ZOOMER GIRL // MAXINE MAYFIELD

CHAPTER FIVE ~ DIG DUG

Word Count: 1216

   This one is short guys, sorry!

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     It feels like I've been sitting in the arcade for hours now. But, when I look at the clock on the wall, it's only been twenty five minutes. I rub my neck as another cold shiver runs down my spine. It's becoming more and more common like the tugging at the back of my neck has frozen still. I don't really know how I  feel about the change. Or, what it might mean. Finally, the office door opens. Max glares at me as Keith nods. 

     "You better get me that date now, Byers." Keith states before glancing between me and Max. "Try and keep things PG in here, yeah?" My face feels like it's on fire when he says this and when I glance at Max, her face is just as red as her hair. Though, I have no idea if it's from anger or embarrassment. Then Keith closes the door as he walks back out.

     "You finally gonna explain yourself, stalker?" 

     "I'm one of the stalkers now?" I huff but shake my head. "I just needed a safe place for this."

     "A safe place to what? Be creepy?"

    "Okay, if you would stop insulting me," I give Max a pointed look before I continue. "I would tell you the truth about everything that happened last year. But if anyone finds out, you could be arrested. Possibly killed."

     "Killed?"

     "I need to know, Maxine." I cut her off, "Do you accept the risk?"

     "Oh, my God!" Max spins around as she shakes her head, like she can't decide how else to express whatever she's feeling. "This, this is so stupid." 

     "Do you accept the risk?" 

     "Yeah." Max huffs after a beat of silence and shakes her head as she looks at me. "Sure. Fine. I accept the risk."

     She drops into one of the chairs in front of the desk and I sign, sitting back down on the stool. I take a few minutes to breathe before I finally start. "Last year... Will didn't get lost in the woods. He got lost somewhere else." 

~~~

     "And that was the last we ever saw of her. After that, she was just gone." I finish and it feels so good to have finally said all of it out loud. It feels like a weight was lifted off my chest. Finally, I  look up to meet Max's blue eyes. "I can't believe it's been that long. It feels like yesterday."

     "Yeah, I mean. I bet." Max nods her head. 

     "It's crazy." I shrug as I look at my hands again. "I know."

     "It's crazy, but.." Max gives me a little smile. "I really liked it." 

     "Liked it?" 

     "Yeah. Well, I mean, I had a few issues."

    "Issues?"

     "I just felt it was a little derivative in parts."

     "What are you talking about?" 

     "I just wish it had a little more originality. That's all." Max shrugs and shakes her head.

     "You don't believe me?" I ask, suddenly standing up as I look at the red head.

     "Oh come on Frankie, seriously?" Max stands up too, so that we're eye to eye. "How gullible do you think I am?"

     "Why the hell would I make this up?" I snap and cross my arms protectively over my chest.

     "I don't know. To impress me or something?" Max shrugs and rolls her eyes. "Or, maybe you're just, like, insane."

     "I tell you all of this, literally everything! This top-secret stuff. Risking my life. And this is how you react?" I stare at her and I can feel the warmth in my cheeks flooding back, but it isn't like the other times, no this is anger and I clench my fists into the sleeves of my sweeter. 

     "Risking your life?" Max laughs as she stares right back at me.

     "Oh, so this is fucking funny to you?" 

    "Yeah, I mean... kinda funny." She shrugs again and tips her head. "Stupid, but funny." 

     I can barely keep myself from yelling at her. So, I shake my head and turn, running my hands through my hair before I just walk out the door.

     "Where are you going?" Max calls after me.

     "Story times over, isn't it?" I ask, barely glancing over my shoulder as I shove the door open and make my way into the main room of the arcade.

       "What's wrong with you?" Max quickly follows me out.

     "What's wrong with me? Really?" I snap, whipping around so that I can get in the other girls face. "What's wrong with you, Maxine. I gave you what you wanted and your treat it like it's some goddamn joke!"

     "I wanted to be apart of the group, not a part of some joke."

     "It isn't a joke!"

     "You did a good job, okay Frankie? You can go tell the others I believed your lies if it gets you experience points or whatever." She brushes past me this time and I can't help but grab her hand and yank her back around to face me again.

     "We have a lot of rules in our party, Max, but the most important is 'Friends don't lie.' Never ever. No matter what."

     "Is that right?" Max starts walking again and I follow her. She stops in front of the game with the 'out of order' sign I taped to it and pulls it off to shove it onto my chest.

     "I had to do that to make sure you came back to the office. I had to protect you."

     "To protect me from what, exactly?" She waves her hands. "The big bad government baddies from Hawkins Lab?"

     I step closer to her. "Lower your voice, Max."

     "Maybe it was to protect me from the Demogorgon from another dimension?"

     "Max! Shut up!"  

     "Oh, no, no, no! You know what it was? It was Eleven. The girl-." I jump forward and cover Max's mouth with my hand and glance around quickly.

     "Stop talking." I look past her again before back over my shoulder. "You are going to get us killed. Do you understand?" 

     "You're being serious?" Max asks softly as soon as she's grabbed my hand and pulled it away from her mouth.

     "I really wish I wasn't, Max. But I'm not going to lie about what happened to the people I care about just to amuse you with some stupid story." 

     "Prove it." Max says after staring at me a moment.

     "I can't."

     "So what? I'm just supposed to trust you?" 

     "Yes." After I say it, a familiar car revs it's engine and Max and I both look towards the door when we hear tires screeching to a stop. Max quickly grabs her board and heads to the door, but when I stop behind her, she turns and pushes my shoulder back lightly.

    "I gotta go." She says quickly and stares at me a few seconds before shaking her head and catching my hand again. "Don't follow me out. Okay?" She rushes out the door before I even answer and I let her. I watch through the window as she climbs into the front seat of Billy's Camaro. They sit there for a few minutes, talking before Billy looks at her, and then through the window and me, and he speeds off.