꧁꧂

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰᴏʀᴛʏ: ᴀɴᴅ ɪ'ʟʟ ᴄᴀʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍɪɴᴇ

The car ride back to the Wheeler's family house was filled with Steve hitting his hand against the radio, trying to get it to work while Max didn't leave my side, my arm wrapped around her shoulder while she leaned her head on me. My other hand combed through her hair, catching any knots, and untying them neatly and gently.

"Give me your hand." The girl's voice was quiet as if she didn't want anyone else in the car to hear her but me. I held the same hand that was wrapped around her shoulder, of which she grabbed with her own.

Max continued to outline each line in my palm with her index finger, holding my hand close to her like she was worried I was going somewhere. I was going nowhere. She spung one of the rings on my thumb slowly, taking in and analysing each and every detail she could see.

"It's okay." I whispered to her, leaning my head closer to her own so she could hear. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to leave you." I say, then kissing the top of her head. Okay, but did you need to kiss the top of her head, Park? Cause I think you didn't need to-

The car stopped suddenly, and Steve nervously looked over at me in his mirror. Bitch? What do you want me to do? Confess my love in the back of your goddamn car?

As we all got out of the older boy's car, me and the girl walked, hands entangled as we walked down the unlit pathway. It was hard to see where we walked and stepped as we went as the darkness continued to deepen itself in the sky. I know it gets dark in Hawkins rather quickly, but it felt as though the day had gone faster than usual. And I'm including the whole ordeal of Max levitating six feet above the ground taking up half an hour of my day.

"Take the couch." I tell the girl as we stepped down into the basement. It was late. I needed to know Max had had at least one goodnight's worth of sleep. Even if it felt impossible after today's events. She shook her head, moving to the armchair. Was she mad? She must've been mad. "Max, I'm serious." I remind her as the other boys followed behind us. "I need you to at least try and sleep tonight." The girl looked like she had slept in years.

After silence sat between the whole basement, she understood that even her stubbornness wasn't going to change my mind. She had to sleep. Even if it was for an hour. Or ten minutes. Just a little bit of comfort that she could be at rest for a moment was good enough for me. And seriously, I don't care how stalkerish you may say that sounds. I care a shitton.

She was silent for the rest of the night while the others tried to get comfy, on the floor, all of them insisting on sleep, also. Meanwhile, my mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour. Was Max okay? What the actual fuck happened today? Cause I feel like I must've passed out.

⊹˚˖⁺

"Park?" Time had gone by, and I hadn't slept a wink. Even Robin and Nance were back, sleeping with the others on the floor, too, as no one else wanted to fight for the last armchair (even if Robin insisted on Nancy taking it...). Glancing over at the voice, I smiled weakly and held back any yawns when I looked at Max.

The girl laid across the couch, hand out, gesturing for me to join her as if I would not fall off any second after I got on it with her. When she smiled, it wasn't with her eyes. You know what I mean, when you can tell if someone's faking a smile or not by the way they look in their eyes. It was even weaker than my smile. "What time is it?" I murmured over to her, head tilted as I stood up. Rule number sixty-nine: don't sit like that in the armchair with such bad posture, you will get a back ache. 

She glanced at her wrist, hand still out and wating for my own. She then shrugged. "Two in the morning..." This girl-

When going to argue with the fact that she needed to actually sleep, I took one look of those blue eyes and that was it. STAND UP, PARKER. "You're a pain in my ass..." I muttered after a moment, shaking my head in disbelief as I leaned down beside her. "Shuffle up, then..."

Max then smiled, like a true smile. One with the eyes. PARKER BYERS GET UP CHALLENGE? The red head shuffled over on the couch, smile wide as I laid down next to her on it. Faces inches apart. Fucks sake, why do I get myself into these situations? Why?

Staring into her eyes, I found myself fighting the urge to get lost in them. Lost in her. Max Mayfield, why are you like this? "You're staring." The girl commented after a moment, whispering over to me.

"Yeah..." I murmured, also whispering back, smiling as I analysed each and every freckle and detail on her face. "I don't know if you noticed, but we're rather close, so..." I added on, trying to deflect from the way she had basically called me out. "It's hard to look anywhere else..."

The girl nodded, hopefully understanding that I 'didn't mean to' and it was by 'total coincidence' that I was staring. She reached a hand out while she stared right back at me, hand on my cheek as her thumb traced underneath my eye. "You still have it." She tells me. Pulling a face at her, the girl just looked down for a moment like she was embarrassed to mention whatever 'it' was. "Since Starcourt, you've had a little mark underneath your eye." Her thumb slowed over a certain area underneath the eye, tracing delicately.

