Just as she was about to force herself to go find Eddie’s cabin and ask to use their phone to call her parents, she hears his voice behind her, nearly jumping as she turns around. She hadn’t been expecting anyone to join her, and as soon as she realized just who was standing nearby, the teen reached up to wipe away at her eyes. He didn’t need to see her crying, and she didn’t think about how it would essentially be a way of telling him that was exactly what she was trying not to do.

“I have a hobby. I have many of them.” Turning back to the gate, Eleven pulled her knees up again. She had been intending on telling him a few of those hobbies, just to prove a point, but as she started to think of them, it occurred to her that many of those hobbies were related to Mike in one way or another. A few she had learned from him, but others she had learned and shown him.

“They do not sound fun right now.”

Eleven had never been a girl of many words, but now they seemed even fewer, as well as even quieter. She didn’t know Eddie that well, after all, and she didn’t know if he would suddenly turn into one of the bullies like back in California. He could make fun of the way she was crying, or make fun of any of her hobbies, and at the moment, that was the last thing she wanted to deal with.