It's Not Three Inches With You

El Prologue

I was on my bed, bored out of my mind. Max couldn't stay over tonight, her parents were making her stay at home because she was...grounded. Hopper was out, probably on a date with Joyce. I'm happy for him, its just weird that's all. I know he's happy that I dumped Mike's a*s. He didn't like Mike that much. I think its because I used to kiss him a lot. Maybe he just missed when it was the two of us. Max comes over a lot now, and I'm happy that Hopper's okay with that. 

He doesn't make me keep the door open three inches when I'm with her. Max says its because she's a girl and that he knows we aren't going to kiss. Hopper said he'd be back around 7:30 and that he'd send me a message when he was coming home. When Max is here, he stays out later when he goes out with Joyce. I think its so they can kiss but Max just laughs and says its gross. She dumped Lucas' a*s too. My walkie talkie went static before Mike's voice came through.

"El? El its me Mike. Do you copy?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Go away Mike." I told him, annoyed. Max said he'd come crawling back for me and that I shouldn't worry, but I wasn't really worried anyway. I didn't want him to come crawling back. But I think I was supposed to.

"El, I just want to talk." Mike said, his voice pleading.

"Go away Mike." I said, more forcefully this time, slamming the antenna down and throwing the walkie talkie across the room. The door unlatched just as I had thrown it.

"El?" Hopper's voice asked and I opened my door and came storming out.

"Hey. Hey! Slow down! What's wrong?" he asked me. I glared down at my shoes, not saying a word.

"I know I'm late. I'm sorry." He told me, but I wasn't mad about him being late. I didn't even know what the time was.

"I'm not mad at you." I told him. "I'm mad at Mike."

He pinched his forehead.

"I thought you broke up with him, dumped his a*s or whatever."

I sighed.

"I did."

"I don't understand." He said confused.

"Max." I said.

"Max? What about Max?" he asked me and I looked up at him.

"She understands." I told him.

Hopper sighed, shaking his head.

"I know kid, but she's grounded." He told me.

"No Eggos? No TV?" I asked, repeating what he had told me when he grounded me last year.

Hopper laughed slightly.

"Well, that was your kind of grounded. Max has a different kind of grounded. It means she cant see her friends, she cant leave the house or any of that sh!t."

I stared at him, confused.

"Wh-When I was here. Before I went to see Mama...was I...grounded?" I asked him and he shook his head.

"No. That was different. And that's all over now." He told me, before taking a beer out of the fridge and sitting down.

"Want to watch TV with me?" he asked and I shook my head.

"How long is grounded?" I asked him and he looked up at me, a tired look in his eyes.

"Well it depends. But I'm sure Max will be...ungrounded soon. Just don't beat yourself up about Mike. He deserved what he got anyway."

I wasn't so sure.

"How do you know?" I asked him and he smiled.

"Because believe me, he wasn't the right guy for you. You'll know when you find the one."

I smiled softly.

"Is Joyce the one? Your one?"

He laughed.

"Yeah, kiddo. I think she is."

I smiled and turned away, telling him I'd be back in a minute. Walking toward the phone in the kitchen I dialed Max's number, praying she would pick up the call.

(A/N: Hellooooo!!!! I know some of you will be here from Yours Truly, so hi again and I hope you enjoy this story! If you're new, hiiiii! Thanks so much for reading! This chapter and the next are both kinda sad but dw it's going to get a lot better I promise! Something you should know about me is that I ship things withe every FIBRE of my being and Elmax is one of those things hehe (so's Jopper (obviously) and Bonrad from TSITP.  Also Bangel and Tillow from BTVS but only old people will get that (jk lmao)) anyway sorry, that's off topic. Hope you enjoyed the first update! Don't forget to comment and vote, stay totally tubular and I'll see you in the next one xx)