Chapter Text
It was quiet, far too quiet for a place like Hawkins, Max knew. It's been quiet for a while now.. a month maybe? Ever since the party defeated Vecna, the town was almost unrecognisable. No electricity issues, no mall fires, no dead teens. It seemed like the people of Hawkins were finally given a break, except for a few unlucky folks, like Eddie, Max thought... and her.
No, she didn't have it half as bad, she thought. Out of their little group, Eddie was really going through it, still being ridiculed and harassed everywhere he went, despite his name being officially cleared by the Hawkins Police. Max and the others did their best to help, accompanying Eddie almost everywhere, even on his little trips to the grocery store. It worked, the insults seemed to be reduced to a few twisted looks, so they kept doing it. Eddie was grateful, maybe not outwardly vocal about it, but he showed his gratitude to them in different ways. Like hosting D&D games in his trailer for Dustin and the others despite the lack of space, or buying extra of Max's favourite chocolate bars and leaving some on her window despite being almost as broke as she was.
Max would never tell anyone, but sometimes one of those chocolate bars would be the only thing she'd eat all day. Not because she wasn't hungry, or because she didn't want to eat... Simply because of the lack of food in her mother and her's fridge.
Unfortunately, today was one of those days. Max was sitting on her bed, under her blanket, chewing on her lower lip, her stomach's protesting sounds being the only thing that filled the cold air around her. Max was wondering for how much longer they could keep this up. Her mother and her. How much longer could their stomachs function off a few meals a week, chocolate bars, and in Susan's case- copious amounts of alcohol?
Max realised she was shivering, probably due to both her malnutrition and the fact that their trailer's heat hadn't been working since January that year. Now, in mid-April, they shouldn't even need it anymore, but the weather had decided to take a turn for the worst, so for a few days now it had been raining, and the thermostat hadn't moved up from the 50 F line.
As if all that hadn't been enough, Max was also on her period, which caused her to miss school for the second day in a row. Not the period itself.. no. It was the fact that Max had only two tampons left when it started, and no money to buy anymore at the moment. Even the two she had were from when she pretended to have forgotten one at P.E. and one of the nicer girls in her class offered them to her. Max hadn't even tried to deny the help, desperately muttering her gratitude as she had placed them in her bag. However though, now.. now the only one she had left was the one that was currently in use. The time was ticking, and she knew that if she wanted to avoid any health risks, she only had a few hours of the privilege of not bleeding on her own mattress... and she really, really didn't want that.
The last time it happened, she vividly remembers being yanked from her bed by Neil, after she'd mistakenly slept in, and being thrown on the bathroom floor. "Clean yourself up, you little shit! No woman can be that disgusting!" The words scarred her deeply, despite the fact that she didn't care what Neil usually thought of her. It hasn't happened since. She'd either wake up earlier than everybody else in the house, to make sure she, and her sheets were clean, and if they weren't, she'd change them before they became anyone else's business. That's just how Max was, incredibly good at adapting to ensure her own survival.
She'd grown tired though, and in the past week or so, her tiredness had been bleeding into frustration more than anything else. She was easily annoyed, and in an attempt to not hurt any of the people that she actually liked, she had almost fully retreated to herself. If the others had noticed, they had either not cared enough to try to talk to her about it, or they had attempted at giving her the space she so often had requested from them. Max wasn't sure she wanted to know which one of the options it was.
Max heard the door of the trailer open, followed by her mother's slugged voice talking to somebody else. "She's probably here, yeah..". Then, she heard the unmistaken noise of bottles clanking each other, followed by a hoarse voice whispering something she couldn't quite make out.
Max slowly got out of bed and made her way toward the living room. The sight in front of her definitely not one of her favorites- her mother was visibly intoxicated and she was held by the waist by a man Max had only seen once or twice before. The man holding a bottle of his own.
"There she is. Seems like you were right about this anti-social spawn of yours, Susan!" The man laughed as if he'd just told the funniest joke.
"Mom.. were you able to grab some groceries?" Max tried in a quiet voice, as to not anger the adults in front of her.
"Max.. honey...You- You know I don't get my salary until next week.." Her mother started talking drunkenly.
"Yeah.. I see you had enough for the vodka though." Max couldn't stop herself from muttering under her breath.
"What did you just say to your mother?!" The man stopped in his tracks.
"Nothing. I just- I-" Max started but was soon cut off by a loud shriek.
"YOU DON'T TALK LIKE THAT TO YOUR MOTHER BITCH!" The man was fuming, and in all honesty, Max had not expected her little comeback to anger the stranger as much as it had.
She started retreating back to her room in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, when the man walked up to her and grabbed her by the arm.
