Joey Hopper//Will Byers -Book two-

Dig Dug: Part one

We walk down the foggy streets, my jacket hiding El's face. There's not many people around, just a handful of kids on their way home from school. I guess to the common eye that's what we look like too. Just two siblings making their way back to their house. If only they knew that we're actually going in the opposite direction.

The entire time we continue on, I can feel a pit grow larger in my stomach. I know that something is terribly wrong with Will. It's like someone's practically whispering it into my ear. It goes against every instinct I have to follow El but then again, it's either I go with her or I let her go alone. As odd as it still feels to say, El is my family. You're never supposed to leave your family stranded.

So before I know it we're outside of Hawkins, approaching a sketchy looking truck.

El begins to walk into the road but I grab her by the hood. "El stop!"

"Huh?" She turns to me confused.

I sigh, "you're not very street smart, are you?"

"Street...smart?"

I try to think of a way to explain but eventually I just shrug it off. "We'll talk about that later. Just no running into the road, okay? You could get run over by a car."

Her eyes widen.

"Then how?" She asks, pointing to the truck that's growing closer to us.

My brain rattles for a moment before an idea pops up.

"I think I saw this in a movie," I start. "Watch this."

With that I stand right where the grass meets asphalt and stick out my arm, forming a thumbs up with my hand.

"Hey!" I shout. "Two hitch hikers here!"

El gives me a weird look but to both of our surprise, the truck actually comes to a stop. A man cranks down his window and asks. "You two need a ride?"

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.

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"Allright," he starts. "I think this is it. Five-one-five Larrabee, right?"

I look out the window, seeing an average looking home sitting in front of us. Not a big one or a small one, just...average.

"Yes, five-fifteen." El responds, reminding me that I hadn't yet answered.

The man smiles. "Alright, five-fifteen, sure. And hey, you two better apologize to your momma. She must be scared half to death. How long has it been?"

I slightly narrow my eyes but then I realize that this man must think that we ran away. It makes sense. All we told him was that we needed a ride to our mom's place.

"A lifetime," El answers.

With that I grab my backpack and we both make our way out of the car.

"Thank you." El and I say in unison.

The man shutters slightly. "Yeah, no problem. Are you two from the shinning or something?"

I tilt my head slightly to the side, not knowing what he means. Dad didn't let me watch the shining when it came out and he still won't let me now. His opinion doesn't really matter anymore though. This man was slightly right, we are both runaways now. I've got to start living that runaway life. You know, doing whatever I want whenever I please. That kind of stuff.

I end up just nodding. "Um yeah, something like that."

With that he just looks more terrified and I take the hint to leave. We turn around and reach the door just as I hear him rush off. El and I exchange looks, a silent conversation seeming to pass between us: