teenage tragedy (Max Mayfield)

3. seventeen

THREE MONTHS LATER

"Turn around, look at what you see, in her face, the mirror of your dreams, rhymes that keep their secrets, will unfold behind the clouds," Lucas and Max sang loudly.

Dustin glared at them from the other side of the Byers' living room and Cammie laughed quietly. Max looked over at her and smiled widely. Cammie rolled her eyes fondly at her girlfriend.

"Losers," she said slowly.

Max's smile got even bigger, if possible, and Cammie crawled over, kissing her quickly. Max smirked and stroked her cheek softly.

"Wait, did we get that verse right? It's unfold behind the clouds?" Max turned back to Dustin.

"Yeah, but you're butchering it, so could you please stop?" Dustin sighed.

"So then join in, Dusty-bun," Lucas blew an air kiss at him and he scowled.

"Yeah, come on, Dusty-bun, why don't you join us?" Max teased.

"You guys are so funny, you should be on Carson," Dustin rolled his eyes.

"Can't we just hear your rendition?" Max asked.

"No," Dustin said.

"Please? Just one verse?" Lucas said.

"No. No way. It's reserved for Suzie's ears and Suzie's ears alone," he said.

Cammie kissed Max again before standing up and leaving them to terrorise Dustin. She walked into the living room, seeing Mike and Will hugging while Joyce watched with a sad smile.

"Hey, sweetheart," Joyce smiled at her. Cammie smiled back. "I want you to be singing the carols with us at Christmas so get to work at your voice therapy, alright?" she said.

"Yes, ma'am," Cammie said.

Joyce smiled and looked down at the thin scar on her neck. It was still fresh, considering Robin's stitches had been less than satisfactory in hospital standards and it had actually been a bit more serious than they'd thought, but she was alive and that was what mattered.

It was red and stretched from ear to ear but Cammie didn't really care. The story was that she'd gotten it in the mall fire trying to escape and a burning piece of metal had fallen on her neck. She had been seen as the school hero, boosting her popularity even more, much to everyone else's delight. Cammie hated it now she was in high school. It just gave everyone more of a reason to stare at her and all she wanted to do was blend in, hide in the shadows with her friends and girlfriend so they could have one quiet year.

Of course, she didn't really care because she got to be with her friends and her girlfriend either way but some privacy would be nice occasionally.

"You'll all be coming up for Thanksgiving. Steve said your parents are going away so he's going to drive you and Mike up in the morning and the other guys are gonna come up after dinner," Joyce said. Cammie nodded. "And we're coming down for Christmas, so we'll be able to celebrate," she said. Cammie smiled slightly. Joyce sighed and hugged her tightly. "I'm going to miss having you running around with El and Will," she said.

"Me, too," Cammie rasped. Joyce kissed her temple.

"I love you, sweetheart, and I'm so thankful for everything you've done to save my Will and El and Johnathon and me. You're our family and you always have a home with us if you need one," Joyce said.

Cammie wiped her tears and tapped three times on Joyce's hand.

Her voice progress wasn't going as well as she'd expected. She could still barely say more than two words, much to her disgust, but all of their group communicated with Morse code as often as they could to make Cammie feel included. She loved it, the fact that it was like they had their own secret language, but sometimes she just wanted to be able to talk actual words.