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School bell rings, walk me home
Max’s eyes are glued to the clock, which conveniently hangs directly in front of the blackboard, so she can pass off her eager glare as enthusiasm towards whatever Shakespearean idiom her teacher is droning on about. The hands tick so slowly Max thinks she’s actually going insane, when finally the school bell rings, signalling the start of the eagerly awaited winter break.
Max almost knocks over her chair in her rush to get out of the classroom, out of the corridor, as far away from this place as she can be as soon as possible. Lucas and Dustin pay no attention to her fleeting presence, too absorbed in a deeply important conversation about their next D&D campaign. She sends Will a small wave, whose face is flushed as per usual and sends her a shy smile, before returning to his conversation with Mike, who glares at the girl over Will’s shoulder. The coldness in his eyes almost makes Max shiver.
Miraculously, Max makes it through the sea of hugs, meeting plans, and discussions of Christmas lists in one piece. Though she only has a second to breathe in the crisp December air once she’s opened the doors, before she walks directly into someone and sends them both hurtling towards the ground.
Max dusts off her coat and stumbles on to her feet, mumbling apologies before she locks eyes with her unsuspecting victim. Suddenly her face is a lot hotter than it was 10 seconds ago.
“Oh, hi El! I am so sorry about that, I was just very excited to get out for the holidays, you know?” Max sends the other girl an apologetic smile, and hopes she’s not too annoyed.
El, always an angel, just giggles and says, “It’s OK, Max. I was waiting for you anyway.”
Ma opens her mouth, and closes it again in shock. Eleven was waiting for her? They’ve barely spoken since the Byers moved back to Hawkins last month, let alone since Starcourt, their friendship fractured by the distance and Max’s heightened closed-off attitude. So why is El suddenly talking to her now?
The girl in question seems to realise she’s not getting a reply anytime soon, and helpfully fills in the gaps. “I know we haven’t talked a lot recently. But Joyce told me that Christmas is a time for reconciling with friends,” El seems to struggle with the big word, but continues on confidently. “And we’re friends. So I was waiting to ask you to come to my house and we can reconcile.”
Satisfied with that answer, Max happily agrees, and they set off down the road towards the Byers house.
Sidewalk chalk covered in snow
Lost my gloves, you give me one
The houses look charming, dusted with white and glowing as the sun reflects off the snow. The outdoor air is a lot colder than Max expected, so she reaches into her pockets to find her gloves and stops in her search, causing El to turn around, slightly confused.
Max curses. “I may have lost one of my gloves when I so gracefully knocked us both over. Guess I’ll just have one cold hand then.”
El giggles as Max dramatically puts on her lone glove and shoves the other hand in her jacket pocket. A thought strikes her, and soon a brightly coloured pink glove is being dangled in front of Max’s face.
El explains, “Joyce had to give me two pairs of gloves to take with me because I keep losing half of a pair, but this time I’m not the one being clumsy! So take it.”
Max does, and if her cheeks lightly dust over with pink, she hopes El doesn’t notice.
It's nice to have a friend
As they walk down the road in comfortable silence, Max delights in the feeling that she has a friend again. After the nightmare of last summer, Max shut herself out from the others. SHe only talked to Will, as she didn’t have the heart to turn him away, and he understood how she felt better than anyone else on many fronts.
So, she’s both surprised and elated that El has managed to waltz back into Max’s life with barely any effort. She glances over at the girl in question and smiles at her refound friend.
"Wanna hang out?" Yeah, sounds like fun
Once they reach the Byers house, El starts taking off her snowy boots, while Max hovers over the threshold awkwardly.
El's face lights up as she suddenly says, “Oh! I was supposed to ask you to sleep over tonight. Will you?”
El’s question grin is so adorable that even if she wanted to, Max couldn’t turn down her proposal. “Sounds like fun!”
No sooner than she’s spoken, she’s being dragged into the house and soon finds herself giggling and chatting as if there wasn’t a year-long gap in their friendship.
Video games, you pass me a note
Max tries not to fall asleep as her maths teacher explains the quadratic formula, she spent the weekend practically attached to El’s side, trying to reach higher and higher scores on Dig Dug until they got kicked out from the arcade, the moon hanging high in the sky. She is woken from her reminiscing of the past few days by a small slip of paper landing on her desk.
She quickly glances around the class, considering who might have slipped her the note, when she notices El with a sly smile on her face, working out the answer to the question on the board. Max unfolds the paper, and, lo and behold, El’s careful handwriting reads: ‘Math is the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve fought monsters from the Upside-Down three times.’
Max can’t help her giggle, earning her glares from a few of her classmates, but she quietly rips out a small piece of paper to reply: ‘Math sucks, but I think the worst thing I’ve experienced was a camping trip with the Party. Mike was so absorbed in his DM speech that he tripped over my skateboard and sent it into the fire. It took him 6 months to pay me back.’
El’s silent laugh makes butterflies appear in her stomach, and they only fly about faster when El’s answering note reveals that she’s never been camping. A brilliant plan starts to form in Max’s mind.
…..
