Cole Didn’t Know Why Joyce Had Called Him And Invited Him Over For Dinner. Instantly, He Was Afraid

rcbinbvckleys​:

⚢

opening up her own soda, a multitude of bubbles escaped over top. quickly she lowered her mouth to the can and just about managed to avoid them spilling over. robin gingerly moved to take a seat on the edge of her bed, leaving room for cole in case he wanted to join her. in fact, she motioned for him to do so as an invitation. they would probably be here a little while and it was best to have what would likely be an uncomfortable conversation in actual comfort.

“i think i might have seen something. maybe. it’s just all a bit fuzzy, i can’t really make any sense of it.” like cole, robin remembered the fire going out and cole and lucas both getting injured. then everything went dark. there had been the pool, and barb grabbing her ankle and pulling robin down into the watery depths with her. in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a lot to go off of. “and- correct me if i’m wrong, but judging by your face right about now i’d be willing to bet that you saw something too.”

xx.

At Robin’s bidding, Cole sat next to her on her bed. It was comfy, he noted absentmindedly. Adjusting his position so he could face Robin, Cole tried (and failed) to read her expression. At her vague response, Cole’s face fell. Maybe he really had imagined what he’d seen-- head trauma to blame, or something. Taking another sip of the soda, Cole weighed his options: tell her what he saw and risk being institutionalized, or not tell her and have to deal with it alone.

He chose the former. “Yeah... I did.” Cole tried to smile, though it probably looked more like a grimace. “My best friend died in the mall fire, and... I saw him, like, on fire.” Then, since he was already telling her the truth: “It felt really real. Like I was actually there.” He met her eyes again, visibly uncomfortable. “What did you see? If you don’t mind saying.”

eddiemcnson​:

+++

shit. shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. he should’ve known, should’ve known that this was a bad idea, should’ve known better than to ask a current resident of hicksville, indiana if he was flagging. stupid, stupid, god, what had he been thinking? nothing, apparently, and now his mind was wiped empty once more as he stared at cole blinking at him in confusion - and, what was that, curiosity? - as eddie scrambled for something to say. he cleared his throat. 

“never….mind.”, he said slowly, cautiously, tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth. shit. eddie shook his head. “nothing, nothing. i just thought -” oh my god, munson, shut the fuck up. “i just - “ no matter how hard he tried to stop himself the words now fell freely from his lips. “well, i wondered if you…well, do you know someone named - “ if he didn’t stop talking right then and there he was going to explode. well, spontaneous human combustion it was, as he simply carried on. “are you…perhaps a friend of, uh. of dorothy’s ? “ a beat passed, eddie sucked on his bottem lip nerverously. he waved it off. “you know what….nevermind. nothing. it was stupid.”

he flashed him a pained grin, nodded, ‘right, then’,  and turned on his heel. already squeezing his eyes shut because oh, the embarassment now creeped up on him, made his cheeks flush. at the last minute he decided to turn back, walk back to cole. “can i bum a cig off you?” please, please, heaven, god, if there is one - eddie thought to himself as he stared at cole expectantly -  please just don’t let him bring it up again.

xx.

Cole’s eyes sparkled with amusement and curiosity as he searched his brain. Dorothy? Flagging? What was Eddie trying to ask him? And why was he speaking in this obscure code? At first, Cole wondered if it was a DnD thing, but then realization hit when Cole spotted a bandana in Eddie’s back pocket. He instinctively reached for the bandana he’d tucked in his own pocket and the amusement on his face morphed to something akin to wonder. 

At Eddie’s question, Cole nodded and held out the pack, though his eyes were still glazed over. As Eddie plucked out a cigarette, Cole offered his lighter. He wanted to say something, at least to put Eddie at ease, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to say it out loud. No one knew yet... well, that wasn’t true, because there was Steve and then there was Max. What the hell?

