"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Thirty-Nine: Arcade Date
(The Battle Of Starcourt, Pt. 10)
***
Alistair dropped from the window in his room, landing with a crouch. Straightening, he crept around to the front of the trailer to grab his bike, where he could see Steve's car next to Aunt Aco's—here to pick up Rowan and go on their date.
Alistair smiled. He hoped his sister had fun and that Steve wouldn't break her heart. If he did, Alistair wouldn't hesitate to ask the ghosts to haunt Steve, and to give them full permission to go Poltergeist on him, after his sister was through with him first.
But Alistair had a feeling that wouldn't happen—Steve looked at Rowan like she was his entire world, like she was the reason he still believed in love. And Alistair was certain it was mutual on his sister's end. And he still couldn't believe Rowan and Steve had ended up like this—from enemies to friends, and now dating? It seemed crazy to Alistair.
And yet, it also didn't. Because it looked like Rowan and Steve belonged together, even when they seemed to hate each other.
Whatever. Alistair wouldn't focus on his sister's love life.
Not when he had his own to focus on. When he had a date to go to.
Hopping onto the bike, Alistair pushed the pedals and biked to Mirkwood—and beyond, to Will's place.
Alistair's stomach was a flurry of butterflies as he made the familiar route to the Byers house. It had been a couple of weeks since Starcourt, since the Mind Flayer was destroyed and they won, but had lost Hopper and Billy had died. Since he'd died and resurrected.
Alistair gritted his teeth, dispelling the memory, the creeping thoughts of whether he was truly alive, clenching the handlebars of his bike tighter. No. He wouldn't think about that. He wouldn't think about the cold, the feeling of not feeling his heart beating, how for a straight week after he died and resurrected he'd been coughing up the blood in his lungs and washing it away before anyone saw it, how things had changed between him and his friends, between him and Rowan, even as they tried to pretend it hadn't. He wouldn't think how the ghosts flocked even more to him and that the cemetery didn't make him as half as uncomfortable as it had before, how death didn't feel crushing and instead was like a blanket on him, didn't feel like an enemy and instead an old friend.
He wouldn't think about any of that. Not tonight. Not when he and Will would be sharing their first date.
It made Alistair bike faster, his heart swooping as a grin was on his face, especially as he could see the Byers house now.
He biked over to where he knew Will's window was, hopping off his bike. Bending down, he picked up a rock and tossed it at Will's window.
Will answered immediately.Opening his window, he looked at Alistair, a flat look on his face. "Really? Rocks at the window?"
