I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep until I was being shaken by my mother quietly urging me to wake up. "Hey, sweetheart. Wake up. I want you to help me make dinner. The three of us need to talk." I peeled my eyes open and looked around, trying to wake up. "What's going on? Is everything okay?" I rubbed my eyes and stifled a yawn, walking into the kitchen. My mom handed me some garlic and onions, telling me to chop them up for dinner. As I began to do my part, our mom finally started to talk about what was happening. "I just got a call from Karen. Apparently, Mike came home almost sobbing. I mean, he was really holding it back and when he finally just let go, he was hysterical. He told her that uh... they found Will's body. He was found in the quarry, and they don't have the cause of death for sure, but it's most likely accidental drowning." As she was talking, I had to stop what I was doing. Heart breaking, all I could think about was how Joyce and Jonathan must be feeling. I set down the knife in my hand and just stared off into space. I immediately started to cry, and when I looked over at Ezra, I saw that he had tears in his eyes. Quietly, I left the room, walked upstairs, and into the bathroom. No sooner than I shut the door, I lost all control I had. I could hear distant talking from downstairs, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. All I could think about was how it wasn't fair, all I could do was sob.

Moments later, I had finally calmed down enough to stand up from where I was crouched, in the corner by the bathtub. Looking into the mirror, I took in my tear-stained appearance. I stared at my reflection for a moment and took in my smudged eyeliner. I sighed as I turned the sink on and grabbed my face wash. With everything that was happening, I really hoped this was all just a horrible dream, and that I would wake up tomorrow morning and Will would be safe, and Barb would be in her home or spending time with me and Nancy. The cool water had helped to reduce the evidence that I had been crying, although not entirely as the redness and puffiness were still slightly visible. I took a deep breath and walked downstairs to the kitchen where mom and Ezra were still cooking dinner. "You okay, dear?" I looked at my mother and nodded, knowing that if I spoke I would just break down in front of them. Continuing to speak, my mother came over to me and wrapped me in one of those warm hugs that told me that I could come to her with whatever I needed. "I'm gonna go visit them tomorrow if you guys want to come with me." She let me go and went back to the stove. "Of course, we wanna go. Jonathan's one of our best friends and we want to support him and his mom in any way we can."

Dinner was so extremely quiet, I felt as if I could hear the Earth moving through space. I had finished before anyone else, so I immediately left to go to my room after I cleared my spot at the table. When I got to my room, I collapsed onto my bed and just stared at the wall, feeling completely numb. A few minutes later, I heard the door open and the side of your bed dip down. I knew it was Ezra and the both of us just sat there in silence, enjoying the comfort emanating off each other. "I feel bad that this happened to Will, but at the same time, I'm glad it isn't you," I whispered loud enough for him to hear. He didn't respond but I knew that he felt the same way I did. The bond we had was special. I sat up and hugged him, starting to cry as I buried my face in his shoulder. A couple of minutes passed, and we let go of each other, him standing up and leaving me on my own. I laid back down and slowly fell asleep, feeling guilty that I didn't offer to have Ezra drive him home to make sure he was safe.

Waking up was hard for me to do. The grief I had felt last night came back worse. My chest felt heavy, almost like it was actively crushing me, making it hard for me to breathe. It took me a long time to finally get out of bed and grab some breakfast, not that I felt particularly hungry. Walking downstairs, I saw that Ezra was in the kitchen already, looking like he wasn't mentally there. "How'd you sleep?" my question brought him back and he looked at me tiredly and responded. "Not great. I can't stop thinking about how Jonathan must be feeling, or Joyce. I was gonna wait for mom to get up to go and see them, but I think I wanna go now. You coming with?" Nodding, I grabbed a bowl and made myself a bowl of cereal, despite how I was feeling. Once I was done, I went back to my room and got dressed, only stopping into the bathroom to brush my teeth and make sure that I was actually awake. Before heading out to the car, I quietly made my way into my mom's room and wrote her a quick note telling her where the two of us were and putting it under her keys. I finally made it outside and we took off down the road, not listening to any music, just the sounds of the car making its way to where the Byers resided. I had closed my eyes and started to speculate about what happened to Will. I hoped that whatever happened, it didn't hurt and that it was over quickly.