Kate Hopper's life had finally gone back to normal.
With the summer after her senior year in session, she'd soon be leaving behind the horrors of Hawkins behind, returning to New York City in the fall.
Kate only tried to live in the moment as Steve...
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THE NEXT MORNING, after Steve had snuck out through the window again, of course, Kate and her father sat in the kitchen, each drinking their own cup of black coffee.
This had been something they'd done almost every morning for a long time, sitting mostly in silence while they had their first cup of coffee in the morning. Whenever they both woke up before El, or while she was waiting for Mike outside (like she was this particular morning), they spent time together, even if they didn't say anything in particular. Sometimes sitting alone together in silence was comforting, mostly because of their busy schedules. It was a moment that was almost always cherished, even if it wasn't quite as long as either of them wanted it to be.
That morning in particular, while Kate and her father drank their coffee before work, El paced outside. Mike hadn't come to visit her yer, and it was about an hour after the time he normally came. She had been standing on the front porch since about five minutes before he'd been dubbed as late. El was worried about Mike and his Nana, even though she had miraculously recovered overnight, according to Hopper. Kate tried to watch her from the kitchen, just to make sure she didn't freak out. She knew how that felt, at least—waiting for your boyfriend to get to the house but he was late and you were freaking out about it.
"You know, Steve was real worried about you last night," Hopper finally said, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Oh yeah?" she asked, turning to him as she took a sip out of her own cup. "For some reason, that doesn't surprise me."
