Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen: If This Was A Movie

After a few days in the hospital, Annie got to go home. Just to be on "house arrest" for another four weeks. The doctors recommended she wait that long just to give the leg some healing time before going out on crutches.

And she was not having a good time.

Not only were her parents home a lot, but Steve wasn't always there to keep them from blaming her for what happened to her.

Steve saw she wasn't exactly having a great time, though, and figured he should try to do something about it.

"Hey, Max, wait up," he called, and the redhead turned around and stopped her journey to Billy's car. "Are you busy tonight?"

Max's eyebrows rose and she blinked rapidly. "What?" she finally asked, not even able to come up with some witty remark.

Steve shook his head and grimaced. "No, not like that. Annie's really not loving being stuck at home and I figured it might be helpful if we do something for her, you know?"

Something inside Max broke seeing how much Steve really cared for his sister. It was sweet, and a part of her envied it. But looking past that, she focused on the fact that he was trying to make Annie feel a bit better.

"Yeah, of course... we usually do movie nights with the Party on Fridays, maybe we could host a big one at your house and stuff?" she offered with a shrug.

Steve nodded quickly, very in love with the idea. "Yeah, yeah okay that'll work. Talk to the others and see if they can all come this last minute and I can take care of all the food," he said. "Wait- what movie? I can grab that, too."

There was no need to think. "Footloose, easy. Has she been watching it a lot while at home?"

He shook his head. "No, she's really just isolated herself to her room and only leaves for the bathroom," he said. When he thought about it more, he realized how awful her days have been. "I usually just put one of her records on before I leave and then change it when I get back- that and some drawing I think are how she's been entertaining herself."

Max frowned. "Then we better get this movie night set up."

They departed with Max going over to where Billy was impatiently waiting for her, cigarette between his fingers. He had seen Steve stop her. "What was that about?" he asked as she got into the car.

"Steve wanted my help in planning something for Annie tonight. We're doing a movie night," she replied.

They pulled out of the parking lot with Billy tossing the cigarette on the ground. "What time do I need to take you?" he asked.

Max hesitated at the question because it wasn't what she expected at all. "I, uh, probably around 5:30?"

He nodded and then didn't say anything else for the rest of the drive home. When the arrived, Max hurried to her room to call Lucas and get the ball rolling for movie night. "Hey, are you busy tonight? Good. We're doing a movie night for Annie at her place. Tell the others. I'm gonna call Hopper at the police station and see if we can convince him to bring El, too."

Since the New Year, the Party had been doing pretty consistent movie nights. Quite a few were held at El and Hopper's cabin because she wasn't allowed to leave in fear she'd be caught.

After they all first met, the girls had started to get along more. El was in desperate need of other girl friends- Max was impressed she was surrounded by boys for so long. The movie nights helped them all become friendlier and even Annie had warmed up to her.

So, she had to come. "Okay, call me back and let me know if everyone can come," she told Lucas, then hung up and got to calling the police station. "Hi, can I speak to Chief Hopper? It's Max Mayfield."

A second, and then. "Kid? What, uh, what can I do for you?" The two of them didn't really know each other as well as he knew the other kids, but during the Halloween mishap he at least learned her name.

"Um, well, I was wondering if El could come over to Annie's house tonight? Steve said she's not doing too good being stuck at home all day so I'm trying to get all of her friends together to have a movie night and I really want El to be there."

Another second. "I don't know kid, who's gonna be there?" Okay, not a complete rejection, this might work.

"Annie, Steve, and me for sure. The only other people invited are Lucas, Mike, Will, and Dustin. That's it. And we're just going to be in Annie's house. Steve's grabbing food and snacks so there's no need to worry about us leaving for any reason."

She heard him sigh on the other end and could image the expression on his face. "All right, what time does she need to be there?"

A smile spread across Max's face at the question. "About 5:30 is what we're planning!" she answered a bit loudly.

Unbeknownst to her, Hopper was smiling on the other end. "Okay, I'll bring her by. Just, give me a call when I need to come pick her up," he said.

Max had to hold back an audible cheer and just stuck with, "Awesome! Thanks!" She hung up and almost as if planned, the phone rang again.

"Max, we're all good to go!"

~~

"Steve I don't want to get up!" Annie groaned as she gripped onto her bedsheets as if that would do anything.

He sighed and tilted his head at her. "Come one, you need to get out of this damn room and get something new to look at! You can't just mope around in here until you're given the green light to go back to school."

"Yes I can..."

He shook his head and pushed his sweatshirt sleeves up. "Nope, let's get going." Annie wasn't ready for him to just tickle her underarms, causing her grip to loosen, and giving Steve the ability to pick her up with an arm under her legs and the other supporting her back.

"God damnit!" she yelled. Steve just laughed as he carried her out of the room.

"Need to go to the bathroom before we head down?" His answer was a mumbled swear of some kind, causing him to laugh even harder. "Come on Grumpy, let's go."

He moved very slowly down the stairs to make sure she was all good, and when they got to the bottom, he turned around to have Annie facing the living room. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she saw the Party all sitting around the living room that was filled with snacks, pizza, drinks, blankets, and pillows.

"What's all this...?" Annie asked, her voice soft and a small smile growing on her face.

Max stepped forward. "We wanted to do something together, give you something more to do here than mope around your room," she explained. "It was Steve's idea."

Annie turned her head and looked at her big brother. "Really? That's so sweet," she said and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him into a hug. He did his best to hug her back with his arms holding her.

"Okay," she said, pulling away, "let's do this!"

Steve walked over and carefully placed Annie on a spot everyone had gotten ready for her, complete with a stool to keep her broken leg up and out of the way. Max kept her seat and got a paper plate for Annie, getting all the food she wanted.

Everyone was talking and grabbing food, even El was trying a couple new things. Annie almost did a double take when she saw El's shy smile and growing hair (it was getting closer and closer to her shoulders every day).

Then, everyone was sat down on the couch and floor ready to watch the movie. "What are we watching?" Annie asked, realizing no one has told her yet.

"You'll see," Max replied with a smile, and then Steve got the movie started for them. Annie smiled instantly, knowing exactly what it was.

This was perfect, something she wished would never change.

A/n: I love scenes of the Party hanging out when their lives aren't in danger 🥰