brutal ━ mike wheeler

nine. unfamiliar familiar face

NINE━━━━
UNFAMILIAR FAMILIAR FACE

stranger things;
season 2    ep 8

ADRIAN WAS SAT NEXT TO Max, helping her cover an old chair with cardboard. He folded the piece of cardboard he was holding and wrapped it around the leg of the chair, waiting for Max to tape it down. Mike was right next to them, except he wasn't helping them with the chair. Instead, he was searching for some stuff under the sink. Max looked up momentarily and looked at Mike swiftly, looking back down almost as quickly. "I get why El was your mage now." Adrian looked at her with wide eyes, knowing that this conversation probably wasn't going to end well. "What?" Mike asked, turning ever so slightly to look at her from over his shoulder. "Lucas." Max ripped a piece of tape off the roll of duct tape before she put it on the cardboard, securing the piece of cardboard that Adrian was holding. "He told me all about her."

"Well, he shouldn't have." Max looked down sadly and Adrian glared at the boy in front of him, even though he knew that this was exactly how he was going to react it still made him mad. "And just because you know the truth, it doesn't mean you're in our party." Mike spat, turning back to face the cabinet in front of him, pulling out a carton of bleach. "You do know that, right?"

Max swallowed thickly and slowly nodded, tearing another piece of tape from the roll of duct tape. "Yeah. I— I know." Max stated, setting the piece of tape right between Adrian's hands. Adrian moved his hands away and couldn't help but clench his fists, his eyebrows pushed downward as he took deep breaths. He was trying his hardest not to get angry right now while also trying to consider Mike's situation. He was having a hard time. "I mean, why would you want a stupid zoomer in your party anyway?" Adrian broke his glare and turned to Max with his head tilted and eyebrows furrowed. What the hell was a Zoomer?

Max brought a hand up, basically saying she would tell him later. "I'm just saying, El? She sounds like she was really awesome." Adrian slowly nodded along, thinking the same thing. If she really was like Mike described then she was, without a doubt, awesome.
"Yeah, she was. Until that thing took her. Just like it took Bob." Mike got up, picking up everything that he had pulled out before he stormed away. First, Mike's best friend is possessed and under the control of the mind flayer, but his first love — from what Adrian had gathered — had been taken away from him by the exact same thing. Adrian couldn't imagine what he had gone through. Adrian felt another frown form on his face before he turned to face Max once again. Adrian noticed the sad look on Max's face and grabbed her hand. "Hey. It's ok. Just give him some time and he'll warm up to you." Adrian gave her a reassuring smile, getting a soft one in return, as well as a subtle nod.

The two of them continued to cover the chair with cardboard before moving on to the next one, the second not taking as much time as the first since they had already done one. Adrian picked one up while Max got the other before they made their way outside and into the shed where everyone else was. They set them in the middle of the shed facing each other, before turning and going to help the others with covering the walls.

Adrian grabbed a tapestry from the ground, as well as another roll of duct tape before holding it against the wall. He taped down one side, letting go of it so that it now hand loosely. This helped him tape the other sides, eventually covering the majority of the back wall of the shed. Once he had finished with that, he turned and went to go help with the rest, eventually finishing all of it. All of the younger kids, minus Mike, had been instructed to go inside with Steve and Nancy while the rest of them tried to get through to Will.