Strange Things Are Happening. (Jonathan Byers x OC) Wattys 2017

03.

Jonathan.

"Who was that?" Will asked as soon at the two of them were buckled up, "That girl?"

"Huh? Oh, that's Samantha. She's Mike's cousin. Surely you've seen her."

"I have," his little brother grinned, "I just wanted to see if you knew her name. Which you did."

"Of course I do," Jonathan muttered, "She sits next to me in photography."

"She likes you, you know," Will informed him, to which he replied with a scoff, "No, really! We heard her and Nancy talking about it."

Jonathan didn't say anything, he didn't need to. Will got his answer in the form of pink splashing onto his brother's cheeks.

"Do you like her too?" Will continued to pry, "Do you loooove her?"

"Shut up!" Jonathan snapped, sighing as his brother continued to laugh, "She's cute, alright? But you cannot tell Mike about it." A small smile came across his face, "What else did you hear?"

"I won't tell him," Will promised, "And she said...I think she said that your hair looks soft."

Hearing that, Jonathan quickly raised his hand to run through his hair and shrugged to himself, "It's not that soft."

++

Back at home, their mother was just putting their dinner on the table when the two of them came barrelling through the front door.

"Hey!" Joyce snapped, forcing them to still, "Be careful! How many times do I have to tell you boys that?"

"Sorry, mom." the oldest boy said quietly, kissing her cheek softly, "Smells good though. What is it?"

"Mac and cheese!" Will cheered, "Mom, this is the greatest day! First, I aced my test for Mr Clark, then I won at D&D and now this!"

Jonathan zoned out as his small family continued to talk, quietly pushing his food around the plate as he thought about Samantha Wheeler.

God, she was pretty and she always smelled nice.

He noticed it when he had to show her how to develop her photos, which she still couldn't do properly but he had doubts about what Will said.

She was friends with Steve and Tommy H.

He wasn't. He was...just Jonathan.

His mom was speaking to him noticing that her eldest was staring blankly into space, not eating his dinner, "You okay?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"He's thinking about Samantha." Will snickered.

"Samantha?" Joyce asked, looking at Jonathan, "Who's Samantha? Do I know her?"

"She's Mike's cousin," Jonathan said quietly, "Mike Wheeler. She's...it's nothing. Don't listen to him."

++

The rest of the weekend passed quickly and Jonathan spent most of Saturday taking photographs, then he took Will to Mike's for a sleepover.

After dropping him off, he couldn't help but look up the window he saw Samantha in last night and he saw her again but this time, she wasn't reading. No, she was dancing.

Before he knew what he was doing, he was taking photos of her, regretting it as soon as he had done it and he quickly put his camera in the passenger's seat and took off. He didn't want to get caught.

On Sunday, he picked up a shift for work, knowing that his mom could use the extra money and after that, he was so tired, he fell face first onto his bed where he slept till morning.

Monday morning, his mom emerged when he was cooking breakfast and he looked over his shoulder to see her moving nearly everything around, "What are you looking for?"

"My keys," Joyce muttered, "Where's Will?"

"He must still be asleep."

"What?" she gaped, "Jonathan, you have to make sure he's up!"

"Mom, I'm making breakfast!" he argued, pouring some eggs onto plates as she went to go wake him up.

"He came home last night, right?" Joyce asked as she came back through.

"What? I don't know."

"You don't know?" she repeated, "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well, I was working -" he answered.

"You were working?"

"Yeah, Eric asked me to cover and I said yes. I thought we could use the extra cash!"

"Jonathan!" she said exasperatedly, "We've talked about this! You can't take shift when I'm working!"

"It's not a big deal, mom! He was at the Wheeler's house." Jonathan shrugged, "He probably just slept over again." He continued to fix the breakfast, pouring some coffee into mugs as she called the Wheeler's house but looked up at her when she said that he probably just went to school early and a knot formed in his stomach.

Will never said he was going in early.

His mom hung up and turned to look at him. He could see the fear creeping into her eyes.

"Okay," Jonathan nodded, grabbing his car keys, "I'll go see if he's at the school."

"No," his mom said, "You...eat your breakfast and get yourself to school. I'll drop in on my way to work. He's probably there."

"Mom." he said, watching her go for the door but she held up her hand and gave him a gentle smile.

"Try not to worry, honey. Have a good day."