Worlds Apart

Dustin eyed me curiously as I paced the kitchen table again. He took a slow, methodic bite of his cereal; I had half a mind to shove his face in the bowl.

“Can you please just hurry up?” I urged, making another pass. He sat his spoon down and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over his stomach. “Dustin! Come on -”

“Will isn’t even here yet. Why are you trying to get rid of me?”

“What? Whoever said I’m getting rid of you? I just don’t want you to be late!”

Dustin didn’t budge, and I rolled my eyes. Okay, okay, so he had a point. I was trying to get him out of here. I really didn’t want Dustin being here to see Jonathan pick me up.

It was the one thing I hadn’t thought of last night on the phone; if he saw that, the kids would never leave me alone about Jonathan. That wasn’t something I wanted to deal with for the rest of my life.

My little brother stared up at me expectantly. I pointed to his bowl as I went around the table again.

“Eat your cereal.”

“I can’t. My stomach hurts when I’m being deceived by family members.”

He gave a cheeky smile as I narrowed my eyes at him. I pushed his bowl closer and passed behind him, nudging him towards the table.

“Eat through the pain. I’m not deceiving you. I just don’t want another call about you being tardy -”

“You probably want to call Jonathan again and don’t want me around so you can let out your true feelings.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I scoffed, turning away to hide my blush. I caught sight of Will outside and clapped my hands together. “Okay, time to go!”

“I’m not done -”

“Now you are,” I told him, snagging his arm and tugging him out of his seat.

“I’m a growing boy! I need my breakfast!”

I grabbed a banana out of the fruit bowl and shoved it in the top of his backpack before I forced it into his hands. “There, taken care of. Come on, show some hustle!”

“Ally! Quit being crazy -” he tried to grab onto the door as I ripped it open; I swatted his hand down and ushered him down the driveway. “Allison! Just let me -”

Will watched us warily as I grabbed Dustin’s bike and all but pulled him onto it. I gave him a tight smile.

“Hey Will! Have fun at school!”

“Ally!” Dustin argued; I pushed him and his bike down the driveway. He glared up at me and I gave him a grin as I waved.

“Your sister is weird,” Will whispered; I rolled my eyes. I’d take weird, as long as I’d avoided that fiasco. I turned to go back inside when I heard him add, “is that Jonathan?”

I froze as I heard a car pull up to the house. Oh god. I couldn’t turn around. I could feel Dustin’s smirk burning into me, and for a heartbeat I thought about running down the driveway and forcing him to ride away before he could embarrass me.

But then Jonathan would ask why I was freaking out, and I’d have to explain, and just dig myself further into this hole… I shook my head.

Plan B then.

I turned and smiled at Jonathan and held up a finger before rushing inside and grabbing my things. I called a goodbye to Mom and then headed back out.

Dustin and Will were at the end of the driveway, grinning between Jonathan and myself. I pointedly ignored them as I reached for the door. Jonathan leaned across the seat and pushed it open for me, smiling in greeting.

“Good morning,” he said as I got in, shutting the door and glancing over to smile back.

“Morning. Thanks again, I know it’s a little out of your way,” I started, but he shook his head immediately.

“It’s no trouble.” As he went to pull onto the street, he caught sight of the boys grinning at us. I gave Dustin a vicious glare, and he just smirked. “Uh, what’s up with them?”

“Who knows,” I laughed nervously, keeping my eyes straightforward when I felt Jonathan look over at me. “You know what weirdos they can be.”

Thankfully, Jonathan just chuckled in agreement and finally pulled away. I subtly flipped my little brother off as we passed him. We sat in silence for a few moments, until Jonathan reached up and put a cassette into the player.

To my surprise, Beach Boys started playing. I looked over at him and saw him blushing.

“I uh, I listened to your tape last night.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, and then held down the fast-forward button. He paused a few times to check his place, and then stopped when we reached a familiar song. “This one’s my favorite.”

Sloop John B filled the car, and I let myself get lost in the songs. It was one of my favorites as well, and the fact that Jonathan had picked this one as his favorite… How did that make me like him even more?

When it came to an end and another song started, I turned and smiled at him.

“That’s one of my favorites too.”

