Chapter Text
At the town meeting, then the boathouse:
You can hear Jason long before you reach the door to the large room everyone’s packed into. You can also hear the yells of agreement from within the crowd. Your mind flashes to the brief amount of research you’d done on cults for a history project last year - you’d gotten a B for your efforts, but also a parent-teacher conference due to the contents - and you can’t help but think Jason would make a great cult leader.
His awful diatribe is cut short when you swing a fist straight into his mouth.
“You need to shut the fuck up, Carver. You have no idea what you’re talking about and harassing innocent children isn’t going to fix anything. ”
After a collective gasp, the room went silent in shock until two of Jason’s team buddies come and drag you away from him despite the fact that you clearly didn’t plan to hit him again.
Closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, in your opinion.
“What?” Jason exclaims, looking at the cheerleader who would put her extra fries onto his plate without him needing to ask, who would hold Chrissy’s hand when she got nervous before a big performance, who he would’ve called a friend up until thirty seconds ago. “What are you talking about, Y/N? What are you - his little girlfriend?”
“I’m someone who knows due process says innocent until proven guilty, dumbass. You’re inciting a mob to chase someone with no evidence while you’re high on cocaine , Jason!” You let your voice carry on purpose; let the adults in the room - previously wound up and hanging onto Jason’s every word - hear that they were following the ramblings of a grieving, coked-up highschooler. “You need to let the police do their jobs and leave this alone.”
Turning, you tug your arms from the loose grips holding them and head to leave the room, very aware of the muttering going on in the crowd.
“You shouldn’t be sticking up for him, you little slut!” Jason yells impulsively, aiming to hurt but not thinking through the consequences of doing so in front of almost the entire town after you’d just accused him of being high. “Chrissy was supposed to be your friend!”
You’re slamming through the exit doors before he finishes his sentence, Steve following behind in shock.
“She stuck up for you, y’know?” Dustin mutters, trying not to draw the attention of everyone else in the small boathouse.
“What?” Eddie looks over at him, baffled and feeling a little slow on the uptake after no sleep and a shitload of terrifying information about another dimension. “Who?”
“Y/N.”
Eddie scoffs. “Yeah, right, Henderson.”
“I’m serious,” he whines, affronted. “She punched Jason Carver in the face. It was awesome. ” He pauses, mouth dropping into a pout. “Well, at least I bet it was.”
“What? ” Eddie feels like he’s getting more confused by the second - like he’s only hearing one side of a conversation and he’s supposed to guess the rest.
“Well, I didn’t exactly… See it happen.”
Eddie throws his hands up dramatically, shaking his head.
“Well, then, why do you think –”
“I couldn’t exactly go into the town hall to watch - there’s a bounty on my head now, too! But Y/N stormed in there all mad-like, and when she came out she was holding her hand and Steve said she walked straight up to Jason and punched him right in the mouth!”
Dustin’s more animated now, beaming at the thought of his cool, older friend punching someone to stick up for his other cool, older friend. “He said she yelled at him for threatening us ‘kids’,” he practically sneers the word even through his proud smile, “and that it’s innocent until proven guilty, and then she told everyone he was high on cocaine. I don’t know if that last part’s actually true but it sounds great…”
That’s when Eddie catches sight of your knuckles across the room where you’re talking to Steve, and Dustin’s monologue fades to background noise. They’re swollen, looking tender.
Looking like you punched someone in the face.