Cole Hadn’t Retained Anything That Anyone In The Last... Ten Minutes? Thirty Minutes? Hour? Since The

who: Cole & @rcbinbvckleys​

where: hate to say... the hospital

Since Cole and Adam had cleared the air and sort of discussed what happened at the carnival, Adam had refused to leave Cole’s side for more than a few minutes. It was the comfort he needed-- to know that every time he woke up, Adam would be there, holding his hand. Luckily, Cole hadn’t had any visitors who were out of the loop-- Max and his roommate(s) Steve and Eddie were well aware, and when Jack had stopped by it was clear that Adam had told him.

When Robin walked in, Cole instinctively pulled his hand away from Adam’s. With a slightly nervous smile, he greeted Robin. “Hey, Buckley,” he said, his voice notably hoarse. Maybe he was paranoid, but Cole could’ve sworn that her eyes lingered on Adam, his proximity to Cole, the intimate moment she’d walked in on. “You know Adam? We were really close in high school. I’m friends with his sister,” Cole’s cheeks flushed and he knew he was stumbling over his words.

He changed the topic, partially to divert her attention away from the Adam equation and partially because he had been worried about her, since Max mentioned they’d both been separated from the group. “Are you okay? Max mentioned... something.” 

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. 

mmuscles​:

still utterly fixated on getting cole to agree, the words that came from his mouth flew right over thad’s head. with a determined huff, he pointed his finger seriously in cole’s direction as he insisted, “yeah! you won’t!” as soon as it fully clicked that they had a deal, thad deflated a healthy amount and nodded, “oh. okay. cool.” feeling confident in his negotiation skills, he dropped his hands to a comfortable resting position on his hips. 

there was some kind of energy cole exuded that was causing thad’s stomach to churn. what was he thinking about? why was he thinking so hard? thad never thought that hard about anything. right when it curious sparks were about to fly off the tip of his tongue, cole cracked a joke, and thad instantly frowned. this fucking guy. “i am, pretty boy. thank you very much.” he said proudly. he liked to think he was skilled in a lot of departments, money, girls, sports, but he put the most value into being good with cars. as if he were scheduling a meeting, thad held out his hand in proposed, “i’ll swing by monday afternoon?” 

xx.

Cole studied Thad’s eyes, attempting to nail down what the other was feeling. Wondering if he’d even thought about why what had happened had happened. But, Cole decided, this ‘deal’ seemed like the best option for them both. If it would make Thad feel good enough not to take out his anger on Cole and Adam, it was good enough for Cole. Though, it was hard for him not to care, not to sympathize with Thad. It wasn’t his place. Thad would figure it out when he was ready.

“Great. Monday it is,” Cole agreed. “I’ll try not to wreck it again before then,” he added in, to ease the tension he’d built up in his mind. Something about Thad being at his house to fix his car felt... risky. But Cole decided not to press the issue. With a polite nod, he left the other standing there and went to look for Adam in the crowd. 

END.

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as HARRY STYLES on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙸𝙴 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙻 #𝟶𝟶𝟼: cole & max

MAX: gross.

MAX: how were you supposed to know this would happen?

MAX: i don't know, for once, i don't think it's your fault.

MAX: but maybe i'm biased.

MAX: also not convinced talking works, so, are you really missing out or whatever...?

MAX: do you want me to pick up a movie? give your lazy ass some extra time?

COLE: i mean, yeah... fair point.

COLE: i think it's more like... my timing was really awful

COLE: and then i went and put on his sweatshirt which was kind of a dick move.

COLE: i don't know. i can't think about it anymore

COLE: yeah a movie would be cool. maybe i'll shower for you or something

zccming​:.

