The whimper at the break in the kiss just makes him smirk, always happy when he’s able to garner a noise from her. Something which, usually, wasn’t all that hard to do. He’s quick to be following her, only getting quicker as she takes hold of him. Body moves in between her legs as the kiss deepens, unable to stop the way he smiles into the kiss at her little groan. And, just to show her exactly where he wants this to go, his hips roll forward, gently grinding against her with the slightest moan.

words cause a raise of the eyebrow, plenty of thoughts immediately rushing through his head. suffocated? oh, yes, that was a feeling he knew all too well. suffocated by pressure, by threats, by school, by himself. a constant worry, constant feeling of his chest tightening, the air sucked out of him as fear overcame his body. anxiety attacks more frequent than ever before, his brain a chaotic mess that would never calm. yes, he knew about suffocating. he cant remember the last time he didn’t feel suffocated. “uh... yeah, i guess.” words with little emotion put behind them, own suffocation silenced in favor of giving his last gasping breaths to her. “what uh.. what's making you feel suffocated?”

he doesn’t know much about whats happening in hawkins, but he's heard a few of them talk about the upside down, about what they saw there. and maybe asking about it was a stupid idea, obviously it wasn’t easy for her to handle, but he just wants to be there for her. wants to help her. “okay, that’s okay.” voice is soft, reassuring. hes doing his best to make this easy for her, for it to not feel like hes pressuring her. “you don’t have to talk about it.”

she’s caught on to the shift in attitude these days, to the way he so clearly knows something that he isn’t saying. it’s not about her, it’s nothing to do with her, but every time she asks him if something’s going on he can’t help but freeze up. he can’t exactly tell her that he’s being threatened by his best friend, can he? that’d defeat the whole point of monty’s threats, his entire purpose being to keep charlie quiet. admitting to her the truth only put him in danger, and worse: risked putting her in danger too. monty had never seemed dangerous, just like a normal kid with anger issues, but now that charlie knows more, now that he’s gotten threats, he knows that it’s not so simple. “i-- i can’t. i can’t.” quiet, shaky. clearly terrified. “i can’t tell you, if he finds out--” slips out without meaning to, eyes widening at the realisation. it’s not a lot of information to give, but it’s confirmation that someone - a male someone - is keeping him quiet. that’s too much information. “i can’t.”

its obvious, he thinks, when she's not feeling great. hes gotten pretty good at reading people, especially people hes close to, and to him it seems like nancy’s pretty easy to read. but he wont say that, wont outright admit that he can read her like a book. instead a shrug is given, small smile growing. “maybe i just know you better than i know myself.”

he’s being an asshole and he knows it, but that does nothing to stop him. when charlie gets in a truly bad mood he so easily destroys everything in his path, even if he wouldn’t usually want to. she’s one of the only things in his life that he’s worked hard not to destroy, to protect from this side of him, and yet here he is, being the worlds biggest asshole. perhaps the worst part is that maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t been entirely wrong. maybe she’d had some points. but was he gonna admit that? while he was like this? of course not. naturally, his reaction to her words is to instead say one of the worst things he could say, tone still angry but now with the addition of being condescending as well. “see, was that so fucking hard? was that worth all the bitching?”

“Oh. Hello,” Katherine greets, loosening up almost immediately. “I’m Katherine. Just Katherine, please, none of this Miss Pulitzer nonsense. Have you seen the shows here? I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the owner and headliner, she’s absolutely lovely. I hope you’ll enjoy the show.”