Joey Hopper//Will Byers -Book two-

The Gate: Part two

Our headlights gleam ahead as we drive on an empty road. No one has really spoken yet. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what we're about to do. We're gonna close the gate. That much is clear. The details are still entirely fuzzy though. I'm really hoping the El knows what she's doing.

My dad breaks the silence. "So what? We're just not gonna talk about it, huh?"

"Um..." I think for a second. "Can you be a little more specific about what that 'it' is?"

"Oh, I don't know." Dad shakes his head. "I'm just curious, you know, why all of a sudden your sister looks like some MTV punk."

El immediately stares out the window.

"I'm not mad, kid. I just want to know where you've been. That's all," Dad tells El.

No one talks for a moment. Finally though, I decide I should probably speak up.

"We went to find our mom." I say.

Dad raises an eyebrow, "what-"

"Our biological mom," I clarify.

That doesn't seem to shock him any less though.

He swallows hard. "Okay...how'd you two get there?"

"A truck," El speaks up.

"A truck?" My dad repeats her words.

El looks him dead in the eyes. "A big truck."

I try to sink into my seat.

"A big truck?" My dad looks frustrated. "Whose truck was it?"

"A mans-"

I start shaking my hands, trying to signal for El to stop talking.

She tilts her head slightly before a look of recognition comes over her face. "We hitchhiked."

I facepalm.

"It was my idea, Dad." I sigh. "Don't get mad at El."

"He was a nice man." El adds in, still seeming to not understand the situation we're in.

My Dad grips the steering wheel tightly. "Okay. So let me just get this straight in my head. So a 'nice man' in a 'big truck' drove you two to your mama's, and then what? Your Aunt Becky sent Joey on her way and gave El those clothes and that makeup?"

Something clicks in my head. "So you went there too. You met Becky."

"That's not the-"

"Why didn't you tell us?" I ask, more sad than angry.

He stares ahead at the road. "I didn't think you needed to know...I was trying to protect you."

I really want to just explode on him. To give Dad a piece of my mind. In the end though, I kinda understand what he's saying. I wouldn't have a few days ago but after actually seeing my mother? A part of me wishes I had never met her. Now I'm left with all of these feelings that just don't seem to fit. It's like missing someone you never got to know. Wanting revenge for a person who can't even fully acknowledge my presence. Things that I shouldn't be feeling, but things that I can't possibly not.

"I shouldn't have left." El whispers.

We travel along for a while, no one knowing what to say.

Eventually my dad hums. "No. No, this isn't on you, kid. Neither of you...I should have been there. I should never have lied to you both about your mom. There's a lot of things I shouldn't have done. Sometimes I feel like I'm...like I'm just some kind of black hole or something."