Array
(
[text] =>
THE NIGHT BEFORE
after it was all over
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 in the big black sky overhead, as Maureen Philbin stepped out of her house in the dark. She clutched her robe tight to her body to shield out the November cold, as her hair blew in the soft wind just a little bit behind her. She paused on the front porch with arms crossed to keep the robe closed, as the big door shut behind her, squinting her eyes to stare forward at Jim Hopper down the lawn. He was parked at her curb, the big police SUV, and he was leaning on the passenger side door, ankles crossed with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.
Maureen had just taken Lori inside. Asking a billion questions on the way in— where were you? What happened to your head? Are you alright? What’s the police doing here?— and Lori’s answer to all of the above was simply: he’s gonna talk to you. She was too tired, too sore, and too overwhelmed to answer any of her mother’s questions as they walked up the stairs just moments ago, but she knew Hopper was going to clear everything up— or something like that. So, Maureen decided that whatever her daughter got herself into that night, she needed to sleep, and she’d get her answers from Lori’s ride home: the goddamn Chief of Police.
And now Maureen was stepping down her big front lawn, slippers in the grass, towards that Chief of Police. She didn’t know if she was mad, or thankful, but she knew that she was so, so confused. She stepped down the lawn in the dark, with nothing but her house porch light on, arms crossed with that usual punctual aura she always held. Except her punctual aura was sort of punctured. She looked tired, worried, and stressed. You could tell even in the dark.
Hopper slowly stood up from leaning against the car when he noticed her approaching. He took the cigarette from his lips, puffed out a cloud of smoke and let it dangle in his fingers. “Are you the mother?” he asked, voice heavy against the silence of the street.
“What does it look like, officer,” she said, glancing back to the house— implying that obviously, yes, she was the mother.
Hopper tilted his chin up, instantly noticing at those first words where Lori got her bluntness from. And the closed off stance, arms tightly crossed— this woman was definitely Lori’s mom.
“I have to make sure,” he said, as he took a drag from the cigarette and directed the huff away from Maureen— figuring if mother and daughter were so similar, she probably didn’t like the smell of smoke either. He took in a long breath, “Look, ma’am. I’ll make this short for you.”
“No,” Maureen cut in, speaking sternly. “I’ve been sitting up for hours waiting for that teenage girl to come home. Hours. I want every detail.” she pointed up to Lori’s window. “And nothing less. Don’t cut it short.”
Hopper took a deep breath and rubbed a hand over his beard, flicking the cigarette.
“Where the hell was she?” She tilted her chin up, voice hard.
Hopper took a drag and huffed it out slowly. “You’ve heard of the story? What happened last year. With the kid.”
She crossed her arms tighter, thinking about when Claudia had called her last year, talking about some child— her son Dustin’s friend?— getting lost in the forest, later “coming back to life”. And of course she’d heard a little rumor or two in the past weeks, walking in town and such. “I’m familiar.” she said, sort of confusedly.
“Well, uh,” He hesitated for a moment, glancing up to Lori’s window. “Long story short— kid got lost again, the Byers kid, sometime around noon yesterday.”
Maureen squinted her eyes, listening.
He huffed out a puff of smoke. “And those little shits went out lookin’ for him.”
“What little shits,” Maureen cut in. “My nephew? Dustin Henderson?”
He nodded, slowly, lips in a tight line. “I’m assuming him and your daughter are pretty close, yeah?”
She narrowed her eyebrows, “What makes you say that?”
“My guess is as good as yours. I’m thinkin’ he showed up here, maybe while you were gone,” he explained, tilting his head to the side, “Asked her to come help him look for his lost friend. A chaperone, or something like that.”
“Lori went out with her cousin, willingly, as a chaperone?” Maureen said, slowly, sounding like she didn’t believe those words.
Hopper’s eyes squinted just a tad, wondering why the woman sounded so confused at that fact. But he nodded anyways, that same, still and slow nod in the dark.
“She told me, when we all, uh, regrouped at the Byers house,” he said, “Told me, ‘I’m here to help my cousin’. They were in it together.”
Maureen’s eyebrows narrowed a bit more, confused at how Lori had— supposedly— willingly gone out to help her cousin. She tilted her chin up.
“Mrs. Byers gave me a call in the night and all that. Worried out of her mind. This kinda thing’s happened before so we needed to take the right precautions,” he said, sternly. “I’m sure you understand that.”
She nodded, carefully. But still burned her eyes into his, her focus never wavering.
He sighed and shut his eyes for a moment. “Turns out the kid was just sleeping in his secret hideaway the whole time,” Hopper said, pretending to sound unamused, like this fake story had an anticlimactic ending. “Little fort in the middle of the goddamn forest.”