“I am, too,” Cole said, abruptly. He lowered the cigarette from his lips and looked at Eddie, motioning to the flag. For some reason, he felt the urge to prove it. God forbid Eddie thought he was playing a mean prank. “Do you remember Adam Richards? Tall, broad, blonde? He was my... well, you know,” Cole stumbled through his words, feeling his cheeks heat up. He was never this awkward. 

zccming​:

don’t cry. max’s heart screamed in her chest, but she didn’t say anything, merely kept holding cole’s hands while he digested. while he processed. she was acutely aware of the fact she was forever altering his perception of reality, she didn’t take it lightly. she watched his expressions play out across his face like she was watching a movie, curious as to what was going to happen, trying to absorb all the information she could. “the mind flayer, yeah.” max echoed, confirming he’d said it correctly. she had fully prepared herself for cole to push back against what she was saying, the first time lucas tried to tell her, she resisted. but he’s surprised her. i don’t think you’re crazy.

“okay.” max breathed out, nodding as a sort of thanks. she wasn’t shocked by the questions, but she definitely hadn’t prepared herself on how to answer. “i don’t know.” she told cole. there hadn’t been time when they were actively fighting off the mind flayer to do a deep dive into how it flayed. “and i don’t know. i wish i knew why hawkins, or how, but i don’t.” max added, starting to feel her throat tighten. “but i guess it started with will, when he went missing, before i moved here.” she answered him in slow fragments, knowing each piece of information would be a blow of it’s own. “there’s…like…this world under hawkins, or there was. it’s called the upside down and it’s where will went.” she looked down at her knees, staring for a moment as she tried to wrangle all her thoughts. “lucas told me, the year i moved. i thought he was full of shit.” she answered, making it sound much more simple than it was, “then i saw stuff from the upside down for myself, i went there. did you know that steve’s pretty mean with a baseball bat?“ she recalled vaguely. 

 “i watched the mind flayer kill billy.” she blurted, tears prickling in her own eyes, “at starcourt.” then as if it might help she offered a twisted assurance, “i’m sure adam’s death wasn’t painful.” she didn’t know if that was true, but she liked to believe that it was. “like…flicking off a switch. it was over.” there was no more sarcasm or jokes to be found behind max’s words, only the uncomfortable truth, and fear of how cole was going to take it. she let it linger for a long moment, then eventually let go of cole’s hands and ran her own over her face, stiff at the memories. stressed. hesitantly, max offered, “there’s more that happened, after the mall, if you want to hear about chrissy and all them.“ she held her breath, "and if you don’t, i guess, know that we avenged adam and the others. that stuff is gone now.”

xx.

Cole had to actively try to keep listening. He wanted to know everything and he had no shortage of questions, but his brain felt like a feedback loop, connecting: Billy was different before to Mindflayer to Will going missing to ‘I watched the Mindflayer kill Billy’ and back again. He felt like she might as well be speaking to him in Latin-- she was saying so many familiar words, but he couldn’t understand them. For a former gifted student, it was an infuriating feeling. 

“A world under Hawkins,” he repeated, slowly, desperately trying to conjure up an image of an underground world. He felt like his head was going to explode. “Lucas knows? And Steve?” he asked, half-listening for an answer and half-stuck on deciphering what any of this meant. If it wasn’t Latin, it was hieroglyphics. “What.... is the Upside Down?” It was horrifying to think of a young Will stuck in an alternate dimension alone. “How did Will get out?” Then, a more horrifying thought. “How did Will get in?”

He nodded, trying to find comfort in Max’s words. He hoped it was true, that Adam’s death hadn’t been painful or agonizing--not that he would ever know. He sat in silence for a minute, staring at the wall just past Max. Did he want to know? He figured it was best to hear... whatever it was from Max, anyways. “I... yeah. I want to know. I’m just in shock, I think,” he explained, though he was sure she already knew that. 

Cole had never been a tough guy, despite his grandfather’s targeted encouragement towards more masculine pastimes. He’d always been different than the guys on the football team-- he very obviously preferred gossiping with Chrissy and the cheerleaders over ‘locker room talk’ with the guys. That and his covert relationship with Adam meant Cole kept his distance. He’d gotten to know very few of his teammates, save for Jack and Chance who were always hanging around Adam. Jack had always been nice enough to Cole, following Adam’s lead maybe, but Adam disappearing and coming back and then acting like that put Cole on edge.