“They’re not too bad when they sing about something other than California and surfing.”

As we pulled up to school, I gave him a playful smile.

“They’re always good. But I can show you other songs without all the sun and surf if you want.”

“Yeah,” he told me as we climbed out. He smiled at me over the car. “I’d like that.”

While we walked down the parking lot towards school, he dug into his bag and handed me a tape of his own. On it was scrawled Best Music Ever. I laughed as I turned it over, but when I went to hand it back, he gently curled my fingers over it. My heart skipped a beat.

“It’s yours. I figured you could use some good music education.”

Jonathan had made me my own mix? I couldn’t help the blush that came over my face as I tucked the tape into my bag. He held the door for me and we went inside; he followed me to my locker, and I found myself grateful for his extended company. Now that he’d started to come out of his shell, he was actually pretty great to be around.

“We can listen to it on the way home if you want,” he hedged, and I nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, I wanna hear it!”

He chuckled a bit and gave me a shy, warm smile. He went to say something else, but the warning bell rang.

“I’ll see you in history,” he said as he backed down the hall. I gave a wave and smiled after him.

“See you then!”

Once he was around the corner, I turned to head to class and nearly collided with Nancy and Barb. They both had the same expression that Dustin had earlier. I felt my cheeks turn bright red as I elbowed past them.

“Can I help you guys?”

“Not at all. We saw all we needed to,” Nancy teased. I turned to glare at her. “Did he really give you a ride this morning? It’s all anyone is talking about!”

I groaned and slapped a hand to my face as Barb giggled and looped an arm around me. Great. Poor Jonathan, now he was gonna be teased about that too.

“Oh don’t worry. It’ll blow over. And besides,” Barb leaned in a little closer. “I was totally right.”

As Nancy pulled ahead of us, I looked up at my best friend and gave a shy smile.

“You think?”

She shook her head and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

“I know.”

-x-

Jonathan looked up at me as I paused at his desk. Class was just about to start; we had one more workday, and I wasn’t wasting time.

“Nancy said Steve’s home sick,” I said, motioning to where she and Barb were moving desks together. “Do you wanna sit with us? It’ll just be me and those two.”

Though he looked apprehensive, he gave a slow nod.

“Yeah, let me grab my stuff.”

I nodded and went back to the others as the bell rang. Nancy looked up as I moved one more desk to our clutter.

“Jonathan’s joining us,” I explained as he came up beside me. The two of us sat down together and for a moment, we were all quiet.

Until Barb felt the need to ask,

“Did Ally make you listen to The Beach Boys, or did you actually get to play some good music?”

I gasped and turned to stare at her in betrayed disbelief as both Nancy and Jonathan laughed. I turned my glare to them.

“We’re listening to the good music on the way home.”

“You guys are jerks,” I muttered, opening my book. Nancy and Barb smirked at me as Jonathan gave me an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, I was always told it’s impolite to lie…”

“Really?! You’re supposed to be on my side!” I laughed, elbowing him playfully. The other two laughed, and the group relaxed into comfortable teasing and chatter as the class went on. I was relieved to see Nancy and Jonathan actually hitting it off - after all her comments a few days ago (and Steve’s influence) - I was worried she wouldn’t like my new friend.

But they seemed more than willing to work together, even going off into their own conversation about his photography. So much so that Barb and I ended up working on the projects as the two of them went off about techniques and framing and things I had no idea about...

“Quit glaring,” Barb whispered to me, nudging my arm. I snapped out of my trance and glanced back at her, trying to hide my guilt.

“I was not -”

“You don’t have to be jealous of Nancy,” she promised, reading my mind like she always tended to do. “He likes you. And you’re just as great as her anyways.”

I gave her a small, genuine smile and leaned against her.

“You always know what to say. Thank you.”

She playfully nudged me back upright and then reached over to jab Nancy with her pencil. When she and Jonathan looked over, they both realized we’d been ignored. Jonathan scooted a hint closer to me and leaned onto my desk to see what notes I’d done in the meantime.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get sidetracked,” he started, but I shook my head to cut him off.

“It’s fine, photography is more important than this. Besides, we’re pretty much done.” I shifted my notebook to show him the final section I’d outlined. “See? Just gotta write it up and put it all onto a poster board.”

