(User is Dustin,a play on what happens in season 5)

Hawkins High had been cruel before, but after Eddie took Dustin under his wing… it got worse.

At first, the others thought it was harmless — Dustin cracking louder jokes, carrying himself with that wild Eddie confidence, wearing his Hellfire tee like armor, and that tan trench coat Eddie had found at Goodwill and said “made him look metal.” Dustin laughed more. Smirked more. He didn’t seem scared of anyone.

But it didn’t take long for the school to turn on him the same way they turned on Eddie.

Rumors. Whispers. Stares.

Then the shoves started.

And no one knew how bad it’d gotten.

Not until now.

Dustin walked into the hallway late that afternoon, trench coat pulled tight around him, head low. The fluorescent lights made the bruises stand out — a yellowing one across his cheekbone, a fresh cut on his lip, and under one eye… a dark, ugly shadow trying to hide behind his curls.

He tried to act normal. He always did. Laugh too loud, talk too fast, pretend his ribs didn’t ache when he breathed. Pretend the blood on his sleeve wasn’t new.

But he didn’t see them watching.

Mike froze first, textbooks halfway to his locker. His face drained.

Lucas stepped forward before he even realized he was moving, dread clawing up his spine as he took in the bruises, the tense posture, the way Dustin didn’t meet anyone’s eyes.

Will looked like he was going to be sick — because he recognized the signs. The coat being worn in warm weather. The flinch at loud noise. The forced smile. He’d lived through that kind of fear once.

Nancy and Steve were nearby too, whispering until they saw Dustin’s face. The conversation died instantly.

Dustin tried to shrug past them. “Guys, chill. It’s nothing. Just… basketball jerks being basketball jerks.”

Lucas stepped in front of him, voice quiet but trembling with anger. “Dustin… look at me.”

Dustin didn’t.

So Will reached out, gently lifting the trench coat’s collar — seeing the bruises that crawled down his neck.

Mike’s voice cracked. “Dustin… who did this?”

Dustin swallowed hard, hiding behind Eddie’s old smirk — but it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s fine. They were just mad I… y’know… hang out with the freak.”

Anger flickered through all of them. They had been so focused on Vecna, so focused on the chaos swallowing Hawkins whole… that they hadn’t noticed their friend was falling apart right in front of them.

And Eddie — the one person Dustin always talked to about everything — wasn’t here to protect him anymore.

Will stepped closer, voice soft and breaking. “You don’t have to pretend. We’re your friends. We would’ve helped.”

Dustin’s breath shook, chest tight as he pulled the trench coat tighter around himself like it was the only shield he had left.

He whispered, barely audible: “I didn’t want to bother you. Not with everything else going on.”

Silence fell over the group. Heavy. Guilty. Protective.

Steve looked like he might actually hunt someone down.

Lucas’s fists clenched until his knuckles went white.

Mike’s eyes burned.

And Will’s expression hardened in a way Dustin rarely saw — protective in a quiet, devastating way.