( 🚲🌑 ) 𝑺𝑼𝑩𝑱𝑬𝑪𝑻 𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑬. mike wheeler!

iii. madmax

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CHAPTER THREE: MADMAX
❝Who is that in the photograph? Is it like you're mom or something?❞

I sat at the top of the stairs and dangled my legs over the edge while reading It by Stephen King. I kept getting distracted by Max, though. She was going around and around the black top on her skateboard. Her firey ginger hair blowing with the soft breeze behind her and her ocean blue eyes focused in front of her.

A slight gust of wind came and knocked the picture of my mom when she was pregnant with me. I was about to run down the stairs to retrieve it, but someone's hand grabbed it for me.

"Is this yours?" a female voiced asked. It was Max.

"Y-yeah. It is." She lifted it up to me and I reached to grab it.

I shoved the picture into my sweater pocket and continued to read, until Max spoke up again.

"Who is that in the photograph? Is it like your mom or something?"

"No," I lied. "It's no one."

Max looked at me with a confused, yet curious, expression, but them it softened out to a normal one. "You're Lily, right?"

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and replied, "Yeah. And you're Max? The other new girl?"

She nodded her head and I could tell that she wasn't sure what to say next. She was probably not used to talking to other people. She pursed her lips and stared at the ground.

Max came up the stares holding her skateboard and sat next to me. "There's an arcade," she said, "Palace Arcade. I was gonna go after school. Maybe you can come too?"

And arcade? Finally something I could actually enjoy in this horrid town. "U-uh. Yeah. Sure."

I looked over to see Mike, Dustin, Will, and Lucas looking over in our direction. I sighed.

"If they stared even longer, they might as well paint each other gray and call themselves statues," I said.

Max looked over at the direction I was looking at. "Oh them? They've been staring at me all day."

I thought for a moment. "Hold on. I've got an idea." I took out a single sheet of paper and a black marker.

'STOP SPYING ON US, FREAKS', was what I wrote on the paper. I crumpled up the paper and dropped it into the garbage bin below us.

"Come on." Max and I stood up and entered the school through the blue door behind us.

Max and I stood and talked together for a while until the bell rang, signalling us to head to fifth period.

Something kept running through my mind. It kept my heart thumping and I kept getting this weird feeling in my stomach. Could Max really be my first friend or was she just being nice? Did she really want to hang out with me after school or was she just setting me up? These thoughts kept coming to me throughout my last two classes.

I arrived at my house and unlocked my front door with my house key. I twisted the doorknob to see my mom watching Ghostbusters on the television screen using the VHS player.

"Hey, honey! How was your first day?" Miss Easten's voice rang through the house.

"It was fine," I simply said as I jogged up the stairs in a hurry.

"Woah, woah! Hold on a sec." Miss Easten came and stood at the bottom of the stairs. "Why are you in such a rush?"

I let out a small sigh. "I'm meeting Max at the arcade."

Miss Easten gasped. "You already have a new friend just from your first day? That's great honey!" She came up the stairs as fast as she can and hugged me.

"Mom! I have to find some change." I let go of her grasp and continued heading to my room.

I dropped my backpack on the ground. I went through my dresser looking for my piggy bank like a raccoon foraging for food.

Once I found it, I flipped it upside down and watched the coins fall out onto my bed. I shoved three hand fulls of quarter into my pockets and headed back downstairs.

"I'll be back later, Miss Easten."

"Alright, honey. Be safe." She came up to me and kissed my forehead.

"I will."

I put my bike in the bike rack in front of Palace Arcade and saw a car quickly drive up in front of the arcade and saw Max step out of the car.

Max and whoever was driving the car were arguing at each other cursing at each other. Max slammed the the passenger door shut. She put up her middle finger as the car sped away.

She ran towards me once she noticed I was standing there.

"Max, wh-who was that?"

"Oh that was just Billy."

"Is he your brother?"

Her fisted clenched beside her. "No."

We just stood there for a moment and then decided to head inside. We traded our quarters in for tokens and headed over to Dig Dug first.

Max played before I did and she had the highest score still. Her name in the game was 'MADMAX', which was pretty cool.

"Wow, Max. You're really good," I said.

"Thanks."

When she was finished, it was finally my turn. My name in the game was 'EASTEN'.

I always played arcade games back in Chicago. I wasn't the worst and I wasn't the best. I just played them for fun because it took my mind off of all the bad thoughts and memories.

"785,000 points!?" Max exclaimed. "I never even thought that was possible."

So Max really is my very first friend. Well, I know she hasn't said that we're 'friends', but I feel like she doesn't have to say that to be friends.

Then we went to Dragon's Lair and I got to play first this time. She was cheering me on as I played.

While I moved the joysticks and smashed the buttons, Max looked down at my wrist.

"Hey what's that?" She reached for my hand and quickly pulled away in fear.

"Oh that? It's nothing. I was just drawing on myself in class."

Max looked at me with a confused expression. When it was her turn, I kept glancing down at the as small print on my wrist.

009.

And that number would stick with me forever.

AUTHOR'S NOTE | hey, guys. i actually didn't think i'd publish this chapter until next week, but i didn't have to extend the time. hope you enjoyed it!
EDITED | 12.4.2018