chapter thirty-one
california, here we come

🖤

RUBY BRENNER HAS HAD MANY, many moments and hours and days and weeks and months in her life. Take the day her died died (because of her, she'd like to add.) Or, the day she became possessed by a monster from another dimension. Or, the day all of this started, when some dickhead force decided to grant her powers. The thing is, Ruby's had a tumultuous life. And, whilst this once left her jaded, she now takes this all in her step.

Blame it on the California air, the fresh sea breeze mixed with the LA smog, but Ruby feels reborn. Because yes, these many, many terrible moments happened, but you know what that means? There's a decreasing list of events that could be worse than what she's already experienced.

Dead parent? Done and dusted, twice! Being possessed? Again, did it twice! Or how about sacrificing your life to save a shitty town? She can't even count the amount of times that's happened! She's got dead parents, a dead aunt, a dead relationship with the love of her life, all under her belt, at just nineteen! You may think she's struggling, but if anything, this makes her invincible. What else are you gonna do to her? What else is left?

She feels free. She feels at peace. She goes to her modelling jobs with a spring in her step, she goes to her and her grandpa's secret project with glee, she goes to restaurants with cute actor boys and doesn't even worry about all of the many, many things that could go wrong! She doesn't even think about the beautiful boy back in Hawkins that she broke up with...

So, things are great. Ruby loves her life.

And, as she stands in front of her spring boyfriend, she feels unbothered by the whole conversation, because this doesn't even scrape the surface of bad things that have happened to her.

Since moving to LA, Ruby's had a new boyfriend every season. Her fall boyfriend, a cute guy on a new sitcom, was there for Halloween parties. Her winter boyfriend, a rugged drum player, was there for Christmas cuddling. And, finally, her spring boyfriend — some actor in a popular movie, it's too ET for her to care — was there for ice cream, days in Malibu...

... And, finally, this.

"Look, you're a great girl," he tells her, and Ruby thinks, yes, yes I am. "But..." He pauses. Ruby raises an eyebrow. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you're over your last boyfriend."

Ruby crosses her arms. Winter Boyfriend? She was over that the second she caught him talking to his... little man.

"... What?"

"That guy from your hometown."

Ruby's jaw hits the ground.

"STEVE?" she says. "You think I'm not over Steve?"

"Uh, yeah," he says.

Ruby scoffs. "I haven't even mentioned him. That makes no sense. You're making no sense. And anyway, how do you even know he's called Steve?"

Spring Boyfriend gives her a funny look. "Uh, because you called me him?"

Ruby thinks for a second. "... When?"

"Uh, last night, when we had sex?"

... Ruby thinks for another second.

"That was, like, a one-off—"

"And last week, when you were drunk. And the week before, when you were half-asleep. And—"

Ruby brings her hands to her face, uncomfortable with this conversation. "OK, OK!" she says. "I don't agree with your point, but I understand. It's just, like, muscle memory."

She takes her hands away from her face, and looks across at Spring Boyfriend. He's got his hands on his hips, like he's about to tell her off. She supposes he's a little older than her, so maybe he thinks she's being childish about all of this. But what did he expect? She's a young adult in Hollywood, with barely any parental supervision, save her visits to see El and the Byers'. Sue Ruby for being a little chaotic.

"It doesn't mean anything more than the fact that I was with him for, like, a super long time," she says. She was planning on ending things soon anyway. Spring is almost up, and you know what that means? Summer Boyfriend time!

"But whatever," she says with a shrug. "You can go. I'm going to see my sister now, anyway."

Spring Boyfriend looks confused. "Do you not wanna, like, talk about—"

"Not really," says Ruby. She glances at the door, which opens by itself. Spring Boyfriend doesn't notice, instead focused on Ruby walking him to the door. "Nice to meet you, bye!"

"Uh—"

Ruby closes the door, and sighs.

She can't believe this. Ruby Brenner, not over Steve Harrington? What the fuck? She hasn't thought about Hawkins since the day she left.

Well... except for the friends she left there. Max writes her constantly, and when they're free at the same time (which is almost never, with Ruby's work schedule) they call. Dustin speaks to her, too, although she knows he feels conflicted, considering Harrington. For someone that doesn't think about Hawkins, she thinks about its inhabitants a lot.

