Mary smiled and thanked Tina Sanders as she offered her a flyer for her Halloween Extravaganza. Mary read the orange sheet of paper, despite having already being invited two weeks prior by Tina face to face.

     She looked up at Charlie who was walking alongside her in the car-park, sunlight shining down onto his face, "I'm actually pretty buzzed about this." She admitted with a smile, brushing her brown straight locks out of her face as she looked up at him in the sunlight.

      "It's been a while since we went anywhere." She was smiling, more so to herself. That statement had in fact been true, she and Charlie barely left each others own company, asides from meet-ups with the inner circle. But when it came to socializing, the pair hadn't exactly been social butterflies the last couple of months.

Charlie didn't seem as excited and he sighed as he stopped, turning to face Mary who squinted up at him in the sunlight, "Yeah, about that... Mare, do we have to go?" He asked her, almost timidly. Mary felt her heart sink, "It's just, we could easily binge a few movies and eat candy until we're sick to our stomachs. Do we really have to go to a party?" His voice showed how much he really didn't want to go — but then again, Charlie didn't really want to go to many things anymore.

Mary tried to find the right words, but she seemed incapable of it, "You really don't wanna go? Not at all?" Her voice came off a little annoyed, which was what Charlie had been dreading the days building up to the Halloween Bash, "After we went out and bought our costumes? Charlie, mines cost seventy bucks!" She was yelling now, drawing a small amount of attention from the teenagers scattered around the car-park during lunch who eyed them up.

Charlie ran his hands over his messily gelled hair, "Mare, it's just not really my scene anymore," He tried telling her but she had heard it a million times already. Just about every time she asked him to go somewhere with her, "You said it yourself, you're not trying to be the Queen of Hawkins anymore! You don't have to go to these things to keep up good standards or whatever."

"Good standards?" Mary repeated bitterly, narrowing her eyebrows, her hands finding her hips, "Charlie, I don't care about that. But this is our senior year before we're not teenagers anymore, I wanna be out enjoying myself! I wanna be doing stupid and reckless things with my boyfriend! I — Charlie, I just want a night of normalcy..." Her voice got quieter towards the end as she diverted her gaze, looking down at her fingernails that she fiddled with.

Charlie watched her, eyebrows pulled downwards. Truthfully, Charlie thought over the past year he must have been a massive pain in Mary's ass. She wanted to go places and enjoy herself whereas he didn't. But he wasn't the cool kid that smoked in the school hallways anymore. People all around school whispered about him, all having their own theories about what happened to him and how he had ended up in the hospital. The most overheard one was that he were on drugs and almost killed himself.

Charlie Williams had never given a damn about what people said about him, he never cared. But when everyone thought things about him that were completely different from what he'd actually gone through, it pissed him off. So much so that he'd been in a few fights during the first couple of weeks back at school, where Mary and Steve had to drag him off of whatever asshole decided to open their mouth and speak like they knew everything.

But the girl standing in front of him desperately wanting to go to a Halloween party had been the one that knew everything that had happened to him, she was the one who had saved him and continued to do so — by taking care of him, sometimes so much that it was almost smothering him but still, he appreciated everything she did for him.

Especially how she'd stay over at his house a lot and how she'd be the one to hold him when he would jolt awake, screaming himself out of a nightmare which wasn't truly a dream because it were his reality whilst he were stuck inside The Upside Down. And how she'd stand up for him anytime someone opened up their mouth, pretending as if they knew what had happened. Mary had been his rock.

Staring at her sad face a moment longer, he finally caved with a smile, reaching up to clutch her cheeks, "Alright, fine. We'll go," He said and she looked up at him, her mouth twitching into a hopeful smile, "Under one condition though... We still get to kick it in the back of your car afterwards." He tilted his head, grinning cheekily and Mary laughed, that giggle that Charlie adored so much as she reached up, lacing her arms around his neck.

"Or, we could just go to my place. My dad's staying at the cabin tonight so I've got the house all to myself, remember?" She suggested.

      The girl tilted her head, cropped hair framing her face that Charlie brushed away with his thumbs, "So, does that sound like a deal, lover boy?" She asked, arching an eyebrow.

Charlie replied by kissing her, "Jeez, do you guys have to do that right here? I just finished my lunch." The velvety voice of Corina Hayes broke the pair apart, but still they were smiling in amusement as their eyes traveled to the as gorgeous as ever redhead.

Mary beamed at the girl, "Sorry, Corina. How are you? How's the house actually? I was going to stop by last week with some of the old furniture my dad kicked out of the lodge but I —"

Corina held her red leather gloved hands up, shushing the girl, "Hopper, I don't need your charity or your friendship remember?" She said, settling her hand on her hip and Mary tried to hide her smile, "And besides, have you completely forgotten that I can warp places? I have furniture." Corina rolled her eyes before attempting to walk away as Mary exchanged glances with Charlie who pursed his lips, trying to hide his amusement.

"You mean you stole it? Probably just like you stole that entire outfit." Mary pointed out and Corina halted from where she was making her way up the steps to the high school.

     The girl flipped her long hair and looked over her shoulder with that usual sly smile of hers before she winked at the pair and left, leaving both Mary and Charlie chuckling to themselves.

"You should of got her to steal your seventy bucks costume," Charlie told her, leaning against her side and she scoffed with laughter, smiling up at him before his lips parted, "Oh, you still going to that dinner with Steve and Nancy tonight, at the Hollands?" He asked her and Mary sighed, her good mood passing.

