the unpromise- stranger things 4

O N E

Part 1: A Better Us

Dust is scattered across the light brown wooden floor. My shoes are still on because we've just gotten here, even though I'm already in my bedroom. The walls are plain white, and the floor is empty except for a wooden desk and chair. I sigh and drop my cardboard box onto the ground. I could make this room into my home, I'm sure. I'd done it before, you just have to personalize it. But this time my room will revolve around El, not Mike.

    I'd found and lost the scattered pieces in my life in the past four months. I wish I could have everything in one place, but everything, everyone is different. Some of us aren't even here at all. No, don't go there. I choke down the lump in my throat tempting me to cry, and play with the piece of paper in my hands. I walk the letter to the desk, placing it there safely.

    I didn't even know where to start. I had brought some old pictures, and drawings from my old home, but it wasn't all the same anymore. After taking in the room for a few more minutes, Will bursts through the door, "Hey El!" I weakly smile. We've gotten closer over the past three months, and he's actually pretty cool. "So mom said we could move our beds in now if we want," he explains. I nod, and follow him out to the U-Haul.

    My covers are plain white with stripes of light pink at the bottom. I'm now sitting on my bed, my back sitting against the headboard. Will is sitting on the floor, we're looking through all my pictures to get them set up for a picture wall I want to make. Ever since Joyce got me that Polaroid for Christmas I'd used them for those calm seven months to take pictures whenever the moment felt right.

    "Why would you even!" Will yells, putting up a picture of him, Lucas and Mike. Will's sneezing, Mike's laughing and Lucas is blinking. I giggle. "That's going on the wall!" I proclaim. Will shakes his head, and picks up another picture.

    I do the same thing, and find a picture from Christmas. All six of us are sitting in the Byers' living room, in our pajamas eating sugar cookies and watching a movie. I've got this big huge smile, and Lucas, Dustin and Will are in the middle of laughter. Max is rolling her eyes and smirking. Mike must've been the one talking, and his mouth is in a weird position but his eyes are locked with mine. At first I grin at the memory. Christmas was probably my second favorite day ever, first being the Snowball. It was this huge group bonding event almost, all of us laughing and eating all day. There was some normalcy in my life, finally.

    Normalcy. That was all stripped away again. I thought three months ago that maybe we could kill a few monsters and get back to normal, but no. I was so deeply worried things would never be the way they were again. What if Will and I come back home and they don't love us like they used to? What if they don't want us? The four of them were the most important thing in the world to me. I sniffle. "You ok?" Will asks.

    I nod, "put this one in the going on the wall pile."  I toss it to him, and he briefly looks at it. I try to hold it together for a bit more, but I just can't. I want everything to be normal. I want to be with the party. I want Hopper to be alive. I want to have my powers. I rub my face, trying to force away tears.

    "El come on what's wrong?" Will asks. I shake my head. Will sighs, "let's go watch a movie down in the basement." I smile and nod, and follow Will out the door to the basement.

    The house has yellow wallpaper everywhere, and medium brown wooden floors. It's sensible and nice, I guess. Joyce had put up some pictures of her, Jonathan, and Will. I felt out of place with them, but hopefully that would change soon.

    We hung out in the basement for a little while, and it's nice. He chucks a piece of popcorn at me. "Stop it, weirdo!" I yell.

    "You're the weirdo!" he laughs in response. Then his face goes still again. "What if we redid ourselves, or bettered ourselves I guess. Because we're not in Hawkins anymore, and we're not who we were. I think we should admit and use that," Will suggests.

    "Be a new person?" I ask.

    "No, just a better us," Will says. Why did he want to be better? I'd never been especially close with Will, but he always seemed cool and nice. I shrug, "what about the party?"

    "We'll always be close with them, but that doesn't mean we can't have more friends and stuff," he explains. I agree. It does sound nice, to forget about everything that's ever happened to us and just be El and Will. Plus, that's what Joyce wants.

    I go to bed in a little while, and lie awake for a while. The room didn't have the same air, the same smell as Hopper's cabin. I hadn't been there in months, but I was supposed to call this place home, how could I? I breathed deeply for a little, until that conked me out.
****
    Two weeks later, an alarm clock woke me up. School. It's October 21st, meaning only 1 month exactly till Nancy and Mike come see us. I roll over stupidly smiling, thinking about it. It's going to be so perfect. And it's only a month away.

    I put on a pair of skinny light blue jeans, with a few simple rips on the knees and a bit above that. I grab a purple t-shirt, and pull that over my head. It's kinda big, but I'd rather it than the shirt being tight and small. I pull the top of my chestnut hair into a half up half down ponytail with a darker purple scrunchie. My hair touches my shoulders now. And it's getting lighter, more of a light brown than dark like it used to be.

    I skip over to the mirror, and stare in it. I look fine, I think. Shrugging, I open my bedroom on the way to the bathroom.  I meet Will in there, and we both chatter and brush our teeth and head downstairs to eat breakfast.

    "I asked you to make pancakes Mooom! I'm sick of eggos!" Will complains. I smirk, and press my fork into an Eggo.

    "Well we don't all get what we want," Joyce grins, placing bacon on both of our plates. Jonathan comes practically crawling out of his bedroom. "New job starts today, aren't you supposed to clean up?" Will sneers. I start cackling, and Jonathan ruffles Will's bowlcut. "I needed a bowl for my cereal, but look here's one," he points at his little brother. I laugh and shovel some more food in my mouth.

    "God you eat like that and you'll never get-ah keep a boyfriend," Will turns his head to me.

    "Will Byers, what have I talked about? Do we need to attack everyone within a 30 second span in the morning?" Joyce scolds. I'm still giggling and Will groans. Soon enough, it's time to grab our backpacks and head off to school.

A/N: hope you like the first chapter, i just wanted to dig into willel friendship and such, the coming chapters get more exciting lol. i have most of the story drafted, but not edited yet, sooo yeah! <3