voltage ; stranger things

six ; the corner of main

IT'S the ringing and rattling of the telephone that wakes Colleen the next morning, pulling her from her place of escape. She blinks for a moment, then carefully crawls over Eleven and pads into the kitchen to get the phone. She checks the clock in the living room; almost seven o' clock. Who could be calling at this hour?

She yawns deep for a moment, rubbing her eyes, and picks up the receiver. "Hello?" she says.

"Collie?" asks Jonathan from the other end.

Her blood instantly begins to boil, her fury and sorrow and grief from the previous day returning. She squares her jaw, turning towards the kitchen. "What?" she asks through gritted teeth, attempting to keep her voice low.

"Collie, I've been looking for you everywhere. Where did you go yesterday?"

"What do you care?" she hisses, switching the phone to her other hand. "You seemed perfectly fine without me yesterday morning."

He says quickly, "Baby, I promise it wasn't... what you thought. Tom rejected our story, we got drunk, and..." He trails off, leaving the sentence hanging in the air.

"And what, Jonathan? Tell me. I'm so dying to hear."

"We just made out, okay? We started to... you know, but we stopped. We didn't. It wasn't what you thought, I promise you, Collie."

"Oh," says Colleen. She waves a furious hand through the air as though he can see her. "Oh! You just made out? Good, thank god, I thought it was something bad for a minute."

"Collie, come on. Please. Come over and we can talk-"

"You must be out of your damned mind if you think I'm coming over there," she hisses. She can feel the tears begin to swell in her eyes again, but she manages to keep them at bay. "I don't want to hear any more of your stupid excuses as to why you cheated on me, Jonathan. Do you understand me?" Her voice, before she realizes it, begins to rise in volume. "Don't call me, okay? Don't come to my work. Don't talk to my family. Just leave me the hell alone, got it?"

"Collie-"

"We're done." With that, she slams the receiver back into place and leans her head against the wall. The words feel like poison on her tongue, but she convinces herself it tastes good. He loved her, so she loved him back. He cheated on her, so she dumped his sorry ass. That's how it goes. She did what she had to.

Her head shoots up as the phone begins to ring again. She snatches up the receiver and exclaims, surely waking the others, "I told you to leave me alone!"

But, the voice on the other end isn't Jonathan. "Woah, Christ, Collie," says Steve. "I was gonna see if you wanted a ride to work, but I can leave you alone if you want." The small chuckle at the end of his comment brings her back to the reality of sarcasm and jokes. He's joking.

Colleen glances at the clock again, as if an hour will have already skipped by. "Work?" she asks, leaning back against the wall. She hears Hopper's door open from down the hall.

"Yeah," says Steve. "You know, the big new building in town with all the little stores inside. The mall?"

"Uh..." She takes a breath and rubs her eyes again. "Yeah, sure. Pick me up on the corner of Main, okay?"

"Corner of Main. Got it. I think. Tell me again?"

Colleen, in spite of herself, cracks a tiny smile as she stands straight again. "Stop. Half an hour." She hangs up just as Hopper enters the kitchen, immediately opening the fridge in search of something to make for breakfast.

"Who's picking you up?" he asks, producing a shady-looking orange. "Don't you have work today?"

"Steve," she answers, swiping it from his hand and dropping it in the trash. "And, yeah, he's driving me. He works at the ice cream place, you know that." She hands him a box of cereal instead.

"Harrington?" Hopper asks, giving her an odd look. He takes the box. "Didn't you, like... used to hate his guts?"

She used to love Jonathan, too, she thinks to herself. "Things change," she says. She waves a hand and the television jumps to life, playing the morning news. "And don't forget your keys are in your pocket. You didn't put them in the bowl."

Colleen goes back to her room and shuts the door softly, eyeing Eleven still sleeping in her bed. She tucks a strand of hair behind her sister's ear, then grabs her work clothes and changes. The wrinkles on her shirt are horrifying, but, then again, since when have the Hoppers cared about wrinkles? She brushes her teeth, combs her hair, and tugs on her shoes before heading back into the living room.

"Hey," says Hopper from his recliner. She stops, her bag over her shoulder and her hand on the door knob. "You need anything today, just call."

"Yeah," she says and opens the door. "Because the chief of police doesn't have anything better to do than cry with a teenager over a breakup."

She waves goodbye, then clomps down the front steps and starts down the trail leading from their cabin to the road. The morning summer air teases her, throwing her a bit of breeze before taking it right back and leaving her in the already-hot sunshine. She walks along the road until she reaches the corner of Main Street, then stands and waits. She raises her wrist to check her watch, catching a glimpse of her 012 tattoo. She stares at it, then looks away and lowers her arm.

After a few minutes, Steve's car pulls up and he, clad in his navy-blue Scoops Ahoy uniform, leans across the seat to open the door. "My lady," he teases.

Colleen climbs in and buckles herself up, taking a glance around the car. It's different from Jonathan's; much different. The car is newer, and more expensive, and the seats smell like leather and cologne. There's no trash in the floorboard and tossed in the backseat is a basketball, a spare pair of shoes, and a gym bag. Typical guy things. "Thanks for taking me today," she says as he drives on.

"No problem," he says, then shrugs his shoulders. "And, you know, if you want, it doesn't just have to be a today thing. I can take you from now on, if that's cool, since you don't have your own car."

She looks over at him, taking in his silky hair and ridiculous work uniform instead of Jonathan's ratty jeans and plaid shirts. And she decides she doesn't mind it. "Yeah," she says and faces forward again. "That's cool."