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The fall wind was picking up, sweeping across the school parking lot and Mike zipped up his jacket, hoping it would shield against the cold. The parking lot was mostly empty and he brought up his hand to check his watch, just like he had just a moment before. It had already been twenty minutes. Twenty minutes he'd had to wait around with his bike, when he could've gone home already and called El. She'd had a test today, a first one at her new school and she'd been stressed about it, and Mike wanted to call and ask how it had gone. But he'd also promised to wait up for Lucas when he'd quickly ran by their lockers after the final bell of the day, on his way to see the team list that had just gone up. Mike had figured he'd just go check it out and then come back, and he had no idea what was taking him so long. The time between the end of school and dinner was usually when he got to talk to El, as Nancy and Jonathan usually hogged the phone in the evening. And thanks to Lucas, the time was running out.
Mike turned to look back at the school entrance behind him, watching the doors for a sign of his friend walking out. But he didn't see any movement other than the gaudy orange and green banner above the doors announcing the start of basketball season. One of the strings holding it up had snapped so it hung a little lopsided, the loose corner flapping in the wind. Mike hadn't really been surprised when Lucas had told them he was going to try out for the basketball team — he'd been practicing that summer and asked about it from Steve sometimes when they'd go to Scoops. But even if he wasn't surprised, Mike wasn't sure how he'd feel if Lucas actually got in. The basketball team was far from the AV Club.
"Hey, Mike!" Mike was pulled back from his thoughts to pay attention to the world around him — something he found himself having difficulty with these days — as Lucas called out to him, walking out the doors, his hand up in a wave. Mike waved back, picking up his bike from the rack as Lucas made his way over, walking along a couple other guys Mike didn't know. He guessed they'd also been looking at the team list.
"Sorry I'm late. I was just talking with Patrick and then the coach got there so we stayed for a bit," Lucas explained, putting on his jacket and cocking his head to the side towards one of the other guys he was walking with, who Mike guessed was Patrick. He didn't look like a freshman, as he was as tall as Mike was, but seemed way more athletic and muscular, walking with an air of confidence, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his varsity jacket. He was on the basketball team, no question about it.
"That's fine, I don't mind," Mike said, shrugging nonchalantly, trying his best to seem cool in front of Patrick.
"So? Did you make the team?" he asked as Lucas reached him, Patrick still trailing a couple steps behind.
"I did!" Lucas exclaimed, seeming genuinely happy and excited, his smile wide and his eyes bright. Oh.
"Hey, that's awesome, dude! Congratulations," Mike pushed himself to reply. Because he was happy for Lucas, he really was. He was his best friend, of course he’d be happy for him. But AV Club nerds didn't just join the basketball team. And now that Lucas had, what did that mean for the rest of them? First the four of them that were still left in Hawkins were split in different classes for half of the day anyway, and now Lucas would be busy practicing all day after school too.
"Tell him what the coach said!" Patrick urged Lucas, clapping his hand down on Lucas's shoulder. Lucas seemed surprised for a second before turning to Mike, shrugging and saying, a proud glint in his eye:
"He said I've got potential."
"Oh come on, don't sell yourself short, man! He said you have potential to maybe go for point guard next year if you do well!” Patrick enthused, punching Lucas’s shoulder.
“And I totally agree, with Harrington and a bunch of the other seniors from last year off the team now, us underclassmen have a perfect shot to prove ourselves. Right, Wheeler?”
Mike was caught off guard both by Patrick speaking to him and also him even knowing who he was.
“Yeah, for sure,” Mike answered, trying not to show that he knew absolutely nothing about basketball.
“Well, I’ll head out. See you at practice then, Sinclair!” Patrick said with a grin, starting to back away, stuffing his hands back into the pockets of his team jacket.
“See you!” Lucas called back, before going to pick up his bike. While he got it ready, Mike found his gaze following the receding back of Patrick, and he couldn’t help but imagine Lucas wearing that same green and white varsity jacket soon. Walking along the hallways with the rest of the basketball team, not giving the rest of them even a passing glance.
