Salt To The Wound (A Stranger Things Story)

Season 1-Chapter 15: Old Friends and New Ones (Max POV

Max was finally starting to become friends with her old friends once again and then more sh*t went down casuing her to once again shut everyone out and be on her own. To her it made everything so much easier. And so she didn't go to school all of last week but the school let her stay home I mean her grandmother died for Christ sake. Max didn't tell anyone this, nobody knows that she's alone again. To them she's just pulling a Max and ghostig them again. But truly she had something else going on with her. Max was scared for herself thinking how much more loss can she take.

She woke up to the sound of her doorbell ringing,she opened it to find Lucas. "Uh you didn't come to school today," he said "uh yes I know that," she said. "Why you haven't been to school all week and where's your grandma?" She flinched a little when he said that "Uh well I've been feeling sick and she is on vacation," Max said lying in both of her statements. "I'm your friend Max we all are you don't have to lie to us," Lucas said putting one of his hands on her shoulder. She looked at his hand and back up at him "I'm not lying okay, Everything's fine" she said. "Look it's bad going through something hard but it's even worse if you do it alone," he then walked away and she closed the door. She thought about what he said all day long

Even worse alone kept echoing in her head,was Lucas right? Would it he better of she opened up? She thought to herself but shut it down. No one would understand, she again thought to herself and she ordered a pizza. But then Troy showed up as the pizza delivery man. "Oh hey Max," he said taking out the small cheese pizza. "Hey uh friends discount?" She asked him and he looked up at her "friends?" He said, "oh uh unless you don't want to be,"Max said and Troy smiled "yeah friends sounds good," he said and gave her the pizza walking away happy. Well she didn't have ti pay so she was fine and she made a new friend along the way. She ate her pizza watching Tenn Titans, still couldn't shake what lucas said to her though.

When she went to sleep she had a dream, about her brother and her watching Teen Titans it was his favorite show. He really liked Robin maybe because he thought he was cool or other reasons. And Max used to like Starfire the most but nowadays she likes Raven mainly because she relates to Raven the most. And they were laughing having fun, she had so many good memories with Billy and then the nightmare came. "Max want me to stay here and watch Tenn Titans with you?" Billy asked her. "Uhm no I'm not a little kid anymore" she said rolling her eyes. Maybe if she said yes Billy would still be alive today. She blamed herself so much for Billy's death like she could've prevented it but didn't. She woke up terrified, this happened often so she was pretty used to it usually if she got some water and put on Running Up That Hill she'd be fine and so she did going back to sleep peacefully

She woke up the next day and decided to go talk to Troy because Mike told her that he almsot committed suicide and maybe he could relate to her and she skated all the way to his house. "Who are you?" Troy's dad asked. She didn't know what to say "uhm his friend," she said picking up the skateboard. "Well I'll tell him to come outside with you,"the guy said closing the door, A few minutes later and Troy was outside. "Hey Max," Troy said smiling at her. "Uhm are you okay I heard about what happened," Max asked "are you? I also heard about what happened," Troy asked and they both chuckled a little. "Well I'll tell you more if you tell me more," Max said and he agreed. "Don't tell anyone okay," she nodded "same goes for you." And Troy smiled and began to speak "my dad bas always been abusive and an alcoholic, he never ever liked me always thought I was just a punching bag and my mom she encouraged thus behavior and then the only good people I was ever friends with stopped talking to me for wood reasons and I was sick of it all so I tried to tie a rope around my neck but that didn't work so I decided to overdose." Max looked stunned, she didn't know Troy had such a background. "Well my turn, so basically last summer my mom told be my dad died and around 4 days after that her and my brother left to go to the store, where they died in a car crash, but I could've saved Billy but because I thought I was so grown up I didnt. And due to me going to the arcade my grandma died of a heart attack and I could've saved her." Max said tearing up and Troy hugged her and she hugged him back. Both of these two recently going through some tough sh*t brought them together. As Will, even though he is a sweetheart, hasn't went through this before and couldn't possibly know what to do but Troy does. He's been pushed to the point of attempted suicide twice, And so the two decided to hang out.

They just biked and skated throughout the rode letting it guide them but they never went to the highway just neighborhood to neighborhood. They talked about their own experiences and gave consolement to the other whenever rsomething was hard to talk about. She saw a new side of Troy, a side she's never seen before and she wished he would stay like this, and not the bully he once was. And then they ended up at the arcade and both had some pocket change and decided to go against each other to see who was better.

Hope this chapter was good amd unlikely friendship?? Be ready for the next chapter ily all ❤️