"Battle scar." I joke with a light chuckle exiting after me.

She smiled slightly wider but didn't let out a snicker or laugh at it. Max came focussed on my little scar, not wanting to look anywhere else. "Maxine?" I furrowed my eyebrows as she pushed a strand of hair out of my face. "Try to close your eyes for me." I tell her when catching her attention fully again. The girl nodded, moving the hand away from me nervously. "Just ten minutes."

To my surprise, though, after a moment of me closing my own eyes, I felt Maxine get closer to me, hands around my waist and head in the crook of my neck as she tried to get as close as humanly possible to me. Feeling her warm breath against my neck sent shivers down my spine and I couldn't explain the specific reason how or why. I'm just gay for her.

⊹˚˖⁺

"Hey." I open my eyes to the red head's voice, a soft and quiet whisper over to me. Still, her face only inches away from my own, she didn't look too much better. Maxine looked as though she was exhausted, though, like she could sleep for a week straight and still wake up tired. "Sorry... you should sleep." The girl says, shaking her head and dismissing me back to my snooze. Was she insane?

I gave her a look, telling her how wrong she was for saying such a statement. "Someone's gotta keep an eye on you." I whispered, glancing behind me to see five sleeping teens on the floor, still. "And I don't think you wanna see Dustin after being awoke from his nap..."

"Oh?" The girl teasingly raised an eyebrow at me. "Scary, is it?"

"Extremely." The two of us laid on the couch in silence, staring and taking in everything we could see of each other. Maxine Mayfield. The new girl in Mr Clarke's class. The red head. MADMAX. The skatergirl. The crush. The one I always came back for. The one who was always going to be out of my reach.

"Can we go somewhere?" Maxine asks, hand on my forearm.

"Uh..." I furrow my eyebrows like the complete dumbass I am. "Where to...?"

"Somewhere private." She says in a vague tone. "I want to talk." Uh oh. Gay mode has been activated.

⊹˚˖⁺

The two of us awkwardly sat at either side of Nancy Wheeler's bed, every now and then making eye contact with each other before even more awkwardly looking away. The silence between us was awful, like Max knew of what she wanted to talk about but didn't know how to bring it up.

"So..." The girl began, looking around at the Tom Cruise poster on Nancy's wall. Really, Nance, a Tom Cruise poster? Come on- "You were saying something about... a radio call?"

I try to recall what she's saying, but I shake my head in confusion. "What?" I ask the red head, nervously chuckling. Where was this going?

"At the cemetery." She says to me. "When you followed after me. You said something about a radio call." Shit. SHIT. SHIT. SHIT- "You mentioned Friday night, too?" WELL SHIT. WE'RE FUCKED. WE'RE TOTALLY AND UTTERLY- "Park..." I looked over at her, coming out of the staring of that one specific place on Nancy's pillowcase.

"It's nothing," I tell her, nervously shuffling around on my side of the bed. "I just..." THINK FOR THE LOVE OF GAY LOVE, PARKER BYERS. "I was worried that you were moving away from-"

"Cut the bullshit." I raise an eyebrow up at Maxine as she looks at me directly, cutting me off from my false rambling. "Tell me what the call was about." I stared at her right in the eyes, with my brain working at seventy miles an hour, deciding whether now was the time or not. We came to the conclusion of not!

"You don't... want to know." I tell her blandly, going to get up from Nancy's bed. "Trust me, Maxine-"

"What? I'm not gonna change how I feel about you-" Not to say those words hurt, but that made me continue to walk towards the door. "Park? Are you seriously about to just-"

"Trust me, Maxine." I repeated, looking back at her, hand holding the door handle. I needed to get out of this conversation, asap. When I looked over at her, I could see the hurt all over her voice. Fuck. Shit. Hey, God, me again- "You don't want to have this conversation-" I began, shaking my head and shrugging.

"Park- why're you so sure that any of this could change my perception of you?" Max asks, standing up from the bed, now. Oh, if only she knew- "Since you came back from California, you've been holding back." Why. Why. Why. WHY ME- "There's something you're not telling me, and if there's one thing between us that I can take for sure that is the honesty and loyalty we have." As she spoke, the girl neared closer to me, one step at a time.

Shit. Well actual shit. "I appreciate that." I say, nodding. "But, what I will tell you, will ruin it. It will make it awkward than we already are and-"

She shook her head, disbelief as her whole expression, now. "You're acting like what this is about is such a big thing. Like-" Maxine shrugged and thought before coming up with something. "I don't know! Like you're in love with me or something."

