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"Why can't I get a black dress?" Max sighs as she looks over at Erica. There's a black dress draped in her lap, and she knows better than to try fighting it when Erica walks over and snatches it.
"We aren't goths, Max."
Max disappears into the hoard of dresses, muttering under her breath as Erica resumes her search, moving through the options like it's her job. It kind of is, even if no one appointed her for it. Max and Lucas are going to prom together, and Erica will be damned if she doesn't make sure it's the best night of their stupid little lives. Lucas has been ridiculously excited, rambling on for way too long at her about how it's going to be such a good night. And even though Max isn't nearly as dorky about the whole thing, Erica knows everything, so she knows that Max is tentatively looking forward to it.
As prickly as she likes to be, it's not really a well kept secret that Erica adores her brother's girlfriend. The first time they met, Erica had taken in Max's sarcastic quips with glee, giving an honestly goofy smile when she'd said something only to have Max high five her in response. Way back when, Erica had chided Lucas every time Max had dumped him, figuring that he was the one at fault. She knows now that it was much more complicated than that, that Max had a bucket load of emotions and hurts that she didn't quite know how to work through. Course, that only got worse after Billy, when Max had completely pulled away. It'd been such a shock to Erica, the first time Max had snapped at her after that. Max got sad, Max got nasty, and everyone had uneasily let her drift away. The whole situation had been completely out of Erica's depth, and while she knows Lucas tried, he kept trying, no one had gotten anywhere with Max until Vecna had already marked his territory.
Erica doesn't think she's ever cried as hard as she did the day Max woke up for the first time. Her vision had been so blurred that she'd tripped over a hospital charge, winning a started laugh from Max that had both Sinclairs fighting through a fresh round of tears.
Max was Erica's family. They'd stuck together, helping each other and helping Lucas. When El finally killed Vecna, finally freed Hawkins, the three of them had hugged each other so tightly until Max had to pull back for air.
Yeah. Erica loves Max and she loves her brother. They were going to have a good prom even if she had to kick some asses.
Finally, Erica is able to dig out an emerald green dress. It's more fitted than some of the other poofy disasters hanging around it, which was perfect. Max isn't a poofy kind of girl, and anything with too big of a skirt risked getting caught in her wheelchair. When Erica hunts down Max and shows her the dress, the hesitant smile on Max's face means that Erica nailed it. Max tries the dress on just to be sure, but they're only in the store for another twenty minutes. When Erica tells Max that she’s going to look fucking awesome in the dress, she laughs a little at the blush that spreads across Max’s face. It only gets redder when she mentions that Lucas is also going to think Max looks great.
Erica can't see them, but she can hear them fighting.
"The fuck do you mean, you're not going to Massachusetts anymore?" Max's voice is low, angry, and startlingly sincere. There's been no sarcastic comments, no brushing things off with a joke and a loose agreement to talk later. She's well and truly pissed, so Lucas is at risk of being swallowed whole. Erica leans against the wall, curious as to how this plays out. “I thought you already told them that you accepted.”
There’s a pause where Lucas doesn’t say anything, and Erica assumes it's him trying to collect his thoughts, to not rush and say something that Max can misinterpret. “I told them that I wanted to wait a year. They said that was okay, you know? They might not hold all my scholarships, can’t like guarantee that or anything. But they can hold my spot, and I at least have a fighting chance of getting all those scholarships again.”
“That still doesn’t explain why.”
Lucas’s voice is too quiet, so Erica can’t hear his response. She doesn’t really need to though, because Max’s voice gets louder.
“What the fuck, Lucas?” she practically spits. Erica imagines her head rearing back, her face turning red like it usually does when she’s fighting. “We- we already talked about this, for fuck’s sake. You’re not supposed to be putting your life on hold for me.”
Erica moves a bit closer to the door, eager to hear what Lucas’s response is going to be. It’s a good thing their parents aren’t home, or else this fight would have gotten shut down in a couple of seconds. The fight would have been tabled if they knew Erica was home too, so she needs to make sure she stays as quiet as she can. “I’m not putting my life on hold, Max. Being here with you, with my family, is not putting my life on hold. It’s just staying with the people that I love for another year. Is that so bad?” His voice is gentle like he’s worried about spooking Max. Erica doesn’t blame him. Max does spook easily, still.
“You’re supposed to go to Massachusetts.”
“I don’t want to go. Not without you.”
