-june 30th 1985-
-reader's pov-
"one strawberry, one vanilla with sprinkles and one y/i/c, please." max politely said to steve, who was yet again wearing his ridiculous sailor hat at his ridiculous ice cream parlour job.
"alright, coming right up." he sighed before going to scoop the ice creams.
el then turned to give me a soft peck on the cheek, my cheeks flashed red before el began to giggle. but what we didn't realise was that steve's female coworker had been watching the whole time because she'd recently slammed the mini-doors behind the counter open.
el and I's eyes widened in shock, so much that they practically looked like saucepans. reassuringly, I slipped my hand into hers as we awaited the other worker's response, and that's if she even had one.
the worker just shot us a sweet smile, it was as if she.. understood??.. wait?-
she then turned to steve before announcing something proudly, "we've got our first sentence."
"oh, seriously?" he replied, trying to handle 3 ice creams at once.
"yeah." the coworker said before putting on a russian accent, "the week is long."
"well, that's thrilling." steve said sarcastically.
"I know, but, progress!" she grinned before closing the mini-doors.
"oh, um, okay.. you got a strawberry, vanilla with sprinkles and a y/i/c." steve handed us the ice creams.
"thanks." we replied in unison.
"wait a second.." steve pulled a quizzical face, "are you even allowed to be here?"
us girls shared the same look before breaking out into a fit of giggles and running out of the store.
——————————
we left the mall, ice creams in hand, marching in the direction of the bus stop.
"three person trade?" max offered, el and I strongly nodded in response before swapping our ice creams around. el took mine, max took el's and I took max's. we chuckled happily as we passed eachother the snacks until we paused at the sound of a group of familiar voices.
"lucas, just stop worrying. you're still with max. sure you've broken up, like, six times but you're currently together." I heard my brother's voice say.
"oh, you've gotta be shitting me." max groaned as we turned to face the bike-rack, we then began to march over.
"isn't this a nice surprise, hm? so much so for the 'girls day out without those stupid boys.'" max snapped.
"hold on, what?" mike replied, "it's not my fault you girls just wondered off today and now we bump into you at the mall?!"
"wondered off?" el retorted, "no, we just wanted a break from you idiots."
"jeez, someone's cranky." mike spat.
"whatcha say, michael?" I spoke up as I took a threatening step towards my brother.
"nothing." he muttered whilst rolling his eyes.
"come on mike, let's just go.." will said quietly as he tugged at mike's hand. he could sense the tension and didn't want it to increase, because he knew that'd only make the party fall apart.
"alright, let's go then." mike eased his tone as he spoke to will.
"oh! um, just one more thing, max." lucas began, "can you just clarify that we are still together?"
"yeah, we are, but you better be off or else I'd start preparing for the seventh break-up if I were you." max teased as she reached forward to kiss lucas' cheek.
a toothy grin spread upon his face as a wave of relief washed over him, "bye max." he waved before jogging after mike and will.
"okay, so now we can enjoy our day without having to deal with another 'dork-alert.'" I said before we turned around to get onto the bus.
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it was now late evening and the song, 'angel' was playing from el's radio as us girls were located in her bedroom with our colour-coded scrunchies on our wrists.
max jumped about with a hairbrush in her hand, singing along to the song as el half-played with my hair and half-read the magazine. I turned my head slightly to look at what el was reading, it was a page about 'phoebe cates.'
"oh! ha, so you found phoebe cates?" I chuckled.
el nodded with a light giggle in response.
"pretty, isn't she?" I asked.
"yeah, but not as pretty as you~" el said in a playful voice before leaning forward and planting a kiss upon my forehead.
"cornyyy!" max teased as she stopped jumping about and picked the magazine up instead.
"you're just jealous of how maintained and requited our love is." I joked and max just rolled her eyes in response before showing us a double-page picture of 'ralph macchio.'
"ralph macchio is way better anyway." max commented, el and I shared an 'ehhh' look.
"what? he is in my eyes." max said confidently.
"okay, sure." I laughed after max put the magazine down, "so, lucas or ralph, then?"
"what kind of question is that!" max exclaimed, "obviously lucas!"
"you think he's still worrying a little now?" el questioned, referring back to earlier when he was worried about his and max's relationship.
"dunno." max and I shrugged before an idea popped into my head.
"we could go see though?" I said, gaining max and el's attention, "by using the void?"
——————————
the radio no longer played the upbeat song, it now only emitted static crackling.
el and I sat on the floor, side-by-side. el had used an actual blindfold to cover her eyes but I was left with some old sock.
"is this really gonna work?" max asked, we both nodded in response.
"holy shit, this is insane!" max excitedly squealed.
"-max." el warned.
"-yeah, quiet. I'm sorry." max apologised.
I concentrated hard on finding lucas and the others in the void but I was finding it a lot more difficult than usual. but once I thought I had found them, I opened my eyes to find billy hargrove stood before me, with inky veins spread all over his body.
I stumbled back in surprise as an eerily familiar voice called out to me, "y/n.. don't ever think that I've forgotten about you.." it was the same voice as the shadow-monster.
my heart thrashed against my chest in fear, "please.. no.. leave me alone." I begged into billy's lifeless eyes. but I knew that billy was no longer billy, just like how last year, will was no longer will.
the possessed billy stepped closer to me, he was now less than an inch away but before he could make another move, the sound of a loud fart pulled me from this frightening place.
I yanked at my sock-blindfold before taking in a big gasp of air.
"did someone?.." I began.
"-lucas, fart? yeah." el replied before all of us girls screamed out in hysterics and rolled around on the floor in tears of laughter.
"I didn't see you in there, n/n." el said once we had calmed down.
"yeah, I dunno where I was.. I couldn't find the guys.." I replied, not wanting to worry el or max, "what happened in there anyway?"
"well basically, lucas wasn't worried, mike and will we're flirting until mike said something about girls being a different species and then lucas-.." el paused as she detected the laughter was going to occur again if she said the next couple of words.
"different species?" I cried out in astonishment.
"mhm." el said.
"I swear to god, what is wrong with your brother, n/n?" max joked causing us all to laugh but the distressing statement still lingered my mind, 'don't ever think that I've forgotten about you.. y/n.'