Tell me, how does it feel to have my teeth in your heart?
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steve harrington x fem!oc
stranger things ╱ season 2-5
cross posted on ao3 by cosmiclovrs
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Real Life Sucks Losers Dry
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July 1985.
THE SUMMER OF '85 came with a blistering heat, but Rhiannon thought there was something romantic about this time of year. It clung to the blossoming honeysuckle and the sweet trace of fruit-scented sunscreen in the air. It lived in the drops of sweat trickling down sunburnt spines, leaving skin sticky and people carnal. Polaroids that would fade into half-remembered memories. Popsicles dripping over fingers and dyeing tongues neon. Pavements so hot you could fry an egg on them. Cicadas that sang lazily in tall grass. Eyes burning with chlorine after the first splash into the pool. Fireworks that split the night sky in half with pretty colors. Sugary, teeth-rotting kisses that tasted like ice cream. Sunsets bleeding orange while spending the evening outside, waiting for the coolness that night will bring.
Most people in town chased that oceanic feeling, even without a beach in sight. They spent their time at the community pool, cramming together too many bodies for anyone's comfort, trying to save themselves from the heat wave that ravaged the town. Local shops were shutting down left and right ever since Starcourt Mall opened, their gradual end shaded behind rose-tinted sunglasses.
Of course, this was a town that didn't forget. The string of tragedies carved into their history created some paranoia. Disappearances, murders, satanic cults, animal attacks (allegedly). People were scared, and they had a right to be.
But Starcourt tucked all the horror under the proverbial rug. Why dwell on government conspiracies or missing kids when you could shop for a new pair of shoes? Ignorance was sweet, sweet bliss — or an air-conditioned Eden.
Rhiannon Liu, a girl with plans, was determined to make the most of her summer before moving away for college. Maybe it was a childish wish, tainted by the bittersweet haze of nostalgia, but it was the last attempt to cling onto an era of her life she won't ever get back; especially not after what happened in the spring. This was her final protest before reality came knocking.
