chapter thirty-five
hungover princess diana

🖤

THE NEXT DAY OPENS WITH THE WORST headache ever — Ruby rubs her eyes, trudging into the kitchen in search of painkillers. She remembers the medicine cabinet in this house is at least fifteen years out of date, and she begins to wonder if out-of-date painkillers are deadly... She puts her fingers to her temples, her brain pounding, and wonders if death is worth it. Maybe Grandpa left some quaaludes around here, he seems like the type.

"Um..."

Ruby lets out a yelp, jumping almost a foot backwards. She looks up, to find the last person she expected, standing at the foot of her grandpa's stairs.

"What are you doing here?" she demands.

Harrington puts his face in his hands. "I think we slept together."

Ruby wants to die.

Her cheeks burn bright red as she paces the room, looking over at him. "OK, no, maybe we just tried to when we were drunk but nothing happened... Drunken impotence is a thing, right?"

Harrington looks embarrassed. "When... has that been a problem before?"

"Oh my God." Ruby covers her face with her hands. This is a nightmare. There were two things she wasn't supposed to do when back in Hawkins — and one was get back with Harrington. At least she hasn't used her powers, right?

The thought of that makes her feel a little better. With a newfound sense of relief — sleeping with her ex is one thing, waking up the Upside Down is another — she turns to Harrington.

"We speak of this to no one."

"Agreed."

Ruby frowns. "... Why'd you agree so quickly?"

"Uh, because I don't want anyone to know either?"

"... Why not?" she says.

Harrington glares at her. "You moved away from here, remember? You can leave this mess, but I won't live this down if anyone finds out."

That stings a little. Ruby crosses her arms.

"Well. You could put your t-shirt on, at least."

She thinks she's making a valid point, really. She does not need to see her ex-boyfriend chest — especially now that it's gotten a lot more muscular. God. She imagines what that would feel like... No, stop, she tells herself. Point is, he's topless, only wearing his jeans.

And he frowns.

"Well, someone must've put it on last night."

Ruby looks down at herself, horrified.

She didn't even realise — she knew she was wearing a t-shirt over her underwear, sure, but she didn't think it was his! This is disgusting. She wants to erase this entire day out from her memory. Do you think her grandpa can do that?

"This is all your fault," she grumbles, storming past him to get changed. She throws on the first comfy thing she sees — her Pilates shorts, and her dad's jumper. Very Princess Di of her. She needs the strength of her idol to get through this hangover.

"How is this my fault?" he says, but before she can respond, he turns to her, his eyes widening in panic. "Oh, shit!"

"What?" says Ruby.

Harrington rushes past her, checking the clock in the kitchen. "Oh, shit! Shit, shit, shit — I'm late for work!"

Ruby looks around. "... And?"

"I'll owe you big-time, please — I need a ride there."

She goes quiet for a minute. On the one hand, she does not want to spend anymore time with her ex-boyfriend. What are they gonna talk about? Weather? Traffic? Who they've been seeing since they broke up? How they handled the breakup? But, then, they were best friends for so many years, it would be shitty of her to say no...

Ruby sighs, grabbing her car keys. "We never speak of this."

The two of them sort themselves out — by this, Ruby means putting her hair up to look slightly less dishevelled, and Harrington rub some toothpaste along his teeth (she is not providing this one-night stand a toothbrush) — before filing out to her car. Ruby turns on the engine, her mixtape already starting to play, and she drives to the video store.

"You're a lifesaver," he tells her.

"I know," she says, putting on sunglasses. "That's, like, the whole point."

Harrington goes quiet. Voodoo Child starts to play.

"I can't hear this song without thinking of you, you know," he says, trying to make conversation. Ruby isn't sure what this conversation is, though, apart from depressing. "You ruined Jimi Hendrix for me."

Ruby glances over at him, and sighs. "You ruined Boney M for me."

"Oh, now that's a crime," he says.

"Daddy Cool just isn't the same," she tells him.