“Are you busy tonight?” he asked, catching me off guard. My eyes widened a bit and I looked up at him in surprise. He turned a new shade of red and added quickly, “to, uh, to work on the project.”

“Oh, oh yeah,” I laughed nervously. I heard Barb stifle a snort so I kicked her subtly under the table. “Yeah, that’s fine. Yeah.”

“Uh, cool,” he said, looking almost as flustered as I felt. As the bell rang we both gave a start, and then gave more nervous laughter. “Uh, okay then. I’ll meet you at my car after school, okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, at a loss for anything else to say. He gave me a smile as he gathered his things.

“See you later, Allison.”

“Yeah, bye Jonathan,” I managed, and the second he had his back to me I dropped my head in embarrassment.

“Yeah?” Barb asked, teasing me. I kicked her again as Nancy answered,

“Oh yeah. Yeah, totally.”

“I hate you both,” I muttered, grabbing my books and shoving them in my bag.

“But you don’t hate Jonathan, do you?” Barb added, making both of them giggle. I glanced around and then flipped the both of them off. Barb pulled me into a hug, and the three of us joked on our way to our next class.

All things considered, things were actually shaping up with Jonathan. And now I knew I had both my friends at my side for whatever happened.

-x-

Music was already playing in the car as I came up to Jonathan’s side. He was leaning on the passenger door, arms folded over his chest and head tipped back as he relaxed. I leaned my hip on the door beside him and smiled up at him.

“Happy Friday,” I said, getting a smile to come over his face. He lifted his head back up and turned to look down at me.

“You too. Wanna stop by the store and get some stuff for the poster?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed, and then felt my heart skip a beat as he opened the passenger door for me. “Thanks,” I said with a fierce blush as I played it as cool as I could and got in. I copied his movements from this morning and opened his door as he came around to the drivers side.

“Thanks,” he said back, and then watched as I fished out the tape he’d given me. “You really want to listen to it?”

“I do,” I promised. “You’ve got me curious now.”

He chuckled and took his own tape out before putting mine in. The first song was That’s All, the same one we’d listened to yesterday. It was already growing on me; whether it was because I genuinely liked the song, or like it because Jonathan had showed it to me, I couldn’t say.

We rode in companionable silence to the store, both bobbing along to the music. So far, he’d nailed the songs he’d picked. I couldn’t find one I didn’t like. As we pulled up to the store, he saw me smiling and asked,

“Like it?”

“You know your music,” I agreed with a nod, getting out of the car with him and following him inside. His mom was at the front counter, and gave a double take when she saw us walk in. Her whole face lit up as we paused at the counter.

“Jonathan.. Ally! Hi, what are you guys doing here?” she asked us with a wide, cheery grin. I smiled back, but saw Jonathan turn a shade of red and scratch the back of his neck.

“We need some stuff for our project,” he mumbled, and Joyce nodded eagerly, already pointing to a far aisle.

“I’ll put it on my tab, just get what you need,” she assured; I went to argue but she held up a hand. “My boss owes me. Don’t even worry about it, sweetheart.”

“Thanks, Joyce,” I said with a smile. As I made for the aisle, I saw Jonathan hang back to talk to his mom.

“Is this what I think it is?” she whispered excitedly. I slowed down just a hint… what did she mean?

“Mom, not now,” he hissed, moving to walk after me; she tugged him back.

“Are you two -”

“Mom,” he cut in sharply; when I turned to look at him, his face was almost scarlet. I stared at him in question, but he just mumbled come on and led us quickly to the aisle we needed.

“Everything okay?” I hinted; I couldn’t lie, my hopes were up. What was she referring to? Were we what? Had Jonathan mentioned me at home? My heart was racing; I had to pull my thoughts back in before I got carried away.

“Fine,” he dismissed, stopping by the poster board as he refused to look at me. “Which one do you want?”

I studied the selection for a moment, tapping my chin as I examined the colors. After another few moments, I reached out and tapped a yellow one. He snorted.

“Are we presenting a project or directing traffic?”

