MARCH 21, 1986
2 YEARS LATER

NICK WOKE UP IN A COLD SWEAT.     That stupid nightmare again. Panting, he looked over to the digital clock that sat on his night stand to see the time: 3:00 a.m.

     It had been like that for the past couple of weeks, this constant pattern of tossing and turning and waking up at the same god awful hour. Nick was good at convincing himself that it had been stress that was keeping him awake, but he didn't really know if stress came in flashes of red and gurgling noises. Deny, deny, deny; repress it and push it away. His father would be proud. But his father dropped him off at his grandfather's over two years ago and he was still here so fuck him.

    Throwing the cover off, he walked into the bathroom and turned on the light. He winced as the area lit up, having gotten used to the dark, but stared at himself in the mirror anyway as if that was going to make him wince less. He hunched over and checked his pupils. Normal. Skin? Not that weird yellow color it was when he had that bad cold. After a successful checkup, Nick turned the light off and went back to bed.

After the Starcourt Mall Fire, people in Hawkins seemed to have a little more sympathy for everyone around them and as nice as it was, Nick wasn't holding his breath. It was weird that a tragic accident led more people to consider being in tune with their emotions and the citizens they encountered. It was a cycle, really—there's an accident, people check in on each other, things go back to normal (or as normal as they can). Another accident, others ask if you're okay, things go back to normal and so on and so forth.

    Nick remembered when he had been recommended to see the Hawkins High counselor but that only made him feel worse because it reminded him that no one really stuck around enough to flesh anything out. The closest he came to relating to anyone was Jonathan Byers, when his little brother Will went missing—and Will, by extension, with all of the strange looks he'd been given when he came back. With the amount of people that have been checked in on, he wasn't one of them. Pardon him for being cynical, but no one's given him a reason not to be. With all the shit that had been thrown at him the past couple of years, it was hard to see if anyone really cared or not.

    But it didn't stop Nick from caring about everyone else to a particularly unhealthy fault. He was still a good kid with a good heart, despite it being stretched too thin and squashed too hard and battered and bruised three times too many. He was a good kid going through a hard time and he didn't want anyone else feeling that way. He recognized the cycle and he wanted to put an end to it.

     So Nick went on his way, coasting through Hawkins and keeping his head up and a hand out. Now that it was March and Nick was working two jobs (one at Family Video and the other at the local shooting range), he felt ready enough to leave this town behind. He had graduated high school despite his army-crawling his way through his toughest class, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to go to college at the moment. Maybe he could take a gap year and figure himself out. That was always a good idea.

The bell above the door to the Family Video store rang and Nick casually lifted his head to see who it was as he was shelving several different VHS tapes. Robin and Steve entered so they could clock in for their afternoon shift, Robin talking animatedly as per usual and Steve looking like he wanted to rip his ears off in the most inoffensive way possible.

     Nick smiled at the two and returned his attention to his pile of tapes and rolled his cart down the aisle to continue on with his morning shelving. He overheard Robin talking about tonight's championship basketball game and a girl by the name of Vickie. Robin was a year below him so he didn't know much about the new upperclassmen after he graduated, but it was a small town so things were bound to fly faster within the radius.

     "Hey, Nick," Robin called from the counter. Nick creased his brows as he lowered the copy of Fast Times at Ridgemont High in his hands, blinking owlishly. He normally wasn't this stupid when it came to people acknowledging his presence but considering he was out in the open and not hiding in the back like some loser, being put on the spot made him freeze like a deer in headlights. Sooner or later, he started to move towards the counter, still having yet to let go of the film in his grip.

    "What's up?" Nick asked, finally thawing back to his normal self and looking from Robin to Steve and then back to Robin as he rested his upper body on the counter.

    "I want you to settle something for us," Robin offered, leaning forward, as well, the two almost being nose to nose.

    "And what could that possibly be?"

    "What kind of person you are when pausing 'Fast Times'—" Robin's eyesight lowered to the film in Nick's hands, "—at fifty-three minutes, five seconds."

    "I wouldn't know, I always skipped that part." Nick shrugged nonchalantly before leaning back. It seemed to have clicked within Robin's mind the second Nick's answer left his mouth but Steve was still confused. After a few minutes of silence, the confusion slowly turned into realization as his brain made a full circle as he nodded slowly. "Besides, I figured the entirety of Hawkins would've known by now. Shit here spreads faster than the flu. And who better to pick on than the 'freak demon' himself."

    "Demon?" Robin made a befuddled face at the insult. "Why would anyone call you that? You're like, the most quiet person I know."

    Nick rubbed a hand over his face, sighing. "I used to zone out a little too hard that it made me look possessed or in some sort of trance. Top it off with my being gay and there you go, you've got yourselves a freak demon. I'm also pretty sure one of the assholes from school had called a priest on me and pretended to have me exorcised. Jason or whatever the fuck his name was."

"What the fuck?" Steve muttered and Nick nodded, clicking his tongue. "How have you not murdered anybody, yet?" Steve asked.

Nick shrugged. "Because it's not gonna make me feel better. I'd rather not amplify it if it isn't a means to an end."

"Didn't know you were such a pacifist, Bender," Robin commented, crossing her arms, intrigued.

Nick scoffed. "I never said anything about being a pacifist." Before he went back to shelving, he asked, "How do you guys feel about trailer park tacos?"

So the trailer tacos were a no-go—something about already planning to grab a bite to eat. But Steve and Robin did convince Nick to come to the Hawkins championship game to cheer on one of their friends. Nick slowly said yes, pretending to go over the calendar in his head even though he knew damn well he had nothing else planned besides working almost every day until he died.

They all piled into Steve's car and they were off to Hawkins High. Nick sat in the back, with Steve in the driver's seat and Robin in the passenger.

"Hey, Steve, I thought you said that your parents wouldn't be back for another two weeks," Nick commented, noting the other car in the driveway after Steve pulled out.

"No, they're still gone," Steve replied bitterly, "that's my little brother's car, he just started driving. You remember Thatcher? He's two years younger than us, now the star slugger for Hawkins' baseball team?"

"You remember all that?" Nick raised a brow.

"My parents won't shut up about it!" Steve groaned, playfully rolling his eyes, "He's practically Hawkins High's golden boy, who wouldn't wanna brag about it?"

"Yeah, I remember him. He's a good kid."

Steve scoffed. "Believe me, the little shit's a rascal."

"Much like you, then? Must run in the family," Nick smirked, seeing Steve roll his eyes in the rearview.

"I will toss you out of this car, Nicholas Bender, and I will not hesitate to leave you to fend for yourself."

"I've got three inches on you, Harrington," Nick returned, "not including my—"

"Ahhhh!" Robin interrupted the two, "girl in the car! Have some class, Bender!"

Nick huffed out a laugh as Robin turned the car stereo up to drown the other two out.

"Boys," Robin muttered as she rolled her eyes.

AUTHOR'S STICKY NOTE.
first chapter woo !
feedback and thoughts are much appreciated <3