Later that week, El heads home after school and opens her front door to find her living room completely reshuffled. The couch was moved to sit against the wall, the floor taken up by a huge tent and a campfire made from books stacked in a circle. The room was dark except for a lantern held by Max, who was looking at El expectantly, tapping her foot with impatience. El continued to stare blankly at the redhead in front of her, so Max took the hint to explain.
“When we were passing notes in math the other day, you said that you had never been camping. And I know the experience I shared was shitty, it can be fun and it's something everyone should do. So, I organised this fake campsite with permission from Hopper and Joyce, obviously, I didn’t want to be killed. I didn’t put it outside because it’s still snowy and really cold.” El still stood with her mouth open, but with no words coming out, leading Max to panic.
“Oh god, you think it’s stupid. We can take it down and just watch a movie instead, or I can just go home if you’d prefer-”
“Max.” El interrupted the girl’s ranting, but to no avail.
“EIther way we can just forget this ever happened. I’m not trying to baby you or rub in the fact you’ve never gone camping for real! I just-”
“Max!” The girl in question finally looked up when El had walked over and grabbed her arm. The close proximity of the brunette’s face made Max’s stomach swoop.
“Yes?” She whispered, not wanting to shout in her friend’s face.
“Max,” El started, her blinding smile finally re-appearing on her face, “this is amazing! I don’t want you to go home. I want you to stay here and you can teach me everything you do while camping. It’s not stupid, I promise.”
Max lifted her eyes from where they were burning holes in the ground to meet El’s, and found herself matching her best friend’s smile. “You promise?”
El grabbed Max’s hand, wrapping their pinkies together. “ Pinky Promise. Friends don’t lie.”
It's nice to have a friend (Ooh)
It's nice to have a friend (Ooh)
That night, while they lay in the tent, sleeping bags only an inch away from each other, El couldn’t help but think about her and Max’s friendship. They were friends, it was certain - they had sleepovers all the time, and shared secrets, and played games and never lied.
But something felt different about the relationship she and the redhead had, and the one she had with the rest of the Party. Was it like her and Mike were, before they had inevitably broken up, the spark they used to have burnt out? No. What she had with Max didn’t feel like the necessary, rushed, trauma-bonded love she’d had with Mike. This was new, and slow, and good. If Max was in the dictionary, El thinks her definition would be ‘A puzzle, but a friend.’
El knows it's nice to have friends.
Light pink sky, up on the roof
Sun sinks down, no curfew
As Winter melts into Spring, El and Max fall back into the rhythm they’d found in the Summer of ‘85. This particular Saturday night finds the girls quietly climbing onto the roof of Hopper’s old cabin. There’s no-one around to tell them off, but they find it’s more fun to sneak about.
Max reaches the top first and gasps, and the brunette finds she can’t help but react the same when she notices the view from their position. The clearing in the forest just beyond the cabin creates a perfect view of the sunset, in all its pink, orange and gold glory. El sits down, legs dangling off the edge and signals for Max to do the same.
“This is beautiful,” El mutters.
“You’re beautiful,” Max almost says, but stops herself, instead humming in agreement.
They don’t talk much up there, just enjoying each other’s company as the sun sets.
20 questions, we tell the truth
You've been stressed out lately, yeah, me too
A light chill settles over Hawkins as the sun dips below the horizon, darkness beginning to take over the night sky. Max suggests that they play a game to pass the time and distract them from the cold. El proposes they play 20 questions, a game people seem to play a lot in the TV shows she watches.
They fire questions back and forth about celebrity crushes, favourite songs and the best movies, until the game turns a little more serious.
Max taps her foot in thought, while El waits for the question from her best friend. “So El, since this is your first year at High School, how are exams treating you? Because I am certainly very stressed, and if I was someone who has never even set foot in a lesson before, I’d be worried out of my mind.”
El chews on her lip before shyly answering. “Not that good. I thought I would settle in eventually, like Hopper and Joyce said I would. They said big changes are an essential part of growing up, and can lead to good things. But there is no good. I think I might fail, and I don’t want to because I know that my teachers all expect it of me. I’m just very stressed.”
El barely finishes her sentence before Max’s arms wind around her and she immediately hugs back, finding comfort in her best friend’s arms. She lets out a shaky breath and nuzzles her head into Max’s shoulder, who is suddenly a lot more flushed than she was ten seconds ago.
Eventually, Max pulls away from the hug, but still leans close to her best friend, looking her in the eye with a soft look El has never seen before. “El, no matter what, you will not be failing anything if I have any say. So I can, um, help you with your studying if you want? I might not be good at maths but I’m a whiz at English and Geography, so I can lend you a hand with those subjects if you want?”
Max offers her hand to El to emphasise her point, and the brunette eagerly takes it, intertwining their fingers. El whispers her thanks, which Max almost misses as she’s more focused on the fact that her best friend hasn’t stopped holding her hand yet.
It's nice to have a friend (Ooh)
It's nice to have a friend (Ooh)
El slowly rests her head on Max’s shoulder, as they watch the stars twinkling in the dark night sky above them. Both girls have never been so calm and content, sitting silently on the roof of a rundown shack in the middle of the woods in a small town in Indiana.
