Sinclairss​:

tessacallovvay​:.

Mr. Sarcastic, as always. Good to know somethings hadn’t changed since high school. And, just like high school, he was doing his own… thing here, at this dingy little music store. Yawn. Tapping her nails on the counter, Tessa smiled, “Just wanted to chat, that’s all. About that little kickback you were at.” She said, glancing discretely around. She’d already talked to Sinclair about what had happened, but there was something that didn’t sit right with her about his answers. It made sense, but… it didn’t feel right.

“What sort of gross prank were you pulling that night, hm?” Tessa asked. She’d asked Lucas and he’d freely admitted to it, though he’d sworn he’d worked alone. She wanted to test a little theory of hers.

xx.

A humorless smile pushed up the corners of Cole’s mouth at her question. Well, at least he wasn’t completely crazy. The recurring nightmare he’d been having about Adam, though... that made him feel like his mind was splintering. Had he hit his head hard enough to cause hallucination? Or insomnia? He supposed both were possible, though the doctor Lucas had taken him to had assured him that the symptoms of the concussion would be gone in about a week. 

Cole’s eyes snapped up to Tessa’s face and offense crossed over his features. A prank? She couldn’t be serious. “You’re fucking with me, right?” Cole scoffed. “Tessa, why the hell would I throw myself into an open grave and give myself a concussion for a prank?” He wasn’t going to go so far as to say something pushed him into the grave, although that’s what it felt like, but he certainly hadn’t fallen in on purpose. 

sinclairss​:

his car was kind of aa junker, but since he’d helped get the thing up and running again, he was kind of proud of it, even if lucas had to loop around the vehicle to unlock cole’s door manually with the key because the passenger side’s internal lock stuck. “oh yeah. probably.” he lifted his shoulder experimentally and tried not to wince at the white-hot surge of pain through him. he put on a brave face because that’s what he did, climbed into the driver’s seat and started up the car. hiphop crackled over the speakers and he reached over to turn down the volume, waiting until cole was safely in the car before backing up and out of there. 

at a stoplight, lucas looked over at cole and shook his head, a silent i-have-no-idea. he cleared his throat and focused back on the road as the light changed, thumb tapping out a rhythm against the steering wheel as they rolled through downtown hawkins. “all i know,” he said as the song changed on the radio. “is that one second i was over by you guys and the next i’m at the bottom of a grave.” he shrugged with his one good shoulder. a hollow chuckle followed. 

the headlights across the road were playing tricks on him. he kept seeing bill hargrove behind the wheel which was…that didn’t make any sense. right? he didn’t know what made him ask. maybe it was because he wanted to feel less insane. or maybe he just wanted to feel less alone. “did you…see anything while we were out there?”  

xx.

Cole climbed into the car, his movements slow due to the pounding of his head. He tried to watch Lucas’ face for a hint of pain, but there was nothing. Cole knew he’d fallen on his shoulder-- hard-- but he was showing no signs of pain now. In the back of his mind, Cole wondered if Lucas should even be driving, but it’s not like he was in any better condition, and given his track record with cars, Lucas probably wouldn’t want to hand over the keys.

Leaning his head back, Cole’s eyes fixed on Lucas’ hand, tapping out a beat to whatever song was in his head. How was Lucas so nonchalant right now? “It happened so fast,” Cole confirmed, unable to even remember how Lucas fell into the grave. He remembered trying to help him out and then being below himself. “Steve was being super weird, right?” Cole asked, unable to remember details of what Steve had said. 

Turning towards the driver, Cole felt a twisted sense of relief at Lucas’ question. Finally, Lucas wasn’t acting casual or unaffected. Finally, Cole knew that maybe he wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t quite ready to make a definitive statement. “Actually... yeah. It felt like a nightmare, but like, really real. My best friend died in the mall fire and I just... kept seeing what would’ve been his last moments.” Cole tried to force the image of Adam out of his mind. “Did you? See something?” 

mmuscles​:

WHO: thad bradshaw & @loverboymontgomery​ WHAT: it’s like, collateral. WHERE: the meteor shower 

thad was ashamed to admit he’d thought about cole since he cornered him in his garage. he wished he could say it was a time or two, but when he laid on the hood of his car outside of the motel 6 and moping about his life soundtracked to elvis each night, he found his thoughts drifting to cole, kissing cole. fuck, this was bad. he knew he had to say something next time he saw cole, and not kiss him this time, actually say it. there was no accounting for when he would see him next and secretly thad hoped it would be never, but of course the cookie just didn’t crumble.

he had gone to nancy to the meteor shower the next time he saw cole. he was there with some other guy and thad knew he had to act. quick. he told nancy he was going to take a leak and walked up to cole, who was newly alone and looking in the direction of the boy he was walking off, “hey, pretty boy.” he greeted, gesturing with his head to a less congregated area of the field, “wanna walk with me? i gotta talk with you.” 

xx.