Including one special friend.

Dear Ruby,

OK, OK. Don't kill be for how long it took for me to respond! Finals were killing me — medieval-torture style — and I've been working every spare moment. Speaking of, I've got an AMAZING list of movie recs for you!!

Ruby sits down, continuing to read the letter from her newest Hawkins-residing-friend.

Hawkins High is wanting to give some award to your dad. For your dad, as a tribute, I think? And they want you to receive it, and they know I speak to you still, so I was asked... to ask. I think Principal Torrance tried to call, but some old man answered instead so got the wrong number.

God bless her grandpa.

I know you don't wanna come back to Hawkins, but this would mean so much — and I'll make sure Steve stays far, FAR away from you. I promise. I may be both of your best friends — which is awkward but also slightly bizarre that I've wound smack-bang in the middle of Steve 'The Hair' Harrington and Ruby 'Snowflake Queen' Brenner's drama — but I'll steer him clear. I'll be your personal bodyguard. I'll get an outfit and everything.

But, call me on the number attached if you wanna come along. It's the Friday before Spring Break.

Robin :)

Ruby frowns. She'd rather die than go back to Hawkins, Robin's right there, but still. If it's something for her dad...

But, then, what if it's all a ruse? The only reason Robin first started writing to Ruby was because Harrington was worrying about her, but knew Ruby wouldn't talk to him, so enlisted Robin's help. What if Harrington's being super mean and asking her to come back for the one thing that couldn't leave Hawkins with her — her dad?

Ruby picks up her phone, and begins to dial.

"Hey," she says to her grandpa, pissy that she's ringing him. ("The government will track me down!" he'll complain the next time he sees her in person, his paranoia reaching the level of a secret Soviet during McCarthyism.) "Did I get a call at some point, from Hawkins High's principal?"

Her grandpa groans, as if everything Hawkins-related is juvenile and beneath them. (Which it is, but still.)

But, remember Ruby's new life motto! What else can get worse?

🖤

"I JUST DON'T KNOW what to do."

The Byers' new house has a little den, just past the staircase, which was quickly claimed by the Byers and Hopper kids. Ruby spent a whole weekend when they first moved in, refusing to let her little sister's cool hangout spot be tainted by teenage boy weirdness. She carefully chose a selection of posters: Back to the Future (of course), E.T. (to make Will happy), and Carrie (because it's Ruby's favourite movie and she wanted angry-girl-with-fire-powers representation). Then, she spent an afternoon combing through the furniture part of the local Goodwills, plucking out some cool lava lamps and funky rugs.

She found the blankets elsewhere, shaggy ones she's draped over the Byers' old couch to make it look a little cooler. El helped her out in decorating, and Joyce even let them hang up a beaded curtain. Ruby thinks that Joyce likes having daughters around...

... Even when Ruby appears out of nowhere, haphazardly parking her new car (a cherry-red convertible from the 70s) and declaring that her entire world is imploding.

So, this is where Ruby is now. Standing in the den, with El, Will, and Jonathan, complaining about her life. Joyce is in the kitchen, talking to the weird bearded man from last summer. Ruby thinks they're fucking.

"I don't know, do I go? Do I even want to go back there?"

Jonathan's sitting on the bean bag, a feature Ruby only approved because he gave her a month's worth of pot for free. He's staring into space, not paying attention. El and Will, however, look excited to be involved in big-kid drama.

"It'll only be for a couple of days," says Will. "What could go wrong?"

"Uh, my mere presence will send the entire town into an apocalyptic, dystopian hell-scape?" says Ruby, raising her eyebrows. (She's read H.G. Wells recently.)

El, who has a better feeling of Ruby's worries, frowns. "Maybe if you don't use your powers, it won't sense you're back," she suggests.

Ruby crosses her arms, pacing. "I suppose..."

She'll have to consult Grandpa on that later, to be sure. The Byers and El still don't know about her grandfather being alive; she told them that her manager's an old man, so if they were to run into them, they'd presume it was him.

