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Lucas walks up to his mirror, flashes his cutest - and handsomest – smile, and poses with his hands on his hips.
“Hey!” He gives the mirror a quick wave while raising his eyebrows and bobbing his head. “Wanna dance?”
He stares into his reflection, still smiling, before shaking his head. “No…”
Max is the coolest girl he’s ever known! He needs to do better than that to impress her.
He looks back at the mirror. “We should, uh, you know, get out there. Like…” Lucas starts to do a little dance, pumping his arms.
“Do our thi– stop.” He sighs and shakes his head in regret.
Putting one hand back on his hip and one hand pointing up like he’s about to say something important, he locks eyes with his reflection, opens his mouth to speak, but finds he has nothing to say. Lucas aggressively rubs his cheeks and inhales. He gives his body a little shake, hoping to reset.
“I love this song.” He says, grinning. “You?”
“Yeah, I love it.” Lucas turns around, fast, at the sound of this teasing voice. “But not as much as I love you, Lukey.”
His annoying sister Erica beams at him. Lucas stomps towards his bedroom door.
“Get. Out. Of my. Room!” He slams the door in her face.
Lucas knows he’s going to totally embarrass himself in front of Max tonight.
—
Lucas, Max, Will, and Mike sit at a table near the back at the Snow Ball. They spot Dustin strutting up to them, sticking out his tongue and doing a quick spin. They also spot his new puffball hairstyle – it isn’t hard to miss.
“Holy shit, what happened to you?” Mike asks as they all stand up to move towards Dustin.
Lucas chuckles. Dustin’s face drops.
“What do you mean what happened?”
“What?” Mike’s voice is sharp.
“Dude!” Lucas can’t help but find this extremely funny.
“Your hair…” Max just stares in awe.
“Is there a bird nesting in there?” Lucas goes to run his fingers through his hair, but Dustin steps back and pulls Lucas's arms down before he can do any damage.
“No! What do you mean what’s wrong with my hair? There’s no bird nesting in here, asshole! Okay?” Dustin sounds offended.
The party just laughs.
“I worked hard!” He starts feeling his hair.
Suddenly, a song that’s perfect for slow dancing starts playing. The party immediately looks around the room. Couples began to put their arms around each other, swaying to the music. Now is his moment.
Lucas turns to Max, whose brows are furrowed watching the dance floor.
“Max.” She looks at him with an… intense expression.
Lucas feels nervous. He doesn’t want to mess this up.
“Hey.” He says, nodding. He hopes his smile doesn’t look pathetic. “Um, it’s nice, right?”
Now Max is smiling at him, and his heart starts beating faster.
“You wanna… um… you wanna like… you know… like… just… you and me?” Nailed it.
Max narrows her eyes. “Are you trying to ask me to dance, Stalker?”
Okay, maybe Lucas isn’t as cool as he thought.
“No, of course not.”
But then Max’s eyes soften, and she gives him another smile.
Wait – maybe he is cool. “Unless… you want to?”
Max giggles and shakes her head. “So smooth. Come on.” She takes Lucas’s hand, guiding him towards the dance floor.
Max’s arms go around his neck, and Lucas can feel himself smiling like an idiot. He awkwardly puts his hands on her waist, but never breaks eye contact with her. He could look at her forever.
As Lucas and Max dance, he sees Will dancing with a girl in the corner of his eye. Will doesn’t seem too happy about it though. Max turns her head towards them with an amused expression, then looks back at Lucas with her sweet smile.
Lucas feels like this is the happiest he’s ever been in his life. He hopes that Max is feeling the same way.
Lucas doesn’t want the song to end, he wants to keep dancing with Max. Luckily for him, another song for slow dancing starts to play. Just when he thought this night couldn’t get any better, Max kisses him. She giggles. He giddily smiles at her. That’s all he can seem to do whenever he looks at Max. She leans into a hug, and Lucas is so thankful he decided to stalk MadMax.
He looks around and sees Mike dancing with El. Lucas didn’t think it would be safe for her to come, but he’s glad she gets to be a normal kid for once. He didn’t really care for her at the beginning, but they’re on good terms now.
Mike’s stiff hands catch his eye. Lucas hoped his own hands didn’t look that awkward on Max. Next to him, he hears Will whisper to the girl, “Sorry,” and start to walk out of the gym.
Max notices this too and she lifts her head off Lucas’s shoulder. She looks worried.
“Is he okay?”
Lucas sees him walk past Mike and El. Mike’s attention pulls away from her, focusing on Will. He says something to El, then runs out the door to where Will left.
Lucas and Max exchange a look.
“Um… did you see Dustin dancing with Nancy? I guess no one wanted to dance with him with that bird nest on his head.” Max tries her best to lighten up the mood.
“What? Where?” Lucas starts analyzing the dance floor.
“Over there. Should we get him to dance with El? He wouldn’t ditch her like Mike did.” She scowled.
Lucas thinks about it. “Do you think Mike would be upset?”
Max shakes her head. “It’s just dancing. Besides, he has Will.”
Well, whatever. It couldn’t hurt. He and Max make their way over to Dustin and Nancy.
“Sorry Nancy. We’re getting Dustin a dance partner his age.” Lucas takes him by the shoulders.
“Dude, it’s fine. No one wanted to dance with me.” His voice gets quiet as he glances over at a popular, judgmental group of girls.
Max points at El. “El needs someone to dance with. Come on.”
“I can't just leave Nancy.”
Nancy takes Dustin's hand and squeezes it. “I should probably go back to serving drinks now anyway. I'm glad I got to dance with you. It was really nice.”
Her voice is sweet. Lucas hasn't heard this side of Nancy for quite some time.
Dustin still looks unsure, but the song is ending, and Max and Lucas guide him over to El. Lucas feels sorry for her. She looks apprehensive standing there all alone, and who can blame her? He doesn’t understand why Mike didn’t just take her with him to go check on Will, but there are lots of things about Mike that don’t make sense to Lucas. Max gives Dustin a shove in El’s direction, and he takes a deep breath.
“Hey. Shall we?” Dustin holds his palm out towards her and smiles.
El flinches at the sound of his voice, but relaxes when she sees it's only Dustin. Her eyes dart towards the door where she last saw Mike, then she looks back at Dustin. El gives him a small nod and takes his hand.
"I like your hair." El says to him as they start dancing.
Dustin looks surprised, but his mood instantly changes. He stands up taller, regaining his positivity and confidence. "Why, thank you. I like yours as well."
Lucas and Max give them thumbs ups, and they go back to dancing. Lucas finds himself grinning yet again. He just can’t help it when it comes to Max.
After a few more songs, he sees Will and Mike return into the gym. They both have shy smiles on their faces. Lucas watches as Mike spots El and Dustin, worried that he might get upset, but it looks like Mike lets out a sigh of relief instead. He actually looks happy.
Will and Mike make their way to the corner of the room, and Lucas decides to mind his own business. He turns back to Max. She was watching them too. She makes eye contact with him again.
“You know, I’m actually having fun spending time with you at this lame dance, Stalker.”
“That’s – that’s cool.” Lucas doesn’t really know what to say. He just keeps grinning from ear to ear, as he does every time he’s with Max.
She is the coolest, prettiest girl he’s ever met. Hawkins can be pretty messed up, so he swears to himself that he'll make sure nothing bad ever happens to her.