STRANGER THINGS 3 [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 1: White lie (Part 5)

The party piled up in their usual booth where they spent most of their afternoons. Steve grabbed a chair from an opposite table and sat. A young waitress, around Steve's age came to serve them. She kept sending Steve flirtatious looks. "What will it be tonight, kids and handsome? The usual?" – She asked them while twirling her permed hair with her finger and looking towards Steve. The kids confirmed. "What about you, handsome?" – She asked Steve and put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. Steve was clearly uncomfortable by the sudden touch of the girl and shifter away from her long claws. "A chocolate milkshake and some fries." – Steve told her with and uncomfortable awkward smile.

From across the table Dustin and Lucas were creaming their pants from giggling at the scene before them. Will and Max just gave them a warning look to cut the shit out and Mike was just mentally not there. He kept thinking about what happened. Steve shook off the place where the waitress touched his as she left. That was a queue for Dustin and Lucas to burst out in tears from laughter. Steve gave them a killing look. "Hey, jackasses! Cut it out! It's not funny..." – He hissed towards the boys. Dustin fanned his face with the menu and Lucas wiped the tears from below his eyes. "Don't mind them, Steve..." – Will said trying to comfort the big guy. Steve gave him a small smile in return as a thank you.

"Ah, Steve, pal... You know... That was a girl... You shouldn't run away from her!" – Dustin said in-between giggles. "Man, I'm not in the mood..." – Steve said bluntly, all eyes on him. "Why? You still getting over Nancy?" – Dustin asked. "Dude... Not now.." " Steve, man I love you, but you need to move on. Nancy did and she doesn't give a flying shit about you anymore, so you better do that as well! Find a girlfriend already!" – Dustin spat back at the guy sitting opposite the party. Steve crossed his arms and rested them on the table. Before he got a chance to reply to the curly haired boy, the waitress came and served their food and drinks. Mike got a chocolate milkshake with a hamburger, Will got pancakes with extra syrup, Max got a vanilla milkshake with cheeseburger, Dustin got a chocolate milkshake with hamburger and fries and Lucas got double cheeseburger without onion accompanied by chocolate milkshake. After the waitress handed the food to the kids, she saved the "best" for last which was Steve's food. Under the tall glass of milkshake she slipped a piece of paper and winked at the guy. She sent a smile and a simple enjoy towards the kids and left them to eat.

They all ate in silence for the first five minutes, until Dustin broke the silence. "So, you know how I was sort of going out with that Valentina girl? Well, her best friend that apparently has a crush on me, Nicole told me that there's a new family in town!" – Dustin informed his friends as he stuffed his face with fries before taking a sip from his milkshake. "We already know about the new family, Mike's on their tail..." – Lucas answered bluntly. "Are we brining up them, again?" – Will exhaled. "Guys! You weren't there! They were weird and creepy, just thinking about what they can possibly have done to their daughter is giving me the chills!" "How do you know them?" – Steve asked the raven-haired boy. "My family and I went over to their house to welcome them." – He rolled his eyes.

"Let's not jump in assumptions, Mike!" – Lucas warned his friend. "Well, we're going over for dinner at their place tomorrow." – Mike informed the party. "Tomorrow? I wanted to invite you to have dinner with us. Hopper and Jane are coming over and my mom said that I can ask you to come." – Will said that to Mike with a sad face which made Mike huff and roll his eyes in annoyance. "Great! I'm stuck with the weirdos! Mom will never let me skip the shitty dinner!" – Mike leaned back into the booth and crossed his hands over his chest like a little kid. "Hey, ask her! Maybe she'll say yes and you can see El." – Max comforted her friend.

Since that night, Mike warmed up to Max and are on speaking terms. They're not the best-est friends, but at least he doesn't hate her. Mike taught that she would be a good companion to El when she gets tired of the boys and let Max in the party. The party gained a Zoomer. When Mike was sick and tired of his mom and dad arguing, he would take Holly and go to Max's house. He would stay there until one of his parents realises that two of their children are missing. The reason why Mike went to Max was because the rest of the party didn't know about his house being a warzone. Max found out when she went to Mike's to get her notebook and witnessed an uncomfortable situation. They were fighting... She knew how it felt to have parents constantly fight, so she got Mike and Holly out of the house. Mike surprisingly could talk to Max about that part of his life and she heard him out each time he would come over. Even Holly liked Max, especially her skateboard. Holly would get the board and ask Max to push her around the house. One night, Mike and Holly stayed over for dinner in the Mayfield-Hargrove household. Her mother, Susan made a delicious meatloaf. They talked the whole night and the whole family enjoyed having Mike and Holly over for dinner. Billy had a soft spot for the little girl, even though he wasn't showing it. Whenever he would see the little explorer Holly around the house, he would sneak her in the kitchen and give her cookies, sweets and ice cream!

"Speaking of Jane, when is she coming to your school?" – Steve asked as dipped a few fries in his milkshake before popping them in his mouth earning a disgusting look from Lucas and Dustin. "We don't know... I asked Hopper to bring her tonight, but he said he would think about it." – Will answered. "Maybe he'll bring her later on. She was afternoon lessons!" – Max spoke up. Mike only stayed quiet, this time even madder at Hopper for not bringing the girl. "Well, you know she missed on a lot of things. She's probably working very hard to catch up on school and shit like that." – Steve tried to cheer and comfort the kids a little. Jane coming back was an emotional subject for them. They all know how hard it was for her to adjust to everything. She's come a long way in the past year and a half and the progress was visible.

"What about you, Steve? What are your plans for the future?" – Lucas asked. "Honestly, I don't know. I'm just helping my dad around." "You can't be doing that forever." – Mike spat as he took a sip form his milkshake, earning a glance from Steve. "Oh, really? I didn't know that asshole!" – Steve fought back. "Anyways, my dad has been festering me about trying community college which is a bummer!" – Steve informed the gang. "Community college is not that bad." "How do you know, freshman?" – He questioned the red-haired girl. "Have you been to community college to know if it's a bummer, hm?" – Max spat at Steve. "That's not the point!" – He said. "Well, it is! You don't know if you don't try! If you just keep moping around and working with your dad you won't do much. Get into college and get a degree so you can escape this shithole!" – Max raised her voice, causing the whole party to look at her with widened eyes. They all know that Max was feeling sad and wasn't fond of Hawkins. As the winter rolled by, they knew she missed the sun.

They stared at her in surprise for a few seconds, until she realised what she did. "Shit, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to yell at you." – She apologised to Steve. Lucas grabbed her hand under the table in a soothing matter which seemed to calm her down a little. "I understand, kid... I want to get out of this shithole, as well! Too much things happened that need to be forgotten..." – This sentence from Steve's mouth made the whole party think. "You know, as the time passes by I'm getting more and more creeped out! I don't want to be that guy, but that last year can't be the end." – Dustin started. "The quieter this place, and that place gets the more creeped out I get. " – He continued, making Will lower his head. "Guys, you do realise that this will possibly haunt us for the rest of our lives? Even if we leave Hawkins, we're still going to know that we survived that!" – Mike went after Dustin. "Let's not think about the bad things, okay? Let's think of all the things we gained! Like... Like... The friendships! How in a million years we would start hanging out with Steve Harrington? Or we wold never met El if it wasn't for that thing! Even the party, we wouldn't be this close if it wasn't for the whole ordeal!" – Lucas tried to light up the mood, earning a small smile from everyone as they concentrated on his little speech.

"Let's hope the newcomers don't disturb our peace and quiet!" – Dustin joked in a serious tone, referring to the new family in town, the Jenkins.