Steve is standing in the center of his living room. His father is on one end, looming over him even as he stands feet away. His mother is on the opposite side of the room, she won’t look at him. Instead, her gaze is fixed on something outside through the window.
Even though he’s in a room with the two people he’s supposed to feel most loved by, he’s trembling with the worst feeling of fear he’s ever felt in his life.
Worse than his first encounter with the Upside Down, worse than his fight with the Demodogs, worse than fighting a giant flesh monster and watching Billy die.
He’s watching his mother, staring at her, willing her to say something, to protect him from what’s about to happen.
“Steven. Don’t look at her. Look at me. She can’t help you now.” His father snaps.
Steve’s eyes don’t move from his mother’s face. Eyes pleading that she stop this. Just this once, can she step in?
His father approaches, “Steven, do you know what this means? Do you know what would happen if this got out?”
He doesn’t look away from his mom.
“Look at me, son.” His father steps closer “imagine how I feel? Can you just think about how shocking it must be for me? How shocked I am to find out that my son, my boy, is a homosexual?”
His mother has tears streaming down her cheeks, but she still won’t look at him.
His father sighs “I don’t want to have to send you to a camp, Steven. That’s not ideal for anyone. Can’t you just ignore this until you move out? You’ve graduated now, you can move out. You can be this… whatever you are, away from us. You can leave. That reflect poorly on no one.”
His mother turns away completely.
“You have to understand, son, this affects all of us. I can’t have the town finding out about this, do you understand?”
He moves out a few weeks later. Into a trailer in the back of the trailer park where no one will see him. An upside? He’s closer to Max. She’ll need support after everything that went down in the mall.