Being in public with Adam again was weird. Good weird, but weird. After they’d spent the last few days alone, making up for lost time, Cole found it difficult to keep his hands off Adam now. Not in a trashy way-- all he wanted to do was hold Adam’s hand, brush the same pesky hair out of Adam’s eyes, press a reassuring kiss to his shoulder. But Cole knew Adam was already on edge given, well, everything, so he was on his best behavior. Besides the two sharing a blanket and a few stolen glances, an innocent bystander would hardly know Cole and Adam were together.

When Adam left to go catch up with a friend, Cole’s eyes followed him. The fear that Adam would disappear still hadn’t gone away. He’d long given up trying to reason it away, because there was frankly nothing reasonable about anything in this situation, and sat lost in thought until he was approached by a familiar face. At Thad’s customary greeting, Cole couldn’t help but laugh. He figured this was coming, at some point, but he still didn’t know what he was going to say. The fear Cole had felt after Thad kissed him came rushing back; he was grateful they were in public, because he wasn’t sure what to expect-- anger, shame, aggression, even. “Uh, sure, guy,” Cole said, hoping his nerves weren’t apparent in his tone. Pushing himself off the ground, Cole followed Thad to a more private corner of the field. “What’s up?” he asked, glancing anywhere but Thad’s eyes. Instead, Cole skimmed the crowd and took momentary comfort in seeing the back of Adam’s head. 

As he began blinking awake, Cole’s memories from the fucking carnival from hell began to resurface. He saw Lucas crumped on the ground, Jack shoving him away, Adam yelling at him to leave him the fuck alone. But then he woke up and the first thing he saw was Adam, their arms intertwined, blonde head bobbing up and down as he snored. Cole squeezed his eyes shut. Was it a dream? Why did he remember a bomb? An explosion? It was all making his head hurt. 

Cole must’ve fallen back asleep, because the next time he opened his eyes, Max was there. She was holding his other hand and mumbling something. He shifted, trying to sit up, and instantly regretted it. Pain shot through his abdomen and he groaned. His movement caused a barely-cold icepack to shift off of his ribcage; had he broken a rib? 

With a weak smile, Cole turned his gaze to Max. “Tell me you’re not crying over me, asshole.” His throat was painfully brittle, and he attempted to swallow to make it easier to speak up. “The fuck did you do to me, Maxine?” he asked, a piss poor excuse for a joke, and squeezed his eyes shut again in an attempt to stop the pounding in his head. 

WHO: max mayfield & @loverboymontgomery​ WHAT: max checks on cole WHERE: hospital </3

max had been lingering in the hospital for around twelve hours now and had no intentions of leaving any time soon. herself, dustin, and max, worked in shifts, using steve’s room as base. she was in and out a lot, mostly to cry, but sometimes to check on the status of her other friends who had been admitted last night. it was nearing ten-thirty in the morning when max took a break. she went to cole’s room first, after a nurse told her he woke up between now and her last break. anything that stood between her and that door got shoved out of the way or fully knocked over until she was on her knees beside his bed. 

unfortunately, cole was out again when she entered his room. she clocked adam’s close proximity, who was also asleep. not wanting to disturb them too much, but at least see how cole was doing for herself, she took the hand of his that wasn’t occupied and grabbed it with both of hers, then set her forehead on top of it. she sat like that for a second, listening to the chorusing of the heart monitor. all good signs, all good, but still, she found herself wanting to cry again. max rubbed her lips together, then whispered, not intending for cole to hear her, “hey, fucking…stupid shithead…” she mumbled, “i leave for one night and you land yourself in the hospital? geez.” she laughed wryly, a tear slipping out. a life without cole flashed across her mind. it wasn’t one she was interested in seeing. this blows, she thought. sitting up, max wiped the couple of tears that snuck up on her, then rubbed her tired eyes, “i’m glad you’re okay…” she continued in her quiet tone, “and i’m so kicking your ass when you get out of here.” 

