This is love ~ Elmax

II - Getting ready

~ Max POV ~

I got woken up by a loud voice outside the door. "Kids, time to get up and get ready for school. Breakfast is in 15 minutes." It was Hopper his voice. I groan softly as I wanted to pull El closer again to cuddle some more, but then I realized the bed was already empty. With my eyes still closed, my hand roamed the bed as I didn't feel her on the bed with me. I slowly open my eyes as I got greeted by El, already dressed, staring back at me with a grin on her face. "Goodmorning my little lion." She giggles softly. She called me that whenever I woke up, since my long ginger hair looked like a messy lions mane in the morning. I chuckle softly as I gently rub my eyes. "Goodmorning. You're up early." I point out as I sat up in bed. "I woke up and couldn't sleep anymore, so I already got ready." She nervously rambles. "Don't be nervous baby, you'll be okay." I smile at her as she nods back. "Now can I get my kiss or?" I chuckle softly as I look at her. She giggles as she crawls over to me over the bed and kisses me.

"You look so cute with your messy hair." El smiles when she pulls away. "Shut it you." I giggle as I peck her lips once more as I got out of bed with her to get ready. "You look so good baby, I like that outfit on you." I smile at El as I now saw her full outfit. "Thank you, love." She smile as her cheeks turn a slight red. "Want to help me pick out my outfit?" I ask her as I walk over to the closet. Opening a box with my clothes in it. "You know you can hang your clothes in the closet right? We have so much space left." El suggests as she points to the closet. The truth is that I was afraid to unpack my boxes, since I wasn't sure how long this wonderful dream was going to last. I was afraid that if I really settled down in this home, that it wouldn't last. So I hadn't unpacked my clothes yet. "I know, I just keep forgetting." I lie. El squints her eyes slightly as she stares right at me. "No, Common don't say it, I didn't mean it like that-" I ramble as I look at her as I already know what she wanted to say when she looked at me like that. "Girlfriends don't lie." She softly says. "I know, sorry, it wasn't a real lie, I mean I have better things to do then unpack my clothes, but I'm just scared I'll have to leave once I unpack. Good things never last long with me, so I try not to get attached and used to it." I explain as I felt uneasy all of the sudden. Saying that out loud made me realize that I deep down was afraid that the same thing would happen with me and El. That she'll get bored or annoyed with me and leaves me.

"You don't have to worry about that. This is your home now. Even when your mom gets better and gets to go home again, you can still stay here. This is also your home and you can stay here as long as you want. I know I'd want you to stay." El smiles sweetly as she wraps her arms around my waist. I smile softly as I kiss El her cheek gently. "You're sweet. Thank you my love." I smile. She smiles in return as she walks over to my clothes in the boxes. "I'll pick out your outfit. You go tame your mane." El jokes as she kneels down in front of the boxes. "Okay, rude." I chuckle as I grab my hair supplies. "But thank you, I'll see you in a bit."

I walk over to the bathroom as I just met Will who came walking out of it. "Morning Willy Will." I greet him as he looked at bit tired. "You look rough, are you okay?" I ask as he meets my eyes. "Oh, morning Max, just didn't sleep well." He explains as he scratches his neck. Something seemed off, but I brush it off. "Hope you'll feel a little better after breakfast. William." I chuckle as I go into the bathroom. "Yeah. Me too." He says as he walks into his bedroom to get ready.

I meet my reflection in the mirror as I sigh softly. "Don't let your insecurities get the best of you Max." I softly tell myself as I brush through my hair and use some products in it to make my wavy hair soft and shiny. I wash my face with cold water to wake myself up a bit, to after apply some cream on my face to protect me from the sun and all of that. I am trying to take better care of myself, since El told me to. She said taking time to take care of myself, would help me feel better about myself and I must say, it does help. As soon as I was finished I leave the bathroom to find El in our room, holding up some jeans and a big army green with black jacket with a simple black shirt under it. "Can you please wear this? It would look so good on you." El asks me excitingly. How could I say no to that face? I mean, It was a sick outfit. But even if she made me wear a clown suit, I couldn't say no to that perfect face of hers. I would do anything for her. It may sound a bit over exaggerated, but I really would.

