

"Hmm? Oh, I don't think so. I've never seen him before." The curly haired girl replies, her gaze drifting to the loner in question.

Sena laughs. "It's probably because Nance invited him."

Jude furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"He's totally in love with her," Sena replies and straightens up. "And from the way she talks about him, I'm pretty sure she's into him, too. No clue why."

"But I thought she's dating Steve Harrington?" Jude frowns, unsure how to feel about what she's hearing. Her brother had mentioned something about Jonathan and Nancy before, but she thought he was joking. Now that she was hearing it from another source, though...

"Oh, she is. But I don't think she loves him. I mean, she tells me she does, but I don't believe her." Sena sighs, and she almost looks bothered by the information she's spilling. "But, whatever! Enough about Nancy Wheeler and her weird love triangle, let's go inside!"

"Yay." Roxanne adds on in fake enthusiasm.

As soon as the three of them step into the house, Jude knows she's going to regret this later.

We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister plays so loudly on some stereo, she's pretty sure her eardrums are going to rupture. About five people in the span of ten seconds cross in front of her, nearly knocking her over or spilling their drinks on her. She's glad she's wearing black, because god knows she's going to be covered in alcohol by the end of the night. She sees some guys doing shots in the kitchen, and cigarette smoke clouds the air.

If it wasn't for Sena and Roxanne, Jude probably would have had a heart attack right then and there.

"Yeah, the volume takes some adjusting to," Roxanne loudly tells Jude, and gently guides her towards the kitchen. Sena leads the way, and she seems to thrive in the noise.

"How have your ear drums never ruptured?" Jude asks, pressing a palm to one of her ears.

They make it to the kitchen, which is thankfully far enough away from the stereo that it's a bit quieter than the living room. She heaves a sigh of relief, and leans against the counter for support while Sena gets to work finding the three of them something to drink.

She spots a bowl of what looks like fruit punch, and curiously scoops up a ladle of the liquid. "What's this?" She asks no one in particular.

"Pure fuel!" Some guy dressed as a Grecian suddenly shouts in her ear, causing her to yelp and recoil away from him. But he's already moved on, stumbling towards the living room and whooping loudly.

She lifts an eyebrow, then leans forward to sniff the ladleful of drink. Immediately, she starts to cough and drops the spoon.

"Jungle Juice." Roxanne tells her, then passes her a can.

"Is this beer?" Jude looks between Roxanne and Sena, though she's pretty sure she already knows the answer.

Sena takes a shot of a clear alcohol, makes a face, then wipes her mouth. "Yeah. It's kind of gross but it's not going to get you wasted or anything. Try it."

Jude looks down at the can skeptically. She supposes she might as well try and get the full high school party experience, right? And maybe it'll help ease her nerves a bit. Well, here goes nothing, she thinks as she takes a regrettably large sip of the beverage.

"Woo! Yay, Jude!" Sena cheers, clapping her hands together.

"You're like her shoulder devil, or something. Corrupting her innocence." Roxanne laughs as the other girl grins maniacally.

"That's me!" Sena loudly announces. "Hey, let's go da—"

Sena's interrupted when a girl bumps into her, then continues on without even mumbling a sorry. She looks like she's about to curse the stranger out, but then she realizes the girl is, in fact, not a stranger. "Oh, Nance! What's up? You look so cute!" She chirps.

Nancy starts to pour herself a cup of the red liquid—Jude has zero idea how she's drinking that—and gives Sena a weak smile. "Hey, Sen. Have you tried this? It's great." She says, then takes a long sip.

Jude never thought she'd see the day Nancy Wheeler was absolutely wasted.

"No, but it looks like you've tried it plenty, lemme finish that for you?" Sena offers, and reaches out to take the cup from Nancy. The latter snatches it away, and scoffs at Sena.

"Oh my god, you're just like Steve. I'm fine." Nancy slurs out, narrowing her eyes at Sena. Her gaze drifts over to Jude, and her eyes widen for a brief second. "Woah, Jude Monroe at a party. Someone take a picture." She laughs, then starts to wander back into the sea of people while taking another swig from her cup.

