Friday Night Movie

Chapter 5

A few days later, everyone was at Mike's house just hanging out in the basement. Suddenly they heard the basement door fly open. They all looked to see who it was. And there standing at the top of the stairs was Jonathan, Mike, Will, and El. They ran down the stairs, trying to not trip over one another and into the embrace of the people they loved. Jonathan ran to Nancy. Will ran to Dustin. Mike ran to Lucas. And El ran to Max. They all hugged each other and Max started thanking El profusely for protecting her and saving her from Vecna. El just stayed there as her and Max held each other. They both started crying and they sunk down to the floor. Max was so happy to have her best friend back and El was so happy to have been able to save Max.

They spent several hours going over everything that had happened to them. The Cali crew was already pretty much filled on what had happened to Max. At least what happened a couple days ago. Mike introduced El and Will to Eddie and of course Will and Eddie hit it off. They were in their own worlds of talking about DnD. They just spent time with each other. El eventually told them that she had to go back into hiding because the government was still looking for her. So they all made the drive to Hopper's old cabin to clean it up. 

Max and El were inseparable whilst doing this. They were doing everything together. They even found the old coke bottle they had used to play spin the bottle at their sleepover. How that is how they discovered Billy was flayed and that he was flaying others. It brought back happy and sad memories. But Max felt better about everything that had happened with Billy. Admitting everything that she did when she was in the Creel house helped her get closure. She had realized that there was nothing else she could have done. While they were cleaning the cabin, a black car pulled up. "Government." Jonathan said. 

Max and El were laughing hysterically in El's old room when they heard the sound of car doors shutting. Then they heard footsteps getting closer and closer to the door of El's room. Then the door swung open. And El burst into tears. It was Hopper. Max realized that it was an intimate moment between father and daughter and quietly slipped out of the room. She went outside to Lucas and rested her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and Max reached up and held his hand. 

"You mean so much to me, you know that, Stalker?" Max said as she looked ahead at Joyce embracing Will and Jonathan. "What?" Lucas replied. Max moved out from under his arm and stood in front of him. "All the times I pushed you away. All the times I told you to leave me alone, that I was fine, all the times I lied to try and get you to leave me alone. You never listened. And you wouldn't let me push you away." Max simply replied. Lucas was taken aback by this. Max had never been one to be straight up about her feelings. But Lucas liked that she was doing this.

"I couldn't just simply leave you alone when there was clearly something wrong. And I thought maybe if I tried hard enough, I could get you to open up to me. Even after you broke up with me I never stopped caring about you, Max. I couldn't. Every time I saw you in the hallways, every time I saw you zone out in class, every time I saw you I knew something was wrong. So there was no way I could stop caring. No way I could stop..." Lucas hesitated for a split second until he just told himself to do it. "No way I could ever stop loving you." 

Max's eyes widened at Lucas's words. Love. Lucas Sinclair loved her. She broke out into a smile. And that smile turned into tears. Happy tears. "You love me?" she managed to choke out. Lucas pulled her closer by her hands and then wrapped his hands around her waist. "I, Lucas Sinclair, love you, Max Mayfield, so much." he said in a serious tone with a soft smile on his face. He continued, "Always have. Always will." Max's tears started falling even faster now. Lucas wiped her tears away and pulled her in for a hug. A long hug.

"I love you too." she said while she was being embraced by him. She felt his grip around her get tighter and she could hear his heartbeat getting quicker. "You excited or something, Stalker?" she teased as she pulled back from him with a grin on her face. "Yeah. Yeah I am." he said. Her smile softened as he leaned down and pressed a sweet, passionate kiss to her lips. "Get a room!" Dustin teased as he turned around and saw them. Max pulled away, a scowl on her face but her cheeks glowing bright red, and flipped Dustin off. "At least my girl is here for me to get a room with." Lucas shot back. 

Everyone started laughing at Lucas's remark. "Damn, Sinclair really went there Henderson." Eddie said. Dustin flipped Lucas off. Max and Lucas looked at each other and knew what to do to get onto Dustin's nerves even more. "Turn around, look at what you see." Lucas and Max sang together with big, goofy grins on their faces. "Oh my god you guys are still doing that?" Dustin asked annoyed. 

This was nice. Everyone was back to their normal selves. Hopper was back. The town was safe. Nothing could go wrong. And Max and Lucas had a movie date planned for tonight. This was perfect. Everyone was happy. It was how they were always supposed to be.

---------------------------

That night, Max and Lucas headed to the theater to see a movie together. They didn't know what they were going to see, but they were just happy to be together. When they sat down in the movie theater, they held hands and everything was going perfectly. Max was with her boyfriend, and she was happy. 

Then, Max heard it. A sinister voice. One she recognized. "Max." the voice said in a sing-songy way. "Lucas" Max said in a panic. "It's him." Lucas was confused. "What, Max?" Max responded with a shaky voice, "It's him Lucas."

"It's Vecna."