Jailbird || Stranger Things

seventy-six ➵ a world without you

College parties were often passed in a haze. Dark houses and rooms with minimal lighting, loud, thumping music, a complete mess of people pushing up against each other in restricted spaces. Plenty of friendships and connections made in dark rooms, in the colder gardens, over bottles and cups of beer and liquor.

    Teresa would often tune out most of the people, the music, the alcohol. Now that she was out of high school and on a sports scholarship, she'd completely tune out the drugs too. After the summer she had, none of it really appealed to her.

    In the night in question, she was especially haunted by those events. She knew she wasn't the only one, her recent long distance phone calls and letters to Joyce, Will, Jonathan, El, and sometimes to Steve and Robin and Nancy telling her so. But that night made her miss a few of them especially.

"Nobody knows you there. Have some fun."

    Steve's words rang in her ears as she took in the dancing and kissing freshman class of UI. Actually, she wasn't sure how long it's been since she'd seen such obvious public displays of affection but she was coming to the conclusion that she was not a fan of it.

    Something had to change.

    "Hey, Hopper, you okay all by yourself out here?" a voice drifted through the now open screen door of the frat into the quiet garden.

    She turned, spotting Ryan Garrett, his girlfriend chatting to someone still inside but attached to him by her hand in his. Teresa couldn't help the soft smile that stretched at her lips, pushing herself up to stand and hold onto the measly can of coke she'd stolen from the fridge.

    "I see Harrington's jacket is a mainstay for parties with you," he commented, leaning further out and ignoring the couple of students smoking a few steps away. "Everything okay, Reese?"

    "Yeah," she sighed, slipping a hand into the jacket's pocket and approached the door. "You guys sticking around?"

    "Mer's getting there but I think she's okay for now. She's still standing and not wobbly yet," he glanced behind him at his girlfriend who was pulled into a hug by another girl neither of them knew.

    "She's just in that drunk girl phase where everybody's her best friend, right?" she chuckled, pushing the door further open to step inside.

    "Yeah, I think so," he chuckled, looking at his girlfriend with an incredibly fond look. "You're not drinking?" he looked back to her. Their years of sumer lifeguard duty at Hawkins pool serving enough to read her quickly. After the summer they'd gone through—though he only knew of the amount of fellow lifeguards and Hawkins locals they'd lost and she knew much more—he made it his mission to look out for the chief's daughter. He knew she'd gone through too much for a human to bear and come out unscathed. He wanted to at least make her freshman year of college okay.

    "No, I—I'm leaving tomorrow, so," she shrugged, lifting the can of coca cola, "don't want to have anything to stop me," she added, avoiding his eyes.

    "Ooh, is tomorrow the day?" he gave a teasing sound before he lifted his eyebrows with a smirk.

    "Shut up, Garrett," she chuckled with a shake of her head, "I'm thinking about it," she admitted, leaving out her nightmare from the previous night that was also adding to her reasons to go back home. "I don't know, I—I think going home is the move," she shrugged after several moments of hesitation.

    "If he makes you happy, then I agree."

    The two lifeguards and sports scholarship receiptients shared a small smile, before he let out a dramatic sigh. "God, Mer! Come on, honey, let's get you some water," he threw Reese a subtle wink before he tightened his hold on his girlfriend's hand and tugged her into the kitchen. "You coming, Hop?"