@mmuscles

saint-tropez ~ 

rcbinbvckleys​:

robin didn’t necessarily directly associate cole with what she had accidentally witnessed all those years ago. yet being where they were right now, it was all she could possibly think about when confronted with him. the other jock, who’s name currently slipped her mind, had died in the ‘mall fire’. and the two of them clearly had something special back then. she couldn’t imagine how cole felt just being in the location where it actually happened, it was almost haunting.

“oh! cole, i recognise you,” shit, was that too obvious? “from back in high school.” she added quickly, in case he somehow figured out where she actually knew him from. though unlikely. “wait, how do you know steve?” steve hadn’t previously mentioned that cole was a friend, weird. she’d have to ask the former about that much later, when she was much more sober. “it’s… going. it’s just super weird being here though, right? you know, because of what happene-“ yeah, obviously he knows about that, idiot.

xx.

Cole caught a glimpse of Robin's expression and froze. Of course he knew her, but why did she know him? Did he stand out for some reason? He was probably just tipsy and paranoid, but still, it was enough to put him on edge. Still, he trusted that Robin meant nothing by it and choked out a laugh, "Oh yeah? I didn't realize I was so popular."

Steve. Maybe Steve had said something to her, and that's why she was being weird. "Just... you know, I was the water boy, he was a jock, impossible not to know him," he shrugged, burying the truth in his plastic cup. Cole nodded, a grim smile pushing his lips together. "Yeah. God, you were here, weren't you? That must have been fucked up," he said, though his gaze was vacant. What if she'd seen Adam that day?

who: cole & @goldenboyrichards​

where: the Richards’ house

Since Adam died, Cole had made it a habit to check on his sisters at least once a week. He’d been quite close to them when Adam was alive, as he went over to the Richards house once or twice a week for English tutoring. Mrs. Richards, particularly, loved Cole for ensuring her son passed English, and always had some sort of baked good in the oven on tutoring days. He’d loved coming over to the Richards’, to get a glimpse of a functional family and a father who was fairly involved with his children. Besides, Cole had always wanted a big family, so he was never annoyed by the girls’ footsteps and giggling filling the hallways.

Now, though, the energy in the household was different. For the first few months after the fire, Cole almost dreaded going over-- it broke his heart to see the family so devastated. But in the last year or so, it had gotten easier; they’d sort of mutually decided that remembering Adam together was better than suffering alone. It was a somber occasion, still, but bearable. 

Today, Cole had picked up Dirty Dancing at Family Video, because Cindy had been talking about it lately and he figured he’d give it a shot. He always had a soft spot for Cindy (and Patrick Swayze). Cole approached the familiar house on his skateboard and stopped short by the curb, glancing at a guy around his age sitting on the porch. Had they invited cousins into town he didn’t know about? Or maybe it was the neighbor?

Untucking the VHS from his arm, Cole walked up the steps and tried to get a closer look at the guy without seeming weird. He immediately recognized Adam’s old hat-- the beat-up Notre Dame logo, with bleach spots from a botched wash, was unmistakable. “Hey, man,” Cole said, trying to get his attention. “I don’t know if you’re a guest or whatever, but you shouldn’t touch Adam’s stuff,” he said, trying to keep the resentment out of his voice. What kind of asshole just helped himself to a dead guy’s belongings? Cole wanted to snatch the hat off of the guy’s head, but he resisted.

Cole still hadn’t quite recovered from discovering that Family Video in Hawkins, Indiana had a copy of Maurice. That had been a few months ago, and he’d forced Max to check it out for him so they could ogle Hugh Grant together. Well, so he could ogle Hugh Grant and Max could sigh disapprovingly. Anyway, today he was on a mission to find Full Metal Jacket; some film major had told him that Kubrick was shaping up to be the ‘voice of their generation,’ or something, so Cole figured he’d give it a try.

But of course, he’d ended up wandering the entire square footage of the store. He was glancing at new releases when a familiar voice asked him a question. He hadn’t known Barb well in high school, given that she was a year above him, but he knew her as Nancy’s friend. Cole smiled warmly at her and peered around to see her options. He wasn’t much of a comedy guy, so he didn’t recognize many. “Hmmm,” he studied the shelves, then had an idea. He ducked into another aisle and came back with The Lost Boys. “It’s technically horror, but I promise it isn’t scary. Just... a cheesy vampire movie. It’s my go-to,” he said, holding the title out for her. “Other than that, I’m afraid I’m out of suggestions.” 

