Long Live ~ Stranger Things

1. The Halloween Party

"Look what I got."

The voice of Nancy Wheeler and her basically throwing an orange flier in her face made Inez Wheeler snap out of her thoughts. Granted it wasn't really thoughts, more like silently judging people she walked past.

"'Come and get sheet faced.'" Jonathan Byers read his own flier from the opposite side of Nancy. "No, I'm not."

"Yeah I'm out too." Inez handed the flier back to her cousin.

"Oh, come on. I can't just let you two sit alone on Halloween. That's just not acceptable." Nancy protested.

"Well, you can relax. I'm not gonna be alone. I'm going trick-or-treating with Will." Jonathan wasn't lying, he did plan to do just that.

"All night?" Nancy questioned.

"Yeah."

"And I'll be... Nah I don't have anything, I just don't like parties." Inez gave her reasons.

"Really guys? I mean, who knows, you might even, like, meet someone." Nancy was then surprised hugged by her boyfriend, Steve Harrington.

"I think it's our time to leave." Inez whispered to Jonathan and then quickly fled the awkward situation.

Now Inez didn't exactly despise Steve, she just did not understand why Nancy was still with him. From what Nancy told her over the summer he seemed like a decent guy, granted the stereotype of a popular kid, but still a decent person. But once she started school she heard stories of their relationship the past school year. Inez could see that he wanted to be a better person but she just couldn't figure out why Nancy went back to him so fast.

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Once Halloween came the next day Nancy finally convinced Inez to come with her to Tina's party. Nancy had promised that she would have a good time and when Inez spoke about her ending up third wheeling Nancy also promised she wouldn't leave her alone for long.

So Inez had only a few hours to figure out what in the world she was going to wear. She had no idea what to even wear to a normal party, let alone a Halloween party. She had figured most people would either put too much thought in their costumes or none at all. Inez settled for the in between.

So after hours of rummaging through her closet, Inez walked out in almost all white. She had settled on Princess Leia's snow outfit from Empire Strikes Back. Her costume consisted of a white sweater, white vest, white pants, and a random pair of gray shoes. Nancy even took the time to fix her hair in a similar way the movie had it.

Inez knew her costume wasn't perfect, she also knew she'd probably stand out more than she wanted to, but she felt okay. She figured if she was going to a place out of her comfort zone she might as well dress within it.

Once Inez and Nancy got to the party Nancy immediately pulled her cousin onto the dance floor.

"I am most definitely not the dancing type." Inez yelled over the blaring music as Nancy led her through the crowd.

"I've literally caught you dancing to Edge of Seventeen a dozen times now." Nancy yelled back.

"That was three times, okay!"

Nancy just laughed and continued to drag Inez along. If her cousin wasn't going to dance then she was determined to dance on her own just to embarrass her older cousin. Which then prompted many complaints from Inez which meant her plans had worked.

Eventually though Steve Harrington arrived and Nancy didn't hesitate to go see him which left Inez to her own. She immediately retreated to the less crowded space, the kitchen. And after repeating multiple times that she had no intentions on drinking to the guy by the "punch" bowl, Inez decided to just sit on top of the counter. And, for what felt like an eternity, Inez sat there people watching. But all things must come to an end and Inez's moment of peace was ended by a random dude walking up to her.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Inez had recognized the guy from around school, if she remembered correctly his name was Billy.

"Princess Leia from Star Wars." Inez replied. At first she wasn't even going to answer because she immediately got a weird vibe from the guy but figured he would then not leave her alone.

"What's that?" Billy took this moment to put a hand on her knee, a weird way of flirting.

Inez fought the urge to immediately throw up. "If you don't move your hand I will not hesitate to kick you directly in the face."

"Why would you do that? I haven't even done anything." The guy replied without moving his hand.

"I'll give you exactly five seconds to move your hand or you'll walk out of here with a broken nose." Inez threatened.

Billy began to make another unwanted comment when the hand of Steve Harrington appeared on his shoulder. Steve then let him turn to face him before shoving him away. "Just leave her alone, man." And after a few moments of glaring Billy finally walked away.

"God I hate people." Inez scoffed before getting off the counter.

"Yeah, that's about fair." Steve nodded.

"You know I'm halfway wishing you didn't show up." Inez grabbed a bag of chips, she figured it would be the only safe option. "I would have been very happy about kicking him in the face."

"I would actually want to see that." Steve laughed.

Inez laughed too and upon looking to the side she noticed Nancy around a bit more than normal, "Hey, Steve, you might want to go check on her. Even from yards away I can see that she isn't acting normal."

"Shit, you're right." Steve then bolted over to a very drunk Nancy.

Once more Inez Wheeler was left alone, just this time she was taking comfort in the bag of chips she was scoffing down. And, thankfully, for the next eternity she was not disturbed by half drunk teenage boys. And she would have stayed in her spot if it wasn't for her emptying her bag and her no longer seeing Nancy. So she decided to snatch another bag before heading out the door. She was then thankful for taking her own car to the party.

And Inez was almost to her car, her keys were out and everything, Steve ran past her. She stopped in her tracks and turned around. She expected to turn and see Nancy close behind but she was nowhere to be seen. Her only conclusion was that the two had gotten into some sort of fight.

At first Inez was just going to mind her business and just go home but when she walked past Steve he just looked particularly sad just sitting on the hood of his car.

"Uh, are you okay?" She asked as she walked back in front of Steve.

"Yeah, totally. Why?" Steve tried not to look up and show his face but that only proved he was in fact crying.

"Considering I just saw you bolt out of the house and I never see you without my cousin I figured something was wrong."

"Yeah, fine, something is wrong." Steve gave up pretending he was okay. "Apparently I'm bullshit, Nancy and I's relationship is bullshit, everything is bullshit, and she doesn't love me anymore."

Inez didn't know what to say. This was her cousin they were talking about, she couldn't just say something bad about her. But she also didn't have the heart to tell him she kind of was half right. So she just sat next to him on the car and leaned her bag of chips towards Steve.

Steve laughed and grabbed a handful of chips. This then caused Inez to laugh, "You didn't have to take a whole handful. I would've just given you the bag if you wanted some."

Steve laughed again, "I figured you were just leaving."

Inez took a moment to think before answering, "Well I was, but you just look so sad so I feel bad."

"Oh wow, thanks."

After laughing a bit more the two sat in silence for a long while. It was an awkward situation on both sides and neither knew what exactly to say or do. So neither of them spoke until they realized it was a bit too late and decided it was time to go home.