"Where do you think you are going?!" He yelled, and Max's fight or flight had turned on as soon as his fingers had dug in the skin of her upper arm.
"Don't touch me!" Max yelled back, desperately trying to yank herself off the man whose grip on her had only tightened.
"Oh, you really don't know your place, do you?" The man asked, looking almost amused now. Max stayed silent, her eyes never leaving her mom's, in the corner.
"Paul, sweetie.. She's just a dumb teenager... Don't- don't you worry about her.." Susan started but soon trailed off, as she took another sip of the clear liquid.
"Yeah.. and one that needs to learn her place at that!" The man, Paul, said as he swung his arm and the back of his hand slapped Max hard across the face. The teen was stunned. The pain registered in her body about a second later. She felt something warm trickle down her left cheek and used her hand to touch the tender spot. As soon as she saw the crimson liquid on her finger, the bulky ring on Paul's hand caught her eye. Oh, that's why she was bleeding.
"Get out of here, right now! I don't want to see you bitch! Your mom and I need a break from you! GO! Leave right now!" As Paul was yelling, he used all of his strength to drag Max across the room, and towards the door. When that proved to be difficult due to the fact that Max was fighting back, he picked her up over his shoulder with ease. That took Max by surprise and before she could react, she was being taken through the door, and in one swift motion, she was thrown to the ground. Despite the fact that she was thrown from only a few feet up, she landed hard.
Soon, she heard laughter and the sound of the trailer door being closed. Finally, the click of a lock, before everything turned to black.
Eddie had just woken up from one of his many daily naps by the sound of heavy rain hitting the thin trailer roof. Somewhere in the distance, there was barking. Just the neighbour's dog looking for a few extra bites, he knew. Usually, it was Max and him that would feed the pup, but lately, Eddie knew that Max was going through something, so that left mostly him bringing out leftovers.
As he scrummaged through the pantry, looking for anything close to its expiration date, he thought about how he hasn't really seen Max in a few days. He usually would still see her coming or going to school, even if she rarely came in for coffee or tea these days. He had talked to Steve about her, and despite both of their worry, they had decided to not push the redhead to talk just yet. She would at her own time, Steve had said. And Eddie had listened... after all, he didn't know Max for that long, and he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable if he interfered too much. He decided that unless she comes to him for anything, he'd stick to waving to her from afar, and leaving Hershey milk bars on her window sill. Which, by the way, were always gone in a few hours, so he took it as a sign and kept doing it.
When he didn't find anything, he gave up and resorted to cutting a good piece of the loaf of bread in the pantry. He put a spoonful of peanut butter on it and headed outside to meet their small, but loud friend. Trying to shield himself from the pouring rain, he rushed towards the pup, and gently threw the loaf of bread over the fence. To his surprise, the dog didn't stop its barks at all. Usually, at the first smell of peanut butter, the dog would quiet down, but today, it barely registered it as Eddie kneeled down to its level.
Eddie looked in the direction the dog was barking, and he struggled to make out a blurry blob of blue on the ground. He got up and walked closer to whatever it was since the rain was severely limiting his eyesight.
He wasn't more than thirty feet away when he saw her. Before any thoughts could enter his brain, Eddie was running towards the tiny body lying on the wet ground. He didn't want to believe his eyes, but he knew it right away. He knew who it was, he knew it was Max.
As soon as Eddie made it to Max's small frame, he dropped to his knees, busy trying to assess the teen's condition. She couldn't be dead, right? He tried to shut up his brain, but the thought only left his mind after he felt Max's faint pulse under his fingertips.
"Max! Hey- Max! Max, wake up!" He started mumbling while gently slapping the side of Max's face. That's when he noticed it, an angry red bruise on Max's left cheek, as well as a trail of blood dripping from her forehead down to the ground.
"Max! Sweetie, hey- Max! Please, wake up Max!" He was still shaking the teen, when she stirred under his touch. He stilled as her eyes begin to open slowly.
"Hey.. Hi! Hi there.." He spoke slowly, his own heartbeat slowing down now that she was waking up.
"Eddie?...Hi" she spoke after him.
"Hey! Thank god you're okay.. Not okay, well- you know. Oh my god.. Oh fuck. Max-" Eddie was starting to ramble but he knew he needed to put himself together as soon as possible.
"I am.. I am okay. Just tired I guess." Max offered a small smile, still laying on the ground, head propped up by Eddie's hand.
"Wait here, I'm going to bring Susan!" Eddie was going to get up, but then he felt Max tug on his sleeve and looked at her with worry.
"NO! No, please. Don't go to my mom." She said slowly.
"Is she not home?" Eddie pointed to the trailer.
