ℕ𝕆𝕀𝕊𝔼

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• 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝙲𝚒𝚝𝚢 - 𝙶𝚞𝚗𝚜 𝙽' 𝚁𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚜 •

Two people.

Only two people kept in touch with Beatrice.

Her boyfriend, Will, which was a given.

And El, who the pair thought of each other as sisters.

She had not received any letters, phone calls, or packages in the mail from Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Steve, Robin, or Max. The last one hurt the most.

In the beginning, she did. She was sending and receiving letters everyday. But then school started, and Robin and Steve were at work all the time.

Max broke up with Lucas. And it wasn't one of the many times they would break up and then get back together. They were done. For good. And Bea had to hear it through Will.

After that, the ex-lovers simultaneously stopped interacting with her. Mike spent his time writing to El, which Bea could understand and respect. And Dustin... Well, Bea missed the times that he would call her and tell her how school was, or what he spoke to Suzie about. Now, she doesn't even know what he ate for breakfast today.

The date was March 21st, 1986. The first day of spring. The day before her boyfriends birthday.

Beatrice had woken up as she normally does. She threw off her comforter and slowly sat up from her bed. High school is not all it's cracked up to be. And she has to go through three more years after this. Graduation couldn't come fast enough.

Dragging her feet to the bathroom, she washed her face to wake herself up before brushing her teeth and taking the dutch braids she put in last night out of her hair.

"Gahh!" She groaned. Her eyes clenched shut as she brought her hand to her forehead, applying pressure as if the pain would magically go away.

It has been since the start of the new year when the headaches started. Bea didn't want to scare her parents, so she had never mentioned it. Quickly opening the medicine cabinet, she grabbed some Tylenol, placed the pill onto her tongue before throwing her head back and swallowing the flavorless candy with the help of some water from her glass.

She stared back at herself in the mirror. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her green scrunchie from the counter and pulled the top half of her hair in a loose ponytail.

Walking back into her room, she checked her small alarm clock for the time. 6:36am, it read. Her eyes widened slightly before she grabbed a zip-up and threw it on. Getting a glance of herself in the mirror, she decided to trade her plaid pajama pants for some cuffed jeans.

"Bea, hurry up, you're gonna be late!" Martha yelled from the living room. Through closed doors, Bea yelled back telling her that she was coming, right before tying her last shoe lace.

She barged into the kitchen and grabbed an Eggo from her dad's plate before picking up her bag. "Bea!" Her mom called her back. She turned around with a half-eaten waffle hanging from her mouth and her arms out, asking a muffled, "What?"

The woman just smiled at her daughter and walked over to her. She held up an envelope that made the girls eyes go wide. "Don't forget to mail this before school. We wouldn't want Will to not receive his birthday present in time."