The Long Game, Lucas Sinclair

know it's for the better, know it's for the better, know it's for the better

◦☆＊★ ━━━━━━ ★＊☆◦

THREE MONTHS LATER

Goodbyes were one of Sam's least favorite things. She'd had trouble saying goodbye to her parents' graves after they were buried, she'd had trouble saying goodbye to her stuffed teddy bear that had to be thrown away after Corey had mutilated it, she'd had trouble saying goodbye to Mr. Clarke on the last day of middle school because he wouldn't be her teacher again.

Sam's had the experience of saying goodbyes, but that didn't mean she liked it. Every time she was required to, she was pretty sure a piece of her heart died a little inside.

She still couldn't say goodbye to Bob's grave. Or Billy's. Or Hopper's — who hadn't made it out of the pile of rubble that was once Starcourt Mall. Big, strong Hopper that made it out of everything was the one who didn't make it out this time. He sacrificed his life so Joyce could close the Gate.

Sam still missed him.

She couldn't say goodbye to them, so Sam didn't know how the hell she was possibly going to say goodbye to El and the Byers.

After everything they'd gone through, Sam didn't blame them for choosing to move. She really didn't, they deserved to be safe and happy and away from all of this, but Sam couldn't help but resent Joyce a little for sending two of her bestest friends 2,274 miles away to fucking California. Max tried telling Sam that it was fine, that California would be good for them, but Sam couldn't seem to accept the fact they were actually leaving.

She didn't react in August, when Will told her that Joyce confessed they were moving.

She didn't react in September, when Will and El told the Party they bought a house in California.

She didn't react in the beginning of this cool October, when they confessed their house here in Hawkins had sold.

It was a little startling to her friends honestly, because Sam tended to be an emotional person. She was an Empath, for fuck's sake — emotion was the whole thing. But Sam had only shrugged the topic off, procrastinating accepting it at all. She shrugged it off, the same way she shrugged off the ways she tried sacrificing herself back at Starcourt.

Not until the Party had a big sleepover in Mike's basement the day before El and Will were to officially move. That night, they'd all accepted it — they all cried. The Party watched El and Will's favorite movies, they shared their favorite memories, and finally — for the sake of poor Will — they played a final campaign of D&D.

The tears first culminated for Sam when El revealed to the other seven she brought a scrapbook she'd been making to document the memories of her first time having a life of her own. It was full of pictures that Sam wasn't even sure how El got. Some were when the original Party was young — really young. It was back when Sam wore bows in her hair every day; Dustin didn't have any teeth; Lucas was going through his phase where he refused to smile in pictures because Sam claimed it was "pretty;" Mike's hair was still being straightened by his mother; and the fringe of Will's bowl cut hung in his eyes.

Some pictures El, Corey, and Max were present for, though. Like the picture Stephanie had taken of Sam, Max, and El cuddling during that one sleepover over the summer against their knowledge. Sam had the same picture framed in her room. There was another picture of Corey reacting to a horrible joke Sam had made by throwing her into the community pool — Will had taken that one, so Sam assumed that he handed it over to her.