𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀

max the nurse

Asher had been carried back to the Wheeler house by Will, Lucas and Mike after what had happened at the pool. At first, Asher had tried to stand up, reassuring the group that he was fine, but after standing up and falling right back on the floor three times, they had decided it'd be best to not let him try to walk. Asher didn't think it was much for them to worry about, but that was mostly because he had worse injuries in the past, some by random people he got into a fight with and some by his own father; but even though Asher wasn't worried at all, Max and Eleven were a worried mess.

Eleven was worried about the fact that she felt like what happened to Asher was her fault. Even though she stopped Billy beating Asher up even more, or worse, killing him, she felt like it shouldn't even of happened in the first place. She should have been strong enough to stop Billy without Asher having to help her, if she was then Asher wouldn't have looked the way he did now. Max, on the other hand, was worried about losing him. Yes, she knew he'd probably be fine, but seeing him in the state he is in made her know she never wanted to see him like that ever again. In that moment, she knew that she didn't want to lose him. She couldn't lose him.

"Sit down" Max tells Asher as she puts the toilet seat down so Asher can have somewhere to sit down.

"Yes ma'am" Asher salutes as he sits down as Max gets all of the supplies she needs.

"Okay, hold this over your nose" Max says, giving Asher some tissue to hold over his probably broken nose before getting some sterile wipes out "Okay, just warning you, this will sting a bit."

"I bet it won't" Asher says with a laugh as Max places the wipe on the cut on Asher's cheek, making the older teenager wince "Ow Max! What the fuck!"

"I warned you, idiot" Max says with a laugh, making Asher roll his eyes "You really scared me, you know?"

"How did I scare you? I don't think me getting my ass kicked makes me scary?" Asher asks, being very confused.

"The fact that he could of killed you scared me" Max admits "You got to promise me that I'll never see you like that again, ever."

"That you'll never see me get beat up again?" Asher asks Max, who nods her head "I mean, it's a very rare thing, so yeah, it'll never happen again. I promise."

"Good" Max says with a smile as the two just sit there, staring at each other. As much as they felt like they should look away, they just couldn't.

"What are we doing?" Asher asks Max quietly as they both start getting closer to each other "This is fucking weird."

"Not a bad weird though, right?" Max asks Asher in the same quiet tone.

"Not a bad weird" Asher confirms as their faces get even closer, but they quickly pull away as the bathroom door is opened by Lucas.

"Um, Nancy and Jonathan are here" Lucas says awkwardly before quickly walking away from the very awkward moment he just wandered in on.

"Fuck" Asher mumbles under his breath as he gets up and walks out of the bathroom, not even looking at Max. Over the past couple of days, he had let his feelings make him completely forget that Lucas and Max had their weird on and off relationship, and one thing Asher didn't want to do was get in the way of that. Apart from Dustin and Steve, the person he was the closest to in the group is Lucas, so getting remotely close to his ex girlfriend without getting the thumbs up from him was fucked up and he didn't want to do that, no matter how much he had started to like Max.

"What happened to your face?" Nancy asks as Asher walks out of the bathroom.

"I don't want to explain, it's too embarrassing" Asher says as he sits down next to Eleven as Nancy just gives him a weird look "Carry on explaining whatever you were talking about."

"Um, okay" Nancy says "But it was the exact same thing that happened to Will last year. And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."

"He likes it cold" Will mentions, looking up from the sheet of paper.

"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer--" Mike goes to say but gets cut off.

"Mrs Driscoll" Nancy corrects.

"Right, yeah, Mrs Driscoll" Mike correct himself, not wanting to get into an argument with his sister "What time was this attack?"

"Last night" Nancy answers.

"Right, but what time last night?" Mike asks again.

"Around nine" Nancy specifies.

"You waited all night to call?" Jonathan asks his girlfriend.

"I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests" Nancy tells Jonathan, making Asher know that the two weren't really on good terms at the moment.

"You weren't there?" Will asks his brother in a shocked tone.

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Jonathan asks with a sigh.

"Hallelujah!" Nancy sarcastically says as she rolls her eyes, making Asher laugh "Um, so what time was your... sauna test?"

"Around nine" The whole group says in unison apart from Asher, who says "You think I keep track of the fucking time?"

"Well that proves it" Nancy says "It proves my theory."

"She's flayed, just like Billy" Mike brings up.

"Flayed?" Jonathan asks.

"The Mind Flayer, he flays people" Mike explains like it is common knowledge "Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

"If there are two flayed--" Lucas goes onto say but gets cut off.

"We have to assume there's more" Will finishes the sentence.

"So what, this shadow thing is building an army of himself in people?" Asher asks, being confused like he normally is.

"Heather" Eleven quickly says, making Max and Asher look at the girl "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

"What's a good scream?" Lucas asks, not wanting to know the answer.

"Asher said--" Eleven goes to say but gets cut off.

"Doesn't matter" Max quickly cuts Eleven off, not wanting to talk about it.

"I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?" Nancy asks.

"Hot chick, grade above me, cheerleader, friends with Chrissy" Asher goes onto explain, getting a glare from Max in return "Life guard at the pool?"

"Heather Holloway?" Nancy asks, making Asher nod his head.

"Tom."

1084 Words