𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊, stranger things 1

𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 - 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐭

"i never gave up on you." mike told eleven as he pulled away, still keeping her close. "i called you every night. every night for -"

"353 days. i heard." eleven finished, earning a confused look from the freckled boy in front of her.

"why didn't you tell me you were there? that you were okay?" mike quizzed, slight hurt in his tone.

"because i wouldn't let her." hopper replied, making everyone look at him. arlo raised her eyebrows, quickly putting two and two together.

"oh, shit." she mumbled, earning confused looks from dustin and lucas.

"the hell is this? where you been?" hopper quizzed as he stepped towards eleven, still having his gun in his hand.

"where have you been?" eleven repeated, putting more emphasis on the question. instead of answering, hopper pulled her into a hug, the shorter girl reciprocated it.

"you've been hiding her." mike concluded, arlo nodding. "you've been hiding her this whole time!" he yelled, pushing the chief.

"hey!" hopper shouted as he pulled away from eleven and turn to the wheeler boy. he quickly grabbed mike by the collar of his shirt, pulling him close. "let's talk. alone." he said before he dragged mike into another room, the door slamming shut behind them.

arlo was the first to step towards the telekinetic girl, wrapping her arms around her. eleven hugged back, a smile appearing on her lips. the two girls pulled away after a few seconds, eleven looking down at arlo -- since she had grown over the past year -- to take in how her features had matured. arlo now had freckles scattered along the bridge of nose and cheeks. she also had dark circles under her eyes, which made eleven frown.

"still no sleep?" she asked, ignoring the muffled shouting that was coming from mike in the other room.

"oh, uh, nope. but i'm used to it." arlo shrugged, a small smile on her lips. "i've missed you so, much. you don't even understand, el." before she could continue, lucas and dustin pulled her back so that they could hug eleven. "assholes."

max let out a giggle as she stopped arlo from falling to the floor. arlo looked up at her, smiling as the sound filled her ears. apollo watched with a smile from the couch, his arms crossed over his chest. max wrapped her arm around arlo's shoulders, waiting for lucas and dustin to finish talking to eleven so she could introduce herself. arlo laughed when eleven realized that dustin now had his two front teeth, a cackle escaping her lips when the henderson boy purred like a cat.

"eleven?" max called, walking towards the girl in question, making her arm slip off arlo's shoulders. "hey. um, i'm max. i've heard a lot about you." she introduced, holding her hand out for eleven to take.

eleven simply looked at max, not saying anything before she slipped right past her to joyce. arlo winced slightly, her and lucas sharing a knowing look before they turned to max. the mayfield girl had a frown on her face as she turned to look at eleven, wondering what she had done in the short amount of time that she had been inside the house. she then turned to look at arlo, hoping that the shorter girl could give her some kind of explanation.

"she doesn't really like meeting new people." the umbra-kinetic girl told her, seeing the slight hurt on max's face. she walked towards her, a reassuring smile on her face. "don't worry. she'll come around."

"so. . . i guess we'll just introduce ourselves some other time." apollo mumbled, gesturing to himself and percy.

"i'm sorry. are we just gonna ignore the fact that apollo shot a literal fireball at one of those things?" steve questioned, making everyone turn to look at him. they had completely forgotten that the boy was there, along with nancy and jonathan. everyone then turned to look at apollo, wanting an explanation.