chapter ten
january embers
🎧
The afternoon sun has come to the brink of setting. Though, it still shines bright hues of warm oranges against the sad small town of Hawkins, Indiana. Orange stood the colour of Fall, likewise with reds and yellows. Orange is the colour of joy, warmth, and heat.
Orange might be Rue's favourite colour. After Green, that was. And pink. And purple. And yellow. God, she loved yellow. And then there was blue. Maybe Rue just loved every colour in the world.
The cool Autumn breeze that has once blown at her face began to slow as she starts to lazily push at the pedals of her bike. Her red scarf (which reminds her of how much she also likes the colour red), which has been blowing with the wind, along with her hair, now has fallen against her back.
Rue fixes her headphones before they slip off her head, and Soft Cell's Tainted Love continues to play in her ears.
Sometimes I feel I've got to run away
I've got to get away
From the pain, you drive into the heart of me
The love we share seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my life
For I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night
Autumn was a beautiful season, with all of the colours and cool breeze. It was Rue's second favourite season after summer. The wheels of her bike splashed on the puddles that had collected from the rainstorm the night before. It seemed that in the Fall, Hawkins would either have a bright sunny day or a horrible storm. But the fresh smell of the post-rain was lovely with the teasing hints of the warm sun that would be blocked away from the clouds minutes after it shined above them.
Rue could remember how different autumn was in Chicago, it would still be rainy, minus the sun. It would be dark and cloudy all season. A windy storm, broken umbrellas, and for some reason she thinks of her mother. Blonde hair whisked by the wind, her smiling face.
A warm memory quickly turned cold, where the golden strands of hair are soaked with blood, eyes frozen in time, staring, haunting.
Rue lets out a low breath, shuddering when she remembers the last look her mother gave her before she died. Haunting. Haunting. Haunting. It was the only way to describe it. Bloody, soulless, possibly psychotic.
When Rue spots the neon orange, white, and dark blue arcade sign, Rue pulls herself out of her head. Though, she doesn't spot any of the party's bikes on the bike stand and grows curious. Rue checks the time on her watch again, wondering if she has already missed them and they left. But then she realizes she was over an hour early. Bob knew this and let go of her shift anyway.
Rue scoffs as she puts her bike away and walks into the arcade. She isn't mad at her father, she just can't believe she had fallen for another one of his harmless tricks to get her out of doing work.
With rosy cheeks from the chilly breeze, Rue pushes the door to the arcade open while digging into her pockets for quarters.
"Hey, Keith," she hummed, pushing one of the headphone speakers behind her ear.
Keith, the older teenage boy who has probably recently graduated from high school, raises his hand in a lazy greeting. His fingers are dusted with orange powder as he munches on cheese puffs. The look in his tired eyes screams that he would rather be anywhere else in the world than work underpaid in the small town's arcade, but he still manages to break a half-assed smile at the girl from behind the counter.
"Hey, Rue," he mutters. Keith is only nice to Rue because she's the only one from the party who wouldn't insult him every passing second. So, he seems hopeful when he asks, "No friends today?"
"They're coming. I'm just early," Rue tells him, and she smiles sympathetically when she watches all hope disappear from his face.
"Sorry, Keith."
"Yeah, whatever."
Their conversation ends right after that once Keith has run off to stop a ten-year-old kid from climbing on top of the Donkey Kong machine. "Hey! Get off there, you sticky worm child!"
Rue chokes back her laugh when she sees the look of disgust on the kid's mother's face when she hears what Keith said.
Deciding to mind her own business, Rue turns and makes her way toward Dig-Dug. It is, without a doubt, one of her least favourite games in the arcade, but she forces herself to play it because she bet fifty bucks that she would be on the leaderboard of four games, each one of the boys' choice.
It was stupid, but Rue was already nearly finished. And if she lost, she would have lost more than just fifty bucks. She's already spent at least twenty getting into the leaderboard of Dragon's Lair, she could use those fifty bucks.
However, as she neared the Dig-Dug machine, she found it already occupied. Which was weird, because not many people played Dig-Dug (at least not as much as Dustin did). But there it was, already in use by someone who had no plans of moving on to a different game after having died twice.
Then twice turned to fourfold, and fourfold to septuple.
Damn, she's never going to get a chance to play if this jerk doesn't move.
Rue rubs her eyes, realizing that the person who kept playing was a machine hog, much like Dustin and Lucas are. She wonders if she should suffer in silence, and search for a different game to play. Or maybe she should call him out for being an annoying hog.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer."
Rue practically jumps out of her skin when she hears the voice call her out for staring. Her eyes grew wide, embarrassed. "I didn't- I wasn't-"
They laugh, never tearing their eyes from the screen. "I was kidding."
