✓ | MISERY → madwheeler

eleven

"Max?"

Max looked up to see El walking towards her, her facial expression worried.

Max sighed, smiling wanly at her. "Hey, El."

El sat cross-legged beside her, biting her lip before saying, "I know how you're feeling."

Max shrugged. "I'm fine."

When El just looked at her, Max ventured, "H-how is he?"

At this, El pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, not answering, and Max's heart rate increased.

"What? What's wrong? Is he okay? He's not going to-"

"No!" El said quickly, squeezing her shoulder. "No, nothing like that. It's just-"

She paused, and said, "Do you remember how he. . .acted in there?"

Max flinched, but nodded, and El said slowly, "Um. . .well. . ."

"El!"

Max's eyes widened, and her and El both turned to see Mike walking towards them, slightly bending to give El a one-armed hug before kissing her cheek.

Max felt the blood drain from her face as El met her eyes and gave her a look that said, I told you.

"M-Mike?" Max said, reaching out and gently putting her hand on his shoulder.

His eyes snapped to hers, and he jerked out of her grip, snapping, "Don't touch me, Mayfield. What the hell do you want?"

"I just. . . " Max breathed, swallowing and continuing shakily, "I just wanted to know if you were okay. You know, after everything that happened."

He stared at her. "Jesus, did you lose a couple of brain cells? What fucking planet are you living on?"

Her breath caught. "You mean you. . .you don't remember anything? Anything that-that happened?"

The kiss. She thought desperately. Please, please remember that. You have too, Wheeler.

She pressed her lips together, scanning his expression, tears gently pricking at the backs of her eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just, I never thought my first kiss would be with someone I hated."

Mike snorted. "Uh, no. Now can you leave us alone? We're kind of busy."

El dodged out of his way as he tried to kiss her again and said quickly, "Actually, I have to go talk to Will for a second. I'll be back though."

Mike smiled softly at her. "Alright. Don't take too long."

El shot him a nervous smile before getting to her feet and darting into the kitchen, and Max stood, following on her heels as she went up to Will, shifting from foot to foot.

"Mike thinks we're dating, and because he thinks we're dating me and you can't really do stuff together anymore and oh, look at that, Max knows about us now so that's. . .yeah."

She said all this very fast, and Will looked between her and El, bewildered.

"Uh, what?"

Max did a double take. "Wait, what do you mean I 'know about you'?"

El winced, and then said, "Me and Will. . .we're a thing, Max. We just haven't told anyone. We wanted to wait."

Max's mouth dropped open. "What!?"

Will grinned sheepishly. "Surprise."

Max's eyes were as wide as saucers as she looked at each of them, and Will turned to El, as if this whole thing was completely nonchalant.

"Now correct me if I'm wrong, but did you say Mike thinks you guys are dating?"

As El tried to explain the situation, Steve bounded up to the group. "Alright, so we got Mike fixed! You two are good, right Maxie?"

Max slowly shook her head, and Steve sighed before saying, "I swear if you're upset or something because he's not going fast enough, chill. Because first, he's a slow person, and second, you gotta give the man time."

"What!? Ew, God, Steve- no!" Max sputtered, her face turning fire engine red, and Steve looked confused.

"Okay, so what's it about then?"

Max groaned, and then filled him in, along with Lucas and Dustin; and by the end they all looked completely shocked.

"So, he hates you again? Just like that? And he thinks he's dating El?" Dustin asked, and Steve put his head in his hands.

"God, these kids and their hormones!"

"It has nothing to do with hormones!" Max exclaimed, and Steve raised his head before saying, "So. . .why does he hate you?"

"It has to do with the MInd Flayer!" Max said, and jerked her head towards the room where Mike was, hissing, "It has Mike, and for some reason it doesn't want him to go back to that place he was at with me."

It was silent for a couple of seconds before Steve said slowly, "Then we're going to have to get him back to that place."

They all turned to look at him, and Steve faced the door to the living room, cracking his knuckles before stating, "We're going to have to make him fall in love with you again."

hey you guys! omg i'm so sorry for the long update! things have been crazy here! i had to work on better with you, swim season is finally coming to an end, my grades aren't so good, and i had a writer's block with this book whoops. but here i am, updating!! i hope you guys liked this chapter, and i swear i'm going to try to update this as frequently as i update better with you from now on. vote and comment!