𝙁𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙧

pt.5

El's POV

Hopper made me go to school the next day. He didn't know what happened. There was no way of me explaining it without me telling him that I liked Max. Billy had obviously told the AV club, because when I came in that morning and went over to them, they walked away from me without saying a thing. I could see Will's sad -I wish I could talk to you- face as he turned back to look at me. Max wasn't with them. I spent that whole day scared of my own shadow. Everything was so new to me. No one bothered to help me find classes and understand what was going on. It would be so loud, then so quiet in a split second. There was so many people in the halls and not one of them was Max. The teachers were so mean and I never understood what they were talking about. I sat alone in the lunch hall eating my -yay! you're a high school student, congratulations!- Eggo desert that Hopper had made for me. But it wasn't a happy occasion at all. I wanted to cry my eyes out. I'd lost my best friends and the love of my life, and I was in a terrible environment with hundreds of strangers.

Max's POV

I spent most of that school day in the girl's bathroom, listening to my Walkman and crying. The night before, Billy had hurt me and shouted at me. My parents were on a date that night. Billy threatened to tell them, if I didn't stay away from El. By the end of the night, I was disgusted with myself, how could I like a girl? It was so many levels of wrong. I should have never met her.

El's POV

The weeks passed. I was starting to learn how things worked in school. I never enjoyed waking up in the morning and remembering I had yet another scary, long, lonely day at school ahead of me. I even tried pretending to be sick but Hopper didn't fall for it. I got stared at in the halls, when I walked into class late and in the lunch hall. Once in the lunch hall, a girl about my age came up to me and started talking to me. I was shocked. I think she asked me a question and I answered with accidently spilling my mini milk carton on her. She never spoke to me again. I wasn't completely alone though. I had started walking to the arcade after school on days that Hopper was too busy with work.
The girl that had worked with Steve over the summer at Scoops Ahoy, now worked in there. I couldn't get a game to work once, so I asked her to fix it. She knew my ex-friends because of Steve (he worked at the arcade too, they were best friends) and recognised me because I was with them, getting ice creams. I told her we weren't friends anymore. She said she never liked them anyways. We introduced ourselves to each other. Her name was Robin. She was super funny. She was 18, but she didn't care that I was 4 years younger than her. She cheered me up after school. I now knew how to cycle, so I would cycle to the arcade on the weekends. She worked 4 days a week. She would make Steve take her shift as soon as she saw me walk through the door. I loved to think of her as my big sister. One day, when we sitting in the backroom chatting, her cup of coffee slipped from her hand and without thinking, I saved it and made it float into her hand again.
"What the actual fuck?!" She exclaimed in shock and looked at me.
My face was flushed because I'd realised what I'd just done. "Was that y-you El?"
I was panicking. I inhaled deeply, looked down and nodded.
"Holy fuck! How have you never told me this before?"
"B-because..." I didn't know what to say.
She sat down next to me. "That was mind-blowing El. No more secrets from now on, okay?"
I looked at her, "Okay..."
We spent the rest of the evening telling each other our deepest secrets. It turns out, she liked girls too. I then had the confidence to tell her about Max and what had happened. We swore to each other that whatever we said that evening, wasn't to leave that room.

Max's POV

I was at home reading my book. It was the late afternoon of a chilly, autumn Saturday. Suddenly my walkie talkie said my name. I thought I heard El's voice and grabbed it immediately, "Hello?" I said.
But it was just Will, "Can I come over? I need to tell you something."
"Yeah sure"
He cycled over and came in. He sat on my bed. "What is it?"
He was shaking and he turned to me, "If I tell you this, you promise that you won't tell a soul?"
I nodded, "Okay, spit it out then."
"I...I'm..."
"Jesus Will, just say it."
"I'm gay." He said quietly. To be honest, it was no secret. We all knew he was gay.
"Have you told anyone else?"
He shook his head.
"Well I'm happy to be the first one to know." I smiled weakly. He hugged me. He told me that he was scared. He knew he never fitted in and said that he didn't want to tell the boys because of how they reacted when they found out about me and El. He also explained how he liked Mike and always had. I promised to stick by his side, whatever happened.