"SO, WHATS THE DEAL WITH EL?"
"Hello, this is the Wheelers" Karen Wheeler picked up the phone "Oh, hello Delilah, how have you been?" She asked sweetly.
"I've been good,thank you. Can I talk to Mike?" Delilah asked the woman politely.
"Yeah, just a sec" she said softly before screaming
"Mike! Phone!".
"Hello?" Mikes voice spoke.
"It's 9:32. Where are you? I thought you were hanging out with me and El today?" She asked.
"Sorry, I... I was just about to call. I, um... can't see you today" he mumbled over his words.
"Why not?" Delilah asked.
"It's my Nana. She's very sick" he told her making the girl blink in confusion.
"But Hop said that your Nana was okay, that it was a false alarm?" She questioned.
"Yeah. That's... what... we thought it was at first,
but then she took a real turn for the worse. Yeah.
We think she might...die" he told her.
"What?" Another voice asked.
"Mom! Get off the phone! How many times?!" He shouted.
"Did Nana call?!" Mrs Wheeler asked in alarm.
"No, Mom! Just get off the phone!" He paused "Sorry about that. She's so upset, she's making no sense. Because we have to go to the nursing home.
To see Nana".
"Are you coming over after?" She asked.
"No!" He snapped before lowering his voice again "I mean, I... I just think... I need to be alone today.
With my... feelings?".
"Are you seriously lying to me?" Delilah asked.
"What? No. Friends don't lie" he told her before speaking really quickly "What, Mom? My mom's calling me. Better go. Talk to you tomorrow.
Miss you already. Bye!".
"Asshole" Delilah frowned, slamming the phone back into the wall.
"Mike is asshole?" El questioned.
Delilah sighed "He's lying to me".
Eleven and Delilah needed something else to do so they decided to go to Max to get some good boyfriend advice.
"Hi" El caught Max's skateboard underneath her foot.
"Hi?" Max questioned, El hadn't really spoken to her before.
"Can we talk?" Delilah asked her.
Delilah, Max, El and Hallie all sat on Max's bed.
"And then he said he missed me. And then he just hung up" Delilah paced the room in anger.
"He's a piece of shit" Max told the girl. "Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, and his Nana obviously isn't sick. I guarantee you, him and Lucas
are playing Atari right now".
"But friends don't lie" Eleven added.
"Yeah, well, boyfriends lie. All the time" Max told the girls and Hallie nodded in agreement.
"You're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore his calls" Max advised her.
"As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist" Hallie agreed "Give him a taste of his own medicine".
"Mm-hmm. And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself, dump his ass" Max smiled.
"Come on" Hallie got up beckoning the other girls to follow her.
"Where are we going?" El asked.
"To have some fun" Hallie smiled brightly.
"There's more to life than that stupid asshole Mike, you know" Max smiled.
The girls stood outside starcourt mall. El looked worried so Delilah grabbed her hand.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Max asked her.
"Too many people. Against the rules" she told Max.
"Seriously?" She whispered so Hallie couldn't hear "You have superpowers. What's the worst that could happen?".
"So, what should we do first?" Delilah asked but El stared at her blankly.
"You've never been shopping before, have you?" Max asked.
"Well, then I guess we're just gonna have to try everything" Hallie smiled.
El looked around at all of the clothes, touching everything, she looked bewildered.
"Do you like that?" Delilah asked her.
"How do I know... what I like?" She asked.
"You just try things on. Until you find something
that feels like you" Hallie held a dress up in-front of El to see how it would look on her.
"Like me?" El asked.
"Yeah. Not Hopper. You" Delilah told her.
The girls tried on everything from dresses to jeans and sneakers. El smiled happily at her reflection in the mirror, seeing a side to herself that she had never seen before. She tried on a romper with crazy patterns on it and she looked amazing.
"That's the one" Delilah smiled at her.
Delilah, Max, El and Hallie posed in-front of the camera with big puffy dresses on. The photographer encouraged them "That's it, girls! Okay, here we go.
Wardrobe change, please".
Hallie straightened out Delilah's stupidly fancy dress and giggled as she posed for the camera. She put her arm out and twirled Delilah around. Making them both almost die laughing.
They practiced walking in high heels and burst into fits of laughter when El tripped over almost snapping the heel right off. They laughed even more when some girls started judging them.
Delilah and Hallie left the other two for a moment to grab a milkshake.
"So what's the deal with El?" Hallie turned to her "I mean she's so sweet but she's never been shopping before?".
Delilah swallowed "it's kinda hard to explain, she's like my step sister, she didn't leave the house a lot, it's a long story".
Hallie got the hint that it wasn't a story for that time so just smiled and nodded supportively.
The girls met back up outside of Starcourt.
"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me" Max rolled her eyes and as Delilah turned around to see what she was talking about she saw Mike.
"Isn't this a nice surprise" Max approached the boys.
"What are you doing here?" Mike asked angrily.
"Shopping" Delilah told him.
"These are her new jeans" Hallie pointed out.
"What do you think?" Max asked.
"What's wrong with you? El's not even allowed to be here" Mike looked at Max angrily.
"And what does it matter to you" Delilah crossed her arms "You said your Nana was sick".
"She is. She is sick" Mike looked back at Lucas and nodded at him.
"Yeah, sick... she's sick" Lucas joined in. "That's why we're here, actually".
"Yeah, we're shopping. Not for us, but for her, for Nana. Also, we're here to get a gift for you.
Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you
and I only have, like, $3.50, so it's hard" he told Delilah.
"Why do you lie?" Delilah asked him "I dump your ass".
He looked at her in confusion and tried calling her back as she walked away "Del? Seriously?".
But Delilah ignored him, she was too angry anyway.
Hallie and Max high-fived her and giggled. Delilah giggled along and so did El, she wrapped her arm around Delilah.