𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒 - 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍

𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐃

𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚: 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗨𝗔𝗚𝗘, 𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗘

𝙴𝙳𝙳𝙸𝙴 𝙼𝚄𝙽𝚂𝙾𝙽

It was hard to watch Kim become this person she wasn't; it was hard to slowly watch that vibrant personality I fell in love with vanish far beyond saviour. She was slowly degenerating into a pit too deep for anybody to reach her, and it was all because of her shitty family.

Even as we sat in my van on our way to Steve's party, I could see it on her face that her brain wouldn't stop spinning, wouldn't stop with the thoughts of everything she was going through. It was becoming difficult to help her when I was dealing with my own shit, and if my uncle wasn't involved in most of them, hers would be more than a priority.

It made me feel selfish not putting her troubles and worries first, but the shit inside of my head wasn't issues I could shove aside and come back to at a later date.

My uncle was getting worse, and it was obvious. He told me the treatment was working and he felt more alive with each passing day; I knew he was lying, I knew the words slipping from his tongue was a load of bullshit, and it angered me. It infuriated me that he thought I was too weak to handle the truth, too feeble to understand that he would leave me in this world alone because some shithead at the plant refused to believe that there was asbestos in the fucking building. So now my uncle and most likely many more of the workers were slowly slipping from the world from mesothelioma.

Fuck cancer, stupid piece of shit.

My eyes flickered over to Kim besides me as my thoughts crowded my mind. I watched as she stared ahead without a single blink, just empty.

"Sweetheart, you okay?." I lifted my hand from the gear stick of the almost shattered box we were driving in and gently dropped it onto her thigh. She blinked rapidly for a second before turning to look at me with worry.

"What?." She asked, not having heard me.

"Are you okay?." I repeated myself, sending her a gentle smile. She nodded her head and returned a weak one, turning back around and wrapping her fingers around the side of my hand. "We're gonna have fun, and if you're lucky, I'll cook for you when we get home." I held my teeth in between my lips to stop myself from smiling as I wasn't he'd her whole demeanour change.

She grinned widely and clapped her hands together, turning her head towards me with a little giggle.

"You like the sound of that?." I asked rhetorically and squeezed her hand in mind.

"I love food, and without wanting to admit it, I love your cooking, Munson." She rolled her eyes at the fact she had to confess how much of a genuine good chef I was, after all of these months of denial.

"I told you, you couldn't lie forever, princess. Soon Richie's going to offer me head chef without a question." I snorted whilst watching the road, coming up to the junction just before 'Hawkins rich snob estate'.

She scoffed and shook her head, looking out the side window with a shy smile.

Even with her demons, I'd still always love that smile.

It meant she had found some form of happiness in her life, it was just a bonus that I was the root to that contentment.

I prayed it would be me forever.

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𝙺𝙸𝙼𝙱𝙴𝚁𝙻𝚈 𝙲𝙰𝚂𝚂𝙸𝙳𝚈