𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 || 𝘔𝘈𝘟 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘍𝘐𝘌𝘓𝘋

4. shut up, michael

"Holy shit!"

Oh. My. God. It's Max. Act cool, Steph, act cool.

"You should've seen the look on your faces!" Max grins, proud of her scaring abilities, making Stephanie automatically happy at the sight of it.

Her smile.

"And you?" Max says, turning to Lucas, "Who screams like that? You sound like a little girl." Max laughs while turning to walk away.

Stephanie's heart drops.

Where is she going? Did she not want to hang out with us? With me?

Max turns around and finds that no one is following her.

"Hey, you guys coming?" Max says, visibly confused. "Oh! I heard we should hit up Loch Nora. That's we're all the rich people live right?"

Stephanie steps in front of the party. "There's this lady that lives by my house that gives out the biggest candy bars."

The group starts walking to Loch Nora, Stephanie and Max are in front, Dustin and Lucas are whispering behind them, and Will and Mike are trailing behind. Mike is most likely pouting about Max walking with them.

It's not that big of a deal, Michael

————

As the party (plus Max) walks back from Loch Nora, edging closer and closer to the end of the night, Mike is visibly upset. He's scoffing, sighing and not even talking.

Stephanie starts walking slower so Mike will naturally catch up to her.

"Hey, Mike," she whisper yells while standing next to him. "What's your deal?"

"My deal?" Mike asks confirming what he heard.

"Yeah, you've been a real ass all night."

"What?" Mike scoffs, crossing his arms and staring at Stephanie.

"You heard me." Stephanie gives Mike the same stare back. "You've been barely talking, sighing, and a bitch to Max. I don't know what point you're trying to prove, but I would stop it right now before Max hates you, and the rest of us as well."

Stephanie and Mike are now stopped in the middle of the street, forcing people go around them.

"It's not my fault that I don't want or need to impress anyone."

"What? I don't need or want to impress anyone."

"Yeah right."

"That is right!"

Mikes eyes wander to where the others were walking. The fear in his eyes make Stephanie look to.

"Where's Will?" Mike asks, as if Stephanie would know.

"Shit I-I don't know?"

Mike and Stephanie scatter, completely forgetting about their fight.

Stephanie runs down a flight of stairs that she finds on a corner and sees Mike comforting a scared Will, while the party and Max stand there, dumbfounded.

"I got him. I got him," Mike says to the group, taking charge.

This makes Stephanie roll her eyes.

"Come on, let's go home," Mike says in the most comforting voice Stephanie has ever heard him use.

"Keep trick-or-treating, I'm bored anyways." Mike saying that makes Stephanie remember the spat they had in the road.

Shut up, Michael.

"What's wrong with him, Steph?" Max sighs. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"I don't know. I hope so." Stephanie tries to find sense into what happened, but she can't.

After an awkward silence between what was left of the party, Stephanie speaks up.

"Uh, Max...do you wanna...walk home together? I mean I know our houses aren't that close but you know, we do have time before I have to be home, not like Steve cares anyway. But y'know, you probably have a curfew. I don't know actually. I shouldn't just assume tha-"

Max cuts Stephanie off.

"So smooth, Steph. Come on." Max takes her hand and they walk up the stairs back to the safety of their houses.

Max Mayfield is holding my hand. Right this second. Oh. My. God. I can't breathe. Wait no. Keep breathing. I forgot how to breathe. Okay, there it is.

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this chapter took a long time but you would never guess that based on the length of it 🫶🏻