so close, yet so far // jancy

Chapter 5

Nancy laughed. "I'd love one if you don't mind."

"I don't mind at all."

He turned to open the drivers door, but Nancy grabbed his wrist.

"Yeah?"

Nancy stared at him, wanting to get something off her chest.

"I'm so sorry. Gosh, how could I be so stupid! You had something going on with Will and your mom and I just stood there blabbering about my problems and how you didn't call me while Will was on the floor rolling around! I was so selfish and stupid and..."

Jonathan kissed her swiftly, and Nancy almost fell back in surprise. He held tufts of her silky hair. She pulled away breathless.

Jonathan had his hand against her cheek, smiling at her.

"You talk too much, Nancy Wheeler."

"Is that how you get a girl to shut up? By kissing her?"

"Well it worked, didn't it?"

Nancy smiled.

"Touché."

She walked around to the passenger side, and climbed in. Jonathan got into the drivers side. He sat there for a moment in silence.

"Hey, Nance?"

She looked up at him, grinning. "Yeah?"

"I should apologize too. For not picking you up and making you walk. And also for being kind of mean and pushy this morning."

"Jonathan, it's fine, really. Let's just put this behind us, okay? I'm just glad you're here, now, with me."

He smiled. "One more thing."

She gazed at him.

"Why did you really stop by my house this morning? Be honest."

She chuckled. "Why do you think? I was worried about you. I was scared.. I don't know... that maybe something had happened to you. I know it's silly. I get bad anxiety over things like that."

"No, it's not silly! I would worry about you too if you didn't show up one day."

Nancy smiled, then she rested her head on his shoulder.

"My mom was right."

She looked up at him quizzically.

"She said that you were worried about me. She could tell by the way you were talking."

"Mother knows best." (jonathan and nancy don't get the reference because they're stuck in 1985)

Jonathan started the engine, and pulled the car out of the school parking lot.

"So", Nancy started, "Where are we heading?"

"Somewhere private. I need to talk to you about something important."

Nancy sarcastically gasped. "Jonathan Byers, are you going to propose to me?"

His eyes lit up with amusement.

"At least not today I'm not. Maybe somewhere in the future."

Nancy felt her cheeks turning pink.

Was he being serious?

"Well, until you do, I'll be waiting."

"Don't count on waiting too long."

She felt her cheeks turning an even brighter shade of pink; a shade of pink that she didn't ever think existed.

In the corner of his eye, he saw her extremely blushing, but he didn't say anything to embarrass her more. Instead, he sat in silence with a permanent smile glued to his face.

"Okay, but seriously, where are we going?"

"You'll see."

.........................

"Castle Byers?", Nancy exclaimed.

Jonathan led her inside of it.

"Okay, I need to talk to you", his tone turned serious. "It's about Will."

He explained everything to her, from his episode, to him saying that the gate was open again in the Hawkins lab. Jonathan also told her that Will said the mind flayer wants him to join himself on the other side, in the upside down.

When Nancy heard all of this, she hugged him tightly.

"All of this sounds completely awful, Jonathan. I hope Will stops having
episodes soon. And I really hope the gate isn't open again."

"Yeah, me either."

He suddenly sprang up.

"Why does this thing keep messing with us? Can't it just let us be? What does it want from Will? Why can't it just leave Will alone?"

She stood up, thinking.

"I think it needs Will. He's the mind flayer's only connection in this dimension. And if it leaves Will alone, it will lose that connection that it needs."

Jonathan paced around.

"That's just a theory", Nancy said. (a gAmE thEorY sorry i had to)

"No, but it makes sense. Perfect sense. But I still don't understand why it wants Will to go with him through the gate? Why would it want its only connection to this dimension in its own?"

"Maybe it wants Will to go through the gate, so it can repossess him and send him back here as a spy again?"

"But when Will got possessed he was still in our dimension."

"Not necessarily though, right? Wasn't Will able to go to the upside down at random, and he couldn't control it?"

"Well, I don't think Will actually went to the upside down to be possessed. He was still here, in our dimension, but in his brain he was in the upside down."

Nancy rubbed her head. "This is getting confusing." She sighed. "I'm not sure why the mind flayer wants Will to go through the gate. Maybe so they can conquer our dimension together? I'm out of ideas."

Jonathan offered a weak smile. "I am too."

"But isn't it funny how it singled Will out of everybody in the world?"

"No, not really. Will was the only one to go the upside down and make it back out... alive. I mean at least I think so, other than your mom and Hopper who went in there to save him, right?" She paused for a moment. "Wait, no that doesn't make sense. I'm sure a lot of those wacko scientists went in there, and they made it out fine. Damn, I'm so lost I'm starting to contradict myself."

Jonathan laughed softly. They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Jonathan offered his hand to Nancy. She took it, and he helped her up.

"Where to now?"

"Well, I have an idea. You may not like it, but I'm going to tell you it anyways."

Nancy smiled. "Try me, Byers."