Invisible String || S. H.

35: positive

Mollie (pov)

May 1986

The particles from the Upside Down have settled in the town and half of the population has left. The only reason I haven't left was because everyone I'm close to is staying and my mom had me move back home. After spring break she and I got my stuff from the trailer and brought it back to the house.

To be completely honest, I wanted to be back with my family. I didn't want to be alone. With Eddie gone, it felt like a piece of me was missing. I mean, Wayne did say I could always call or visit him if I felt inclined to it. Just the two of us had a ceremony for him, just a plaque with his name and dates on it put in his family's plot in the Hawkins cemetery.

With the days passing slowly, everyone still showed up wherever I was to try and cheer me up. It was nice of them to keep me company but on this particular day, I just felt nauseous. My time of the month or "Aunt Flow" as I like to call her hasn't shown up but I thought it was because of my stress and my less than satisfactory appetite. Nancy suggested that the girls should have some alone time.

Nancy, Robin and I went to the drugstore to find nail polish and other "girly" things to do while the guys have the day for themselves.

"Molls, you feeling okay," Robin asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just been feeling weird for the past couple days, that's all."

She nodded and whispered something to Nancy. Here it comes again, I'm becoming the third wheel in another friendship.

"Another question. When did you have your last period," Robin asked again.

"Uh, the week before spring break why?"

"Do you think you'd be pregnant? I'm not asking in a rude way but, you did say you haven't been feeling well and... I mean I don't have any personal experience with this but maybe you should get a test to just be sure."

I didn't give that any thought. Maybe Robin is right. If I am, I know who the father is. I've had no desire to put myself back out there in the dating pool and I know I won't for a long while. Steve has helped me through my sleepless nights just by being there and having a friendly cuddle in my bed, clothes on. I trusted Steve to not do anything but there's always been a tiny part of me wanting him to be more than friends in the past month.

I bought a pack of tests. I was familiar with how they worked since Eddie and I have had a couple of close calls before and that's on the both of us.

After leaving the store, we headed for Robin's place. We greeted her parents and she asked if it was okay that we stayed for the night. They said it was fine. Nancy and I were always welcome to anyone's place.

Us girls had a great night with just the three of us. We talked all night and the two of them went to sleep around one in the morning. I stayed up for the night out of habit. Hiding from the town on that horrific week when I was claimed as an accomplice of the murders and later deemed innocent in the eyes of Chief Powell.

It always kept me up at night thinking that if Eddie were still here with us he'd still be blamed and put behind bars for the rest of his life. If Steve was here, I'd have a better chance of getting some sleep.

It was now five in the morning. I didn't have any more patience in me to wait for them to wake up. So, I got the tests and did what the instructions said and waited for the results. It was the longest ten minutes of my life waiting for the results. And once I laid the two tests out on the counter and what I saw just changed my life forever.

Positive.

My body went cold and I went straight to the floor, my head in between my knees trying not to cry too loud. I wanted to throw up, this couldn't be happening. How am I gonna tell my mom? Would she be supportive or would she kick me out of the house? I mean she had me around the same age as I am now but grandma and grandpa weren't the most supportive people about her pregnancy with me. I just hope that she'll help with what she can, otherwise I'd have to do everything by myself.