Dustin adopts a new strange pet, and Eleven grows increasingly impatient. Billy for once tries to help Max by urging her to confront her problems.
"Max, you ready to go?"
Billy leaned against Max's door frame as he watched his step-sister gather all her belongings into her backpack while he fiddled with his keys. It was the morning after Halloween, and while it seemed wrong, the kids still had school the next day.
"Yeah, I'm good," Max announced as she snatched her skateboard at the last minute and followed Billy out the front door.
As soon as the step-siblings were on the road again to school, Billy decided to try one more time to figure out what was wrong with Max.
"You look like shit this morning," Billy started off, noting Max's appearance. Her red hair was a bit disheveled and the bags under her eyes had gotten worse. She was even yawning a lot more than usual. How she managed to keep it hidden from Susan is beyond Billy.
"Thanks," Max grumbled, her voice a little hoarse.
"You stay up late last night?"
"Yeah."
"You better not doze off. I told you I'm not risking another car crash because all of a sudden you turned into a chainsaw."
"I'll just catch some sleep in class or something," Max replied, shifting away from Billy just a little.
"I heard something roaming around in the house last night. Was that you or was it a ghost?"
"It was probably me," Max answered, not acknowledging Billy's silly mention of ghosts to get into the Halloween spirit, as that night was over. Thank god.
"Did you have another nightmare?" Billy asked.
"No," Max immediately denied.
"Max, you gotta stop running from your problems. It literally doesn't do anything for you."
Max whirled around and stared Billy dead in the eyes. "What?"
"Every time you see something horrible coming your way, you try to run from it and run from the people that want to help you. If you really want your problems to go away, but you want to do it on your own, running isn't gonna help you," Billy met Max's hard gaze, unfazed by her angered confusion.
"Okay, then, what do I do when I see a problem coming my way and I want to handle it on my own?" Max asked, a little bit of sarcasm in her tone.
"Hey, watch the attitude, shitbird. This is some serious shit, okay?" Billy scolded. "I don't want you to turn into some coward little bitch just because of a stupid nightmare that's not letting you sleep at night."
Max felt a little taken aback at her step-brother's words, something telling her to take them seriously. "Well, then, what do I do?"
"What you need to do is tackle them head on..."
Max watched as Billy listed the steps on his fingers, starting with his thumb.
"Tell them to leave you alone..."
Then his pointer.
YOU ARE READING
Stranger Things: MADMAX
أدب الهواةIt wasn't supposed to happen like this. She was the new kid. She knew nothing about the dangers lurking with the small town of Hawkins. And yet she was the perfect target.