“What’s up with you?” Lucas asked, and Mike turned back to look at him walking his bike next to him. He could tell Lucas wasn’t really serious, his brows lifted in amusement. But he still couldn’t help the sourness in his voice when he spoke:
“Just thinking if I’ll have any time to talk to El today, since I’ve had to wait out here for twenty minutes already.”
“Oh shit, sorry man, I totally forgot!” Lucas said, sounding genuinely sorry as he quickly jumped up onto his bike, ready to go. Mike instantly felt bad, he hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, especially since it was such a big day for Lucas. They started to head home, biking through the parking lot and along the familiar roads lined by fall trees that had almost all shed their leaves. The early November wind was cold as they sped through the streets, and Mike tried to pull his coat collar up to cover his chin. In just a few days it was going to be November 6th. It made the wind seem even colder.
The Chemistry class had ended early, so the cafeteria was pretty empty as Lucas walked in, holding his paper bagged lunch. His mom had made her famous tuna salad sandwiches and Lucas would be lying if he said he hadn’t looked forward to lunch the whole morning. He could tell his mom was giving him special treatment for making the basketball team, packing him a great lunch and siding with him last night when he’d fought with Erica over the remote. He figured he’d enjoy it while it lasted.
Lucas walked through the cafeteria, trying to spot his friends, but it seemed like their classes hadn’t ended yet. He’d seen Mike in the hallway, but he’d said he was going to go call El on the school payphone. Figuring he should just sit down to eat already to wait for Dustin and Max, Lucas sat at an empty table, getting out his sandwich. The cafeteria soon started to fill up with people as more classes finished, and Lucas kept his eye on the doors, trying to spot his friends. Focused on the doorway, he didn’t notice a group of guys from the team that walked past the table, until Patrick called out to him:
“Hey, Sinclair! What are you sitting all by yourself for? Come sit with us!”
“Thanks, but I’m just waiting for my friends. They’ll be here any second now,” Lucas answered. Although he could be lying if he said he didn’t feel a bit thrilled that he had been invited to sit with the team. He still hadn’t quite processed the fact that he was actually on the team now.
“Okay, suit yourself. Come join us some other day then,” Patrick answered and then turned away with a wave of his hand, continuing with the rest of the guys towards the tables the team always sat at. They were out of ear shot soon in the busy cafeteria, so Lucas couldn’t give him an answer. But maybe going to sit with the team sometime wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe he’d bring it up with the guys.
Dustin and Max still hadn’t showed up when Lucas finished the first of his sandwiches. He leaned back in his seat, furrowing his brow, trying to remember if either of them had said anything about missing lunch. Suddenly he spotted Max among the now thinning flood of students coming into the cafeteria. Picking up his lunch bag, Lucas scrambled up, starting to head over to her. He’d been waiting for a chance to talk to her.
“Hey Max!” he called out to her as he got closer, walking from behind her. But she was wearing her headphones and couldn’t hear him. He tried again but she still didn’t hear him, so he set his hand on her shoulder to get her attention. Max jumped, quickly whirling around to face him, and he wasn’t sure if it was panic or anger that flashed in her eyes before she recognized it was him.
“Shit, Lucas! You scared me!” she exclaimed, shoving her headphones down to hang around her neck.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Lucas said, bringing his hands up in apology.
“Mean what? To creep up behind me like a…well a creep!” Max replied, still a little flustered and more than a little annoyed as she continued to walk towards the vending machines. Lucas kept up with her.
“So? What’s up?” he asked her as they reached the vending machines, Max looking between the sodas behind the glass, deciding what to buy.
“Nothing. Why?” was her short reply as she stepped forward to feed quarters into the machine.
“It’s just that I tried to call you last night, and I left you a message and everything but you didn’t call me back so I…” Lucas started to explain, but paused as he heard the annoyed groan from Max beside her. Seemed like she didn’t have enough quarters for the can of soda.
“Here, I think I’ve got some change in my pocket,” he said, digging into his jean’s pockets, pulling out a few coins.
“How much do you need?”
Max sighed, seeming to weigh her options.
“Ten cents…” she mumbled. Lucas picked up a dime from his palm and handed it over to Max who turned to him, seeming embarrassed, her teeth grit together.
“You don’t have to, I’ll just get a water or something,” she told him.