“not physically under it.” max corrected, not thinking of how she was likely contributing to cole’s ever growing confusion. “it’s like, physics or something. it was another dimension, that looked just like hawkins, under hawkins…but it was …bad?” she sighed. even now, max’s grasp of logistics on the upside down were slim, there’s only so much of the unexplainable one can understand. but even then, what she knew was far more than cole did. 

max mayfield wasn’t one to be known for her incredible tact. if she was going to lay out the facts for cole, she was going to lay them out cut and dry, and she’d handle any questions that might come up as they did. “lucas knows, steve knows.” she repeated, then added, “and nancy, and jonathan, and hopper, and robin, and mike, and dustin, and–” max stopped herself, figuring he got the point. “and a lot of us.” she finished. the further they moved from talks of adam, the less gentle max felt she had to be, “a monster took him.” god, she really did sound crazy. “i wasn’t there but, his mom and hopper pulled him out i guess.” 

max waited, intensely staring at cole while he mulled over whether or not he wanted to hear the next part. static filled her ears rather than the sound of her radio, like her body knew before her brain that this next bit of information would be the most difficult to divulge. i’m just in shock, i think. “it’ll pass.” max promised, a familiar and distant look glossing over her gaze. she wouldn’t tell him the fear he might meet on the other side, the pain. if they were lucky, maybe cole’s journey with the hawkins curse would start and end with this shock. 

“remember when my arm was broken?” max sucked in a breath. i almost died felt a little too harsh, “there was this…i guess…” she let her head drop, afraid that if she even mentally revisit that period of time, vecna would somehow pop up in her mind. seldom did she talk about what had happened in the wake of it all. feeling paranoid, max wordlessly stood up and switched out the cassette in her radio to the hounds of love album, just in case. “another monster killed chrissy, fred, and patrick.” she said flatly, plopping back down and working overtime at picking the skin around her nails to soothe herself, “he would basically attack with like, your worst nightmare, he wanted to destroy hawkins, needed to kill four people to do it.” max broke her eye contact with cole, staring past him and at the wall, “i was supposed to be the fourth, but like i said, we killed him. avenged everyone. the end.” 

xx.

Cole could feel his mind stretching, trying to hold all of this information. An alternate universe was one thing, but an alternate universe that was an evil Hawkins? That so many people he knew had been to? That was entirely another thing. 

He thought back to when Will went missing, and tried to imagine Joyce and Hopper pulling him out of another realm. How had they even discovered it? And, once again, why Hawkins? Cole would think that if some supernatural force was going to replicate a place it would be somewhere like Chicago at least.

“Okay, sure,” Cole said, a pathetic attempt at affirming all that Max had said. At least he could take comfort in knowing that she was in his shoes too, so she knew what it felt like to be thrown into all of this. He winced when she mentioned her broken arm; He couldn’t imagine being hunted by some supernatural being... much less surviving and having to live with that knowledge. Even thinking about it made Cole want to get high.

“God, Max...” he wanted to apologize, but he figured she’d scoff at him. “How the fuck do you just, like, move on from that?” he asked, taking a puff and passing the joint to her. It sounded like she needed it more than him.

Despite the fear and the whirlwind of new information, Cole was fixating on one fact: Adam had been possessed. That’s why they’d gotten in that fight. That’s what had killed him. It wasn’t good news, per se, but it definitely helped explain the last week of Adam’s life. It comforted Cole in a weird way, almost like it gave him permission to grieve Adam as a lover and not an ex-boyfriend. 

An uneasy feeling crept down Cole’s spine. He tried to keep his tone neutral, not wanting her to think she’d freaked him out, but he couldn’t help asking: “Do you think everything is ... gone?” He was afraid he knew the answer.

THE END

cassieconrads​:

Cassie wanted to laugh at the demise of Cole’s car, but she had just met the guy. Instead, she kept her reaction to wide eyes and a bit of a smile. “Oh, that’s–unfortunate,” she commented, leaving it at a small laugh. “So, I guess your skateboard is now your preferred mode of transportation? What happened?”

She took his hand to shake, imitating his theatrics. “Well, I’m from California, near the San Francisco area, and I didn’t really want to go all the way home for the summer. That, and Nancy always has crazy stories to tell about this place, so I figured it might be a fun time. I had to see all the Hawkins commotion for myself.”

xx.