Maureen took this in, unresolved questions forming in her mind. “So you’re meaning to tell me,” she took a step forward, “That my daughter was out all night, looking for some kid in the forest, with her cousin?”
“I’m asking you to trust what I’m saying,” he said slowly. “I’m the Chief of Police, ma’am, and I’ve seen this film before.”
“Why wouldn’t she just tell me that?” Maureen questioned. “Why wouldn’t she just tell me she was helping family?”
He shrugged, and dropped the cigarette to the ground to put it out. “Maybe she was scared,” he said, squishing it with the toe of his shoe. “Scared that you’d come out looking for her in the middle of the night. All alone.” he alluded to the fact that Lori only had one parent to come out looking for her.
Maureen took this in. Maybe Lori was scared, scared that her mother might’ve gone out in the night all by herself— and gotten lost, too.
“Look, I don’t know what your relationship is like with your daughter,” Hopper said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “And I’m not here to tell you how to parent. I’m here to tell you that your kid… probably isn’t who you think she is.”
“And what does that mean?” Maureen’s eyebrows furrowed.
“She risked her life out there in the forest, willingly, in the middle of the night, to chaperone that boy and his friends,” he said, referring to Dustin. But really, he was referring to her whole sacrifice in the real order of events— babysitting the kids in the junkyard, the tunnels. “Pretty damn brave of her to babysit those little shits all night, don’t you think?”
Maureen pressed her lips together, letting this sink in.
“She’s a good kid.” he said, quietly, and so certainly. “Whether you, or she, believes it or not.”
Silence befell them for a moment, and Maureen took notice of the honest look on his face. His words trickeled all the way down to her heart, and she realized with painful certainty their truth.
“That Henderson boy told me she was grounded,” Hopper said after a while, “On the drive home, she was asleep— said that she was under some sort of major fire.”
Maureen looked down at her feet, suddenly aware of how stupid that grounding was, in this new light.
“Now you don’t have to listen to me on this one, but I think it would do you both some good if you’d loosen up on the punishment.” he said. “I’ve only known her a few days but, um, I think she deserves just a little bit of a break. At least right now.”
On the real side of things, Hopper meant to say that Lori deserved a break after all of that shit. He’d recognized that she didn’t ask to be brought into all of it, but even so, she’d done a damn good job at surviving through it. Selflessly and willingly. And she deserved a break, especially with the move and the lack of a father figure— he’d put two and two together quick.
“I want you to give her my number,” he stood up straight, taking a step forward as he reached into his back pocket to pull out a pad of paper. “And you let her know that she can call me whenever she needs. Both of you can. Whenever needed. Alright?”
Maureen nodded, and watched as he scribbled a number onto the paper with a pen from his jacket. He ripped the paper from the pad and extended his arm— paper blowing in the soft wind between them. She took it after a moment of hesitation.
“Alright.” Hopper breathed out, his breath clouding in front of them from the cold air. “Now get some sleep, it’s been one hell of a long night.”
“Thank you,” Maureen didn’t know what else to say other than that, because her mind was so crowded with thoughts and grave realizations. She put on a soft, clouded smile, but he couldn’t really see it in the dark.
He nodded once, and leant back on the passenger side door as she looked at him once more before turning away. With a heavy mind, Maureen walked back up the lawn and opened her front door, slowly. Hopper waited by the SUV, watching the whole way to make sure she got in alright. And when the door closed, his eyes switched up to Lori’s window on the side of the house. Her light was off, curtains half-closed.
He stared for a few more moments, thinking to himself.
And then he stood up, walked around the car, hopped in and started the engine. As he drove away, Maureen, inside the house, was pinning the paper with his phone number to the fridge. And then he pressed on the gas, she walked up the stairs. And finally, he drove down the street and she stood in the hallway at the top of the stairs— staring at Lori asleep with the door open— before smiling to herself and walking off to bed.
PRESENT
Despite the sun shining down between the clouds, it was still cold outside as Lori walked up to her front door. The sun was still there, but clouds had rolled in between the hours that separated her awakening that morning, and now, as she wrapped her hand around the knob. It almost made her smile, how the clouds spilled in— because it was so like Hawkins. There was a small breeze that tiptoed up the bare skin of her cheeks, but her arms were fine under the warmth of Steve’s sweatshirt— that he insisted she wear home to not freeze in a t-shirt, as if the journey that separated their houses was a long one.
Lori didn’t want to leave his house. After the song had finished and they’d caught their breath from dancing and singing, they let the rest of the album play as they sifted through the Bowie tapes. They’d sat on his floor, with the tapes spread out before them on the carpet, carefully deciding amongst the large collection, which ones she wanted most. They sat and sorted through them with Bowie playing over the record player, humming to the words and kicking each other’s feet at stupid jokes while the morning sun slowly faded. He told her that he wanted to “fix them up” before giving them to her, and she wasn’t sure what that meant, but she didn’t complain. She couldn’t complain about absolutely anything that morning.