When he woke up to the sounds of shuffling-- which was not uncommon at this point in his hospital stay-- Cole’s heart jumped into his throat. He hoped against hope that in the same way... whatever had happened had worn off of Adam, it had worn off of Jack. Cole breathed a little easier at Jack’s apology, and a lump formed in his throat as Jack produced the stuffed dog Adam had won, before things got weird. He took the dog and studied its matted fur, eyed the multiple spots where stuffing was poking out. “Thanks,” he smiled weakly, tucking it under his arm. “I feel like shit,” he said, coughing over the dryness of his throat. “But I’ll live.” He studied Jack, trying to detect the other’s thoughts. What the fuck had happened to Jack at the carnival? Did he even remember shoving Cole around? “Are you... feeling okay?” 

WHO: jack foreman & @loverboymontgomery​ WHERE: the hospital </33

If he was being honest, Jack probably didn’t have the time or capacity to visit Cole in the hospital after hearing from his sisters that he had been dead for three years. If it wasn’t for the knowledge that he was dating Adam, and that if he’d hurt Steve, there was a possibility that he’d hurt Cole, too, Jack would still be in his room, making what resembled Jo’s murder board for himself. It was also Cole who had given Adam some news that he’d felt necessary to share with Jack, that he probably should have heard, even if he didn’t want to. All of that, and he was fairly certain the stuffed animal he’d found in the ashes of the carnival rightfully belonged to Cole after Adam had flexed his quarterback skills to beat him in Down-a-Clown. After making a stop by Steve’s room, who was still sleeping, Jack made his way to Cole’s, the plush that he’d tried to clean as best as he could in hand. 

Jack thanked whatever luck he had out there that Adam wasn’t in the room when he’d arrived, because he didn’t have the head or the heart to deal with the guy who had killed him in front of his battered boyfriend. It was just Cole, his eyes still closed in sleep until Jack closed the door behind him with a click. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” he apologized, sliding into the seat that was beside Cole’s bed. “I have this, I think it belongs to you?” Jack held out the stuffed animal, placing it on the table next to the cards and flowers he had been gifted. “How are you feeling?”

Cole didn’t know Eleven particularly well. He knew of her, because, well, who didn’t? But they hadn’t spent too much time together. He knew she was a survivor of the mall fire, and he could imagine that she was feeling even more uncomfortable than he was. And, like him, it seemed she had been hitting the keg pretty hard.

“Hey, El,” he put out a hand to stabilize her, plucking the cup out of her hand so she didn’t spill more. “You were looking for me, huh?” he chuckled. “Anything in particular I can do for you?” he asked, putting her cup to the side and glancing around the foyer. He knew Max and El were close, maybe he needed to have a backup plan in case El was really not okay to be here. 

WHERE ; Blue Quarry Mall Protest

WHO ; Cole &. El

To say El was lost - happened to be an understatement. Her first time at StarCourt was it’s own experience but now… this was frustrating. “ Have you… ? “ trying to speak over the constant beat from the ‘ boombox ‘. Maybe that fifth red solo cup should’ve been enough. Now fully aware the appeal of this ‘ liquid fuel ‘ being passed around. Stumbling mildly, eyes trying to focus on something other than bodies swarming around them.

