Daisies || Max Mayfield

9: Comics

We entered Lucas's room, me last.

It had a huge bookshelf on one wall, full of skinny comic books. There must have been a thousand. His bed was in the corner, and there was a very tall lamp and a bedside table next to it. There was a desk, but no chair, and a little shelf next to the door with small action figures on it.

Max immediately dropped her bag by the door, so I copied, making sure my skates didn't roll away.

"Do you like comics?" Lucas asked, going over to a cassette player on his desk. A quiet melody began playing in the background, and he sat on his desk.

"Here." Max patter the bed next to her, so I sat there.

"Sure," I replied.

I learned a lot about comics that day. 

Max and I skated to some random park she brought me to, while my brother drove around, trying to pick us up. She used the last of our pocket change for the payphone to call his construction job, so he found us pretty easily after that. 

I took off my skates at the park while Max guarded the swings so no little kids would try to take them. 

"Tomorrow night's Halloween." She said.

"Yeah. I think the whole day is." I replied in a slightly sarcastic tone. I finally put my shoes on, tied my skates to my bag, and hopped on a swing next to the redhead.

"No." She replied dramatically. 

I smiled.

"Sorry we couldn't go to my house after school." She muttered. "My brothers around, and I can't be there while he's there."

"It's fine," I added. "Sorry we couldn't go to mine either."

"Yeah, I think we've both got trouble at home." She dragged her feet on the ground, glancing at me.

"Yep."

She nodded, glancing at her feet. "Well, I got the sheets if you're still up for ghosts."

"Cool," I replied. 

"Cool."

"Where are we gonna go now?" I asked.

"Oh, Mike said to meet at his house if we want to go together." She supplied. "We can eat dinner there."

"Oh." I nodded.

A car pulled up to the side of the road behind us, and I turned.

"Get in shitheads!" Steve shouted from the driver's seat, a smiling Dustin sitting shotgun.

"Come on!" Dustin waved.

Max didn't say anything, just grabbed her bag and climbed in the back. I followed.

Before I left the car, Steve stopped me. It was only me and him.

"Where were you after school?" He asked.

"Lucas's."

He frowned. "How'd you get there?"

"Roller skates," I replied.

"Okay." He muttered. "Just, if you do that again, call my job so they can tell me. I didn't know if I just left you there until you called."

"Okay. Sorry."

He sighed. "It's fine, just don't do it again." He muttered. "Now, get out so I can go back. I'll pick you up later."

"Okay."