And when the time came, they both knew she had to go back home. She had to see Maureen, probably talk about what the hell happened last night, answer some long-overdue burning questions. Lori kept telling Steve that Hopper probably told her all that she needed to know, but Steve kept telling Lori that she needed to clear a little bit up herself. Just a little bit. Even in the slightest. She knew he was right, and so she couldn’t complain about his efforts in her wellbeing. But they both knew she had to go home eventually, and that time came. But she didn’t want to leave, and he didn’t want her to go.
But inevitably, she’d pushed open his window and swung her leg out. She could’ve gone down the stairs and out the front door like a normal person— but what was Lori and Steve if not for the grand entrances and exits? He’d held the ladder from the top as she secured her position, and kissed her briefly from the window in the cold November air. Slowly, she’d climbed down the ladder and made it to the bottom, and he watched her walk all the way around the corner to where she was out of sight.
The whole thirty-second walk home, she couldn’t help but think about last night and that morning. It sort of settled an ache in the pit of her stomach, to leave the warmest bed she’d ever known— his bed. And his room, his room that sort of became a sacred place in her mind. She missed it already. And the revelations spiraling in the mess of her stomach. Mon amour.
She felt like she was in a trance as she pushed open her front door, and stepped inside. Quietly, and consumed in her own thoughts, she stepped up the stairs and found herself admiring the quilted ceilings and the frills on the baseboards— contrasting to when she’d first walked up those same stairs alone on her first day, hating those ceilings and baseboards. Now she loved them. Her hand was soft along the railing.
When she made it to the top, she paused on the landing when her eyes caught onto Maureen. She was slowly sitting up in bed, her bedroom door wide open, seeming to have just woken up. Lori stood for a moment, hand on the railing, feeling like she was unable to keep walking. Something inside of her told her to wait, to not just go into her room and shut the door like she would’ve always done. So she waited, watching her mom sit up in bed— how beautiful she looked in this unusual morning sun.
Maureen realized that Lori was in the hall, lingering there as if she needed something. “Oh, Lori,” she said, softly.
“Hi,” Lori said, voice quiet. But it was loud enough to hear in their big, quiet house.
She felt sort of weird, because their last full conversation ended with Lori saying “I love you,” after their emotional phone call, in the midst of the whole interdimensional ordeal. But still, she stepped up to the doorway, and leant the side of her body against it.
“How’d you sleep?” Maureen asked, kindly. She swung her legs over the edge of her bed, staying there.
Lori’s heart pattered at the thought of last night, at Steve’s. “Great.” she smiled to herself, softly. “You?”
“Perfectly fine,” Maureen breathed out slowly, smiling to her bed. Lori knew meant to say, now that you’re home and safe.
“That’s good,” Lori said, genuinely meaning it. And then she swallowed, and looked down to the floor, “So, uh,” she looked back up, “I’m assuming you have questions, so, um. I’ll answer them now. If you want me to.” she said.
Maureen knew this was big. This was her trying. She’d never willingly opened herself to questions about sneaking out, where she was all night— any time Maureen would ask in the past. Lori was always closed off and private when it came to family. Lori was trying, now.
“There’s no need.” Maureen gave her a look, a meaningful and earnest one.
Lori’s eyebrows twitched, “But I thou—”
“He explained everything to me, Jim Hopper,” Maureen said, carefully. “Last night after you went to bed.”
Yeah, I knew that, Lori thought. But what could he have said that left no questions lingering in Maureen’s mind? Maureen always had questions.
“What did he say?” Lori asked, lips departed.
“He told me that you went out to help Dustin all night,” Maureen said, after a moment. “His friend got lost in the forest again, that Byers kid? Poor boy. And that poor mother too.” she shook her head in sympathy. “It’s just terrible.”
Lori tried not to let her eyebrows narrow too much, before she realized it was a fake story that Hopper had to come up with. But half of it was true— the helping Dustin part.
“He told me that you were babysitting them the whole time, willingly,” Maureen looked to her daughter. “Is that true?”
Lori’s heart sort of twisted at the thought that Hopper had been talking good about her. “Yeah,” she said, with a breath, “It’s true.”
Maureen nodded to herself, and she seemed happy… almost proud? “That must’ve been terrible, looking for him all night in the forest while he was sleeping in his little fort out there. He must’ve been absolutely terrified.” she said, sadly.
With Maureen looking down at her legs sadly, Lori’s face twisted. Okay, so, yeah, Hopper was talking good about her— but he also made them out to be idiots.
