[HIATUS] Malls and Arcades | Max Mayfield

Chapter Two

「 "But the dream was too much for you to hold," (The World We Knew, Frank Sinatra). 」
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"When are you going to get home, sweetie?" Talia's mother calls from the kitchen.

Talia pulls on her dress straps, making the spaghetti straps significantly smaller. "I don't know; how long can I stay?" She asks, looking at herself in her vanity mirror. The dress looks as snug as it is. She pulls at the ends of her dress and then combs back strands of her hair with her fingers. She looks fine.

No matter how much she thought about it, it didn't mean she believed it. Every time she knew she was going to see Max, she subconsciously tried to look her best. She wore a dress she felt confident in and a headband in her hair that she never would have thought about wearing before. Still, she couldn't believe that she truly looked good. Good enough for Max.

She looks away from the mirror. She feels bad because this day wasn't about her, it was about Dustin. She shouldn't be worrying about things like this.

"Come back before ten," her mother decides. "If you plan on staying, then call me." Her voice is suddenly much closer. Talia looks over and realizes that at some point, her mother had come in to occupy space in her room. "Okay?"

"Okay." Talia walks past her mom and through the living room to the door. She takes a step outside and waits on the porch. It feels like she's forgetting something. She taps her foot repeatedly against the wooden porch. What could she be forgetting? She thinks back to what she had been doing: changing, combing her hair, showering, brushing her teeth, eating breakfast, putting the final touches on the basket... Talia rolls her eyes, damning Lucas and Haydn for reading her so well.

Talia heads inside and searches her room for the basket. She turns to her bed and sees that she's left it there. She walks over to it slowly, wondering how she missed it when she first left the room. It was a woven basket with a square base filled to the brim with things everyone had pitched in to buy Dustin to welcome him back. Mike and Will had gotten him something D&D-related. Lucas and Haydn got him a special textbook of some kind. Talia had made him a terrarium in a jar, hoping it would fill whatever hole Dart left in his heart. Steve had somehow found out about it and got Dustin hairspray, for whatever reason. Even Max had gotten him something, a few Detective Comics. On the top of the basket, where the handle was, Talia had added a light green ribbon she had tied in a bow.

Talia grips the basket, lifting it up to feel its weight. It felt like everything was inside, so she resumed her journey to Dustin's house. Talia was in charge of keeping the gift since it was essentially her idea, and she was the one to provide the basket.

She heads outside, steps down the porch, and puts the basket inside the basket at the front of her bike. She then gets on the bike and kicks off.

Talia knew that Dustin wasn't gone for very long, but she had missed him. And it wasn't only her, the entire party did, why else would they be throwing a welcome-back party? So, she suggested the gift since, to her, it felt so wrong to go to a party without something. She just hoped he would like it.