SUMMERTIME SADNESS | Max Mayfield

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: last day of school.

A lot has changed it Lexi Hopper's life. She got used to sharing a room with Nancy and the two girls got really close. Nancy taught her about makeup and gave her relationship advices. Her and Max fought a lot, but they always sorted things out. 

Lexi's hair got a lot darker and her roots became brown. She also stopped curling her hair. 

The blonde still had nightmares about what happened in summer, but Nancy was always there to comfort her. 

Lexi had her try outs for girls choir and she got in. Karen wanted her to be seeing Ms. Kelly, but Lexi told her, that singing was her therapy and after a little bit of convincing, Karen let it go. 

Let's just say, that the spring break might be actually good. 

"Alright, let's go." Nancy said and Lexi closed her book. They walked to the door and waited for Mike. "Lexi, can you please go get him?" Nancy asked the blonde and she nodded. She walked up the stairs and opened his door, to see him in his undershirt.

"The hell are you doing? It's ten after." She caught his attention and he started looking for his pants. "Oh, shit. Shit!" He cursed. "Thirty seconds or we're leaving without you, okay? Thirty seconds!" With that, she left. "Okay, I have to find my pants."

"Michael, I know your D&D club is tonight." Karen spoke, when he walked down the stairs. "Hellfire." He corrected her. "Why don't you call it the High School Dropout Club?" Ted said and both Lexi and Mike rolled their eyes. "I want you home no later than 9:00."

"I'll try." He toasted some food. "No trying. You need to go to bed early." Karen said. "Why?" He furrowed her brows. "It's a 6:30 flight, Michael." She scoffed. "Yeah, I know, but..."

"No buts. Nine or no California." She pointed at him. "And no sweetie pie."

"Mike! Let's go." Nancy yelled. "Jesus. How am I gonna survive a whole week without you guys?" He walked over to the girls and Lexi hit his shoulder, even though he was a lot taller than she was. "Nine." His mother yelled after him. 

They finally got to the gym, to see some stupid pep rally and Mike and Dustin wouldn't stop arguing. "Look, I'm not saying that my girlfriend is better than yours. It's just that Suzie's, like, a certified genius." By now, Max had come and Lexi thanked god for that. Max came to her and they hugged. "Hello, my love." Lexi whispered in her ear. "Hi." She giggled. 

It's not like they were officially together, but they both liked, well, loved each other. "You do realize El saved the world twice, right?" Lexi rolled her eyes at their stupid coversation. "And yet you still have a C in Spanish."

"And let's hear it for your Tigers!" The principal said into the microphone and everyone cheered. The basketballist ran out of the changing room. "Good morning, Hawkins High! First off... Hey. First off, I'd like to thank each and every one of you. Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand."

Everyone except Max and Lexi started clapping. "And of course, of course, I have to give a special shout-out to the best and the prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer Squad. Chrissy... Chrissy, I love you, babe."

Everyone awed, but Lexi thought it was stupid and embarrassing. "You know... I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's been a tough year for Hawkins. So much loss. And sometimes I wonder, How much loss can one community take? In dark days like this,
we need something to believe in.

So, last night, when we were down by ten points at half to Christian Academy, I looked at my team, and I said, Think of Jack. Think of Melissa. Think of Heather. Think of Billy. Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper."

All eyes went to Lexi, including the party's eyes. He had no right to talk about her father, when it's about fucking basketball. "Think about every one of our friends who perished in that fire. What did they die for? For us to lose to some... some crap school?"

"No." Could ber heard from the crowd and Lexi watched her feet, as memories of her father filled her mind with tears that filled her eyes. "No! For us to return home with our heads hung low in defeat?"

"No!" Lexi had enough. "Hey, I uhm, I have to go to the restroom." Max's eyes were filled with worry. "Are you okay?" Lexi nodded. "Yeah, of course. I'll see you at lunch." Max eventually nodded and Lexi walked away. 

