'tis the damn season

Twenty-Five: Enchanted

"This is me praying that, this was the very first page, not where the storyline ends, my thoughts will echo your name, until I see you again" 

*One month later*

It's moving day.

I haven't decided whether I'm excited, or dreading it. Probably a little bit of both.

Yesterday was my last day working at the bookstore. Hopefully there would be a place near our new house just outside of Lenora I could work at. I was going to miss working around the smell of new books all day.

I'd really settled into a rhythm here, but now I'd have to restart somewhere else. California seemed to foreign to me; it may as well be Europe. I'd never been there, but I wasn't sure I was exactly 'Los Angeles' material. I liked the small town life. Being able to drive across town in less than twenty minutes, or get anywhere on a bike. Everyone knew everyone. It was comfortable, easy, and familiar. California was going to be anything but.

So many changes were going to happen starting tonight, and I wasn't sure I was ready for them. I'd just gotten used to my routine in Hawkins. I saw Steve and Robin practically everyday; what was I supposed to do without them? I didn't know a single person in California. It was hard enough to make friends this time around, how the hell was I supposed to start over and do it again?

Robin and I were totally in sync with each other, apart from her new favourite thing being, bugging me about Steve, even though there was definitely no reason to be bugging me at all.

Steve and I are friends. Past Lauren probably never thought I'd be able to say that, but we are. Friends. Completely platonic. But Robin just won't let the idea of us getting together go. All because one time I slipped up and stared a little too long. I swear that girl will never let me forget it.

"It just makes sense Lauren, why else would he have tried so hard to fix things between you in the beginning? He's completely obsessed with you and you're just too stubborn to notice."

I'd heard the speech a million times at this point.

Everything changed between Steve and I after Starcourt. It was true what he said in the Russian base; you couldn't be kidnapped together and not become friends. I think because of that, I may just be closer to Steve than I am Robin. I'd never tell her that though— or him, it'd go straight to his head.

With Robin, our friendship is more gossipy, and light. We could talk and talk for hours about nothing and everything all at the same time and never feel bored.

With Steve, there are things we know about each other that no one else does. I felt more inclined to open up to him about hard things, probably because of the experience we had while kidnapped.

I knew that Steve, Robin and I were an unlikely group, but I think that's what made us so close. We were all different in our own ways and yet similar in others. I felt like I could really be myself around them. I'd never had people I would call true friends until them. Which was what was going to make leaving that much harder.

Joyce told us a few weeks ago about the move, and we've been packing ever since. She told us she thought it would be good to get out of Hawkins. See something new. But I knew she just wanted to get away from all the shit that's happened in the past, and I didn't blame her. That house had been put through so much, she thought it was time to let it go.

I knew that Johnathan was struggling with the idea of moving away just like I was. He didn't want to leave Nancy. She had come over a couple times for dinner and I got to know her a little bit too. Nancy and Jonathan were so in love with each other, at times it was almost sickening. Being just teenagers and trying to do the whole long distance thing was going to be tough. They had plans to go to to college together, but who knew if that was going to happen?