Teddy Bear (STRANGER THINGS)

thirteen; the flea and the acrobat

thirteen; the flea and the acrobat

"Dad, the tie's too tight. I feel like I'm choking." Teddy complained to his father with a slight grimace. The boy wasn't trying to complain, he just wasn't a huge fan of ties, but it was necessary for today. Today was Will's funeral... and despite the boy knowing Will was still alive, he needed to pretend for the rest of the town that he was grieving.

"Sorry dear," Thomas apologized, finishing with tying the tie around his son's collar, "but this is how they're done."
Thomas took the day off of work to be with Teddy for Will's funeral. He knew he had to be there for his son. (Lucky for him, he was on good terms with his boss, Tom Holloway, who understood completely why he'd taken the day off.)

"Why couldn't I just wear a bow tie?" Teddy asked, fiddling with the end of tie.

Thomas shrugged, "couldn't find one. Maybe next time?"

Teddy nodded, keeping his head down. Even though he knew Will was out there and he wasn't grieving like everyone expected of him, some part of Teddy still felt awful... maybe it was the fact that Will's family didn't know where he was and the guilt was eating away inside him. He wanted more than anything to find his friend...

Thomas noticed his son deep in thought, not unusual for Teddy to be doing but Thomas still was concerned about his son. It was just yesterday that Teddy was crying that morning about Will. "How-How are you holding up? How do you feel right now?" He asked

The ginger slowly rose his head, making eye contact with his father, "I feel..." Teddy trailed off. He didn't know how to respond. How did he feel? Not sad... he knew Will was alive... more guilty than anything. Guilty for knowing that Will was alive but unable to do anything about it.
"... numb? I guess? I'm not really sure."

"That's okay not to know... this is a tough time for you and your friends, I don't expect you to understand your feelings." Thomas told him, handing Teddy his suit jacket and putting on his own. "Come on... we'll be late if we don't leave now."

For it being a funeral, Teddy thought it was a relatively nice day out. No cloud rested in the sky while the sun shone down on the many people gathered around the grave yard for "Will's" burial–the weather opposed the mood of the funeral, sad and sour. Teddy plastered on a mute face, not sad nor happy, standing beside his friends with his father behind him.

A pastor stood before Will's casket, droning on with his eulogy, ""Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand." It's times like these where our faith is challenged. How, if He is truly benevolent would God take from us someone so young, so innocent? It would be easy to turn away from God, but we must remember that nothing, not even tragedy can separate us from His love—"

Teddy spaced away from the pastor... he never truly understood religion. For some, it was nice to have, gave them morals and a reason for life. Teddy didn't grow up with that. The Chambers men weren't primarily focused on that... But that didn't mean Teddy trashed on religion and thought it was stupid. If it made someone's life better, than so be it... Teddy's knew no amount of prayers helped him and his father in during his awful early childhood with her.
Despite not being so in-touch with religion, Teddy did, however, believe in a god and some form of afterlife... but that was about it. If there was a god, then why was he so unfair? A god clearly picked favors and let others suffer...