shame. - billy hargrove

one.

Kinsley has been anticipating this moment since she was seven, so basically since she left or had been forced to leave against her own will by her dad, but that's not what matters now because she's back. She's back in Hawkins.

She sits in her car outside of her childhood home, it looks older and more broken than before. Grabbing her duffel bag from the passenger seat, she gets out of the car and slowly walks to the front door. She takes a deep breath in, so many thoughts flashing around in her head.'What if I don't belong?' she asked herself, it had been ten years. She sucks in another deep breath and knocks on the door. Three loud and steady knocks. Dustin's face appears from behind the door, he has a cheeky grin plastered across his face, "Hello milady, how may I help you?" Kinsley places her bag on the ground and clears her throat nervously, "Can you get your mum and then come back?"

He nods, still grinning and runs into the distance, yelling. When a curly-haired, short and plump woman comes into view she places a hand over her mouth as tears form in her eyes, "Oh, wow! Look at you."

She embraces Kinsley, squeezing her tightly and turns to Dustin whose face is the epitome of confusion, she chuckles, "Dustin, this is Kinsley, the baby in the photos I have. She's your sister." His face drops making Kinsley's heart drop too. He doesn't want me. He stumbles towards her and hugs her, placing his head under her chin, "I love you, I mean I don't know you but I'm sure I'll love you."

...

As the next couple of days went on, Kinsley learnt a lot about Dustin and his friends. They have been spending the time that they missed out on when they were younger, playing games, joking around and having family dinners. Her room is exactly the same as when Kinsley was younger, the walls littered with black butterflies and a bright yellow moon in one corner. The room had been shut and the door locked since the day she had left. Kinsley and Dustin sat on the couch and talked about her time in Arizona before she realised that her childhood pet was missing from the overwhelming nostalgia of being back at home, "Hey Dustin, whatever happened to Mews?"

His eyes go wide and he shoots out of his seat, stuttering slightly. He had to decide whether or not he could tell his new sister the terrors he had endured over the last couple of years, "Uhm, can you drive?"

As she drove him around the small town, he explained everything. "...and well I decided to keep it and I called him D'Artagnan or Dart for short! Yeah, well, basically... his face kind of opened up and ate the cat." Kinsley stopped the car and looked over at him, "It ate her!?" Dustin looked at her like there was something wrong, shocked by her reaction to that part of his story. She furrows her brow and looks over at him, "What?"

"I just told you a whole story about how one of my friends disappeared, another one of my friends has superpowers and how these inter-dimensional creatures were trying to kill us and the only thing you get freaked out by is one of them eating the cat! Unbelievable." Dustin looked slightly horrified but there was still humour behind his voice as he shook his head. She ruffles his hair and chuckles, "I'm glad you're alive kiddo."

"Wait! What time is it?" Dustin's face relaxed and he smiles before it changed quickly to worried. "Around two", she calmly replied confused as to what changed his mood so quickly.

"Shit! Can you take me to the arcade? I was supposed to be there by now!" She stealthily pulled back onto the road and drove him quickly in the direction of the arcade. When they arrived, she parked right outside the door by three boys standing, waiting for Dustin. As he got out of the car, there were mumbles of complaints about waiting for another person. Dustin gestured for Kinsley to come and meet his friends - Mike, Will and Lucas.

"This is my long, lost sister, Kinsley!" he announced extravagantly. They all greeted her and bombarded her with questions before becoming distracted by the sound of a car and very loud music. A pretty young girl with red hair emerged from the car with a skateboard in one hand, "An hour, shithead, or you can skate home!"

She runs towards the boys and introduces herself briefly to Kinsley as Max. The blue Camaro drives back around closer towards the group, "Did you hear me?" The driver was young and pretty with smoke flowing out of his mouth, a light brown curly mop on his head and a set of piercing blue eyes. "Yes, thank you, Billy," Max says with a sarcastic smile and mumbles, "Dickhead."

She walks inside the arcade, not caring that the boys aren't following behind her. His eyes move from her towards Kinsley, he looks unimpressed but continues to undress her with his eyes wondering who she is and where she had come from. Kinsley rolls her eyes and turns around. He drives away quickly, skidding onto the road and roaring out of view.

She then aims her focus on Dustin, "I'll just wait in the car for you, whenever you're ready." He grins, thanking her and running inside with the others.

...

An hour later, the kids slowly disperse outside and Dustin makes his way towards me, getting into the front seat. "Does everyone else have a ride?"

Kinsley asks sympathetically, looking towards Max who looked up at the sky and then down at her stake board, she then placed it down and starts skating down the road.

"Yep," Dustin answers simply while putting on his seat belt. She starts to drive off and continues their conversation from before, "So, what happened to Dart?"

*