*Nikki's POV*
   "What the hell are you guys doing?"
   We were well out of Hawkins, about an hour away in Gary, when I finally recognized the party following us and made Steve stop the car. We had all gone to the closest gas station, as to avoid any further near-death experiences this summer.
   Mike smiled sheepishly at the ground. "We didn't want you to go."
   "We didn't?" I asked, walking over to Dustin. "Or you didn't?"
   "Mon," Dustin said, "I wasn't ready to let you go, and neither were the rest of the party."
   Max looked at me sadly. "We didn't think you'd actually leave without saying goodbye."
Seriously? "You guys, I thought you'd gone back to your houses. Steve was leaving, and I didn't think he'd want to drive around that damn town before being free of it."
El ran up and hugged me, her tiny little arms tight around my waist. "You can't go, Nikki. We'll miss you too much."
"Come live with one of us," Will insisted.
"I already said that," Dustin countered, smirking smugly at me. "See, Mon, they don't mind. You don't have to leave."

   I smiled sadly. They really did care. "That's not it, guys. It's just... I don't belong in Hawkins. I know that, and now that I've realized it, I can't go back."
Mike hung his head. "She's right, you guys," he admitted. "We can't expect her to come back just because of us. We're being selfish."
"Of course you'd say that, Mike! You can't stand her!"
"Dustin, he's got a point," Lucas said. "It is kind of selfish for us to-"
"Holy shit!" Dustin yelled. "You're taking his side? Shit, Lucas, it's like you don't care about her either."
I shook my head. "It's more like they do care, Dustin. They know how tough life in Hawkins has been for me."
Steve jumped back into the conversation. "Do your parents know where you guys are?" Many heads shook at once, and my brother threw his hands in the air. "Well, shit."
Ignoring him, I continued. "Dustin, you should go home. Your mom is probably worried sick."
The sliver of light left in Dustin's eyes faded as his smile went with it. "My dad died right before we got to Hawkins."
Silence. Everyone turned to look at him.
"I was eight," he continued, "when we found out he was sick. Cancer. My mom always told him not to smoke, but he never listened to her. We found out early on, but not early enough. It was already too late to save him.
"After he died, Mom decided she couldn't bear to stay in Indianapolis, so we picked up and went to Hawkins. All this time, she's held me so close and coddled me and sheltered me like some mama bear. Her husband's gone, her parents are dead too. I'm all she has left in the world. She's held onto the most important thing in her life, and that's what I'm trying to do."
My heart dropped into my stomach. "Dustin-"
"I know it's incredibly selfish of me, Nikki, but I don't want to stop seeing you everyday."
Nikki. Not Mon.
I put my hand on his shoulder. "Dustin, I understand that this is probably hard, but I have to do this. You're not going to lose me, I'll write you every day, I promise. But I have to go, Hawkins just isn't for me. You get that, don't you?"
Dustin wasn't looking at me. "You know, maybe this was all just a mistake. Maybe I shouldn't have let you into the party."
"Dustin," Max began, "don't say that."
"Think about it, Max. We could've all been so much better off."
He doesn't mean it, I told myself. He's just hurt.
Steve's inner mama bear came out as he stepped closer to me. "Watch it, man."
Shaking his head, Dustin picked up his bike, mounting it as he finally looked at me one last time. I'll never forget the look in his eyes, that piercing glare that made me sick to my stomach: I did that to him.
"This might be the last time I ever see you, and I'm fine with that."
And with that, tears clouding my view of him, I watched Dustin leave.