Where: Family Video Who: Barb & ??

Barb had become reliant on video tapes since she’d come home. She couldn’t afford anything beyond the basic cable package, and even then, the reception in the postage stamp she called an apartment wasn’t the greatest. So she’d been checking a lot of books out of the library – even more than usual – and renting plenty of video tapes. She had started out renting her favorites, like the 1978 version of Lord of the Rings, along with Grey Gardens, All the President’s Men, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But in the past few weeks, she’d started to branch out. She started with political thrillers, because they were fairly familiar ground. Marathon Man, The Odessa File, Sleeping Dogs…from there she began watching action movies, like Jaws, Alien, and Star Wars: A New Hope.

Tonight, she was perusing the comedy section, which was definitely unprecedented ground for her. “Oh, shoot,” Barb muttered, as the movie she was looking at turned out to be rented already. Seeing someone out of the corner of her eye, she turned to look at them. It wasn’t like her to seek the advice of a stranger, but since she was already trying a new genre tonight – why not? “Hey, would you recommend anything?” she said, gesturing at the shelves in front of them. “These movies aren’t really my thing, so…you could really tell me any one of these is great, and I’d sort of have to believe you.”

who: Cole & @willthewize​

where: Main Street

Cole had just gotten off work and was a few blocks into the skate home. On days when he had nothing else to do, which was most days now, he liked to pass through downtown via Main Street. It was nice to see the activity and be reminded that people were here and going about their normal lives.

Since the camping trip fiasco, Cole had felt phantom pains in his ankle from where... whatever it was... had dragged him underwater. He was pretty sure it was all in his head, because Adam hadn’t been feeling the same thing. But still, Cole stopped and sat on a bench to give it a break. He studied it closely, looking for any sign of contact or inflammation, but there was nothing. Maybe Hawkins was making him crazy.

Thankfully, he was interrupted by footsteps on his side of the street. Snapping his head up, Cole’s face broke out into a smile. “Hey, Will,” he called, hoping the other wasn’t in a rush and would come over. He’d been meaning to talk to him, anyway, ever since he’d spoken with Joyce. “What are you up to?” he asked. Cole vaguely recalled that Will had been at the camping trip, too-- but he must’ve been with a different group. “How was the camping trip for you?” Cole had heard whispers about weird stuff happening in a cabin, but he had admittedly been too focused on his almost-drowning to gather any details.

𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙸𝙴 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙻 #𝟶𝟶𝟼: cole & max

MAX: ew

MAX: since when do you know religion freak?

MAX: oh.

MAX: well, you are an asshole, but not for this. was the situation a lapse in taste? definitely, but you didn't do anything wrong or whatever.

MAX: i'm guessing adam didn't take it well?

COLE: my grandparents dragged me to church like, once

COLE: yeah.

COLE: i mean, technically i didn't, but... it sucked.

COLE: i don't think he's like, mad. hurt, probably?

COLE: i don't know. we haven't talked and i'm trying not to freak out.

xx.

Cole had always been a loner. It never bothered him, really-- in school he was content to sit by himself at lunch with a book and in the back of every classroom to share the occasional snarky comment. But because of that, he really didn’t know how to handle conflict. He’d never really cared enough before to be bothered if he happened to piss someone off. But now, after everything he’d shared with Max and she’d shared with him, he felt pretty shitty about the way things had been left.

Not shitty enough to apologize-- he didn’t think he was wrong for sticking up for Adam-- but shitty enough to jump at the chance to talk to her. When Max called, he closed out his tab at The Hideaway and thanked his lucky stars that he’d skated instead of driven. An easy smile slid onto Cole’s lips at the familiar sight of Max skating in the dark. “Hey, Maxine,” he greeted, tucking his skateboard under his arm. His expression darkened as he got closer, immediately clocking the state of her face. “What the fuck?” he exclaimed, wrapping an uncertain arm around her in the half-hug. “Shut up. What happened?” he asked, ignoring her question. Things were weird, but he was still concerned about her. He’d always worry, probably. 