“Dude, it’s ten cents. Don’t worry about it,” Lucas assured her, and with one last moment of hesitation Max sighed, taking the coin he was offering her. Seemed like her craving for a Coke beat out the annoyance she seemed to be feeling towards him. Once she’d gotten her drink they started to weave through the crowd of students to go back to the table. Well aware that Max hadn’t answered his question, Lucas spoke up again.
“So um, were you busy last night or?”
“Yeah I was, I didn’t see you’d called. Sorry,” Max replied, not looking at him. Lucas looked away too. He’d called Max right as he’d gotten home the day before to tell her he’d made the basketball team, and then called her again after dinner. He’d been so excited to share the news and now that she didn’t seem at all interested in what he’d called about, his heart sank a bit. Mike’s reaction when he’d told him had been a little lackluster since he’d been distracted, so Lucas had hoped Max would’ve been more excited about it. You know, as his girlfriend and all.
“Oh, that’s okay. I just wanted to call you cause the team list went up yesterday,” Lucas started up again. He waited for a beat for Max to ask him about it but she just nodded faintly and kept walking. So he continued:
“And I made the team so I wanted to call and tell you.”
“Woah, really?” Max asked, as she finally stopped walking and turned to look at him.
“Yeah, practice starts on Monday,” Lucas explained. Max nodded, looking surprised but impressed and Lucas couldn’t help but get a little ego boost seeing it. But then Max started walking again, opening her can of Coke.
“Isn’t it a little cliché though?” she asked, sounding a bit amused. Lucas furrowed his brow, jogging a few steps to catch up with her.
“What do you mean?” he asked. Max took a gulp of soda before shrugging and saying:
“You know, the whole “high school jock” thing. Friday night games and cheerleaders and varsity jackets. Didn’t know you were into all that.”
That made Lucas pause. What did she mean “all that”?
“If you didn’t want me to join the team you should’ve said something before I tried out,” he said, his tone a little more bitter than he’d meant. Max turned to look back at him where he’d stopped. She gestured annoyedly with her can of soda.
“No, of course you can join the team if you want to. I just didn’t know it was really your thing. But it’s fine, I don’t care,” she told him before turning and walking away. For a second Lucas debated if he should go after her. She’d been doing this all the time lately, ignoring his calls and not wanting to hang out with him. And he’d thought he should give her her space, everything that had happened that past summer had been hard on her and she’d said she needed time for herself. But it was starting to get ridiculous. Lucas understood things were hard, but wasn’t that all the more reason to come up with distractions? To think about things like school and sports? That’s what he was doing, why didn’t she get that?
Figuring she’d probably left the cafeteria to eat her lunch somewhere else, Lucas sighed in annoyance, turning around. Fine then, he’d follow Patrick’s invitation and go sit with the team. At least they were excited for him.
“Do you think I’m a cliché?”
“Huh?”
Lucas and Mike were hanging out in the Wheeler basement, Mike working on a History assignment and Lucas, who’d already finished his Math homework, was laying on his back on the old worn-out couch, throwing a superball into the air and catching it over and over again. They’d been quiet for the last fifteen minutes, which was probably why Mike had been thrown off by his sudden question.
“What do you mean, “a cliché”?” Mike asked, looking up from his textbook and at Lucas, his brows knit in confusion. Lucas couldn’t blame him, it was a weird question. But he hadn’t stopped thinking about it since Max had said it to him a couple days back. He needed to ask if Mike agreed with her, if that was why he had reacted the way he had when Lucas had told him he’d made the basketball team.
“When I told Max I’d made the team, she said it was cliché of me,” Lucas explained, throwing the superball again.
“What was? You telling her?”
“No, me joining the team. Doing the whole “high school jock thing”,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers.
“Well I mean, being a jock is kind of a stereotype,” Mike pointed out.
“Yeah, but that’s not what I’m doing. I joined the team cause I like basketball and it’s good to have extracurriculars. You know, for college and stuff,” Lucas explained, noticing he was maybe coming off a bit too defensive. Mike shrugged, still looking at the textbook on the coffee table in front of him.
“Besides, Dustin joined a club too!” Lucas quickly added.
“Yeah but that’s totally different. It’s a D&D club, not the basketball team,” Mike replied.
