Chapter Eleven

"Happy Halloween!" I cried out, dancing around in the living room as Dad was making us some food. "Guess what! I'm going to a party—Oh, El, your costume is so cute!" I looked at El as a little ghost who stands there.

"Boo." El imitates a ghost which made me smile.

"You're so cute." I coo, giving her a hug from behind. "Isn't she just adorable Dad?"

"Yeah, cute," Dad murmured. "El, you're not going trick or treating."

"Why not?" El asked.

"Yeah, why not?" I repeated as Dad puts some french toast onto our plates.

"Because it's breakfast now, okay? Come on, let's eat." Dad says.

"They wouldn't see me." El continued. Dad carried all three plates over to the table.

"Who wouldn't see you?" Dad asked El.

"The bad men," El says.

"What are you talking about?"

"Trick or treat," El said as Dad sits down at the table.

"You want to go trick or treating?" Dad repeated. El nods beneath the sheet. "You know the rules." He stands up and began to move El towards the seat.

"Yes, but—"

"Yeah, so you know the answer," Dad responded.

"No, but I—They wouldn't see me," El whined.

"No. Hey. I don't care." Dad holds onto both of her arms. "I don't care, all right? You go out there, ghost or not, it's a risk. We don't take risks. All right? They're stupid, and..."

"We're not stupid!" El repeated.

"Exactly." Dad nodded. "Now, you take that off, sit down and eat. Your food's getting cold." El rips off her ghost outfit which I pouted and sat down with them. Dad pours syrup on my french toast, and El's, then his own. He leans forward, noticing her glum expression. "All right, look... how about I get off early tonight, and I buy us a bunch of candy, and we can sit around and get fat, and we watch a scary movie together? How's that for compromise?"

"Compromise?" El asked, frowning at the word. Whenever El learns a new word, I write it down for her in her notebook and the definition so she remembers to use it. El looked at me.

"C–O–M–promise. Compromise." I tell her. "How about that's your word for the day? Yeah? Give me your notebook later on and I'll write it down for you. It's something that's kinda in–between. It's like half–way happy."

"By 5—1—5?" El asked Dad.

"5.15. Yeah, sure." Dad nodded. I love the way El speaks with numbers.

"Promise?" El whispered.

Dad leans forward. "Yes. I promise."

"Halfway happy," El responded, causing me to smile and dig into some of my french toast. Dad rubs her brown curly hair.

Dad turns to me. "So, you were saying about this party?"

"Party?" I frowned. "Oh, Party. Tina's party."

"Will there be alcohol at this party?" Dad grills.

"Uh—No?" I smiled innocently. "Dad, please don't shut this party down. Everyone loves Halloween in this town."

"All right fine, but if I end up finding you drunk back at this house, I might have to arrest you." Dad gives me a stern look.

"Dad, come on," I whined. "Fine, I won't end up drunk at this house."

"Good." Dad nods his head. "Who are you going with?" I made sure I had a mouthful of food in so it took me longer to stay. "It's Steve?" I look away from him. "Yeah, it's Steve."

"Who's Steve?" El asked.

"Juno's boyfriend." Dad gives me a look.

"Boyfriend?" El softly repeated back.

"How about we make that your new word—"

"Dad, no!" I exclaimed. "She's already got a word for the day, and it's compromised. We don't want to fill her pretty head with too many words. And besides, he's not my boyfriend."

"I don't like Steve." Dad had this unhappy look on his face.

"Sucks to be you," I grumble.

"Juno, I want you back by 12.00."

"1—2—0—0," El repeats back, picking at her food. "Late."

"12.00. Okay. I can make that work."

︾ 

I couldn't study as I sat in the library with Steve and Nancy. Nancy was the only one studying as Steve and I was just fooling around with each other. We were both great pros and not being productive when we put our minds to it.

"Look, can you do this?" I made that iconic S-looking shape with only the lines on my sheet of paper and I grinned at him. "Beat you can't."

"Dude, I've been doing that since I was eight." Steve grabbed my pencil and started to do it, only to have screwed it up. I snickered. "Okay, wait, before you say anything lemme tries again." As Steve does this, I noticed Nancy at the pencil sharper across from the library, spacing out.

"I'll be right back," I told him as he failed again. I kissed his cheek. "Keep practising."

"Hardy-har." Steve sarcastically grumbled as I walked away from and over to Nancy.

"Nance, you okay?" I asked and she snapped out of it, looking at me. "What going on? Come on." I pulled her away and we walked into an empty room and I pulled down the blinds.

