Joyce couldn't help but look at her boys and try to figure out what had gone so terribly wrong. They were both such smart, sweet boys, both had held so much promise- more than she or Lonnie ever did, that's for sure. But now- she shook her head as she stood behind the counter, waiting for the next customer, or more likely, some kid trying to shoplift like she somehow wasn't going to notice. She'd worked here longer than they'd been alive- she knew what to watch for. What she didn't know anymore was how to protect her family- but then, had she ever?

Everyone had tried to tell her not to beat herself up, that she was a good mom. But she heard the whispers behind her back from the next aisle over in the grocery store, about the Byers boys and how they were both such terrible failures. About how Nancy Wheeler had done the inevitable: woken up one morning, took a look at Jonathan and their little boy, and realized she could have done better. How Will had dropped out of college and returned home only to get hooked on drugs. They didn't know how every night, as he slept in his childhood bed, the nightmares that plagued him at Husson U and driven him home continued to torment him, causing him to wake up screaming and sobbing. They didn't know how Jonathan and Josh were ghosts of themselves, haunting her house like wraiths who never spoke above whispers. They didn't know what it was like to have the promises you fought to guarantee your family ripped away from them, and to have to watch them suffer and die a little every day while you can do nothing but watch.

"I see you."

The kid glared at her before putting the candy bar back on the rack and stomping out of the store. What happened to the Hawkins she thought she knew? It was as if they'd all been living in a snow globe, and someone came along and flipped it over...and things never went back to normal afterward.

She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't hear Will calling her name. She came back to earth, the motherly part of her wanting to remind him not to call her Joyce, but not bothering. There was so much wrong with him that the fact he'd completely stopped calling her "mom" ceased to matter entirely.

"Hey...can I get 20 bucks? I promise, I'm not going to blow it on drugs. I got a job interview down at the school and I wanted to get a new shirt."

"A job interview? Really? Honey, that's great! What, do they want you to teach?"

Will sighed. "No, Joyce, they don't want me to teach. They want me to clean toilets and sprinkle sawdust on puke."

She tried to remain optimistic. "Still, that's something, right? You have to start somewhere. Is Jonathan going to drive you? Don't you think you should maybe get a haircut first?"

"Nah, Jonathan's out with Josh. I was just going to walk."

" Are you sure? I can take you maybe after my shift ends-"

"No, it's fine. It's a nice day. I'd rather walk. Thanks though."

She gave him the twenty, plus an extra five for the haircut.

"I'll see you tonight. Call me and let me know how it went, okay? Love you."

"Bye."

And with that, her sweet little boy disappeared again, if he'd ever really come back in the first place.