Teenage Dirtbag (Eddie Munson x OC)

Brown Envelopes

Nancy had dressed Robin up all fancy in her long, floral skirt and ruffled blouse, tied together with heels, a pink cardigan, and hair clips. Robin looked almost unrecognizable to anyone that didn't know her well. But to Steve and Jackie, Robin just looked scarily heterosexual. Now, Steve and Jackie were back downstairs, keeping an eye out on the three kids. The group watched as Max, still seated at the desk, continued to write.

It was almost eerily silent in the room until Max froze. "I know you guys are staring at me."

"What?" Steve blurted out, immediately grabbing onto a nearby baseball and throwing it up in the air.

Lucas picked up a book, flipping through the pages. "You said you needed something?"

"Just..." Dustin murmured, grabbing a newspaper from the coffee table. "Hanging out."

"Shooting the shit," Jackie awkwardly ran the blue band along her wrist between her fingers.

Max sighed, picking up a stack of envelopes. "How you think your eyes boring into the back of my head is going to protect me from Vecna, I don't know." She hit the stack of envelopes on the table a few times, causing them to form a nice, even pile. Max stood up, walking over to where the four sat and pretending that they weren't paying attention. "You can look at me now."

They instantly dropped what it was they were doing amongst a crowd of apologies and directed their attention towards the redhead as she held out the envelopes, handing one to each of them. Jackie's eyes narrowed as Max handed the envelope over to her, taking the brown piece of paper in between two of her fingers. She readjusted her glasses with her other hand, bringing the envelope closer to her eyes to read her name scribbled in ballpoint ink, a sharp line underneath. "What's this for?"

Max handed three more over to Lucas. "And can you give these to Mike, El, and Will? If you ever see them again."

Dustin began to peel back the sticky material on the envelope when Max stopped him. "Don't open them now. Not until later."

He dropped it into his lap. "Oh, okay. What is it?"

Jackie leaned forward in her chair as she recrossed her legs.

Max stared down at her hands, twiddling her thumbs. "It's, uh... it's a fail-safe."

"Max," Jackie's eyes squeezed shut as she flopped back against the back of the chair.

"It's for after," She continued. "In case things don't work out."

Lucas' eyes widened as he shoved his letter into his pocket. "Woah, Max. Things are gonna work out-"

"No!" She interrupted, her face going red. "I don't need you to reassure me that it's all gonna work out because... people have been telling me that almost my entire life and it's almost never true! It's never true. Of course, I get cursed," Her voice lowered. "I should've seen that one coming."

The group fell into silence, not wanting to say something to hurt her even more than she already has been hurt. Jackie looked at the letter in her hand and wondered what the contents held. If something were to happen to Max, she wanted to know what that letter would've said. But she never wanted to open it.

Max looked down at the ground again, her eyes darting back and forth. Eventually, they landed on the walkie-talkie that rested on the coffee table. She picked it up. "If they're at Pennhurst, would we still be able to reach them with this if we went to East Hawkins?"

Dustin shrugged, looking at the others. "Pretty sure."

"Wait, what about East Hawkins?" Steve asked, looking over at Jackie.