Salt To The Wound (A Stranger Things Story)

Season 2-Chapter 2-Fears(Max

Max finally was starting to go back to normal. She was smiling again and was able to have actually fun without thinking about something else. This was mainly because of Lucas, he really helped her. But she also just couldn't shake the feeling of guilt, as if she caused these deaths.

She decided she needed to face her fears head on and she went to the graveyars where her brother, mother, and grandmother were buried. "Funny how death runs in the family right? Well ever since you all passed I can't help but feel as if I'm responsible. Billy, if I just watched that stupid show with you, you'd be here today. Mom, if I just told you not to leave then maybe you'd also be here, and grandma if I just f*cking stayed home I could've saved your life. But then I remembered, that everything happens for a reason and even if your deaths killed me inside it also became an essential part of who I am. And I'm tired of feeling this guilt and regret, I needed to move on from this and so this is where I'm going to leave it. I miss you all but it wasn't my fault and I'm not going to continue living as if it was." She then left an individual flower for each, a rose for Billy as he liked roses a lot, a violet for her mother, she love dviolets. And a daisy for her grandmother, her first name was Daisy. She then left the graveyard.

After the whole encounter, she felt so much better about everything. She no longer felt the two crushing weights of guilt and regret. And so she thought this place needed a makeover, as it reminded her of that guilt and regret. And so she made it her mission to repaint and clean the place tomorrow but now she had to go to a Rollercoaster and now the Rollercoaster of emotions.

Lonnie was already there with everyone and Max got in the car, she always had the frontseat as El didn't like it and Will and Mike always wanted to be next to each other, to listen to music with one having either ear bud and rest their heads on each other. As much as Max wanted to believe it was corny, she wanted to do the same thing with Lucas but never told anyone, it would be way too embarrassing. Max always had a little fear of Rollercoasters and she already faced one of her fears today so why not face another. "Let's ride the worst one first," Will said and everyone else agreed. "Wait, Joyce had went to pick up Lucas, Dustin, and Troy, because I didn't have the space," Lonnie said and so they waited. When they arrived they made their way to get the tickets. "Uhm let's see can I have two normal passes and seven fast passes," Lonnie said handing the guy his card.

And so they decided to get on the one that looked the most scary, the Intimidator. Max gulped looking at the thing with fear but she still got in that seat ready to tackle this fear today. When they got off Max felt relieved and felt a rush of adrenaline, she had to do another one and so they all rode every single Rollercoaster available and there was a lot.

By the time they went and did every Rollercoaster twice it was time to go, Max was extremely ecstatic about the whole entire experience. Max also remembered how it was before, and woth everything that went down she couldn't go back to that. As much as she wanted to pretend that it never happened she just couldn't.

When she got back to the house, she decided now that it was time for a makeover. She grabbed white paint and decided to move all the old furniture outside. She called Lucas and they spent the rest of the day painting the house. They even played around a little bit, chasing each other with the paint which obviously made the entire process take longer. And this was going to take more than a day considering how long it took to move the furniture. She was probably going to buy new furniture so she put the furniture next to the curb and put 'take if you want' and so she locked the door and stayed over at Lucas' for the night.

They woke up early ready to do the rest of the house today only accomplishing Max's room last night. And so after about 7 hours, they finally did the entire house. "Great work Lu," Max said admiring their work. "Lu?" Lucas said and Max blushed, "oh uhm I meant-" Max began to say, "no it's okay I like Lu," he said smiling at her and she smiled back. "You ever think about moving in together, kind of like mike and will, I mean you have all this space here and my parents won't mind," Lucas said and Max's face lit up. "Uhm yes I do think about it a lot, because it sucks living alone," Max said still admiring the house. "Well that's great, I can move my stuff in here by Wednesday," he said smiling at Max and Max smiled back.

Max ordered some furniture, plates, utensils, and more. She didn't want to be reminded of the dark past that was within this house and a total revamp of it could help. The only thing she kept from before was the TVs, otherwise this place entirely new. When she opened her closet, she realized how dull her clothing was. And today she decided to go shopping with her bestfriend Will, both needed new clothing anyways. She walked outside and Will was already waiting for her. "Dang W, you came here fast," she said grabbing her skateboard. "Well your the one that wants to take forever," he said getting back on his bike. They made their way to the Starcourt Mall, "Ugh what do you two want now," Robin said. She was an employee here who usually stocked the clothes. "Uhm hi to you too Robin and would you so kindly point us to the colorful clothes like pink, yellow, white, that type of stuff," Max said. "Aisle 21 is what your looking for," she said and so the two made their way over to it. "Oh my god Max you would look absolutely beautiful in this," Will said pointing at a mannequins, she was wearing a yellow crop top with a white type of jacket over it and Jean shorts. Max smiled "Yep ill look amazing," she said grabbing the outfit and putting it in their cart. "Wait will you like pink right?" She asked and he nodded. "Try this," she said handing him a white shirt and a pink flannel. "Match it with these white jeans," she said and they put the outfit in the cart. They spent the next few hours shopping and they were definitely prepared for the entire next school year and this summer. "Soooo how about we get some ice cream W," Max said grabbing Wills hand. "Heyyy Steve so like we are friends or whatever," Max said and Steve eyed her. "What do you want kid?" Steve asked, "well I would like a medium strawberry ice cream please," Max said looking at Will. "Oh can I just get a small vanilla please?" Will asked and Steve handed it to them. "Get out of my face," he said and so they left.

"See you later" Max said going into her house and Will biked away. She was happy with all the clothes she got and she took out the old ones from her closet. She wanted no reminiscent of her old self and so she took all the clothes outside and lit them on fire and smiled. She was becoming someone new and that old Max from last year didn't exist anymore.

Ily all ❤️ 💙 💜 💖 💗 💘