Cole laughed at the memory, shaking his head. What kind of crossfaded had he been to decide that wrecking his car was the best course of action? “So, my friend Max got herself arrested for vandalism-- even though it was, like, all of us vandalizing, even Nancy, if you believe it!-- and my... bright idea to free her was to crash my car into a cop car. I was the distraction, basically, while the rest of us tried to jail break her,” he explained, ignoring the fact that he sounded like a complete idiot.

“You may be the first person ever to choose Indiana over California, so that makes me think you might just be deranged enough to fit in here,” he teased. “There is always something insane going on, it seems,” Cole paused a beat, navigating them through the empty parking lot. “Have you heard that some people think Hawkins is cursed? Not saying I do, but not saying I don’t.”

stevehharringtcns​:

.

cole’s response made steve nod his head slowly, letting out a sigh. he figured that someone would have told him about what had happened two years before, but he didn’t feel like talking about it. he was sure the scars on his torso spoke for themselves, if cole had even noticed that. raising an eyebrow once he heard cole talk about how adam didn’t have any marks, he sighed again. they were not close to figuring anything out and it didn’t seem like that was going to change anytime soon. steve just hoped that sooner or later, one of them would figure it out, but it definitely wouldn’t be him. he was better at swinging bats either way. “that’s… weird. but as long as the two of you are okay… just don’t go swimming in there anytime soon. once is enough.” he said with a nod, smiling at cole.

as the conversation switched about steve’s love life, steve wished they were talking about something else. but he had been the one to go looking for answers to cole, even though he probably didn’t have many. but he couldn’t help but to think that his love life had failed all along because he was looking for the right woman instead of… you know. he sighed as he looked at cole and bit his lower lip as he thought. “you don’t think…” he said, clearing his throat. “you don’t think he likes nancy? because apparently they’ve been hanging out lately. and you know, two years ago when eddie got pulled into… all of this.” he said, motioning towards the party and his group of friends. “i don’t know.” he said with a sigh, he wasn’t even sure what he was talking about anymore. but he was a bit relieved to hear cole say that eddie liked him. it made things easier, even if they were still hard. “i guess i just don’t want to scare him away like i do with most girls, you know? it’s just different with eddie, it feels… good.” he said, feeling almost as a weight got off his chest.

steve listened carefully as cole talked about his relationship with adam. they really knew how to keep a secret if steve hadn’t noticed, but then again, steve didn’t notice a lot of stuff. plus, he spent most of his time worried about basketball, swimming and his hair during high school. “i mean, at least you two got back together when he… came back.” he said, not sure what cole meant about the other being dead. he remembered him missing, but that seemed to be confusing a lot of people lately. he looked down at the ground at cole’s advice and nodded his head. “right… you’re right.” he said, although he still cared about what people thought. and he didn’t want people commenting on what he was doing.

xx.

Cole laughed, which was odd, given the situation. But the thought that he would ever swim in Lovers Lake, or anywhere else again? Was laughable. The part of his mind that was still trying to make sense of everything was increasingly concerned that Steve seemed just as lost as him. Shouldn’t Steve have more firsthand experience? Shouldn’t that help find an answer? But Cole pushed the thoughts away, shaking his head vehemently. “Yeah... I may never swim anywhere again, to be honest.” He shuddered, remembering the feeling of a hand or something around his ankle. 

Though he could’ve laughed, Cole instead nodded at Steve’s fears. He remembered having the same thoughts about Adam, and the insane jealousy Cole felt when Chrissy and Adam were together. He and Steve were different though; Cole had never been with a girl, never even wanted to. Everyone figured out their shit at different paces, he supposed. “I’m 99% sure Eddie doesn’t like Nancy, Steve. Or... girls at all.” He said, hoping it could put Steve at ease. Cole smiled. He’d never expected to see Steve Harrington flustered over someone. 

Cole couldn’t help the amused smile on his face. It was so surreal to be talking to Steve about this, and Cole didn’t take that lightly. It was just unexpected. “For whatever it’s worth... people don’t have to know right away. Or at all. It’s no one’s business but yours,” he shrugged. The only reason Chrissy had known was because Adam didn’t want to cheat on her; the only other person who knew was Max. And now Steve, obviously. “I won’t say anything,” he promised, giving Steve and encouraging smile.  

