Radical | A stranger things story

20: Forgiveness

Music Rec for this chapter: The Gold by Manchester Orchestra

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Max runs over and checks my new car out. 

"When did you get this?" she asks.

"Just a couple of minutes ago," I laugh. "It was my brother's. My mother gave it to me."

"Your brother looks like a cool guy," Max says.

"Yeah, he was," I smile.

I look up to see Billy staring at the car with a smirk. I can tell he wants to look at it up close.

"I can take you places now! Especially the arcade since I work there."

"Great! After school, I'll ride with you then? If that's okay."

"Sounds perfect," I respond.

She smiles as she gets in the driver's seat and continues to look around. In my peripheral vision, I can see Billy is still admiring the car.

"Max," I whisper.

"Yeah?" she whispers back.

"I'm going inside to eat dinner, but I'm going to leave the car unlocked. Tell your brother he can come to check it out if he wants," I say.

"I'm not sure he deserves to see it. He's been an asshole lately," Max complains.

"Well, I did stab him in the neck with a syringe full of sedative," I laugh.

"True. I also damaged his car," Max chuckles.

I put my hand on the top of the car and sigh.

"Alright, Madmax. I'm going to go inside now. Don't forget to tell your brother," I say.

"Will do," she says as she gets out of the car.

I walk inside my house and look out of the window. I can see Max telling Billy I permitted him to check out my car. He nods slowly and sighs. Billy makes his way over to my driveway, and I smile. I knew he wanted to look at it. He runs his hand along the car and sits in the driver's seat. 

"Dinner's ready," my mother calls.

I walk over to the table and sit by Mateo. He smiles at me, and our mom puts our plates of food in front of us. I see chicken and rice with a side of asparagus. 

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I wake up and see Steve asleep next to me. I quickly look down to see I still have my clothes on from yesterday. I sigh in relief and sit up. 

I tap on Steve's shoulder, and he sighs.

"I'm up! I'm up," he groans.

"You better get going, Steve. We have school today," I remind him.

"Oh, shit," he sighs.

He gets out of my bed and quickly puts his shoes on. When he came over last night we talked about the kids and how they were doing. We watched Scarface, which is my favorite movie. We also started to have a dance party for whatever reason.

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Steve puts in You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive. He starts doing ridiculous dance moves, and I laugh. I start doing the robot, and he laughs along with me.

"You're not ready for my moves, Stevey," I tease.

"No, it's the other way around, Ms.L/N," he responds.

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"Last night was fun," he says as I walk him out to his car.

"Yeah! It was the most fun I've had in a while," I respond.