Sena and Roxanne seem to be just as shocked as Jude, as the three of them watch in silence while Nancy makes her exit. When Jude sees Nancy approach a familiar face, she mentally curses at herself. She neglected the fact that if Nancy Wheeler is here, then he is here, too.

"Umm, as I was saying..." Sena laughs nervously, reaching up to rub the back of her neck. It's subtle, and unless you knew Sena well you probably wouldn't be able to see it, but she's clearly hurt by the interaction that just went down. "Should we go dance?"

Roxanne, who must be able to pick up on Sena's sadness as well, nods. "Yeah, let's do it. Jude?"

Jude glances at the crowd again, her eyes immediately finding Steve Harrington. She's pretty sure he's supposed to be Tom Cruise in Risky Business, in a black blazer and black sunglasses hiding his eyes. Why is his presence making her so nervous? She's not sure. But for now, she'd like to avoid him at all costs.

"Uh, I think I'll hang here for a minute. I'll catch up with you guys in a few." She smiles at Sena and Roxanne, who nod in understanding.

"You'd better not leave us hanging, Judy-Jude!" Sena sings out, which makes Jude laugh softly.

Once the other two have left her alone, Jude takes another long drink of the beer Sena gave her. She was right, it does taste bad. It's not going to get you wasted or anything, she also told her. Jude stares down at the can, and there's dozens of excited shouts when Madonna's Like a Virgin starts to play. Her gaze drifts over to the other bottles of liquor, and the empty shot glasses she's pretty sure have all been used already.

Screw it, she thinks.

She unscrews the lid to a Tequila bottle, fills up a little glass, and takes a deep breath before throwing it all down her throat in one go. Immediately, she starts to cough, feeling the residuals of the alcohol burning in her throat.

"You look like you're not used to that," a voice muses behind her. Jude knows that voice—where does she know it from?

As she wipes her lips with the back of her hand, she slowly turns around. Her face pales as she realizes oh, that's where she knows it from.

Billy Hargrove grins down at her—that same, stupid grin he gave her in the morning. It takes all of one second for Jude to realize his entire torso is on display, and he's only wearing an unzipped leather jacket. And of course her gaze is drawn to his defined abs, which glisten with what she can only assume to be sweat or alcohol. She regrets looking immediately.

He laughs when her eyes dart away. "It's okay, princess. You can look." He practically purrs, but she ignores him. "Nice costume, by the way. Sandy?"

She's very aware of the way his predatory eyes rack over her body, and the way the leather totally clings to her, completely unashamed. Her heart starts to beat faster. "Yeah, Grease." She says in a quiet voice. "Um, my friends are waiting for me—"

She's cut off when a few other teenage boys appear behind Billy, practically caging her in. She swallows hard. Regret, regret, regret. Panic and regret are the only things she can think about. She regrets wearing this costume, she regrets coming to this party, she regrets taking that stupid shot, and she especially regrets not going with Sena and Roxanne. Being alone in the kitchen with Billy Hargrove and his lackeys is so much worse than being in the same room as Steve Harrington.

He looks amused by her nervousness, the corners of his lips curling up devilishly. "You like Madonna?" He asks Jude, and starts to move in closer to her. "Like a virgin, hey... Touched for the very first time..." He mumbles along with the lyrics, his eyes flickering down to Jude's chest as it heaves up and down.

She's at a complete loss for words. She just presses her lips together and nods, looking over her shoulder towards the living room. Sena and Roxanne are dancing—well, Roxanne is just kind of swaying and laughing as Sena flails her arms around—and have zero clue what's transpiring in the kitchen. Then, she looks to where she saw Steve and Nancy dancing before, only to see they're not there anymore.

"Y'know, Jude, Carol told me a lot about you..." Billy tells her, and she flinches when she feels his fingertips graze the bare skin of her arms. Jude fights the urge to laugh, because what the hell does Carol know about her? "She told me you've never had a boyfriend, never even had a date to a school dance... That true?"

