Ahoy, Dingus - Steve Harrington x Reader

Season 4 ~ Letters

"I know you guys are staring at me." Max said, her head slightly turned to us as she sat at the back desk, scribbling onto multiple pieces of paper that she folded and put into envelopes.

"What, sorry?" Steve said, tossing the baseball he had in his hand into the air and catching it.

"You said you needed something?" Lucas asks, picking up the newspaper in front of him and pretending to read it.

"Just hanging out." Dustin said, reaching for a magazine, also pretending to read it.

"How you think your eyes boring into the back of her head is protecting her from Vecna, I don't know." I say as she makes her way over to the four of us with a stack of letters in her hands.

The three boys avoid her gaze as she looks at the four of them with her eyebrows raised as she stiff in front of them.

"You can look at me now." She says, shrugging her shoulders.

"Thank you." Dustin said, placing down the magazine he had in his hands. "Sorry."

"Sorry." Steve and Lucas said in unison, also placing down their items.

Max lets out a sharp breath before handing an envelope to Dustin. "For you."

He raises his eyebrows in confusion before reaching to grab the envelope.

Shaking slightly, she hands one to Steve as well. "For you."

"Um, this is for you." She says to Lucas as he grabs it from her hand.

"(Y/n), this is for you." She says handing me not one but three more envelopes. "Oh, and, um, give those to Mike, El, and, Will. If you can ever get a hold of them again."

"Okay. Will do." I nod, raising my eyebrows at the girl as Dustin and Steve begin to open their letter.

"What are you doing?" She says, narrowing her eyebrows at the boys who begin to pick up the price of paper inside. "No, don't. that's not for now. Don't open it now."

Dustin shut his letter before holding it and looking up at the girl in front of him. "Don't... okay. I'm sorry. What is this?"

Looking down, she shakes her head before looking at the three boys in front of her. "It's um... it's a fail-safe. For after. If things don't work out."

"Wait, Max," I say, getting up from my chair to face her. "don't say that."

"Things are going to work out." Lucas chimes in, slightly smiling with a hint of fear in his voice.

"No!" She snaps, looking between Lucas and I, tears forming in her eyes before she continues. "No, I don't need you to reassure me right now and tell me it's all going to work out. Because people have been telling me that my entire life and it's almost never true. It's never true."

The room gets silent as I make my way to sit back in my chair before Max speaks up again. "I mean, of course this asshole curses me. Should've seen that one coming."

Max inhales deeply before looking over at the walkie talkie that rest on the table in front of her  before walking over to pick it up. "If we go to East Hawkins, will this still reach Pennhurst?"

"Of course." Dustin nodded, slightly shrugging his shoulders. "Yeah."

"Wait," Steve piped in, holding his arms up. "why are we talking about East Hawkins?"

Max gave him a look before he realized what she was hinting at. "No. No. No!"

Max quickly grabbed her bag before making her way upstairs, the four of us walking behind her quickly as she made her way outside.