"But still a club," Lucas replied, pointing his finger at Mike. He shrugged again, continuing to work on his assignment. Lucas turned back to stare up at the ceiling, throwing the super ball again.
After a while he sighed out loud, starting again:
"But how can I explain to Max that…"
"Oh my god would you just shut up about that already?"
Lucas quickly turned to look over at Mike, failing to catch the super ball in his confusion and feeling it hit his forehead on its way down. He swore quietly under his breath, bringing his hand to his head, before turning to catch Mike’s eye, furrowing his brow in confusion.
“Huh?”
“Just shut up, okay! Do you even hear yourself? Focusing on stupid, useless stuff like if your image is gonna take a hit if you join basketball!” Mike spoke, his voice tense and getting louder.
“That’s not 一 ”
“And do you even know what day it is tomorrow?” Mike asked, finally looking up from his textbook, pinning Lucas in place with his gaze, waiting for him to give an answer. Lucas opened and closed his mouth helplessly, having absolutely no idea what Mike was talking about, still confused by him snapping at him.
“Wednesday?” he tried, already gritting his teeth, knowing it wasn’t the right answer.
“It’s the two-year anniversary! Of our friend being abducted by an interdimensional monster!” Mike shot at him, only lowering his voice a little in the second sentence just in case anyone heard him from upstairs.
“That ring any bells?”
“Yeah, of course, I just…” Lucas started, sitting up on the sofa, but Mike cut him off again.
“Oh really? Cause I could’ve sworn you’d totally forgotten about it, with the way you seem so hellbent on ignoring it!” Mike said, his tone cold and mocking. Okay, that was so unfair.
“No, I remember it. I’m just not keeping a count of every single day that has passed since, cause I’m trying to move on!” Lucas replied, his own voice getting louder to match Mike’s. Mike turned his gaze down to the textbook again, his dark hair falling to cover his eyes, his grip on the pencil in his hand tight. But he didn’t say anything so Lucas took his chance and continued:
“Because what use would it be, wallowing in all the shit that’s happened? It’s bad enough already, we have to try and distract ourselves and start living our lives again. That’s why I joined the team, to tell you the truth.”
“Yeah, but you get to do that!” Mike started, looking up again, dropping his pencil.
“You get to go on with your life and pretend nothing ever happened! You haven’t lost anything, or anyone! You have your family and you have your girlfriend, but all you are focusing on is her making fun of you, or whatever this is all about.”
“I just don’t know what’s going on with her, okay,” Lucas started to explain, not realizing how much the way Max had been acting lately was bugging him until now that he actually got to talking about it.
“She’s just been so distant lately and I don’t know if I should bring it up with her or 一 ”
“Distant??” Mike shot at him, his voice rising an octave in disbelief.
“Are you serious?”
Lucas gritted his teeth, knowing he’d screwed up by saying that.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to 一 I wasn’t thinking...” he stuttered but Mike cut him off.
“Well clearly!”
“But it’s true!” Lucas defended himself, quickly continuing to get a word in:
“I see her at school every day but ever since Will and El moved away, I don’t think we’ve hung out properly even once! And I thought I should just give her space to figure things out after everything that happened this summer, but now I’m starting to think that maybe I should 一 ”
“But she’s here!” Mike interrupted him, standing up, his loud voice getting more and more frustrated.
“You can just get over yourself and walk up to her and ask her! You don’t have to think about time differences or having to save all your money for phone calls or having to hike up that stupid hill over and over again just to get to the radio and have her not answer and 一 ”
“Wait, El’s not answering you?” Lucas interrupted Mike, knitting his brow in confusion. That didn’t sound like her.
“No! I haven’t heard from her in two days! She said they were gonna have some work done at the new house and the phone lines would be cut off for a while, but she won’t pick up on Cerebro either and I keep thinking something’s wrong again because the anniversary tomorrow, but I have to focus on this stupid history project”- he picked up the textbook and dropped it back onto the table with a heavy thud- “that I don’t give a shit about, while I just want to go over there right now and make sure she’s okay!”
Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but Mike continued his roll, gesturing his hands in raising frustration.
