𝐈𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐘 | stranger things
Marleen thought that maybe after fighting an interdimensional monster everything would've come back to normal. And it did, at least for a year.
Then another monster decided to take a liking...
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chapter seventeen, like a spy movie.
THE NEXT MORNING had Marleen waking up early, even before Steve, which was odd since the boy usually woke up at the crack of dawn to go on a run. Marleen glanced around the living room, they had fallen asleep there just like last time; except that this time, they were on the same couch, each on each side, their feet and legs touching. Thank God for the long couch, or Marleen would've woken up with Steve's feet on her face. Yuck.
Quietly, Marleen detangled her legs from Steve's and got up. She gazed at the teen; his usually well-groomed and carefully brushed hair was tussled; his eyes were closed and his long eyelashes fell in a swoop; his mouth, slightly open. Subjectively, Steve was handsome, Marleen couldn't deny that. But this, seeing him asleep, at his most vulnerable -and the same for her, was a privilege that Marleen never thought she would get.
If Marleen had to be honest with herself, and she rarely was when it came to this, she had fallen for Steve. Hard.
Last October and November was when the seed was planted, the following months it just kept growing and growing until now. Now, the sprout that was before was a fully bloomed flower-a daisy, since it was her birth flower.
A flower at risk of withering.
The blonde teen sighed. Careful, she went to the bathroom and tidied herself up before going straight to the kitchen. As she set up the coffee maker and waited for it to boil, she grabbed a pen and paper and wrote a note for when Steve woke up before pining it on the fridge.
'Went back home to at least show Dean I'm alive and well. See you in Scoops, Sailor. There's coffee in the coffee maker (duh!). Lee.'
Marleen hesitated, fingers twitching to draw a heart next to her name, before leaving the note as is and leaving.
The walk to her house is quiet, as is expected on a Monday at seven in the morning, the sun was barely up as she walked the empty streets of Loch Nora.
The quietness and chillness of the morning were perfect for Marleen's mind to wander even more, especially on one specific topic: Jonathan.
To say that Marleen still loved Jonathan was an understatement; they had been through thick and thin together, multiple times. From being bullied in middle school and high school, to defeating extradimensional monsters, to now: radio silence. It had been officially a full week since Marleen last spoke to Jonathan, and while it was just one week, they were used to seeing each other almost every day. Marleen understood it, though, Jonathan had a girlfriend (his first girlfriend!) and a great internship as a photographer in Hawkins Post; she didn't want to be an obstacle in Jonathan's future--just like she is for Dean.
Dean was another topic. Her brother had spent most of his young adulthood taking care of her, with no regard for his life or future. Marleen was grateful, of course, but sometimes... sometimes she wondered what could've happened if their father hadn't died and their mother stayed; maybe Dean would've gone to college, or go to culinary school like he wanted. Maybe he would've still been with Joan. And maybe they wouldn't have been this fucked up.
