CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
"Who Cares What Mike Likes?"
THE school day came to a swift end, and Violet was stood at her locker. She shoves her school books and folder into her bag and zipped it up, and when she was done she closed the locker. But what she didn't know was that behind said locker, stood a hurricane of red hair and ocean blue eyes. So when she sees her standing there, she jumps back in surprise.
"Holy shit!" She cried out, holding a hand to her racing heart. "Fuck, a little warning would've been nice."
Max stood there unamused, her pale and freckled features blank. "Those creeps friends of yours?"
Violet's brows knitted in confusion, "Creeps?" It took her a second to remember what she was talking about, then it hit her. "Oh. The boys from recess. Yeah, yes." She nodded slowly, "Unfortunately." She seals her lips tight, "I'm sorry about them. I guess they're just a bit curious, we rarely get new people in Hawkins. Especially not girls like you."
Max's ginger brows raised, "Girls like me? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I-It's not a bad thing!" Violet hastily replied, "It's just that, you're from California. And you skateboard. We don't have anyone like that here. I mean, why would a girl as cool as you come to a boring town like Hawkins? I don't know if you noticed, but this place is a pretty shit."
"Trust me." Max's eyes rolled, "I've noticed." She adjusts her skateboard board under her arm as she arched a brow, "So, you think I'm cool?"
Violet blinked. Once, twice.
There goes that zoo in her stomach feeling again, fuck.
"Uh, yeah." She nods jerkily, "I saw you on your skateboard." Her eyes flicker down to the board under her arm, "It was... really awesome."
"Thanks." Max replied, her ocean eyes giving her a quick once over. "Your name is Violet, right?"
She nodded, "Yeah, that's me."
"Okay." Max drops her board down and placed her foot on it, "Well, I guess I'll see you around, Violet."
"O-Okay." Why the fuck is she stuttering? "See you around, Max."
Without another word Max kicks her other foot back, and soon she's skating down the halls, weaving through students walking by, and heading for the double doors. Once she disappears behind them, Lucas and Dustin walk up to her.
"Did you just talk to Mad Max?" Dustin questioned eagerly.
"Yeah." Violet nods, her velvet brown eyes still set in the direction of the double doors that Max just skated through. She feels like she's in a trance. "I think I just did."
"So, how was it?" Dustin asked her, snapping her out of her it and bringing her attention to him.
"It was... cool." She nods her head, "S-She's really cool."
Again with the stuttering, damn it!
Dustin frowned, "Vi, are you okay?"
"Yeah." No. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, your face is all red again like it was in class." Dustin tells her, "You kind of look like a tomato."
Her eyes grow wide, and she slaps her hands over her cheeks. She realizes that her skin is hot, just like it was in class early that morning.
What the hell was wrong with her lately?
She quickly drops her hands, "I-I'm okay. It's just hot in here, that's all."
Lucas shoots her a weird look, then he shakes his head. "Anyway, me and Dustin are gonna head to the arcade to make sure that she's actually Mad Max. Do you wanna go with us to see if it's her?"
Violet shrugged, "Sure, I guess. When are we going?"
"Now." Dustin replied.
She nods, "Okay, but can we atleast stop and get some food first?"
She, Dustin, and Lucas walk out of the school together, they make their way to the cycle rack and grab their bikes. They hop onto their means of transportation and head to the local diner. When they arrive the dinery, they walk inside and sit at the counter as they order food to go. They pay for their food with the money they have on them, and then they hop on their bikes and ride to the arcade.
Because her best friend are stalker creeps, they don't actually go inside of the arcade. Instead, they make her hide behind a random car in a lot across the street from the arcade, she eats her fries and chicken fingers while Lucas and Dustin are watching for Max with his binoculars.
"Still no sign?" Dustin asked Lucas.
"Jack shit." Lucas responds.
"Hey, this is just a suggestion." She mentions, "Maybe she's not coming today."
"Oh! Damn it." Dustin groans, "My mom's gonna murder me."
"So go home." Lucas tells him, "Me and Vi will radio you if she comes."
She shrugs, "Yeah, I ain't got shit to do tonight. And Steve is with Nancy tonight, so."
"Oh, yeah, nice try." Dustin says to Lucas, "You just want me out of here so you can make your move."
"Oh, 'cause you're such a threat." Lucas replied.
"That's right. She will not be able to resist these pearls." Dustin makes a purring sound with his mouth, and honestly, Violet could've gone her whole life without hearing and or seeing that.
Violet sends the curly haired boy a pointed look, "Dustin, if you ever do that again, I will literally throw you with my mind."
His eyes widened in slight fear for a moment, then his attention was ripped away. "Ten o'clock." Dustin reminds Lucas, who was momentarily distracted by his weird purring.
"What?" Lucas asked him.
"Car coming." Violet told him, pointing a finger to the Camaro that pulled up to the arcade.
When the passenger side door opens Max climbs out with her skateboard in hand, she seems to be yelling at someone in the driver's seat as she holds the door open. Violet assumed that it must be an older sibling of hers or something.
"They're arguing, they're arguing." Lucas reports, even though he really doesn't have to considering she and Dustin have eyes.
Her eyes rolled, "Yeah, we can see that, genius."
"I don't even know why you need those." Dustin shakes his head at him, "God. You're so stupid."
The person behind the wheel of the Camaro pulls out of the lot, and Max flips them the bird as they speed off. Well, whoever drove her definitely pissed her off, that's for sure.
"So, she's here." She glanced between the two boys, "What the hell are we waiting for?"
