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HOW MUCH DOES IT TAKE for one to leave everything behind? For Amara's family, it was a multitude of things – Scott losing his job due to the energy crisis aftershock, Kevin's decision to take a gap year to accumulate enough money to go to college, and though her parents still denied it to this day, not a single high school in Cleveland accepting her. And while the move hadn't been easy for any of them, Cleveland had never truly been home for the Reid family, especially Amara. Hawkins, in spite of the turmoil it had put them through, was home. It was home because the people there made it so.
Amara couldn't imagine how difficult it would be for the Byers to leave their home behind.
Joyce had broken the news to everyone two weeks after the battle of Starcourt that they were selling their house and moving to California. It was a decision she'd been contemplating after everything Will had been through, kept at bay by just how much he and Jonathan needed their friends. Hopper had been the one to remind Joyce that she had people in her life who cared about her, but his death from the machine's explosion seemed to be the final nail in the coffin.
It was a lot for everyone to process, that the four boys who had been inseparable since the fourth grade would be parted from one another, that Jonathan would only be accessible to Nancy through a phone call, that Eleven, who was now part of their family, would be thousands of miles away from the only friends she had ever known. But a fresh start was nothing less than they deserved, and their companions had no right to tie them down.
The notion that their time together was limited had brought a fractured Party back together, with them making a pact to prioritize their joint friendship over any romantic relationships that existed within their group. With help from Amara, Will requested that they partake in a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, which all of them agreed to, regretting leaving him behind when he was the glue that held them together. One campaign led to ten, resulting in Mike and Lucas rediscovering their love for the game and enthusing about joining the Hellfire Club alongside Dustin when they began high school. It pained Amara to know that Will would never get the chance.
True to her word, Amara hadn't let her newfound relationship with Steve get in the way of her friendships. Whether she was comparing her sloppy artwork to Will's gold standard, sorting through old photos with Jonathan, or making friendship bracelets with Eleven, the family that had always been a bike ride or car drive away wouldn't remain that way for much longer, and Amara was intent on cherishing every possible moment they had between now and when they moved at the end of August.
Even so, her and Steve's relationship was quite unconventional. Instead of the typical honeymoon phase of sharing milkshakes, them submerged in cool water with her legs around his waist, and moonlit kisses that tasted of bubblegum, it was waking up from a nightmare and calling the other, who had almost certainly suffered the same fate, driving around town with their hands clasped together over the console listening to their favorite songs, and indulging in the silence that only came when two people understood each other. It wasn't a honeymoon stage – it was a healing stage.
