010 & 011-Elmax

9

-This chapter takes place during S2E9: The Gate-
-Max's POV-

"Max," El says, taking a step towards me.

"El," I gasp, rushing towards her. She engulfs me in a hug. I love her hugs so much; they've got to be one of my favorite things ever. I hear the confused whispers of everyone behind us but I don't care. "I didn't think you'd come back so quickly," I say.

"I had too. You were all in trouble," she informs me as we pull away. "And I missed you." I open my mouth to respond but I'm quickly cut off.

"Eleven," Mike says. Her face lights up as she walks to him. I frown at him, wishing he had stayed quiet.

"Mike," El says with such a relieved tone. El's back is faced to me so I can only see Mike's face as they hugged. He's crying.

"I never gave up on you," Mike says. "I called you every night. Every night for-"

"Three hundred-fifty-three days," El finishes for him. "I heard."

The tone she uses while talking to him, that's the tone she used to call me pretty. The hushed tone that you'd speak to a child with. She uses it with him too.

I feel tears of anger sting my eyes. Everyone loves Mike. He's perfect. Perfect hair, perfect face, perfect everything and everyone just loves, loves, LOVES him. I'm probably worth nothing compared to Mike: the boy who kissed her.

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" Mike asks.

"Because I wouldn't let her," the chief chimes in. He approaches El, the gun still in his hand, but lowered, as if he's expecting another Demo-dog to pop out at any moment.. "The hell is this? Where've you been?" He asks, gesturing to her attire.

"Where have you been?" She asks back. He pulls her in for a hug which she gladly reciprocates.

Oh, he's the man who adopted her, I realize. Apparently Mike realizes it to because he speaks up.

"You've been hiding her!" He snaps."You've been hiding her this whole time!" He shoved he chief, but obviously the large man doesn't budge.

"Hey!" he says, grabbing Mike by his shirt. "Let's talk. Alone." The chief drags Mike off to another room. I look around awkwardly as they yell at each other.

After it dies down a bit El quickly goes to hug Lucas and Dustin.

"We missed you," Lucas tells her.

"I missed you too," El responds.

"We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin informs her. After she stares at him a bit, El reaches forward and pokes at his mouth.

"Teeth," she says. "You have teeth."

"Oh," Dustin chuckles. "You like these pearls?" He then went on to do a hybrid of a purr and a growl. I feel my eyes go wide as I make eye contact with Mar. We both laugh.

Mar takes a deep breath in and walks up to El. "Eleven?" She says. "Hi, I'm Mar, Max's twin sister. Seems you two have already met, but I've heard lots about you." Mar sticks out her hand and El inspects it for a moment before copying her. They shake hands before El walks past her to Ms. Byers.

I don't hear much of their conversation because of the distance and the fact that they were whispering, but eventually they walk to Will's room.

As soon as El leaves Mar turns to me.

"You've got three seconds to explain," she says.

"Look, she was at the school the day we were looking for Dart and she fell and scraped her knee so I took her home and patched her up," I told her. "Then she visited me again while everyone was out."