rory's eyes welled up at one particular memory. that particular memory including a particular absent family member. her father. she had come home from school one day, gushing over the new girl and how pretty she was when she accidentally let it slip that if she was a boy, she'd kiss the girl. her father had struck her across the back and told her to never say those words again or it would worse next time.
luckily, her mother had had enough of her father's toxic masculinity and kicked him out. rory didn't know where he was, but was glad he wasn't anywhere near hawkins.
her bike skidded against the gravel as she slowed down, arriving at mirkwood. as mike and eleven pulled up next to her, her stomach dropped. guilt surged through her veins, she shouldn't have ignored mike or left eleven over something as ridiculous as eleven not riding with her. dustin and lucas arrived next to mike and el shortly after, huffing loudly.
what bothered her most however, was why she cared to much. why did she care so much that eleven had chose to sit with mike? but rory would rather not blame herself, so she blamed mike instead.
she was being emotional, understandable yet unnecessary. so her emotions took over her and she stomped over to mike and pulled him aside.
"how come el sat with you?" she asked, masking the anger in her voice with general wonder.
"oh cause i asked, you left and she seemed scared so i asked if she wanted to sit with me. she didn't answer so i just pointed to my bike and she nodded. i didn't think you'd care so much." rory could have punched mike. the little shit asked her, knowing el would've sat with rory.
the byers girl turned on her heel and walked back over to dustin and lucas and they entered the woods. rory pushed her bike behind the others, wallowing in self pity and anger. she kicked at rock, which lifted into the air and hit mike in the back of the head. he reached back and rubbed where the rock made contact with his scalp. he glanced back, seeing rory staring at her feet.
as mike turned back to face ahead, rory smirked. eleven stopped walking and waited for rory. the byers girl didn't notice el walking next to her until she spoke up, "why are you angry?"
rory looked over to el in surprise, "hm, no, i'm not angry."
"rory?" eleven asked, worry in her eyes.
"yeah?" rory looked ahead, making sure she didn't run into a tree.
"friends tell the truth." eleven said softly.
rory sighed, "you didn't sit with me because mike asked you first, i'm angry at him, the goddamn mouth breather." she spoke bitterly, almost instantly regretting calling her friend a mouth breather.
"mouth breather?" el questioned, the insult not known to her.
"yeah you know... a dumb person- well mike's not dumb but he was being dumb," rory said, hoping she didn't sound like a mouth breather herself. "god, i sound like such a bad friend."
el chuckled at rory's words, smiling, "i understand." el didn't think rory was a bad friend for being angry at mike.
"oh, okay, cool." rory smiled.
"cool." el repeater, a ghost of a small smile resting on her lips.
the two continued walking in a comfortable silence, the crunch of leaves under foot and the heavy breathing being the only noise heard between the two.
the group searched through the woods for hours, ending up at castle byers out the back of rory's house.
"what are we doing here?" lucas asked, confused as to why they were at rory's house.
rory spoke up, "she said he's hiding here." she looked around, peering into castle byers. it was empty.
"um... no, i swear if we walked all the way out here for nothing-" dustin spoke up, but got cut off by lucas.
"that's exactly what we did! i told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!" lucas exclaimed, annoyed.
"why'd you bring us here?" mike said, turning to el. she stammered, struggling to find the words.
"mike don't waste your time with her." lucas scolded, glancing at el with annoyance.
"what do you wanna do then?" mike said. rory zoned out as the two boys argued about calling the cops.
"hey guys? guys!" dustin yelled, drawing the groups attention. sirens blared through the night air, three vehicles passing by the group.
"will." rory breathed out.
the party peddled after the ambulances and cop cars, arriving at the quarry. they hid behind a red truck as they pulled a body out of the water. the corpse wore a red and yellow puffer jacket and blue jeans.
it was will.
rory collapsed to the ground, the flashing lights blurring and her vision reduced to nothing. she couldn't breathe. she sat the helpless, as tears streamed down her face. it's not will. it can't be.
"rory?" el said, placing an arm on rory's shoulder. rory brushed it off.
"rory? rory, what? you were supposed to help us find him alive." rory sobbed.
"rory..." el whispered, her bottom lip wobbled.
rory brushed past the girl and ran back into the forest, leaving her friends and bike behind.
VIV'S THOUGHTS: here's a short-ish chapter for once! hope you enjoyed!
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cardigan𓏲
Fanfiction"ʸᵒᵘ ᵈʳᵉʷ ˢᵗᵃʳˢ ᵃʳᵒᵘⁿᵈ ᵐʸ ˢᶜᵃʳˢ" rory has never felt so alone since her twin brother, will went missing but when her and her friends stumble upon a girl with strange powers in the woods, everything changes. rory and el become closer and closer, but...
