how it should've gone fr. (byler!!!!!!!!!)

out

Max and everyone else are in the middle of initiating the plan.

Max, Lucas, and Dustin enter Victor Creels residency. Meanwhile Steve, Robin, Nancy, Eddie, and Dustin are at Eddie's, after bringing the gear they'd all gotten / made by hand.
Out of all of them, Max feels the most nervous. But it's not like she'd ever say that out loud, of course. She had to do her part, whether she wanted to or not, she knew she had to. She was the only one who could do it.
The others had asked her multiple times if she really wanted to do this, and everytime, she'd roll her eyes and tell them all that she wanted to.
Lucas constantly reassured her things would go according to plan before they'd gone into the house, even though it was more like Lucas needed the reassuring.
Apart of her still felt weary.
As if there was no escape from what was bound to eventually happen to her.

Truth be told, a part of her felt like she deserved what was coming to her. Maybe that's why she was so persistent on going through with the plan. To get it over with. Because she deserved it, didn't she?

_______________

At Surfer Boys Pizza

"This is it!" Argyle said as he got off, and opened the restaurants squeaky door for the rest of the group to walk in. Will and Mike could feel the tension of the situation. They allowed their hands to touch while getting off the van. Neither would admit it, but this helped them feel a little calmer about the entire situation at hand.

They hustled the worker to lend them the place for the night, and settled down.

Eleven had sat at one of the many vacant tables, Mike and Will followed.
Unsure of what to do, Will decided to go into the back with Jonathan instead.

"I'll.. be right back." Mike stared at him as he left, longingly, before turning back towards where El was. He sat across from her.

"Gosh, it's been.. a while, El."

She nodded in response. The silence was thick, and only getting thicker as the seconds passed by.
El knew what this was. Awkward, she thought to herself.

As they tried to build up small talk.. Will and Jonathan were preparing, by gathering all the salt. Dumping it into the water, and mixing.

"Do you remember that time you got a lego stuck up your nose?" Jonathan said, looking at Will as he smiled.

"What?"

"Yeah. It was- It was like a construction guy. You'd call him Larry! Oh, come on! You don't remember?" He spoke with his hands as he said all this.

"He had like, the high viz jacket and the removable hat?"

"Yeah. Vaguely.." Will was confused. Why was Jonathan bringing this up at a time like this..

"Well, I remember it like it was yesterday."

He stirred the water.

"Man, I was.. I was freaked. 'Cause.. 'Cause this Larry... I mean, Larry was way, way up there."

Will smiled, slightly. Jonathan went on.

"I don't even know how you got him that far up! I had to do surgery. I.. I had to get tweezers to pull him out."

"Bull." Will was smiling as he also began speaking with his hands.

"No, no, I swear on my life."

There was a short silence between them as they reminisced.

"I don't know, I just.. I feel like you used to come to me more for help." He smiled sadly.

"Or to just.. talk, you know?" Will looked away. He didn't know how to talk about his feelings anymore, if he was being honest. At least not intentionally. He found himself not wanting to either, in fear that they'd treat him differently. He hated it and didn't know how to handle all these different emotions. So instead, he finds it best not to say anything at all.