A Little Deal

The Castle and the Market

"Max, do you copy? It's Will. I need to talk to you." He sat on his bed, Mike's note in one hand and his Supercom in the other. The morning light trickled in through the window.

Max picked up a second later. "Hey, Will. What's going on?"

"It's about Mike. He gave me a note that says to go to the junkyard at noon today."

"Oh. He did?"

"Yeah, what do you think it means?"

"Well – go to the junkyard at noon."

"Yeah, I get that. I just mean, what could this be about?"

"Will, I – sorry." The Supercom went silent.

"Max?" he said. "Hello? Max, are you still there? Max? Do you copy?" When she didn't answer, he chucked the Supercom on his bed. He stared at the note again, wondering what in the world it could be about. Had Mike finally listened to the mixtape?

When noon came around, he made his way to the junkyard, his mind going a mile a minute. His pedaling slowed when he caught sight of Max's bike on the ground ahead. "Max?" he called out, but no one answered. He got off his bike and set it down before peering around. Other than the bike, there was no sign of anyone.

A bang sounded from the old bus. He whipped around to look at it. "Hello? Who's there? Max? Mike?"

Taking a breath, he approached the bus, his muscles tense. He entered slowly, peering around the corner in case someone jumped out to scare him. Instead, he spotted Max standing in the middle of the aisle. He relaxed, shaking his head. "What's going on, Max? I thought I was meeting Mike here."

She stuffed her hands in her pockets. "Can we talk?"

"What about? About why we're here in the first place?"

"Yeah, about that..." Her eyes drifted about the bus, not meeting Will's. "What happened with Castle Byers?"

"That's what you wanted to talk about?"

She nodded.

"What was with the note, then?"

"Oh, that..."

"Yes, that. It's in Mike's handwriting, so I thought he'd be here. What's that about? Did you tell him to write it?"

She shook her head. "Nothing to do with Mike. I copied his writing. I thought it would make you want to meet here more."

"Is this some kind of joke, Max?"

"Joke? No, not at all."

"Then what's going on?"

"I told you. I want to talk about what happened with Castle Byers."

He crossed his arms. "Why didn't you just come over to my house and ask? Instead of making us meet all the way out here in the cold? I'm freezing, Max."

"I thought – I thought maybe the reason why you didn't tell me what happened with Castle Byers is because you were afraid someone else would hear. Well, no one can hear us here."

"Right, well, that's a bit creepy."

"Will."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. You really want to know what happened to Castle Byers?"

Max nodded.

"Alright. Remember that fight Mike and El had at the mall when El dumped his ass?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, how could I forget?"