“It’s bright and cheery,” I argued, pulling it out and holding it up to examine it. He moved a little closer to my side to look it over too.

“Is an ancient massacre supposed to be cheery?”

“Yep,” I decided, grinning up at him. “Get some markers.”

He gave me a bemused smile and shook his head, but did as I asked. We grabbed a few other supplies and then headed to the front. As she rang us up I pulled my wallet from my bag.

“Oh, sweetheart, don’t worry. I’ll cover this.”

“I couldn’t let you do that,” I declined with a smile. “It’s no problem. I’d rather you save your tab for yourself.”

“It’s just your school supplies -” she tried; I looked around and quickly grabbed a couple of candy bars. She gave me a knowing smile, realizing I didn’t want her paying for our things, and reluctantly took my money.

“I’ll see you later,” Jonathan said quickly. Joyce caught on to his quick escape and came around to follow us out. “Mom -“

“I just can’t get over how cu -“

“Goodbye!” He practically yelped, actually wrapping his arm around my shoulders to shove me out of the store. He leaned back inside and hissed something to her I couldn’t make out before letting the door shut.

“You gonna tell me what that was, or…?”

“She just wanted to know about the project,” he dismissed, though his red face told me otherwise. I tried to smother my smile as we got into his car.

When we pulled up to his house, I noticed no bikes outside. It was just about when the boys would be getting home, so it seemed they wouldn’t be hanging out here today.

“Do you mind if I call Dustin?” I asked as we headed inside. Jonathan shook his head and pointed to the phone on the wall.

“Help yourself. I’ll get everything laid out.”

I dialed my house and leaned against the wall, watching Jonathan work as the phone rang. After a few moments, I heard the line pick up.

“Hello?”

“Hey kiddo, it’s Ally.”

“And where exactly are you?” he asked; in the background I could hear Lucas ask, “is she on her way home!?”

“I’m working on my project,” I started, and he actually snorted.

“You were right Will!” he called, and then to me he added, “so what you really mean is you and Jonathan are busy making out for the rest of the afternoon.”

“You know what? I called you to make sure you wouldn’t be worried, and this is how you treat me?” I deflected; he didn’t hear me over his own laughter. I turned away from Jonathan to hide the inevitable blush on my face.

“Yeah, yeah. Okay. When are you coming home?” I started to answer and he added, “or are you just gonna move in together?”

“I’ll be home to make dinner,” I growled, and hung up the phone. When I walked into the kitchen I saw Jonathan staring at me expectantly. I gave a quick smile as I sat in the chair beside his.

“Everything okay with Dustin?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. Will and the others are hanging out with him so we have some peace and quiet to work.”

Jonathan’s gaze lingered on me for a moment as my words sank in. I realized how that had probably come out, being grateful we were alone… I mean yeah, I was, but still! Way to play it cool, Ally! Jeeze!

I cleared my throat and pulled out my notebook.

“We should, uh, we should get to work,” I practically squeaked. When I peeked a glance at Jonathan, I saw his cheeks were tinted pink. God, what an idiot I was…

The two of us worked diligently for nearly an hour, mapping out our poster and starting to cut and paste the information. We were about halfway done when Jonathan brought up what I hadn’t even considered.

“So… which of us is going to actually give the presentation?”

My hand froze in the middle of a sentence. I looked up at him sheepishly and realized exactly what a problem this would be.

“Uh… Well, I mean usually when I’m with Barb or Nancy, I just hold the poster…”

“Yeah, same,” he sighed, and we both stared in defeat at one another.

“We could always just hang the poster up and make everyone read it,” I suggested; Jonathan snorted and shook his head.

“Yeah, that’ll work.”

“Fine, then you get to present and I’ll hold the poster,” I said, crossing my arms to seal my point. He quirked a brow at me.

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t like my ideas, then you get to take the fall for us.”

“You’re too short to hold the poster,” he argued, and I gasped in mock offense.

“Excuse you!? I am plenty tall -”

“You’re barely above my shoulder.”

“We’re like the same height!”

“We are not!” he laughed, and I glared. I stood up instantly and gave him a look. He stared at me, confused, until I ordered,

“Get up.”

He let a wide smile spread over his face, realizing what I was doing. I crossed my arms to look intimidating.