She stays quiet.

He leans forward again, so now his lips are basically touching her ear. "You're a virgin, aren't you? It's alright, I think it's cute... I've always liked virgins." He whispers to her, and she feels goosebumps ripple across her skin. "You know why? It's because they're all so damn ti—"

"Steve, stop! Stop!" Someone shouts, and Jude turns her head to see Nancy trying to wrestle away a cup of the Jungle Juice from Steve. But then Steve lets go, and the red beverage goes all over Nancy's top. Her white top.

Everyone's attention is on the couple now, including Billy's, so Jude takes it as an opportunity to slip away from him. The alcohol must be starting to take effect, because the sudden movement causes her brain to feel like it's sliding around in her skull, and she bumps into someone.

It's only for a second—a split second—but Nancy catches it. Nancy catches it when Jude brushes against Steve amidst all the chaos, and his attention immediately locks onto the blonde. She catches the way his dilate when he makes eye contact with her, and he has to force himself to look away and return his focus to his girlfriend.

Nancy catches it all.

"What the hell?" Nancy seethes, then turns around to storm towards what Jude assumes to be the bathroom.

Steve is frozen for a minute, just gawking at the brunette. He glances back at Jude standing behind him one more time, and she chooses to blame the warmth that spreads in her chest upon making eye contact on the alcohol.

Then, he chases after Nancy.

Jude is a bit stunned, trying to process the entire scene that just unfolded, until she remembers Billy Hargrove is still only a few feet away from her. She flees the kitchen to go find Sena and Roxanne.

"Woah, what happened? Everyone saw her spill all over." Sena tells Jude once she locates them. "Is she alright?"

Jude glances over her shoulder in the direction the couple went, then looks back at her friends. "Oh, I don't know... I think he was trying to stop her from getting another drink or something. She seemed really out of it."

Sena nods in understanding, her lips curled down into a pout. "I hope she's okay..."

"Are you okay, Jude? You look like you saw a ghost." Roxanne suddenly speaks up, furrowing her eyebrows together.

Jude sucks in a breath, and starts to nod. "Yeah, I'm okay, I'm fine. Just... that new guy, Billy?" She looks towards the kitchen once more, where the boy in question has thankfully been distracted by his new friends.

"He gives me weird vibes." Sena says with a narrowed gaze. "There's evil in that mullet of his."

"Agreed." Roxanne nods.

"Yeah, he's bad news, I think. We should all avoid him." Jude tells her friends, looking back at them with a tight lipped smile.

"Aye aye, Captain!" Sena gives Jude a salute, which causes all three of them to giggle.

Jude feels a firm body bump her back, and she turns around to get a look at the perpetrator. She thinks the universe must be playing some kind of joke on her when she sees Steve again.

"Wow, we just keep running into each other tonight, don't we?" She tries to joke, hoping it'll somewhat ease the awkward tension.

"Haha, yeah, sorry..." He laughs, then sniffles. She quickly picks up on the fresh tears staining his cheeks, and her eyes widen.

"Oh, are you okay?" She asks him, and she's not sure what possesses her to do so, but she reaches out to gingerly touch his forearm.

He flinches, eyes darting down to her fingers, then takes a step back. "I'm fine." He's quick to reply. "Happy Halloween, Jude."

"Happy Ha—" Before Jude gets the chance to return the sentiment, Steve is gone.

Now it's Jude's turn to stand and gawk. Steve isn't her friend anymore. She's barely spoken more than ten words to him in the last few years. So why is she so concerned about him?

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

Quinton has been in the Wheelers' basement probably about a thousand times by now. Whether it be for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, or discussing how to hide the telekinetic girl they found in the woods, or to come up with a plan to win the science fair, it's the group's dedicated hang out spot.

But when there's only two of them down there, it feels kind of empty.

