CHAPTER THREE
MIDDAY CAFE DISPUTES

Joey was sprawled out on a queen-sized bed, snoring in intervals. Nancy walked into her room and rolled her eyes at the girl. Only she would sleep until noon.

"Wake up," Nancy hit Joey's behind, or what she assumed to be her behind, harshly. Joey groaned and turned her head away from Nancy, relishing in the silence for a second.

"Die," Joey mumbled.

"I have your double caffeinated chai... " Nancy coaxed. Joey reached her hand out for the cup, but Nancy took a step back and added, "That I'm going to put right here so you have to get up."

Joey glared at the girl through the puffy slits of her eyes. "Die twice."

Nancy smirked as she leaned against her dresser, waiting for her best friend to finally sit up. When Joey did, Nancy brought the cup, or more accurately a mug, over to her.

"God, when you asked me to pull an all-nighter yesterday, I thought that you also meant we would get to sleep in." Nancy laughed at Joey's statement and sat next to her. Joey sat up and walked towards the dresser to retrieve her cup and sipped on it slowly, careful not to burn her mouth.

"I have to take Mike to the arcade later, wanna come?" Nancy asked her as Joey got changed in her closet.

"Um," the voice from the closet drawled before she said, "Oh shit!"

"What?" Nancy jumped up from the bed.

"My aunt," Joey opened the closet doors. She dawned acid-wash jeans with a blue and pink striped sweater.

"What about her?" Nancy sat back down. Joey frantically grabbed her things and threw them into her backpack that contained her school supplies from the day before.

"I said I would help her with the shop today," the brunette slipped the backpack on and started to descend the stairs of the Wheeler's residence.

"What? Joey!" Nancy followed her friend down and caught her right before she stepped outside.

"I'm really sorry, but I can't miss today," Joey slipped out of the house and into the cold, October air. She rubbed her arms to generate heat between the fabric of the sweater and her bare skin.

"Call me later!" Nancy shouted as Joey ran down the street.

-

"I am so sorry," Joey burst through the door of Aunt Wen's flower shop. "I was over at Nancy's and I slept in. I didn't even realize the time until she asked what I was doing later and then I remembered you here and I started running."

Aunt Wen stood by the cashier and watched her niece ramble on. Joey threw her backpack down by the front door and stepped up to the counter.

"And by the time I was out of breath, I was here and then I came through the door and started explaining why I was late and now— "

"Hey, kid?" Aunt Wen stopped Joey from passing out. "It's okay. As long as you are here now."

"So you aren't mad at me?" Joey raised her brow.

"Nah, truth be told, I got here fifteen minutes ago." Joey's mouth dropped open at this. She reached over the counter and shoved Aunt Wen playfully.

"And you let me ramble on?" Joey asked nervously.

"Well it didn't seem to hurt you," Aunt Wen chuckled.

"Aunt Wen, you know me, I'm like Eddie Van Halen; I can go on forever!" Joey followed her aunt down the stairs of their shop, into the basement where they keep their plant fridges and their composing table.

"I'll be happy to equip you with the guitar and pick," Aunt Wen joked. The sound of Elton John playing softly on the radio greeted her along with the scent of flowers to create a romantic ambiance.

"So what's on the docket for today?" Joey stood by the table, waiting for orders.

"We have a huge order of roses. Apparently Jack Blive cheated on his wife again and now doubled his order from last time." Joey let out a gasp and Aunt Wen nodded.

"36 roses?" Joey's face turned into one of pure shock. "Where did he get the money for that?"

"I dunno but it's going straight into our pockets!" Aunt Wen giggled childishly. "Now get to de-thorning!"

Wendy left Joey with a large pile of beautiful red roses to de-thorn on the composition table. Joey took a pair of scissors and opened them up as wide as possible and used it more like a blade, quickly cutting down the side of a rose to get rid of the thorns but to make sure the rose kept its thickness.

After about an hour of this, Joey's wrist started to cramp and she decided to take a break. She set down the scissors and walked up the steep wooden steps and up to the main floor where Aunt Wen just got done with a customer.

"Taking a break?"

Joey nodded in reply and added, "Yeah, my wrists are about to fall off."

"Hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Aunt Wen told her niece just as she was about to head out the door and Joey's face scrunched into one of disgust.

