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The roller rink was so alive and loud with music and teenagers talking. The neon lights and lack of windows made a notable contrast with the bright day outside, which made obvious the place was built like this so they won't notice how dark it was getting outside. Ideal to lose a whole day inside here.
When the door closed behind them, the other two boys let out a gasp of surprise. It's something Dustin and Mike have never seen in Hawkins. The closest thing they once had was Starcourt Mall but...
However, El managed to not seem surprised by how crowded the place was today. She played it naturally.
"This place is super cool!" Dustin exclaimed as El linked her arm with his.
"I know! Bitchin', right?" she replied with a smile, eyes shining with amusement of how fantastic this place was.
"Super bitchin'!" She loves how he answers as enthusiastically as her. "Do you come here often?"
"Uh... yeah!" She can hear Will saying «No» but she talks again quickly, glancing at Mike and then at Dustin. "I always come here to birthday parties, Will not much."
She guides them to the counter and looks at Will to ask for the skates. She sees him sigh but ignores it, returning her focus to Dustin. «This has to be a great date» she thought to herself.
Will gave them the skates and pointed to the seats. She was walking behind Dustin when her brother stopped her. The other boys kept walking.
"Why are you lying?"
"What?"
"Why do you keep lying to Dustin?" He asked, whispering so no one would hear them.
"I'm not lying," she tries to sound convincing. But, come on, she's aware Will knows more than the rest because they live together. A little attempt to lie to him!
"You're not?" He replied with a scoff. "You're friends with Angela and Stacy, and you come to parties here?"
"I have been to a party here."
"For Mom's work, that's not what you implied." Will glanced at the boys and sighed, "I just... I don't think Dustin would like that you're lying to him. You know how seriously he takes «friends don't lie», and he won't be happy once he finds out."
She pressed her lips together and faked taking his advice. If boyfriends lie all the time, as Max taught her, why can't girlfriends lie too?
And, as long as they spend a good time here, the lie would be nothing more than a good memory of how cool Lenora can be when her supposed friends aren't around.
El sat next to Dustin, who already had his skates on. She can hear Mike saying something about vomit and the color green to Will as she laces her skates. When she glanced over at the boys, she saw Will making a disgusted face while laughing.
She turned immediately to face Dustin, who smiled at her and stood up, offering her his hand, which she took very happily while lacing their fingers.
"Whoa!" Dustin exclaimed as he tried to skate, wobbling. "I feel like a newborn giraffe."
El giggled and squeezed his hand. "You're doing well."
"They are able to do this–" Dustin stepped on the rink as he nodded towards his feets, "–in, like, half an hour. But they don't have help from their pretty girlfriend, so I'm better than them."
El felt, as usual with him, that weird warmth rushing into her cheeks that made her smile so shyly and duck her head. Dustin noticed and, doing as good as he can with the skates on, he leaned in to kiss her temple.
Those butterflies in her stomach appeared again and made her forget everything she lied with today. It was their moment— their perfect date.
"You're a big giraffe now," El said after their fourth lap around the skating rink.
"Yeah... grown-up," Dustin replied. "Have you tried any tricks here yet?"
The question caught her off guard, making her look away and shrug. «Act natural, Jane.»
"Uhm, yeah but... I'm not very good." She finally looked over at him and saw him frown slightly.
"You good? You've been a bit off today."
"Yes- yes. I just... I want a milkshake, I'm a bit thirsty. I invite!"
Dustin tried to talk again but she instead tugged from his hand and skated towards the exit of the rink, always keeping a small smile. He surprisingly managed to stay on balance after the sudden change of direction. She looked over her shoulder and saw Will and Mike coming too.
Will got closer to her as soon as they got out of the rink to ask if something happened. She simply replied with «milkshakes» and he nodded.
The four of them were chatting about how last year has been: school, hangs outs, new friends, and new hobbies.
El was sipping from her chocolate milkshake —her all-time favorite— when she saw an unmistakable blonde hair followed by a group of other teenagers with vibrant-colored clothes that made her feel small and see-through all over again, that made her feel impuissant and stuck.
"Oh! Where have you been hiding this handsome thing?" Angela exclaimed with a smile as she rested her hands on the table and leaned over, the two siblings detected the fakeness as soon as they shared a glance. El saw Will tense up, but she tried to smile and seem relaxed.
The air around the table was tense. El felt like she might choke by just breathing the air around them, Mike only moved his eyes from one face to another, Will was tense and shooting her glances, Dustin seemed to detect something wrong and tried to communicate without words with her. She just ignored them.
This was terrible. This wasn't how her date was supposed to go.
"Angela! Hi Stacy. This... this is my boyfriend Dustin," she introduced him at the same time he threw her a glance of worry. Still, he managed to be polite.
"Hey, heard a lot 'bout you. Cool to finally meet some of–" He remembered on time her public name. "Jane's friends."
"Friends?" Angela asked, lifting her eyebrows at Jake on her right and then at Stacy on her left before landing her eyes again on El. The girl couldn't stop fidgeting with her straw with her eyes glued to it, feeling extremely intimidated. "Yeah! Come on, friend."
Angela held out her hand, which El hesitated to grab. "I wanted to finish my..."
"I'll hold it for you," Stacy cut her off as she took the milkshake from her hands. Angela saw the opportunity and grabbed her hand, lifting her from the seat.
"Let's go.”
She starts skating next to Angela and, managing a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, glances over her shoulder at the boys. El catches the glimpse of Dustin saying «those are not her friends, right?»
«Will, stay silent. Don't tell him. We can be friends for a day! She may be good after all.» She tried to convince herself as they stepped into the rink, but every thought was swallowed by this weird monster inside her mind that screamed danger here.