She grabbed her bag of food and made a run for it across the parking lot, Dustin and Lucas quickly follow behind her as she arrived at the arcade window. The three of them watched intently as Max made her way to Dig Dug, and for awhile they sat there and watched her play the game, completely in awe of her video gaming skill.
"She's incredible." Lucas says in amazement, a big goofy grin on his lips as he slides down the wall.
"She's..." Dustin trails off, the same goofy look on his face as well.
"Mad Max." Lucas and Dustin's voice echoed together.
Violet switched her gaze from the window watching Max to the two boys on the ground, her features etched into a mixture of disgust and horror. "Never speak in sync like that again, it's creepy." She stands to her feet and looks at down at them, "Can we leave now? I don't want her to catch us again."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Dustin nods, climbing to his feet. "Plus, I gotta get home."
Lucas gets up, "All right, let's go."
The three of them head back to where they left their bikes, and they hop on and ride off from the arcade. The sun begins to go down as they bike down to eachother's house, and Dustin tries to get ahold of Mike for the 50th time today through the walkie that's attached to his bike.
"Mike?" Dustin questions over the walkie-talkie, "Mike?"
"Hello? Is that you?!" Mike practically screams through the walkie, Violet and Lucas share a puzzled look as they bike right beside eachother.
"Yeah, it's me, Dustin. What're you doing on this channel again?" Dustin asked him, "I've been trying to reach you all day. We were right. Max is Mad Max."
"Yeah, I'm busy." Mike responded back nonchalantly.
"But—" Dustin's words cut off as he realized Mike turned of his walkie.
"Well." Violet frowned, "That was rude of him."
"Yeah, he's been acting real weird lately." Dustin mentioned.
"What do we do now?" Lucas asked.
"We stick to the plan." Dustin answered simply.
"Mike's not gonna like it." Lucas replied back.
Violet scoffed, "Who cares what Mike likes? Who died and made him the boss of who we're friends with?"
"Yeah, last time I checked, our party is not a dictatorship." Dustin stated matter-of-factly. "It's a democracy."
"What if Max says no?" Lucas counter questioned.
"How could Max say not to these?" Dustin makes the weird purring noise with his mouth, again.
"Dustin!" Violet groans loudly, "What part of I will throw you didn't you understand?"
"Seriously, dude." Lucas shoots him an annoyed look, "I told you to stop that."
Dustin chuckles as he makes the turn to his house, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Later." Lucas responded.
"Remember it's Halloween, so wear your costume!" Violet yells over her shoulder.
"I won't forget!" Dustin shouts back.
"So, Violet." Lucas begins, she glanced at him as she pedals. "I have a weird question to ask you."
Her brows knitted in confusion, "Uhm, okay. What's up?"
"After school when Dustin asked you if you how it was when you talked to Max, your face got all red."
Her eyes grow as Lucas continues, this was the last thing she wanted to talk about.
"Now, correct me if I'm wrong but when someone's face gets that red it usually means two things. They're either really angry, Or, they're blushing because they have a crush on someone. So, my question for you is... do you have a crush on Max?"
Her eyes widened the size of the fucking moon, and her skin felt hot all over again. Except it wasn't just her face, it was everywhere. Her heart was beating like crazy, and she felt like she was gonna throw up and pass out all at once. She didn't know how to answer that, she didn't want to answer that.
And lucky for her, she wouldn't have to, because she was just one turn away from her house.
"Uh- I gotta go, see you tomorrow!" She spits out quickly, standing up on her bike to increase her pace as she raced towards the turn, leaving Lucas in the dust behind her.
When she arrived at her house she didn't bother to put her bike into the garage, she drops it infront of the steps at the front door and walks inside the house. She slams the door closed with her foot, and she drops her backpack to the floor before leaning back on the door.
Her back slides down it as her hands rake anxiously through her hair, her ponytail holder long gone by now as she drops to the doormat beneath her. She couldn't stop thinking about what Lucas asked her, why couldn't she stop thinking about it?
She doesn't have a crush on Max, how could she? She's never even had a crush on a boy before. Having a crush was just not something that's ever come to Violet. She's never even had interest in anyone like that before.
The boys in Hawkins middle were all assholes, and the only ones that she hung around were just her friends. She's never even thought any of them were cute before. Maybe that wasn't normal, but she thought that it was because she didn't see them like that. But now that she thought of it, she didn't see any boys like that, not even in comics, tv shows, or movies.
She was only interested in the girls. But she never thought that meant that she didn't like boys, and she definitely didn't think it meant that she liked girls either.
She thought back to what happened today with Max in class. She kept staring at her instead of focusing on the lesson, then the one time she looked back at her, Max just so happened to be looking at her, too. Then, instead of turning around in her seat like a normal person, she gazed into her eyes.
Her deep cerulean blue like the godamn ocean eyes.
Realization slowly began to build, and suddenly it hit her. It was almost as if someone dumped an entire bucket of ice right over her head.
The staring? She couldn't take her eyes off of her. The gazing? She literally got lost in her eyes. The burning of her skin? Blushing. The zoo in her stomach? Butterflies. The stuttering and queasy feeling she felt? Her nerves losing their shit. And together, they all came down to one truly shocking and terrifying conclusion.
One, Violet was probably gay. And Two, she had a crush on the new girl from California.
She bangs her head back against the door behind her, "Fuck."
—micaela speaks
Yo.
So... Violet is having a bit of a sexuality crisis here.
So there's that.
This book is a SLOWBURN btw. So she has a crush, but nothing is gonna happen till like... the Snow Ball dance to be honest. Eh, we'll see.
Sorry for the short note, I'm really sleepy rn and I haven't felt good pretty much all day.
So yeah, anyways. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I will see you all in the next one.