A life less ordinary ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

Punishment

After the movies, they all made their way back to Mike's house for dinner, all except Max who had to head home, "yeah, sorry guys, I forgot my, um, parents said I had to be home for a family dinner. They're going away tomorrow for a few days so guess they want to catch up and lay down the law" she said jokingly, especially for Billy she thought.

"Wait, you mean you have an empty house this weekend?" said Dustin, "why the hell didn't you say!?"

"No, Billy will be there...sorry guys, you know what a mouthbreather he is" said Max quickly, not wanting the guys to come over for obvious reasons.

"Awww, damn" said a disappointed Dustin.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

After dinner, the guys decided to watch Jedi on VHS. Han Solo was just breaking into the Endor shield generator when El returned, they heard Karen from the kitchen ask where she'd been with a raised voice, indicating her disappointment that she hadn't rung and that she could have been hurt, etc., usual mom worry. They looked at each other uneasily, vowing to a boy not to question where she had been for the past 5 hours. Mike wandered into the kitchen to grab a drink and observed El sitting at the table staring at her dinner, examining her discreetly he noticed her red, puffy eyes, giving away the fact that she had been crying. He waited until she couldn't help but return his gaze and gave her a small reassuring smile, "hey, if you hurry to can see the rest of Jedi..."

El stood up abruptly and, avoiding Mike's gaze the entire time, made her way upstairs, accidentally pushing past Nancy coming down. "Hey..." she said, watching as El wiped her eyes as she turned the corner, "Mike, what's wrong with El?"

"I wish I knew" he replied, shaking his head and sighing, "she won't talk to me, she won't talk to anyone, I'm starting to get really worried."

"What do the guys think?" asked Nancy.

"We've kind of avoided talking about it" confessed Mike, immediately feeling guilty, "come on, let's go ask them." They made their way into the lounge where Mike paused the movie, much to everyone else's annoyance.

"Guys, we need to talk" said Mike.

"Can't it wait Mike? Luke's about to fight Vader" moaned Dustin.

"Shut it, idiot" said Lucas, hitting his arm. "I take it we're talking about El?" Mike nodded. "So..."

"She's avoiding us all" said Mike, the others agreeing.

"She's lost weight, I don't think she's eating properly" stated Nancy, the others gave it some thought and realized that she was right.

"She's...regressing" said Will, struggling to find the right word.

"What do you mean?" asked Dustin.

"Like, she spent a lot of time learning to communicate with us, learning to talk properly...she's started going, I don't know, backwards...like she won't use full sentences anymore" he explained. "If she talks to me at all now it's pretty much one-word answers, like when she first came back."

"And where does she go every day? She's not here, and from what you've said she's obviously not with you guys" said Nancy.

They shrugged and shook their heads. "We need to do something, she's clearly not going to tell us, and she needs help...I don't know why, but she does" said Nancy.

"Guys, let's wrap this up ok? We can finish the film next time" Mike said to the gang, "we'll talk tomorrow."

They nodded in agreement, as they were leaving Will grabbed Mike's hand, "Mike, let us know what's happening, if we can help." Mike nodded in agreement, as Dustin and Lucas went through the door, Will leaned closer and gave him a clandestine kiss goodbye.