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"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"

This thing called love, I just can't handle it

This thing called love, I must get round to it

I ain't ready

Crazy little thing called love

- Queen

Joyce came into the kitchen and started pulling ingredients out of the fridge for dinner, patting the picture of Bob affectionately as she closed the door, as she always did. Will was at the kitchen table drawing something, which seemed so normal that it only occurred to her after she had started chopping the onion that he was supposed to be at Mike's for D&D.

He was coloring hard, and fast, and for a moment her heart thudded against her ribs, remembering what he had looked like doing the drawings of the tunnels. But after a moment, it was clear he was coloring hard in anger, to relieve his emotions. He often did that.

She walked over to him, standing behind him to look at his drawing. It was a careful rendering of Castle Byers, down to the fabric over the doorframe flapping in the wind. There was an added sign to it in the drawing that, to her knowledge, wasn't on the current Castle Byers, and never had been: "No Girls Allowed."

"So … what's going on today? What happened to Will the Wise and his companions brave and true? Too much homework?"

Will shook his head, adding a blood-red exclamation point, so it read "No Girls Allowed!"

"You thinking of making an addition to Castle Byers?"

He was silent, adding some dark leaves piled around the base of the structure. "Yeah," he said at last.

"I thought Max and Eleven were okay. Did they do something?"

"No." Sullenly, he admitted, "It's not them. Not really."

"Then who is it?"

"Mike. And Lucas." She had never heard him name his friends so bitterly. "And Dustin." Will put down the crayon and turned to look at her. "Mom, why are they all so obsessed with having girlfriends?"

"I don't know, sweetie. I guess that's just the way people are. When I was your age, it was all we could talk about."

"But—why? I mean, girls are okay, but … They canceled D&D so they could be with their girlfriends! Mike is always over at the Chief's with Eleven, and Lucas is always hanging out with Max and her dumb skateboard. Like we needed a stupid 'Zoomer', anyway."

"What about Dustin?"

"Oh, he spends all his time with Steve Harrington—talking about girls. And their hair." Will slumped in the chair. "Jonathan, too. He never has time for me anymore."

That was true—Jonathan was out with Nancy a lot, and even when he was home, Nancy was often there. Much as Joyce liked her, and as much as she understood what it was like to be young and in love and full of hormones, she missed her boy a little as well. She made up her mind to suggest to Jonathan that he should carve out a little more time for Will. Her boys needed each other.

"I thought you liked Nancy," she said to Will.

"I do! It's just—she's not … I mean, I just want our family back."

Joyce felt a quick sharp sting of tears, thinking that Bob should be here, part of their family, and he never would be. She blinked them away. "Are you playing D&D tomorrow?"

Will shook his head. "Mike's going clothes shopping." He said it in much the same tone that he would have said Mike was taking ballroom dancing lessons. "It's like— Mom, it's like they all grew up and I … I missed it. Will I ever catch up?" His eyes filled with tears.

"Of course you will!" Joyce dropped to her knees in front of his chair, looking up at him. "Of course you will. You've been through so much, and you—you have lost some time out of your life, and your friends, well, they had experiences, too. You know they care about you, and they still love playing D&D, but … people start to get interested in new things and the old things seem less … I don't know, shiny."

"But I'm one of the old things. And I don't want to go chasing around after girls or talk about them all the time or give up everything we used to like to do just because the girls think it's weird."

"I know." She knew, too, that there was no chance for Will to make new friends in Hawkins. That had never bothered her before, because he had good friends, friends he could count on. Friends who had saved his life, in fact. But this dilemma was a hard one, because Will wasn't wrong. He had missed out on some important growth experiences while he was lost to the world, and his friends had matured while he had stayed very much the same. In many ways, he clung to his childhood, because it was safe and secure, and because, she suspected, it had happened before any of them knew what the Upside Down was.

Joyce was well aware that there was no easy answer to her boy's dilemma. Including the girls was doubtless just as bad—in some ways, it was worse to be in the same room as a new couple, watching them focus only on each other. And that was when Hopper allowed Eleven to see more than one person at a time, which was rarely.

She put a hand on Will's head. "If growing up was easy, everyone would do it."

He frowned at her. "Everyone does do it."

"Sort of." She thought of Lonnie, who had never grown up, not really; and Bob, who had held on to the kid inside him; and Hopper, who had grown up too soon and still didn't quite know how to do it. "A lot of people try, but they never really get there."

"Can you tell someone's a grown-up by how they don't make any sense?"

Joyce laughed. "That's a good start."

"Mom?"

"What, baby?"

"When I grow up, I want to be like you."

"Oh." Tears stung her eyes again, and this time she let them come. "That's sweet of you, but I think—I think when you're ready, you're going to be a great grown-up. Just … take your time, okay? I don't mind you being a kid just a little longer."

He smiled at her, Will's own sweet smile. Having twice now thought she might never see it again, now she thought she could never get enough of it. "Okay."