“And meanwhile, Dustin is either spending all his time at the video store or at that weird club of his, and you are getting fitted for your stupid varsity jacket and getting ready to leave us so you can go off and play jock, and none of you care!”
“No I 一 ”
“Just leave, man,” Mike said, still frustrated, but Lucas noticed his voice was also starting to get thready. He wanted to say something to him to make him feel better, but was having a hard time finding the right words.
“Listen 一 ” he started, wanting to at least try. But it seemed like Mike wasn’t having it.
“Lucas, just go!” he repeated, louder, pointing at the basement door leading outside.
And by the tone of his voice Lucas knew not to argue with him right now. He’d known Mike for ages, and he could tell when he was about to blow his top. So as much as he wanted to defend himself, he just got up from the couch and headed straight out the door.
The next day rolled around, sunny and surprisingly warm for early November. The sunshine beaming onto the pavement of the Hawkins high parking lot and through the classroom windows felt almost mocking, considering what had happened just two years ago. Now that Mike had reminded Lucas of it, he’d spent the whole morning feeling weird. He was jumpy, double checking whenever he heard a sound behind him, be it during his bike ride to school or in the busy hallways. It was that by now all too familiar feeling of being on your toes, expecting something to crawl out from the shadows and lunge right at you with an otherworldly screech. Screwing his eyes shut for a second to push away that thought, Lucas continued along the hallway, following the crowd of students heading towards the cafeteria. Opening his eyes again, he took another look around. Interdimensional monsters weren’t the only thing he’d been keeping an eye out for that morning; he didn’t share any classes with Mike or Max before lunch so he hadn’t seen either of them all day. He’d had English with Dustin who’d also seemed a little on edge about the anniversary, but had tried to put on a brave and cheerful face, saying that maybe the pizza the cafeteria would be serving for lunch would make them feel a bit better. And Lucas really hoped he was right, because he was currently feeling like shit. About the anniversary, about the fight with Mike yesterday, and yes, also about still not knowing what to do about Max. As he walked into the cafeteria he straightened up, bracing himself to face her and Mike. But once he spotted their regular table, he could only see Dustin sitting there, busy opening his carton of milk.
After getting his lunch, Lucas took a seat opposite Dustin, the rest of the table still remaining empty.
"They still got pepperoni?" Dustin asked as Lucas sat down, setting his tray on the table. He nodded and Dustin echoed it, continuing:
"Nice, they always run out. Let's hope Mike and Max get here before they do."
"Yeah," Lucas said, waiting a beat before continuing, not wanting to come off too eager. He knew Dustin shared a class with Max right before lunch.
"Have you seen them today?"
Dustin looked up from where he was taking a bite of pizza. Lucas was pretty sure he'd glued into the fact that Max and him were fighting again. Well, it wasn't a fight exactly… Or was it? God, he really needed to talk to her and clear things up. In any case, Dustin probably knew something was going on.
"Max seemed pretty… quiet in class just now. She didn't argue with Mr. Vaughn even once."
Lucas lifted his eyebrows in surprise. That didn't sound like her.
"I meant to talk to her after, tell her about the pizza for lunch, but she left right after the bell rang. I didn't see where she went. Sorry dude," Dustin explained, his voice genuine and Lucas pursed his lips together, nodding. This wasn’t the first time Max had disappeared into thin air in the middle of the school day. But it still didn’t help the sense of unease settling into the pit of Lucas’s stomach, piling on with all the other weirdness of the day.
He started to eat half-heartedly, trying to think about all the possible places she could’ve ran off to, and when he would have the next chance to talk to her. He was so lost in thought, he didn’t even notice Mike placing his tray down and sitting down next to Dustin.
“Mr. Morris kept us overtime again. I swear no one else in the world cares about Spanish irregular verbs more than he does,” he complained, sighing in annoyance, opening his carton of milk.
“Well, at least you still got pepperoni before they ran out,” Dustin pointed out, nodding over to the piece of pizza on Mike’s tray.
“Yeah, at least there’s that,” he admitted with a shrug, taking a drink.
