the girl in the woods ... // elmax

chp 5.

Max woke up and rubbed her eyes groggily, checking El's peaceful resting body beside her. It was turned to face towards Max, and she looked so gentle while she was sleeping, the covers pulled over her as she was clutching the hoodie strings.

Her doe eyes were closed, and she was peacefully breathing in and out with the faintest rise of her chest. Max smiled softly at her cuddled up in the blankets. The redhead decided to move quietly before realizing that something was tugging at her hand.

She flitted her eyes down towards her hand and saw that their hands were intertwined, warm fingers brushing each other as a thumb traced the back of Max's hand.

Max blushed instantly and thought about pulling away in embarrassment before realizing that Eleven would probably notice. 

Max thought back to yesterday. It was a Friday, which meant today was the morning. She didn't really have anything to rush to, since she didn't really wanna go home. She didn't have any plans for today either, nothing with the party or anything. She could just stay in the bed with El...

But she also had the breakfast she wanted to prepare for El beforehand.

She quietly tried to move again before feeling the fingers release and felt a palm close on her own. "Stay," she heard El murmur. 

Oh god. She was awake.

Max bit her lip slightly. Maybe she could pretend she hadn't heard? She tried getting up just as she felt another pull on her hand, but slightly stronger. "Stay," El whispered louder. Max froze when she heard El's voice. There was no way she could pretend to ignore that.

Her voice was soft with a touch of clinginess at the end. The a was dragged out, as if pleading to Max. She could oblige, but even now, she wasn't completely sure. Eleven's eyes fluttered open slowly as she saw that Max was still in question about choosing to stay or leave.

"Why should I stay?" Max decided to say. Depending on how tired El was, it could either be a really bad or a really good choice of words. 

"Stay with me," El repeated quietly, drifting her hand down to Max's fingertips. Max felt her heart flutter slightly as her hand dropped to Max's knee. "I like you," she whispered. "I like spending time with you. Stay with mee."

Max felt her heart melt as she slid down to Eleven again, facing her tired eyes. Slowly, a gentle smile spread across El's face as she let go of her hand. Max slowly felt the butterflies flutter less heavily in her stomach, though she almost wishes El's hand could be there again.

"Okay," she sighed and smiled at El as they locked eyes again on opposite sides of the bed. "I'll stay with you." She traced the edge of her pillow with her thumb as she felt the usual growing heat on her face. "What do you wanna talk about?" Max asked, hoping her voice didn't come across as weird or flirty or anything. 

El's eyes drifted to the side, as if remembering something. "Your friends are nice." 

"Oh, yeah?" Max remarked, drawing her attention back to Eleven. She desperately wanted to get rid of the growing blush on her face, and staring into El's eyes wasn't helping, but it was almost like something was drawing her to El. "Which one's your favorite?"

Eleven paused for a moment and stopped tugging on the hoodie strings. It was so cute when she did that. "Mike," she said at last.

Max smiled, a usual thing whenever she was with El, but somehow, it felt more like a forced smile. She felt a weird kind of tightness in her chest, as if there was a string tied to her heart and someone was pulling on it. "Yeah? He's nice," Max agreed, nodding, ignoring the fact that she thought quite the opposite. He almost wanted her out of the party.