Work Text:
"Well, this bites the big one. See, I told you that that piece of shit wouldn't show up!"
He was looking around the park with his hands tucked in his jacket's deep pockets. It was spring break, but it still felt like winter. This far up north, they should know better than to have this thing in March of all months. Actually, this was an all-around bad idea. A waste of time and energy and....life, in general.
"Hey, you, watch your words." Joyce motions with her eyes towards Will, who happens to be sitting close enough to hear something and peeps over.
"Honey, I know you're upset, and I know you're especially upset for Will, but we had to try." Joyce whispers.
"I know, Mom, but can't we just, get going? The longer we wait here, the worse Will is going to feel about it."
He looked over towards Will, his heart looked like it had been dragged across the park's basketball court as he sat at the tabled bench. He was wearing a magicians hat, a magic wand in hand, and a magician's cape. Even the hat and cape looked droopy with sadness at this point.
"Yeah, let's pack up and go have lunch at home, where it's warm. Maybe.... We can even stop at the record store beforehand, and you two can pick out something new." Joyce hugged him sideways and leaned against him until he finally gave in and smiled up at her.
He walked on over to Will, then kneeled down in front of him and put his hand on his knee.
"Need help carrying all of this stuff? Or are you gonna fight me about it again?" he said, somewhat quiet, but with a crooked smile.
Will looked down at him and turned his head towards their mother.
"She looks sad. Did I mess it up?" Will asked as he started to fold his magic wand in half, then into quarters.
"What? Why would you think that?"
"It's my first spring break, ever. I thought it would be fun to have a magic show and a picnic at the park.... with all of us together. But, I guess I was wrong."
Jonathan's first instinct was to feel angry with Lonnie. Instead, he shoves it aside, to the part of himself he describes as "the inner turmoil pile of dirt", to deal with at later date. The shoveling is getting out of hand in there.
He sighed, long suffering and dramatic.
"Well, if you were wrong, can you imagine how wrong all of those guys over there are?" he says as he points over towards the courtyard filled with pre-teens attempting to play basketball in the icy wind, wearing tiny shorts and tank tops.
"Look, that guy right there, with the number three on his back. He's shivering more than anyone because he's sweating, and that's making it feel even colder out here."
Will laughed wildly, and stood up, slightly more confident and picked up his little magic bag.
"You can carry the picnic basket this time." he says with a smile, looking up at his big brother.
They decide to eat lunch in the car, parked outside the movie theater to people watch. They have their own special picnic, just the three of them, listening to music and talking about things they love.
Afterwards, they head down to the record shop. They all exit the car, but their mother looks over towards the opposite side of the street as she hands them a few dollars.
"You two take your time and look around, okay? I'll be at the RadioShack a few doors down if anything happens.... Let's see if we can get our television set fixed up again. There's a lot of Saturday morning cartoons that someone has been missing." she said with a wink.
Jonathan sets a hand on Will's shoulder and leads him into the record store. He already knows exactly where he's going to bolt the second the door opens.
"Yup, there he goes." he sighs as his arm flops down to his side, now brother-less.
Comic books aren't really Jonathan's thing, but he stays near the large bookcase filled with them to keep an eye on his little brother. Next to the comic book case are the jazz and blues records. He shuffles through them, not really intending on buying anything. His mom gave him a few bucks, but he'd rather let Will have an extra comic or two. Music is free over the airwaves, anyway, so it's not like he's missing much.
That's when he hears the door's bell jingle and a rush of sounds immediately follows. Squeaking shoes, stifled laughs, rude comments and clapping. He turns towards Will, he's still kneeling on the floor, flicking through a comic. He then leans his head over the record shelves to get a better look.
Great. A few of the basketball guys are here. And of course, they're all the same ones that always lean a little too close into him when he's at his locker, just to knock his books out of his grip. Better get out of here. He doesn't want Will to see or live through anything he shouldn't have to.
"Hey, Will, did you find anything you like, yet?" he asks as he hurriedly walks over to him.
"What? Already? I just barely started looking!" he looked up at him with such big, incredulous eyes that Jonathan felt the pang of further disappointing him deep inside of his lungs.
He was gonna have to tough it out and ignore them, like he always does.
You know. Maybe they wouldn't even notice him... This is the real world, not school. Plus, they looked like they were really into.... whatever they were looking at. So. They'll stay. He stood there, next to his little brother and picked up the comic he had seen him set aside to take a look at it.
"Hey, look, it's Byers. Hey! BYE-ERRS!"
