-june 30th 1985-
-reader's pov-
my hands gripped tightly onto the handlebars of my bike, just like how el's arms tightly wrapped around my waist. we took many twists and turns as we bolted through the small neighbourhoods of hawkins until we finally reached max's house.
I pedalled down her neighbourhood, immersed in conversation with el until she suddenly shouted, "watch out!"
I spun my head from over my shoulder to look forward, a skateboard was hurtling right towards us. with quick-instinct, I swerved the bike to the right before sending the skateboard off left with the jerk of my head.
"you good?" I asked el before climbing off the bike.
"y-yeah." she breathed with a warm grin as I gave her a hand at getting off the bike.
"y/n? el? jeez, you two alright?" max asked with a concerned tone as she rushed over.
"we're good." el answered before summoning the skateboard with her powers, "here." she kindly handed the board to max, who gratefully accepted it.
"so, we going to the mall?" max then inquired.
"mhm, and I was also thinking that we could have a sleepover after?" I said, max enthusiastically nodded, "great! girls day out without those stupid boys!" max and el both chuckled before we made our way to the bus-stop.
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one-by-one, we walked down the steps of the bus. once we were all off, we paused to look up at the huge, colourful building.
"so, what do you think?" max questioned, but el didn't reply. she was too starstruck by this extremely crowded place that she'd never been to before. it was as if it was straight out of one of those movies she watches, she couldn't believe her eyes.
"hey, what's wrong?" I asked el.
"too many people.." she fretted, "against the rules."
"seriously?" max said with raised eyebrows.
"I come here all the time, el. there's no need to worry." I assured.
"exactly, you two both have superpowers. what's the worst that could happen?" max grinned excitedly.
el nodded as a confident smile began to grow upon her face.
"plus, we make our own rules anyways." max added confidently.
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indistinct chatter filled the large building as we stood in the centre, gazing around with our hands intertwined.
"so, what should we do first?" max asked, el gave her a quizzical look. "you've never been shopping before, have you?" el just meekly shook her head.
"suppose we'll just have to try everything then." I said with a smile.
"ooh! come on!" max exclaimed as she pulled at my hand, causing me to pull at el's. she was leading us to the gap.
el pondered through the store, stopping to look at and inspect every item of clothing she came across. she then stared up at a certain item with wide eyes.
"you like that?" max asked.
"how do I know.. what I like?" el questioned.
"you just try things on," I explained, "until you find something that feels like you."
"like me?" el repeated.
"yeah," max added, "not hopper, not me, not even y/n."
"you." I finished for her happily as el began to beam widely at the clothing item.
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el leapt out of the changing rooms, she was now wearing yellow trousers, a blue shirt with paint splatters, red suspenders and a bright yellow beret.
she walked closer to the mirror to get a more clearer look before adjusting the beret so it covered her eyes. a strong chuckle escaped my lips before I reached forward to fix the french beret.
"oui, oui c'est beau, madame. c'est beau." I joked in a terribly fake french accent.
el then pulled the suspenders forward before letting go, they flung back down causing us all to burst into hysterics.
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el jumped out again, this time wearing a white dress with more paint splatters. max held out three large belts, yellow, red and green. el picked out the green one before applying it around her waist and spinning around in front of the mirror. she went faster and faster until she got too dizzy and toppled down into my arms.
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max was testing out which sunglasses suited her the best until she chose a pair of nice red ones.
"scrunchies?" el questioned as she scrunched her nose up, showing that she was confused.
"right so, basically, you tie your hair up with these and you can get different colours and designs, they're super cool!" I babbled.
el nodded, showing that she understood before picking out yellow, red and green scrunchies. she passed the green one to me and the yellow to max with a wide smile as she kept the red to herself.
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once we were done clothes shopping, we practically skipped through the mall. el was now wearing a sort of romper all-in-one and she looked absolutely stunning, she was 100% living up to the 'wear what you like' phrase.
next, we sprinted into a photo studio.
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"that's it girls!" the worker cried out as we all posed in our fancy outfits.
in the first photo, el and I were back to back with max posing in the gap between our backs.
in the second, my arms were folded on max's back and el's were folded upon my own back.
"wardrobe change, please!" the worker exclaimed, "thank you!"
in the third, el was resting upon max's front as I rest upon eleven's front.
and now in the fourth and final picture, max was covering her gaping mouth with her hand as she watched el and I share a soft kiss on the lips. luckily, the worker was totally unfazed by this.
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we were now messing about in some shoe shop. I held el's right hand as max held her left, we were guiding her along as she took her first steps in high-heels.
"you're doing great!-" I applauded until she tripped up and fell right into my arms, but I was unprepared and we both went crashing to the ground.
she landed right on top of me, both of our cheeks flushed red as we stared into eachother's eyes for a short moment before standing up again. all of the other girls our age in the store had just witnessed this and were now giving us some weird stare.
"what?" max spat at them, they scoffed in response which caused us three to fold over in hysterics of laughter.
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"yeah, yeah.. that's the bitch." I whispered as max, el and I peeked our heads around a pillar in the food court.
el focused on the red-haired girl that held an orange juice cup. the next second, the cup imploded and the juice splashed everywhere.
us three all screamed out in laughter before quickly sprinting off, not wanting to get caught.
"see? what'd we tell you?" I laughed to el.
"don't ding-dong-ditch mr johnson's house because-" el tried.
"no, no. the other one!" I giggled.
"ohh! we make our own rules!" el corrected positively.
"mhm!" max and I agreed as we continued to run through starcourt, living the best time of our lives.
(if you understood the yellow, red, green thing you are literally so smart omg. so basically, y'know how el is red and max is yellow bc of their ketchup and mustard coats, right? well I noticed that in the mall, max had yellow and red belts held out so I added green for y/n. and I chose green bc el's colour (red)'s complimentary colour is green (y/n) meaning they go good together which is why el chose out the green belt (y/n) and handed the out scrunches like that!!)