falling for you\\ elmax

"mike & el"

after a while, me and el slowly stopped hanging out at school. only because of one thing. one person. mike. mike was such an asshole, i thought el deserved better. and she does deserve better. mike has always hated me since day one. i'm not sure why, maybe because since el was gone, he didn't want another girl to take el's place? i'm not sure. but to be blunt, i hate him as well. i don't consider us friends, not if he's gonna be a dick about everything.

i was at my locker grabbing my books for mr. clarke's class when i shut my locker door, i saw el and mike at mike's locker. laughing, giggling, and what-not. anger grew inside of me. mike doesn't get to own her like some pet, she's her own person. i thought to myself. i rolled my eyes and rushed past them to mr. clarke's room. el and i no longer sat by each other. she sat by mike, as i sat by lucas. i crossed my arms. lucas noticed and leaned over and whispered,
"hey, you okay, max?" i nodded my head and gave a tiny grin. he grinned as well and turned back to the board. i looked over and saw el and mike holding hands under the desk. i rolled my eyes.

it was after school when the whole party met outside of the school for a 'meeting'. we all gathered on the blacktop.
"so, i was thinking maybe we should go to the arcade together!" dustin exclaimed, looking at each of us for approval. "we haven't done it in so long!" dustin smiled. i nodded.
"yeah, i could really use an arcade break right now." i said, sighing. lucas nodded, then will. we all looked at el and mike.
"i'll only go if el goes." mike said sharply. el stares at mike, then said,
"yes."
"great, the arcade isn't too far from here, let's get walking." dustin said, starting to walk. i put my backpack straps over both of my shoulders. mike and el were behind everyone, of course. i looked at el as she was walking. when she looked at me i turned away quickly and jogged up to lucas, walking beside him.

we were about halfway to the arcade, we all were so tired of walking in the sun to the arcade, and dustin had just drank all of our water.
"we have about... 10 minutes?" dustin said, panting. we all groaned but continued the journey. about 5 minutes later mike said,
"hey, guys?" we all turned around. "we'd really like to stay but el has to get home, hoppers orders." el gave a forced smile. dustin looked at his watch.
"it's only 3:00? we're almost there!" he said. mike shook his head.
"sorry guys." he took el's hand and started to walk off. el looked at me and smiled.
"i'll see you guys later!" she said in a nice voice. we all waved as they ran off together.
"they're probably gonna go make out or something.." lucas said, shaking his head. i rolled my eyes.
"let's just go to the arcade and cool off, i'm exhausted." i grabbed lucas' hand.

dustin and lucas were playing video games as will and i got water and was sitting by them. i chugged my water in less than 5 minutes. i felt like i was dying. i thought about mike and el and got annoyed. suddenly, an idea popped in my head. i started smiling just thinking of it.