Hey Jude | A STRANGER THINGS Story

CHAPTER FORTY NINE

Judy, Steve and Dustin waited, leaned against the counter, while Erica peered down the air duct with a flashlight. She seemed very skeptical about the half-baked plan Dustin had proposed to her.

"Yeah, I don't know," she said, stepping down the ladder.

"You don't know if you can fit?" Dustin asked her.

"Oh, I can fit. I just don't know if I want to."

"Are you claustrophobic?" Judy asked this time and Erica only snickered, "I don't have phobias. I just have a problem with what's in it for me. Or that I still don't know what that is."

Judy smirked as she nodded for Erica to follow her out to a booth. They sat in chilling silence as Steve continued to bring out different ice cream creations for Erica to gaze upon. Finally, he slid a banana split over to her and she looked pleased but still skeptical.

Steve, Dustin and Judy look at her expectantly.

"More fudge, please," she said, coyly.

Steve was reluctant to drag the banana split back across the table and stand up, leaving Dustin and Judy to convince Erica.

"All right," Judy said, holding up the map of air ducts and the red line marking the path to the secret room. "You see this? This is the route you're gonna take. Then we just wait until the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door."

"Then you find out what's in those boxes?" Erica asked, sounding unimpressed with the plan.

"Exactly."

"You know what this plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment."

"We'll be in radio contact with you the entire time," Judy tried to reassure the young girl, but got a finger waving in her face anyways. "Ah, ah, ah. Child endangerment."

Judy rolled her eyes, leaning back in the booth and looked to Dustin for assistance. He followed, "We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm? Don't you love your country?"

"You can't spell America without Erica," she said as a matter of fact.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Oddly, that's actually true," Dustin pursed his lips in approval. "So, uh, don't do it for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America... Erica."

"Know what I like most about this country?" She looked up from the cup of ice cream she'd been scooping into, "Capitalism. Do you know what that is?"

"Yes," Judy responded plainly, wanting to get to the point and fast.

"It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I'm talking free ice cream for life."

Judy stuck out her hand in front of Erica, mirroring her cocky smile, "For life."

And so they waited, once again, for Erica. Steve, Judy and Dustin were back on the rooftop, looking over the Russian storage room at the back of the mall. Dustin kept his on their surroundings through his binoculars, and Steve stayed next to Judy as she waited to hear Erica's voice ring over the walkie talkie in her hands.

All Judy could hear was the subtle summer breeze in the woods surrounding the mall and Steve's light breathing. They had waited so long that she started to daydream about the night she went to his house when he said she was his best friend. She'd woken up in the middle of night, just on the brink of a treacherous nightmare, to see him facing her.

At some point in the night, they both turned around, and he faced Judy in blissful sleep. He had that perfect pouty look on his face and the small strand of hair that laid over his face and nose moved ever so slightly under his steady breathing.

As spastic and dramatic as Steve was, Judy always found a steady place with him. He was a rock, unwilling to move if someone needed support. She admired him for being so strong for others even whilst he was struggling himself. She found her reflection mirroring his often.

Two lost souls only finding their place at the hands of each other. Begging to be free from responsibility but knowing they'd be nothing without someone else needing them.

Judy knew she was born to protect. Her childhood and lack there of embedded a strong need to change the lives of others, so that they wouldn't live the same way she did. So that they didn't feel the same pain.

Steve was also an abandoned child. Sure, his parents had money, but they never should've had a kid to begin with. They didn't pay much attention to Steve, which is why he went above and beyond to stay with the kids and Dustin to make sure they were safe. Even if he did complain the whole time.

They were so similar it was hard to escape. Judy and Steve were two different people, who lived two different lives. But they somehow made it to each other. Judy somehow found the one person she felt pure solitude with, after living her whole life thinking nothing was more than shaky and uncertain. And Steve somehow found Judy, the one woman who he was sure wouldn't leave him behind for the next best thing.

He was a playboy, hiding behind his good looks and sultry flirting. But he was a lover above all. He searched for a love that he never found with his mother, the person who was supposed to teach what it meant to be loved by a woman, the person who was supposed to teach him how to love. He would've dated the entire town of Hawkins trying to find that love if it wasn't for Nancy.

The quiet girl with a shy smile. She didn't throw herself at him, she actually pulled away. She seemed like she loved Steve, so much so that he truly fell in love with her for it. But she left, finding her place with Jonathan Byers, the same way his mother found her place with her boss, while her husband drank a six pack of beers outside by the pool.

And then there was Judy. The girl who was always with Nancy, even if it was in the background, Judy shadowed Nancy. Filling those tiny spaces between Steve and Judy with her faint light.

Everything Steve was missing seemed to be in this one person. A simple human who completely baffled him every day. He couldn't understand her, but he still somehow knew the darkest parts of her heart. She spoke to him with such vulnerability and trust that it made him spin.

He wasn't scared of her harsh stare and her chilling demeanor, he saw her too clearly to be scared. He was too enamored by Judy.

He'd never been so sure of who he was with Judy. Steve used to be a fake. A scared kid who hid behind himself in order to save face. But with Judy... that wasn't what he was.

He was the boy who was in love with Judy Hopper.

As simple as it was, it was all he needed to be.

In love with Judy Hopper.