The three of them started to eat, Mike and Dustin talking about Geography class they’d have after lunch. But even that felt stilted, the weirdness of the day hanging heavy over them even if none of them had yet to mention it. There was also the argument Lucas and Mike had had the day before, which was why Lucas didn’t really know what to talk about. He just ate, nodding along and giving the occasional hum of acknowledgement to something the two were saying.
Lucas had already accepted the fact that the whole lunch hour would be spent like this, when after about fifteen minutes, Mike looked across the table to speak directly to him.
“Hey, about today,” he started, and Lucas looked up from his lunch, bracing himself for whatever Mike was going to say.
“This morning El called me, her phone finally works again,” Mike said.
“Her phone wasn’t working?” Dustin interjected, looking over at Mike, confused.
“Yeah, for a couple days, but it’s all fixed now,” Mike explained and though Lucas could tell he was trying to play it cool, the relief he was feeling was still apparent on his face. And Lucas was happy for him.
“But anyways, she called and said that later tonight we could all call her and Will together, to catch up,” Mike continued to explain.
“And I was thinking it would make sense to do it at my house, on the basement phone. So if you want to come over after school, she said they’re free whenever,” Mike concluded, looking across the table at Lucas.
Lucas felt his stomach sinking once again.
“I umm, have practice after school,” he said, already seeing Mike’s face fall a bit, so he quickly continued:
“But it’s over around five, so I can come over after.” Seemed like Mike was fine with that answer, nodding. Lucas wanted to prove him wrong, to show that him being on the team now wouldn’t change their friendship. He wasn’t going to leave his friends behind. No way.
“We should invite Max over too, right?” Dustin asked after a minute.
“Yeah, of course. I’m sure El would like that,” Mike agreed, finishing his drink. Setting his empty carton down, he looked over at Lucas. Was he going to say anything about yesterday’s argument? Lucas hadn’t said anything about it in front of Dustin, so he’d figured Mike would follow his lead.
“Speaking of Max, I saw her going outside to eat lunch. She left through the doors of the east hallway,” Mike explained, his tone casual but his look at Lucas pointed. And Lucas got what he was going for, silently thanking him for helping him out.
“Huh, maybe to enjoy the weather I guess,” Dustin suggested. Mike hummed in agreement, continuing his lunch.
“Well um,” Lucas started.
“I’m pretty much done, I think I’ll go and see if I can find her. You know, to invite her for tonight,” he explained, trying not to seem too eager as he gathered his stuff and got up.
“Yeah sure, she’d be mad at us if she’d miss it,” Dustin said. With a quick ‘see you later’ Lucas left the table, trying not to look too hurried as he went to return his tray, and walked out the cafeteria.
The steps outside the east hallway door had a group of people sitting and enjoying the rare sunshine as they ate their lunch, but Lucas didn’t recognize any of them, awkwardly walking past them and down the steps, trying not to step on anyone’s lunch. The east doorway led out to a stretch of pavement between the school and the football field, and Lucas wondered if he should go and check out the bleachers to see if Max had gone there. Walking closer to the field, bringing his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun, he could see there were quite a lot of people sitting in clusters up and down the bleachers, enjoying the warm day, and even from this far away, he could see the bright greens and oranges of varsity jackets and cheer uniforms. If Max wanted to eat her lunch alone, she wasn’t going to go there.
Turning back, Lucas looked around the sunny yard, starting to get a bit antsy now. Maybe Mike hadn’t seen Max after all, or maybe she had actually left and skipped school. Figuring he’d make a round around the building and get back inside from the main entrance, Lucas started to walk away, hoping it didn’t look weird to the people sitting over on the bleachers. The team was probably all there, he hoped they wouldn’t bring up his weird aimless walking around at practice later. But before he could worry about it too much, he rounded the corner and focused back on looking for Max. There was a ramp leading up to the back doors of the cafeteria kitchen and Lucas was about to just walk past before he saw that’s where Max was, sitting at the edge of the ramp, leaning her elbows on the railing, her legs dangling off the side. It looked like she hadn’t noticed him yet, as she was staring ahead at the parking lot across the street, eating her sandwich. Lucas figured he had about thirty seconds before she saw him and caught him awkwardly standing there staring at her like an idiot. So he had to come up with something to say. And fast.
“How’s the sandwich?”
