Chapter Text
Max’s first encounter with El wasn’t a great one. Lucas had told her all about El, and how amazing she was. So when she came through the front door of the Byers' home Max mustered up all my knowledge of how to make friends and said ‘Hi, I’m Max. I’ve heard a lot about you.” El of course did not partake in this conversation because she was looking for none other than her god-awful boyfriend; Mike. Luckily that relationship ended very quickly because the reason she was looking for him was to break up with him. After all the chaos of closing the gate and saving the world, well Max would like to say they became best friends, but to be honest, they were far from it. She only saw her when she went somewhere with the rest of the boys– which was fine of course! The party is great, but El was the friend Max was yearning for. You couldn’t gossip with the boys, paint their nails, do their hair, or have a sleepover- without it being weird- with the boys. They were an arcade or outdoors-only kind of fun, and since Max didn’t like DND which was all of their main interests they didn’t have much of a connection.
So moral of the story, Max and El never really got close. When El wasn’t there when school started the next year Max was well disappointed. Hanging out with the rest of the party was fun, but El rarely talked there. It wasn’t until the next summer that Max and El finally hung out alone for the first time.
-
Max was on the street in front of her house trying to master some strange skateboarding trick. Well fuck . She thought as she looked at my freshly scraped hand and knee. When she finally collected herself and stood up she was met with none other than El Hopper holding her skateboard.
“Hi,” El said holding out the board with both hands.
“Hi?” Max replied. What was El doing here, and how did she find where I lived?!
“Can we talk?”
“Umm, sure,” Max said then started walking up to her front door with El following close behind.
Once inside Max lead her to her bedroom and they sat on the side of the bed.
“So,” Max started “What’s up?”
“Well, without Mike, I’ve been… bored.” She said though it sounded more like she was asking herself than telling Max.
“Elaborate.”
“Mike gave me stuff to do, to look forward to. But it wasn’t fun, like kissing and dating and stuff.” Max nods, it’s how I felt when I was dating Lucas. Lucas was great, but boyfriends just weren’t for me.
“But now,” she continued “I don’t have anything to do. I just stay at home and watch tv.”
“Well, you don’t need boys to have fun,” Max suggests. El looked at her with her big brown eyes and a slightly confused face. Max decided this was her sign to continue talking.
“You can read comics, or uh go to the arcade or the mall! Oh my god, El do you wanna go to the mall?” Max asked excitedly.
“What’s the…mall?” El questioned.
“Come with me, we can go right now!” Max said taking El’s arm and standing up. She stood up and followed as Max brought them to her mom.”
“Mom, can you drop me and El off at the mall?” Max begged. She matched the voice with puppy eyes and a soft smile.
“Of course sweetheart, one minute let me get my shoes,” Max’s mother said and then walked off. Max turned to El with a big smile and giggle. I haven’t had the chance to take any of my friends to the mall . Just the thought of getting to hang out with El made Max feel giddy. It was vastly different from how she usually acted, she was never this bubbly and girly.
-
The car ride was uneventful since El didn’t really know what a mall was, and it was kinda hard for Max to describe the joy of taking polaroid photos, buying pretzels, and trying on fancy clothes you know you will never buy. When they made it Max thanked my mom for driving them and opened the car door. El went through Max’s door despite being on the other side of the car and shut it behind her, jumping a little when it banged. Max giggled a little and said,
“Oh don’t worry about it the car is a piece of shit, it always does that.” El looked over and smiled at me. Max had brought 30 dollars but she didn’t plan on spending much, she mostly wanted to get El things, like new clothes since it seemed like none of them had been picked by her.
“C’mon let's go get new clothes, or do you want drinks first?” Max asked excitedly.
“Drinks!” El said matching her excitement as she looked around the huge mall in awe. We ran through the mall dazed with happiness as I lead her to the slushie stand.
“Alright so you pay for the cup and then you put the slushie in over here,” Max explained, pointing at everything to make sure the directions were explicit. Max walked up to the counter and ask for “Two large slushies, please!” The worker came back with two oversized styrofoam cups filled ready to be filled with crushed-ice goodness . After paying Max walked over to El who was looking at the flavor options: Blue Rasberry, Cherry, Grape, Pina Colada, Orange Cream, and Coca-Cola.
“What one are you gonna get?” El asked softly.
“I was gonna do half cherry and half blue raspberry, but I hate when they mix,” Max responded.
“Well, why don’t I get one and you get the other… so they don’t mix?” El suggests sweetly.
