heart strings // stranger things

O N E

Monday's in Audrey's opinion have always been the worst days of the week. Monday meant that the weekend was over and that she still had to endure five days of school. It also meant that she had to wake up to an alarm blaring in her ears, crust in the crook of her eyes and drool in the corner of her mouth. It's just like any other boring, normal Monday. She sat up groggily, her eyes still sealed shut as her hand found the long, rectangular button to shut off the repetitive beeping of her alarm clock.

She stretched out her arms wide, yawning quietly as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up slowly, fully expecting to dip her feet inside her fuzzy slippers, the ones that she always kept bedside. Instead they hit the cold, solid hardwood floor. She sweeps her feet back up and in the same movement she kicks a hard object that then jumps up, letting out a pained yelp. Audrey's eyes snap open as she lets out a terrified scream of her own, it dies in her throat quickly once the sleep no longer blurs her vision and Artie is standing in front of her with his arms lifted in an attempt to cover his face in case she decides to hit him.

"What the hell are you doing?" She questioned harshly, holding her hand to her chest to still her racing heart. He peeked from behind his arms with a sheepish grin, his eyes cast to the ground as he shrugged. "Were you sleeping on my floor you weirdo?"

"What? No way! That's ludicrous." He denied still avoiding eye contact. She scoffed, standing from her bed as he scrambled to his feet to collect the blanket and pillow he brought in with him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get ready for school."

"Wait a minute, you didn't tell me what you were doing in here." She narrowed her eyes at him as he spun around, adjusting the lump of fabric in his arms. "Does this have to do with last night?"

"Definitely not." He told her, his tone was a pitch higher than normal. Then he moved his arms again and a metal bat slipped from the blanket and clattered to the floor, just missing his sock covered feet.

"You seriously believe that a bear chased you last night?" Artie nodded and Audrey shook her head, letting out a deep sigh of frustration. "Okay, let's say a bear did chase you... you really think it's going to wait until you're sleeping? And, do you really think you'd be able to take a bear... with a bat? I've seen you try to play sports."

"When you put it that way..." He mumbled, deflating. Audrey picked the bat back up and shoved it into the blanket before she circled around her brother and placed both her hands on his shoulders, guiding him out of her room and into the hallway.

"This is exactly why you have no friends." She commented, holding her bedroom door. Artie spun around and Audrey spotted the smirk on the corner of his lips.

"Then what's your problem?" He asked her, "Nancy and Nancy's friends don't count."

"You're still sour, Michael told you he didn't want you to play in their dumb game." Audrey teased triumphantly. Artie blew out a raspberry, as he moved towards his own bedroom.

"Their loss, not mine. Mike's just mad my paladin is a higher level than his. I have better things to do anyway to play with a bunch of newbs." He called out before entering his room and shutting its door.

Audrey couldn't help but laugh, clicking her own door closed and heading directly to her closet. She pulled out the first sweater her hand touched, which happened to be a plain, fitted black turtleneck and tossed it on her bed before grabbing a pair of light colored, high-waisted jeans off her floor. She'd only worn them for three hours on Saturday so she considered them still clean regardless where they'd been stored, or thrown.