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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧

     WILL RUSHED INTO ADDIE'S ROOM SAYING THERE WAS AN EMERGENCY. A million thoughts ran through Addie's mind. Was he in trouble? Was it more nightmares? Something with the Upside Down? Will announcing that he thought their mom had a boyfriend, however, was not on the list of possibilities.

"Umm... what?"

"I think mom has a boyfriend. I heard her on the phone yesterday talking to someone named—"

"William! Adeline! Could you both come out to the living room please!" Their moms sudden loud voice caused them both to jump a little. Despite it having been a while since everything happened, loud noises still scared the 2 of them.

Addie and Will looked at each other, eyes wide. "When is the last time she used our full names?" Will whispered as he followed his older sister out to the living room.

"I wanted to introduce you both to someone. This is Bob," Joyce motioned to the man next to her.

He looked friendly, and he smiled and waved to Addie and Will.

"Hi, I'm Addie," she took a step forward and held her hand out. Her mom looked at her and mouthed "thank you". Addie knew this man must be important to her mom if she was introducing him.

"Nice to meet you Addie," the man smiled and shook her hand. "Your mom mentioned that you preferred that to Adeline."

"Yeah, it feels fancy. I mean I like it, but with school, and friends, I think Addie's better." She stepped back and nudged Will, who copied her and introduced himself and shook Bob's hand.

"So how do you guys know each other?" Addie asked.

"Bob's the manager over at Radio Shack, that's how we met, I went in there one day. And... we're dating." Joyce breathed a sigh of relief, having anxiously awaited the moment she'd introduce Bob to her kids.

She wanted to wait until Jonathan was home too, but she felt like her kids were all so busy that at any given time, at least one of them was out doing something.

"Oh," Addie smiled, noticing how her mom blushed from that last sentence.

"Cool," Will added. That seemed to break some of the awkward silence that was building, and they all chuckled.

"I like your shirt," Addie noticed what Bob was wearing. It was a comic book shirt, with the cover of a Spider-Man edition on the front.

"Thanks! Are you into comic books?"

"I like to look at them every once in a while, it seems a little intimidating to start getting really into them now when there's so many."

"Oh it's not intimidating at all! I used to love them as a kid, sort of fell out of that love when I got older but lately I've been picking up a book or two whenever I see them. Let me know if you need any recommendations."

Joyce was extremely grateful in that moment. She was worried that her children wouldn't like the fact that she was seeing someone and bringing someone new into their home, and just their lives in general.

But Bob was a good person, and so she hoped that Jonathan, Addie, and Will would be able to see why she liked him so much. She could tell that Will was still a little shy, but that he was already slowly warming up to Bob.

And that Addie was doing so a lot quicker. When Joyce looked from Will to Addie, she'd just excused herself to grab something from her room. When she came back she had a small pile of comic books in her hands, and for the next hour Addie and Bob sat next to each other on the couch, looking at, and discussing, the ones that Addie had.

"Now this is a big test. Who's your favorite comic book super hero?" Bob raised an eyebrow, curious to hear Addie's answer.

"Hmm... well of all of the ones that I've read, I'd say Captain America. Or Spider-Man. But I also love their back stories, I've honestly loved that just as much as when they're heroes."

"I knew we'd get along!"

Their discussion about different characters and their powers lasted another half an hour, before Addie excused herself to go and finish her homework. She knew her mom would want to probably spend some time with Bob too instead of listening to their "super hero talk" as Bob had called it.

He ended up staying for dinner, and when he left, Addie told her mom that she really liked him. And again, that was a huge relief for Joyce to hear. Jonathan had come home right as the pizza got delivered, and said that he thought Bob was a nice guy too.

Before he left, he'd spoken to Joyce in another room and asked if it would be okay if he got gifts for the kids.  He said he got the idea because he knew the perfect comic books that Addie would love, he just had to track them down.

Will went to bed early because he was meeting up with the other boys to be the first ones at the arcade in the morning. They didn't open until 10, but when Addie pointed out that he wouldn't have to get up that early, Will said he needed the extra rest for the video games.

Joyce turned in early too, and a few minutes after her door shut, she heard her on the phone. One laugh, and Addie knew she was talking to Bob.

After Addie showered and finished up the last of her homework, she was surprised at how tired she was. The clock let her know that it was just after 10pm.