Trick-or-Treating was cut short for Mike, Will and Quinton after Will had one of his episodes. They retreated over to the Wheelers' house and went straight down to the basement to recuperate. But then Mike offered to grab the three of them something to drink, leaving Quinton and Will alone.

Quinton doesn't know why he feels so awkward sitting next to Will. He supposes it's because he doesn't exactly feel confident when it comes to comforting people. And right now, Will definitely needs some comfort.

He clears his throat, glancing over at his friend. Mike is Quinton's oldest friend; their mothers have always been friendly, so they were introduced to each other back when they were still in diapers. But in kindergarten, the three of them became friends, and since that day, Quinton considers Will to be his best friend.

The year before, when he mysteriously disappeared, Quinton didn't know what to do with himself. He thanks god everyday that Will returned to them safely.

It just sucks that he wasn't able to return unscathed.

"Hey, check it out." Quinton smiles at Will, and reaches into his bucket full of candy to reveal a small orange bag. "Reese's Pieces, like E.T. E.T. phone home!" He attempts to do an impression of the alien, which elicits a smile from Will.

The room falls silent again. "Do you... want to talk about it...?" Quinton asks.

Will sucks in a deep breath, then nods. "It's just... I kind of feel like I'm stuck."

"Stuck?" Quinton raises an eyebrow. "Like, in the Upside Down? Or...?"

"No. It's more like... Ugh," he lets out a frustrated groan, "you know when you're using a ViewMaster, and it gets stuck between the slides?"

Quinton nods as he starts to understand. "Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of like you're between dimensions?"

"Mhm. And there's this awful noise coming from all over. And then..." Will pauses for a second, and he scrunches his eyebrows together. "I saw this... Thing..."

"The Demogorgon?"

"No, it wasn't that. It was bigger—huge. It was like a giant shadow, but it was alive." He shivers as he recounts the memory, and Quinton instinctively puts a hand on his shoulder.

"But none of it's real, right? The doctors said it's all in your head? Or... Or do you think it's real?" He frowns, and he really, really hopes it's not real.

But Will shrugs. "I don't know, I'm not sure. But—" he suddenly turns so he's facing Quinton, "—you can't tell the others. Except for Mike, maybe. They just wouldn't understand." He instructs him with pleading eyes.

Quinton blinks back at him, and slowly blinks. "Yeah, of course. It won't leave the basement, okay?"

"Okay."

"You know I'm always here for you, right?" Quinton tells him, and starts to shrug his shoulder. "No matter what. Even if it's something silly, or you're worried I'll think you're crazy. I'm always here." He's not really sure what possessed him to say all that, but he's glad he did. The smile Will gives him—a real, genuine smile—makes him glad he said it.

"Promise?" Will quietly asks.

Quinton nods, and mirrors Will's smile. "Of course. I promise." He holds out his pinky finger, and Will laughs. "I pinky promise."

"Okay, okay. I pinky promise I'll also be here for you." Will links his finger with Quinton's, and they give it a good shake.

With their fingers interlocked and their gazes fixated on one another, a foreign feeling begins to spread through Quinton's stomach. It's sort of reminiscent of the feeling he got when he went over the big drop on a roller coaster, but it's weird that he's feeling it right now.

Maybe too much Halloween candy?

"Sorry, sorry! I had to take a shit!" Mike loudly announces and he comes flying down the stairs into the basement.

Quinton and Will immediately retract their hands from
one another.

"Thanks for letting us know, Mike." Quinton rolls his eyes as he accepts a can of Coke from him.

Will laughs, and Mike squishes himself onto the couch next to Quinton. The three of them start to dump all their candy onto the coffee table to get a good look at their hauls, and the whole time, the feeling in Quinton's stomach won't subside.

wow! big night for both of the monroe siblings!! omg i just realized quinton and will's ship name can be quill... QUILL IR SO FAMOUS... and then there's Stude... that's so bad bye. harringroe? no that sounds too similar to harringrove and i hate harringrove...

ANYWAYSSSSS billy hargrove ur a disgusting freak and we're all anticipating ur death!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