cuz you and i - [Max Mayfield]

Vecna's curse

Belly entered the family video store, and saw Steve and Robin doing their thing, Robin had a tape in her hand, she didn't see Keith anywhere nearby, so she went upto the counter

"What are you guys watching?" she asked reaching to the other side of the counter

It was a Saturday, Belly didn't have anything important to do, she'd often go to the store, and just watch movies with the two, who thankfully didn't charge her

"Doctor Zhivago" Robin said which made Belly smile

"Damn" she said, Steve and Robin looked at each other, Belly was in an abnormally good mood today “Dad asked me about El today”

“What did he ask?” Steve questioned, surprised Martin even knew who El is

“Just about her moving to California” She admitted

"Are you okay?" Steve asked her

"Why wouldn't I be bro?" she smiled at him as Robin turned the TV on

"We're in the Forest hills trailer park in East Roane Country" A reporter spoke over the TV "We don't have a lot of details right now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins high student was discovered early in the morning"

"Holy shit" Belly mumbled, she was halfway sure it was gonna be either Chrissy or Eddie

---

Steve, Robin and Belly just sat in silence after what they heard in the news, none of them feeling the need to start a conversation, Belly sat beside Robin and Steve stood in front of them, the bell rang as the door opened

"Steve, how many phones do you have?" A voice which belonged to Dustin asked as Belly looked over to see, Dustin with Max at the back

"Someone was murdered" Steve warned

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin emphasized his question

"Two why" Steve gave in as Belly just looked at Max with an unreadable expression

"Technically 3 if you count Keith's" Robin informed

"Three works" Max spoke for the first time since she entered and it made Belly feel something weird in a good way

Dustin nodded to Max as he slid his backpack across the counter before sliding across it himself knocking down several tapes to which Steve cursed

"Why do you even need three phones, Dustin?" Belly asked before looking at Max for a brief second "and Max?" She added

They all turned to look between the two, everyone feeling a weird type of tension between them

"Uhm" Dustin cleared his throat "Setting up a base of operations here"

"Base of operations?" Robin asked picking up the tapes from the ground as Belly and Max held eye contact

"What are you even doing?" Belly asked moving from where she was standing to next to Max, to get a clearer view of the computer monitor