When Friendship Becomes Forever

Chapter 17

Nancy

The sun had long set upon the mid-June sky as I drove without meaning down the long, Indiana roads that led in and out of Hawkins.

I didn't know where I was going or what I was hoping to achieve; I was just...driving, seemingly unable to stop.

Tears had come and gone, making me somewhat cathartic as I listened to the radio station playing 'That's What Friends Are For'.

It was almost ironic, thinking about everything that had happened.

"I'll be on your side forever more

That's what friends are for"

I almost laughed, thinking about how stupid it was.

How stupid I had been.

I was scared.

So scared of what other people would think, what they would see, that I ran away.

I gave up something that I loved, someone, that I loved because I was scared.

How would I ever get back what I lost?

Who I had lost.

The girl of my dreams.

The one who had brought me out of the typical, straightforward life I had been living and helped me to see the world in a new light.

She had shown me what life was really about; helped me to see that I was simply surviving.

My whole life I had been the good girl.

The princess.

The one that everybody expected to marry some guy like Steve and become a housewife, looking after the band of children I had given him.

And for a while that's what I had expected too.

It wasn't what I wanted, far from it.

But it was a life.

It was a future; something to be certain of.

But then my world was literally turned upside down.

I lost Barb and...I lost everything.

I was forced to find somebody-something- that was left in the ashes of my innocence.

But I couldn't.

Instead I found fire.

I found rage and passion and determination.

I became somebody that nobody had ever expected.

But I was still only surviving.

Until I met Robin.

It was the Fourth Of July, last summer, 1985.

It was also the Battle Of Starcourt.

And, if I'm completely honest, when I first met her I hated her.

But I guess now I realise that I hadn't truly met her.

Hadn't seen who she really was.

So when I did, I was spellbound- enchanted by her every move, obsessed even. (A/N: Some might even say...under her spell- i'm sorry lmao iykyk)

She took me out of the shell I had been hiding in since the night I lost Barb and showed me who I could become.

And I guess somewhere along that crazy, exciting and somewhat terrifying journey...I fell in love with her.

I fell in love with her voice, with her laugh, with her words and her sense of humour.

I fell in love with everything about her.

And I never fell out of love with her.

I never stopped liking her, even now, after being the one to break her heart.

I still loved her.

I still needed her.

She was more than my girlfriend, more than the person I loved, more than my soulmate.

She was my best friend.

My everything.

The final bars of the song played and I felt fresh tears slide down my cheeks, moonlight shining down upon the roof of my beat up old car.

"That's what friends are for," I whispered, turning the car around.

I didn't know where I was- the roads softly melting together that no landmark stood out among the black roads and pine trees but I knew in my heart that would find my way.

And maybe, not only would I find my way back home, I would find myself.

And everything and everyone that I had lost too.

Maybe I just had to look hard enough.

(A/N: Told you things would turn around! I didn't realise it would be quite so literal though 😭🤣 Hope you liked this chapter! Stay safe and totally tubular and I'll see you in the next one! xx)