eternal flame - s. harrington

Chapter 20: Love Is In The Air

(A/N)
hi! just wanted to thank everyone who's been reading and supporting my fic! i've been dealing with some serious writer's block these past few weeks but i'll try my best to get back to writing. anyways, here's chapter 20. hope you enjoy!

February, 1984.

Valentine's day was coming up, and the hallways of Hawkins High definitely showed it.

The whole school was filled with tacky heart–shaped decorations, with corny quotes, like 'Be Mine' or 'XOXO' on them. It seemed as though the usual school colors, green and orange, had been switched to red and pink. Even the bulletin board in my homeroom had a huge poster that said 'Our Class Is Full of Sweethearts' with all of our names written on heart–shaped cards around it.

The Hawkins High glee club was interrupting every class to sing a corny love song to someone that their valentine had paid them to sing.

Fourth period. Math class. I was sitting on my desk, about to fall asleep as my head was propped against my hand. I couldn't listen to a word the teacher was saying. I've had a difficult time concentrating at school, lately; the anxiety attacks and night terrors followed by the incident that happened in November were making sure of that. Most nights I couldn't sleep, or was woken up in a cold sweat after another nightmare about what happened.

Usually it was the same nightmare, which followed the events that happened at Hawkins Middle that night. I'd find myself running around the hallways, orchestrated by the vague shouting of agents from Hawkins Lab. I'd run to a man, who stared at me with an evil smile spread across his face, pointing his gun at me. Suddenly I'd see my red, trembling hand again... And then I'd wake up.

It had happened last night, again. At this point, it didn't even matter if I took my anxiety pills or not. It seemed like nothing was helping.

The bell rang and I snapped back to reality. I turned to look at my notebook to see an empty page. Then I turned to look at the chalkboard, which had a bunch of different equations written all over it. I sighed, knowing I missed everything there was to learn from this class. I got up, grabbed my stuff and exited the classroom into the crowded hallway.

As I was walking towards my locker, I walked past Steve and Nancy, who were partaking in major public displays of affection. Nancy had her arms wrapped around Steve's neck while his were placed on her waist as they made out.

I shook my head as I walked past them. I observed the people in the hallways, and noticed we were divided into three different groups;

There were the Love Birds, which meant those who had a valentine and weren't afraid to show it — those who made out in the hallways and received flowers, candy or teddy bears.

Then there were the Hopeless Romantics, the ones who obviously had a special person on their minds — the ones who pined for that person instead of plucking up the courage to ask them out.

And then there were the Lonesome Losers, the ones who didn't have anyone, not even in their minds, like myself.

I opened to my locker and saw a flyer on top of my books. I grabbed it to see what it said;

KISSING BOOTH!

SHOW SUPPORT FOR THE FOOTBALL TEAM
BY KISSING THE QUARTERBACK
IN THE MAIN HALLWAY
ON TUESDAY
THE FOURTEENTH OF FEBRUARY

ONE DOLLAR PER SMOOCH!

I rolled my eyes as I crumbled up the flyer and let it slip out of my hands, to the floor. Last thing this place needs right now is another mono epidemic. High school feels so unhinged, sometimes...