“I’ll get up. But if you’re not the same height as me, you’re doing the presentation.”

“Good, an easy victory for me,” I started, until he got to his feet. My eyes widened a hint when I realized my mistake.

Has he always been this tall? He can’t be this tall! I panicked. He moved towards me and I took a step back.

“Something wrong?” he started, moving for me again. I shook my head and put the chair in between us.

“I changed my mind,” I said quickly, skirting to the other side of the table. “I don’t need to prove myself.”

“You just know you’re wrong,” he threw back, starting around the table for me. I held out a hand to keep him away as I backed into the living room.

“I am not! And I’m offended you’d even say - hey! No, stop!” I laughed as he surged towards me, now that the table was out of the way. “Jonathan!”

“Come on, you were so sure about yourself just a second ago, Allison…” he teased, cornering me against the couch. I had nowhere to go. He took a step and I held out a hand again.

“Let’s just agree to have you present, and I’ll stand on a chair -”

He rushed towards me and I let out a squeak of surprise; he couldn’t win this! On instinct I jolted back to try and keep him from measuring up to me, but I miscalculated my step. My knees hit the couch and I fell back onto it. Jonathan reached to steady me, but my momentum just ended up pulling him down too.

Right on top of me.

We were both draped across the couch, only inches between us. His hand was still wrapped around my upper shoulder - where he’d gone to steady me - and the other was on the cushion beside my head, barely holding him up off me. He had one knee kneeling between my own, the other up by my hip.

I had never, ever been this close to anyone, let alone the guy I had a crush on. I totally froze up, and I could tell by his expression that Jonathan had too. He was staring wide-eyed down at me, lips parted just a bit, eyes flicking between my own.

Neither of us moved.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed, voice barely above a whisper.

“It’s okay,” I said instantly, and then realized how that sounded. It was okay that he was pinning me to his couch? It was okay that we were practically tangled in one another, alone in his house?

Yeah, it was.

Jonathan saw the shift in my eyes, realized what I’d said, and he swallowed hard. His eyes flicked between mine again, and ever so subtly, I nodded my head just a hint. Jonathan took a breath, and then moved to close the gap between us.

“I’m hooooome!” Will called from outside; the sound of his bike tires skidding on the dirt made Jonathan jerk backwards and fall off the couch.

I jumped up as the door swung open, desperately smoothing down my sweater as Will came inside. Fortunately, he was alone. Unfortunately, he was extremely observant, and I could tell by the look on his face that we didn’t look as innocent as we were trying to.

Jonathan slowly pushed to his feet as I nervously tucked my hair behind my ear. Will looked between us, a wide grin growing over his face. I quickly turned to Jonathan and said,

“It’s okay, it wasn’t my favorite hair tie anyways. We don’t need to look anymore.”

Thankfully, he was quick. He nodded eagerly and cleared his throat.

“Good, okay. Well if I find it lying around -”

“Yeah, just hold onto it for me.” Will’s smirk had to be painful at this point. I clapped my hands together, feeling myself beginning to turn bright red. “Right. Well, I’ve got to go.”

“I’ll, uh, I’ll give you a ride,” Jonathan offered; we both practically ran to the kitchen, and he helped me shovel my stuff into my bag. “Will, I’ll be right back.”

“No, take your time,” he said slyly. I didn’t miss the look Jonathan gave his little brother. Not different from the ones I constantly gave Dustin about the same thing…

The two of us practically bolted from the house. We clambered into his car and road in tight silence for all of two minutes. What had that even been? What would have happened if Will hadn’t come back? God. Will had caught us doing… okay, I don’t know what exactly, but it hadn’t been innocent.

A snort escaped me and I propped an elbow on the door to bury my face in my hand. This whole day had just been… I couldn’t help but giggle. And a moment later, I heard Jonathan chuckling too. By the time we came onto my street, we were both full out laughing.

“Did that really just happen?” I sighed, shaking my head and dropping it back onto the seat. I glanced at him and saw a wide smile on his face.

“Somehow I’m not even surprised.” As I turned to press on with the conversation - going down the path of ‘what just happened’ - Jonathan pulled to a stop. “Oh, you guys have a car?”