Max laughs then. It makes Erica wince. “Jesus, are you serious? You’re going to say that you’re not putting your life on hold for me, but that you don’t want to go without me? What does that sound like to you, Lucas? Cause to me that sounds like you’re putting your life on hold-”
“Max.” He interrupts her, a little firmer than he was a few seconds ago. “Can you listen to me for a second? Please?”
There’s a grunt, presumably Max agreeing.
“I’m not putting my life on hold for you. You’re literally the best thing in my life, okay? I don’t know how to get you to believe me on that, but I really, really need you to believe me. I love you. You’re my best friend. I want to be here with you when you graduate high school, when you inevitably flip off the principal at graduation-”
“Not my fault he’s an asshole,” Max says, without any real heat behind it.
“I know, honey. He’s the worst. My point still stands. I want to be here with you now, and when you graduate, if you want…you can come out to Massachusetts with me. We can go together. Or we can go somewhere else, if you’re really against Boston accents. I’m not putting my life on hold for you. I want to build my life with you. It’s different. Plus, you think I trust you and Erica to not constantly be shit talking me while I’m gone? I’m not a newbie.”
There’s another pause this time. Longer. When they start speaking again, it’s in such hushed tones that she can’t make it out anymore. After a couple more seconds, she moves away from the door, going back into the kitchen and grabbing a bottle of water as she thinks.
It wasn’t really a surprise to anyone when Max ended up having to repeat her freshman year. Her grades hadn’t been awesome even before she was in the hospital, and she was out of commission for so long that there was just no way for her to catch back up. The one and only time Dustin had tried to make a joke about it, Max’s face had crumbled and Lucas had snapped back at him to shut the fuck up. Erica knew Max has been feeling nervous about Lucas going off to college, leaving her behind in Hawkins. She’d told Erica this under the promise that Erica was never allowed to tell her brother about it, but apparently she hadn’t even needed to. Lucas is planning against that anyway,
When Lucas and Max finally join her by the table, they’re both sporting little smiles, and Lucas grabs Max’s hands as soon as she puts on the breaks on the wheelchair. It’s killing Erica that she can’t ask about the resolution to their fight without revealing that she’s been in the house the whole time and even listened to part of it. Instead, Erica leans forward and looks at her brother. “Did you remember to book your tux fitting appointment today?”
Comically, Lucas slaps his hand to his forehead, sputtering about how he totally forgot as Erica and Max both laugh at him. Max lets go of his hand to pat him on the arm. “I’m going to have to write that shit on your forehead, at this point. Otherwise you’re never going to remember.”
“I’d let you.”
Max rolls her eyes, but it’s so obviously fond that it makes Erica want to throw up a little bit. “I know, stalker.”
Yeah. Even though they still fight sometimes, Erica’s pretty sure those two are going to be okay.
They all get nightmares. It’d be kind of insane if they didn’t, probaby, but that still doesn’t make them super fun. Lucas’s don’t usually get to the point where they wake him up, but if they do, there’s a good chance he’s going to knock on Erica’s door in the middle of the night. Luckily for him, she’s a pretty light sleeper.
“What is it this time?” She asks, rubbing her eyes as she sits up. Lucas settles down on her floor, folding his legs pretzel style as he rests his forehead against the edge of her mattress. The weirdo always sits on the floor when he does this. She’s saintly enough to let it slide without comment.
“Do you ever think about it?” He asks, and she gives him a second to specify what exactly he means by “it”. “How paranoid we all used to be, after Vecna first died? I don’t think any of us really thought it was over. I was so convinced that he was going to manage to come back and snatch Max up if I had my eyes closed for too long.”
Yeah, Erica remembered that. Lucas hadn’t been alone in that line of thinking. Her, Lucas, El, and Steve had taken shifts sitting with Max, making sure someone was always awake and next to her when Ms. Mayfield was proving to be too unreliable. Steve had even provided snacks. “She’s not going anywhere, Lucas.”
“I know,” he sighs. “Did she ever tell you what memory she used to try to hide from Vecna, when he got her?”
“Nope.”
“The Snow Ball. That’s when we…when she kissed me for the first time. I almost exploded on the spot.”
Erica snorts. “Whipped from day one.”
“Shut up. Just. That was such a good memory for her, you know? For both of us, but like. Vecna ruined that, cause that’s where she was trying to hide when he almost killed her.”
