𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧! ~ 𝘔𝘢𝘹 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘧𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘥

Chapter 9

I went with Mike to go find Dart, even though I'm kinda freaked out by that thing. Anyway, I went with him because I just didn't really want to face Max right now.

Not like she did anything wrong, it's just I don't think I can trust myself around her right now considering I'm trying to quickly get over this hopefully short-lived crush.

Mike brings me out of my thoughts as he pulls out his Walkie-talkie.

"East is clear. No sign of Dart." Mike states as we walks up the stairs. "Where'd you go you little bastard?"

As we walk down the hall I look around hoping to get any sign of Dart.

"Hey, why'd you come with me instead of Will or something?" Mike asks.

I look at him confused. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know, I figured you'd want to go with Max, or Lucas, or something."

I look at him confused once again. "Why wouldn't I? your my best friend." Ok, half of that answer was true. The other half was to escape my confusing feelings.

"Thanks." Mike smiles at me.

"West is clear too, Will?" Dustin states at the other line of the Walkie-talkie.

"South is clear. Lucas? Anything?" Will asks.

There's a pause before Lucas answers "Nothing here, man."

Mike and I open the doors leading to the gymnasium. As we make our way in we see a door swinging in the distance.

"That's a little creepy." I say.

"Come on." Mike demands.

We slowly make our way towards the dim-lit boys changing room.

"I'm not even allowed to be in here." I say hesitantly.

"It doesn't matter, just stay close." Mike answers as he picks up a mop for protection.

The tension is thick as we slowly make our way more in the room, cautious for any movement we see.

We hear an object clatter from around the corner and face our backs to a locker, getting ready to make our move.

"On three, ok?" I whisper, Mike nods his head in approval.

"...one"

"...two"

"Three!" We say in unison as we jump from behind the corner, getting ready to face what was making that ruckus.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Max exclaims as she turns to face us.

Great, just what I needed.

"What are you doing? Why are you in here?" Mike exclaims back, sounding agitated that she scared us.

"Looking for Dart." She answers.

"This is the boys' room." Mike protests.

"Yeah, so? Emmys in here."

"That's different. So you should go home." Mike spat as he dropped the mop. Mike yanked my arm so I could follow him out the room.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Max asks as she follows us out the room.

"I don't hate you. How can I hate you? I don't even know you."

"But you don't want me in your party."

"Correct."

"Why not?"

"Because you're annoying!" Mike exclaims as he swiftly turns towards her.

"Mike!" I yell with agitation. "Let go of my arm."

Mike drops my arm as he continues talking. "Also, we don't need another party member. I'm our paladin, Will's our cleric, Dustin's our bard, Lucas is our ranger, Emmy is our brains, and El is our mage!" Mike finishes, I freeze as I hear him mention El in front of Max.

"El? Who's El?"

Mike facial expressions change as he realizes what he has said. "Someone. No one."

"Someone or no one?"

"She was in our party along time ago." I excuse.

"She moved away, okay?" Mike finishes my sentence as he walks off, I give her a sympathetic look as I follow him.

"She was a mage?" Max questions from behind us. She suddenly gets on her board to start following us.

"What could she do like magic tricks or something? Well, I could be your zoomer." She says as she steps in front of us.

"Cool!" I say.

"No, not cool! That's not even a real thing." Mike cuts me off.

"It could be." Max claimed as she hopped back on her board and started riding in circles around us.

"Mind blowing." Mike says with no enthusiasm.

"Come on, you know you're impressed."

"I sure am." I laugh.

"That's because the last time you stepped on a skateboard was years ago." Mike remarked.

"Not true!" I exclaim.

"I don't see any tricks. Your just going around in a circle."

"If it's so easy, you try it." I respond with a smirk.

"No." Mike answers.

"Why not?" Max asks.

"I don't know how."

"So then you admit it's kind of impressive." Max smirks.

"I think if I spent, like, all day practicing, I could do that." Mike remarks.

"I would give you a million bucks if you could." Max commented.

"Okay, your making me dizzy." I chuckle.

"Please just stop." Mike pleads.

"I'll stop when I join your party."

"Come on just stop."

"It's a simple question. Am I in or out?"

Suddenly, Max's skateboard jerks forward. She loses balance and plummets to the hard gym floor.

"Max! Are you ok?" I frantically ask as I crouch down to her level to make sure if she's hurt or not.

"Jesus! Are you alright?" Mike asks.

"Yeah, yeah. I think so."

"Here." I say as I reach my hand out for her to grab. She immediately accepts and grabs onto me as I help her up. Her soft touch sending shock waves up my arm.

"What happened?" I ask.

"I don't know. It was just like a magnet or something pulling on my board. I know that sounds crazy."

My mind immediately thought of one thing.

Eleven.

I turn to Mike to make sure we were thinking of the same thing. His mouth was slightly hung open and his eyebrows were furrowed together, certifying that he had the same thought.

We both slowly turn around to face the doors, in unrealistic hopes we might see her right outside the door.

Mike suddenly runs out the door, frantically looking around. From the look of disappointment on his face that tells me he saw,

Nothing.

I hope y'all like this chapter! Sorry this one also kinda sucked, it's currently 3 in the morning lmao. New chapter coming soon!