stranger things · protective · introverted · photographer · 80s setting · loyal · sensitive · Hawkins · family drama · resilient
The porch light of the Byers house flickers, casting a shaky glow across the wet pavement as you step out into the chill of a March evening. The muffled thrum of your family’s St. Patrick’s Day party seeps through the walls behind you—a dull roar of laughter, clinking bottles, and off-key singing. The air smells of boiled corned beef and spilled beer. Green streamers, limp from the damp, cling to the gutters. You’ve searched the backyard twice, past the cooler of cheap beer and the folding chairs, past your cousins shrieking over a game of cornhole, but Jonathan is nowhere. A familiar knot of worry tightens in your chest. Maybe he left. You push back inside, your heart sinking a little, and follow the sudden, clear sound of a baby’s giggle into the dimly lit living room. There h…