My stomach dropped; I’d been so caught up in spending the day with Jonathan I’d totally forgotten about the rest of my life. I instantly started to panic. It was just past 5:30, Don would be mad dinner wasn’t ready. And that I was off ‘abandoning my responsibilities.

What about Dustin? Had the boys been around for Don’s angry homecoming? Had he gone after my little brother since I wasn’t there? If he’d done anything to Dustin -

“Allison?” My head snapped up and I met Jonathan’s worried gaze. I blinked quickly and offered a smile. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I just - sorry. I spaced out.”

“Are you sure? You looked really upset when you saw the car,” he pressed, shutting his engine off to turn and face me. “Do you know who it is?”

“It’s my, uh, my step-dad’s. I just wasn’t expecting him home from work this early.”

As I stammered through a quick answer, I heard our front door open. Don moved out onto the porch, eyed locked on me, a scowl on his face. My whole body went tense as I saw him cross his arms over his chest. I was so dead.

“Hey. If something’s wrong…”

Again, I forced a smile and shook my head as I gathered my backpack. There was no way I was opening this can of worms. Not now, not with Jonathan. I’d handled Don before and I could do it again. No matter how much I wanted to confide in him, it wouldn’t do any good.

“It’s okay,” I forced; though Jonathan didn’t seem to believe me, he saw I wasn’t about to argue this with him. He let out a sigh but instead of pressing on, he leaned across me to open his door. “Thanks for driving me around, Chauffeur Byers.”

He chuckled as he sat back and gave me a mock bow.

“Of course, Lady Henderson.”

We gave each other goofy smiles as I got out. When I shut his door, he leaned down and gave me a parting wave. And then he actually stayed and watched as I walked up the driveway. Only once I got to our front porch did he finally pull away.

The moment Jonathan’s car was out of sight, Don’s hand locked onto my upper arm and towed me inside. He slammed the door hard enough to rattle the trinkets on the shelves; I winced as he knocked me against the wall heading into the kitchen.

“Now that you’re done fuckin’ around with your trashy little friend, I want dinner on the table. You understand me?”

“Yes sir,” I said quietly, all the warmth and fun I’d had earlier today draining out of me. The moment he dropped his hold on me I scurried down the hallway. Dustin’s door was shut - and probably locked - and I could only hope he’d been left alone.

The second I ditched my bag, I was doing our secret knock on his door. It slid open half an inch, and then once he saw it was just me, he opened it enough to let me slide in. Thankfully, his room looked intact - as much as a preteen boys room could - and he didn’t look any worse for wear.

“Everything okay?” I checked, pulling him into a hug and ruffling his curls. He swatted my hand away but nodded as he went back to his desk.

“Yeah, i just stayed in my room. The guys left about an hour ago.”

“Whatcha doin’?” I asked, dropping onto his bed and studying him as he picked up his pencil again. He peeked at me over his shoulder and motioned for me to come over. I leaned on the back of his chair and skimmed over his notebook.

“I’m compiling a game plan for Sunday,” he explained. “Mike was saying it’s gonna be crazy at the end. So Lucas, Will, and I are gonna plan tomorrow.”

I heard Don starting to slam cupboards so I squeezed Dustin’s shoulders and made for his door.

“You gotta walk me through it tomorrow, tell me your strategy.”

He nodded eagerly as he scrawled away. I smiled at him as I shut his door and made for the kitchen, ready to get dinner over with. Don watched me cook as he downed his beer, never taking his eyes off me. The second food was ready, I called for Dustin and herded mom in to eat with us.

Of course, it couldn’t just be a quiet meal like I’d been hoping.

“Who was that boy that brought you home?”

Part of me didn’t want to answer, but I knew what would happen if I kept quiet. If this was my dad asking, if this was a normal, happy family dinner, it would be a teasing answer. Dustin would probably chime in about the phone call and other studying, but tonight he was quiet.

“My history partner. Jonathan.”

“Jonathan…” he hinted, giving me a pointed look. I stifled a sigh.

“Jonathan Byers.”

“Lonny’s kid?” he asked around a mouthful of corn. I nodded. “From what I hear, his kids are all fags. The fuck you doin’ hanging around a fag?”

