To Love a Boy ☆ S. Harrington

₀₁.₀₅.₀₂ ₒₕ, ₜₐₖₑ ₘₑ ᵢₙₜₑᵣₙₐₗₗy

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹⨯ . ⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ 

𓆉 ⋆.˚𓇼 ⋆.˚𓆟

November 11, 1983

The sound of gunshots rang through the air as Nancy and Magnolia approached Jonathan. The cans he had been aiming at, completely untouched. Magnolia fought a smug smile that threatened to show itself.

"You're supposed to hit the cans, right?" Nancy teased.

He finally turned to face the two now. "No, actually, you see the spaces in between the cans? I'm aiming for those."

Magnolia eyed him, wearily. "Y'know, I vote you don't get the gun."

"You ever shot a gun before?" he asked the girls.

They both shook their heads. "Have you met my parents?" the blue-eyed girl joked.

"Yeah, I haven't shot one since I was ten. My dad took me hunting on my birthday. He made me kill a rabbit."

"Cheery," Magnolia commented. In all fairness, she couldn't judge too harshly, at least he go to celebrate his birthday.

"A rabbit?"

"Yeah. I guess he thought it would make me into more of a man or something. I cried for a week."

"Jesus," Nancy muttered.

"What? I'm a fan of Thumper."

To this, Magnolia couldn't help but chuckle.

"I meant your dad," Nancy clarified with sly smile.

"Yeah. I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point, but... I wasn't around for that part."

Magnolia had to take a second to process. How had the conversation gone from light-hearted to serious in the span of seconds?

Nancy held out her hand, silently asking for the gun.

Jonathan hesitated for a second before he handed it over. "Uh, yeah. Just, uh, point and shoot."

"She's practically a genius, she can figure it out, Byers."

Nancy stood there for a moment, watching the cans. "I don't think my parents ever loved each other," she started.

Great, so the trauma train kept on chugging. Magnolia only prayed to some other worldly power that she wouldn't be the next stop.

"They must've married for some reason," Jonathan reasoned.

"My mom was young," she explained as she raised the gun, "My dad was older, but he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So, they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac, and started their nuclear family."

"Screw that," Jonathan replied.

"Yeah." She took aim, "Screw that."

The bang caused Magnolia to flinch, but a satisfied smirk made its way onto her lips as she saw the absence of a beer can on the tree stump.