Pushing through the crowd, the distinctly sweet scent of the beer spilling over herself and the other. “ Sorry! “ El’s apology rushed with the sudden movements of trying to keep the liquid in the cup. Desperately failing. Finally peeking around for an escape, rushing towards a familiar face through blurry eyes. “ Hey! “ practically shoving as she approached. “ I’ve been looking all over for you! “

mmuscles​:

WHO: thad bradshaw & @loverboymontgomery​ WHAT: it’s like, collateral. WHERE: the meteor shower 

thad was ashamed to admit he’d thought about cole since he cornered him in his garage. he wished he could say it was a time or two, but when he laid on the hood of his car outside of the motel 6 and moping about his life soundtracked to elvis each night, he found his thoughts drifting to cole, kissing cole. fuck, this was bad. he knew he had to say something next time he saw cole, and not kiss him this time, actually say it. there was no accounting for when he would see him next and secretly thad hoped it would be never, but of course the cookie just didn’t crumble.

he had gone to nancy to the meteor shower the next time he saw cole. he was there with some other guy and thad knew he had to act. quick. he told nancy he was going to take a leak and walked up to cole, who was newly alone and looking in the direction of the boy he was walking off, “hey, pretty boy.” he greeted, gesturing with his head to a less congregated area of the field, “wanna walk with me? i gotta talk with you.” 

xx.

Being in public with Adam again was weird. Good weird, but weird. After they’d spent the last few days alone, making up for lost time, Cole found it difficult to keep his hands off Adam now. Not in a trashy way-- all he wanted to do was hold Adam’s hand, brush the same pesky hair out of Adam’s eyes, press a reassuring kiss to his shoulder. But Cole knew Adam was already on edge given, well, everything, so he was on his best behavior. Besides the two sharing a blanket and a few stolen glances, an innocent bystander would hardly know Cole and Adam were together.

When Adam left to go catch up with a friend, Cole’s eyes followed him. The fear that Adam would disappear still hadn’t gone away. He’d long given up trying to reason it away, because there was frankly nothing reasonable about anything in this situation, and sat lost in thought until he was approached by a familiar face. At Thad’s customary greeting, Cole couldn’t help but laugh. He figured this was coming, at some point, but he still didn’t know what he was going to say. The fear Cole had felt after Thad kissed him came rushing back; he was grateful they were in public, because he wasn’t sure what to expect-- anger, shame, aggression, even. “Uh, sure, guy,” Cole said, hoping his nerves weren’t apparent in his tone. Pushing himself off the ground, Cole followed Thad to a more private corner of the field. “What’s up?” he asked, glancing anywhere but Thad’s eyes. Instead, Cole skimmed the crowd and took momentary comfort in seeing the back of Adam’s head. 

In an attempt to stay out of the house and out of his mother’s sight until the car was fixed, Cole had been skating new routes all over Hawkins. Normally, he wouldn’t be caught in the park, as the lake was much more his speed, but it was paved and that was an easier terrain for skating. He’d tucked a book in his back pocket-- the new Stephen King novel-- just in case he found the perfectly shady spot to lounge in.

He was absentmindedly humming a Steely Dan song when he heard his name. Cole looked up to see Nancy waving at him. Picking up his skateboard, he made his way over to her and smiled at her spread. Classic Nancy, always prepared. “Hey Nance!” he said, sitting down on the edge of her blanket. He lifted his finger for inspection, “Honestly, it’s fine. I think the doctor was just being dramatic with his two-weeks-in-the-cast orders. The car on the other hand...” He sighed, leaning back on his good hand. With a smile, he took the extra sandwich from her; now that he thought about it, he hadn’t eaten today. “Thanks. Hey, were you a girl scout or something? Seems like you’re always prepared,” he mused, peeling back the cling wrap and taking a bite. “It’s really good,” he said, mouth full. 

𝐖𝐇𝐎: Nancy Wheeler & @colemontgomeryx​​​​​

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓: Benny’s might be closed but at least Nancy makes a mean chicken salad sammy!

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: Hawkins Community Park

Nancy’s-No-Good-Summer had been going off on a… decent start. Hawkins wasn’t some beach town, they weren’t known for anything other than weird happenings, but at least they had warm weather. That was something to look forward to. Maybe she wouldn’t have sand between her toes, but at least she’d have the sun on her skin. Nancy laid out a blanket underneath her and relaxed on it, keeping an eye on Holly as she played on the nearby playground. 

