Shared Trauma (Stranger Things AU)

[4]

OCTOBER 29TH 1984

"Ve...I need your help."

She looks up from reading IT, Billy looking at her.

"With what?"

He grumbled before;

"I'm taking Spanish for school and Maxine and I are starting tomorrow since moving here."

She widened her eyes.

"Oh."

"Yeah, and I don't know shit about Spanish except how to count to ten and some words."

Ve smiles.

"I'll help you."

X

And so the lesson started, and Billy was getting a bit frustrated.

But god bless Ve, she's super patient.

And a surprisingly good teacher for someone who doesn't know how to write very well...

Then again, she can read really big books with and has a good vocabulary (even if she doesn't use it sometimes).

Slowly though, the topic shifted (Billy is starting to suspect Ve has really bad ADHD cause while a good teacher, she's jumping between different things on Spanish he's pretty sure doesn't need to learn, but oh well) and they're laughing at Billy's dumb jokes.

He wasn't even aware he could make jokes.

Ve wiped her eyes, giggling.

"Gabby and El would have found that hilarious!"

Billy furrows his eyebrows, the laughing dying down a bit.

"Who's Gabby?"

And just like that, Ve's smile vanishes, horror in her expression at what she just shared.

"S-Someone! No one." She quickly stammered.

He narrows his eyes.

"Someone or no one?"

Ve hesitates, looking at Billy with watery eyes, rubbing her wrists before looking down.

"...little sister. BLOOD sister."

She had another sister?

"Why don't you talk about her?"

Ve let the tears run down as she turned, a quiet sob escaping.

Oh...

"Oh, shit...I'm sorry Ve, I shouldn't have asked."

She wiped her eyes, sniffling.

"I don't like talking about her...makes me sad."

A very tensed silence grows as Ve wrapped her arms around her legs, bringing them to her chest.

"...Want some Eggos?"

X

Billy and Ve were watching ET on the TV, Ve's plate of Eggos empty as she had eaten all of them.

Originally, Billy had wanted a distraction from the tension there was after learning about Gabby.

But ET was surprisingly good and Ve seemed interested in it enough.

The conversation had been mostly forgotten for now.

X

"Make sure to stay away from Max if you see her."