Invisible- Stranger Things Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty Six: CHRISTMAS

*A/N: Another time skip because, hey, 'tis the season! Plus, I doubt I'll finish this chapter before Christmas Eve, so it's only fitting. Sorry if you don't celebrate Christmas, hope you still enjoy the chapter!*

*Time skip, Christmas Eve, 3:05 PM, Dustin's POV*
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!"
"What's wrong, Dusty?" My mom was sitting in her chair, petting her new cat she'd bought herself as an early Christmas present. She trusts me to get nice stuff for her, but she also knows what she wants: more cats.
I kept rummaging through the junk drawer. "Spare change. I already have ten bucks from helping with chores around Hopper's house, sixty in leftover Christmas and birthday money, and twenty five from Erika because I did her math homework for her for two months-"
"Dusty?"
"Shit, Mom, the homework isn't important right now, I need five more bucks. Please!"
Mom stared at me a moment, weighing her options, then grabbed her purse from the side table and looked through it for a five. "Why do you need so much, Dusty? I thought you got your friends Christmas presents already."
"Mom, I did get presents. For most of the people on my list. There's a few more."
"Sweetie, there's already eight presents under the tree. That's enough for most of your party and me."
"I know. I have a few more," I repeated.
Okay, so I lied. I only had one more present: Mon's. I had my eye on something perfect for her, despite the fact that she told all of us not to get her anything. ("I'm living with my brother, I don't need any more entertainment, dipshits.") True, she said she didn't want anything, but what kid doesn't want anything for Christmas? I think she just felt badly because she and Steve were barely making ends meet as it was, and they could barely afford new clothes, let alone a new compass for future adventures or another set of blank cassette tapes. (I may or may not have seen what Will and Mike got her.)
Mom grinned at me, obviously figuring out what I was using all the money for but not commenting. "Alright, Dusty," she said. "Have fun."
I kissed her on the cheek, pet her new kitten (Meownica, despite the fact I begged her not to name it after my best friend), and ran straight out of the house, cash tightly stuffed in my pocket.

*Time skip, Christmas Eve, 7:00 PM, Nikki's POV*
Finally. 'Twas he night before Christmas, and all through the car, Steve was blasting Whitney Houston. We were on the way to Hopper's house, our new designated hangout, to spend Christmas together. I hadn't seen any of the girls since Steve picked me up from our Start-of-Vacation sleepover on Saturday morning, and I hadn't seen the boys since the night before, when they all went back to Mike's place for their own sleepover. Now, here we were, Tuesday night, all pulling up to the Hopper household at 7 sharp. We sure were punctual for carefree, badass teenagers.
"You ready?" Steve asked as he pulled the key out of the ignition, unlocking the car doors.
I nodded, clutching our presents for everyone tightly in my arms. Just because I didn't want anything didn't mean I couldn't get anything for them. "Let's go."
As I was about to open my door, I almost fell out of the car from the surprise of someone opening it for me. "Shit," I muttered, but decided not to tell them off because it was Christmas Eve.
"Merry Christmas to you too, Mon." Dustin laughed as he looked down at me, his hair a mix between styled and wild. As if wanted to look nice, but still like himself. I noticed he had opened the door with his one free hand, the other holding up a stack of presents as big as mine.
"There better not be one for me in there, Henderson," I said seriously, although a smile made its way to my face.
Dustin smirked, which surprised me because normally our facial expressions were reversed. "You'll just have to wait until Christmas Morning to find out, Harrington."
He never called me by my last name, so this actually made me giggle a bit. Realizing I was still in the car, I stood up and closed the door behind me, balancing my gifts in both arms, seeing as they were still much smaller than Dustin's.
We made our way to the door together, fighting over who got to open the door for whom.
"You don't even have a hand to open it with!"
"Yeah, but if a guy were holding a shit-ton of things, he would still try to open a door. A good guy anyways-"
"Okay, both of you just go." Will laughed at us, but rolled his eyes. "I've been holding it for you guys for like three minutes."
I pushed Dustin through first, smiling at my chivalrous friend. "Thanks, Will."
Will grinned back, handing me a big paper shopping bag. "Here, take this to the couch for me so we can open it when everyone gets here. This isn't just for you, it's for everyone. So, technically, I didn't break the no-gifts-for-Nikki rule."
Curiosity trumped my annoyance at the fact Will had actually gotten me something, so I took the bag to the couch as he requested. Max, Sarah, and El were in El's room, and Lucas and Dustin were talking at the dining room table when Will and I walked in, so we were just waiting Mike, Nancy and Jonathan. Hopper and Steve were trying to find a Christmas record amongst all of Hopper's music.
"They're really excited we all get to spend Christmas together," Will said, motioning to the two adults. "I heard them talking when we were all planning this. They're glad we've all stuck together through... everything." He looked down as he said this.
Things had been okay since homecoming, but high school drama had finally caught up to us. For one thing, all of the other couples at school started having sex, but the couples in our party (which was everyone excluding me, Dustin and Steve) didn't want to. I mean, it was understandable: our friend group had enough problems, why add in the awkwardness of sex? Plus, I think for them it was like admitting that we were actually growing up. It was so much easier when our biggest problems were fighting monsters; at least then we could pretend like it was all make-believe, like we were little kids channeling our fears and indiscretions into those huge, ugly creatures.
For another thing, the whole drama of everyone dating each other added a lot of tensions to the group. Will and I hardly hung out alone anymore, and at our girls-only sleepovers, all we ever talked about was boyfriends. Not to mention the fact that even making eye contact with Dustin nowadays made everyone think we were getting back together. I mean, it's been months, when were they going to get over it? I needed time still, and while I felt left out being the only single girl in the party, it was also a bit fun. It made me stand out in the group, which was awesome.
The door closed as Mike walked in with Jonathan and Nancy, who was now getting big enough that she had to start wearing those special stretchy pants. She was also really emotional now, and craved the weirdest stuff, making it fun for all those disgusting boys to cook up strange combinations for her like rocky road ice cream with pickles, Pop Rocks, and tons of extra marshmallows.
"Oh, Nikki, it's so great to see you!" Nancy ran over to me and gave me a huge hug. "It's been forever!"
That was true. I hadn't seen Nancy since before homecoming. To be honest, I kind of missed her; Nancy was like a big sister to me, despite breaking my brother's heart and shooting my then-boyfriend in the chest.
I patted her back gently. "Nice to see you, too, Nance."
"Okay, now that everyone's here," Will announced, "I have something for us all!"
We all gathered around the couch as Will grabbed the bag. Sarah ran to her room to grab another bag that looked just like to.
"We had to get it for all of you," the older Hopper girl said. "And it took a while to get them personalized, but it was so worth it."
Will nodded, so we all opened up the bags. Inside were a bunch of matching Christmas pyjamas. The girls had green pyjamas, the boys had red, and each of us got a red Santa hat. What was even better was that each pair had one of our names on the top- even Hopper had a pair that said "Chief."