Holding onto her new copy of The Silence of the Lambs, a book that had practically just hit shelves, she spotted someone out of the corner of her peripheral. “Cole!” She announced, waving him over to her sanctuary. She closed her book and sat it on the blanket. “How’s your finger?” Nancy asked, pointing at his hand. The night at the mall had been an eventful one, namely Max’s arrest and Cole’s wrecked car and finger. “Are you hungry? I packed extra chicken salad. I was going to try and rope Mike into coming with me but he’s…” she glanced around, reaching into the lunchbox she brought. “Anywhere but here.”

zccming​:

“cole.” max said flatly as he rounded the corner. while her glare was cold as steel, the gradually growing grin on her face said that she was happy to see him. “it’s an emergency.” that was certainly a dramatization, but she’d say whatever to make this look … less bad. it’s not that she cared what cole thought of her, but she refused to submit to the idea she was perpetuating any negative stereotypes. as he drew closer and provided the suggestions she had asked for, she rolled her eyes and mocked him “did you try to pick the lock? the fuck would i pick the lock with?” max held up her hand, “my fingernails?” 

she approached the front door anyhow, then levelled with the lock. “i have a better idea.” max once again found a rock, picked it up, but this time smashed it into the lock. bingo. the lock fell off. while max wasn’t expecting the door to only have an exterior lock and chain, she was happily surprised to find that the physical door itself hadn’t been locked. she pulled it open, ushered cole inside, then closed the door behind them, “i just need some groceries.” max shrugged her lie then grabbed a basket as if she were actually shopping, “happy memorial day.” she snickered, turning down an aisle, “have any not-totally-lame plans for today?”

xx

Cole paused for a moment, but refused to give Max enough dead air to think she'd bested him. "I don't know, don't girls always have, like, bobby pins?" he threw his hands into the air with a faux exasperated sigh. He hid a grin behind an eyeroll. Though he'd never admit it out loud, Cole liked the bickering relationship he had with Max; it was like she was the little sister he never had. And, though she would never admit it, he knew she liked it too.

"Jesus, Max!" Cole glanced around to make sure no one had heard the crash. At Max's nonverbal invitation, Cole slipped inside, shaking his head in amused disapproval. He wasn't exactly pro-breaking and entering, but it was one lock and a few groceries? Who would it really hurt? "Well, get something fun at least. To celebrate," he chuckled, motioning towards the shitty grocery store beer. Meanwhile, he made a beeline to the soda aisle. There it was: a sparkling 2 liter of Wild Cherry Pepsi. He grabbed two, and craned his neck out into the aisle, "Are you calling me lame? Why would I share my plans with you when I'm at risk to be insulted again?"

@goldenboyrichards

PARKS AND RECREATION — 4.05 “Meet n Greet”

willthewize​:

     Will looked up from his sketchbook as a familiar figure approached, a surprised smile forming on his face to see him out of the blue. Cole hadn’t called to let him know he was stopping by, but it wasn’t an unwelcome visit by any means. But then something about the nervous tone the other guy spoke with—or just the words themselves, there’s something I wanna talk to you about, which were never usually the opener to a pleasant conversation—clued him into the fact that this was maybe more serious than a friendly little hang-out, and his easy grin faltered.

     “Sure, wanna…?” He motioned to the bench, the space next to him, offering a seat before Cole continued on to say that he had talked to Jonathan, and…why would he feel the need to tell him that, anyway? What was this all abo…Lonnie’s my dad, too. Oh. Oh. That wasn’t the last thing Will had expected to hear: it wasn’t even on the list.  His gaze suddenly focused on the sling Cole wore, the loose threads he fiddled with and he replied, “How is your arm doing?” It was almost funny that he would rather talk about the aftermath of the carnival, with its explosions and casualties, than his—their—father.

     He had to answer the massive revelation that was just dropped. Paradigm-altering information. His dad was Cole’s dad, too. But what was he supposed to say—my condolences? This shouldn’t be quite as much of a rug-pull as all that had been happening this summer with the border and the doppelganger and the cabin and who knew what else. Was it really surprising that Lonnie Byers had had another son with someone out there (even one whose age made it clear that the man had had an affair?) Not really. But Will couldn’t help the feeling that in all of this, he was the butt of some cosmic joke right now.

