Raising Hel | a Stranger Things fanfiction

Chapiter 7

Timeline check: set just before ST4 episode 3, in the early hours of Sunday 23rd of March 1986

Dustin drops a box of honeycomb cereals in the cart and gives Steve a mean stare.

– What, asks the oldest in a forced ingenuity.

– For the hundredth time, Eddie never made me try drugs. He barely even talks about it!

– Yet somehow, Chrissy went to him to buy some.

– Okay, but it's not like he's handing out joints during Hellfire club.

– What I'm trying to say is –

– Don't do drugs, says Dustin mocking the principal's voice.

– No – I mean, yeah. Don't do drugs. Don't. Ever. But my point is just because Eddie does something doesn't mean it's cool.

Dustin pauses to look at the young man with a smirk.

– You're so jealous.

– Stop saying that, shouts Steve.

– Is it because of his hair?

– You call that hair? A mop, maybe. Come on, you know better!

Robin appears from another aisle holding two bottles of Yoohoo that she adds to the cart.

– You might wanna keep your voices down, she hushes. May I remind you you're talking about the most searched man of Hawkins?

Back in Steve's car with two bags of groceries, the argument shifts to how they are going to tell Eddie what they found out by tapping into the police radio frequency. Especially the part when the sheriff insisted on keeping the identity of their suspect a secret to prevent any vigilante mob. From the way he greeted them last night, Dustin figures his friends already know the police is looking for him, but this will shatter his last hopes of having more than 4 teenagers believe he's innocent.

– What if we start with the classic 'I've got a bad news and a good news' and let him choose which he wants first, offers Robin.

– We have good news, asks a confused Steve.

– The fact that nobody outside the police and us knows Eddie is a suspect.

– Oh wow, mocks Steve.

As they stop at the trailer park to pick up Max, Dustin looks at the Munson trailer on the other side of the road. He's ashamed to realize he never came here. He feels very close to Eddie, yet they never really hung out outside of Hellfire club, apart from the few times Dustin went to his concert under cover of a sleepover at Mike's. They bonded over D&D and music but he doesn't know how long the metalhead had been living with his uncle nor what happened to his parents for example. He makes a promise to himself to change that when this is over. He can be a better friend than that!

Max opens the door and shoves her backpack on the seat.

– Wait, shouts Dustin. Do you have a notebook or something?

She gives him her usual 'what the heck' look but he insists and she comes back a few minutes later with a notebook that she throws on his laps. The cover is labeled 'Maths – year 5′ and as he flips through the pages, Dustin notices only a third of them are used.

– Just rip those off, says Max.

The teenager can't bring himself to mutilate school material.

– Here, adds Max holding out a bunch of pens.

– What do you need that for, asks Steve.

– It's for Eddie. Can we go now?

Steve glares at him through the rear mirror and replies, sassy:

– You should have said it earlier, we'd pick a coloring book.

– Just drive, okay?

Dustin ignores the rest of his friend's comments and tucks the notebook and pens in one of the grocery bags where he also adds the extra walkie-talkie he took from home. He hopes Eddie will find some comfort in it.