Summer 1985 - Mileven/Jopper/Lumax

Chapter 9: Double Ride

The sun was just coming up when Joyce was woken abruptly from the sound of the scratchy zipper of her tent. Sitting up quickly, she feels herself relax at the sight of Jim Hopper's broad shoulders in the entrance of the tent.

"Shit, sorry Joyce," he says apologetically, "I was trying to be quiet." With a soft chuckle, she waves her hand to the side "it's okay, are you already getting up?" The chief goes over to Joyce, patting down her morning hair and nodding.

"You've been making breakfast every day since we've been here, I'll get it this time." "Is this because I've burned it every time?" she asks, squinting her eyes at him playfully. With a hearty laugh, he shrugs his shoulders innocently and places a kiss on her head. With that, Joyce lies back down and closes her eyes contently.

A few hours later, everyone but Max is up and chowing down on the eggs and bacon made by Hopper. "Well, Mrs. Byers certainly didn't make it this time," Dustin jokingly says, winking at Joyce.

With a giggle and a roll of her eyes, Joyce shushes him, "now you're cleaning this up all by yourself!" Lucas sat between El and Mike, still reeling from his date last night. "Great, this is just great," the boy complains, "now she's avoiding me!"

He had spent hours agonizing over it last night. He truly believed it had gone well until he blurted out that she was beautiful. He's good at science and baseball and video games, but girls? He can even admit, not so much. Being called beautiful seemed like a good thing to say, but with the way she reacted along with this being new territory for him, he truly felt clueless.

Patting his friend's shoulder reassuringly, Mike tries to calm him down, "I'm sure she's just sleeping Lucas, it's still pretty early." Nodding her head, El chimes in, "yeah, we stayed up late talking."

With his eyes wide, Lucas tugs on El's pink sleeve, "did you talk about the date? What did she say?"

Shaking her head, El simply says, "can't tell you."

"Oh c'mon El, why the hell not!" Lucas says, his voice gradually getting louder.

"Private" El calmly says, not aware of the concept of girl code but somehow knowing it wouldn't be right to tell Lucas.

With a groan, Lucas shouts back "That's bullshit, El!"

"All right, Lucas, enough!" Mike says, nudging his friend back. Rolling his eyes at overprotective Mike mode, he snarkily counters back, "shut up, Mike! It's not lik-"

"Hey guys," they hear from behind them. Lucas spins around and shyly smiles at the messy-haired red-head. "Oh, uh hey Max. How'd you sleep?" Smiling sweetly at him, she nods, "good, thanks."

There were a few seconds of awkward silence until it was broken by Will's excitement. "Guys! The family next to us just told us they offer horseback riding a mile away! Let's go, let's go, let's go!" he says chipperly.

All of the kids along with Joyce and Hopper walk the mile down to the trail where they see two other big groups waiting for their horses. When the big animals come into view, El's eyes widen and she instinctually grabs Mike's hand. "Um, I don't know if I want to," El says aloud.

Everyone turns around to see her apprehensive face and Hopper goes over to ruffle her curly hair.

Half the time, Hopper still felt like he had no idea what he was doing raising this telekinetic teenaged girl; but he'd really come to love her and views it as his duty to make sure she isn't afraid to try new things.

"It's not that bad, kid" he reassures, "why don't you just try it? If you don't like it, then you can get off, yeah?" Pursing her lips to the side, she asks, "well, can I go with Mike?"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Hopper nods, "I'm sure that's fine, yeah."

Their group advisor comes over, explaining the rules and safety measures before asking if anyone else wants to double ride. Without looking in Lucas's direction, Max grabs his hand and raises their arms, "us!"

He looks over at her like he's about to pass out and she flushes, "is that okay?" she whispers, "sorry, I've just never done it before and..."

Shaking out of his daze, he nods, "no, of course!" Max doesn't miss the smirk Eleven throws her away.

Once everyone is saddled up and ready, Hopper's horse takes off leaving the rest of the group behind. "Oh of course," Dustin complains, "why wouldn't he get the cool horse?"

"They're all cool," Will defends, "look at my guy's stripes!" Mike nods in agreement and feels El press up against his chest.

"You okay, El?" his breath tickling her ear.

When she doesn't respond, he grabs her hand and places it on the side of the horse's neck. "Pet her," he says encouragingly. Hesitantly, she drags her hand over coarse white fur and nods her head. "I like her," she declares.

"I think she likes you too," Mike reassures before placing his head behind the crook of her neck and leaving a soft kiss.

"Jesus Christ," Lucas says, him and Max's horse next to them, "don't you two ever stop!"

Resisting the urge to flip him off, Mike turns his head towards him with squinted eyes. "Oh, sorry," Mike says, voice dripping with sarcasm, "should we go ahead? Seems like you two have a lot to discuss."

He smirks before patting the horse, causing her to trot a little faster. "That wasn't nice," the blushing pair hears El say before it's just them surrounded by the sunshine and pine trees.

Max is beyond grateful she's in front of Lucas, blocking him from her embarrassingly red face. There are a few moments of silence before she breaks it, "he's right though, I want to say something..."

Lucas shakes his head, "Max, really, it's okay if you didn't like the da-"

"I loved it!" she blurts out before letting out an awkward giggle. "I mean, I really liked it. It was great and you're great and I've just never been on a date before so I'm pretty damn clueless."

Biting his lip to suppress a giggle at her cute fluster-ness, he agrees. "I don't know either Max, but I know that I really like you and I really want to go on another date."

Her face brightens up and she lets out an uncharacteristic giggle, which she quickly covers with her hand. "Oh, um okay, cool." With a smirk, he pokes her side, "don't you mean totally tubular?" She elbows him lightly before they both burst out laughing.

Sometime later, they're reunited with the group and see Joyce speaking to everyone animatedly. "I used to go horseback riding all the time when I was younger!" she exclaims, "I'm so glad we did this."

Nobody misses the soft smile Hopper has on his face while he's watching the mother of two reminisce.

It's broken, however, when the wind blows and a horrific stench passes through, all of them letting out groans.

"Oh, of course, it's your horse, Dustin!" Lucas says in disgust.

"What are you talking about? That wasn't George!" the accused boy defends.

"I don't think that's his name," Will says softly, in amusement.

"Um it absolutely was, George! He literally just started shitting while walking!" Even the adults were in tears from laughter for the remainder of the trail.

The sun was setting when the group of eight walked back to their campsite, tired and starved from their day out and about. The kids were in front, pushing and shoving each other playfully. Joyce and Hopper were walking close together, the smaller woman's arm occasionally hitting the side of him.

"You were in your element today Joyce, like some sexy little cowgirl." Blushing bright red, she yelps, "oh my god Hop!", covering her face with her hands.

"I'm serious Joyce, I had no idea you loved horses."

Still coming down from her blush, she nods. "I did it all the time as a little girl with my grandparents until we moved to Indiana."

Humming in response, they walk in silence and Joyce doesn't even realize their hands are connected until there standing in front of the campsite, the kids gawking at them.

Disconnecting their hands, Joyce shyly asks, "so, uh, who's hungry?"