BULLSEYE! WOOOO!

The girl continued to laugh of disbelief while I stood there at the door, silent. Well, well, well, if it isn't the feelings I pushed down for over a year finally ruining my life. When she then turned to look over at me, the laughing then died down to a chuckle, to then just a smile as she looked back at me, confused on my silence and why I was not protesting against her words.

"Park?" Silence. I stared up at her, not saying a word. Funny story. "Park, be honest-"

"What else is there to say?" I ask her after another moment of silence. I reach behind me for the door handle, pushing it down to open and turning to leave after taking one final look at the girl. Max was taking that information. No matter how long that took her, it was going to take even longer for me to accept any of that conversation just there.

"Parker?" Before I can even open the door to a suitable size, my name is called, and I glance back down at Maxine.

The girl smiled widely, stepping forward and pulling me away from the door, towards her as she slammed the door shut with her other hand. A sensation tightened in my stomach as each moment passed between us, my eyes locking with Maxine's as we stared. What was happening?

"I thought I gave you hints, dumbass." The girl continued the smile as she leaned into me, with that sensation in my stomach continuing to tighten up, with a heavy feeling in my chest beginning to grow heavier. The girl's hand wrapped around my waist as Max's head tilted, eyes on my lips, my eyes on her own. Rule number seventy: wow, Parker, you're an idiot.

Without a moment's hesitation, I closed the gap between the two of our lips, desperate for the feeling of Max again. And with that, the tightening sensation broke free, and my chest had never felt lighter.

The girl's lips were far more delicate than before, as if she wanted this not be feel so rushed and quick as the last kisses had been. Her left hand continued to wrap around my waist while I lost myself in the kiss, trying to understand how I'd gotten into this situation. Certainly this wasn't actually happening...

My hands snaked up to her cheeks, insisting for her to not pull away just yet. In retaliation, the girl sent butterflies in my stomach, pushing me up against the wall in a greedier manner, with our lips continuing to brush and explore one and other.

My palms turned sweaty by the moment, with my breathing getting heavier as we eventually pulled away, my forehead leaning against Max's. With the two of us not breaking eye contact, we both smiled.

"So..." I began after a moment of silence. "Are we gonna talk about it..." I smirked, feeling and seeing her shake her head.

"You're an idiot, Parker Byers." She tells me, leaning in to kiss my lips again, only a few centimetres away before the door then opened.

On reflex, I expected it to be Mike, my brain not accepting that he was away in California still. Turning around to look at the person at the door, ready to shout at a boy who was now taller than me with a horrible haircut, my eyes then went wide.

"Nance do you really think-" It all went silent between the four of us as we all stared at each other.

There, at Nancy Wheeler's bedroom door stood Robin and Nancy, notably extremely close, hands holding and all. Well. That confirms all suspicions. "Should we give you a minute?" Nancy asks, looking at Max, then me, then back at Max.

"I dunno... do you guys need a minute?" I teased, a grin beginning to develop on my face. Oh my god, Robin's top button was undone.

"No." Nancy shook her head, very sure of herself even though her cheeks were a turning red and redder by the moment our conversation still went on. "No, I think we can go somewhere else."

"Like where?" I asked, confused.

"A closet?" Max suddenly blurted, causing me to have to do my best to hold back a laugh. I didn't want to be the reason of Mr Wheeler's 3AM wake up call, even if that was the joke that had been made. Jesus Christ Robin and Nancy were gonna-

"Not funny." Robin stared over at me, while I bit back a smile.

"I dunno, it's kinda funny..." I murmured back to her.

Nancy took in a deep breath as we all stood awkwardly, nodding as she spoke, "We're going now." She tells us, turning away from the door.

"Yeah... okay." I nodded in a just as awkward tone, then giving Robin a thumbs up once out of Nance's eyesight. In reply, I was shown Robin middle finger as she followed after Nancy.

Smiling widely, I shut the door with my foot as I looked back over at the red head in front of me. "So- them two-" Max gestured at where they had been at the door, trying to get her head wrapped around it.

"How does... your gaydar work?" I ask, raising a teasing eyebrow.

She shook her head in disbelief, stepping closer to me, hands wrapping around my neck again. "Shut up and kiss me, Parker."

a/n- thank you so much for being patient with me, i will be updating whenever i get the chance, but i can't guarantee anything😭i hope u enjoyed this chap tho !! <3 do we have a ship name in mind for these two cause omg