"Yeah, we cancelled last week so it's only fair..."

Charlie frowned, clutching onto her hands, "You don't have to go, Mare. You and Barbara weren't even friends —"

Mary looked up at him quickly, her eyes suddenly burning with tears, "You're right, we weren't friends. I'd tease her clothes in the hallway, I'd make fun of her red hair, I called her a so many horrible things —"

"Mary, that was all indirectly. You said it to us, never her —"

"I still said those things!" She was suddenly yelling and flinched at the sound of her own voice before she looked down to her feet, "Charlie, I was the last person to see her that night. I may not remember much about it, but at least I can maybe make a few things up or whatever — say that Barb was having a good time even though she was miserable and it was partly my fault! I just — I just want to bring the Hollands some closure..."

Charlie nodded in understanding, his hands moving to gently rub her upper arms, "If that's what you have to do then go. I'll come pick you up afterwards if you want?" He offered as she watched him talk, wiping away the tears that had came from nowhere.

"It's okay. I'll be fine." She told him before falling silent and Charlie nodded in understanding before she sighed.

Charlie held his arms out, "Get over here, Mare-Bear." He teased and she pouted, squishing her face up but nevertheless she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest, letting out a deep breath of misery.

"I thought I warned you about that nickname."

Charlie smiled as he leaned his chin against her head, "You did, but I can't resist the face you pull each time I say it." He told her, earning a small laugh as her boyfriend held her close.

The bell ringing had the pair sighing, "I've gotta run. I've got P.E and Coach Mills threatened that if I'm late again then he's going to throw a dodgeball off my face." Charlie informed her and Mary offered an amused look.

"That sounds like coach," She agreed, "Get going. I'm gonna just catch my breath." She told him and the boy pecked her lips quickly before jogging into the school, pushing by other teenagers rushing to get to class whilst Mary watched him go, her eyes still a little wet.

"Fight with the boyfriend, huh?" Mary glanced over her shoulder, her brown eyes meeting the blue ones of Billy Hargrove, his hands lazily pushed into the pockets of his denim jacket, his head tilted and full attention on her.

Mary breathed in annoyance, turning away, "I don't have another side mirror for you to knock off. Maybe come back later." She snapped, but from behind her the boy chuckled, not moving from his spot.

Mary closed her eyes, hoping he'd just go away and leave her alone before she went to her next class. But apparently, much to her annoyance, Billy wasn't going anywhere. The girl spun around, dark hair brushing against her neck, "What do you want?" She snapped, throwing her hands up.

Billy was grinning handsomely as he stepped towards her and she looked him up and down with distaste, "To get to know you better." He said, his voice raspy as he stopped directly in front of her and she held his gaze, a storm brewing in her eyes.

       His lips twitched mischievously, "I've never met a girl that called me an asshole before or treated me as, well, coldly as you did." He said, intrigued by her but she wasn't as fond of him as he were her.

She smiled bitterly at him, "What, there's no girls in sunny Cali that don't call you out on your bullshit?" She asked rhetorically, pursing her lips. But something she had said caught Billy's attention and amusement.

"How'd you know I'm from Cali? You been askin' around about me?" He whispered, stepping closer — too close, but Mary would be dammed if she stepped down from the asshat that wrecked her precious car.

Mary rose a single eyebrow, "It's on your registration plate, dumbass." She pointed out, nodding in the direction to where she could spot his Camaro. Billy did a thing between a laugh and a scoff as he glanced over his shoulder at his car.

"I was taking a note of it in case I decided to go to the cops about your little hit and run... Oh, wait! My dads the Chief. I suppose I'd only really have to tell him in order to have your piece of shit car removed from your possession." Mary was slipping back into the easy routine of the Queen of Hawkins.

Billy didn't seem phased by her threat, "My piece of shit car? That engine could single handedly pay for your tin can." He challenged and Mary moved her head back, a smile forming on her lips in bemusement.

"Maybe, but could it beat my car? If you know anything about fast cars then you should know that it's never about the engine or the car — it's the driver."

The dirty blonde boy with the mullet smirked, watching her lips move, "What, you wanna race?" Billy somehow got closer to her.

Mary scoffed, "Please, you couldn't handle it." It was a stare down with two equally stubborn people who didn't know how to stand down from a challenge and from the distance Carol and Tommy spied on the dangerously close pair.

      Billy was enjoying being so close to the confident girl in front of him, he could feel her chest touch his and that was thrilling enough — knowing he'd had gotten that close to her, even whilst she obviously had a boyfriend. And he was beginning to realise that he easily got under her skin.

Billy opened his mouth to speak but suddenly a voice much more high pitched and nasally took over, "Miss Hopper! Mr Hargrove! Get to class, right now!" Mrs Fulton yelled — the schools Biology teacher, her hands on her bony hips and wiry grey hair permed around her face, her lips pursed together, showing her slender and old face.

Mary breathed out, stepping back from Billy and holding his gaze, "We were finished here, anyways." She said with a shrug before turning her back and jogging up the stairs, not doing so much as to glance back at the boy who stood a moment later, watching her go with a cocky smirk.

Mrs Fulton glared, "Mr Hargrove!"

———

Can I just say, I love the dynamic of Mary and Billy ( and no I don't stan Billy cause he's an asshole but before everything happened with The Upside Down, he was definitely the kind of person Mary would hang out with!) and I just love the banter rn — she's having none of it from him!

Also poor Charlie, I just want to hug my own fictional character!