I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING, but please just hear me out, okay?
don't judge before you read please 😭 this took me almost two months to finish, but here it is, all 10,000+ words of it.
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"welcome to where time stands still,
no one leaves and no one will"
san francisco, california — june 10, 1987, 7:12pm
The family can hear the rain building up outside in the evening heat, falling hard against the worn roofing of the home.
It fades to background noise as Stuart petulantly goes on about how unfair it is that his older brother gets to leave the state for the summer but he doesn't.
"How come Axl's the only one that gets to go?" Stuart whined from across the table, earning himself a hard glare from Stephen and Axl. "I wanna go too!"
"Because," Sharon begins patiently as she gently stabs her fork and knife into her baked chicken, "Hawkins is as interesting as a blank sheet of paper. I can't take another summer of Billy—"
"Axl." The boy corrects swiftly without looking up from his own plate of food, knowing Stephen has flipped the glare onto him.
Sharon continues without acknowledging him, "— Being the neighborhood terror." Then she looks to her oldest child, jabbing her fork in his general direction. "He's going to get a job down at the mechanic place with his uncle and cousin and he's going to work all summer. Being away from the city gives him the advantage of not knowing anyone and not having fun."
Axl rolled his eyes, lifting his head from where it rested on his hand, to glare at his mother. "I don't terrorize anyone."
"Boy, you watch your tone with your mother." Stephen snaps, speaking for the first time since he'd gotten home from work. "I don't care how grown you think you are."
The table goes silent.
Axl rolled his eyes again, mumbling, "Fucking prison house,"
Ever since Axl had broken into his pre-teen years, Stephen had always aimed to target him. Like he was threatened by the boy.
Stephen had always targeted Axl, ever since he'd married Sharon. But the abuse really increased tenfold when the boy started getting older.
Stephen cocked his head to the side. "You got something you wanna say to me boy?"
Axl slammed his fist onto the table, suddenly gaining a bout of courage, making Amy and Stuart's eyes widen. "I said this house is a fucking prison!"
Stephen lunges across the table and grabs Axl by the front of his already stretched out t-shirt and growls out, "Well, that's too damn bad now, ain't it?"
Axl swallows shallowly, nostrils flaring as he angrily stares up at his step-father.
"As long as you under this here roof," He clenched the shirt tighter in his fist, drawing Axl closer. "You live by my damn rules."
"Now if that makes it a prison, then so be it. Inmate." Then he shoves Axl back down into his seat.
Axl's glare doesn't waver and it doesn't move from Stephen's own.
Sharon silently stared down at her plate, unmoving. Amy's eyes were widened full of fear and Stuart was leaning closer to her.
Stephen glares over the table angrily, disapproving of this sad excuse of a family. With one strong swing of his arm, he sends the food Sharon took hours to prepare and swiped it all onto the floor.
