"I don't know about you, son," Hopper said giving Steve a pointed look as he moved to the bar and eased into a seat, "but I'm drinking whiskey. Straight," he added. He was a habitual beer drinker. Some might say he was an alcoholic. He would argue he could stop anytime he wanted, he just didn't want to stop. Drinking gave him something to do, an excuse not to feel.
Right now he was feeling a lot of things he didn't want to feel. Confusion, for one. Concern for Eleven. Annoyed, for another. Joyce had decided to go on a date with him and he was pretty sure she wasn't going to stand him up a second time. But now he was...here, or dead, or whatever. Whatever he was, he wasn't in Hawkins with Joyce, so there was no second date in his future.
He sighed. "I'm going to drink until I pass out," he declared. That was absolutely his plan. Because he was a responsible adult or something.