gumball machines and brown-haired boys

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

 In another world, Gabe and Alina would've been stepsiblings, silently suffering through the same abuse. In another world, a world where Alina had been a better daughter and Gabe had been a less brave son, they would've lived together, silent glances conveying that they knew each other's pain. In another world, one without Demogorgons and superpowers and possessed teenagers, perhaps that would've been their life.

But Linda had left. Pretended Alina didn't exist. And Gabe had run away, and had thus been disowned, but they'd still found each other. Still knocked into each other the weekend before his arrival, and still became friends. It was funny how these kinds of things worked. Funny how you were just meant to meet some people, meant to share that connection with them.

Alina and Gabe weren't stepsiblings, but they were still friends.

And they were both alive.

Alina rested her head on the pillow now, her mind awhirl. Gabe had the same stripes on his stomach that she had been self-conscious about for so long. Gabe had been ridiculed just like she had. Gabe had been through what Alina had never wished on anything else, and that was all because of Linda—Collins, Burton, Fairgrieves, whatever her last name was. One woman.

Guilt swam through her. After Linda had left, she'd thought that had been it. She'd never thought about what Linda was doing with her life, what horrors she might've been inflicting on other children. She'd just been glad that she was gone.

She'd let go of Linda when she'd burnt that letter. But she wished now she could do something. She didn't want Nicole to grow up just like she did. She didn't want Linda to hurt any more children. She wanted that woman locked up somewhere where no one could be hurt.

Or... maybe she could do something. But she couldn't do it alone. She needed help, and that help was standing by her bed, wearing a button-up shirt.

She'd have to wait, of course, but the notion that she had at least the faintest inkling of an idea made her relax a little more, and she let herself relax as Jonathan, at the party's urging, finally dug through the bag he'd brought with him. "So," he said, "we, uh, we got something for you."

"You did?" Alina hadn't expected anything. Hadn't even had the room in her overflowing mind to expect anything. So much had happened in the brief moments she'd been awake, been healed, been whole, that she hadn't thought about it at all. But she remembered when Will was in the hospital—he'd stayed for a week after the Accident—and how his bedside had been overflowing with gifts. She'd gotten him a sketchpad.

"Yeah, of course, Al," said Lucas, and he smiled, adjusting the bandanna tied around his head. He was still wearing it, even though there weren't any Mind Flayers, Demogorgons, or bad men left to fight. Perhaps it was just a comfort thing. Perhaps because he knew she loved it—or maybe Max did.

Jonathan put a box down on her bed. "Open it," they all urged, as Joyce watched on, seeming a little nervous. Alina didn't have time to be confused, however, because she was opening the box, and pulling out the first thing she found inside. It was heavy and smooth in her hands, and she took extra care as she pulled it out. Her eyes bulged when she saw what it was. "Holy shit!"

It was a camera, sleek and polished and definitely better than the shitty old one she'd been given by Joyce for her photography lessons. As Alina felt the new camera's weight in her hand, Jonathan let out a laugh at her expression. "It was secondhand, but it's barely been used," he explained. "I thought that since I've been teaching you photography lately, you should have a better camera."

Neither he nor Joyce reprimanded her for cursing, and Alina grinned. "This is amazing. Thank you so much, Jonathan." Fondness for the older teenager swept into her heart, and she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly before pulling the next gift out of the box.

Two chocolate bars. One was a jumbo-sized Snickers, which would always be her favorite, and the other one was a 3 Musketeers bar with a smiley-face drawn on it in Sharpie. Alina didn't even have to ask who it was from. She already knew.

"Dustin," she groaned, causing the boy to burst into laughter.

"Sorry," he chuckled, "I couldn't resist. But now you'll be able to befriend Demogorgons, won't you?"

Alina hugged Dustin, who'd been there for her since the very beginning. Making the decision to speak to him and Lucas that day before school had been the best decision she'd ever made, and she was so glad to have a friend like him by her side. Even if he hid baby Demogorgons under his hat in attempts to impress girls and fed them 3 Musketeers. He was Dustin Henderson, and Alina wouldn't ask for anyone else.

She pulled out a bag of gummy worms from Mike next, who explained that they'd compiled this box together in case she woke up. "Like we knew you would," he added at the end quickly, but Alina wasn't so sure about that. She was just grateful to have Mike, who may have not let her in the party at first, but was the one who, eventually, made her feel the most welcome.

From Will, she got a comic, one of the newer ones she'd told him she'd been eyeing before all of this shit had gone down. From Gabe, she'd gotten a new Halloween costume for Skywalker (a skeleton, to match her costume this year), from Max, a gumball machine, but when she pulled out a leather jacket, nobody claimed it.

"It's from El," Mike explained.

Alina blinked. "She's okay, right?"

"Yeah, perfectly fine," Joyce butted in. "Hopper just wanted her to stay home for a little while. She's dying to see you, though." She let out a laugh at the jacket. "That must've been the one that she was given by that girl she met."

Eleven. Alina remembered thinking of all the things she'd teach Eleven about last year. Baking, the movies, the arcade, everything a teenage girl, even a telekinetic one, should get to experience. And now, they'd finally get that opportunity. It was everything she dreamed of.

