purple's our color- mileven au

THREE

"Is it too late, too far gone to fix this?" Over My Head, Echosmith

    tw: mention of attempted assault
      Lunch time at Hawkins High was the same thing everyday. El and Max sat with a few other girls they knew and got along with while the four boys sat together at their own table, some of Mike and Lucas' mutual friends sometimes filtering in and out. El and Max were talking about their own thing and the rest of the girls were chatting about girls they didn't like, or boys they did.

    "Were any of you guys at the party Saturday?" one girl, Madelyn asks. Rosie, her best friend, says yes but the rest of the girls at the table say no. El didn't go to parties, she thought they were stupid, and Max only went if Lucas begged her to and promised they'd sneak off from the other teenagers neither of them knew well. Mike was the only one in the party who talked to people they didn't know with no problem. Well, that could've been because girls cling to him easily. El liked to say it was because they didn't really know him, but Mike was just social and didn't honestly care about them.

    "Well there was this super hot guy and I mean I think he goes here? His name was like Mike or something I don't really care but he was a really good kisser. I mean like, oh my god. After he just left though, and I needed to find Rosie so it didn't really work out," the girl explains.

    Max starts laughing really hard and pretending she's gagging. "He's the worst human ever, right El?" Max nudges her friend's side.

    El scoffs, "yeah." How could someone generally feel that way about Mike? That poor, brainsick girl. El laughs along with Max, but secretly it's at Max because she thinks it's too funny. 

    The girls go outside for the second half of their lunch period and are walking around talking. "So earlier, why did you react so weird when Madelyn was talking about making out with Mike?" Max wonders.

    "I wasn't acting weird, what am I supposed to say," El rolls her eyes.
    "That he's yours."
    "Shut up, Max."
    "Just the facts," Max huffs. Her friend hits her elbow and doesn't say anything in reply. The redhead grabs El's hand and drags her over to where Will, Mike, Lucas and Dustin were all standing.
            
            "Are you guys playing four square like 8th graders," Max taunted, swiping the ball from Mike's hands. Mike scoffs and rolls his eyes, following behind the two girls walking to Will, Lucas and Dustin. Max quickly engages in a conversation with Lucas, bickering and laughing.

    "Elllll hiiii!" Dustin runs over to his friend. El giggles and says hi.
    "What're you doing over here?" the curly haired boy asks.
    "We were bored." Correction, Max was bored. Or just looking for drama. El was fine with just Max most of the time, but Max always dragged her bestie over when the redhead wanted to bother her boyfriend or other friends.

    Will was walking over to Mike and they were having a conversation about whatever they felt important at that point. Lucas and Max were laughing at something and eyeing Dustin and El, waving Dustin over. Dustin looked at his friend he was standing with, El shrugging and Dustin chased after his friends.

    "Did you ask her about Saturday?" Max immediately quizzes. Dustin shakes his head and Lucas rolls his eyes. It was unusually warm this April early afternoon, everyone in shorts and short sleeves and the sun beating down hot on all the students of Hawkins High.

    "You have to soon or she'll say no. If we're all going she'll go, so just pretend you're going," Max explains.

    "And why can't I go?" Dustin asks.
    Max sighs and replies, "you know Brady hates you for calling him dumb in chemistry class so it'd be weird if you showed up at his house. Plus Will won't wanna soo if El goes with the three of us it works out exactly as it should."