The song changes over, playing You Keep Me Hangin' On by The Supremes.

"Since when did you like this sort of stuff?" he asks.

Ruby shrugs. "It helps me concentrate."

She doesn't want to explain any further. No, she doesn't want to explain that for some reason, older music helps her powers relax. It helps her concentrate, as if she's better in-tune with the Upside Down... It's weird, she knows, but her entire life is weird.

They pull up to the video store. Harrington turns to her before he goes.

"Um, thanks for the ride..."

Ruby brushes it off, focusing on the important thing. "This never happened."

Harrington nods. "Agreed."

He gets out of the car, and Ruby quietly watches him walk away. Her heart hurts a little, as she thinks about what must've happened last night. She doesn't remember a thing; she tries to will herself into remembering, trying to think about what it must've felt like, but nothing. So, instead, she watches in silence, the guy she once swore was the love of her life, walking away. Part of her knows this needs to be the last time they speak.

She organises her mixtapes, deciding to put on her Elvis one. Just as it whirs into life, beginning to play the beginning vocals, there's a knock on her car window. She jumps. Harrington's back.

"What do you want now?" she asks, rolling the window down.

"They need you," he says.

Ruby looks over, at Robin, Max, and Dustin, all stood at the front of the store.

"Jesus Christ," she grumbles, getting out of the car.

Nothing's secret in Hawkins, is it?

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RUBY'S HEAD IS NO LONGER POUNDING, thanks to the painkillers Robin handed her. Robin and Dustin were worried sick last night about Ruby and Harrington, she was told. Apparently, they snuck off when the power went out, and disappeared completely. Ruby shrugs when she hears this; that seems like her. Just as in-character as sleeping with her ex... God, she needs to leave Hawkins, pronto.

"So Eddie Munson killed Chrissy Cunningham?" says Harrington, arms crossed. "That checks out."

"No — something happened last night. He wouldn't kill Chrissy, he isn't like that," says Dustin. Harrington scoffs, walking around the store to make himself look busy. Desperately, Dustin turns to Ruby, who's nursing a jug of water. "Right, Ruby?"

Ruby squints at him. "Why me?"

"Because you're friends with him, right?"

Harrington stops in his tracks. He turns around, looking at his ex-girlfriend suspiciously.

"Uh..." Ruby trails off.

Now. What's worse? That she pretends she's friends with Eddie Munson, or she outs him as a drug dealer? She looks around, at the confusion on everyone's faces, at the hopefulness on Dustin's. She thinks about the bag of pot she never got to smoke last night. Maybe she'll run a bath later and smoke it. That'll be nice and relaxing.

"You and him were talking before the game...?"

Harrington goes, "Ohhhhhhhhh," and then he bursts out laughing.

"Why... are you laughing?" says Dustin.

Robin looks over at Ruby, who sighs.

"I was buying... stuff off of Eddie," says Ruby.

"You... do drugs?" says Dustin, shocked.

Ruby gives him a funny look. "OK, Dad, it's only weed — and I live in California, anyway, what do you expect?" she says. "Also, do you not remember Harrington when he got drugged last summer? He's just as bad... If not worse."

Dustin turns over to Harrington, hurt by the betrayal.

"You're the one that sounds like a Valley Girl now, I'm not—"

"I never thought I saw Jesus Christ in the bathtub—"

"Yeah, but you saw the demogorgon—"

Ruby stands up, furious. "That was real!"

"Oh my God!" Max throws her hands up, frustrated. "Can you both just quit it?"

Ruby and Harrington exchange a look, mutually annoyed they've been told off by a child. She quietly sinks back into her seat.

"Ruby." Max turns back to the brunette, who's returned to sipping her water. "You saw Eddie last night, right? Did... anything seem off?"

"No," says Ruby, and then she starts to think. "Um... Maybe. I don't know. I block out memories of insignificant people."

Harrington puts his hand over his face.

