Loverboymontgomery - 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄

who: cole & @joycefm​​

where: the byers residence

I know the timing isn’t great, but I just wanted to let you know... No. I just wanted to run this by you... Still no. I hope Will’s okay and also I’m his half brother. 

The entire ride to the Byers house, Cole tried to rehearse his opening line. So far, nothing inspiring had come to mind. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous; Joyce had always been kind and everyone in town knew how much he loved her boys. But, Cole wasn’t sure how she’d feel about her ex-husband having another one... who happened to be very close in age to her oldest.

To Cole’s credit, he hadn’t grown up around Lonnie; Maggie was convinced Lonnie didn’t even connect the dots and realize that Cole was his. Fitting. Cole never felt like he was missing out on much, and after his mom told him who his real dad was when he was sixteen, Cole knew for sure he was better off without Lonnie Byers as a father figure. He felt a pang of guilt, knowing that Jonathan, Will, and Joyce had to live with the asshole for so long.

Before he knew it, Cole was on the Byers’ front porch, his hand balled in a fist to knock on the door. Now or never. He knocked, stepped back, and pasted a smile on his face when Joyce opened the door. “Hi, Mrs. Byers! Sorry to just barge in... but I was hoping you had a minute?” 

For the first time in his life, Cole was thankful for the mundanity of his job. Usually, by 11 a.m. he'd be bored out of his mind, hoping that anyone would walk through the doors; but after what happened at the cemetery, he'd rather not speak to anyone. His mind was too busy playing the 'vision' over and over again. As he plucked the string of an acoustic guitar, he wondered if he was going insane... and if he was, if anyone would notice.

Hearing the door jangle, Cole stifled a groan and was at the counter in two long strides. Pasting on a smile, Cole surveyed the customer. Tessa. He'd known her in high school, of course, but they'd never really spoken... until Robin's 'kickback.' A pit formed in his gut as he wondered if that's why she was here; or, worse, if she hadn't experienced anything at all and needed help finding a guitar pic, or something.

"You got lucky, we're usually slammed this time of day," he said, dryly. "What can I do for you?"

Who: @tessacallovvay & @colemontgomeryx

Where: the music center

Locking her car, Tessa's heels clicked against the sidewalk as she made her way towards the grimy looking Music Center. Some cross between a music store and a record store, Tessa didn't really know much about it other than the fact you could hear it down the block. And the fact that one Cole Montgomery worked there. The know-it-all boy from high school. And one of the five other people who'd been there at Robin's disastrous attempt at a party. One of the people who'd... seen something.

Memory of blood running down her back, covering the frills of her dress, slipping over her face and streaming down her eyes-- Tessa paused at the door, shaking the visions away. Mm, no. No, thank you. Pushing through the grimy door, Tessa scanned the rows of guitars and other instruments before spotting an unfortunately familiar face. Walking to the main desk, she smiled wide at him, "Cole. Have a minute to talk, hon?"

who: Cole & @drewcampbell​​

where: The Music Center

It was inventory day, which was easily Cole’s least favorite day of the month. Since he’d become manager of The Music Center a few years back, he’d been delegated the task of coming in on his day ‘off’ and checking the in-store inventory versus their log. Basically, to see what Max had stolen. Or anyone else, but usually Max.

Today, though, the new guy was working-- Cole hadn’t hired him or even met him yet, so he was curious as to what he was like. Cole stepped into the store and immediately spotted the employee over by the records. He smiled, walked over, and stuck out his hand. “Hey, man. I’m Cole, one of the managers here. You’re Drew?” 

“How are you settling in?” he asked, as he pulled out his inventory sheet and skimmed the list. “I heard you were new in town, and all.” 

zccming​:

“cole.” max said flatly as he rounded the corner. while her glare was cold as steel, the gradually growing grin on her face said that she was happy to see him. “it’s an emergency.” that was certainly a dramatization, but she’d say whatever to make this look … less bad. it’s not that she cared what cole thought of her, but she refused to submit to the idea she was perpetuating any negative stereotypes. as he drew closer and provided the suggestions she had asked for, she rolled her eyes and mocked him “did you try to pick the lock? the fuck would i pick the lock with?” max held up her hand, “my fingernails?” 

she approached the front door anyhow, then levelled with the lock. “i have a better idea.” max once again found a rock, picked it up, but this time smashed it into the lock. bingo. the lock fell off. while max wasn’t expecting the door to only have an exterior lock and chain, she was happily surprised to find that the physical door itself hadn’t been locked. she pulled it open, ushered cole inside, then closed the door behind them, “i just need some groceries.” max shrugged her lie then grabbed a basket as if she were actually shopping, “happy memorial day.” she snickered, turning down an aisle, “have any not-totally-lame plans for today?”

xx

Cole paused for a moment, but refused to give Max enough dead air to think she'd bested him. "I don't know, don't girls always have, like, bobby pins?" he threw his hands into the air with a faux exasperated sigh. He hid a grin behind an eyeroll. Though he'd never admit it out loud, Cole liked the bickering relationship he had with Max; it was like she was the little sister he never had. And, though she would never admit it, he knew she liked it too.

