It's Not Three Inches With You

Chapter 7

El

Max sat next to me, knees knocking against mine as she asked me about the lab.

"My name wasn't El." I started.

She didn't say anything, so I continued, nervous.

"It was Eleven."

Sighing, I showed her my wrist that read 011.

She stared at it in horror.

"They shaved my head," I told her, reaching my hand up to my messy bob that was once buzzed to its roots.

She nodded. Max knew most of this story, but not from me.

"They put me in...in a bathtub." I stuttered, trying not to cry.

She sighed, reaching her hand across to mine and taking it.

My heart jumped a beat again.

"Like...a pool?" she asked and I just looked at her, unsure of what she was asking me.

"Pool? What's a pool?" I asked, confused.

"Right." She murmured as if remembering I didn't know as much as she did.

"You've never been swimming? Like, proper swimming? For fun?" she asked and I shook my head slowly.

"No." I told her and she laughed softly.

"That's the first thing we're doing when we get there then. There's a pool just down the road from my house. And there's a beach! You know what a beach is right?" she asked excitedly.

I grinned, nodding, glad to have a distraction from the previous topic.

"Oh my gosh. I have so much to show you!" she giggled and I laughed too, the tears that had brimmed in my eyes evaporating.

A man in the row next to us who had been sleeping glared at us, but Max just looked at me laughing before shooting him the middle finger.

The man turned away in disgust and we just laughed harder.

"What is...swimming?" I asked, remembering what she had said before.

Max laughed.

"Its so much fun. You put on special like... clothes, I guess and you just move in the water."

I stared at her.

"Clothes? In water?"

"Yeah!" she spoke, laughing at the expression on my face.

Then she paused.

"Wait a minute, you don't have a swimsuit do you?" she asked and I shook my head.

Max grinned.

"Well, I guess we're gonna have to go shopping!" she said in mock dismay and I grinned.

Max grinned back.

"They have the coolest swimsuits in California. Clothes too. It's like, totally tubular." She said.

I laughed.

"Tubular" I echoed, grinning.

Max couldn't reply, she was laughing too hard.

"What?" I asked, laughing too.

Max just shook her head, trying to contain her fits of giggles.

An announcement came over the crackly loud speaker and I looked up.

"Oh sh!t." Max cursed. "Landing. Are you ready?"

I looked at her, panicked.

"Landing?" I asked and she nodded.

I gripped her hand tighter as the plane began to drop toward the ground, my heart pounding with a swirl of adrenaline and...Max.

With a smooth 'thud' the plane hit the ground, still rolling to a stop.

The red-dress lady from before reappeared and instructed everyone to check their seats before leaving.

I stood, stepping out of my seat so Max could so the same. She walked around me, leading us off the plane.

The air was warm as we stepped out, Max pulling me toward her father. And the sky was still light, despite the time I believed it to be.

"Max." I said and she turned around as we met her father.

"Yeah?"

"What...time is it?" I asked and she looked at her watch.

"10:37 at night but that's Hawkins time." She replied.

"What is it...California time?" I questioned.

"I don't know, I'm bad at math. Dad?" she said, with a glance at her father.

He laughed.

"1:37 am." He told me as we walked toward into the airport's carpark.

"We're going back to San Diego now?" Max asked and her father nodded.

"Yeah. We'll come back to LA later in the week so you girls can go to Disneyland."

Max and I grinned at each other.

"Okay!" she agreed.

Piling into the car I noticed how much happier she already was. I knew she liked it better here in California than back in Hawkins, but I was yet to figure out why.

"Maybe when you two go shopping you can talk Max out of buying more stripes." Her father joked and I laughed.

Max rolled her eyes, grinning despite herself.

"I'm Sam, by the way." He told me with a glance through the rearview mirror and I smiled at him.

"Nice to meet you."

Sam smiled as we drove along the beachy roads of Los Angeles, far from the homes I had known before.

"How long are we staying?" Max asked and Sam shrugged.

"About a week or so?" he suggested and Max nodded, smiling at me.

"We're going to have so much fun!" she told me in excitement.

And she was right.

(A/N: Hellooooo my wonderful readers! Thanks for coming back! Sorry this chapter has like zero elmax, but it's going to get more gay romancy I promise lmaoooo. That sounded weird, but who cares 🤣😭 ANYWAYS, I have news! Exciting news! But....Imma tell you in the next update lolololololol- stay totally tubular and I'll see you in the next one :))