Chapter Text
“I don't want you to go.” she said from her place on his bed. He was standing in his closet, trying to decide which clothes to get rid of and which to keep. She had already told him that she would take anything and everything he got rid of, her need to keep any piece of him incredibly strong.
“I don't want to go either, but it's not like I have much of a choice.” he told her, turning around. She was sitting on top of the sheets, wearing nothing but her underwear and his t-shirt. He wished that time would stop, he wanted to soak in every last minute of her like this.
“Well, you do kind of have a choice,” she mused. He just looked at her, confused.
“Think about it, you have a car, and you're 18. So what's stopping you from staying, or better yet, us just leaving.” She was thinking out loud, voicing a dream that had only existed in the quiet moments, when they had no choice but to pretend that their hearts were not breaking, that their love would survive the separation.
“Come on, Nancy. Where would we go?” he asked her, unsure if he should even take her seriously.
“Wherever we want. New york or Chicago, Austin or Seattle.”
“Okay, so say we decided to go to Seattle, what money do we even have to get there with? Let alone stay there.”
“What about my savings?” she asked him.
“No,” he told her, “besides, this is all hypothetical anyway.”
“But, what if it wasn't hypothetical? What if we packed our bags and just fucking left.”
He looked at her, shocked. She was dead serious, and it was simultaneously invigorating and terrifying.
“That would be incredible, but, you know we can't.” he said
“But we can, Jonathan. That's what I'm trying to tell you.” She had made her way off the bed as she said it, walking over to him, her hand snaking around his waist.
“We can go, we can be free.”
“What about our families, what about the…” he didn't finish, tired of talking about the upside down, about the monsters that had killed so much more than just their friends.
“We can visit, but we cant let this control us anymore. We have to get out, while we still can”
They've nearly died three times, the fact that they were even having this conversation was a miracle. And because of that, he wanted to turn around and tell her yes, let's leave. He wanted to take this plunge into the unknown with her.
“We've lost so much, I think it's time that we took something back for ourselves.” she told him, leaning into him, her head on his chest.
“I have to get out, John, I have to. I can't let this place swallow me up. I can't get stuck here like my mother. I have to leave.” she wasn't asking anymore, she was telling. He had a choice to make, and even if the answer felt obvious, he was still unsure. He has so much to lose.
“Okay,” he told her, his chin now resting on her head. “Let's go, let's do this.”
She looked at him, her eyes telling him everything she couldn't say. He leaned down, catching her lips and pulling her into a deep kiss. The realization that soon, it would just be the two of them hitting him hard. It was such a peaceful thought, euphoric even. The idea of escaping, of getting to love her, of being free. It was intoxicating.
“Thank you,” she said against his lips, the words vibrating on his mouth.
“I love you,” was all he knew how to say in that moment, it was the only thing that felt real. Their love, enough to move mountains, enough to keep him alive, enough to push him to get out, to survive.
“When should we leave?” he asked her as she pulled away from him.
“Do you have gas in your car?”
“Yeah,”
“Then why not tonight?”
“Alright, let's do this.”
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She made them both packing lists, (a habit she had developed during one of their many monster hunts), and they set off gathering the necessary supplies.
She raided the kitchen for any and all snacks that could survive a long time in the car (chips, cookies, nuts, beef jerky, and some some fruit), while he packed up his belongings. He threw jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, pajamas and underwear into the biggest duffel bag he owned. The final thing to go in was his tattered, shearling-denim jacket.
He wouldn't know it for a long time, but that jacket would one day become the only tangible memory of Hawkins he had left. The trophy he would hold up to show others that he was there, that he got out.
When she came back with the food, he began to pack up what would easily be their most important bag. His gun, ammunition, passport, and birth certificate all went in his dad's old lockable suitcase. When they got in the car he would hide it in the trunk, praying that it would never fall into the wrong hands.
He left a note on his bed, explaining to his mother that they hadn’t been taken, but not to look for them. That it was time for them to start living their own lives.
Nancy would leave a similar note on her bed after she gathered up all her things. It was quite a sight to see, Nancy Wheeler, her parents' golden child, climbing down the side of the house, baby pink suitcase in hand, off to run away with her boyfriend. To anyone else it would be a sad sight, but to him, she had never looked more herself. She was taking her life into her own hands, and that's a beautiful thing.
They drove through the night, letting the stars guide them as they began their grand adventure. He put her favorite tape on as the sun began to come up, and they sang their hearts out. He felt like a little kid again, so full of joy and life. She was no different, absolutely radiant in the passenger's seat. It was pure bliss, a high he hoped that he would never come down from.
But all good things must come to an end, a fact that Jonathan and Nancy would soon learn, the hard way.