El looks at Ruby, with big puppy-dog eyes.

"But they're giving Dad an award," she tells her older sister. "And I can't go..."

Ruby pauses for a second, stunned. El's using Ruby's own manipulative tricks against her? How is this fair? El's got an obvious point, yeah, but still! This is so unfair! Ruby can't say no now. She knows the award is real, not a weird Parent Trap ruse by Robin and Harrington, so if she doesn't go, it'll be as if she doesn't care about her dad... Her dead dad...

The thing is, Hawkins is the symbol of everything bad in Ruby's life. You know this by now. And she's felt so much better in the months she's been gone, does she really want to risk her current peacefulness just to go back for a random award...?

"What if this is just one big Parent Trap?" says Jonathan, out of nowhere.

Ruby grimaces. "I've already double-checked, it isn't."

"What do you mean, Parent Trap?" says El.

"Wait." Ruby looks at the two boys, her jaw dropping. "Neither of you have watched Parent Trap with her?"

"It's a kids' movie!" says Will, defensive.

Jonathan gives Will a funny look. "It's a masterpiece, man."

"It's this movie from the 60s," says Ruby, sighing. "These twins try to get their parents back together by forcing them to speak to each other." She looks at Will. "Dustin hasn't... alluded to anything, right?"

Will looks uncomfortable. "We haven't really spoken—"

"What?" Ruby's eyes widen.

"Yeah," says Will. "But they're busy, I guess, so—"

"You literally almost died, like, three times, and they don't even write to you? How bitchy is that?" says Ruby. "Is Mike still coming here next week? Do I need to bully him again?"

Will and El say, "No—"

But Jonathan says, "Yes!"

"KIDS! DINNER!"

Joyce's voice sounds through the house, and the four switch off the den's stereo. El and Will walk into the dining room. Ruby gives Jonathan a hand, pulling him out of the bean bag. This household would fall apart without her.

"Hey, Rubes," says Joyce, as her and Will bring the bowls of spaghetti to the table. Jonathan's already sat down, an entire slice of garlic bread in his mouth. "You remember Murray, right?"

Ruby looks at the bearded man funnily. "I remember the beard," she says, getting herself a glass of water. She sits down at the table, and forces a smile at the strange man. "Hi."

"You're Hopper's kid," says Murray.

"Good observation," she says.

Murray scoffs. "You can tell."

Ruby raises an eyebrow, twirling spaghetti around her fork.

"So, why are you here?" she asks.

"Oh, uh, he's just in town for work, so I offered him to stay here," says Joyce, and she smiles awkwardly. Ruby raises an eyebrow. She looks across at Jonathan, trying to get backup, but remembers he's too high to notice.

"They want to give Dad an award," says El.

Joyce pauses eating, and frowns. "What do you mean?"

Ruby gives El a look. Clearly she wants Ruby to go.

"Yeah," says Ruby. "School asked me to go to accept it, in like, memory of him, but I don't know if I wanna go back there..."

"Well, maybe if you only go for a couple of days?" Joyce suggests.

Ruby shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know..."

"Do you think you'll see The Hair?" says Murray.

Ruby's head spins. "What?"

"Yeah, uh, that guy from the summer you were joined at the hip with," he says, chomping on his food. "What's his name...?"

"Steve," says Jonathan.

Murray's face lights up with glee. "That Steve?"

Jonathan nods, gleeful. "Uh-huh."

"What do you mean, that Steve?" Ruby says.

"His girl's ex-boyfriend Steve," says Murray. He claps his hands together. "Oh, this is juicy! Why'd you guys break up? When did you get together? How did this all happen?"

Ruby puts her face in her hands. "I don't want to talk about—"

"They broke up when we moved here," says El, failing to read the room.

"And you're still worked up about it?" says Murray. "... Interesting."

Ruby looks up at him, trying to keep herself calm. "I'm over him. I have a boyfriend... had."

"Okayyyyy," says Murray, and he looks away from her, as if knowing she won't give up. "Jonathan, you're gonna have to tell me more later."

"There is nothing to even talk about!" says Ruby.

Murray starts to grin, biting into some garlic bread.

