teenage nightmare [ stranger things ] discontinued.

chapter fourteen.

TEENAGE NIGHTMARE
CHAPTER FOURTEEN — PART ONE.
THE MORNING AFTER.

           The next morning at Murray's, Jonathan, Nancy, and JP sat in utter silence at the dining table. JP pretended to be wholly interested in the tablecloth covering the table, noting that it was an awful ugly mustard color, so that he could avoid Nancy's suspicious look. Murray had poured each of them a glass of orange juice and was scraping hot and fresh scrambled eggs off of the pan and onto four separate plates. When the plates were set in front of them, JP made sure to shovel a mouthful in quickly so that he'd hopefully be saved from any conversation. Both Nancy and Jonathan gave him an odd look, but Murray seemed amused, shifting his fork in between his fingers as he looked between the three. The awkwardness was absolutely killing JP, and he was impatiently waiting for one of them to declare their departure.

             Of course, that wouldn't happen without Murray saying something to throw them all off. He finished his analytical looks over each of them before settling on Jonathan, casually glancing down at his food before stabbing his fork into the eggs.

            " So, Jonathan, " He said as the boy took a long drink from his glass, " how was the pullout? "

              Jonathan nearly choked on the juice, and Nancy stopped scraping her fork around the plate, her lips pressed to a thin line while JP actually did choke on all the eggs shoved into his mouth. He managed to not die, quickly regaining his relatively calm demeanor as he forcefully swallowed.

             " I-I'm sorry? " Jonathan asked, dragging his eyes from JP to Nancy and finally to Murray as the glass in his hand shook just the slightest bit.

              " The sofa. " Murray insisted in a tone like that should've been obvious, tilting his head slightly to insinuate that he knew exactly what he had meant to do, though.

               " Oh, oh, yeah, it was good. " Jonathan replied, and JP leaned forward, pressing his hand to his face; as insane as Murray definitely seemed, JP wasn't sure if he could put it passed him to have cameras in every room. He obviously knew that Jonathan didn't stay in the study, and his implication was not something JP wanted to hear considering he knew that Murray knew they were all three in that bedroom.

             " I bet. " Murray said with a smirk on his face before he put a piece of egg into his mouth, purposefully making the situation impossibly more awkward as JP lowered his hand to cover his mouth, shooting the man a glare.

          
            After breakfast, the trio gathered the few things they had and Nancy made a call to her mother, coming up with some story that she spent the night at Ally's house— JP had never heard of an Ally, he wondered how gullible Mrs. Wheeler really was —and that she'd be home shortly. When Nancy hung up, she placed the phone down and looked over at Jonathan, who was pulling his coat on.