"I can't keep doing this," Nancy speaks softly.

"Doing what?" I crossed my arms.

"Pretending that everything's okay," Nancy whispered.

"What are you talking about?"

"Barbara." Nancy hissed out. "It's like everyone's forgotten. Sometimes, it feels like you've forgotten. It's like nobody cares. Expect her parents."

"Hey, I haven't forgotten." I glared at her. "She was my friend, too."

"And now they're selling her house—"

"Nance—"

"And they're going to spend the rest of their lives looking for her." She finishes with a tearful look. "It's destroying them."

"I know. Okay?" I tried my best to comfort her. "I get it. But, listen. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Yeah, we could tell them the truth." Nancy insisted.

"Well, you know we can't do that." I groaned.

"We don't have to tell them everything," Nancy stresses.

"This isn't some game, Nance," I tell her. "If they found out that we told any... They could put us in jail. Okay? Or worse, they could destroy our families. They could do anything they want. Just think about what you're saying, Nance."

"Your Dad is the Chief of Police," Nancy says. "He can defend us—"

"You know what Mr Holland thinks of my Dad." I huff. "There's no way they would believe him." Nancy drops her gaze and I felt bad. "Hey... I'm sorry. It's hard, I know. Trust me, I've been there. I lost my sister. But let's... Let's just go to Tina's stupid party... wear our stupid costumes... and just pretend we're stupid teenagers, okay? Teenagers who are gonna have a good time. Can we just do that for tonight?"

Nancy's jaw tight, she meets my eyes. "Okay." Nancy agreed.

"Oh, come here my little Nance." I cooed and pulled her in for a hug. She hugs me back tightly. "Love you, Nance."

  ︾ 

Night falls amongst Hawkins and every teenager was at Tina's party. I went as Princess Leia as I said I would. There's lots of drinking involved already, and I couldn't wait to get drunk.

Nancy and I pushed through the crowd and into the kitchen. A guy was already chugging down some punch, I looked over at him. "What's in this?"

"Pure fuel!" The guy yelled out, dropping his red cup. "Pure fuel!"

Nancy and I looked at each other. "Bottoms up?" I asked her and grabbed her a cup and myself. We both linked arms and drank from our cups, sculling the whole thing. "That's my girl, Nance!" I cheered her on as I had finished the cup before her.

Red liquid rolls down her face and she wipes it off before giving me a grin. "Woah, guys, take it easy," Steve had stepped in and I looked over at Steve.

"Steve, we don't need babysitting," I tell him, getting me and Nancy another cup. "We're just being stupid teenagers. It's fine."

"Okay, but, don't be too stupid," Steve warned me.

"That's the rule in my house, not this house." I rolled my eyes, chugging down another punch as Nancy doesn't do the same thing. I give Steve an innocent smile before taking Nancy's arm and dragging her to the dance floor, as some rock music was playing.

Nancy and I danced with each other on the dance floor along with other people. "I wonder if Jonathan's gonna come!" Nancy shouted towards me and I shrugged.

"Doesn't feel like Jonathan's theme." I waved towards the party. Jonathan's not really a party-go type, so I would be surprised if he showed up.

I continued to drink the red substance and people kept feeding it to me and Nancy, and we didn't care that much. We were planning to get drunk and be stupid, so that's what we're gonna do. Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped around my shoulder.

"Hello, beautiful." A flirtatious voice filled my ears, I thought it was Steve for a moment before realising it was the guy from yesterday morning, the new kid. He was wearing basically no t-shirt (he has nice abs) and some jeans.

"And who are you meant to be?" I questioned his outfit choice, Nancy slowly stopped dancing and gave me a raised eyebrow.

"Some says yours—"

"Sorry, I'm exclusive already," I winked at him, before moving his shoulder off my arm. "I'm Juno." I raised my hand to shake, but he kissed it instead. What a charmer.

"I'm Billy." Billy introduced and I simply rolled my eyes before quickly removing my hand.

"And I'm out of here," Nancy grumbled before going back for some more punch.

"Wait, Nance, that's not a good idea—" She was out of my reach before I could even reach her. So, she left me no choice but to chase after her. "No, Nance, you've had enough!"

She refuses, however, and I have no idea where Steve went. "Get off!" She gave me an evil glare as I tried to grab the red substances from her. "Screw you!"

"You've had enough, Nance! I'm serious." I hissed trying not to make a scene as she poured herself another drink. She was clearly too intoxicated; I don't know why I hadn't seen that before. "Put it down."

