*Sunday, back to Rain's POV*
After Mike left for Hellfire Club, I spent time with my mom before she had to leave for a night shit. I grabbed a music mag and we sat together on our couch in comfortable silence for a while. "Are you sure you'll be okay tonight?" She peeked over her book page. Any time my mom had to work nights I knew she worried about leaving me alone, because I was more prone to nightmares without someone in the house. "I'll be fine mom, promise" I nudged her shoulder and we went back to reading together.
When my mom left, I tried fixing the TV myself, 45 minutes passed and it was no better off. I could've gone to my Uncle's house since someone was always there, but being 19 years old and afraid to be on your own always made me feel stupid. I lugged the large stereo and speakers from my room into the lounge and played some Guns & Roses. I started doodling some concept ideas for horror movie monsters and spent a couple hours creating some really gory characters that I was proud of. Then I tried reading another magazine, but I kept thinking about Mike. He had been through so much already and now he was navigating having feelings for his best friend...
During Sophomore year my aunt Karen called my mom constantly about what was happening in Hawkins; asking for us to come back. Will Byers had gone missing for a long time and other kids were going missing too, including Barbra. There was even a 'fake' body planted in the quarry to try and make it look like Will died. My mom and I begged my stepdad to take us back so we could support our family, but he refused because his work was more important to him. I began writing letters to Mike and Nancy, in case they didn't want any parents intruding on conversations. Nancy never returned any letters. Mike did now and again, but I think he was using it as a creative outlet to express his feelings. His letters contained some pretty wacky stuff: secret government lab experiments, a girl with super powers, a DnD monster come to life, another realm of Hawkins... My mom said he was doing it as a way to cope with all the trauma around him. When we moved back to Hawkins that summer and lived with them for a while, I asked Mike about what he had written, but he refused to talk about it and completely avoided the subject.
2 months later the news about Barb's death broke through Hawkins. Nancy handled it very strangely, she didn't cry or fall apart, as if she already knew it was coming. She would also scoff anytime the cause of death was mentioned on the news. Will had finally been found and was unharmed, yet Mike and his friends still seemed pretty depressed, as if they'd lost someone else. That Christmas Mike had met Jane - it was as if they'd known eachother for much longer though. They spent pretty much every moment together, and I swear I once heard Mike tell her, "I missed you so much, don't ever leave again, those months without you sucked so bad". Maybe he had met her somewhere before? But she was new to town and was introduced to us as Hopper's daughter.
I'd started dating Billy Hargrove just before New Year's. Biggest mistake of my life. Robin had tried her best to come between us, I wish I would've taken her seriously and chosen her over him. That's the first thing Billy made me do - choose - he did it so smoothly and with all of his charm, I chose him and left Robin by herself with a nerdy guy called Nathan who used to sit with us at lunch. I'll never forgive myself for ditching Robin, she'd been my best friend since forever, even when I lived in Arizona we would call each other all the time Towards the end of Junior year Robin got herself a job at Scoops Ahoy, that's how she became friends with Steve, and I was super jealous that my bff had found someone new to laugh with. During that summer I barely saw anyone; not my mom, not my cousins, not even the grocery store clerk. This was because whenever Billy was working at the pool, I had to stay in his house if I didn't go with him. Being stuck in his house all day meant I got to hang out with Max though, whenever she wasn't busy with Jane or the boys. Being around Max was great, I introduced her to the bands I loved and she could really hold a conversation.
As summer went on Max spent more time with the gang, and I was left alone with Billy. There was barely opportunity for me to register the weird things that were going on in Hawkins at that time, like all the shady shit with the StarCourt mall, because things with Billy were getting worse and worse. Towards the end of Summer our reached its violent end. I hadn't seen him since. Whilst I was in the hospital Steve Harrington would bring Robin to visit me, even before I was awake. He helped me heal my friendship with her afterwards; Steve wasn't the same douche bag that he had been in school, I think being rejected from colleges and his dad making him work at Scoops had forced him to grow up.
I was late starting Senior Year because of that summer's events so, I had to work my ass off to catch up and graduate. Near the end of Senior Year, there was a huge explosion at StarCourt Mall, a ton of people died and there were rumours about Russian involvement. To this day I had no clue what the truth was; Steve and Robin had still been working at Scoops, but they acted like whatever happened there was their little secret. Even the kids seemed to know something I didn't. Police Chief Jim Hopper had been one of the many people to die at the mall; then the Byers family took Jane in, and a couple months later they all hauled ass to California.
My little trip down memory lane came to an end when the tape stopped playing, it was extremely dark outside and the wind sounded like a ghost whistling. I rewound the tape and turned the volume all the way up, drowning it out as I triple checked all the locks and checked every room. This was the thing about Hawkins; after the sleepy town turned into nightmare central, it was impossible to feel safe in the dark.