Wanting the boys she'll act against to be 'sexier'_ her saying that Joe has a quiet sexiness, he would have had it too as a child vs comparing her hand size to the x-ray in Joe's office and saying how small it is

That weird breathy tone she adopts when saying Cameron's name in the theatre

Her telling Joe that she gets how it would have been to sneak around with him

That evil 'it's what's grown-ups do' line from her to Joe with the condescending, fake pitying tone

How she slowly starts talking to Joe the same way Gracie talks to him as the movie progresses

Her whole chilling reading of Gracie's letter, performing in all the right places but without any humanity behind anything she has read. Just thinking that Joe gave her this letter at a time when he was starting to grasp what had been stolen from him and Elizabeth not caring beyond how this benefits her and her story

Kyo is my favorite character. I love him a lot. However, I can see that he has flaws. He blamed Yuki for everything and used him as a way to cope and that was not okay. While I understand his actions and completely understand where he's coming from, that doesn't mean it was okay to do it. I don't condone his actions. They were really shitty and people, mostly Yuki, have the right to call him out on it.

Both Yuki and kyo face a lot of struggles through out this story and not one person is to blame. They both have fucked up pasts and are both trying to cope and figure things out. So maybe let's not try to play victim okay? No one is the villian. They are both traumatized. Kyo deserves to be called out by Yuki for blaming him for his own shit. His entire development as a character revolves around owning up to his own problems and fixing them himself instead of relying on blaming others to make himself feel better. And Yuki calling him out on his bullshit helps him develop.

And going back for a moment, while kyo blamed him first and used him to cope, let's not forget that Yuki does eventually do the same thing. He just ends up realizing that wasn't okay way earlier than kyo did.

He knew El was excited—she’d been talking about it for weeks, thrilled with the concept of Independence Day, feeling a lot like she’d fought hard for her own freedom in the past year. Admittedly, Mike had been a little put out when El had shared that she and Hopper had watched fireworks on the television in the cabin last year, but that was stupidly selfish so he swallowed those feelings, replacing them with gladness that he’d be there for the first time she saw fireworks for real.

But, however excited El was for her first Fourth of July barbeque, there was something else currently occupying her attention, resulting in her dragging Mike through Starcourt Mall, their sneakered feet moving quickly across the perfectly polished and nearly new tile.

“It needs to be perfect,” El glanced at him over her shoulder, “It’s the first one so perfect.”

Mike nodded in agreement, secretly feeling that this was all a little hopeless. Max’s birthday was two days away and while he, Will, and Dustin had opted to get her credits for the arcade, Lucas and El had refused to do the same—Lucas for obvious reasons and El because she wanted to get Max something more “special.” After all, it was the first birthday Max was celebrating in Hawkins and the first birthday she was celebrating with El as her newest best friend. So yeah, Mike agreed that everything had to be perfect.

They’d gone down an extensive list of possibilities together, sharing a bag of candy from the corner store while sprawled out in the Wheeler’s basement, a familiar fort looming comfortably in the background. A Cabbage Patch Kid was out of the question as was a Teddy Ruxpin. Makeup wasn’t particularly useful and an Atari was out of their price range.

As they passed the food court, Mike keeping his eyes peeled at Scoops Ahoy to see if Steve was working—he wasn’t—an idea struck him.

“What about a book?” Mike suggested, surprised that he was having trouble keeping up with El. Usually, one of his steps were two of hers. It was one of the things he liked about them, together—one of the many things.

El’s eyes lit up and Mike’s heart soared. A good suggestion, then. He felt a surge of pride in his chest as El smiled and nodded.

“A book is perfect.” Max loved reading; she did so voraciously—a word she’d only just taught her friends two weeks prior.

Unfortunately, there would be no getting of books at Starcourt Mall and they still had an hour to spare before Nancy was off work at the local paper. She was, much to Mike’s chagrin, their most reliable mode of transportation.

That hour was well spent—most of it, anyways, wandering through the mall at a much more agreeable pace, taking in the bright colours in all the window displays and sometimes popping into a store to get a closer look at something—a shirt, or a pair of shoes, or a weird gadget, that was particularly enticing.

And it was all the better, Mike kept thinking, because El was beside him, grinning ear-to-ear and laughing at his corny jokes.

But, near the end of that hour, something happened. Something that made Mike wish Nancy finished work fifteen minutes earlier.

He and El were in the candy store, stocking up for their evening movie marathon at Lucas’s when something caught Mike’s eye. Puzzled, he turned to get a more focused look at the blur of movement in the darkened corner of the store near the backroom.

And as he took it in, time crawled slowly.

There was a ringing in his ears.

No one else seemed to notice this—thing. It looked something like a rat and while Mike had never seen a live rat in his life, he knew they weren’t that big and he knew they only had two eyes. Visions of an October night in a darkened tunnel flashed across his mind and then...it looked at him and Mike felt a chill run down his spine.

He blinked. And the thing was gone. The ringing was gone too, replaced by the sounds of excited children begging for one extra piece of bubblegum or more jellybeans. Time moved again. Mike swallowed.

“El—” he turned, not noticing—until his eyes fell onto her frozen face—that she was gripping his arm, her nails digging into the lightly sun-speckled skin there.

“I saw it,” she confirmed, her voice barely audible, her head bobbing slightly.