talk too much | max mayfield

9. sorta stargazing

SORTA STARGAZING

✧･ﾟ: * Night has come quicker than Nora expects, but she wasn't complaining when the once pink and orange sky turned to purple and navy, sprinkled with stars.

She doesn't know much about constellations or astrology, but it doesn't stop her from sitting on top of the bus, making shapes slightly with her finger. . . but if anyone asks she's keeping watch.

Her body shivers and rises with goosebumps as fog collects below her, and she pulls her - Steve's - jacket tighter.

Lucas, Max, Steve, and Dustin are sitting below her in the vehicle, and she can hear Dustin's excessive pacing enough to want to throw herself off the bus.

"So. . . you really fought one of these things before?" Max's muffled voice comes through the bus roof. "And you're, like, totally, a hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"

"Shit!" Dustin snaps, his voice much louder than Max's. "Don't be an idiot! It wasn't a bear!" Nora hopes Max kicked him in the shin or something. "Why are you even here if you don't believe us? Just go home."

Dustin, please.

"Geesh, someone's angry," Max's voice says. "Past your bedtime?"

It's silent for awhile and Nora leans onto her back, just basking in the moonlight. Definitely not thinking about what it would be like if Max were there.

"It's kinda awesome."

Nora jumps slightly before turning onto her stomach and facing Max who sat next to the ladder, facing the opposite direction as Nora.

"The fog, I mean," Max clarifies, looking down. "It's like the ocean."

Nora looks down too, "You miss it? Like, California. I mean, I'd probably think Hawkins is some kinda dump compared."

"No, no, no. . . it's not that. It's just," Max pauses and Nora faces her again, she's still looking down. "My dad's still there so. . ."

"Why?"

"It's this legal term called divorce," Max emphasizes and Nora laughs softly. "See, when two married people don't love each other anymore-"

"Yeah, yeah," Nora rolls her eyes jokingly, sitting up so she was next to Max directly. Their legs were dangling together as Nora looks up at the sky again and Max never moves her eyes from the ground.

"My mom and my step-dad, they wanted a 'fresh start' away from him. As if. . . as if he was the problem, which is total bull," Nora has never been more interested in anything before. "And things. . . are just worse now. My step-brother's always been a dick, but now he's just angry, all the time. . . and, well, he can't take it out on my mom so. . ."

Nora tries to ignore Max's glossy eyes. "So, he takes it out on you?"

"I don't even know why I'm even telling you this," Max quickly wipes her eyes. "I just. . . I know I can be a jerk like him sometimes. I do not want to be like him, ever. I guess, I'm angry too, and. . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Nor."