your lips on my red cheeks

my panic is your panic

Reality quickly caught up to you because you didn't expect this to happen so soon. You almost tripped when you got closer to Max. She was like a blank slate, devoid of any emotion she usually had. In all honesty, you didn't believe it was actually happening when you arrived in front of her. You gently cupped her face into your hands, observing every part of it. The blue eyes you were used to, the ones you could drown in, were now white and staring into nothing.

Panic slammed into you, along with Steve Harrington, who can't control his speed. An apology escaped his lips as soon as he did, but neither of you truly cared if Max Mayfield was about to die. The older boy was shaking her shoulders, repeatedly yelling her name. Similar to what happened in Ms. Kelly's office, nothing happened.

"Fuck, what do we do?" You asked aloud, your body stilled in its place. Max was always the one that could react fast, not you. She clearly could not trust you. Your eyes drifted to the two other boys that seemed to be gathering items from the car, "Dustin! Lucas! Hurry!"

No matter how quick you were to react earlier when Max went into this state didn't matter because she had already begun to float up. You didn't know what to do except grab onto her shoulders and pull down. Nothing like playing tug of war with an Upside Down creature using your crush, right? Finally, after what felt like hours, the boys arrived beside you and Steve and dropped a bunch of mixtapes onto the ground.

"We need music! Where's her Walkman?!" Dustin screamed at you and Steve, your grip beginning to loosen when you remembered you had it. Patting yourself with one hand while the other remained around Max, hoping to keep her down. Which obviously didn't work; the girl was a few feet above the ground, with you clinging onto her shoulders. At last, you found the Walkman, presenting it to the group that screamed at you to put it on her. With swift movements, you pressed play on the Walkman and placed the headphones onto her ears before you lost your grip on the floating redhead and landed on an unprepared Dustin.

With wide eyes, you looked down at him, asking him the silent question, "Are you okay?" His simple response was a thumbs up and a groan as you rolled off the boy, both of you bringing your attention to Max. The two others were screaming and gripping their heads in worry, and all you could do was stay on the ground in shock, thinking about the promise the both of you made. She made it, but those things can go both ways sometimes. Nonetheless, the battle was between Max and Vecna now.

In the end, Max won and fell into Lucas's arms. He gently cradled her, the both of them holding onto each other tightly, neither ready to let go in fear of losing the other. Sighs were released, relishing in the fact that she survived for now. Dustin seemed to be the only excited one, gripping onto your arm in excitement and shaking it.

"We did it!" He whisper-yelled to you, a 100-watt grin on his face. You couldn't help but return a smaller smile and nod, fist-bumping him.

***

The ride back to the Wheeler's house was silent and filled with tension, carrying into the basement. No one knew what to do after the incident, or at least you didn't. You escaped into the bathroom after watching everyone else. Dustin made his way downstairs and mumbled to himself; Steve conversed with Robin and Nancy about Victor Creel, while Lucas had a one-sided talk with Max. You didn't know what you were doing in the bathroom, possibly just taking a breath. You observed yourself in the mirror, something you didn't often do. It was usually just you watching others.

When you scanned yourself, you only saw a tired version of yourself. The area around your eyes seemed to be darkening, your mouth was shaped into a slight frown, lips chapped, dried blood from your nose that you wiped off earlier, and a barely visible bruise was forming on your jaw. You turned on the water, splashing your face with it. You don't know why, possibly because you thought it would do something like remove all the flaws from you. The only thing it did was remove the blood and wet your face, leaving you to stare at yourself and think of what had just happened. The peace didn't last long, the feeling of being watched making you rush to get out and join the others.