Stranger Things: Riley's Version

Chapter Twenty: The Mall Rats

Riley startled awake before the sun was even up breathing heavily and sweating after a nightmare of the upside down. She rolled over with a groan separating herself from Max who was laying on her back beside her. She got her breathing under control and checked to make sure the other girl wasn't awake before she rolled out of bed. She knew there was no way she was getting back to sleep and she could see the sky starting to turn orange as the sun rose. So instead she opted for a workout, she was already sweaty so she might as well get a good workout in before her day started. 

She changed into some cutoff sweatpant shorts, a cropped cutoff t-shirt and some tennis shoes before making her way out for a run. She turned on her walk-man and stretched before taking off down the road. She ran for about three miles before stopping at an empty lot and doing some pull ups, sit ups, and burpees. She did about one hundred of each before running the three miles back to her house. She was on autopilot with no thoughts as she went through the routine.

By the time she got back the sun was up and the rest of the neighborhood seemed to be waking up too. She hopped up the steps to her house turning off her music and setting the walk-man on the table. She could hear her dad humming in the kitchen presumably making breakfast. She toed off her shoes before plopping down in a chair that sat around the table. Her dad looked up, giving her an unimpressed look before continuing with his cooking. Riley was about to make a snarky comment at the man but was interrupted by Max exiting the bathroom. She seemed not to have noticed Riley yet as she turned into the kitchen standing beside her dad. She was still in her pajamas but she looked to have tamed her normal bed head.

"Need any help Mr. H?" She questioned the man.

"Nope got it all handled, and you know that you can call me Rick right." He told the girl with a smile.

"Right, sorry." Came Max's sheepish reply. Her dad just smiled at the girl pulling her into his side for a quick hug that Max returned.

"No need, you and Lucas are basically part of the family. And my girl is absolutely smitten over you." Rick informed her, Max laughed and her dad was about to continue but Riley knew he was gonna say something even more embarrassing so she cut in.

"Uh yeah love you two bonding but I'm gonna stop that right there." She choked out feeling the red in her cheeks flare up. Max turned startled to hear her voice, and she looked wide eyed at the girl sitting at the table.

"When did you get here?" Max asked.

"Like before this conversation even started," Riley informed the girl. Max stared for a minute longer and Riley could see a blush forming on her cheeks.

"Go sit down would ya, Max," Riley's dad said as he picked up the plate full of pancakes he had made. Max just nodded and made her way over to the table filling the seat beside Riley. Riley leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Mornin'," she said as she reached over to grab a stack from the pile of pancakes. "Sleep good?" She questioned.

"Yeah," came the other girls' reply as they started eating their pancakes. "What about you, you must have been up early to already be done with your workout."

"Yeah, bad dream, couldn't go back to sleep so I figured I would get an early start." Riley answered with a shrug. She felt their worried eyes on her but it wasn't uncommon for her to have bad dreams. Even before the upside down she wasn't the best sleeper. "Besides, if I'm gonna go sit in a basement playing D & D all day I needed to get some sort of workout in."

"Right you're ditching me for Mike Wheeler's armpit of a basement," Max deadpanned. Riley gave her a sheepish look.

"You could come, you know, and I'm doing this for Will. The others never want to do what he wants and I figure they normally listen to me pretty well so I should let the boy have some fun during his summer break." She defended even though she knew Max wasn't really mad. "Besides it's been ages since we played and I kinda miss it you know."