Billy said that when his dad had Sunday's off, he usually spent Saturday night getting drunk at home, and he'd eventually pass out. But what time would that be? Addie had no idea if she waited up, would it be for another hour? Or 2, or 3 or more.

She decided to leave her window cracked open a few inches, and she hoped that Billy would take the hint and still come in. She also left her lamp on and put it by the window. Eventually falling asleep, she was woken up by soft knocks at her window.

It took a few seconds to register, but she got up and went to the window, raising it all the way so that Billy could come in. He immediately pulled her in for a hug, having missed her a lot even though they'd seen each other earlier that day.

"I missed you too," Addie smiled, happy to be back in his arms. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, he stayed up drinking later than usual but that means he'll also sleep in more so it's okay."

Addie was excited, but also incredibly nervous to give Billy his surprise. It was something that she had worked hard on. Originally she wasn't going to give this to him and was going to do something else instead, thinking this was a little too sentimental.

"Umm okay so I really want to give you the thing I mentioned earlier but I'm also scared you'll hate it or think it's weird because it's really personal and I—" one kiss, and Addie forgot all of her worries for the moment.

"I promise I will love whatever it is just because it's from you," Billy said softly. She looked at the boy holding her, and felt like her heart was going to burst with happiness.

"Okay, sit right there and close your eyes. No looking!" Addie stood there and waited a few seconds until he actually closed his eyes. After a few more seconds when she was sure he wasn't going to look, she went to her desk and got his gift from the top drawer. She then took a seat on the next next to him, and took a deep breath.

Without opening his eyes, Billy reached out and pulled Addie closer. That made her laugh, and so she gently placed it in his hands. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was holding a small notebook.

"So, the back story behind the book itself is that years ago I saw this sitting in a shop. And I thought it was so cool because I had never seen a journal with a lock like this before. So I used my allowance to buy it even though I had no real intention to write in it because I was never interested in diaries or anything like that. I pretty much got it because I thought it looked cool. But I never chose a code and I just let it sit in my desk drawer because I knew someday I might want to fill it and I thought I should wait until I had something good to write about, and then I could choose a code at that time. Anyway, I always remembered it was there and even pulled it out a few times, but the only times that I thought to write in it were when bad things happened. And I wanted to fill it with good things. So it kept getting placed back in the drawer, still empty. I wrote in it for the first time this year."

Billy ran his hand over the front, and gently tapped the lock.

"It's 806."

(a/n: August 6, 1984 was a Monday & I'm just pretending that was the first day of school since I had already said Monday lol. also the photo of the journal is from google images but here's the link to the actual journal on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FX8RRKL/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_glt_fabc_VYN3VDJF2B51H4R31F74?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 )

"Wait wasn't that—"

"The first day of school, and the first time I met you." Addie admitted shyly. She watched as Billy slowly turned the lock until the numbers 8, 0, and 6 lined up, then he pressed the little button and it came unlocked.

There were a lot more entries, and it detailed how Addie felt about Billy, and the things they'd gone through, plus any time they had a deep talk. After he read the first entry he pulled Addie down with him to lay on her bed. She had her head on his chest and he held the book with one hand, and played with her hair with the other.

The most recent entry really got him. It was dated to earlier that day, he was guessing from when he'd left to go home for a little bit.

"Addie..." she looked up to see Billy had finished the book. She had been a little embarrassed to re-read her old words, so she just lay there and closed her eyes. She must've fallen asleep too, because nearly an hour had gone by. But she had written in it nearly every day since they got closer.

"Why are you crying," Addie saw a few tears in Billy's eyes. Seeing him this emotional made her tear up too.

"No one has cared for me this much in a long time. I just—"

They stayed up for another hour, cuddling as Billy flipped through the book again. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had even gotten him a card for his birthday, let alone the last time anyone did something like this for him.

Addie asked what time he should be home by, so that she could set her alarm. Although Billy was almost 100% positive that his dad wouldn't be waking up before noon, he asked Addie to set an alarm for 8, and that he'd better leave by 9.

That night, they fell in love with each other a little more. Addie was grateful that Billy chose her, to confide in, an that he wanted to be around her so often. Billy knew that he'd love the girl in his arms for the rest of his life.

When they both met, neither of them knew that they needed each other. But now that they had each other, things seemed perfect.

But something evil was brewing in Hawkins...

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