“Max.” El whispers, and turns to face the redhead completely, and tucks a stray curl of fiery hair behind Max’s ear. “You’re my best friend.”
Max takes a deep breath and momentarily closes her eyes, as she prepares for what she’s about to say. “We both know the rule that friends don’t lie, right?”
El nods passionately, while a slight glimmer of confusion lies over her face. Max notices that the constellations above them reflect in El’s eyes, but knows that the brunette shines brighter than any sun burning in the sky.
Max continues, “And you’re my best friend too, so I especially can’t lie to you. So I have to tell you something, and you have to promise not to be grossed out. Steve just said that talking about feelings can change things for the better, like Hopper said to you about school. Though I hope this is actually positive because if this fails I will go over to Harrington’s house and personally see to his-”
“Max.” El interrupts her best friend, grabbing her arm to get her attention. She cocks her head to one side, “What did you mean by feelings? Do you mean feelings like Nancy and Jonathan have for each other, like romantic feelings? Or like the kind of ones that Joyce tells us to be open about because of the Upside Down?”
Max lets out a little laugh. “Yeah, more like Nancy and Jonathan, except what I feel is more like Will does for Mike. Because I like girls, in a romantic sense.”
Max waits for El to run away and leave her alone, but the brunette just smiles at her, silently encouraging her to go on.
“Well, I actually like a girl. It’s you, El. You’re just so pretty, and funny, and you get me like no-one else does, and when you make me watch all those stupid soap operas, all I can imagine is us as the central couple, falling in love in a sickly-sweet, not-at-all-realistic way. And if you don’t feel the same way it’s fine! Completely fine! Actually, just forget everything I just said! Because-”
Max is interrupted by a soft hand cupping her cheek, and an even softer look given to her from El.
“Max. You always tell me the truth, and you help me figure out the real me, and you always know how to cheer me up when I feel down. I really like you, and I’d really like to kiss you, if that’s ok?”
Max can’t seem to speak, so she just nods enthusiastically, and leans in towards El, who does the same. When their lips meet, Max swears she feels sparks fly, that there is a whole fireworks show suddenly set off in her stomach.
El is glad she has such a nice best friend. Well, maybe not just a best friend any more.
Church bells ring, carry me home
Rice on the ground looks like snow
El watches as Max walks down the aisle, mesmerised by the redhead in her breezy baby blue dress. Hopper sniffles beside her, and she offers him a sweet smile, her own eyes starting to well up with tears.
Max stands on the other side of the altar, and winks at the brunette, giving her a once-over and mouthing “Wow”. El goes to giggle but is distracted by the woman standing at the door to the church. Joyce makes her way down the aisle, and while everyone marvels at the bride in her dress, Max can’t help but imagine herself up here with her girlfriend, one day in the future, when they don’t have to hide that they’re in love.
……
Towards the end of the reception, the girls sneak outside, dancing around with their hands intertwined. Drunk on the exhilaration of her parents’ marriage, El twirls Max under her arm then presses a soft kiss to her lips. As usual Max turns a dark red, which prompts El to kiss her girlfriend a few more times.
They end up around the front of the church, where only a few hours ago Hopper and Joyce had walked out.
El’s face suddenly lights up. “It looks like it’s snowy!” She gestures to the rice strewn over the ground, which makes the warm July evening look like it’s December again.
Max grins, and pulls El close. “It reminds of that day last December when you told me that we should be friends again. I’ve never said how thankful I am for you doing that, so yeah, thank you.”
El giggles, “Of course! I’m very glad that I reached out to you, because otherwise I couldn’t do this!”
El leans in to kiss Max, her hands grasping the hem of the redhead’s dress. Max easily reciprocates the gesture, and rests her arms on her girlfriend’s shoulders, amazed at the reality where she can do this.
When they break apart to breathe, Max notices the stream of people beginning to trail out the church, and hurries them to somewhere a bit more hidden.
Call my bluff, call you "Babe"
Have my back, yeah, every day
El hugs Max’s shoulder, before lightly kissing her cheek. “Should we maybe head home now? Hopper said we could have another party at our house, and Joyce promised to make Eggos. We ned to get there fast before someone else eats them all! I can carry you, it’s much faster.”
Max smirks mischievously, and suddenly lifts her El into a bridal hold and, ignoring her girlfriend’s muffled complaints, begins the short walk home. “We both know I’m the strongest, babe.” They both blush at the pet name. “And we can’t have you missing out on those Eggos, now can we?”
Max revels in El’s delighted giggles all the way home.
Feels like home, stay in bed
The whole weekend
El wakes up with red hair in her face, and an arm thrown carelessly over her stomach, but she knows that it’s how she wants to wake up every day. She doesn’t have the heart to wake Max, especially when she looks so peaceful.
El almost laughs at the thought that only a few months ago she thought that Max was just a very good friend, and that was that. Now she has more than she could’ve ever imagined.
But it’s too early for such deep thoughts, so El just snuggles back into her girlfriend’s side and goes back to sleep.