Cole had a lot on his mind. Despite the glaringly obvious-- being pushed into open graves, having horrific visions, and his boyfriend coming back to life-- now they were fighting. Kind of. It wasn’t a fight, really, but things were tense in a way they never had been before. And Cole really didn’t know how to handle himself in a fight-- he could give great advice to people like Steve, sure, but when it came to him? He was miserable and whiny and terrified to say too much or not enough.

He’d been going over the whole night all morning-- everything he said, every look they exchanged, looking for anything to find comfort in. And it was driving him crazy. So crazy that he decided to go into work on a day he wasn’t scheduled. He had leftover inventory to do, anyway. Cole clicked ‘The Queen is Dead’ into his Walkman and skated over to the Music Center. The Smiths were, objectively, the perfect music for wallowing in self-pity.

A few hours passed of Cole listening to the album on repeat and getting a surprising amount of work done. It was nice to drown out his brain for a while, uninterrupted except for when the clerk told him that he was singing out loud again. As he finished up cataloguing the folk section, Cole looked up to see Jo walking in. His cheeks flushed involuntarily-- this Keith guy’s paper had been pushed to the back of Cole’s mind, but not forgotten. 

Stepping through the aisles, Cole approached her and lowered his headphones. “Good album,” he commented, always a little relieved when someone with taste came into the store. He offered an awkward smile-- it looked more like a grimace-- as she commented on his state. “Not quite, I just have naturally dewy skin,” he joked. His hangover was certainly still with him, as per the pressure behind his eyes. “You feeling okay?”

He laughed, relief evident in his tone. Thank God she had brought it up. “No, no, yeah, I didn’t think you... I mean, even if you did...” Cole groaned at how awkward he was making this. “Jo, you’re great. I’m just... not... I don’t feel that way! So, I’m glad we’re on the same page.” He said, finding his words at last. 

Cole knew better than to listen to anything published in that shitty paper when Keith suggested that Cassie Conrad go for Thad or Adam. Talk about misreading the room. But still, he didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea, or completely ignore it and come off like an asshole.  

“Anyways,” he said, dragging out the syllables. “Can I ask you something? About the keg party?” Cole knew that Jack and Adam were close, and thought that maybe, if Adam had said something to Jack, maybe Jack had said something to Jo. Worth a shot, at least. 

where: the music center

what: jo’s browsing through some new sweet tunes !

who: @loverboymontgomery​​ + jo

truly, it felt like her first day off in weeks, and jo intended to spend it as follows: lounging in bed as long as possible ( until her mother started passive aggressively vaccuming up and down the hallways, seeing as this was her day off, too ), driving down to the music centre to browse through their latest releases and then straight back home to work on the board. a perfect day, in her humble opinion. or as perfect as it got in hawkins, indiana.

with the first part of her day off concluded, jo had wasted no time grabbing her walkman, pulling her headphones over her ears before she’d even left the house to drown out her mother’s incessant sighing. not even half of side a was finished when she’d reached the music center - a new personal best - and she quickly locked her bike, rushing into the store, straight to the aisle with the new releases.

humming happily to herself, a content smile on her face as she inspected a copy of the new cocteau twins album, jo jumped sligthly as a figure came into view. she looked up, pulled her headphones down around her neck. “oh - hi, montgomery.” said somewhat awkwardly, she gave him a smile. it felt a bit silly, calling him by his last name with how often jo came into the store. “i see you’ve recovered from the keg party.”

a couple of beats passed, jo hesitated, drew in a breath - no, it wouldn’t leave her mind. she had to say something. “listen - keith is an ass.” a bold yet true statement, another beat passed before jo continued. “like… i don’t know if you’ve seen his stupid little paper, but.. .i don’t know, he’s spreading rumors that i, like, have a thing for you? and i just wanted to make clear that i don’t. i’m not into you, cole, i promise!”