Ruby really doesn't know what to do. For the rest of the dinner, she's silent, angrily eating her spaghetti and plotting her next move. She really doesn't want to go back to Hawkins, but if she doesn't, is it not like she's letting her dad down?

She helps Joyce tidy up, narrowly avoiding a conversation about feelings (gross). Joyce has tiptoed around Ruby ever since they moved to California, hyper-aware of Ruby's new status as orphan. And, really, Ruby's fine. Her grandpa helped her work through her grief, and as chaotic as her feelings are sometimes, she likes to think she's okay with what happened. Her dad died, it's fine, that's life. What could be worse?

As she drives home, she keeps on thinking things through. In the words of Will's favourite song, should she stay or should she go? She listens to her own mixtape, trying to calm down.

During her first week of training with grandpa, the two sat down to make her a special mixtape. Her grandpa was worried about the Mind Flayer using that Godawful song, Ruby Baby, to taunt Ruby, and decided the best course of action was to give Ruby her own selection of songs, to think of in those situations. So, in response, she compiled her own collection of retro songs, all the singer demanding someone leaves them alone.

She hasn't heard the Mind Flayer since leaving Hawkins, which is why she's so worried about returning. But she keeps on thinking about El, and about her dad — yeah, Hawkins was an awful place for Ruby, but the town wants to pay tribute to her dad. Part of her feels like it's wrong of her, not to go... Her dad died because of her, and she can't even give him the decency of picking up his award?

Fuck it.

As Ruby returns to her apartment, she goes straight to the telephone. She grabs Robin's letter, and begins to dial the number she scrawled at the bottom. I'm going to go I'm going to go—

The phone goes, "Good evening, this is Family Video! You're talking to Steve, how can I help you today?"

Ruby's heart stops.

"Uh... hey," she says. She wants to say more — like, confirm it's her, because how would even tell, after almost a year of no contact, what her voice sounds like over the phone? — but she worries that'll he'll hear how shaky her voice is. She brings her hand to her heart, trying to calm down. Fuck, fuck, fuck—

"Hey, Ruby..." he says.

There's a pause. Is Ruby supposed to speak? Is he going to ask her how she is? Should she ask how he is? She supposes she rang, it's only etiquette for her to say, how are you first. But her heart is already plummeting to the depths of the world, can she even say those three words—?

"Is Robin there?" she asks instead. "She told me to call her on this number."

"Oh," he says. "Yeah, sure."

He passes the phone to Robin, who answers the phone a lot more casually than Ruby can muster. But she's blindsided — Harrington sounded so calm, so unbothered. Does he not care about her anymore? She guesses there's no reason for him to care, it's been long enough, but still? Why is he not, like, bothered by hearing her voice when she feels like she's going to die?

"Hey, uh—I just wanted to say..." Ruby pauses. Once she's says this, that's it. She's going back to Hawkins, whether she likes or not. She's sealed her fate. So, she says it quick, before she can take it back: "I've decided I'm gonna come."

"Yes! I knew you would!" says Robin, excitedly. "OK, uh, I'll get school to call you about the details, and I'll organise some fun things for us to do! Ahh, I'm so excited! We weren't friends the last time we saw each other in person!"

Ruby starts to smirk. "Does Harrington still hate it?"

"Oh, absolutely," says Robin.

"Good," says Ruby. "You're my best friend, not his... Don't tell Nancy."

"My lips are sealed," says Robin. "OK! I'll speak to you soon!"

"Absolutely," says Ruby.

She hangs up the phone, just as she hears her ex-boyfriend let out, "Fuck me!"

🖤

STEVE HARRINGTON HAS HAD MANY, many shitty moments in his life. Take the time he found out there was a whole parallel reality with rampaging monsters. Or, the time his best-friend-since-the-sandbox became his girlfriend, then got possessed, and then tried to kill him in the mall. Or maybe the time that girlfriend dumped him because she felt bad about trying to kill him. Or, maybe even the fact that now he's Ruby Brenner's ex, no girl will go anywhere near him, in fear of Ruby finding out.

It's safe to say his life has become pretty shitty.

