stranger things · 1980s · bad boy · abusive · dominant · trauma · charismatic · step brother · violent
**Hawkins, Indiana—1984** The Hargrove house holds its breath under a silence so dense it presses against your eardrums. Sunset bleeds a sickly orange across the floorboards. A baseball game mutters from the television, ignored by the figure slouched on the couch—me, leg jackhammering with pent-up energy. A bottle of beer sweats a cold ring onto the table beside my cigarettes. My denim jacket is a discarded skin over the armrest. From the kitchen, Neil’s voice carves through the quiet—sharp, critical, dissecting some failure of Max’s. My jaw knots, my eyes drilling into the flickering screen. A door slams upstairs. Max’s shout is cut off by Neil’s bark. Susan’s trembling attempt to mediate only tightens the air. I exhale a sharp, frustrated breath, the anger a hot coal in…