     It was like he was always the last to know anything, like he was always the one who walked into a room right after something cool happened, always just missing the moment. Or in cases like this—like nobody thought he could handle the truth; he was just too fragile, too sensitive, or at least that was how everyone viewed him. Jonathan knew? Will didn’t even think he and Cole were friends. How long was ‘a while back,’ anyway: a couple weeks or even longer? When the hell would Will become an active participant in his own life, instead of stuff just…happening and him learning to deal with it. Not today, evidently.

     Rather than allowing himself to get upset, Will had to remember that this wasn’t just a big deal to him, in fact it wasn’t about him. It was Cole’s news to share when he felt ready—the fact that they were…they were brothers. They were half-brothers. They were related. They have been this whole time. Well, obviously. Cole has known it, the whole time…? Will forced himself to look up and meet his eyes. “That must have been really difficult for you,” he said. “Thanks for telling me.” That wasn’t what he wanted to say. He had so many questions and no way to verbalize them, because the moment he started, he just stuttered, “So, when did…I mean, have you always…Did you…What?”

xx.

Too nervous to sit down, Cole leaned against the porch rail instead, his nervous fingers moving between picking at the cast to tapping on the splintering wood  Cole’s expression betrayed his bewilderment at Will’s question. Had he heard what he’d said? Had he said it aloud at all? But, autopilot kicked in and he answered with a shrug, “It’s fine, I guess. Just a fracture. Should be off in a few more weeks.” 

He studied Will’s face, trying to read any emotion he could detect, and also trying to find any similarities, any features they shared. Growing up, Cole had always been told he was the spitting image of his mother-- he had her dark curls and her eyes and her cheekbones. Maybe he hoped he had her temperament too-- her easygoing spirit, her openness. But lately he’s wondered what all he’d inherited from the other side: the drinking? The standoffishness? The thought itself made him want to reach for the flask in his back pocket, but he could investigate that urge later. 

Will seemed upset, which was understandable. It was a lot to take in, and Cole’s lingering feeling of being exposed intensified. Maybe Will and Jonathan were upset at him-- maybe he was right in thinking that his very existence was a scandal. It certainly made sense, even his own grandparents had wanted to hide him away, to let his mother and aunt raise him in New York. For a brief moment, Cole entertained the question: what would his life look like now if he’d stayed in New York? Who would he be? Would it be better for everyone in Hawkins if he’d simply stayed gone?

When Will finally spoke, Cole’s shoulders relaxed in relief. Whatever it was, it was better than the silence. But he certainly hadn’t expected this. Cole opened his mouth to respond, then clamped it shut again. Will was... thanking him? He couldn’t make sense of that. Will was a sweet kid, he’d always known that, but this level of empathy felt like too much to ask for. “No, don’t... I mean... I’m sorry,” he managed. He was lost, wondering how Will was being so nice about it all. Maybe it wasn’t a huge deal to him, but... wouldn’t it be to Cole if the roles were reversed? He’d probably be furious, but maybe Will hadn’t inherited the rage gene from Lonnie. 

Then, when Will tried asking for more information, Cole clicked into gear. That he could do. The minefield of what each of them were thinking and feeling, not so much in his lane. “Right. I found out five years ago,” Cole admitted, with an apologetic smile. “There was sort of... a lot going on for you guys. I didn’t want to, like, make it worse.” Cole shrugged, not sure if Max had told Will that Cole knew, but not sure it even mattered at the moment. “Then, I... guess I thought it wasn’t a big deal for a while. But, with everything...” he gestured vaguely, hoping to communicate that he meant the bigger picture in town.

“I wanted you to hear it from me,” he settled on. Not that Cole’s life was in any immediate danger, other than the way that everyone’s was all the time. Still, it felt like an urgent enough need to come here today.