Stranger Things: Rebuilding: Book 4
First chapter of the next story in my Stranger Things Rebuilding series, our story continues, hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Stranger Things or its characters.
Broken
Brushing back her hair, having actually found time to brush it for once. The crisp November air smelled sweet, but she couldn't enjoy it, her mind was too full of what was going on. She was going to meet up with Eric to talk, as they had arranged. But there was still so much drama going on in her mind due to the recent events of the Halloween party, where the rapist and the sick sex game plan had been exposed on the same night and saw the rapist arrested and those responsible for the game in serious trouble.
'Of course, it got crazy when the Demogorgon showed up, luckily I took care of it, with some help from Steve and Mike…' She reflected. 'Of course, if Eric heard, he's not exactly going to…'
She grimaced and shook her head as she continued to head to the park where she'd agreed to meet Eric. Sure enough he was already there, seated on the main bench, bouncing one leg nervously with a look of desperation on his face, something which put her on edge, having finally come to see that look for what it was and knew what was coming.
'Oh great, here we go. Why can't he just understand. He must've found out the truth about the Halloween party...he's going to start causing trouble again, I know it.' She thought angrily.
Taking a moment to calm herself however, not wanting things to go badly right from the get go, before approaching him.
The moment she approached Eric looked up and was at once on his feet.
"Jane." He blurted out.
She cringed at his tone but kept her voice steady. "Hey Eric, so, we-"
But Eric at once burst out, cutting her off. "What were you thinking, how could you have been so reckless?!"
"Eric." She sighed. "We knew what we were doing, we planned it all out to expose that sick freak so he could get caught and face justice at last."
"By offering yourself up as bait?" Eric blurted out.
"We thought of that, that's why the others were there, watching me and waiting to act once we knew exactly who we were dealing with." El explained.
She hoped that explaining this, showing that they had taken all precautions and had in fact given themselves the advantage would make Eric see that she wasn't the helpless one who needed protecting that he had thought her to be.
Eric took this all in, still clearly flustered. "But, I don't get...why you?"
El nodded slowly, she had to admit that he was asking a good question there.
"You know what I can do Eric, you know my...gift." She explained. "That's why, so if I really had to, I could easily defend myself."
But he still wasn't appeased and clearly still looked outraged, mainly about the danger as it seemed, something which made El frustrated once again.
Sure enough, Eric shook his head.
He then blurted out. "You still shouldn't have put yourself at risk, you said your friends were there, why weren't they protecting you, they should have-"
"How would that have helped us catch the guy?" El snapped. "Urgh, I swear, will you stop treating me like this!"
"El, I'm only trying to-" He tried to counter, clearly once again not anticipating this reaction.
"To baby me yet again, I am more than capable of looking after myself. I've proven that time and time again, you even saw it yourself. Hell even after dealing with that creep I found myself facing that creature, the one I told you about."
"What, you faced that thing, you-"
"I beat it." She remarked firmly. "I was able to handle it."
Eric however missed the point completely. "You shouldn't have put yourself in such danger, it's not-"
El groaned and shook her head, turning away. She saw now that no matter what she tired Eric would never understand her, would never see what she had been trying to tell him from the beginning. He was too wound up in being overprotective and thinking she needed his protection, despite everything she'd already been through.
She shook her head sadly. "I see now...I see what's wrong, there's no other choice."
"Jane-"
"I'm sorry Eric, but I can't do this anymore. Not when you insist on treating me like this." She told him. "We're through...it's over between us."
Eric froze, his eyes going wide with shock and dismay "Jane….Jane no, this-"
"It is Eric." She replied firmly. "You just don't even try to understand me and don't even try to work out why."
Eric tried to reach for her.
She pulled away however and shook her head.
Eric grimaced and looked at his watch. "Jane, please, we shouldn't jump into this. I...I need to go and do this last delivery Billy wants me to do...but please, let's just meet again and talk this over."
"We've already talked it over, that's why we were here." El told him. "You don't understand or even try to understand...I can't deal with something like this and it isn't going to work for either of us."
"But-"
El sighed. "Go and do this delivery if you have to, but don't assume there's anything else to talk about."
Eric tried desperately one more time. "Please Jane, try to understand me-"
"You don't try to understand me." El countered.
Eric could only flounder at that, since he had no real response and could only watch sadly as she left before dejectedly going his own way, heading for his meet-up with Billy.
XXXXX
El bit her lip, still feeling saddened by what happened, but she knew it was necessary. Especially after seeing that despite everything, despite all the chances, Eric just wouldn't understand how she didn't need his protection, or rather, his overprotective behaviour which grated against her. It was then she saw the others outside the hospital and approached.
"Hey, you guys…" She greeted them, slowly, hesitantly.
They all greeted her and Dustin then noticed.
"You okay, you look kinda...out of it."
El bit her lip. "I'm, I just split up with Eric."
They all gasped, startled.
Finally Mike broke the silence. "El, are you, I mean…"
"It's alright." She said. "I...it had to be done. Neither of us were going to be happy if we kept going. What about you guys, what have you been doing?"
Will then answered. "We were just seeing Jonathan, he...he told us who attacked him, we couldn't believe it. It was Billy, one of his own fellow college students."
That made El freeze.
"Wait, Billy, as in, Max's brother, Billy."
"Um, yeah?" Will confirmed.
El's eyes widened. "Oh God, that's...that's bad...Eric was just going to meet him, right now."
They all tensed, realising the exact danger from what she said.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.