THE NIGHTMARES • Max Mayfield

02

~

Ashlynn walked outside, her nose in a book and her Walkman blasting through her ears. She hated social interaction.

The blonde strolled past a group of four boys, one of them her only friend in this school, ignoring them as they all waved at her.

Before she actually got into the playground, though, Lucas tapped on her shoulder. Ashlynn sighed softly, pausing her walkman, which 'livin' on a prayer' was blasting out of before spinning on her heels.

"Ashlynn, you know my friends Dustin, Mike and Will, dont you?" Lucas knitted his fingers together nervously. He and his friends wanted her to help them with their master plan, claiming a girl would be able to get the answer. But Lucas knew this could end badly, either him stood alone and cheeks red from embarrassment or Ashlynn breaking down in nerves.

"Yeah, I guess so." Ashlynn muttered, looking up for a glance at three nervously smiling boys, and Mike who looked rather uninterested, before continuing with her book.

"Uh, we were wondering, if you wanted to be in our party?" Will smiled politely at the girl.

Mike stared, remembering her bond with his old friend Eleven. The boy didnt know what to think, whether he would trust her because El did or to hate her because Els gone.

Ashlynn looked up, suspicion coating her facial expression. She placed her bookmark gently on her page before placing it into her bag.

"What do you want, Lucas?" Ashlynn deadpanned quietly. She had been friends with the boy since forever, the two knew each other like the back of their hand. Though, Ashlynn respected he had other friends and a 'party' to be in and since then their friendship had faded.

It took a while for Ashlynn to get back into the swing of being her feisty self, she still hadn't fully got back into it, but she was getting there.

Lucas shook his head, glaring at the others. The other three also shook their heads, looking quite insane.

"Nothing! We just, uh, wanted you to be our friend! We missed you, well, I missed you. And these knuckle heads wanted to get to know you more too!" Lucas spluttered, smiling innocently.

"Ok, sure, but what do you want?" Ashlynn peered at him, trying to figure out what he wanted. He was stubborn though.

"Nothing, um, well we sort of want you to see if Max is MadMax, the girl who took Dustins high score on dig dug, but I do want you in the party too!" Lucas rambled. Ashlynn presumed that this had something to do with their frequent arcade trips and the MadMax Lucas had mentioned on their walk to class earlier.

"Okay, but can I be the rogue?" Ashlynn was in a particularly good mood, so she agreed with a soft smile. Maybe she'd even be happier with a couple more friends. It'd been too long, she had to start trying to be social again.

The four boys nodded with a grin,

"I mean, we were thinking you could be Princess Daphne, but Rogue is cool too." Lucas shrugged, soon breaking out into a grin at Ashlynn's annoyed facial expression. His friends gave knowing smiled from behind him, his obsession with both girls pretty obvious to everyone but Ashlynn.

Ashlynn waved before stepping backwards to leave, "Ill talk to her."

Ashlynn put her headphones back on, leaving the left one placed behind her ear though, in case someone in particular tried talking to her. That someone being Max. She wandered through the playground slowly, reading her book again as she did.