𝗯𝗼𝘆𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗴𝘀 • 𝘀𝘁 𝘅 𝘁𝗯𝗽

chapter one

vance's life hadn't been easy, to say the least. vance had never really known his dad. his mom had spent five years of vance's life with him before she decided that she wasn't really in love. so, she took vance and left. two years later, she got remarried to vance's to stepdad, who vance hated. he was an absolute ass, an abusive alcoholic. on the bright side of his stepdad, he brought along a little brother for vance — griffin — who vance absolutely adored. a couple months after the wedding, vance's mom was diagnosed with cancer. three years later, she passed. it took a huge toll on vance, of course, but his stepdad seemed unphased and that really pissed vance off.

by the ripe age of ten, he absolutely hated his life. by the time he was twelve, he was always in trouble. legal trouble, more often than not. his stepdad had enrolled him in school of course, but vance rarely ever went — academics weren't his strong suit, anyways. he usually ditched to go play pinball. he was bullied all through elementary school, but that stopped in eighth grade when he beat the shit out of a kid for messing up his pinball game. an unfortunate amount of people had found out for how big the city was. infact, a couple of towns that denver bled into even had the topic in their papers — such as estes park, evergreen, and hawkins.

he didn't regret it. it got people to leave him alone. by the age of sixteen, he had been arrested five times, held back twice, and had an uncountable amount of 'warnings' from the police. his dad didn't seem to care, except when he was almost sober. but, that was probably worse because his ways of discipline weren't the most.. logical, to say the least. his stepdad barely remembered the police telling him what had happened everytime vance got arrested.

his fifth time was different from the others, though. he'd wandered further than intended this time, and made his way into the hawkins district. so, he wasn't taken in by his usual cops when he was arrested. to make matters worse, these cops seemed way less understanding. they didnt know vance, or his story. they didnt have any reasons to help him out. vance wasn't exactly helping his case, though. he didn't look — or sound — remorseful in the least little bit.

after vance had been stuck in the stupid interview room for over an hour, a new cop came in. rather, a sheriff. the man had a moustache, and his hairline was starting to recede. vance couldnt help rolling his eyes. the man sat down in front of him. "what's your name, kid?" his voice was gruff. vance let out a long, annoyed, sigh. "it was just a fuckin' skittles bag! c'mon, you guys literally returned it anyway! just let me go home." he snapped. he noticed the officers lips twitch, and he took a small inhale. "i asked for your name." vance stayed silent, glaring at the officer. after a couple minutes of the silence, he smacked the table, causing vance to flinch and physically recoil. "your. name." he repeated. vance groaned. "vance." he said simply. "don't play dumb with me."

vance sighed. "hopper." the sheriff looked in his direction, raising a brow. "what?" vance scoffed. "are you fucking deaf? vance hopper." he repeated. the man stood up, his eyebrows furrowing. he knew that name by heart, not that vance was aware of. "i'll be back." he said before leaving. vance glared. "hey! wait! are you gonna fuckin' let me out or not?" there was no reply, of course.

vance sat in the room, with horrible deafening silence, for about fifteen minutes before the man came back in with some guy in a lab coat. he set some sort of kit on the table and opened it. it was a dna test. "what the fuck?" vance asked, but he was ignored. he was handed a swab. "i'm not doing this." he scoffed. the sheriff did one himself, and then looked at vance. "you want out? take the test." vance's face turned into a scowl, but he took it nonetheless. once they were done, they simply left vance in the room alone again.

it was over twenty minutes this time, vance assumed. there wasn't a clock or anything, so he didn't know. another cop came in, the one the sheriff had been with, and spoke to vance. "c'mon, you're staying here for the night." vance's eyes widened. "what?! it was a pack of skittles!" he cop shrugged, pulling him up and dragging him out. now, it wasnt vance's first time staying over night, but he'd only ever stayed in his own district's prison, and that was only once. he let out a sigh as the cop continued to drag him, before roughly pushing him into the cell.

"hey! no need to be so rough." vance scoffed as he stood up and brushed himself off. "i have to get home to my brother!" he glared. the officer shrugged. "too bad, shouldn't have stolen." vance groaned as he flopped down on the bed. it was going to be a long night. he didn't understand why they were keeping him for the night over skittles. he'd like to say that this made him learn his lesson, but it really didn't. at all. infact, he'd probably do something illegal again right after he got let out.
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word count: 952
you all asked, so i have provided 🙏 these first few chaps are kinda gonna be more about background on how everyone meets and all that stuff, not so much about the ships btw !! 😞 i hope that's okay