"Jesus, Max!" Cole glanced around to make sure no one had heard the crash. At Max's nonverbal invitation, Cole slipped inside, shaking his head in amused disapproval. He wasn't exactly pro-breaking and entering, but it was one lock and a few groceries? Who would it really hurt? "Well, get something fun at least. To celebrate," he chuckled, motioning towards the shitty grocery store beer. Meanwhile, he made a beeline to the soda aisle. There it was: a sparkling 2 liter of Wild Cherry Pepsi. He grabbed two, and craned his neck out into the aisle, "Are you calling me lame? Why would I share my plans with you when I'm at risk to be insulted again?"

sinclairss​:

.

lucas nodded. he was thinking about how he’d seen billy and how cole had seen someone who’d died, too. if the others had seen visions of dead people then…he didn’t know what it meant, but it was pretty fucked up. and it couldn’t be a coincidence. it just seemed like…it felt like it was starting again. he didn’t like the feeling. he’d wanted to get out of hawkins, but it had at least been tolerable over the last few years. a little boring, maybe, but tolerable.

they were almost at the doors when cole asked, so lucas paused, gripping his injured shoulder as a guy holding a towel to his face walked into the hospital past them. “it means something’s happening in hawkins.”

he kind of wanted to tell him. he wanted to warn him that maybe being in hawkins wasn’t the safest thing to do. but a voice that sounded a lot like steve’s warned him not to do that. he wasn’t sure what was up with steve tonight, but he trusted steve. and the code didn’t really count for non-party members. he walked through the electric doors and to the reception desk. “hi. we were out drinking and i hit my shoulder.” he lifted the affected shoulder. “and my friend hit his head, so we need to get checked out.” 

xx.

Something’s happening in Hawkins. It seemed like something was always happening in Hawkins, especially lately. Or maybe it had always been happening and Cole hadn’t realized it. Through bleary eyes, Cole tried to read Lucas’ expression-- but he seemed guarded. Maybe he was hiding something, or maybe Cole was paranoid. 

He tried-- unsuccessfully-- to put it out of his mind as they walked into the hospital. Nodding along with Lucas’ story, Cole touched his head for good measure. As the receptionist gave them the proper forms, Cole lead Lucas over to a few plastic hospital chairs in the corner of the waiting room. He tried not to let his eyes linger on the guy with the alarmingly green tint on the other end of the room.

Cole couldn’t focus on the forms, so he turned to Lucas instead. “If I asked what you mean, would you tell me?” he asked, keeping his voice low to not attract any unwanted attention.

rcbinbvckleys​:

⚢

“i think some faces are just, way more noticeable than others.” it would have been much easier to pretend that she didn’t know him at all, but words had escaped her mouth way quicker than robin’s mind working to figure that one out. hopefully, she’d just managed to pull it back. if cole ever actually found out… she’d practically beg the ground to swallow her up. 

“truthfully if you said that you didn’t know him, only then would i be surprised.” it felt like steve knew everyone, and they all definitely knew him. he had been known as king steve, after all. “and he was so obnoxious back then, right?” it wasn’t surprising that cole and he were friends, even if robin felt like there were some other details she didn’t know. “it was truly some crazy fucked up shit. i’ve never been more scared in my life.” until the events of 1986, but that was a whole other ball game. “if it wasn’t for steve and that stupid hair of his, i honestly don’t think i’d be here right now.”

xx.

“If this is your roundabout way of calling me pretty, I’ll take it,” he teased, trying to ease the tension. Hawkins High was a small school, anyways, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they’d seen each other around. He needed to let it go, but was used to being on the defensive with his classmates.

Cole laughed, nodding knowingly. He didn’t believe there was anyone who’d gone to Hawkins High in the last... six years, give or take, who didn’t know Steve Harrington. “Was, past tense?” he joked, “As far as I can tell, he’s still obnoxious. Less of an asshole, though.” Cole’s teasing quickly subsided into a sad smile. “I can’t imagine being here. It’s fucked up enough that I knew people who died, you know? Like, I can barely deal with that.” Deal with it was generous, as he really hadn’t, but Robin didn’t need the details. 

𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙸𝙴 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙻 #𝟶𝟶𝟼: cole & max

MAX: cole? do you copy?

MAX: i hope you're home because i just got off work and i'm headed right there, loser.

COLE: max? I don't know all the lingo.

COLE: what the fuck does 'copy' mean?

COLE: .... but yeah, i'm here. maybe, uh, give me a minute?

zccming​:

.

“a shrink.” max echoed with a laugh, “boys are so dramatic.” and it was true, not about his feelings, but for believing there was something wrong with them. big hypocrite thing of her to say, but the rules were different when placed on his shoulders. she didn’t think cole needed a shrink, not for what he had with adam, and not for missing it. sometimes, max felt like grief was her best friend in place of el, so she couldn’t judge how it’s cruelty made anyone feel. but she was high, and she was curious, and it was cole. stuck in her head, max remained laying on her back even when he flipped over, but she still eyed him closely when she spoke, “moving here really sucked for me…” she opened up, something must have been in the air. “and mike and lucas and dustin and will are all really awesome, but it hasn’t always been like that. you know i mean, they’re guys, it’s different. i had to weasel my way into their circle. but then el came along and everything clicked and just like that she was gone again and now she’s back and–” max started feeling like she had never said so many words at once, so she stopped her stoned ramblings, closed her eyes tightly, and forced herself to reset. 

max thought back to the conversation her and cole had at blue quarry mall, how he’d come clean on accident, and how relieved he looked when he had. max wondered what that felt like, to let it all go and free fall for a moment into the arms of someone she trusted. she opened her eyes, then slowly turned onto her side to face cole, “i’ve been really confused about my feelings lately.” she admitted, sure he was familiar with the feeling. “and you’re a shithead but not about this stuff.” max added, then revealed, “i think i’ve always known i’ve liked girls.” the air left her lungs as she waited for a response. thanks to the weed, this revelation didn’t feel so world ending, in fact, max felt calm, ready for cole’s reaction. she was so mellowed in fact, she added, “but with el it’s different…what you said about missing adam… when she was gone, that’s how i felt.” max couldn’t really explain to cole how she spent half the time speculating eleven was dead, but she hoped he could feel her sincerity. stupidly, she concluded, “but i don’t know what that means.” 

xx.

Cole laughed, allowing himself to flop onto his back and stare at the ceiling. Max had a point, but he found that it was easier to joke about the pain than to sit with it. He remembered right after Adam died, when he went to visit Adam’s sisters. He’d snuck into Adam’s room and stolen a few shirts, a photo, random artifacts that proved to him that what they had was real. He thought about that now, wondered if Max felt the same way when El was gone. Cole offered a sad smile, he knew completely how that felt... well, up to the him coming back part. “Honestly? I think some connections are like that. There’s a distinct before and after... people you’ll never be the same after meeting and loving them,” he mused, blowing smoke into the stale air. 

He couldn’t help the smile that took over his face; he was glad Max felt safe enough to tell him the truth. He reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing it to show that he understood. “What’s there to be confused about, then?” he asked, not in a prodding way, but gently. Cole took another drag and passed the joint back. “What do you want it to mean?” he asked, figuring she already knew the answer. Cole tucked a hand behind his head, lost in thought for a moment. “Did I tell you that Adam broke up with me before he died?” He’d been thinking about that a lot lately, about how Adam was completely different the days before the fire; how his eyes were even different, darker somehow. He knew he would never get answers, but he had never shared it with anyone and figured now was as good a time as any.

jackforeman​:

It pained Jack to see Cole seem so on edge when he’d sat down beside the bed. Not that he could blame him, though, for what he’d apparently done at the carnival that he couldn’t even remember. He knew that Adam had been acting the same way, or so Jo had told him, and if he had explained to Cole that he had no idea what had happened, then maybe he would believe Jack, too. “I’m so sorry, seriously, if I–had anything to do with you feeling like shit.” He gave a pained smile; even if he hadn’t directly hurt Cole, he was somehow a part of setting up the fireworks that had led to this disaster. That much was made clear to him.

Jack gave a shrug, since it was really the only response he had. “I don’t know, I mean, I’m not injured or anything, which is kind of weird.” He thought about hearing that he’d fought Steve, who wasn’t by any means a weak person; he must have defended himself to some capacity. “I don’t remember any of it, either, which is … did Adam say that, too? I haven’t seen him since then.” Not when all Jack could think was that Adam might have been the one who killed him. 

xx.