That’s what he decided to go with? Really?
Max quickly turned her head to look his way, her face beyond confused.
“Huh?”
“I mean, how’s your 一 your lunch, is 一 umm…”
“Hi to you too,” Max said, putting him out of his misery as she focused back on her food. But she didn’t seem too mad, which Lucas took as a good sign, starting to walk up the ramp.
“They have pizza in the cafeteria today, we were all wondering why you weren’t there,” he started as he neared the top of the ramp. Max reached over to move her skateboard aside so he had room to sit next to her. Another tentative good sign.
“Wasn’t just feeling pizza today I guess,” she said with a shrug as Lucas sat down. He followed her lead, folding his arms across the railing and leaning his head through. Max took another bite of her sandwich, looking away again. Figuring he’d start with the good news, Lucas spoke up after a minute:
“Hey, so, Mike invited all of us over later. To call El and Will all together.”
Max hummed in reply, chewing her food.
“So, um, if you’re not busy later, you can come over too. It would be nice to have everyone there.”
“I umm… I’d really like to come over, but I might be busy again later, so I’m not sure,” Max explained, sounding like she was bummed about having to miss it, but there was still something shifty about her expression, like she wasn’t telling the whole story. Figuring he still shouldn’t push her too much right off the bat, Lucas said:
“Oh, well, just let us know when you figure out your plans. And if you have something you’d like us to say to El from you.”
Max just nodded at that, still not looking over at him, picking at her sandwich, tearing tiny pieces off of it. Lucas looked ahead at the parking lot, his fingers drumming the cool metal of the railing. Now the hard part.
“Um, Max?” he started with after a deep breath in preparation.
“Yeah?”
“Is everything okay?”
“What do you mean?” Max asked, not turning to look at him.
“You know, just in general with you I guess? I know we haven’t talked in a while, and you said you needed some space, which is totally cool. But just… wanted to check up on you,” Lucas explained, his efforts to not make a big deal out of this really taking a hit as he rambled on, the worry he’d had over the past week stumbling right out.
“You don’t need to do that, I’m fine,” Max assured him, turning to look at him for a second, turning away again once she saw Lucas give her a quick nod.
“Okay, and are we fine?” he asked again after a while, knowing he was starting to push it a bit with her, but he just really needed to know.
“I get that you’re mad at me over the whole basketball thing, but I just…”
“Huh? I’m not mad at you over that,” Max cut in, continuing with a shrug:
“I was just… surprised I guess?
“What, you thought I wouldn’t get in?” Lucas asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
“No, that’s not it, I just…” Max started, pressing her lips together in thought before continuing:
“I don’t know, with everything that’s been going on, it’s just such a normal, everyday thing to happen, you know? It has nothing to do with interdimensional monsters or Russian labs or superpowers, it’s just… high school.”
“And I don’t know, I guess I just haven’t had the luxury to think about stuff like that lately,” she said with another shrug, turning to look away again.
Lucas sat in silence beside her, listening as the heel of her sneaker bumped against the edge of the ramp as she moved her leg nervously. He could sense she still had something she needed to get out, to say out loud. But he wasn’t sure if he should push her any more about it. Maybe this was enough for now.
Max sighed, leaning back, tilting her head back as she looked up.
“So um, Neil left,” she let out, and Lucas whipped his head to the side to look at her, seeing her eyes still on the pale blue sky, her lips bit together.
“What do you mean?” Lucas asked, completely caught off guard.
“Well him and my mom have been fighting for a while now, so I guess I should’ve seen it coming, really,” she said, a sharp, self-deprecating edge to her words.
“But last Tuesday while I was at school, he’d just left. Taken all his stuff, and the TV and the car, and just...left. My mom was out getting groceries so I was the first one to come home and see it, he’d made a total mess of it too, that dick. So yeah, I don’t really know what exactly is going on, and my mom’s a total mess, so I guess I’ve been a little out of it, lately,” she explained, twisting her empty lunch paper bag in her hands.
“Like last week when you’d called me about the team, I wasn’t home cause me and my mom were out, trying to get someone to lease us a car. And later today we’ll be going to some bank, which is why I don’t think I can make it to Mike’s. My mom’s just really freaked out and wants me to come with her to everything. Though I don’t know what help I could be, guess she just doesn’t want to do it alone,” Max ended with, leaning onto the railing again, eyes cast across the yard.