Damn it. If he ever has his own kid, he's moving to the big city so they never have to deal with all of this small-town-bullshit. He's also going to homeschool them until college.
He'd recognize that sneering voice anywhere, as his body instinctively freezes up. He turns to the side of the bookshelf and leans back to shield Will from his view. Tommy Hagan can really dampen anyone's day and his little brother doesn't deserve any more rain today.
"Man, I always knew you were a loser, but I never imagined you were also one of those dumbass superhero nerds." he says scornfully.
The two other boys in jerseys snicker and stare at him as he says nothing in return.
"What's wrong, Byers, can only talk when you're sittin' in Mrs. Garr's class?" the taller guy in the number three jersey, asks, dripping with shallow disdain.
Harrington is never a problem when he's alone, but something about his friends bring him down into the depths of... subhuman. That's a good word he learned in Mrs. Garr's class, now that he thinks about.
"Aww, it looks like he's got a little baby with him today, too." Hagan says as he takes a peak behind Jonathan and smiles in that awful way before he attacks with something worse.
Okay, enough of the silent treatment.
Jonathan speed walks right through them, shoving Harrington and Hagan to the side with his arms to get their attention. It works, as they all turn around to follow him down to the end of the record store.
"Look. You guys can torment me all you want at school, but don't you have something better to do on your days off? Like freezing your asses off in the icy wind?" He says as sarcastically as he can muster, while pointing towards the windows with the comic book in his hand.
Harrington narrows his eyes at him and shifts on his feet as he casually sighs.
"So, what, you're spying on us now, Byers? Is that how you choose to spend your free time?" he asks, with a lot of really dramatic eye rolling at the end.
Tommy and the other guys have now come up to him, a lot closer than he's comfortable with in this small shop. If they start fighting in here, they'll all be banned from the store for the rest of their lives. It'd be great to take them all down with him, he thinks, it's not like he ever has money to buy anything here.... However.... Will, he doesn't deserve it. He's only seven, going into eight this month. The rest of his life is a long time.
"You gotta a problem with hard work and dedication, Byers? That's not something you or any of your family seems to know much about, is it?" Hagan says coldly, right up against his ear as he grabs his jacket.
He knows that Hagan's trying his best to get him to throw the first punch. He resists as much as possible. He's twelve and all the basketball guys are in the year above him, so they have to be thirteen, right...? Doesn't matter. They tower over him. It's three against one. He's not exactly acing math class, but he knows well enough how odds work thanks to his father's idea of a good time... He starts to reach his hand up, to grab Hagan's wrist.
Except. There's suddenly another hand on his jacket while he was busy filing the rushing thoughts aside; more dirt for his pile. Future Jonathan will have a lot of work to do. It wasn't pulling at him, oddly enough, but slightly, ever-so-gently pushing him back.
"Tommy, you gotta let him go, man. You know that my dad will kill me if we get caught fighting in here." Harrington said quietly, a little desperate and gritty at the end. He was facing away from him, but when Jonathan could see his eyes, they were filled with fear as he slowly glanced over at Hagan's balled up hand.
Immediately, Tommy's hand let him go, but with a slight shove. Has to show him who is still in charge, he supposed. Taking a look over at Harrington, though, he looked absolutely terrified. His eyes were looking back and forth between his friends, ready for them to crack a joke about it, perhaps. Then, Hagan finally reached his arm out and clasped it around his friend's shoulder. He made a sorta jolt-like motion when the arm landed.
"It's cool, dude. I won't let that happen, not on my watch. You're staying over at my house again tonight, anyway, right? This'll all blow over by the time you go home." he said as he walked them over towards the best sellers section. The other boy, the one that didn't seem to care about anything, looked down at the ground for a moment, almost pensive, and then followed along.
Jonathan then looked over towards the comic book section, where he saw that Will was staring. There weren't any comics in his hand, but he was still crouched down between the piles. He was hugging himself and looked worried, tears forming in his oversized eyes.
He rushed over towards his baby brother and hugged him tight. If Harrington hadn't intervened, he's not sure how much more traumatized Will would be right now. The last thing he needed on this god-awful-never-ending bad day, would be to have a stain on the floor for an older brother.
"Let's get out of here, yeah? We'll go find Mom and the three of us can get hot chocolate or something instead of comics today."
Will nodded, just barely, and reached his little hand up to grab his brother's. They walked, slowly, hand in hand towards the front of the store.
Before he opened the door, he stopped and they both took a look over at the three bullies older boys. They had their arms wrapped around the back of the boy with the jersey that read "03".