Trouble // [steve harrington / stranger things]

25 - "You shouldn't be my backup."

"Yes, Joyce. If I hear from him I'll send him over." I hear Sylvia say into the phone.

"Gimme." I stick my hand out. "Joyce?"

"Frankie! I need you to come over."

"Why?"

"Just come, okay?"

"Alright." I say and hang up. "I'm not going to school."

"Fair." She shrugs.

"Not going to ask?"

"She said that Will was acting strange. I'm not surprised she asked for you to come over."

"I've barely seen her, Will or Jonathan since last year." I say with a shake of my head. "Jonathan kind of forgot about me, so I wasn't just going to invite myself over to the Byers place."

"I get it." She nods. "Get there before she calls again." She says and I nod. "I love you, Franks." She hugs me.

"Love you too, Sylv." I say and go to my room, looking around to see if there's anything I might need, before shrugging and leaving my room with a sigh. "If I call can you just pack me a bag with a change of clothes and bring it over? I'm scared we might have a repeat of last year."

"Of course. I'll even call you out sick from school if I need to."

"Cool." I nod. "I'll call you if Hopper shows up. He's probably still fuming from El."

"Oh I know he is. I went over there last night after I was sure you were asleep. She trashed the place. He was chain smoking on the front porch."

"Oh so he was in his natural habitat." I nod. "I'll see you later." I hug her again.

/

"Hi." Joyce gives me a tight hug once she opens the door to her house. "Thank God you didn't leave for school yet."

"Had a hard day yesterday, I didn't plan on going today."

"Yeah, Jonathan told me you punched someone."

"I did." I nod. "My boyfriend was cheating on me and I reacted like a crazy person." I say and she nods.

"Is the girl okay?"

"Broken nose." I say and her eyebrows raise. "She should've known better than to fuck with me. I pushed her into a wall last year and held her by her neck."

"I remember that! It's the same girl?!" She asks and I nod.

"Not to change the topic, but why did you call me over? Why is it so cold in here?"

"Oh right. Shit. Will. He's been having these dreams." She says and I nod. "I-I don't know. He's cold. Like 95 degrees last time I took his temperature. He doesn't feel the cold, just feels out of it. Like he hasn't woken up yet." She says, her voice lowering to a whisper, and my eyebrows furrow. "Exactly. I ran him a bath, and he said that he likes it cold. But it didn't sound like him. It didn't sound like Will." She says and I nod.

"Where is he now?" I whisper.

"He's in his room." She says and motions for me to follow me. "Hey, we have a visitor. You remember Frankie, right? She was with me and Jonathan last year when we were looking for you."

"Hey Will!" I say with a smile, but he doesn't even turn. He just keeps on looking at the window.

"Alright, well if you need anything, tell me." Joyce says and we head to the kitchen.

"That was weird." I say and we sit at their kitchen table, she offers me a cigarette.

"You're telling me?" She says and we sit down. "So your boyfriend cheated on you?"