dark red- max mayfield

x. an evening at starcourt

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

JOSH NEWBY stood in front of Starcourt Mall, leaned up against the wall by the bike rack. He stood beside Lucas Sinclair, and in front of Max Mayfield and Will Byers. The group of four was impatiently awaiting Mike Wheeler's arrival. He was coming from none other than Chief Jim Hopper's cabin— where his girlfriend, Eleven, lived.

Josh and Will weren't biologically brothers— they'd known each other since preschool and had been through hell together, but they weren't biological. Even after Will's mom, Joyce, adopted Josh after a few months of him living with the Byers family.

Dustin Henderson, another one of Josh's best friends, had tried to convince his mom to get the adoption papers, but after many conversations, Mrs. Henderson agreed that Joyce was more suitable for Josh. Dustin had been very disappointed with the news and had almost immediately signed up to go away to camp for the first month of summer.

Lucas was probably Josh's best friend (other than Dustin), and he and Josh had spent the most time together since Dustin was out of town. They went to the arcade, hung out at Starcourt, and had sleepovers at mainly Lucas' house because Josh was too afraid to ask Joyce too early. He didn't want to infringe on anything.

"Where the hell is he?" grumbled Max, checking her watch anxiously. She and Josh never got along. They'd had a mutual agreement to stay frenemies, although Max clearly wanted to take it to the next level of hatred after the Snowball in December— Josh wasn't fully sure why.

"It's been five minutes," Josh reminded her, pointing down at his own watch, "Jesus, you're impatient, aren't you?"

"Didn't know you were big on love." sneered Max, narrowing her eyes at Josh. "Considering no girl has ever liked you before."

"Oh, I'm sure you're happy you have no competition, then-"

"You wish-"

"Oh, my God," groaned Lucas irritably, burying his face in his palms, "would you two please shut up? It's bad enough waiting without your flirting."

"We're not flirting!"

However, Will and Lucas grinned at one another secretively while the other two seethed lonesomely, turning away to make sure they didn't have to deal with one another. Will, Lucas, and Dustin were by far the biggest supporters of the movement to get Josh and Max to finally realize their feelings for one another and suck it up. Unfortunately, the two teens ignored them and continued to rant about their dislike for one another.

They all turned as they saw Mike's bike coming up towards the rack, his expression already apologetic as he winced at them. Lucas, crossing his arms, approached Mike and said, "You're late."