Dinner was awful. Chrissy's mom was on her best behavior but still managed to comment on the amount of food on her plate or how an unbalanced diet could disrupt her actual balance while cheering. While not as awful as the monstrous nightmares, Max watched as Chrissy grew marginally smaller with each comment until she was just pushing food around.
"Oh, look at the time!" Max exclaimed once the table fell into a lull of conversation. "The...cheer squad invited me to see a movie with them tonight. We should get going."
Chrissy shook herself out of her own head. "That's right," she said weakly.
"Is it okay if we go now?" Max asked, already pushing away from the table.
"I-I suppose that's all right," Laura Cunningham stammered, unused to someone of Max's more brash nature. "But Chrissy, weren't you going out to Jason tonight?"
Was she? Chrissy scooted her seat back. "No, that's tomorrow," she said, the lie falling easily off her tongue. The last thing she was thinking about right now was Jason. "Jennifer said she'd pick us up at seven-thirty."
"Have fun girls," her dad said.
Even though she'd had a tough upbringing, Max still grabbed her plate and put it in the kitchen which felt like the bare minimum of what a house guest could do, but at least it got them out of there.
The girls went outside into the brisk night. Chrissy hadn't been lying when she said they were getting picked up, but the idling van a block away definitely didn't belong to Jennifer. Steve Harrington sat in the passenger seat and Dustin was in the back when the girls arrived, looking like he was trying to break up a fight between Eddie and Steve.
"I swear to God, Harrington, you put one finger on my radio, man–" Eddie was saying as Max pulled open the side door.
"Steve, c'mon," Dustin said, "it's Eddie's ride. I know you're used to carting us around in your little BMW, but--"
"Hey," Max said, interrupting as she and Chrissy climbed in. "Trouble in paradise?"
Chrissy pulled the door shut and Eddie gave her five seconds to sit before he took off.
"You know, if we're trying to not look like we're about to do a little B&E, maybe try not speeding, huh?" Steve said, gripping the edge of the door.
"How about you don't tell me how to drive." Eddie said snippyly.
Max broke the weird tension and asked Dustin, "Any um...luck finding Lucas?"
"Nope. Must still be out with his jock friends." He picked up a disgust tone when he said the word "jock". Dustin glanced warily at Chrissy.
"Sorry.
Chrissy shook her head. "It's fine. Jason probably dragged him to the abandoned Benny's Burgers to party after the win last night."
"Lucas? Partying? Ha!" Dustin exclaimed. "Wait, you're serious?"
"Yeah."
"Weird."
Getting her answer, Max sat back, put on her headphones and crossed her arms. Chrissy wanted to say something but didn't know what. Eddie turned up the radio and Steve didn't try to change the tape a second time.
They got to the school and parked in the deserted lot.
"Do you still have the keys?" Chrissy asked Max as they all got out.
Max grabbed the keys from her backpack and tossed the pack back into the van before closing the door. "Let's go."
Collectively they all started to move but Steve stopped the group.
