𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑, elmax [ discontinued ]

ch. 7

Sunday evening. On evenings like this, Eleven and Max would usually walk around the street's of Hawkins till the sun went down, or look trough vinyls while dancing around Max' bedroom... or go to the diner. This diner, in which El was now sitting, on a bar stool by the counter, alone.

She slowly stirred around her milkshake with a straw.
She hadn't seen Max in almost two weeks - something she had purposely done to calm herself down a little, but really it only made her everyday more stressful.
She missed Max a lot, but being around her took so much energy and effort, for some reason.

This was the girls' favourite place to eat. In fact, it was the only place they would go and eat. It'd become kind of their place. Therefore it felt really weird sitting there just by herself.

The sound of a bell rang from above the door, as someone entered the diner. El turned her head towards the door, and was greeted by the sight of a red haired girl, walking up to the counter, not far from where El was sitting.

For a short moment El panicked, thinking it was Max, due to the mayor similarities of the two; freckles from all over her face down to her shoulders, bright blue eyes and fiery red hair.

This girl's hair was shorter and curlier, though. Very similar to El's own haircut. Pretty unusual for their age, (El supposed the girl was around her age, as she looked young) all the girls El knew, all had long, well groomed hair.

The girl's curls bounced around her face, as she walked up to take an order.
El didn't know what it was about her, but something made it impossible to take your eyes off her.

Eleven didn't even realize, the girl had turned around her face to look at her.
"Stare much?" she winked.
El zoned back into reality, blushing like an idiot. "Oh- I-"

"I like your hair," the girl interrupted, not seeming to care about El's gazing at all. She admired El's hair, before reaching out her hand in front of her, "I'm Beverly."

El absolutely adored Beverly's outdoing, confident spirit. There was in general something very charming about her. Her smirky smile and calm eyes were so open and welcoming. Someone you'd immediately want to be friends with.

El shook the other girl's hand, her gaze not leaving Beverly's face.
"Eleven... but nobody calls me that. El."

Beverly flashed her an even bigger smile.
"Guess you can call me Bev, then," she said, taking seat in the bar stool next to El.
Usually people would question Eleven's pretty unusual name, but Beverly just let it slide. El liked her not-caring attitude.

She couldn't be from Hawkins. El had never seen her here before, and basically everyone knew each other in this small town.

"Are you... new here?"
El had never felt this extroverted around anyone before. Bev's energy and spirit definitely had some sort of impact on her.

Beverly nodded as she pulled a red curl behind her ear.
"Indeed I am. I'm staying at my grandma's who's always lived here though."

El was strangely interested in everything Bev said, considering the fact that they were complete strangers.
"Oh, are you vacationing or..?"

Beverly suddenly seemed to tense up, her big smile fading away a bit.
"Uhm... no, it's... it's complicated," she coughed out, all her charisma from before disappearing in a second.
El instantly felt bad for making Bev all insecure.

"Oh, I'm sorry for bringing it up... I mean, it doesn't seem like something you'd like to-"

"No, don't worry about it! It's not your fault, it's just... family issues..." Bev smiled weakly.

"Here you go ma'am," they were interrupted by the cashier, reaching out a paper bag of takeaway food in Bev's direction. She grabbed it with a thank you, and quickly turned back around to face El.

"Great talking to you," her smile returning as fast as it had faded, as she walked backwards, towards the door, "hope to see you again."

El nodded. She genuinely did want to see Beverly again.
Bev had completely drawn her thoughts away from Max, and she hadn't felt this comfortable in many days.
"Me too."

a/n
is it annoying bringing an it character into this? in that case, i'm sorry - there just isn't enough characters in the party oops.