At Jack’s second apology, Cole started to feel guilty, too. For what exactly, he wasn’t sure. But he wasn’t mad at Jack. Clearly what happened wasn’t in his control as much as it wasn’t in Adam’s control. So Cole motioned at the chair next to his bed that Adam had been occupying earlier in an invitation for Jack to sit. “It’s not your fault, man. Nothing I didn’t get in middle school, either,” he attempted a joke, then cringed as it came out more pathetic-sounding than he anticipated. “Seriously. I’m fine.”

That was weird-- Cole remembered Jack shoving him and Steve around, and Steve had definitely fought back. “I guess Harrington lost his touch,” he murmured, still mulling over how Jack had escaped unscathed. He bit his bottom lip, glancing up to the door as if Adam would walk in at any second. Then, refocusing on Jack, he sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, he doesn’t remember anything, except--” Cole frowned, stopped short. “Except, we got in this big fight before he... left. He was acting like he did at the carnival. And he didn’t remember it until now.”  He shook his head; none of this made any sense. “You didn’t suddenly recover any memories, right?” he asked, another feeble attempt at a joke.

jofcreman​:

+++

a strained smile. “yeah, i need my sad music fix, now that the smiths have broken up.” said in a desperate attempt to make light hearted conversation. small talk. not one of jo’s forte’s, for sure. when it got to idle chitchat, she never really participated in the conversation, except for a few nods and affirming noises to show that she was listening. she chuckled at cole’s joke, though she hadn’t missed his initial grimace which, in turn, had made her grimace a bit, too, as she felt bad for … well, calling out his state like that. smalltalk. not her thing.

people skills? lacking. she gave him a shrug. “yeah, i’m alright, i guess.it was a, uh…interesting night.” in truth, the keg party at skull rock had faded into somewhat of a blur in her head. a blur of tossing around a football with jack and his friends - and nancy wheeler’s boyfriend ? -; a blur of californian weed and jonathan byers’  pretty face. 

eyes wide, she instinctively held up her hands, nearly dropping the record. “oh my god, no, yeah, i get it, totally. i didn’t think - i mean, you’re also great, cole, you’re like, tops, you’re major and …. everything. just - but i don’t - yeah, don’t feel that way either. “ eager nods, she cleared her throat. “definitely on the same page here.”

boy, was jo glad that there weren’t any other customers present to hear their stopmach churningly awkward exchange. she quickly looked back at the record, smacked her lips together and moved them around as if she was applying chapstick .finding anything to do but talk. 

anyways. glad that cole had broken their silence again she looked back up with a smile. “uh, yeah, sure. shoot.”

xx.

Hand to his heart, Cole groaned. “Don’t remind me before noon, Foreman, Jesus,” he teased. “Some of us are still in mourning.” He turned to the other side of the aisle, raking his fingers through the intentionally-small country section. One of Cole’s greatest battles in life was whether or not they needed to carry every genre of music, but the Big Man wouldn’t budge on this one. 

Cole glanced at her over his shoulder. “Interesting is a good way to put it.” He pulled The Clash’s ‘Combat Rock’ out of the Country/Western section with a raised brow and slid around Jo to return it to its rightful place. “Byers’ shit was pretty good,” he commented, remembering Jo had smoked it, too. “You had it before?”

At Jo’s response, Cole smiled-- actually smiled-- for the first time that day. It was amusing, the way they were both tumbling over their words because of some far-fetched lie printed in some dude’s basement. “That’s a relief,” he said, turning to face her with a mock-serious expression. “Because usually I have to beat girls off with a bat, or enlist Max. Embarrassing for them, really,” he joked.

Turning back to the records in front of him, Cole pretending to skim his clipboard while a heaviness wedged itself back into his chest. All of the sudden, he felt silly, asking Jo if she had heard anything about Adam instead of talking to Adam himself-- but they hadn’t really fought before and it seemed like Adam needed space. Only, Cole wasn’t so good at giving space. Not after the Mindflayer incident.

“It’s not a big deal,” he lied, attempting to put on a casual air. “Just... Adam’s a good friend of mine. And he seemed off that night. I was wondering if Jack said anything? Or if you heard anything?” He said, eyes not leaving the paper in front of him in an attempt to keep his voice steady and light. At the end, he looked up at Jo and offered a small smile, as if to say see? I’m totally normal about this.