"Y'know, I've always hated that saying. It's so stupid; wouldn't you want to have something kill you so that you come back stronger? Like bones, after they break they grow back even stronger. Did you know that in a martial arts technique, the students actually break their bones over and over again to build it up?" Joey started to ramble on and Aunt Wen slowly inched her out the door.

"Begone, Webster," Aunt Wen shut the door on Joey, effectively locking her out. Annoyed, Joey turned to go to the cafe around the corner, just a block away from the high school.

Entering the small facility, Joey took a place in the short line of two people to order her snack. As she waited, she noticed a brooding figure by the window, slouched and reading a book. She almost immediately recognized it as Billy Hargrove, the boy that took her aunt's beer and ditched her dinner.

Instead of doing anything then, Joey just waited for her turn to order. When it came, she was sure to speak more loudly than the others so that he would hear her there, but not too loud to be obnoxious.

"I'll have a chai latte and a croissant, please," Joey asked, taking some money out of her pocket to hand to the register. From the window, Billy definitely noticed her. That annoying voice that he found charming in the few minutes of meeting her had now a negative effect on him. It was like any second, she would come over and judge him for reading a book again. But the blush on her cheeks from the cold air made her look so innocent...

Joey waited for her order quietly, standing at the pickup window. She glanced over at Billy every once in a while, not saying anything. Once she got her order she was ready to walk out of the door, except she didn't. She stopped right as she was going to open the door and thought about her actions.

The once shy and meek brunette turned around abruptly and marched over to where the rock 'n roll-listening brute sat, brooding over his water. She stood confidently over his linoleum table and tried not to grind her teeth from anger.

"You." Joey got his attention and he glanced up at the girl. People in the cafe turned to look at Jolene Cassidy standing over the new, scary kid.

"You embarrassed my aunt the other day. My aunt who threw a lovely dinner party, a dinner party that you ditched! Not only that but you took her beers and brooded on the porch as you barely tried to make conversation with me and I was trying so hard to do so! And so you just sat on the porch, drinking your stolen beer and littered on my property as you thought about how the world was out to get you when really we would have cared less about you and your goddamn book!"

Joey stomped her foot, a figurative gesture to show that she had put her foot down on Billy's horrible behavior and turned around, walking out of the cafe with adrenaline coursing through her veins. She could feel twenty pairs of eyes on her as she walked away, but only one pair particularly stood out to her, one that was the only icy blue glare.

-

Joey laid in bed that night with her pastel green lamp lit up, illuminating the room so that she could see every nook and cranny. At night, she would sometimes get restless or get night terrors of the Demogorgon coming back to feast on her.

She knew it was dead, she saw it with her own eyes as that bald girl, El, disappeared with it. It was gone and it couldn't touch her. But that fact did little to ease her nerves. It was still alive in her nightmares.

She made a quick decision to grab the matching green phone and dial in the number she knew by heart.

"Hello?" Steve Harrington's voice calmed her down a bit. It was nice to hear a familiar voice.

"Hi," Joey said hesitantly. She waited for a few seconds to listen for a click in the sound, but heard nothing. It was a trick she learned from Jonathan to see if her phone was tapped. Her phone had been tapped a few times before but it seemed clear now.

"Hey, what's up?" The brunette nervously fiddled with the wounded cord. It was hard to think of a way to word how she was feeling since she knew that Steve seemed fine now.

"I'm still getting worried, Steve," she whispered into the phone. "What if it's still out there?"

"Joey, listen to me. It's dead. It's not going to hurt you or anyone else. And this isn't the right thing to talk about on the phone." Joey sighed, she knew he was right.

"You're right, I'm sorry," Joey's deflated voice did little to alert her boyfriend of her uneasiness.

"You're okay now," Steve continued. "Get a good night's sleep. That'll reduce your chances of..."

When Steve trailed and didn't finish his sentence, Joey got annoyed.

"I know, Steve. But you bringing it up again doesn't help me."

"Sorry. I'm just trying to help."

"I know, I just don't want to talk about it," Joey said quietly. After a beat of silence, she sighed and said goodnight. After she placed the phone back on the switch, she situated herself under her blankets and turned off the light, letting the darkness consume her.

After a few minutes of lying awake, staring at the ceiling so that she would not see any shadowy figures in her room, she closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her.

a/n RIP to the amazing Eddie Van Halen. fly high guitar legend <3