“Sounds good to me!” Max shrugs, then walking over to the Cherry dispenser. El walks to the Blue Rasberry one and stares at it in confusion.
“Oh um, here you do it like this,” Max says, walking over and taking her cup, and pushing it into the lever so the blue liquid can spill into the cup.
“And then you just hold it there until it is full,” she adds, then walking back to her cup and filling it with cherry liquid. Max clinks their cups together and takes a sip. El does as well and they switch cups to try each other's flavors.
“Is it good?” Max asks.
“Very good.” She responds smiling.
“Cool, You wanna go buy clothes?”
“Okay!” El says with a giggle. I’m happy El’s happy, but I’m really happy it’s me that’s making her happy! Wait why the fuck am I so soft. El’s curls bounce around her head as she runs with Max to JCPenny where they can hopefully find new clothes for her. Only slowing down when they reach the store's entrance,
“Why do I … need new clothes?” She questions.
“Well I mean, you don’t need new clothes, but clothes are a good way to express yourself. You can be independent, people like Hopper and Mike don’t have to dictate your style.” Max replies.
“How do I know what I clothes… ex - press me?” El says innocently.
“I guess you just find something that feels like you? Just try on what you think looks cool and see what looks best.” Max suggests with a smile. El smiles back and they head to the section Max assumes would fit her. El grabs at least 6 outfits but the majority were jokes, like the big suspender pants a barret.
“I think you would look nice in this one!” Max says holding up a baggy, long sleeve, dark red and white striped button-up and a pair of black high-waisted shorts.
“Thanks! I’ll try it, I also really like this one.” El says holding up a black dress with colorful shapes all over it.
“Ooh! That one will look great!” Max says happily.
-
After a long session in the fitting room and 2 full bags of clothes later they headed to the nearest payphone to call Max’s mom to pick them up. El decided to leave the store with the black dress on because it was her favorite outfit out of the ones they bought, and Max decided it was a good opportunity to get a photo.
“Hey El?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you hold up your bags and smile? I wanna take a picture!”
“Oh, yeah sure!” she said then holding the bags up as Max unstrapped the camera from her neck. She quickly snapped two pictures.
“Once they’ve finished developing we’ll be able to see the picture, so we can remember today! And I took two so we can both have a copy.” She says once the pictures came out the camera.
“Can I take two of you?” El asks.
“Oh, uh yeah sure!” Max says, handing her the camera. El stares at it for a moment before looking up at her confused “Oh right, I forgot you haven’t used one before. So you look through here so you can see what the picture is gonna be of, and then you hit this button to take the picture!” She explains, then posing with her new red sunglasses. When El takes the camera away from her face she let out a giggle. Max takes the camera and the pictures to put away in one of her shopping bags.
Suddenly a loud honk sounds, releasing them from their peaceful moment. Max looked up to see her mom in front of them in the car waving. They both giggle again and go get in the car, telling her mom about all the fun they had.
-
Unfortunately after the mall, El realized that Hopper might be wondering where she is and had to leave, but she promised they would hang out again soon. Max made sure to give her her share of the polaroids and all of her bags before she left. Max also asked for her house phone number so they could talk more often. After El left, Max was left to her own devices, which was much more objectively depressing than when she had been with El. While wavering over her options of things to do she realized that all of her favorite things could be brought together into one amazing idea; have a sleepover with El! She ran into her closet to find some old notebook from school to could use as a planner.
Practically bursting with excitement at the thought of having her first sleepover, she ran into the living room to call El. She had managed to memorize the number already but she pulled out the slip El had written it on just in case she messed up.
Ring… Ring… Ring… Ri-
“Hello?” The soft voice spoke.
“Hi El!”
“Oh, Hi Max!”
“Wanna have a sleepover?”
“A what?”
“Um, just ask Hopper if you can have a sleepover at my house. They are super fun!”
“Okay.” She said with a confused tone, then a kinda muffled yell comes through the phone “Hopper? Can me and Max have a…”
“Sleepover.” Max says into the phone
“Sleepover, at Max’s house?” A blur of sounds comes from the background of the call; Hopper.
“He said yes.” El says nonchalantly.
“Cool! I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow, we can meet infront of my house again” Max says excitedly. “But uh.. Only if you want,” She adds on.
“Okay!” She says sweetly. “Goodbye Max.”
“Bye El.” Max says with a giggle before hanging up. Tomorrow will be amazing.