Falling Upsidedown || Byers

Chapter Two: The Weirdo On Maple Street

            Jaylin woke up, her throat slightly dry from her yelling fit at Dustin the previous night. The guilt of yelling at Dustin, although he deserved it, ate away at Jaylin's insides so she decided to call in sick from her job at the comic book store and make Dustin his homemade breakfast she promised him yesterday before everything became chaos. She made fluffy, yellow, scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and toast for Dustin, nothing special but special enough.

            Dustin wasn't up after Jaylin finished making his breakfast and he didn't have to be up for another couple minutes so Jaylin used this time to try and call Joyce to see if anything new about Will has shown up yet. Jaylin dialed the Byer's phone number but all she heard was beeping from the other end. Beep, beep, beep. Jaylin hung up with her eyebrows drawn in confusion. She quickly forgot about the beeping phone when she heard the stairs squeak as Dustin made his way down them.

            When Dustin walked into the kitchen, let me tell you, the last thing he expected was Jaylin sitting at the table with homemade breakfast set on the table when she is supposed to be at work. Dustin approached the table carefully, having no idea what is going on. Jaylin saw this in his eyes, "What?" she said.

            Dustin took a seat across from her at the small round table, "It's just, last time you skipped work AND made homemade breakfast Gandalf the gray hamster died." Jaylin shook her head, "Well, you can relax, no one died this time." Dustin visibly relaxed and slouched into his chair and started to grab food and pile it on to his plate. With his mouth full of food, he asked, "So, why did you skip work AND make breakfast."

        Jaylin looked at him with apologetic eyes, "To say sorry about losing my cool on you yesterday, even though you well know, you deserved it." Dustin took a big gulp, accidentally swallowing the food in his mouth. This was a conversation he was dreading, even though Jaylin just apologized he will most likely hear another lecture about what he did was wrong, blah, blah.

        Dustin already knew what he did was wrong and he did feel horrible about making Jaylin worry, he felt so bad that the next sentence he said he almost told her about the weirdo, as Lucas calls her. He quickly second guessed mentioning the 'weirdo' and instead said, "I'm sorry Jaylin, but Will is my friend and I wanted to help. But I SWEAR I won't go running off again."

        Jaylin gave Dustin a smile, "I know, your a good kid Dustin but we both know your words and actions are two different things. I just don't want you to go missing as well, Mike and Lucas too. If I lost either of you guys as well, I don't know what I would do." Jaylin stood up from her chair and grabbed Dustin's hat of the kitchen counter and put it on top of his curls, " We good?" she asked. "Yeah," Dustin gave Jaylin one of his adorable toothless smiles.

        Jaylin gave a look at the clock, "About time to leave Dustin, unless you want me to drive you, then you can leave later." Dustin stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder, " I'm going to take my bike. Thanks for the food, see you later Jay." Jaylin moved his hat around on his head, "After school I want you to either come back here or go straight to Mike's or Lucas's. OK?"

        Dustin, who was basically out of the house shouted a quick, "Will do," over his shoulder before getting his bike and pedaling off. Jaylin cleaned up the now cold food, eating some of it herself before driving to Hawkins High.

        When Jaylin got to school she parked her car in her usual spot and walked into the school. Jaylin tried to make her way to her locker when she was stopped by a voice calling her name. She stopped to see a group, Tommy, Carol, Nancy, Barb and the person who called her name, Steve Harrington. "Jaylin," Steve called to her again. Jaylin gave him a forced smile. Steve wasn't exactly her friend but he wasn't mean to her or anything, he was just very annoying. The only reason why Steve talks to Jaylin is that in ninth grade Jaylin helped him pass the final exams. If he didn't pass them his parents were going to take his stuff away and ground him for summer so every since Jaylin helped him he has always talked to Jaylin and sometimes wouldn't leave her alone because Steve said he felt like he owed her something but she wouldn't accept anything. Right now Jaylin wished she just accepted something, only if that meant he would leave her alone.