A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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"Ryan," Aaron's hurried voice woke Ryan up the next morning as he shook her awake. "Ryan wake up, you have to get ready!"
Ryan sat up in bed, looking around in confusion. Where the hell was Peter? He was usually the one to wake her up for things such as the thing she had to do today. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Uh," She rubbed her eyes. She had only gotten an hour of sleep at most, tossing and turning all night. It was hard to get a full night of sleep when just a few days before, she was running from a faceless creature in the woods behind her house. "Where's Peter?"
"I don't know really." Aaron shrugged, his hair sticking out in all directions. Apparently, he had just woken up himself. "I don't think he came home last night. He said he was going to be with Hopper on a case, maybe he's still with him?"
Ryan cocked her head to the side, trying to make sense of what Aaron had said through the post-sleep fuzziness of her brain. A case? What could he possibly be doing on the day of Will's funeral that was more important? Wouldn't he have called?
"Have you heard from Jonathan or Joyce yet?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. "Or at all since last night?"
"No, why? Should I have?" This time, it was his turn to look at her with a confused expression. Ryan paused for a minute, debating on whether or not she should say something. Apparently she had been silent for too long as he narrowed his eyes, "Ryan, what's going on?"
"Well, I-" She was going to tell him what she knew, all of it, but she stopped herself. She didn't want to get anyone else involved. She couldn't stand the idea of telling her brother, only for him to end up hurt because he decided to do something about it all. Besides, she didn't have proof. What if he didn't believe her? "Nothing. Nothing, just upset about today is all."
Aaron looked at her with a sympathetic expression as she glanced down, tugging at her comforter. She didn't like the idea of going to a funeral for a boy stuck in another dimension. It felt like bad foreshadowing.
"It'll be okay, I'll be there the whole time. Do you have anything to wear?" Ryan nodded. There was one dress in the back of her closet, the only dress in her closet actually. She was just lucky (or unlucky depending on how you saw it) that it was black. Aaron stood up to leave. "Well, I'm no good at being Peter so I guess, get ready?"
Ryan furrowed her brows in confusion as Aaron closed the door behind him. He was hiding something from her and he wasn't good at hiding it. A part of her wanted to dig further, but at this point she was being pulled in so many different directions she didn't have time to force Aaron's hand. He'd spill it eventually. After all, she had a funeral to get through.
