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ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ :

𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒  that had passed since the gate was closed, much had changed. Molly had moved in with Eleven and Hopper and had put her name down along with Eleven to get a birth certificate from Doc Owens. Tension had subdued in the Hargrove-Mayfield house thanks to Max and Molly. Jonathan and Nancy were officially dating, Steve and Dustin were basically best friends, Lucas was still struggling to make a move on Max, Mike and Eleven still missed each other but thanks to a small favour Hopper called in for her, she'd be able to go to the Hawkins Middle Snow Ball that was coming up.

Molly hadn't experienced anything like this. She wasn't able to go to Junior prom the previous year (thank you again Soviets), so all the rituals of asking someone to go as your date, buying formalwear and learning dance moves seemed very strange but exciting to the freak of nature.

In addition, over the past few months, Billy had expected his feelings for Molly to fizzle out. He had found out that Molly and Steve had absolutely no chemistry, not even with Jonathan, so he anticipated growing bored of her and looking for some other girl to go after, but after everything they had experienced together, he still couldn't help but remain hung up on her. Only now, it wasn't some raging inferno of passion, it was more so just a little game between them, a knowing smile, passing words between classes, helping him cheat, joining her team. He felt no rage with this love. Oh... Love. It had been a while. Is that really what he felt for her? He had only known her for about four months, there's no way he could really be in love just yet? This paired with ceaseless fantasies of her confessing her deep and passionate desire for him, there was no denying what Billy and Molly had between them.

Though they tried being supportive, most of Molly's friends didn't do much to hide their disdain for Billy and lack of support for her growing closer to him. The only one who didn't really object was Max, and that was because she was growing to like Molly as she brought out the best in Billy. But Molly simply ignored her friends disapproval. She couldn't entirely blame them for not liking Billy but it was none of their business to tell her what (or even who) not to do. Over the passing months, their disapproval basically boiled down to teasing her, which she could very much handle.

On the night of the Snow Ball, it had been arranged that Hopper would drop off Eleven, along with Molly so she could hang around in case there were any emergencies (and hopefully get to spend some time with Billy since he was dropping off Max), and then she would take Eleven home afterwards.

The afternoon beforehand, Molly had gone over to the Wheelers' to rob Nancy of a lot of her makeup so she could help Eleven glamour herself up.

She and Hopper had already gone through all the nearby stores to get pictures of whatever dress Eleven might like and ended up buying a blue dress with a thick pink belt. When she put it on that evening, Molly was in awe of how sweet she looked. She was so happy that Eleven got to experience such a sweet and innocent evening after everything she had been through.

"You look so beautiful, you know that?," Molly told her as she styled her hair and did her makeup (with the guidance of one of Nancy's fashion magazines).

"I'm... beautiful?," Eleven said in awe-stricken confusion.

Molly chuckled, remembering herself having the same reaction only a few months ago, "You absolutely are. Even if no one there has any idea who you are, they won't be able to take their eyes off you."

"Why?," she was still confused.

Molly smiled at her naïveté, "Because people like to look at beautiful things. And I have no doubt you will be the most beautiful girl there."

"Does Mike like beautiful things?," she asked.

"Yes, my dear. Mike likes you very much. He can hardly stop thinking about you for a few hours. Even when you're not as beautiful as this, he adores you," she told her, finishing up her makeup, "Speaking of, what do you think?"

She turned Eleven to face herself in the mirror and a sweet smile spreak across the thirteen-year-old's glamourised face.

"Beautiful," Eleven said quietly, making Molly's heart melt.

The drive there was careful and Hopper relayed all the protocols and rules to both girls the whole ride there. When they arrived, Hopper wished Eleven good luck as he stayed in the parking lot while Molly walked her in.

Suddenly, just before they were about to get into the gym, Eleven hesitated.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling alright, my dear?," Molly asked.

"What if... what if I do things wrong? What if he doesn't like me anymore?," she said quietly to Molly.

Molly shook her head before pulling the girl into a gentle hug, "Oh, El. I can't promise nothing will go wrong, but I do promise that it becomes too much for you, I can take you right home. But I doubt that, you're such a strong girl," she then turned Eleven around to look inside the gym, "Now, look. Your Mike is waiting for you. Go dance with him, you'll be walking on air."

Eleven smiled when she saw Mike and she quickly hugged Molly back before walking into the gym. Molly looked at the kids dancing together with a smile on her face. All around her, it was so sparkly and shiny and sweet, it felt like the ending of a fairytale.

She then strolled back outside and spotted a familiar blue Camaro with a familiar dirty blond boy smoking a cigarette while leaning on it. She smirked as she quietly approached.

"Max looks lovely tonight," she said, creeping up behind Billy.

He jumped and cursed to himself before sighing, "Yeah, Susan did her hair real nice. She hated it though," he muttered with a slight smirk.

Molly hummed thoughtfully before saying, "She was dancing with Lucas. They both looked so happy."

Billy took a drag and sighed once more, releasing clouds of smoke into the night, "I'm sure they did."

"She'll forgive you," Molly said, reading his thoughts, "You're making good progress."

"I know. I just feel so awful that I did all that. She never deserved any of it," he sighed.

She sighed, wrapping her arm around his shoulders and squeezing him closer to her, "You're getting better. Don't ever doubt that. And don't think I'll ever let you fall back in," she added with a chuckle.

He pitifully chuckled, "Thanks."

"So, I hear there's something like this coming up in a few months for our grade. Senior prom," she said, thinking aloud, her arm still hanging off his shoulder.

"Yeah, it's kinda like this but with more kissing and booze," he said, making Molly snort.

"And so I heard it's apparently expected that boys and girls go together," she continued to think aloud.

"Yeah, like dates," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, growing hopeful she might be asking what he hoped she was asking.

"And I was just thinking...," for the first time in years, Molly had gotten so incredibly nervous about something that wasn't life-threatening. She could feel her chest quaking, breath shaking, palms sweating.

"'Will you go to prom with me'?," Billy finished for her, smirking to hide the blush on his cheeks.

Molly smiled, deciding to tease him, "Why, I'd love to!"

"Smartass," Billy muttered, still smiling widely and blushing profusely, "I'll think about it. Don't wanna piss off your buddies though."

"Yeah," she sighed, "And I don't wanna weird-out yours."

As they continued to listen to the distant music playing in the gym while staring at the stars through clouds of smoke, Billy looked down at the girl next to him. He felt like he was looking at the secret eighth wonder of the world. Molly was such an anomaly yet comfort to him. He doubted he would ever entirely understand every side of her but if he was honest, he doubted he would ever want to either. The sheer amazement and mystery of Molly is what enraptured him so. And even if there were some sides to her that he hadn't quite discovered, the whole picture as he saw it was so utterly beautiful to him.

Little to Billy's knowledge, Molly had quietly crept into his mind to see exactly what was going through his thoughts as he stared down at her. Could it be?

She repeated the only full sentence she heard going through his head, "'Are you mine'?"

Those ocean-blue eyes widened at her words, cheeks tinted red under the streetlights, heart swelling with desire, pupils dilated.

He leaned down and captured her lips in a deep, sweet kiss.