Lucas really didn’t know what to say to all that, having no idea how to even begin. It was all a lot, and he was feeling so stupid for worrying about his own image while Max was having to deal with all this. She had said that she needed time, but now he was kicking himself over not speaking to her sooner.
“You don’t have to do this alone either. You know that, right?” Lucas started with after a minute of silence had passed between them. He turned to look at Max again, so careful not to overstep.
“And I’m sorry for being so focused on the basketball thing, it’s stupid anyways, I shouldn’t have…”
“No, don’t say that,” Max cut him off, finally turning to look at him.
“The last thing I want is you feeling like you can’t do stuff you like just because I’m currently feeling like shit. It’s really cool you got into the team. I’m really happy for you, seriously.”
Max really did look sincere as she said it, her pale eyes meeting his steady and honest. And Lucas did feel a small pang of pride in his chest, hearing her words, having secretly been wanting to hear them from her. But he couldn’t help but feel sucky about the whole thing, having his priorities way off this past week even if he didn’t know it. He knew Max hated being pitied on, he’d seen how uncomfortable she looked when the victims of the mall disaster were brought up in class or at assemblies and people’s eyes would inevitably shift to her. But he still wanted her to know that she could come talk to him about this stuff. That she shouldn’t feel like she had to pull away and avoid everyone.
“Thanks. But still. I don’t want you to feel like I’m too busy or something, you can always talk to me about this stuff.”
Max looked down again, scuffing her shoe against the side of the ramp
“I know. It’s just all been a lot, I haven’t really figured out how to talk about it with people if I don’t really know what’s been going on myself,” she explained.
“I get what you mean,” Lucas assured her.
“But if you need help talking stuff through to help you figure them out, you can always call me,” he added, hoping that she knew he really did mean it.
“Thanks. I'll try," Max replied, her voice a little quiet as she glanced over at him. Like she wanted to believe what she was saying, but not sure how to. He really wanted to reach out and hold her hand but was pretty sure that would be crossing a line.
“But umm, I don’t know if I want to tell Mike and Dustin yet, so if it’s okay could you just tell them that I’m busy doing stuff with my mom and that’s why I can’t come today,” Max said, sounding a little embarrassed, looking away again.
“Yeah, no problem. You can tell them at your own time,” Lucas assured her.
“Thanks,” Max said again, giving him a tight-lipped smile.
There was a shrill sound as the school bell rang loudly, signaling the end of lunch period.
Crumbling up her paper lunch bag, Max started to get up, Lucas following her lead. As they started to head back inside, Lucas wondered if he should say something more, something to assure Max that she really didn’t have to hide the stuff she was going through from any one of them. With everything that had happened in the past two years it was clear they were all there for each other.
"So. When’s the first game?" Max surprised Lucas by speaking up as they neared the front doors, her tone conversational and lighter now, like she wanted to move on from discussing the heavy topics. He couldn't blame her.
"In a month. I think it'll be a home game against Northern," he said.
Max hummed in acknowledgement as they walked into the school.
"You can come if you want?" he added, his tone hopeful.
"Make sure you win and then I'll consider," she replied, shooting him a smirk that made his heart squeeze.
"Well the coach did say that we have what it takes to get to the championship game this year," he pointed out but Max just rolled her eyes.
"Oh sure you do."
"That's what he said!” Lucas said in defense.
"Yeah right,” Max replied with a scoff, but he could tell she wasn’t really serious about it. Especially since after saying it she casually reached over to hold his hand as they kept walking along the hallway, and continued the conversation, telling him about something that had happened in class earlier. And at that his heart squeezed some more, a small optimistic smile trying to fight its way onto his face.
Because all of it 一 her being relaxed enough to hold his hand, being back to their regular banter 一 made the weight of worry Lucas had been feeling go away a little. He knew things were not okay with Max, but he really hoped that now she would be more comfortable to tell him about it, and not carry her hurt and worry all alone. Because that's what friends who'd faced apocalyptic threats together were for. What boyfriends were for.