𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙭 𝙚𝙙𝙙𝙞𝙚 𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙤𝙣

2.

Stood in a sea of green and piss yellow, I watch on in boredom as my little brother brags about his girlfriend who changed his grade for him. The band plays an upbeat song for the basketball pep rally and the crowd cheers as the basketball team jogs into the gym.

"Look I'm not saying that my girlfriend is better than yours, it's just that Susie's a certified genius." Dustin tells Mike boastfully.

"You do realize that Elle saved the world twice right?" Mike deadpans.

"And yet you still have a C in Spanish." Dustin shrugs cockily, and Mike glares at his friend's attitude.

"I am going to off myself." I mutter out in distress, already feeling a headache forming as I'm stuck at this stupid pep rally listening to how my brother got a girlfriend and I'm still single. This is actual torture.

Dustin eventually looks over at my moping with a questioning look.

"What? You have a perfectly good guy right in front of you and yet you do nothing about it, so stop complaining about your lack of a boyfriend." Dustin scolds me and I raise my eyebrow in confusion.

"And who is this miracle guy in question, dear brother?" I ask, tilting my head down at him and crossing my arms at his tone.

"Steve, duh!" He tells me like it's obvious and I groan, rolling my eyes.

"Not this shit again..." I start but Dustin interrupts me sassily with a raised finger.

"I don't understand you Dylan, you two would be perfect together. Right?" He looks over at Mike who starts nodding in agreement.

"I told you, it's not gunna happen. Steve's like my best friend. I don't like him like that." I try to explain but Dustin gives me a 'really' look.

"He's just not my type. Stop trying to meddle in my love life." I point my finger at him with a glare and he finally gives up with an angsty roll of his eyes and a grumble under his breath of something that sounded like "what love life..."

Thankfully, the captain of the basketball team starts to make his speech so we don't have to talk about my match-making anymore.

Max finally joins us in our row as we listen to the jocks dumb motivational speech and I smile down at her in greeting.

She gives me a small distracted smile, not speaking up and turning to listen to the speech. I frown slightly, worried about the girl. She's been pretty distant and moody lately.

As the jock continues his speech, he starts talking about the "fire" at star court which was a cover up for the damage that the mind flayer did and the Russian's laser machine that opened the gate to the upside down.

Max tenses when the jock mentions Billy, and I put my arm around her to comfort her. She leans into my touch, and I rub her back soothingly as the jock finishes his speech by announcing the championship game that is happening tonight.