Master of Puppets

Chapter 16

The day was a shocking success. Somehow, everyone managed to have a great time despite the impending insanity that loomed on the horizon. After the events of the past few years, the group had resigned themselves to their fate of saving Hawkins - and by extension, the rest of the world - from danger every time they looked away for more than five seconds. Whatever monster of the week horror show that threatened the town, it was going to have to go through them, the begrudging heroes that they were.

Today, however, they were going to have fun. They'd more than earned a day to just let loose and pretend they didn't have the world on their shoulders. After all, they were all still kids. Eddie, being the oldest of the group, was still only 21. He'd missed a birthday during his five month absence and Robin had insisted they do something for him, but he declined.

"I don't care about birthdays, Buckley." He'd told her. "In my whole life I've maybe celebrated it, what, twice? And 'celebrated' is putting it very loosely, since it literally consisted of Wayne letting me drink a beer with him."

Eddie had laughed it off, and Robin finally just dropped it - but it didn't sit right with Steve. He knew very well what it was like to be forgotten on your birthday. It was always such a toss up with his parents. He'd had birthdays where all of his friends were invited, he'd been showered with expensive gifts, gone out to fancy dinners, etc. They were great parties, at least when his parent's remembered to throw them. More often than not, the day would go by as unremarkable as the one before. No gifts, no birthday wishes, nothing.

As if he'd been completely forgotten.

Steve would have preferred they'd forgotten every single one, so that the sting of getting his hopes up only to be disappointed year after year didn't hurt quite as much. Sometimes, days later, he'd find a card on the kitchen table from his mother. Inside, it contained a hundred dollar bill and a note that said: 'Happy late birthday, Steven. Sorry things got busy. - Mom' and it was so typical. The only way she knew how to show her affection was to buy off her son. Throw money at the wall and see what sticks, as if a hundred dollar bill was going to make it all okay. At least she'd put in a bit of effort, he reconciled, his dad hadn't said happy birthday to him since he was nine.

He wasn't going to let that shit slide with Eddie.

"You think he'll like it?" He'd asked Robin. "You know I'm not good at gifts."

She snorted. "For the fifth time, yes , I think so." When he still didn't seem the slightest bit more confident, she sighed and dropped the gift in his lap. "Why are you so nervous?"

"He's never gotten a birthday gift before, Robin," He groaned, "I don't want his first one to be lame."

"It's not lame. Okay? It's sweet. I'm sure he'll, at the very least, appreciate that you got him anything at all."

It hadn't quelled his nerves, but he'd resigned himself to getting him something better if he caught even the slightest whiff of dissatisfaction.

At the lake, the evening was beginning to settle in nicely. Orange and pink clouds peppered the steadily darkening sky, bathing everything in a warm autumn glow. The water, still warm from the summer heat, shimmered against their skin as they waded in the shallow end, sharing stories, laughing, drinking. Nancy was strict about not letting any of the kids near the alcohol, but Eddie and Argyle had 'accidentally' slipped them a beer or two when she wasn't looking. That turned out to be much easier than they anticipated, because Nancy had elected to go all out and get shit faced on her birthday.