"Anyway, I don't think it's weird at all. Maybe Chrissy and Eddie are secretly dating, or something," says Ruby. "She's cute. I get it."

Harrington raises an eyebrow. "Chrissy, the cheerleader, with Munson?"

Ruby shrugs. "He's hot in like, an ugly way."

Robin tilts her head at Ruby. "Oh, to live in your mind," she mutters.

"That's what got us in trouble last summer," says Ruby with a scowl. "... I really don't think there's an issue with Eddie and Chrissy."

"Except for the fact that Chrissy is dead," says Max, grimacing.

Ruby sighs. "OK, yeah, aside from that," she agrees. "Maybe she overdosed. Or maybe something weird happened. I don't know what, it's not as if there's a gate open anymore. I've been good, I haven't used my powers since being back in case it wakes anything up..."

Robin and Dustin exchange a look. Ruby notices it, and frowns at the two of them. Her stomach begins to knot.

"Uh...?"

"Last night..." Dustin trails off, looking over at Robin anxiously. "Before the power went out, the lights were flickering—"

Ruby feels her stomach drop. A strong sense of rage consumes her, and she turns to Robin and Dustin. "You mean to tell me, someone died the same time I used my powers and you didn't open with that?" she says.

Dustin and Robin go quiet. "... Maybe."

Ruby gets back onto her feet. She needs to call her grandpa, now. She shouldn't have come back — she's started this all over again, and now, someone else is dead because of her. Ruby feels her heart racing, and has to remind herself to breathe manually. In, out, in, out...

"Where are you going?" says Harrington.

Ruby ignores him, storming into the break room. She dials the number her grandpa told her, which she managed to memorise in the long drive back to Hawkins. She waits for the ringing to finish, for someone to answer — but no one does. The line goes straight to voicemail, as Ruby's nerves take over her.

"Oh my god, pick up! There's something wrong — I don't know what, but I can't do this on my—"

She looks over, at the cackle of children watching her, confused. If Ruby was allowed to use her powers, she'd slam the door in their faces, make them regret the last minute. She hangs up, and prays her grandpa gets her message.

"Was that El?" says Dustin.

"No, it's Julius Caesar." Ruby stands up, trying to play it cool. It's not as if she said 'Grandpa,' right? She's somewhat in the clear... Until the inevitable happens, her grandpa returning with his hoards of scientists to fix this shit. "Look, if this is the Upside Down, we can't just rely on me—"

Max frowns at her. "But who else is there?"

And that's the depressing truth of it. El has no powers, every other kid from the lab is dead. Who else is there, apart from Ruby? What makes her think her grandpa will know anymore than she does? She tries to swallow that thought down. Trusting her grandpa is the only hope she has left.

"This might not be the Upside Down," says Harrington, as if trying to reassure her. And although it's so far from the truth it doesn't feel reassuring, the act of him trying makes her feel comforted. "Maybe some druggie went crazy, and Chrissy and Munson got caught up in it."

Ruby desperately hopes so.

She ends up leaving them for a bit, driving home to get changed. Even if her grandpa doesn't show up, she needs to be prepared for the next few hours, not dressed like a hungover Princess Di. She finds her jeans, and raids her mom's teenage wardrobe for a t-shirt. She settles on a black one, throwing her denim jacket on top. By the time she's laced up her Converse, puked up the remains of her alcoholic endeavours the night before, and eaten enough carbs to fuel a football team, there's a knock at the door.

Ruby rushes to answer it, thinking it's her grandpa, having magically transported himself across the country. Instead, it's her ex-boyfriend. She grimaces.

"What now?" she says.

Harrington rolls his eyes. "We've got a lead, and there's no way you're driving us," he tells her, and waves his hand, gesturing for her to come outside. "It's gonna get dark soon, let's go."

hello i hope u enjoyed!! this should've been longer, but a lot of these season 4 chapters have natural endings after a bit so i didn't want to force it. but let me know what you thought! <3333