they’re two very different girls , but it works , and chrissy has found this sort of solace at sam’s house ; her mother’s pressures and expectations aren’t placed on her here , she can just , relax . even if her mother warns her about sam’s reputation , how jason tells her how girls like sam weren’t … normal . SHE THINKS SHE’S STOPPED CARING, so much . and bambi eyes flicker over to sam’s ocean blues , she nods before sitting up , moving closer to the blonde . “ i haven’t had my hair braided by someone else in ages - ” she admits , looking over through dark lashes . and she feels seen here , safe and protected under sam’s touch . girls were so soft, so kind - how could she not love them ? “ same . i love hawkins’ but … i feel so uneducated here , does that seem weird ? everyone here is just … they never change nor grow , you know ? i wanna get OUT for college . experience new things . figure out what i like and what i want . ”
chrissy is NICE. not that the other girls, spread out across her moms living room floor in sleeping bags and bundles of duvet aren’t, but there had been a sort of ... hesitance from them. the sort of hesitation that makes sam’s stomach go to the bottom of her feet, like they know something they haven’t. sam doesn’t know how deep the rumors about her have CUT lately, how close to the truth they edge. chrissy hadn’t seemed unsure, though. “my mom used to do mine every night,” the brush sets to work, carefully and gently carding through chrissy’s hair, “i sometimes, uhm, fell asleep while she was brushing it.” THE WORLD WAS EASIER BACK THEN, elementary school a fond but vague memory.
“no, it’s not ... weird.” though who is she to say? sam is certain she counts among the weirdos these days. “it’s like ... everyone is stuck,” she waits for half a moment, considering her next words, “that my biggest fear. well. one of them. being ... stuck here. like ... mom, she, uh - - - i mean, you know my parents got divorced,” everyone does, it’s hawkins, “and instead of going somewhere else she just ... stayed here. ‘cause she never left to begin with, you know?” got remarried to another hawkins lifelong resident and thinks sam will be just the same, once she GETS HERSELF BACK OUT THERE, REACH BACK OUT TO PETER, HONEY, I’M SURE HE’D LOVE TO GO OUT WITH YOU AGAIN! sam swallows, pulling the brush gently through chrissys hair, “i don’t want that.”