“Anyways,” Maureen sighed and looked back to Lori— who snapped back into reality. “He also told me I should loosen up on your punishment. And I guess there’s really no punishment needed at all— because you were helping family. I’m sure Dustin appreciates you very much,”
“Yeah,” Lori let out a light laugh at the thought of Dustin, and what Hopper had said.
A moment passed where neither of them spoke. Until Maureen broke the silence.
“I’m proud of you, Lori.” she said, and meant it. “I’m really, really proud of you.”
Lori’s chest nearly caved in at those words. It was a surreal feeling, to have her mom say that she’s proud of Lori, when all she’d ever been was disappointed or upset after bad things Lori had done. But now she was proud.
All Lori could do was smile lightly, and nod, because words didn’t seem necessary at that. Maureen knew she was taking it in.
“And he gave us his number, Jim, I put it on the fridge. Wanted me to let you know that you can use it any time.” Maureen concluded. “He seems like a very good man.”
“Yeah,” Lori bit down on the inside of her cheek, thinking of that. “Yeah, he is.”
“No more secrets, okay, Lori?” Maureen said, quieter now.
Lori wasn’t even mad at the suggestion. “Yeah, sure, no more secrets.”
Maureen smiled fondly at that, and rubbed her hands along the material of her bed covers. And then she looked back to Lori before she could turn away.
“Who’s sweater is that?” she asked.
Lori smiled a little bit. “I know what you’re trying to do.” no more secrets.
Maureen cocked an eyebrow up.
“Steve’s,” she said, calmly. She tilted her head to the left, motioning towards his house. “It is Steve Harrington’s sweatshirt.” she rolled her eyes up to the ceiling, jokingly.
“Steve’s,” Maureen repeated. And then a stupid smirk slid onto her lips and her eye glimmered, “That boy next door?”
“Okay, goodbye,” Lori rolled her eyes, laughing on the inside. It was so, so cheesy— but it put their argument into light, when Maureen had grilled Lori for being out all night with said boy next door. “This conversation is grossly over.”
As she turned on her heel and began walking away, Maureen called, “He’s pretty cute, Lori why don’t you date him!”
She rolled her eyes again, wincing, and before she could reply— the phone rang.
“I got it,” she called to her mom, as she turned the corner to her bedroom.
A ring or two passed before she was at her bedside table, wrapping her hand around the phone. She brought it up to her ear.
“Hello?” she said, casually.
“Tell me why.” Dustin’s voice sounded over the other line, straightforward. “Why the hell, my MOTHER thinks I’m some kind of goddamn idiot out looking for Will last night? While he was asleep in Castle Byers the whole time? Did you know about this shit?”
“Shit, my mom already called Claudia?” Lori’s eyebrows shot up, astonished, “Jesus, these women work fast— she must’ve called her at, like, four in the morning cause she’s just waking up now—”
“Of course she already called my mom! They’re, like, the goddamn backbone of Hawkins’ phone bill,” Dustin exclaimed, “She was up waiting for me when Hop dropped me off. Wait— wait, did he talk to your mom last night? What did he say, oh shit, did he tell her!—”
“Slow down, Hagar,” Lori shut her eyes tight, and sat down on her bed. “One question at a time, please.”
“What did Hopper tell your mom,” Dustin said, slowly, anxiously.
“This is where your original question gets answered,” Lori explained, calmly, sort of grinning. “He said something along those lines of us being absolute idiots looking for Will, because I am no longer grounded, and I am no longer under burning fire.”
“So he came up with a story?” Dustin asked, “Like a, like a random story?”
“Obviously, dipshit,” Lori rolled her eyes. And then she lowered her voice, “I’d be halfway to Michigan right now if he told her the real thing. I mean, I could ask for more details if you want,” She glanced to her door.
Dustin let out a breath of relief. “No, it’s fine,” he said, calming down. “I’ll get the details later.”
“I think it’s all cleared up,” Lori said, twirling the phone cord around her finger.
“I was just calling to make sure you were alright,” Dustin said, genuinely. “Y’know, if you got through the night okay.”
“Dustin,” Lori’s heart softened.
“Are you alright? You okay?” he asked, genuinely wanting to know. “How’s Steve?”
“He’s alright,” she glanced up to her window, trying to contain her smile as she bit down on her bottom lip. She thought about him, and she thought about Maureen. “And I’m fine, kid. I’m just fine.”
𝙅𝙐𝙇𝙄
this chapter warms my heart :,)
sorry if the flashback thing is confusing! i keep writing little bits of the story and end up not including them in the right order because they’re either too long for a chapter, or too short to be on their own
but the conversation between Maureen and Hopper is very special so i’m glad i could incorporate it somehow
btw— the hopper convo happens right at the end of chapter 34! before she goes to Steve’s.
hopper 🫶🫶
[text_hash] => 7b44e6a1
)