Anger welled in my chest; I could see the same look on Dustin’s face that I was trying to suppress on mine. I took another bite of my food and said simply,

“He’s not a… fag.” the word felt wrong in my mouth and I did my best not to grimace. “He’s my project partner. That’s all.”

“That’s all, huh? Let me tell you somethin’, kid. You keep hangin’ around some freak like that, you’re gonna turn out worse than you already are. You best stay away from that sorta low-life.”

Dustin and I shared a quick look; like Don had any room to talk about who was a lowlife. But I knew better than to argue and simply nodded, thankful that we fell back into silence. Don finished first and disappeared from the table, much to my relief.

“He’s a douchebag,” Dustin mumbled into his glass of milk. Though I smiled, I gave him a light kick under the table.

“Watch your language.”

“Watch your language,” he threw back, giving me a toothless smile as he got up and took his plate to the sink. Mom wandered back to the couch to finish her soap opera, and Dustin took refuge in his room as I did the dishes.

I heard the front door open and glanced over, surprised to see Don had his coat on. He paused long enough to glance my direction and sneer at me.

“I’m going out. I expect you and your brother inside the rest of the night. You hear me?”

“Yes sir,” I told him; he was slamming the door before I finished talking. Going out meant a long night at the bar with his friends. Which meant Dustin and I didn’t have to mope around. I practically skipped to his room to poke my head inside once the dishes were done.

“Hey.” He glanced up at me in question, miming that he was in the middle of something. I heard voices on his talkie, and I rolled my eyes. “Don went to the bar.”

A smile spread over his face and he gave me a thumbs up, then motioned to keep his door open before he went back to scribbling down things in his notebook. I went to my room and actually spent the evening relaxing. I had my music on and a book lying open on my bed, for once not a school book.

I was just beginning to doze off, thinking about bed, when the phone rang. I glanced at the clock; half past ten. Who would be calling us this late? Had something happened with Don?

I reluctantly crawled off my bed and shuffled for the kitchen.

“H’lo?” I asked, stifling a yawn.

“Hey, Allison. It’s Jonathan. Sorry to call so late,” he started; I was instantly awake.

“Oh, you’re fine. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just, uh, I wanted to check and make sure everything was alright. You seemed upset when I dropped you off.”

I felt a smile spread over my face as I turned and hopped up onto the counter. He’d really called to check on me?

“I am,” I promised. “Thank you for calling, though. I appreciate you doing that.”

“Of course. So uh… we got a lot of work done today.”

My cheeks instantly started heating up; how did he do that every damn time?! I made a noise of agreement as I twirled the phone cord around my finger. It was nice, sitting in the dark kitchen talking to Jonathan… it felt secluded. Private.

“We did. We can finish up Monday if you want, and we’ve got Tuesday to rehearse our presentation.”

“I was thinking. Maybe we could take turns talking?” he offered; I could imagine the uneasy face he was making right now. “You know, go down together?”

I laughed. “Yeah, I think that’s the best it’s gonna get. We’ll both have to suffer through it then.”

“Maybe it won’t be as bad if we don’t do it alone.”

Again, I felt my cheeks heat up. I smiled and looked down at my feet.

“No, I don’t think it will.”

We went quiet for a few minutes; I was just opening my mouth to go further when the kitchen light snapped on. I nearly jumped out of my skin and squeaked in alarm, looking up to see my little brother grinning at me.

“Dustin!”

“She is! She’s totally bright red”! He confirmed to someone on the walkie just as I heard Jonathan shout in alarm.

“Will! Come on, seriously?!” he barked as I jumped off the counter. Dustin high-tailed it to his room as he laughed,

”I told you they were talking to each other!”

“I gotta go,” I growled, and Jonathan made a noise of agreement.

“Yeah. I think we have the same… pest problem to deal with.”

“Yep.”

He blew out a breath as I heard him move through his kitchen. “I’ll see you Monday, Allison. Have a good weekend.”

“You too,” I said, allowing myself a quick smile. “Night, Jonathan.”

“Night Allison,” he said as we hung up, both of us off to deal with the most annoying siblings this side of Hawkins.