Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter two

MONDAY came and went rather uneventfully. Evelyn attended her maths test which was far easier than she'd anticipated but yet she still nibbled her lip in the following hours all the way to the Byer's house, convincing herself she'd failed.

"Hiya Eve!" Evelyn was plucked from her trance at the excited sound of Will's voice and his bike swerving around her. She spins, manoeuvring out of his way with a lopsided smile as he hops off his bike and drops it by the wall of the house.

"Hi Will!" They both head to the front door and Eve pulls out the key Joyce gave her a year ago - it wasn't unusual now for Evelyn to spend more time at the Byer's house than her own. Will had warmed to her - like all of the people that knew her, and especially his friends - but it had become something more than that. When Will came back, half vacant and skittish, Joyce would see his old-self flicker inside of him when he was around Evelyn, even if only for the briefest moment. But the more she was here, whether it was watching movies, drawing, planning campaigns for Will and his friends or seeing her at the Palace, Joyce could have sworn Evelyn was a living miracle. Will was more himself now than not. It wasn't hard to have her in the family, she melted into their hearts without them noticing. It was now odd if she weren't there.

"How was school?" Eve asks as she ushers him in the house and locks the door behind them. Will shrugs, sliding his bag off his shoulders and peeling off his coat.

"It was okay." It seems that is all Eve would be getting out of him, but then a moment passes as Evelyn takes off her own jacket and Will looks up at her from beneath his hair and says with a grin: "Dustin is convinced that the new kid at school is MADMAX and we had to follow her around all day. Me, Lucas and Mike had to cover him while he dug around in the trash."

"MADMAX?"

"The person that beat our top score on Dragon's Liar." Eve nods, knowing exactly who this girl was, having been her best customer for the past week. She tucks the short strands of dirty blonde hair behind her ear.

"I know Max." Eve muses, "She's cool."

"You know Max?" Will blurtsand Eve smiles.

"Best player I've ever seen." She taunts

"But girl's don't play video games!" Eve laughs; a noise that chimes through the house only to turn into a sharp shriek when Bob appeares from the hallway with a plastic vampire mask and fake claws on his fingers.

"I vant to suck your vlood." He sings in a painfully inaccurate Dracula impression, pulling the mask off with tears in his eyes from the pale faces in front of him. Eve places a hand on her chest and then moves it to her head, raking it through her hair and laughing off her embarrassment. Will is laughing too, rocking back and forth as he looks between a grinning Bob and a bright pink Eve. The sound gives Bob and Evelyn a warmth in their chests, the sight of him carefree forcing a wider grin on to their faces. Eve starts laughing then, placing her hands over her face.

"You scared me!" Eve chuckles, the sound muffled by her hands and Bob, mimicking her smile, shrugs, pulling off his cheap mascarade.

"That was the point!" He is giggling and having recovered, Eve looks towards the door.

"I didn't see your car?" Bob shrugs his shoulders.

"I didn't know if you were bringing yours, so I parked up the street." Though Eve thought Joyce needed her to keep an eye on Will tonight, she realised it was also their weekly movie night - and there's a chance she was invited over solely for that purpose. She smiled to herself.

"Where's Joyce?" Bob motioned to the door, still plucking at the plastic witch fingers covering his hand. Eve couldn't help but chuckle over how ridiculous Bob was.