chapter three
we'll find him

Avery opened her front door that night, exhausted from the shift she had just done. After James left the diner, and Robin and Avery had their date, the diner got a small evening rush. It wasn't anything Avery couldn't handle, she had worked when it was much busier but this time it was only Avery and Max, Robin even having to take some orders to not overwhelm Avery.

The brunette took her shoes of, dropping her bag by the door and letting out a sigh of relief before she walked further into the house. She paused her movements when she heard sound coming from the living room, the television on. Avery furrowed her eyebrows wondering who was watching the tv, usually her mum read in her bed or watched the tele in her bedroom and she assumed her dad was still at work.

Avery made her way into the living room to see her father, who turned to her when she entered. Theo smiled at his daughter as she flopped on the sofa next to him, him flinging the blanket that he had on over her legs as well as his.

"Hi sweetie." He greeted.

"Hey dad." Avery yawned, laying her head on his shoulder. "How was work? You find anything about Will, yet?"

"Not yet, Hopper and I are doing our best but we don't have a lot." Theo told her.

"You think he's okay?" Avery whispered.

Avery Monroe loved the young Byers boy, she loved the whole Byers family to be honest. Avery used to tutor Jonathan in biology, her having to go to his house to help him when Joyce was working. She met Will one time, deeming him the sweetest boy she had ever met from the moment he said 'hi'.

Avery got along with most of the boys, Dustin, Lucas, Mike and Will. She mostly got along with Lucas but that was purely because his excessive comments reminded her a little bit of Robin and she used to have to look after his little sister Erica, who was a lot more sarcastic than any other person she had ever met.

"I'm not sure but Will's a good kid, you'd have to wonder what went wrong in the world for someone as sweet as him to have something bad happen to him." Her father spoke, smiling softly.

"I hope you find him." She mumbled, her eyes fluttering closed as the exhaustion took over.

"Me too Aves." Her dad nodded as she fell asleep. "Me too."

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James stood, leaning against Jonathan's car waiting for the teen to show up, Nicole having told Steve about some photos she saw Jonathan had in the dark room earlier that day.

"Hey man." Steve greeted, jumping off the car, Nicole, Tommy and Carol following him, James standing a bit further back.

"What's going on?" Jonathan asked confused.

"Nicole, here, was telling us about your work." Steve told him.

"We've heard great things." Tommy and Carol agreed.

"And we'd just love to take a look. You know, as... connoisseurs of art." Steve added.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jonathan sighed, going to him car before Tommy grabbed him bag. "Please, give me my bag. No just..."

Tommy threw the bag to Steve. "Man, he is totally trembling. He must really have something to hide. Here we go."

Steve placed the bag next to James on the car, opening it and going through it until he found a pile of photos. "Ah."

Steve started flicking through the photos, Tommy and Carol coming over to look. Steve showed a few to James, the photos being of them all at Steve's party he threw the night before.

"Yeah, this isn't creepy at all." Carol told Jonathan sarcastically.

"I was looking for my brother." Jonathan tried to defend himself.         

"No." Steve disagreed. "No, this is called stalking."

"What's going on?" Nancy asked as she approached the group, looking around confused.

"Here's the starring lady." Tommy joked, making James hit him.       

"What?" Nancy asked nervously, playing with her bag strap.

"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol informed her. "He was probably gonna save this one for later."

Nancy took the photo that Carol handed her, it being one of her taking her top off in Steve's room. Her expression turned to one of shock as she looked towards the Byers boy.

"See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong but..." Steve clicked him tongue, drawing the attention back to Jonathan, who was cowering into himself, like he wanted to disappear. "Man, that's the thing about perverts, it's hardwired into them. You know, they just cant help themselves."

Tommy laughed as Steve began to rip up the photos he had in his hands, throwing the small pieces of paper towards Jonathan before going back to where his bag was placed. "So... we'll just have to take away his toy."

"Steve." Nancy reprimanded.

"No, please, not the camera." Jonathan begged, stepping forward to stop the Harrington, Tommy stopping him.

"Tommy, Tommy stop, it's okay." Steve smiled, holding the camera out to Jonathan.

This was where James had to step in, he didn't mind Steve ripping the photos up or talking to Jonathan about the photos. Yes, it was weird he was taking photos of them, especially Nancy like that, so he deserved it. But James knew Jonathan enough to know that his camera was his entire life, the one thing he could do that made him feel less like a loser and he believed him when he said he was looking for his brother.

So with his brother missing and how expensive camera's were, James knew if Jonathan's camera was destroyed it would not end well for him and he would probably go off the rails or something.

"Steve." James spoke up, making Steve turn to him, it being the first time he had spoken this whole time. James gently shook his head. "This is going too far, stop while you still can."

Steve shrugged, turning back to Jonathan. "Here you go."

Jonathan let out a visible sigh of relief, stepping forward to take the camera when Steve let it drop out of his hand. James reached forward as if he could catch it but he wasn't close enough and the camera hit the ground, breaking as it did.

"Come on, let's go. The game's about to start." Steve walked off, Tommy and Carol following.

James stayed behind as did Nancy. Nancy stared at the boy before part of a photo caught her eye. She bent down grabbing the photo before Steve called her name. Nancy quickly picked up some of the photo, walking over to Steve, who wrapped an arm around her.

"Oi James, you coming?" Steve shouted.         

"I'll catch up." He called back, Steve nodding before walking off. James leant back up against Jonathan's car. "I believe you."

"What?" Jonathan looked up from where he was trying to pick up all the pieces of his camera.

"When you said you were out looking for Will, I believe you. Did you find anything?" James asked him.

"I don't think so." Jonathan shook his head sadly.

"We'll get him back Jonathan." James told the boy. "And I'll get you a new camera, Steve went too far with that."

"You don't have to." Jonathan shrugged.

"Hey, Jonathan, how is my favourite photographer?" A voice spoke up as Avery Monroe bounded up to them, her steps freezing when she looked at the scene in front of her. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Jonathan mumbled as Avery turned to look at James, raising her eyebrows.

"I have nothing to do with this." He defended himself, holding his hands up in surrender.

"I find that hard to believe." Avery scoffed, bending down to look at the photos that were scattered all over the floor. "And even if you didn't do it, by who's in these photos I bet Steve did and that makes you an ass by association."

"Well that's just rude." James looked offended.

Avery sighed, looking over at Jonathan. "I'll buy you a new camera."

"It's fine Aves, I've got it." Jonathan smiled weakly at her.

"Okay well are you coming to the game, Robin and I need our personal photographer to take candid photos of us to make us feel special, Robin even brought her polaroid camera." Avery smiled at him, scrunching her nose slightly.

"You don't need photos, you make you feel special, you and Robin are already special enough." Jonathan reassured her, making Avery smile.

"Thank you Jonathan. I guess that mean you aren't coming." Avery looked over at him as he shook his head. "Okay, well I should go find Robin. Bye Jonathan."

"Let me walk you." James offered.

"I would rather stab my eyes out with needles." Avery smiled sarcastically at him.

"Oh I volunteer as tribute to do it for you." James retorted.

"Go to hell Parker!" Avery shouted over her shoulder at the boy.

"I'll see you there Monroe." He smiled.

( 💌 ) isobel's notes
just some cute monroe family
moments
and james sticking up for jonathan