The last gift she pulled out of the box was from Lucas. He'd given her a brand-new switchblade (something Joyce was a little nervous about) and a brand-new boxed set of all the Star Wars movies. Alina hugged the tapes to her chest, and then hugged the boy who'd given it to her. Lucas Sinclair. She couldn't believe she'd gotten distant from him, Mind Flayer or not. And so when she hugged him, she hugged him the longest.

Lucas stayed behind in Alina's hospital room, and the rest of the party had dispersed, called back to their own homes. Jonathan and Joyce were talking quietly in the waiting room, and Gabe and Will had made their way outside for some fresh air. Sitting on the bench outside the hospital, the two of them simply breathed, knowing that, for at least a while, they could.

"I'm glad Alina's okay," was the first thing Will said. Gabe marvelled at the way the wind whipped through his hair and the lightness in his eyes now that he was not being controlled by the Mind Flayer. They seemed deep now, pools of honey, as opposed to the shallow pits they'd been before.

Gabe nodded. "Me too." He was thinking about the box, which they'd all gotten together to set up yesterday. They'd cried a lot, choking out sobs as they placed everything in, because they hadn't expected her to wake up. At least, not for a while.

But then she had.

He cleared his throat. "How are you holding up?"

Will shrugged his shoulders. He still seemed so frail, like a porcelain doll that would shatter at a moment's notice. There was a certain hollowness in his face still, but he'd been eating, and was beginning to regain the weight he'd lost. "I'm okay," he said. "I mean, I guess, compared to everything. But... sometimes I'm just sitting with you guys, and I feel this weight in my chest, and I feel like the Mind Flayer's still in me. Like he's just waiting again, like he did for Alina. And I get so scared, and my chest goes tight, and I have to pretend like things are fine because I don't want people treating me like I'm a baby again."

"Will," Gabe said softly. "It's okay to not be okay. You don't have to pretend like everything's fine if it isn't. And I promise you, people won't treat you like a baby. I mean... you've been through so, so much. You're so brave, Will, and you're so strong, and people see that. They know that."

Will smiled, his cheeks blooming into rosebuds. "You've been through a lot, too," he said. "How're your legs?"

There were slight welts in them from where the vines had wrapped around. Mike had similar ones, but his had already faded, as Steve had been able to cut him out faster. Gabe didn't know if his would fade. But as he reached out to caress one of the marks, he found he didn't mind so much. Sure, he hadn't gone a night without dreaming of them, but dreams were just that—dreams. And they all had scars now. Alina had one in her own leg from the teeth of the Demodog. Lucas had a slight mark on his shoulder blades from being shoved into the cabinet by Billy (who had been taken to the police station, although Gabe didn't think he would get into much trouble).

They all had scars.

"I'll be fine," he said now. "They don't hurt, or anything." His eyes wandered around, and then it fell on the familiar spot, right below the nose. Right where a boy wasn't supposed to look at, if the one he was looking at was another boy. But Gabe couldn't help it, which is what cut him deeper than any vines ever could.

I like you, I think. And not as a friend.

In Alina's hospital room, Joyce Byers finally revealed what she'd been so nervous about.

Alina had just spoken to Lucas—who hadn't revealed anything about what he'd said back at home before all the shit hit the fan—and was lying back in bed while a nurse pulled the IV drip from her skin (now that hurt) when Joyce, Will and Jonathan reentered, their limbs shaking. Will was beaming, though, and Alina figured he must've had a good conversation with Gabe. She was glad they were friends. Glad Gabe wasn't so alone.

"Hey, sweetie," said Joyce. "I-I've got something for you. Well, we've got something for you. We... we just wanted to give you the letter first, just in case you... just in case." In her hands was a stack of papers, but she was too far away for even Alina to read them. "I... we were thinking..." Jonathan nodded at her encouragingly, and Joyce continued, "you've been living with us for so long, but you weren't officially part of the family."

She held out the stack of adoption papers. "Would you... would you like to make it official?"

In movies, these kinds of moments seem to slow down, but that wasn't what happened in this hospital room. Instead, it all seemed to go twice as fast as Alina Fairgrieves threw her arms around Joyce Byers, and then pulled Will and Jonathan in as well. A sob choked out from her throat, but it wasn't a sob of despair, which she had been doing too much of as of late. No, this was a sob of happiness, because she had finally found her real family. Finally found the place where she belonged.

"Oh, I'm so glad." Joyce was crying, too. "It wouldn't be the same here without you."

They were all safe, and they were all alive, but at that moment, Alina believed that the ghosts of her dad and Bob came along, too, beaming proudly from up above. She'd never forget about them.

So although Alina Fairgrieves would always have those skeletons in her closet, and screaming nightmares, feeling the Mind Flayer wrap its tendrils around her again, she had a new family now, and so she'd never been better. That moment, wrapped in their arms, was forever, and Alina truly believed that it was all over. Knew she was safe. Knew the Mind Flayer was gone, and she was happy.

Or so she thought.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: the way we only have one more chapter and then an epilogue... guys i'm actually getting emotional. this book means so much to me and i'm going to be really sad when it's over, even though we've still got a whole new one with alina and gabe!

also, alina is adopted!! i've been foreshadowing this from the beginning, and i'm so happy it finally happened. she's no longer linda's kid, which i'm so happy about. and she's no longer just alina fairgrieves. she's got a whole new last name now, which you'll see next chapter! :))

i hope you enjoyed, and this bit of wholesomeness provided a light in the darkness of the world right now. i love you all. :)

'till next time!