As they took the first lap around the skating rink, she catched a glimpse of Will talking to Dustin and Mike frowning. She swallowed hard and tried to focus on what Angela was talking about.
But then...
"All right everyone, the next song," a voice came from the roller's speakers, "is dedicated to Jane."
Her sight landed on the zone where they would request songs and saw Jake taking the microphone and announce proudly:
"The local snitch!"
And when the words registered, she realized Angela was no longer holding her hand.
She was standing all alone in the middle of the roller rink, teenagers skating in a big circle around her. She managed to hear multiple voices screaming at her words like “Freak!” “Crybaby” “She needs her mommy!” “Little baby!” “Go home!”
Soon the loud voices, laughs and music were muffled and mixed, her face was no longer able to keep hidden the sheer fear and sadness creeping up her body. The roller rink seemed to grow bigger and bigger as she tried to move to the crowd with blurry vision, but they blocked her way out.
She felt dizzy, and humiliated. Defeated, her trembling hands slowly went up to cover her ears and El soon realized there were tears falling down her cheeks. She tried to keep herself from crying visibly in front of everyone, ducking her head.
Angela made her way into the crowd of teenagers making this spectacle, and after seeing how small El seemed, she took advantage and pushed her down to the floor, followed by saying to her «This is what happens to snitchers like you!». Just in time, Stacy appeared to give Angela the milkshake.
As Angela was grabbing the drink, they slightly jumped on her feet, and turned their heads to where the sound of a heavy object breaking came: a camera broke on the rink.
El hadn't even registered they were recording her.
Right then, Dustin made his way through the nosy teenagers that got distracted by the slammed camera, who gave him a free-pass towards Angela.
"Oh!” Angela gasped. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She exclaimed, and when El managed to clear her blurry vision, she saw Angela damp in Dustin's milkshake.
"GET OUT HERE AND LEAVE HER ALONE!" She heard him scream. Her heart was pounding against her chest as the fear stopped creeping up on her after seeing Dustin.
She catched a glimpse of Angela hesitating, but the humiliation of being damp in a milkshake and screamed at by a boy was too much for a popular bitch like her. She quickly made her way out of the rink as Dustin approached El. The rest of the teenagers moved around, still near to listen.
El didn't feel like looking into Dustin's eyes, well, nobody's eyes. He didn't push though.
The boy slid an arm down her back and helped her up. She didn't realize how weak and trembling her body was. The tears wouldn't stop.
As they skated out of the rink, close together, El realized that the song that the group requested had stopped playing long ago. Was it Dustin who did it? She can't even think of how to ask it, her mind is still a mix of calming her body and the helplessness the situation caused her.
They step into a lonely room where both of them sit on the floor. El can't stop the tears ricocheting down her eyes once she's aware they're hiding from the rest of the world. Dustin sits closer and cups her cheeks, his warm thumbs wiping away her tears. She finally managed to calm her pounding heart and dizziness, but not the crying.
It was all too much for someone who used to feel capable of everything.
"Did she hurt you?" He asked first. El felt thankful for that question, even if he was angry at her. She shook her head. He resumed talking.
"Can I know why you lied to me?"
The girl hesitated, but she knew better than to lie. So, she nodded, her hands fidgeting on her lap. Dustin noticed it and slid down a hand to lace fingers with her.
"I wanted to have cool friends too," she whispered, her voice still wobbly from the tears streaming down her face and the fear from earlier. "You- you always talked about Eddie and your club... I wanted it too."
They finally locked eyes and she saw his eyes soften. "I can comprehend... but you're already super cool on your own. With or without new friends. I don't want you to fake something only to impress me, I love who you are, and that comes with the bad things too.”
"But here... everyone looks at me like I'm a monster. I am the monster." she admitted, eyes full of tears. But Dustin stopped her before she could keep talking about what the others imply.
"No, you're not. You're not a monster, you're not whatever those shitheads tell you. Alright?" He insisted, squeezing their laced hands. Dustin saw her doubting, and with his hand still cupping her cheek, he caressed her quivering lower lip with his thumb.
"It's not only because I am your boyfriend now," he resumed. "We were friends first and that's one of the most important phases because-"
"Friends don't lie?" She whispered, finally a little grin wanted to break through the sadness on her face. El was feeling more at ease.
"Yeah, that too," he replied with a chuckle. Then, more seriously. "I learned to love you, as a friend and as a person. From day one I knew you were amazing, and very brilliant, and that knowledge has only grown. I love you so, so much."
Her eyes glistened again and a big smile appeared on her face, free of sadness and pain. "I love you so much, too."
The same smile appeared on Dustin's face and he leaned in to kiss the tip of her nose, then each cheek. She giggled and almost felt like the bad moment vanished from reality.
A knock on the door interrupted them, just when lips were about to touch. Dustin turned around first, ready in case it were those jocks again. El felt something like… anxiety? It's something new she's been feeling since Angela targeted her as her new victim, but she can't quite name it.
On the door appeared Will. Mike behind him. Her heart stopped his violent "thump-thump-thump."
"Hey," he greeted them, then his eyes landed on her. He looked worried and sad, "I called Jonathan to come earlier. I have some savings; we can buy from that food you love if you want."
El stood up and, after Dustin stepped aside, she hugged her brother tightly.
"Sorry for not... listening," she whispered. Will smiled against her shoulder.
"It's okay, I'm not angry at you."
She pulled apart from the hug, enough to smile up at him with her tear-stained cheeks. Then turned around and crushed Dustin in a hug.
He didn't even think twice before wrapping his arms around her and lifting her from the floor. Things are good when she's not trying to be part of the puzzle the rest of the world is part of— time will make her fully learn how amazing it is to belong to a different set and how that is okay too. It will show her how loved she is by just being her true self.
And to begin, she has her amazing friends and family around. And her boyfriend.