Trust -|- An Elmax Story

III

"Hey, Steve! What are you doing here?" I ask Steve 'the hair' Harrington.

Steve has poofy brown hair and brown eyes. He's tall. At least compared to me, he is. Him and Dustin are best friends. He, also, works at Scoops Ahoy with his co-worker, Robin.

"Hey, kiddos. I heard that Max got into a fight. I'm here to pick her up. Have you guys seen her around anywhere?" Steve asks. I look over at Will, hoping he has an answer.

"I think she went upstairs, but I'm not sure. El and I can go up and check for you," Will answers.

"No, we have to go to history," I remind him.

"Or we can help Steve?" he argues.

"We already missed English, though. We can't skip history," I argue back.

"Kids, stop arguing. If you want to help, you can. Otherwise, get to class," Steve says, settling the argument.

"I'm going to help," Will states, walking off to the stairs. Steve shakes his head and sighs as if he was saying, "Why am I the babysitter?"

"I guess you're going to head to class?" Steve asks me.

"I guess so," I reply. I make my way through the halls and walk upstairs, towards history class. When I get down the hall, I see the redhead. She's leaning against the wall next to the door, looking the other way. I sigh and continue to walk forward, ignoring her.

"Hey El," she says when I get to the door.

"Only my friends call me that, and what do you want?" I mumble.

"Why do you hate me so much?" she blurts out.

"I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Then why are you always mean to me?"

"Because you're annoying. Now get out of my way."

She stands in front of the door, blocking me from getting in.

"Max, get out of the way!" I shout at her.

"I know you're lying!" she shouts back.

"Look, we have to be quiet. We don't want the teachers to think we're skipping class," I whisper to her after taking a deep breath.

"Alright. Let's go outside," she quietly agrees.

"Behind the school, though, so that Steve doesn't see us."

"What's Steve doing here?"

"Looking for you."

"Why?"

"Because you hit Angela."

"Oh."

We walk downstairs and to the back doors of the school without being spotted. Once when we're outside, I immediately look up at the sky. All the clouds are back, but now they're grey.

"Are you going to observe the sky or tell me why you hate me?" Max says, interrupting my train of thought.

"I think I'll observe the sky," I say jokingly.

"Why do you hate me?" she asks seriously.

"I don't."

"Oh my god. We aren't doing this again."

"Good. You can leave now. Steve's trying to find you in there," I say, pointing at the school.

"Eleven, what have I done? Was it something I said? Something I did? How can I fix it?"