Teenage romance is already difficult enough to navigate.
But when the one you love doesn't love you back? That's the worst pain of all.
STRANGER THINGS | NANCY WHEELER
seasons 1-2
┌─────── •✧• ───────┐ CHAPTER ELEVEN no use crying over spilled milkshakes └─────── •✧• ───────┘
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( the monster, pt. ii )
• °:.☆ . ₊°• ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆
SLEEP IS NOT kind to Laura that night. As hard as she tries, no matter how tightly she shuts her eyelids, she can't drift off to slumber for more than a few minutes at a time. And even when she does manage to fall asleep, it's fitful and restless. Her dreams are plagued by dripping blood and ice-fold fear.
The physical evidence of her rough night is displayed in the tumultuous state of Nancy's bedding when Laura opens her eyes. Half of the comforter off the bed with the baby blue sheets crumpled in a tight ball near her feet. The extra blanket she'd grabbed for herself now lies on the floor.
She sits up and notices that Nancy is already awake, scribbling furiously in a notebook and surrounded by books. She resists the urge to glance at what she's writing and instead whispers, "Hey."
"Hey," Nancy replies. She continues writing as she adds, "You kicked me in your sleep."
Oops. Laura cringes; she isn't the easiest person to share sleeping arrangements with. "Sorry."
"S'okay. Even though you practically waged war on my bed."
Right. Laura surveys the chaotic state of Nancy's bedding once again before she starts to tidy it, pulling the sheets smooth and straightening the comforter. When she leans over to yank the blanket from the floor, she gasps as she reveals the sleeping figure of Jonathan, losing her balance and tumbling onto the carpet beside him.
The poor boy wakes via her elbow slamming into his side. He jolts, muffling a curse, and Laura wants to perish from embarrassment that makes her face burn.
"Oh my God," she says. "I am so, so sorry. I forgot you were there."
"It's fine," Jonathan assures her, even though it's totally not fine, and he's definitely going to have a bruise there. Plus her blanket had fallen on him in the middle of the night. He rubs at his tired eyes and surveys the rings under hers. Then he notices how Nancy is still writing with laser focus, obviously having been awake for a while. "Couldn't sleep?"
Nancy shakes her head. Her pencil pauses on the page. "Every time I close my eyes, I just keep seeing that... thing. Wherever we were, that place... I think that it lives there. It was feeding there— feeding on that deer. That means that if..." she inhales deeply, preparing herself for what she's going to say next, "if Will and Barbara..."
"Hey," Jonathan says, sitting up. "My mom said she talked to Will. If he's alive, there's a chance Barbara is, too."
"That means that she's trapped," Nancy says. "In that... place. We have to find it again."
