purple's our color- mileven au

FOURTEEN

A/N: thank you all sm for 800 views! i honestly didn't think this would get more views than just izzy, but thank u all sm!

"And I know it's long gone and that magic's not here no more and I might be ok but I'm not fine at all" All Too Well, Taylor Swift

    A dream was a world where everything washed away. Little thoughts and metaphors from your real self trying to tell you something, but really you can't defer what your mind is trying to tell you as you sleep. You could sleep soundly all you wanted and everything you didn't want to feel anymore, you wouldn't have to feel.

    But it was only worse when you woke up.

There's a theory that you can't remember anything about you or your life for the first three seconds when you wake up after sleeping. El blinked her eyes open and rubbed her face for those three seconds. During the fourth, she let out a sigh and looked over to her sleeping friend beside her.

She felt hungry, sick or empty.  One of those. Her throat was sore and her eyes were itchy from all the tears she shed the night before. El lightly tiptoed across the floor and out into the sunlit hallway, stepping down the stairs and into the kitchen.

There was an empty box of cherry ice pops on the counter from last night. Ever since El was about five, she ate cherry ice pops when she was sad. Never any time other than when she was dwelled with anger and sadness, in her mind they were reserved for that only. Everyone knew when she ate them she needed them.

"Cherry ice pops?" Joyce's easy voice scares El. The teenage girl jumps a little and smiles weakly at her step-mom. "Oh, they're old. I found them looking for french toast just a minute ago," she fibbed.

"I didn't see you last night, weren't your friends over?" Joyce asks.
El shrugs, "Max and I were watching movies and stuff." The other walked over to the island countertop as El looked to the ground.

"Are you sure nothing happened? You know you always talk to me," Joyce offers. Joyce and El had a particularly tense relationship since they became family when El was fourteen. It was hard for El to treat her like her mom, even though Sara was okay with it because she didn't know any difference and Will and Jonathan fit in just fine. It was like Joyce was just there, and El never depended on her as a mother though it may be a good idea too.

"Are all the boys here?" El changes the conversation.
Joyce shakes her head, "just Will and Dustin." The girl nods in response, relieved that she wouldn't have to see Mike. El dropped the rectangular cardboard box into the recycling bin and walked away.

A few hours later Max and El were sitting in the living room doing absolutely nothing. "We should think of something fun to do!" Max suggests.

El shook her head, "nah, let's just do Sara's makeup or play Mario Kart, something like that." To be truly honest, Max would've pushed for them to go out to see a movie or go to the mall, but it was more important that El was okay after everything that happened yesterday rather than make her do something out of boredom.

"Girls! Everyone's coming over in a half hour!" Joyce calls.
"Everyone who?" El replies
"Everyone. It's Friday night dinner. The boys are picking up Holly and coming." El's face dropped and she rolled her eyes. She walked over to the couch Max was on with a pout on her face. "It's Friday night dinner, isn't it." Max implies.

Once a month on a Friday, the party rotated between houses for dinner. If it had been anyone else's house El could've skipped but of course, it was the Hopper's turn to host. El gave a small nod and sighed, sitting down with her legs pulled up to her chest.

"It's fine, we're used to ignoring them all anyways," Max smiled.
"Joyce, can we just cancel!" El calls, earning Joyce to walk into the living room where the younger girls were. "Why would we?" she asks.