The Sinclair children haven’t always been close, but they are now, so Erica knows where her brother is going even before he gets there. “You want prom to replace that memory for her, but you’re afraid something bad is going to happen at the same time, because we’re a bunch of traumatized teenagers.” When he doesn’t say anything, she knows she’s gotten it right. She sighs as she slides off of her bed, joining her brother on the floor. “You two are going to have a lot of fun, Lucas. She’s going to have a lot of fun. It’s not going to be the same as the Snow Ball, cause you were what, thirteen? You’re old enough now that you’ve got back problems. A lot has changed. I don’t think prom is going to like, replace that for her. It’ll just be another good memory with you that she can look back on. Separate and different from the Snow Ball, but still awesome. Nothing bad is going to happen. Steve’s still got that nail bat, right? Or he made a new one or something? Whatever it is, I can camp out with it in the parking lot if you’re that worried about it. You know I can kick some ass.”
Lucas laughs and sure, it’s a little shaky, but it’s still a laugh. That definitely counts as a win. “When did you get so fucking wise, huh?”
“From birth. Not my fault you failed to see it when you were little and snotty.”
“Snotty,” Lucas repeats under his breath. “Geez.”
“Go back to bed,” she urges. “You’ve got DnD tomorrow, and I have to help your girlfriend figure out how she wants to do her hair for prom.”
“Leave some of it down.”
She squints at him. “What?”
“Don’t put her hair completely up. I like it when at least some of it is down.”
Erica snorts. “Alright.”
The day of prom, Max and El get ready at the Sinclairs and Lucas gets ready at Steve’s with the rest of the guys. Erica’s mom is fluttering around, helping El with her hair and makeup as Erica sits in front of Max. They’d already practiced this, so it doesn’t take them too much time to get Max ready. They keep her makeup simple, since it’s inevitable that Max is going to rub at her face or something, and it’s not like she’s big into glitz and glam. She’s already in her dress. Erica’s mom had loaned her some silver earrings and a silver necklace.
“Lucas is going to lose it when he sees you,” El giggles from off to the side. “You look bitchin’, Max.”
Max grins, big and wild like she always does around El. “That’s the goal. Get him to fall down to his knees so we’re actually eye to eye.”
Erica’s mom snorts, fondly shaking her head. “You could just ask him to sit down, sweetheart.”
“That’s not as fun.”
The girls are ready not too long after, El standing behind Max’s wheelchair ready to push her. It never made sense to Erica why El was the only one Max allows to push her on a regular basis, but those two are always weird when they’re together. When they hear the familiar honking of a horn, they head out, flanked by Erica and her mom. Steve’s van is sitting in the driveway, an ugly thing he’d gotten a couple of years ago to better accommodate the wheelchair. Max had teared up and punched him on the shoulder when he’d first gotten it, but it serves him well for occasions like this, when a gaggle of teenage boys come spilling out of the car.
Lucas starts to beeline for Max before stopping suddenly. It makes Erica worry right up until she sees the awestruck look on his face as he stares at his girlfriend. She rolls her eyes, locking eyes with El, who smirks for a moment before leaving the lovey dovey couple to say their hellos on their own. As Mike bickers with Steve about something that’s almost certainly stupid, Erica circles up with Dustin, Will, and El.
Will is bouncing up and down on his feet, forever a ball of nervous energy. It makes Erica want to push down on the top of his head with her hand to see if that’d get him to stop, but she knows that’d just make him flinch away. In an impressive feat, she keeps her hands by her side. “Can’t believe Lucas isn’t coming to Boston with us anymore,” he sighs. “But it’ll be nice to have him and Max there the next year.”
Dustin’s face twists up, and this time Erica can’t help herself. “Don’t be so sour, Henderson. Not all relationships crash and burn like yours did.”
She laughs as he squaks, accepting a high five from El. Before he can protest any more, Mike joins them, and a few seconds after, so do Lucas and Max. Lucas is grinning so widely that it looks like his face is about to split open. He’s gripping Max’s hand, glancing down at her every couple of seconds. On her end, she looks like she’s trying to fight a blush.
“You guys ready to go?” Max asks. “We don’t want mom to get too impatient over there.”
“Heard that!” Steve calls. “You’re all little shits!”
“But we’re your little shits!” Lucas replies, laughing when Steve half-heartedly flips him off. “But really, we should get going.”
As they all start to walk back over to the van, Erica grabs Lucas and pulls him into a quick hug. “Have fun,” she tells him, thinking back to his last nightmare. “It’ll be good, yeah?”
He nods, looking over at Max. It seems like he’s unable to look at her lately without smiling, so it’s unsurprising when another one sprouts on his face. “Yeah. It’ll be fucking fantastic. Thanks, Erica.”
“Don’t mention it,” she says. “Seriously. I have a reputation to uphold. I’ll kill you if you ruin it.”