𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑, elmax [ discontinued ]

ch. 2

"El?"
Eleven flinched, and quickly lifted her head to face the redhead, sitting on the other side of the table.
"You alright?"

El nodded in response, but didn't say anything. She caught a short glance of Max frowning, before she looked back down at the food on the cafeteria dish. She sat with both elbows on the table, one hand pushing around the food on the plate with a fork, the other holding up her head.

A few silent seconds went by, until she suddenly felt Max' hand brushing against her arm.
"I can tell you aren't. What's up?"

This time El just shook her head. Max wouldn't take that as an answer, so she leaned a little furtherer across the table, and replaced El's hand with her own.

The feeling of Max' hands around her cheek, made her face heat up and her stomach twirl up.
She didn't know what was up with herself recently. Every time Max would show some kind of fondness towards her, she would get this weird - not uncomfortable though - feeling, and her face would go red.
She had tried that before, when Max had just moved to Hawkins. When they became friends those feelings eventually disappeared, and El didn't know why they were kicking back in, all of a sudden.

Max held an intense eye contact between them. That's what she usually did to comfort El, but right know Eleven was embarrassed by her beaming red face, just wanting to hide herself away.

"El, you've been acting wei-" Max started, but was interrupted by Dustin's loud voice, from a little down the canteen.
"What's good, girlfriends?"

He, and the rest of the friend group, always teasingly called them girlfriends, but they never really minded.
Yet, Eleven quickly shook herself out of Max' grip, and attempted to cover up her glowing face with her hand, as Dustin and the party walked up to their table.

El could see a rather offended and disappointed look on Max' face, trough her fingers, covering up her eyes, and she immediately felt a slight ache in her chest.
Why did I absolutely have to pull back like that? El thought.

Lucas looked confused from one girl to the other, since they got no response.
"Should we... we can find somewhere else if-"
El quickly turned her head towards them, her short curls bouncing around, from the sudden move.
"No! Sit, please," she tried to say as optimistically as possible, but it came out as more of a command.
Max seemed to notice El's diversion from their conversation. She crossed her arms irritatedly, and moved her gaze to look out a window, as her friends joined the table.

a/n
sorry, boring chapter, i know.
kind of a filler, but better context will come soon(: