𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 || 𝘔𝘈𝘟 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘍𝘐𝘌𝘓𝘋

28. time to panic

"What is your problem, Mike?" Stephanie steps forward. "You get mad at me when I don't talk to you enough but this is the way you treat my gi- friend?" Stephanie curses herself for her slip up and prays no one notices.

Stephanie could see Will glancing between her and both girls hands, which were still connected, almost as if he were putting a puzzle together with his eyes.

"Either way, we're enlightening her." Max adds on. "The fact is, she's not yours. She's her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions."

"She's risking her life for no reason!"

"For no reason?" Nancy repeats. "Mike, the flayed are out there doing God knows what."

"Killing, flaying..." Lucas lists off.

"Transforming into monsters." Will continues.

"And El's not stupid." Nancy adds. "She knows her abilities better than any of us."

"Exactly, thank you." Max says, glad that someone's finally agreeing with her.

"And she is her own person." Nancy agrees. "With her own free will."

"Exactly." Max nods more. "El has saved the world twice and Mike still doesn't trust her."

"You wanna talk about trust, really?" Mike yells, turning his body towards Max. "After you two made Eleven spy on us?"

"Wait, what?" Lucas asks, getting off the table he was sitting on.

"Oh, she didn't tell you this?" Mike asks sarcastically, asking for more trouble. "Your girlfriend used El's powers to spy on us."

"No, no, no, I did not make her!" Max argues. "It was her idea!"

"Why are we even talking about this?" Stephanie asks, louder than she wanted to.

"Yeah, who cares?" Will agrees.

"I care!" Lucas gestures to himself.

Mike crosses his arms only to throw them up in the air when he continues yelling. "I guess girlfriends don't lie, they spy."

"Ex-girlfriend." Stephanie whispers to herself, making fun out of the situation.

"We were just joking around!" Max defends herself and Stephanie, looking annoyed.

"Wouldn't it've been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?"

Stephanie gave Mike a scrutinizing look. "You weren't!"

"But what if I was?"

"Then gross!" Max defends.

"Seriously, Mike?" Nancy yells, snapping Mike out of his fit of rage.

"I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max and Stephanie are with Eleven's powers." Mike explains. "In fact, how careless all of you are!" Mike looks around the room at everyone. "You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the Earth." Mike rants without taking a breath. "So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again."