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.”

Timothée Chalamet in ‘The King’ (2019)

backtowheeler​:

— ✎ —

Nancy let out a laugh. “If I’m going to be stuck here all summer instead of the Virgin Islands then I’d like to keep her as pleased as can be,” she explained. Nancy had always had a complicated history with her own mother. Karen Wheeler could be a sweet woman, she cared about her children, she tried to be there for them as much as she could, but there were stark differences in Nancy’s raising compared to Mike or Holly’s raising. Nancy was the first born meaning she set the precedent for the rest of her siblings. She was also the first girl which, with a father like Ted, meant that she had to adhere to simple rules (even as a 21 year old). It was a difficult life to lead, one that she didn’t quite like at all, but she’d play the part and just pray she didn’t end up like her parents.

I bummed a ride off Harrington. That statement sent shivers down Nancy’s spine. She should have known Steve would show up. He was close to the Wheeler’s whether Nancy liked it or not and even though she was currently in a state of avoiding him, they were friends… at some point. “The deal is that Steve and I are currently in Splitsville,” for whatever bullshit reason he gave Nancy instead of outright saying, ‘I’m having trouble with my sexuality’. “And I’ve been seeing this guy. His name’s Thad, business major at Emerson, his parents own a summer house in the Hamptons,” would you look at that! Nancy Wheeler was all about letting another guy dictate her life! “So, things are going much better than anticipated.”

xx.

Cole chuckled, nodding in agreement. While his mom and Karen Wheeler were similar-- washed-up former "it" girls-- Maggie Montgomery was decidedly less... invested in her son's life. They both liked it that way, and Cole couldn't imagine being Nancy, having her entire life on display, under the watchful eye of her mother. It was no wonder she would up dating Harrington-- decidedly her polar opposite. "Cheers to keeping Karen happy," Cole clinked his bottle to her plastic cup and took a swig.

"Thad." He repeated, looking at her with a quirked eyebrow. "Just going off his name he sounds..." searching for the right word, "like he might have a giant stick up his ass." Cole pre-emptively ducked out of the way in case she tried to swing. "But, who can blame you, using the poor guy for his summer home," he teased.

cassieconrads​:

The name wasn’t one that Cassie had heard when Nancy had given her a rundown of the people she should know to avoid in Hawkins, so she figured the boy who had approached her was safe enough to trust. He stopped on his skateboard, which wasn’t the most popular form of transportation in California, but one that she’d seen among the rollerbladers near the water. Pulling off his headphones, Cassie was reminded of hers that she’d left behind, and how embarrassed she was to have to ask a stranger where to get new ones.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she said with a wave of her hand as she began to fold the map up. The last thing Cassie wanted was for any of Nancy’s friends to think she was completely useless. “It looks like you were headed somewhere, I’m sure I could find it,” Cassie assured him, but there was a lack of confidence in her voice after she’d spent the past hour looking for the store. “I’m Cassie. I’m staying with the Wheelers, just visiting.”

Cole waved his hand, dismissing her comment. "It's no problem, really. I just got off of work and I'm trying to avoid the house for a little bit," he laughed to himself. "I kind of, um, wrecked my mom's car and she's not too happy with me." He shrugged, taking his skateboard in his hand so he could walk alongside Cassie.

"Right! Nancy mentioned she had a friend from college coming to stay. It's nice to meet you, Cassie," he stuck out his hand for a dramatic handshake. "Don't take this the wrong way, but Hawkins isn't exactly a vacation destination so... what brings you here?"

jackforeman​:

It was a loaded question, but all things considering, Jack supposed that he was as about okay as he could’ve been. No one really knew any answers, which would have probably helped the several lingering questions that would’ve settled his anxiety about why he had been gone for so long. “Yeah, yeah. You know, just trying to get back to the way things were as much as I can. What about you, though? I feel like I need someone to write me a manual of everything everyone’s been up to for the past couple of years,” Jack laughed, “I assume everything’s relatively okay with you, too?” he asked.

Everyone seemed to have a lot of questions, that much was a recurring theme. “Yeah, Jo might as well have put me in an official interrogation with how much she wants to know, but Julie I think is still getting over the shock of it. I guess her questions will come later. My parents are trying to get me legally un-dead, so that’s a bit of a process.”

xx.