Unsure of what to say, Rue nods. Then, she realizes the machine hog isn't even looking her way so she clears her throat, "Oh. Uhm. Okay."
The machine hog dies in the game seconds later. They groan loudly, kicking at the machine and slamming their hands against it in annoyance. When they turn, Rue realizes this isn't some jerk from her school.
It was a jerk she's never met before.
And the jerk was a girl.
Freckles, Rue notices, litter all across the girl's skin as if they were stars in a night sky. She has blue eyes and hair that's tucked under the hoodie of her grey sweater, and what caught her attention was the sunkissed summer tan she still holds on her skin. Hawkins' summer had ended months ago, it was too cold and too cloudy to be tan.
She wasn't from here, Rue concludes. Then it clicks. She's one of the Hargroves.
"Are you just gonna stand there or...?" The girl asks, raising brows at Rue before her eyes drop to stare at her fully, from her shoes to the top of her head.
Feeling judged, Rue wraps her arms around her torso, frowning at this stranger. "You're hogging the machine."
"Yeah, so?"
"So, when are you gonna move?"
The girl has a sly grin on her face as if to mock Rue. She shifts in her place, narrowing her eyes while tucking her hands into the pockets of her California hoodie. "I'll move when I wanna."
Rue scoffs, her heart beating in her chest in what she believes is irritation. She goes to turn around and leave, but something urges her to stay, possibly pettiness. She glares at this girl, her growing grimace contrasting with her smug smirk.
"You're so..."
Rue takes one good look at her and decides she is pretty. Her jaw, her cheekbones and her nose. When the hoodie slips from the girl's head, Rue realizes she's never seen someone with hair so red; bright and untamed. But it was her eyes she found most alluring. The colour of her irises was a bright blue. Almost like the ocean, though Rue had never seen the ocean in real life before, she guessed that was what it looked like; a calm, dazzling blue.
Rue is struggling to find the right words to say next. It's supposed to be an argument, but she's forgotten what hateful words she intended to utter. Rue panics because she doesn't want to stand there like an idiot saying nothing.
"I'm so what?" She raises her brows and pushes herself away from the Dig-Dug game, still staring at Rue with a look she couldn't apprehend.
Hearing her voice, Rue remembers what's gotten her so worked up in the first place. "Selfish, maybe? There's a ten-minute rule for each machine."
"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry, overalls," She rolls her eyes, taunting at Rue's overalls. "I didn't know this stupid town had so many stupid rules for me to follow."
"It's not stupid," Rue hears her voice drop to a mutter. Her embarrassment getting the best of her, "Keith put it up so kids don't fight over games."
"And yet, here we are. Fighting over a game."
"Yeah, well, you started it."
"Wow, you really are childish."
Rue bites her tongue to stop herself from saying anything else. She can feel herself seething, a similar irritation to the one she gets when she fights with Mike Wheeler over things which she realizes mid-fight are too petty to be fighting over.
"Whatever," Rue huffs, deciding she's not worth her time. Rue turns on her heels, her eyes already on Pac-Man next to the vending machine. She doesn't waste a second pulling her headphones over her ears again, hoping the blasting sounds of whatever song is to play next on her mixtape will help her forget the last five minutes of her life ever happened.
The girl's voice pulled her back to reality, as well as her hand, literally tugging Rue's arm so she'd turn around again. "Hey, wait."
"What?" Rue mumbles as she turns to the girl, pulling her headphones back down again. "What do you want?"
"I'm sorry."
Rue stares at her, too surprised to understand what happened. "What?"
"I said I'm sorry," She whispers this time as if saying it too loud in a public space would kill her. "We started off on the wrong foot."
"You did call me childish."
"You called me a fucking machine hog." The girl scoffs, "Whatever the fuck that means. If anyone's at fault here, I'd say it's you."
Rue doesn't bite because she knows the girl with pretty red hair is right. "Okay, fine. Sure."
The girl takes a step back, seemingly just as surprised as Rue was at how easy it was to mend their broken footing. A smile starts to grow on her lips, teeth and all sincere, "Cool," she says, voice lighter and playful.
Rue swears she looked away for one second. One second to switch off her Walkman so she doesn't waste the batteries. One second when her eyes flick up at the girl again, the sun is orange, casting a light into the arcade from the great windows. The girl's bright red hair was almost like fire and burning embers against it.
Pretty. Rue thought. Red hair. Pretty.
She's so pretty.
"What?" The girl suddenly asked.
Again, Rue found herself unable to form proper words. "What?"
"You think I'm pretty?" Her voice was low and uncertain at first, but then she spoke again, sure of herself while a tint of pink grew on her cheeks. "You said I'm pretty."
It was official. Rue Newby's cause of death will be an embarrassment.
"What?" She says again, her eyes widening in humiliation. "No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
"No way."
"Yes way."