"Yeah, I'll for sure wear that love, thank you." I smile as she hand me the outfit with a wide smile. "no problem! And maybe you could wear your black vans underneath it?" She suggests as she grabs my black vans from one of the boxes in the closet. I may or may not have a small vans collection. But they are the perfect skateboard shoes and I like the look of them, so it's a win win. "Great idea." I agree as I got dressed into the outfit El picked out for me.

"You look amazing!" El beams as she jumps into my arms and squeezes me softly. I chuckle as I must agree that I did look quite good. "Thank you for your help miss Jane." I smile as I meet her eyes. "You're welcome. Can I get a kiss as a thank you?" She grins as she perches her lips slightly. "You can get a kiss whenever you want." I state with a smile as I lean in and press my lips on hers. "Do you have your backpack with books and supplies?" El asks as she pulls away. I chuckle softly.  "Yes, right here." I point out as I grab my bag from the ground and swing it over one of my shoulders. "Good, mine is downstairs. So we are ready?" El asks a bit nervous again as she scans around the room. "Yes baby, we have everything. Let's get downstairs and get some food, alright?" I suggest with a smile. She nods softly as she meets my eyes. "Alright."

When we came downstairs we met Joyce and Hopper in the kitchen making scrambled eggs with bacon and toast. But also waffles.  "Damn that smells so good, are we celebrating something? Did I forget someone's  birthday?" I joke as I lay my backpack down next to El her backpack on the ground. Joyce chuckles as she puts the food down on the table. "No, no birthday, but we wanted to celebrate the first day of school with a well deserved yummy breakfast. " She smiles kindly. El took a seat at the table as she was already eyeing the stack of eggo's that was laying on the table. "Will, honey! Breakfast!" Joyce yells upstairs as we all sat down at the table. Will came running down with his bag in his hands. "Sorry! Was looking for my science book, but I found it luckily." He huffs out of breath as he took as seat as well. El her hands already reached over to the plate of eggo's, but hopper was faster. He already grabbed the plate and laid down two eggo waffles on her plate. he smiles at her as she smiles back. "thanks dad." She says before she drowns her eggo's in syrup and stuffs her mouth full with them. "no problem kid." He replies with a soft smile. I chuckle softly, looking at her enjoying those simple freezer waffles so much. "You want some eggs sweetie?" Joyce asks me as I nod softly. "Thank you." I smile as Joyce fills my plate with some toast eggs and bacon. "No problem, you enjoy that alright?" She smiles as she turns to Will and fixes him a plate too.

After we all enjoyed breakfast we gathered all our stuff. We said our goodbyes to Joyce as she wished us goodluck. She also promised us pizza for dinner tonight, were I was very stoked about. We got into Hopper his car and got dropped off at school. Hopper wishes us luck too as he gave El an extra kiss on her head. She smiles kindly to he dad and waves him off as she stares at the school with big eyes. Will standing next to us, looking around if he could find the boys.  El her fingers fidgeting with her blue bracelet she always wore that she got from hopper. Her Yin bracelet resting around her other wrist.  I look at my Yang bracelet around my wrist as I also took a deep breath.  "Hey? We got this okay?" I softly say to El as she nods softly. I wanted to hold her hand, but I remembered we were supposed to keep our relationship a secret. But friends hold hands too right? I wasn't going to risk it, since I knew how nervous El already was. Although all I wanted to do right now was to kiss her to both calm her and myself down.

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//AN: OKAY, thank you for the incredible responds to book 2! I didn't expect so much love for it and it made me so happy! I am writing chapters in advance so I can update twice a week for you guys, but since the response has been so amazing, I just wanted to give you this chapter early as a thank you. I love you all <3