WHO: max mayfield & @loverboymontgomery​ WHAT: vibe check! WHERE: the skate park (where else)

although it seemed like neither one of them wanted to say it, things had been weird since they went to the weapons store with chance and adam. there weren’t any lines drawn in the sand that night, but max hadn’t been the most stoked to find them with such differing opinions of what was going on. she also hadn’t gone out of her way to talk to cole between then and now. but since she kind of got her shit rocked? rocked her own shit? at the junkyard, max was maybe able to chalk up that whole experience to tensions being high after a funeral. she didn’t fully buy into her own narrative though, so, she supposed she would have a more clear picture of where they stood after today. 

max finally swallowed her pride about the whole scene cole had made in adam’s name and called him up to meet her at the skatepark, after hours, of course. she was skating in and out of the empty bowl and blaring tina turner from her headphones when she spotted cole approaching. she stopped at the top of the bowl, paused her music, and slid her headphones off. “yo, walden.” she met him, trying to be as normal as possible. gently as possible, max scratched the side of her broken nose and asked him, “notice anything different?” she didn’t wait long for an answer before pulling cole into an uncomfortable side hug. did they hug often now? “what’s happening with you?” max asked, sitting down on the concrete. 

Cole hadn’t realized what he’d gotten himself into by volunteering to bring a keg-- scratch that, multiple kegs-- to this shindig. It might not bother everyone, but the sticky beer dripping on the linoleum made Cole’s spine shiver, so he dug into his backpack for something to clean it up with. Digging to the very bottom, he found a black handkerchief. Perfect. Cole wiped down the side of the keg and the floor beneath it, and decided to perch nearby in order to nag people not to let it drip on the floor. Really, how hard was it?

In his bag, Cole caught a glimpse of his cigarettes and felt a familiar pang in his gut. Surely it wouldn’t be in bad taste to smoke inside, given the circumstances? Absentmindedly, he tucked the bandana in his back pocket and grabbed a cigarette. “Hope no one minds,” he mumbled, mostly to himself, and lit up.

Shutting his eyes, Cole allowed the blaring music to distract him from the fact that he was inside the mall where the love of his life died. Light stuff. He wasn’t mad at the music choice, surprisingly. Cole tried not to be pretentious about music, but he could only take so many days of people coming into the Music Center asking for the new Rick Astley or Whitney Houston. Thankfully, this music had some teeth. He wondered who’d been recruited to play it. 

When Cole opened his eyes to take another drag, he was shocked to see Eddie Munson running right at him. Cole leaned back instinctively, confusion written on his face, “Uh, sorry. What’d you call me?” He followed Eddie’s eyes to his pocket and pulled out the handkerchief. “Wait-- flagging? I’m cleaning up the keg because these goddamned kids can’t be bothered to catch their beer...” he paused, suddenly curious. “What did you think?”

where: blue quarry mall who: eddie + cole ! @colemontgomeryx​​

despite the inital apprehension, because he really didn’t need the hawkins police department all up in his business again, not when he’d been a murder suspect barely two years ago, eddie slowly felt himself relax, some of the tension slipping from his body. not all, ever since that upside down debacle he hadn’t been able to relax fully. but the beer helped - bless that kid who’d brought the keg - and the general air of…insanity that lingered amongst the party-goers and protesters.

the sounds of black sabbath filled the mall, eddie felt himself nodding along to the tune, and, hey, he really didn’t care that most of the people here had never heard of ozzy osbourne in their lives. they all seemed to have a great time, anyway. so he didn’t even need to whip out that tape of 1988′s top of the pops he’d recorded, just in case they’d want to burn him at the stake for seducing them with his evil satanic dnd music.

he leaned against a pillar, let his eyes wander among the crowed, took a sip of beer and - hey, there he was, that kid with the keg. definitely not a kid now that he got a proper look at him. eddie tilted his head, his mouth dropped open slightly and he craned his neck, pushed himself off the wall, because… wait a minute.

wait a damn minute. he narrowed his eyes, looked down and. holy shit. well, if his eyes weren’t deceiving him then that - yeah that - that was a bandana. dangling from his - cole’s - back pocket. on display. he nearly choked on his beer, coughed and, taking another sip to ease said cough, he booked it across the mall, tapped him on the shoulder.

“hey, man - cole.”, he said, held eye contact with him for perhaps a tad longer than was appropriate. cleared his throat, gestured down towards his own back pocket. a quick look left and right, they weren’t in hearing distance of anyone else. still, he lowered his voice. “hey man, are you… are you flagging?”