Just Breathe (Max Mayfield x Male OC)

Arcade Date

Avery's POV

Hop and Joyce dropped me off. I'm waiting for Max now. It's 10 minutes after 5. Maybe she's just running late. Or she's ditching you, you freak.

Another 10 minutes pass by, I think it's time to go. I get up and start to walk home. A blue car blows past me in the parking lot. I freeze, that's the second time that car almost killed me. It comes to a stop and I see Max jump out frantically.

"Hey. I'm sorry I'm late." She looks down at her feet. I see her hands shaking in front of her.

"Hey. It's okay. Are you alright? Your hands are shaking." I go to grab her hands to still them.

She pulls her hands away before I even reach them.

"It's nothing. Let's just go inside." She snaps and walks away.

I follow her inside. She's already at the Dig Dug machine. I walk up and stand next to her.

"Hey. I'm sorry for what I did back there. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." I say with my head down.

She turns to me and shakes her head with a sigh.

"No don't be sorry. I'm sorry. You were just being nice. I had a fight with my family before I got here. That's why I was late." She says, looking me in the eyes.

"Are you okay? You can talk to me if you want. I'll always be here." I looks down at our hands. I slowly move my hands towards hers. Her eyes look down too. I move slow enough to give her the chance to move away if she wants. I wrap my fingers around her hand. We both sigh as our fingers interlock.

"I'll tell you a different time. How about we just play some games and have fun?" She says with a small smile.

We turn back to the game. She puts in her coins and starts. She so good at this game, I don't get it.

She finishes her first game and she was just shy of beating her own high score.

"Damnit!" She yells as she hits the machine with her hands.

"You wanna try?" She turns to you.

"I've never played video games before actually." I say shyly.

"That's okay! How else would someone else learn. Here I'll show you!" She says and she moves to the side.

I take her spot in front of the game, and out the coins in to start a new round.

"So you want to take this guy and dig around to get rid of the monsters. But you have to watch out for the dragon's fire." She says while standing right next to you, shoulders touching.

I was able to get two of the monsters before a dragon got me.

"Not bad for your first time ever playing a video game." She says with a smile and a giggle.

"Yeah yeah Miss 750,00 points. In my defense, I was distracted." I say, feeling a burst of confidence.

"Oh yeah? Distracted by what?" She asks with a smirk.

"By you standing so close to me." I say with a smirk. I turn towards her and I see a blush on her face.

"How about we do the claw machine?" I say quickly. I grab her hand and drag her to the machine. She still hasn't said anything.

I stop at the machine. "Which one would you like Max?" I ask.

"Hmmm. How about that one?" She says. She points to the Pooka Plushy from Dig Dug.

"You must really like Dig Dug, don't you?" I ask with a laugh.

"Of course" she laughs back.

I put some coins in the machine and focus. I move the claw over the top of the plushy. I walk over to the side of the machine to make sure it is lined up all around. I finally push the button. I watch while the claw drops right over the toy. I bite my lower lip in concentration as the claw closes. The claw lifts the plushy and brings it over to the prize box. The toy drops into the bin and we both cheer. I reach down to grab the Pooka. I hand it over to her.

"And here you go. For you." I smile at her.

She smiles back. "Why thank you." She blushes.

We walk out hand in hand to wait by the parking lot. Joyce and Hop said they were going to pick me up at 6:30 and it was 6:25 now. We sat outside talking about random things for a little bit until we say Hop's chief of police vehicle. I got up and turned to Max.

"I had a lot of fun." I say with a smile.

She gets up too. "Yeah me too. We should do this again." She smiles brightly.

"Is someone picking you up soon?" I ask.

"Ummm no. I was planning on walking back. I forgot my board at home." She says quietly.

"Here, I'm sure we could give you a ride home. I'll go ask." I say. I walk away before she can try to refuse.

"Hey. Do you mind if we give Max a ride home? She was planning on walking back, but I wouldn't want her to walk alone this late."

"Yeah sure. Let's go." Joyce says.

I walk back over to Max and grab her hand.

"Come on let's go!" I say smiling.

She just laughs at my enthusiasm as sheets me drag her over to the car.

"Hi sweetie. I'm Joyce and this is Hopper. He's our chief of police if you couldn't tell by the car. I heard you just moved from California?" Joyce says, sparking yo a conversation.

"Hi I'm Max and yeah, I did. I already feel welcome here so that's good. By the way, I live on Cherry so you can just drop me off." She says.

"Okay kiddo, sounds good." Hop says.

The rest of the ride was comfortable. Small conversations being made on the way. Eventually we made it to Max's house.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow Avery. Thanks for the Pooka again." She says as she gets out of the car.

"Hey wait up. I'll walk you to the door." I say. I quickly unbuckle my seatbelt and follow her up to her door.

"I had a lot of fun. Thanks for showing me how to play Dig Dug, even if I wasn't great at it." I say.

"Of course, I had a lot of fun too." She smiles at me. It was quiet for a little bit and she looks like she's thinking hard.

She quickly gets up on her tippy toes and kisses my cheek. My face turns red and my jaw drops.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" She says quickly as she scurries inside her house, leaving me on the porch frozen.

My hand feel the spot on my cheek where she kissed me. I guess maybe she does like me. After a while, I hear the car horn. I compose myself again before I make my way back to the car to head home.

Once I get in, Hopper and Joyce immediately turn around to smile at me.

"Not a date my ass" Hopper says.

I blush from embarrassment as he puts the car in gear and drives back to the Byers' home.

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a/n: hey guys! here's another quick chapter. i'm hoping to write a chapter soon, focusing on max. so keep an eye out. see ya next time!