"You're crazy."
"I heard you say it, overalls."
Rue sputters, "You're hearing things. And don't call me overalls."
"What else am I supposed to call you?" Then she perks up and flashes Rue one of her sly grins, staring at her as if she was the most interesting thing she's ever seen.
"You never told me your name."
"You never told me yours."
"I asked you first."
She gives in right then and there. "I'm Rue."
A beat passes before the girl grins again, sticking out her hand "I'm Max."
When Rue turned to face Max again, she watched her hesitate before stepping closer. "Rue?"
While looking her in the eye, there's a silent understanding between the two of them, a strange friendship in the making the second Rue decides to shake her hand.
Rue has a feeling that Max is trouble waiting to happen, like a volcano, awaiting eruption shortly. This is a bad idea. She knows this. She's so sure of it. It feels like an itch on her back, but she just can't reach it, a turn in her stomach while her heartbeat picks up in the slightest.
Rue already feels regret. Just by spotting the way there's already a mischievous glint in Max's blue eyes.
Crap. Was it too late for Rue to take it all back and pretend she never met this girl?
"Hey, Rue?" Max tilts her head.
"...Yeah?"
"Did you ever want to learn how to skate?"
"...Not really."
Max turns to the Dig-Dug machine, where Rue notices an old cherry red skateboard leaning against the side of it for the first time. The sounds of working arcade machines begin to blur when Max kicks the board up and holds it in her hands with a smirk. "Do you want me to teach you anyway?"
Does she?
Rue finds herself staring at the skateboard longer than she would have liked to admit. She thinks of seven different ways everything could go wrong if she agreed. Maybe there are eight. Nine, when she imagines herself rolling off into the street and getting hit by a truck.
Despite it all, she nods slowly, "...Okay."
Max scrunches up her face as she puffs out a laugh.
Rue doesn't know what is so funny. However, She wonders if she looks horrified, Rue can feel the touches of fear creep up on her the longer she stares at the skateboard. The thought doesn't last very long once Max has a hold of her hand, leading her through the arcade.
She has caught Rue by surprise, and the poor girl doesn't know how to act; a pretty girl is holding her hand, leading her somewhere.
The autumn air blows against Rue's cheeks again, leaving her breathless. She doesn't have to squint at the sun anymore as it's hidden behind the tree lines which surround the entirety of Hawkins. Max and Rue's shoes stumble over the concrete of the arcade parking lot as Max picks up her pace, tugging on Rue's hand so she'd hurry.
Max suddenly stops, forcing Rue to run into her back.
"Sorry," She blurts.
"Don't worry 'bout it," Max shrugs it off, glancing over her shoulder to spot Rue as she forces space between them. Max tucks her hair back into her hood while she pulls it up again. And when Rue gives her a questioning glance, she says, "I can't have my mom finding me. I snuck out of the car while she finished errands."
For a moment, Max reminds Rue of Dani. And for that short moment, Rue misses Dani, and she misses her snarky remarks and her rebellious tendencies and even her stupid facts.
"So, the first thing you wanna do is stand on it," The sound of Max's skateboard cluttering against the gravel concrete gave out a silent echo in the parking lot.
"Really? I thought you'd sit on it or something." Rue mutters sarcastically.
Max puffs an odd laugh but doesn't say anything. She only nods her head at Rue, silently urging her to get on it already.
Rue is hesitant to step on the board, still having doubts. Once her shoes step on it, she sticks her hands out for balance. Eyes wide, she screams internally, What am I doing? What the hell am I doing? This is so stupid.
Max rushes to her side, catching Rue's hands with her own. Rue grips Max's hands tightly once she's standing on the board with her two feet. Max starts to walk ahead, pulling Rue and the board with her, and when Rue feels her fingers slip from Max's grasp, she panics and holds her tighter.
"Don't let me go."
"I'm not going to."
"You were just about to!"
"There! You got it," Max snickers at Rue's shaky knees as she struggles to balance herself on the moving skateboard.
"What are you doing?" Rue's eyes widened when Max stepped away as they neared the small decline on the road.
"You got this—"
"Max, do not let me go. I swear to God—"
"You're doing it—"
"This isn't funny."
"I have to let go eventually."
"Please, don't," Rue nearly begged, her stomach twisting into sickening knots when she saw that playful smile grow on Max's face again. The breeze blew strands of her hair onto her face, but Rue didn't have the strength to let go of Max's hands to push it out of the way. "What if I fall?"
"You have to fall a few times to learn, you know."
"I'd rather not."
Much to Rue's demise, Max had torn her hands out of her grasp. "Wait," Rue rasped, chasing after her. "Oh, my God!"
"Don't be dramatic, it's not that bad," Max scoffed.