"Let's win this game. Let's win this game for them. And that's exactly what we did!" She heard while walking away. 

Lunch came quicker, that Lexi thougt and the two girls walked out of school and sat on a bench as they ate their sandwiches. "What do you think about Jason?" Max asked out of nowhere and Lexi thought for a second. "I think he's full of shit." Max nodded. 

"I gotta see to Ms. Kelly today, can you please come with me?" This wasn't anything unusual. Lexi spent half of her sessions there. Ms. Kelly didn't like it at first, but she knew Max was more calm and open, when Lexi was there, so she was glad, when she was. "Of course."

The two girls finished their food and walked to Ms. Kelly's office. "A C in English and a C-minus in Spanish. Well, that's not normal for you." She read out of a file. "If you say so." Ma shrugged. 

"How's your mom holding up?" Ms. Kelly asked and Lexi took Max's hand into her own for comfort. "She's fine. I mean, she hates our new place, which is, like... Yeah, it's terrible, but... She's fine." She shrugged. "Is she still drinking?"

"Like, yeah, a little, but... Well, she's working two jobs. So, it's not easy." Max explained. "It must not be easy for you either with your stepdad gone." Max sighed. "It's kind of better, honestly." She hesitated. "Better how?"

"He was an asshole. So, there's less assholery." She shrugged. "Are you sleeping better?" She picked up Max's filed. "Yeah, fine." She looked at her shoes. "No more headaches? Nightmares?" Max shook her head.  "Nope."

"Max? What you've been through, what you're still going through, it's a lot for anyone. And it's okay to not be okay. But I can only help you if you're truthful, if you open up to me." She placed the file back on her table. "Yeah, I... I know. I'm... I'm being open. I'm being open."

"What about you, lexi? How are you holding up with your father gone." Lexi looked at the clock then back at the woman. "Fine. I mean I'm living with the Wheeler's so everything's just great."

When the two girls got out, Lexi let out a big sigh. "God, how I despise this woman." They walked to the restroom, but someone stopped them. "Max, Lexi, hey." Lucas' familiar voice made them stop. "Are you stalking us or something?"

"Oh, no, I... I just wanted to give you this." He passed them two pieces of paper. "What is this?" Max asked and Lexi observed it. "A ticket to the game. I know you never want to go to my games, but this one is kind of a big deal." He laughed a little. "A big deal? Lucas, you really care about this?"

"Yeah, I... I do. Maybe you should find something you care about too." Lexi's eyes widened. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Max turned to face him. "Uh... You're just... It's... It's like you're not even here anymore. It's... It's like you're a ghost or something. You only ever hang out with Lexi."

"A ghost? Really?" She scoffed. "Max, I know something's wrong." He said in a comforting tone. "Yeah, right. Something must be wrong with me because I broke up with you and started dating Lexi." They weren't really dating, but it's not like she protested. "No. No, that... that's not what I meant."

"Lucas, look, people just change, okay? That's it. I've changed. It's that simple. Good luck." She gave him the ticket back and wanted to go, but Lexi pulled her back. "I'm going with Nancy, so I don't need this, but I'll be there." She gave him the ticket back and smiled at him. His face lit up and Lexi and Max left. 

They walked in the restrooom and Max took out some pills. Lexi heard someone groaning, maybe throwing up and furrowed her brows. "Hey, are you all right?" She asked. "Yeah... Yes, I'm... I'm fine."

"Okay, um... You're sure?" This time it was Max who asked. "Please, just go away." The person responded and they wanted to be respectful, so they left.

The two girls walked out of the school and Lexi wanted to walk with Max as far as she could, since she was waiting for Nancy and had to stay in school. They walked, until Dustin ran to them and asked them about Hellfire. "No." Lexi said immediately and Dustin looked at Max. "If I play, do I get one of those cool T-shirts?"

"Yes." He nodded. "Really?" She pretended to be excited about it. "Everyone gets a T-shirt. We make 'em ourselves, and if you... You're being sarcastic. You being sarcastic?"