𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐒

don't push it | max mayfield

pairings: Max Mayfield x male!reader

warnings: mental health issues, drugs, swearing, everyone's out of character, i forgot how to write enemies to lovers

request: anon on tumblr : Would you be able to do an enemies to lovers for max mayfield x gn!reader? (Or m!reader if you're comfortable with that but gn is cool)

A/N: if you can't tell from reading this, i don't know shit about weed, so lemme know if i get anything wrong.

It was safe to say that you and Max Mayfield didn't get along. You had no idea why, or how it happened. She wanted to join the party, claiming she could be the 'zoomer', which you should've been fine with. But for whatever reason, you couldn't stand her. Though she wasn't exactly trying to get on your good side. No one knew why, but you two had hated each other since the day you met. Unfortunately, Dustin and Lucas immediately took a liking to her, much to your confusion. The sight of her and Lucas dancing at the snowball made your blood boil. Another thing you were confused about. You didn't like her. You hated her. Why did you care that she was dancing with Lucas? Not wanting to think about it any longer, you chalked it up to being jealous of her spending time with one of your best friends. You knew it was silly, but you knew there was another explanation. An explanation you didn't want to hear.

Over the summer of the next year, you found yourself looking and thinking about Max differently. You didn't find yourself getting annoyed by just the sound of her breathing anymore. In fact, the only time you really got annoyed by her was when she was being all girlfriend like with Lucas. You were confused. Fortunately, when Dustin came back, it was apparently extremely obvious to him what your situation was.

"Dude, are you jealous of Lucas or something?" He didn't expect you to actually say yes. More like blurt out the word yes, followed by a series of horrified 'no's, but he still counted it as a yes.

While Dustin found your situation rather amusing, you absolutely hated it. It was so much easier to hate her. It was even worse that she was dating your best friend. How could you ever tell Lucas that you had a crush on his girlfriend? You couldn't. Instead, you just started pretending to hate her to avoid suspicion. It seemed like nothing had changed on her side of the rivalry, so you figured hoped this crush would eventually fade away as quickly as it came, just like your hatred toward her did.

It didn't.

If anything, it got way worse when she and Lucas broke up.

Though she started distancing herself from you and the rest of the party, you still tried starting conversations with her when you could, and would steal glances of her during classes.

Unfortunately, crushing on a girl who would barely talk to you as well as experiencing your first year of high school couldn't come with the usual mental health slips. Apparently this was just common knowledge? Anyway, most days would consist of faking smiles, pretending to pay attention to what was going on around while you dreaded the next day. Once again, you hoped it would disappear just as quickly as it came, but from what happened last time you hoped for that, you didn't have much faith. So instead, you turned to Eddie: Hawkins High Schools Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer. You knew him relatively well, being in the same DnD party, so you figured it wouldn't be too hard to get anything from him. While he was reluctant about selling to a minor, you promised him it wouldn't be anything extreme, just taken in small amounts to take your mind off of everything. When that didn't work, the extra fifty bucks you offered did the trick.

You lived up to your promise, only smoking weed after school until your parents got home. You lived in the trailer park near Eddie, so whenever you needed more, you trekked over to his trailer, and repeated the same promise as you did when you first bought from him. Though you were still trying to figure out whether he cared or just wanted the extra fifty bucks.

Despite what the voice in your head tried telling you repeatedly, the weed actually did help. Whenever things would get too much, smoking would always be a good distraction. It's not like being alone with your thoughts would do any good.

When everything seemed to be going alright, you couldn't help but notice all the weird looks you'd get from Max. Normally, your heart would be pounding if you saw Max staring at you, but whenever you saw her staring, she just looked confused or almost suspicious of you. For the time being, you just ignored it. You could've just been imagining things.

Until one night. It was late. It could've been midnight. You didn't bother checking the time before you left your trailer. All you knew was that it was dark. And you couldn't help the sensation that someone was watching you as you knocked on Eddie's door. Luckily, Eddie apparently sold drugs 24/7, and you stepped inside the trailer and left the paranoid feeling at the door.

"Just the usual?" he asked.

"Yeah," you answered, wanting to laugh at how casual he made it sound. You stood near the door as he left to get the weed, feeling more awkward than usual for some reason. As you waited, you found yourself zoned out, staring at a window, a clear view of darkness. Until you saw something. Almost like a silhouette running past the window, and the paranoid feeling came right back.

"Y/N, you ok?"

You jumped around to face Eddie, turning back to the window, seeing no trace of the silhouette, before turning back to your dealer, "Ye-yeah. I'm good." you mumbled, obviously not good. You reached into your pocket, pulling out the money and handing it to Eddie in exchange for the plastic bag. Saying your goodbyes, you exited the trailer, fear rushing through you as you were faced with the darkness. You began walking back to your trailer, almost making it to the front door, when a pair of arms grabbed you by the shoulders and pinned you against the metal wall.

A hand covered your mouth before you could scream, and it took you a good five seconds for you to recognize who was in front of you.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Max.

You let out heavy breaths as her hand uncovered your mouth and dropped back to her side, "What the fuck are you doing?"

Normally you'd be all lovey-dovey from any form of contact with Max, but in that situation it was difficult to be.

The red head just glared at you, grabbing your wrist and holding up the bag of weed in your face, "What are you doing with this?"

Your face fell as you somehow freed your wrist from her grip, shoving the bag back in your pockets, "Why do you care?"

"Why do you fucking think? You're my friend!"

Your eyes widened. As far as you were concerned, she wanted you dead. But apparently not.

"Wh-what?"

You didn't miss the eye roll she did, "You're my friend. What are you doing with this?"

You took a deep breath, "I'm just going through some stuff, Max."

"Then you talk to someone about it, not start smoking weed!" she exclaimed, making your eyes widen with fear.

"Keep it down, someone will hear. And it's not that easy talking to someone about it." you saw Max's expression soften at that, an understanding look in her eyes.

"You could've talked to me." she muttered, avoiding eye contact with you.

You furrowed your brows at that, "Why would you listen to me?"

She stared back up at you, the look in her eyes calling you a dumbass. But in a nice way somehow, "I care about you." she paused, "I know I don't have the best way of showing it. Or showing it at all for that matter. But I do."

"You do?"

"I just said I do, just give me one reason not to get pissed off by you."

You smiled at her, and could almost see a smile of her own creep up on her lips.

"So all those times you called me a dumbass and told me to go fuck myself, that was you caring?"

She rolled her eyes before she began walking away, "Don't push it, Y/N."