𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓 - 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧

01. the vanishing of will byers

NOVEMBER 6, 1983

Aubrey and Robin hummed along to Bonnie Tyler's, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as it played for the third time of the night.

Aubrey was wiping down counters as Robin finished restocking shelves.

"You know Total Eclipse of the Heart is like... amazing, but Straight from the Heart takes it for me, Aubs." The dirty blonde said.

"That one is good, Rob." She replied, thinking for a moment, "But Bonnie just doesn't do it for me, honestly." She confessed, which led to a jaw drop from her friend, Aubrey held her hands up, "I love her, but Stevie Nicks is my main girl, you know that."

Rob nodded, "Fair, that's fair." She let it slide, finishing only her third to last shelf. "Ugh, there's so many of these U2 vinyls." She complained, picking up another one and loading it onto the second shelf.

"I don't even know a single person who listens to U2..." Aubrey took the cleaning bin to the back closet and put it back in its place, "Hey, I'll help you." She walked back out and over to her friend.

"No, it's okay. Don't you need to be home like..." She checked her watch, "Now?"

Aubrey grabbed Robin's wrist and saw the time, nearly a quarter till 8. "I'll just be a couple minutes late, it's fine."

"Remember how pissed your mom was at you though?" She reminded Aubrey.

"Jonathan is home by now, it's fine, trust me." She assured her and the two began stocking the shelves again. After a few minutes they finished and locked Hawkins Grooves up.

Robin's older brother was waiting on her in the parking lot, as Aubrey went to grab her bike to ride home. Robin's tried to offer her rides millions of times by now, but Aubrey would never take her offer.

"See you at hell tomorrow." Robin waved her goodbye.

"Yeah, see ya.", she chuckled, rolling her bike out onto the pavement then climbing on it, biking down the road all the way to her home. When she got back she placed her bike on the side of the house, noticing Will's bike wasn't there yet.

"Will?" Aubrey called out, expecting him to be home at least. He wasn't. Nobody seemed to be home, she checked everyone's bedrooms.

She shrugged it off and went back to her room, happily. She had been dreaming of climbing back into bed and finally relaxing since first period. She walked into her room and shut the door, drawing all her curtains and then changing out of her work clothes into fleece, navy blue sweatpants and a random band tee she had laying on the floor.

Her room was usually much more put together, she wasn't one to leave a mess. School and work had just been kicking her ass recently, however, everything was sort of a mess in her life.

Little did she know it was only about to get even messier.

Once she removed her makeup and brushed her teeth, she got into bed and dozed off to sleep fairly quick. She never heard either of her brothers or her mother come home.

The morning came and the sun peeked through her pink chiffon curtains, then her alarm began to go off. Aubrey rolled over and slammed her hand down on top of the alarm, shutting it off. She shoved her face in her pillow one last time before huffing and forcing herself to sit up.

She looked around her room, realizing for once, her alarm had beaten Will to waking her up. He always wakes her up, he jumps on top of her and shakes her awake, giggling and smiling at his sister's displeased expression and her crazy bed head of hair.