seven.

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
                          
CHAPTER SEVEN:
AV CLUB
                          
[ DIG DUG PART I ]
                          
❖ ❖ ❖
                          
Warning: homophobic slurs! They are censored (there's some stuff even I won't write lol) but they're still there. 
                          
           The following day — a Friday, thank God — Nancy cancelled their early morning study session and Jonathan left early, apparently to shoot some pictures, meaning Thomas got a lift to school with Bob. That made for an awkward car ride, especially as Will took a day off to heal after his episode and wasn't in the car either.
                          
          He didn't know how on earth he got to school and forced himself to pretend it was a normal day; his whole body was alive with anticipation, with the need to find her, to find Eleven, and he could hardly concentrate on anything else. Plus, he was running on very little sleep after so many nightmares. 
                          
            But, miraculously, he managed to get through the first two lessons, though he fidgeted anxiously the entire time, and after second period, Steve caught up with him on his way to grab a snack from a vending machine. Thomas saw him coming, jogging around a corner between two corridors, but ignored him until Steve eventually caught up and fell into step beside him. 
                          
         "You find out what was wrong with Will?" he asked, without greeting.
                          
          Thomas temporarily avoided his question. "You sure Tommy and Carol won't mind you talking to me?" He was only half-joking. He didn't need Steve getting into shit, getting bullied because of his mere association to Thomas. 
                          
           Steve bristled and went quiet for a moment so short it might not have actually been there, then gave Thomas a fleeting but cold glance. "You know I'm not friends with them anymore," he said. Which Thomas did, so he didn't say anything else, and they kept walking. "So? I asked you a question."
                          
           Thomas swallowed, hesitant to answer. Not quite because he didn't want Steve to know, but more because he didn't want to actually tell the story, like to tell it would make it real. "He said there's a creature there," he whispered, moving a little closer to Steve's side and tilting his head. "In the Upside Down. Something worse than a Demogorgon." 
                          
          Steve blanched. He didn't say anything for a few seconds, drinking in the information, and in their moment of quiet they turned a corner and Thomas was left to think again of Will's words the previous day, until Steve asked, "And Will? He's okay?" 
                          
          "None of us are okay, dumbass," said Thomas. "And we won't be for a long time." 
                          
           Steve adjusted the straps of his bag around his shoulders. "Yeah, I know. I read about it."