Maxine Mayfield and her family had just moved into Hawkins, Indiana from the glistening, sunny state of California.
He first saw her at his football game and he couldn't stop thinking about her.
It wasn't long before Max and Nathan were acquainted.
...
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SARAH WALTERS had followed the young Harrington to the employee only section of the locker room towards the end of the work-day. The two of them were now sitting on the bench, which was in between the two rows of lockers by their sides. She had her left hand on his shoulder as she tried to pry the boy for information.
"I just don't understand why you and Billy are so... hostile towards each other." She said, shaking her head at the boy.
"You wouldn't understand..." Nathan retorted, raising a hand to rub his temples. The girl simply patted his shoulder gently. She could see that Nathan wasn't in the right state of mind at all. His little interaction with Billy had fired the boy up, the boy just waiting for the right moment to explode. She could see it in his eyes, just one wrong move and he would snap, like a living time bomb. She wasn't sure if he'd snap at her, but he'd most definitely snap at Billy.
Ever since she started working at this stupid pool, the two had been at odds. At the beginning of the summer, the two avoided each other at all costs. Gradually, they had started to talk to each other and tried to understand each other. She didn't know why, but they just couldn't click. No matter what they both couldn't get along and they couldn't do anything without some sort of offhand remark about the other in all of their exchanges.
It was honestly kind of irritating to the girl.
She couldn't even go to work without have to deal with drama between her co-workers.
And if she had to be honest, a part of her didn't want to dig too deep into this drama, this hate they had for each other in the first place. If their hate for each other was deep enough to last this long, with neither side faltering or backing down from the other, maybe it was best to step away from it. There was history between the two of them, so maybe it wasn't her place to try and be the mediator for them. But it was Nathaniel Harrington whose apart of this shit-show, so maybe that was why she was prying into this ridiculous rivalry.
She still cared for the boy even after they drifted apart from each other. How could she not? They had known each other since they were children.
"So... help me understand." She reasoned with the boy, dropping her hand to her lap.
Nathan breathed in, glancing over to her for a moment, "I... I can't..."
On the surface level, it was hatred at Billy's actions and asshole tendencies, like how he was trying to sleep with his friend's mother. At a deeper level, one below the surface, it was a realization the boy wanted to avoid.
The Harrington would do anything to avoid facing this realization, this truth. Because, truth be told, it wasn't Billy he hated, it was who the Hargrove boy had become. And deep down, Nathan knew that he'd be next in line to go down that path. But he just couldn't face it, not yet at least. He couldn't embrace his looming future of being a monster like Billy Hargrove; that he'd be just another product of his environment.
