𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓 - 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧

27. the hellfire club

SIX MONTHS LATER

Aubrey folded El's letter back up and into the envelope she sent it in. She opened the drawer of her desk that had the rest of her letters in it and placed this one in as well.

The only honest way to describe the last six months was: hell. Pure hell. Her dad was still dead. Her only family left still lived across the country. She was pretty sure her older brother hated her, for reasons unbeknownst to her. She refused to get on antidepressants. And, now she was living on her own.

With the money she had saved up, Hopper's inheritance, and her steady but minimal paychecks, after five months of crashing with Steve she finally rented out a studio apartment near the town square. Joyce worried about her living on her own but she was just fine living alone.

Alone, she had gotten used to feeling like that. Alone, sad, restless. That just about summed up her last six months.

Her and Steve were still going out, but her sudden move out had launched a brick into their relationship. She kinda didn't tell him about it until it was actually happening. She just didn't know how to.

She never really knew how to explain her feelings nowadays. Especially not to Steve, but he wasn't stupid. He knew she was depressed or something, but she didn't dare burden him with that fact.

And on top of it all, her one exit ticket out of here, going to NYU or Emerson (her backup school that Jonathan, Beatrice, and Nancy also had plans to attend) was all out of the picture. She got waitlisted for both of them. Which, didn't totally mean they weren't happening but the chances of them not are more likely than the latter.

It's no one's fault but her own, her grades have slipped. She just could never seem to focus on school, any of the work, tests, assignments. What's the point if she's not even going to the college she wants? None of it really mattered to her anymore.

She just wanted to escape... Hawkins, reality, life. All of it had become too much to even breathe sometimes.

She stood up from her desk, heading to the medicine cabinet in her bathroom, downing two Tylenol pills for her pounding headache. It felt as if someone was taking a hammer to her skull. She had been getting these a lot since the summer. Ms. Kelly says it's another symptom of stress.

She checked the time on the clock, Steve should be arriving any moment now to take her and Robin to school. She gathered her book bag and tied her beaten, red converse up, locking up her apartment and heading to wait outside.

Her hair was short now, she had chopped it off earlier this year. It now sat above her shoulders, blowing slightly in the wind, her natural color returned as well.

Steve's car pulled up in front of her, Robin sat in the back. She opened the passenger's side door and got in, "Hey guys."

"Good morning, babe." Steve greeted her, kissing her on the lips quickly.

"Drive!" Robin yelled from the back, interrupting their rare moment. "I cannot be late today!"

"Jesus Christ, Rob, I'm driving." Steve rolled his eyes as he turned back onto the road, heading to Hawkins High.

He had started to go on some tangent about how Dustin has been blowing him off or his hours at Family Video. Neither Aubrey or Robin had been paying attention to him. Robin busy doing her makeup in her little pocket mirror, Aubrey trying to focus on her study guide for the chemistry test she had today.