Laughter and music filled the cabin as Max dance around the girls's room singing into a microphone with Nikki happily dancing right beside her. El was on the bed nodding along to the song while looking at magazines, flipping through the pages and stopping on a picture of Ralph Macchio.
Max took notice of the girl looking at the photo and put down the hairbrush as Nikki stopped dancing.
"Oh, you found Ralph Macchio," Max giggled as she sat on the floor by El's bed.
"Macchio?" El questioned, looking away from the photo to Max.
"Yeah, he's the Karate Kid," Max explained before pretending to karate chop Nikki, making all of them laugh. "He's so hot, right?"
Nikki kinda agreed but she only liked him because Lucas was super into the movies.
"I bet he's an amazing kisser, too," Max smiled, gazing down at the photo. "Hey, uh.." Max moved so she sat in front of El on the bed while Nikki stayed standing. "Is mike a good kisser?"
"I don't know," El rolled her eyes. "He's my first boyfriend."
"Ex-boyfriend," Max corrected, before turning to Nikki. "What about you, is Lucas a good kisser?"
Nikki laughed at the question and nodded. "Yeah, he's pretty good."
Max laughed at she turned back to El, who was looking down with a saddened expression. "Hey, don't worry about it. Okay? He'll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness. I guarantee you he is, like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now."
El laughed as Max made her voice go whiny to imitate Mike. "He's like, 'Oh, I hope she takes me back.'"
El and Max laughed as Nikki looked down at the ground, feeling uncomfortable about the topic.
"God, what I wouldn't give to see his stupid face," Max looked wishful as an idea sparked in El's mind.
Nikki seemed to read her mind as her eyes went wide and she shook her head. "No! No, we're not going to do that!"
"Not going to do what?" Max asked, looking between the two girls as they glare at each other.
"El is wanting to spy on the boys," Nikki explained with a little bit of disgust in her tone.
Max's eyes lit up like a light as a bright smile broke out on her face. "Yes! We have to do that!"
"No!" Nikki countered, feeling betrayed by Max. "That's not going to end up well, I know it!"
El scoffed as she went over to her desk to retrieve a blindfold. "Whatever."
Nikki sighed just done with everything. "Fine. When you guys are done spying, you can come find me out hear," she pointed to the living room as she walked out, closing the door behind her.
She sighed and pressed her back against the wall as she heard giggles coming from that room.
Is it bad that I wish Max and El still weren't friends, Nikki thought as she went to the kitchen. She felt horrible for thinking that, but a small part of her wanted Max just to be her friend. Then she wouldn't have to be worried about be left alone like she is now.
God, she hated being left alone with her own thoughts.
Luckily she didn't have to be alone for long, because before she could even decide if she wanted to eat something Hopper came barging through the door with a stumble in his step.
"Hey, Hop," Nikki greeted as she looked the man up and down. He was in a Hawaiian shirt with a nice jacket over it and a pair of regular jeans. He looked drunk by the way his eyes looked and angry at something. "Is everything okay?"
Hopper looked from the girl to her room where the door was closed. Nikki saw the anger building up more as he started walking to the bedroom.
"Hopper—" Nikki tried to stop him but she was cut off by his yelling.
"Hey!" Hopper walked faster to the door.
"It's not—"
"When I say three inches, three—" Hopper swung the door open and his angry immediately dropped to shock as he saw Max and El lying on the ground with magazines open.
"Do you knock? Jeez!" Max said as Hopper's eyes went wide.
"Yeah, jeez!" El repeated.
"Mike's not here," Nikki finished her sentence as she stood behind the man.
"Oh, hey," Hopper said slowly, trying to back out of the room. "I'm sorry."
"Max wanted to have a sleepover," El explained. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah! Yeah," Hopper nodded as he kept staring at the two girls on the floor.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Nikki had enough. She cleared her throat as she grabbed Hopper's hand and dragged him out of the room. "How about we get you in bed Hopper? I think you had a lot to drink."
"No, no. I'm fine," Hopper shook his head as Nikki grabbed the alcohol from him.
"Oh, I'm sure," Nikki nodded as she set the bottle on the nearest table, "I don't want you falling asleep on the couch again."
"Fine," Hopper sighed as she pushed him into his room and turned off the lights as he got in his bed.
"Night, Hop."
Snoring was the only response she got.
Nikki walked back to the living room where Max and El were waiting for her to return.
"He's in bed, out like a light," Nikki explained as she grabbed the bottle of alcohol and put it in the fridge.
"Great," Max smiled as she stepped closer to the girl. "Wanna play a game?"
"What game?"
"Spin the bottle, powers edition," the redhead held up a bottle and a piece of paper that had names in a circle.
Nikki scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion, not really getting what's so fun about spying on other people. "No, I'm good."
"Okay," Max shrugged before walking back to the room, leaving Nikki and El alone.
"What's your problem?" El scoffed, glaring at Nikki.
"What's your problem?" Nikki asked her the same question while trying to bite back her anger towards her sister. "Why do you think spying on people is fun, they have a right to their own privacy, you know."
"It's just a game," El crossed her arms.
"Yeah, well, I don't have a good feeling about it."
"Is that all you ever think about?" El shook her head, sending her sister a cold glare. "'Don't do this. Don't do that.' You're so busy trying to control people all the time."
"Are you serious?" Nikki raised her eyebrows. "I say that stuff so you guys don't get hurt or end up regretting it later. I'm sorry that I care unlike you, because you are so busy with your love life, that you forget everyone else. I mean, have you even thought about anyone else other than Mike within the last few months? I mean, even after you break up with him you still think about him. Have you thought about our friends or me and how your relationship was affecting us all? Have you ever stopped and asked yourself "how are my friends doing"? And what about me? El, when was the last time we actually spent sometime by ourselves and it not ending in a fight? Hopper told me what you did everyday while I was gone, you looked for me because you thought I was alive and wanted to I was safe wherever I was. What happened to the sister that would protect me at all costs? I wanna know."
El had dropped her glare and opened her mouth to say something but just ended up shutting it.
"You really don't have an answer do you?" Nikki waited a few more second for anything from her sister. Nothing. "You know what? Fine. Screw you."
She turned to a cabinet to grab a glass to fill with water. "Tell Max to let me know when you're done invading people's privacy."
She filled up the glass and by the time she turned back around El was already gone and the bedroom door was closed. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she sat on the couch and grabbed the TV remote. She flipped through the channels until she found a TV show she liked.
Just as she was getting herself comfortable, a small pit formed in her stomach making her feel uncomfortable.
Just great, Nikki thought, the third day in a row.
After a minute the pit went away just as the bedroom door flew open.
"Nikki!" Max ran out of the room, looking panicked.
"What? What's wrong?" Nikki asked, not used to seeing the girl like this.
"It's El," Max said making Nikki's heart drop, "she was spying on Billy, then something must have happened because she started to freak out and now I can't get her to calm down."
Nikki stood up and ran into the bedroom where El sat on the bed, clutching the sheets with a wild look in her eyes. She was taking deep breaths as a drop of blood spilled from her nose.
"El," Nikki sat next to the girl and immediately pulled her into her arms, "it's okay. It's okay."
But both El and Nikki knew, things were definitely, not okay.