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Max Mayfield's eyes jerked open.
She blinked a few times under the harsh ceiling lights of the hospital room. She scanned around the room. She could see. Her vision was back.
Her ears picked up the soft sounds of music playing. Not just any kind of music. It was her favourite, Kate Bush.
Running up that hill, with no problems...
The same song she used to get out of the upside down.
Max tried to get up. Stuck. She slowly lowered her eyes to her body. She was lying down on a white bed. Her arms and legs were in thick white casts. Right, she had broken her joints, nearly burst her eyeballs, and blacked out. She could remember the scenes clearly, as if it just happened the day before. She recalled telling Lucas that she couldn't see, she remembered the pain she was in, the tears she could not cry from her bleeding eyes, the close encounters with Vecna.
Vecna, an evil creature who was once a man now living in the upside down. Or was he now?
Max felt calm, she felt no pain in her body. She had passed out, but for how long? She looked around where she was. In a bed, with casts, bright ceiling lights in a room filled with blue and white. A hospital room?
Right in her level of sight was a familiar drawing pasted across the room wall in front of her bed. The drawing she did for Lucas. Movie Friday. It was two simple stick figures holding hands, one was Max, and the other was Lucas. She remembered drawing him holding him some popcorn, with the cinema theatre seats behind. A simple but cute drawing. Why was it on the wall?
The music around her continued to play.
Say if only I could...I'll make a deal with God...and I'll get him to swap our places...
She slowly turned her head to the source of the music. It was hard, considering the plastic neck collar put on her neck.
Her eyes opened wide when she saw the top of someone's head, sitting down and looking at a handheld video game console in his hand. The soft robotic beeps came out from the console with the music. She instantly recognised who it was.
Lucas Sinclair sat on a chair next to Max's bed, playing his video game. He had not noticed yet that Max was awake and continued keeping his head down, a neutral expression on his face.
Her eyes glanced over to her music player on a small table next to her hospital bed. It was surrounded with some flowers which most had partially withered.
I'd be running up that road...be running up that hill...with no problems...
Max turned her blue eyes to an unaware Lucas.
"I'm glad you're here," she suddenly said.
That made Lucas jump and drop his console. He stared back at a smiling Max, his eyes going wide and his mouth dropping. He instantly stood up from his seat, the wooden chair toppling behind him, but he kept his eyes on Max, never looking away.
"M-Max...?" he whispered in surprise, his voice and lip quivering.
"Hi Lucas," she smiled softly which nearly made him melt inside.
Lucas's eyes immediately filled with tears as he threw himself onto Max, hugging her tightly, as if he was scared to let go. He let out a half-sob half-laugh when Max wrapped her arms around him. She smiled as the music finished playing, and the tape stopped rolling.
Lucas was already sobbing into Max's shoulder in the warm silence of the room. "You're okay..." he sniffed. "It's been...it's been so long..."
"How long, exactly?" Max asked when Lucas gently pulled away from the hug, wiping away his tears.
"Well...it's been a few months--"
"Months?!" Max's jaw dropped. "I've passed out for months?!"
"Y-you were in a coma! W-we tried our best, we tried everything...Please, Max, you have to believe me," Lucas panicked for a moment with her sudden anger. "But Vecna's gone. He's gone. Eleven beat him. We beat him, Max." He smiled and stroked the side of her soft face with his palm. "We won...and you're okay."
Max gazed into his loving eyes, her lips forming a tiny smile.
She looked back across the room, back to the drawing she made. "Still up for movie Friday?"
-
They sat together in the mostly empty cinema, snacking on a box of popcorn that they shared. It was the following Friday. The first Friday of peace for the whole group of friends. A week after they battled wars with the upside down.
Max didn't need her bandages anymore. She was healed. Healed by her friend, Eleven. Vecna was gone, so was her injuries. Although the memories stayed, Lucas and her friends were with her all the time since she got out of the hospital.
This time, she was only with Lucas. Their movie night together, watching the new Karate Kid Part II movie.
The screen in front of the cinema lit up. The movie started playing.
Max and Lucas looked at each other, grinning widely. Their faces were close to each other. Close enough to steal a kiss. And they did. A short and sweet kiss made them giggle softly before turning back to the screen.
Max laid her head on Lucas's shoulder, and Lucas put his on top of Max's ginger hair, smiling as they watched their movie.
Their movie Friday.