Upside Down Love Part 1 & 2

Chapter 12: California

I hit the ground hard. I could barely move. I looked over and saw Billy standing over El. I could hear El talking.

"Seven feet." Eleven gasped. "You told her the wave was seven feet. You ran to her, on the beach. There were seagulls. She wore a hat with a blue ribbon. A long dress with a blue and red flower. Yell-yellow sandals, covered in sand. She was pretty. She was really pretty. And you... you were happy."

Eleven cupped his face with her hand as a tear rolled down his cheek. Everyone kept throwing fireworks at the Mind Flayer but they were running out of fireworks. I looked around, my ears were still ringing. I started remembering that flashback I had earlier of when I first got trapped in the upside-down.

"You're just a freak that wants to be popular." The boys voice echoed in my head as I stood up.

My leg must've been broken because I limped on it. I looked at Billy as he stood up and stopped the tentacle from getting Eleven and he got stabbed by multiple other tentacles. I just stood there in shock. Billy screamed and then got stabbed in the chest by a tentacle.

"Billy!" Max screamed from one of the stores.

I looked at her. Then all of a sudden, the Mind Flayer started moving around and then fell on the floor and died.

"They did it..." I said as I looked at the Mind Flayer on the ground.

Everyone ran down from downstairs and then I lost my balance again and fell on the floor. Steve ran over to me.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you hurt?" He said as he checked me for any wounds.

"Just a broken leg, but I'll be fine." I said as he hugged me tightly.

I looked over at Max who was crying over Billy's dead body. A tear rolled down my cheek as I watched her cry into El's arms.

A bunch of soldiers came into the mall and Steve helped me stand up and let me use his shoulders as something to hold onto so I could stand.

"Is this really over?" I asked.

"Yeah." Steve said. "It's really over."

We got taken to ambulances and doctors treated my leg. I saw William and mom hugging. El was looking for Hopper and mom was crying. I immediately knew why. I got up, didn't care about my leg, and walked to El and gave her a hug so that she could cry.

-------------------------------------3 months later---------------------------------------------

I finished packing my bags and put my bat that I used to protect myself in the upside-down in the donation box.

"You really wanna donate that?" Mom asked.

"I don't think I'm gonna need it anymore." I said as I smiled and went to help Lucas, Max, and Dustin pack.

Max and Lucas were singing Never ending story together, teasing Dustin. I laughed.

"Rhymes that keep their secrets" Lucas and Max sang. "will unfold behind the clouds!"

"Wait, did we get that verse right? It's 'unfold behind the clouds'?" Max asked.

"Yeah, but you're butchering it, so could you please stop?" Dustin asked.

"So then join in, Dusty-bun." Lucas said, jokingly, as he blew an air kiss to him to tease him.

"Yeah, come on, Dusty-bun, why don't you join them?" I asked.

"You guys are so funny, you should be on Carson." Dustin said, sarcastically.

"Can't we just hear your rendition?" Max asked.

"No." Dustin said.

"Please? Just one verse?" I asked.

"No. No way. It's reserved for Suzie's ears and Suzie's ears alone." Dustin said. 

Max and Lucas looked at each other and started singing again and I started laughing. Dustin flipped them off. He kept asking them to shut up and then I limped to my room and grabbed one of my boxes. I limped outside and put my boxes in the moving van. I leaned against the van and started crying. I limped over to Nancy and hugged her and then hugged Max.

Right before we got in the van, Steve pulled up the drive-way in his car. "Wait! Wait!"

"Steve? I thought you had that interview today?" I asked.

"I did. Robin is handling that for me." He said as he ran up to me with a card and a box of chocolate. "I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye first."

He hugged me and then gave me the chocolate and the card, I smiled. "Thank you so much, you didn't need to get me anything."

"I wanted to get you something." He said as he smiled. "Don't read the card until you get to California, okay?"

I chuckled as tears rolled down my cheeks. "Okay."

He wiped the tears from my face. "Don't cry! It's okay, we'll see each other very soon."

I hugged him and then mom yelled, "C'mon Katie! We need to go!"

I smiled and then hugged Steve again and got in the car and we drove off. As I watched the trees move, I started crying silently. This was the end. I'm going back to California. I never thought this day would come but it did. Guess somethings really do come to an end, or so I thought.