Rue wanted to believe she was only being dramatic. But when she neared the end of the parking lot and had no idea how to steer the damn skateboard in another direction or how to stop it, she felt she had every right to overreact, maybe even scream. The front of the skateboard hit the curb, and Rue lost her footing, tripped off the board and landed on the floor.
It was an awkward fall, the type where Rue had stumbled over her feet as she tried to stay up. In the end, she lay on the cold concrete street with a burning on her right knee and her palms.
"Okay," Max's voice tore Rue out of her head as the red-haired girl ran towards her. "Maybe I should have taught you how to stop and turn."
"Maybe?" Rue huffed, dusting herself off. "God, you tried to kill me."
Before she could stand, Max had her hand stretched out before her face. Rue stared at it for a few seconds, her green eyes catching the freckles that littered the back of her hand. Then, Rue grabbed her hand, letting Max help her up from the floor.
Rue ignored the stinging of her knee as she watched Max let go of her hands and walk over to kick up the board. "Sorry, you fell," she grimaced, "You okay?"
"Yeah," Rue brushed it off, "It's whatever."
Max hummed and nodded as she returned to Rue's side. This time, she seemed to be deep in thought, no longer showing interest to teach Rue how to skateboard. Instead, she nudged her side with her elbow, "Hey."
"Hi?"
"So, I'm still new around here... do you think you could give me a grand tour of Hawkins?"
Rue shrugged and glanced around, "There isn't much to show."
The street lights began to flicker to life as the sun set lower. The neon lights of the arcade came on, and Rue glanced at her watch for a second and thought that the party would be coming soon.
More people had begun to show up to the arcade, older teenagers deciding to group up and smoke and chat by their cars, and others sat on the bench at the front of the small building.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted Max hiding her hair in her hood again. "Won't your mom be looking for you?"
Max rolled her eyes, "Screw her."
Rue stared at her, baffled, "Screw your mom?"
"Yeah! She's been up to my ass lately," She grumbled angrily, kicking the pebbles under her vans. Then, she clicked her tongue and said, "Like, the fuck is her problem? But, you know how moms are."
Rue shrugs, fingers mindlessly twirling her headphone wires, "I guess..."
The horn of a car had cut Max off mid-sentence. Both girls turned and spotted a woman, and she waved her arms in the air while frowning in their direction. There was no doubt that the woman was Max's mother. They shared too many features. Looked too similar to be anything other than family. Both had bright red hair and striking ocean-blue eyes.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Max let out an annoyed grunt, and she dropped her head back. "Fuck... fuck!" The girl rubbed her eyes.
Rue watched as Max motioned to her mother that she was coming. After that, she pulled her hood down, knowing that it had no use since her mom had found her anyway.
"I..." Her voice caught in her throat, "I guess you have to go."
"Yeah. I'm in deep shit now," Max sighed before she turned to Rue again. Then Rue felt a touch on her shoulder, and her scarf was gradually taken off. To her credit, Max looked apologetic as she took the red fabric. "I'm taking this," she said, "because that way I'll have to give it back to you tomorrow."
"You will give it back, right?"
"Yeah, tomorrow."
"Tomorrow when?"
"Right here, after one?"
Rue doesn't have a chance to wonder if this is a good idea or not, because her body betrays her before she can think. She's nodding, a silent agreement to meet with this girl again.
A smile spread on Max's freckled face. "Great, it's settled then."
Then she was gone, quick steps when the car horn sounded again. Rue watched her until she got inside the car, the red of her scarf and hair visible through the windshield.
While the car drove off, Rue's red scarf went along with it, three bikes with white headlights turned the corner and entered the parking lot of the arcade. Dustin rang his bell loudly and called Rue's name as he, Lucas and Mike arrived.
Rue ran towards the trio as they locked their bikes next to hers. "Newby!" Lucas cheered, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "Ready to lose fifty bucks?"
"You know, I was about to ask you the same thing," She teased.
"The only one losing money is you," Mike said, "There's no way you got on the leaderboard for Dig-Dug."
"I will be after tonight."
"I highly doubt that."
A car honked at the group, and they all turned to see Will Byers and Joyce wave at them.
"Hey! Byers!" Dustin waved back.
They watched as Joyce held Will back for a few seconds before the boy burst out of the car and ran towards his friends. He was thrilled as if he hadn't seen them yesterday at school. There was a grin that stretched across his whole face once he stood before the four, "Don't just stand there, let's go!" Will puffed out, and he grabbed Mike and Rue's wrists.
He led the way into the arcade, where it was brighter and livelier than it was when Rue had come in earlier. And while the five of them huddled before the small screen on Dragon's Lair, Rue realized that she fit right in Hawkins. Bob's promise was kept to be true—things are better now.
author's note: 37,230 words later and ruemax finally meets <3
( word count: 3,860 )