𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍 [𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗]

V

┓

bitter taste of teenage heartbreak and danger
part one

┗

𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 9𝚝𝚑 1983
𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚎'𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎
𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐

valentine had began to get ready for will's funeral. she wore a black dress which went to mid thigh, the dress hugged her body perfectly. she put a leather jacket on and a pir of doc martins. she done her makeup and hair as she usually did.

"come on valentine! time to go!!" her mother calls from downstairs, "coming!" she replies.

"fear not for i am with you. be not dismayed, for i am your god. i will strengthen you" valentine can't help but allow herself to drown the pastor's voice out as she looks at her brother and his friends, sorrowful.

you can imagine her shock when she sees them standing together all looking fed up and as if they wanted to go home. every so often valentine caught dustin sneakily saying jokes to mike and giggling.

the end of the funeral rolled its way around the corner and valentine found herself being one of many waiting in line to give joyce byers, who was standing with jim hopper; the chief valentine basically told to eat shit and go fuck himself, her condolences.

"oh thank you so much for coming" "yeah, if there's anything we can do..." once again, valentine let the distinct chatter carry on with no eavesdropping to follow up as she watched her bestfriend sneak off with jonathan byers.

that's not like nancy.. she doesn't even sneak off with steve, something must be up

before valentine could follow up on any sort of suspicion she was bound to think of in her head, she's met with a sniffling mother who still is in disbelief that she lost her son, even after his funeral.

before valentine musters a sentence together, she hugs joyce tight. joyce was like a second mother to her, she always gave valentine advice on boys, her friends, how to deal with her brothers temper tantrums and valentine was there for her as much as possible too.

"i'm sorry joyce, i'm so sorry i hadn't been there for you, if there's anything i could do, no matter how silly, please come my way" she says to joyce, "you know i will drop absolutely anything to help, you're like a second mother" she says, tears get brought to both joyce's and valentine's eyes. joyce pulls the brunette in for another hug.

"i love you like a daughter, please come to dinner some point this week, bring josh if you'd like" she whispers into her ear, valentine nods, "of course, let me know what day and i'll drop those plans for you" the girl responds before looking up at jim hopper; who suprisingly softly smiles at the girl, considering the way she spoke towards him at the quarry, she was taken aback.

as joyce moves on to the next person the chief shakes valentine's hand and gives her a quick hug. "take care kiddo" he smiles. he knew valentine wasn't herself at the quarry due to her brother's emotions being scattered around. he saw the interaction between her and joyce and he noticed that valentine was a much sweeter, more pure girl than he originally interacted with at the quarry.

"take care, all right?" hopper repeats to her, she nods, "thank you chief" she smiles at him, he smiles back. "thanks for coming out" he says, letting her walk away to go home.