Jack’s answer helped Cole breathe a little easier. If Jack could adjust, even just a little, then maybe this thing would wear off-- maybe Adam could have a normal life. And all of them, but mostly Adam. Cole grimaced, “I hadn’t even thought about that. Everyone’s like completely different now. Maybe that would be a better use of that Keith guy’s time-- putting out updates for those of you who were... gone.” He shrugged, gave Jack a halfhearted nod. “Can’t complain. I ended up going to Indiana State. Got two years left and then... who fucking knows,” he shook his head. He’d originally intended to come home this summer, save up some spending money, and figure out what his big plan was. But, for obvious reasons, he hadn’t found the time to think about it much. 

Cole nodded as Jack spoke; from what he knew about the Foreman sisters, that checked out. He wasn’t surprised that Jo was at the heart of trying to figure it out, and he especially wasn’t surprised that Julie was a bit calmer. "Legally un-dead?” Cole questioned, his expression darkening. “What does that... mean?”

joycefm​:

  lonnie  byers  had  been  everything  that  joyce  had  been  looking  for  as  a  teenager  -  the  pair  got  along  and  had  for  years,  he  was  the  bad  boy..  the  guy  that  all  the  girls  wanted.  and  he  had  picked  joyce  of  all  people.  they  had  something  special  in  the  beginning  and  then  things  started  to  crumble  pretty  quickly.  whilst  joyce  loved  her  little  family  and  loved  being  a  mother,  lonnie  didn’t  seem  to  enjoy  his  role  so  much.  “i’m  sorry  i  put  my  kids  through  dealing  with  him.”  that  was  truly  her  only  regret.  "i  should  have  kicked  him  out  sooner.  he  wasn’t  good  for  anybody.”  she  couldn’t  really  describe  how  happy  she  was  that  cole  didn’t  have  to  experience  that.  the  less?  the  better.

    hand  reaches  up  to  touch  his  shoulder,  giving  it  a  small  squeeze.  she  didn’t  know  why  he  was  crying  either  -  but  she  did  understand  it  to  an  extent.  he  was  clearly  worried  about  what  she  might  think.  “you’ve  always  got  us,  cole.”  and  she  meant  it  to.  he  might  not  have  been  related  to  her..  but  he  was  family.  he  would  always  be  family  now.  “i  mean  it.  come  here  whenever  you  need  it.“

      and  yet,  a  small  smile  crosses  over  her  lips  at  his  words,  amused  that  he  was  panicking  ever  so  slightly.  “you  don’t  need  to  ask  for  permission.”  head  shakes.  “they  deserve  to  hear  it  from  you.”  they  knew  that  their  father  was  an  asshole.  joyce  sounded  like  a  broken  record  ranting  about  lonnie  at  times.  “so  whenever  you’re  ready  -  whenever  you  want.  i’ll  leave  that  all  up  to  you.  they’re  good  kids,  i  don’t  think  it’ll  take  them  long  to  get  used  to  it.”  or  believe  it,  for  that  matter.

If Cole knew one thing about the Byers family, it was that Joyce’s boys adored her. And for good reason, obviously. Admittedly he didn’t know much about marriage and even less about raising kids with someone, but he did know that Lonnie being an asshole wasn’t Joyce’s fault as much as it wasn’t Maggie’s. “I don’t think they’d want you to be so hard on yourself,” Cole offered, gently.

With watery eyes, he smiled at her shoulder squeeze. It was weird, how familiar and comforting she felt to him. “Thank you,” he repeated. “And, for what it’s worth, um... same here.” He wasn’t sure exactly what he could offer to their familial unit-- maybe a discount at The Music Center-- but he wanted to contribute if he could. “I mean, they don’t really need another brother, but whatever I can do, you know.”

He smiled, nodding as Joyce spoke. He knew they would be cool about it, but he also worried about like... ruining whatever view of their dad Will and Jonathan had. But, he trusted Joyce. “Okay... yeah. Thank you.” He knew he should stop thanking her, but he really was so relieved to have it out in the open. “I’ll tell them,” he confirmed, growing confident as he got used to the idea. “I’m glad you’re okay with it,” he admitted, sheepishly. “I always wanted a big family.”