"No. No!" Nancy exclaimed as I grabbed ahold of the cup, too.

"Nance put it down."

"Juno, stop," Nancy whined. Suddenly, I let go and the red liquid went all over her white dress. Everyone in the crowd ooo's and I cringed slightly. "What the hell?"

Nancy then stormed off to the bathroom and I groaned. "Nancy." I ran after her and was trapped in the bathroom with her as she tried to clean off the stain. "Nance, it won't come off, it's stained. Nance, I'm sorry."

"It's coming," Nancy mumbled as she continued to wipe the wet clothes down her stained front.

"Come on, let me and Steve take you home." I pleaded. "Come here."

"So I can third wheel with you guys? No." Nancy glared which I was completely taken aback by. "You—You wanted this."

"No, I didn't want this." I glanced at our mess. "I told you to stop drinking—"

"It's bullshit." Nancy snapped. "Bullshit."

"It's not bullshit, Nance." I sighed as I'm beginning to sober up myself.

"No, you." Nancy pointed at me and I took a step back, frowning. "You're bullshit."

"What?" I asked, my tone faltering.

"You're pretending like everything is okay. You know, like..." Nancy slurs out. "Like we didn't kill Barb. Like, it's great. Like we're best friends, and we're partying. Yeah, let's party, huh? Party. We're partying. This is bullshit. Like our friendship." 

"Like our friendship?" I stare at her, my face falling. "You think our friendship is bullshit?"

"Uh-huh." Nancy agrees, giving me a sour look. "Only because you've forgotten about Barb—Like everyone else. You're supposed to—Be a true friend. You're bullshit, Juno Hopper. A fake friend."

I couldn't help but tear up slightly. "Okay then." I turned and left her. If she thinks our friendship is bullshit, then she can help herself home. I angrily storm down the hallway, only for Steve to catch me.

He pulls me in his arms. "Hey, what's wrong? Is Nance okay?"

"Oh, she's perfect." I grit out. "Everything's fucking perfect."

"Jun, tell me what's wrong." Steve insisted, rubbings my arms up and down.

I gave him a tearful look. "Please—Take me anywhere. Anywhere but here."

"Okay." Steve whispered. "Okay."

  ︾ 

"Ugh! I forgot how long of a hike it is to get here." I spoke as we had just come into the view of Skull Rock.

"You're telling me." Steve groaned. "Can I put you down now?" I was currently on a piggyback ride with Steve. He had taken me to Skull Rock because he knew that I couldn't be shown up home drunk, so, to sober up some more we decided to visit our Skull Rock that hasn't been visited in a year or so. I looked up at the big Skull Rock, all the memories of me and Steve coming here coming back to me.

I sighed. "I guess." He dropped me. The only reason he carried me is that I have these big heels on and I complained for five minutes about how much they hurt, and he offered a ride.  I began to climb it.

"Woah, woah, what are you doing?" Steve asked, grabbing me by the waist and turning me to him. I gave him a sloppy smile.

"I wanna gaze at the stars." I tell him, looking up at the night sky. "There's no better place to do that than Skull Rock."

"Okay," Steve hesitantly agreed. He watched me closely as I climbed up and he followed. It wasn't exactly high, but it was a good few metres above ground and I pressed my back on the cold hard rock as I got to the top.

Steve sits down a few moments later, lying on his back. I got comfy and snuggled into him. I frowned at the earlier events. "You know... I always thought Nancy and I were good friends. Best friends, even."

"Huh?" Steve asked, looking down at me as I gazed up at the stars. "I thought you guys are."

"Honestly, me too." I sighed. "She told me our friendship was bullshit, and it really hurt me, Steve. She's been my best friend since preschool, I don't want her to throw all that away. I don't want to throw that away."

"She was probably just drunk, Jun. She didn't mean it." Steve tried to comfort me. "Her head wasn't in the right mindset."

"I don't know." I was wary about it, I couldn't stop thinking about it on the ride over here. "I'll wait till she comes to me about it—If she remembers, at least."

"You know, I'm impressed by you, Juno. You can handle your liquor." Steve complimented me and I gave him a small, drunk smile.

"I really like you." I quietly admit it to him, only for him to hear, though he is the only one around.

"What was that?" Steve grinned, knowing exactly what I had said.

"Shh! It was a secret." I placed my finger on his mouth, telling him to be quiet. "You can't tell anyone. Especially my Dad. He'll kill me."

"Okay," He rubs my arms softly and pressed a kiss on my forehead. "Your secret is safe with me."