"It's a long story. Can we- can we go to yours for a bit?" Max said, as she tried to get up slowly, before Eddie placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"Nope! I mean- Yes! We can go to my trailer, but you ain't walking Max! I know you can probably manage, but I am not taking any chances." with far too much ease for his liking, Eddie picked Max up and started walking to his trailer. God, she barely weighed anything. He'd address that later though.. for now, he was in protective Eddie mode and he needed a few things cleared up.
The walk to the trailer was quick, and soon Max was being laid down on Eddie's living room couch. Inside, under the light, Eddie could really see the state Max was in, and he didn't like it. However, at least the teen looked more alert now, her head was resting on one of the cushions and she looked at Eddie with a look he couldn't quite read through.
"Max, what happened?!" He couldn't help but ask, as he took a sit on one of the chairs facing the couch.
"I can't say 'nothing', can I?" Max mumbled, and Eddie gently shook his head.
"Yeah.. it was just this guy.. a guy my mom brought home. Another guy, another set of anger issues I guess." She said, the faintest smile lingering on her lips. Eddie couldn't try to explain why.
"A man did this?! A fucking grown ass adult hurt you?! Max, we gotta call the police.." Eddie started, but he noticed Max's pleading look and he silenced himself.
"No.. please. My mom's all I have left. You know it won't look good if I accuse her new boyfriend of abuse. Especially since she's drunk off her ass right now and won't back me up at all." Max said, sadness piercing through her voice like a knife.
"Max.. For god's sake. You don't deserve this shit, kid." Eddie said and ran a hand through his hair, before he seemed to jump into action.
"Alright, we'll figure this out later, but for now, we gotta fix you up. God, how long have you been laying in the rain?" Eddie said as he stood up and made his way to the bathroom.
About a minute later, he returned with a towel and a first aid kit. He had the kit on standby in case Jason or some other fuckers came for him, he'd never have guessed that he'd be using it on one of the party's freshmen members.
"Eddie.. where's your uncle?" Max spoke up as she was wrapping her wet hair in the towel Eddie handed her.
"Oh Wayne's out of town for a few days, it's just me here." Eddie told her as he was opening the first aid kit.
"Oh.. okay. Good." Max said and if she thought Eddie might take offence at that, he didn't. He knew Max wasn't good around people, and she wouldn't want more people to see her in this condition.
"I hope you would be okay staying here for tonight? Or maybe you would feel more comfortable we could try Dustin's, or Steve's..? I just don't want you back there yet." He hurried, but Max shook her head.
"No, no. I'm good with staying here for a night.. if that's okay. I don't want to alert any of the others.. right now." She said in a small voice, almost as if she was asking for permission. It was so out of character for Max, that Eddie was worried she might have a concussion. He'd never seen the teen so small, and quiet before.
"Of course, Max. I think they'd want to know though.. especially Steve. But you don't have to tell anyone anything until you want to." He smiled softly, happy that the teen felt even a little comfortable at his place, it was the best he could offer at the moment.
The next thirty minutes were spent while Eddie tried his best to clean Max's face, gave her an old oversized sweater of his that covered almost all of her (Including her feet), and made her a peanut butter sandwich that Max finished in only a few minutes.
"Thank you, Eddie." Max broke the comfortable silence they had settled in with a smile.
"You're welcome, Max." The older boy smiled back.
"I hate to do this.. but I am desperate and there's one more thing I need your help with.." Max mumbled, and Eddie almost didn't catch it.
"Of course! What's up?" Eddie looked at her, worry beginning to settle on his face again.
"Can you drive me to the store, and borrow me like two bucks?" She asked in, once again, a voice way too quiet for her.
"Yeah! But.. why can't I just go and grab you whatever you need while you try and take a nap, huh? It's pouring outside, and you are finally dry." Eddie asked, and as if it was a rhetorical question, he got up and reached for his keys.
"No! I mean- It's kinda embarrassing-" Max started.
"What is it, Max?" Eddie asked again, not being able to think of anything Max might need right at that moment that could be so embarrassing for him to pick up from the store.
"Do you even know what tampons look like?" Max blurted out, not trying to sound mean, just not being able to frame the question better.
"Oh my- you actually got me worried for a second! Yeah, Max, believe it or not, I paid attention in biology! Now that I've said that out loud- I don't think I'd believe myself about that.." he trailed off, the teen's face had changed from the one of embarrassment to one of amusement meanwhile.
"Not the point. Yeah- of course I know what tampons look like! I'll go pick some up." He finished with a quiet laugh.
"Gosh, the little faith you kids have at me.." He mumbled under his breath, but there was no malice behind his words.
"Thank you so much Eddie, you're the best! Remind me to thank Ms. Whiteford too!" Max yelled as Eddie exited the trailer.