So when Robin spends the better half of their shift — at their new job, working the front desk and stacking shelves at Hawkins' movie rental store — complaining about her love life, he struggles to find sympathy. Because what could be worse than his?

"This is fucking pathetic," says Steve, groaning.

Robin raises an eyebrow. "... Are you calling me pathetic? You?"

Steve looks up, and gives his best friend a dirty look. "OK, well, I was calling myself pathetic, but thank you for agreeing," he says.

"What are best friends for?" says Robin, giving him a thumbs-up.

"I just—How is this my life?" Steve stands up, starting to pace the floor. They're doing the closing shift so there's no customers around, which means the store's their stage to bitch about their love lives. "I can't get a girl my actual age because they all left for college, but the ones the grade below are all terrified of my ex-girlfriend! And even if they don't care about that, they're going to college too in the fall, which means they only want me for sex! Which isn't always a bad thing, but come on! Am I just a body to these girls? A charming, good-with-his-hands body?"

Robin rolls her eyes. "They're not scared of Ruby."

"You're just saying that because you're friends now," says Steve.

He found that out on Halloween. Apparently Robin started writing to Ruby when she moved away, worrying about her. This secret friendship had gone on for two months, until Halloween night, when they went to a party together, and Robin confessed the affair. "She's actually really super nice and I love being her friend!" she had wailed, and Steve had thought, yeah, I fucking know, that's why I'm in this mess!

"Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me," says Robin, shrugging her shoulders.

Steve crosses his arms. "That's so not true."

"Uh, yeah, it is!" she says. "Do you seriously think all of those girls think that by dating you, Ruby Brenner is going to return to this town, to kill them, sexy-Michael-Myers-style?" Steve shifts on his feet, because that does sound a little stupid. "Those girls aren't scared of Ruby — they just spend enough time with you to realise the truth. You're still in love with her!"

"I am not!" he protests.

"You haven't seen her in almost a year, and you're still talking about her!" says Robin.

"Yeah, because she's ruining my life!"

"What would you do, if she walked in right now?" says Robin.

"Die," says Steve.

The store phone starts to ring. Robin hates answering the phone at work — on their first day, someone's mom rang to complain about the 'sexy scene' in Star Wars, which scarred Robin for life — so without another thought, Steve goes towards the phone.

Steve lets out a huff. "I'm going to die alone, and it's all Ruby Brenner's fault."

Robin's eyes widen, and she exclaims, "WAIT!"

But he's already at the phone, and in his best customer-service voice, answers, "Good evening, this is Family Video! You're talking to Steve, how can I help you today?"

There's a pause, before the person on the phone goes, "Uh... hey."

Steve wishes the ground would swallow him whole.

His heart pounds in his chest. His eyes widen like golf balls. He looks at Robin, panicking. Fuck, fuck, fuck—

"Hey, Ruby," he says.

"Is Robin there?" she says. "She told me to call her on this number."

"Oh," he says. "Yeah, sure."

And he passes the phone to Robin, who answers a lot coolly than he did. She has a quick chat with Ruby, and Steve steps to the side, running his fingers through his hair. What the fuck? What the fuck? It's been almost a year, and he's blindsided like that, when they speak for the first time? He should've been cool, he should've been so cool and calm and casual that she thought his entire life was amazing and not at all terrible because she isn't in it—

He means because of her. Not because she isn't here. It's definitely and absolutely not because his life is shitty and terrible without Ruby Brenner in it—

"I'll speak to you soon!"

Robin hangs up, looking cheery.

"What was that?" he says.

And then, Robin announces the one thing that shatters Steve's entire world. The past year of not caring, of pushing the thought of Ruby Brenner down into the back of his thoughts... All at once, everything thought and feeling he has towards Ruby Brenner rushes back into his mind. All because Robin says, "Ruby's coming back!"

Steve puts his hands on his face.

"Fuck me!"

welcome back 2 ruby's body

aka... ruby and steve pining hours. i hope u enjoyed!!! i loved season 4 so i was so excited to write it!! let me know what you thought - and what you think is going to happen, and what you're excited to see!

thank you for reading, and thank you for 100k reads!!<3333