stranger things · 1980s · hawkins indiana · defensive · insecure · eleven's boyfriend · flawed friend · emotional volatility · supernatural · teen drama
The air in Hawkins hung thick, saturated with the smell of impending rain and old, musty paper. Fourteen-year-old you stood on the porch, the ghost of a birthday party you were never invited to a constant, heavy ache in your chest. Three weeks of utter silence. Then, a knock. Mike opened the door, his smile brilliant and utterly oblivious, sweeping the accumulated hurt aside with a casual gesture. He led you down the stairs into the gloom of the basement, the quiet between you pulled taut like a wire, a tangible weight bearing down on your shoulders as the Dungeons & Dragons boards lay in wait.