strangers. mileven au.

eight.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
SPACE INVADERS.

"... it's the building in the back... yea with all the... OH! i see you... yea go ahead and park... we'll meet you inside." she heard her brother's voice come through the speakers of their shared honda civic. the two girls sat in front of the large building, each of them able to see the neon lights that flashed from the inside.

no... the two teenagers were not at a party or any sort of club. eleanor knew her brother way too well that he would never send her or even be caught in any sort of party scene. however... the arcade? definitely.

the party had separated in the morning after max had tried countless times to convince the four boys to take her and eleanor to the mall. when that argument did not end in their favor, the two girls decided to drop the act and just go by themselves, promising the boys they would meet up with them later that night.

"you know... i'm actually not mad at it. we have one of these refurbished arcades back in hawkins too, but it's not this nice. i have you know i am THE QUEEN of dig dug. ask lucas." the redhead stated as she climbed out of the passenger side.

the two girls made their way up to the heavy set pair of glass doors, max trying to pull at one of them before her boyfriend made his way over to help them in. they joined the rest of the party at the back of the arcade, the three boys all leaning over a large machine.

"god damnit. i hate this overpriced bullshit." dustin fumed as he pushed the arcade game.

"wow how temperamental dusty buns... i'm guessing you still suck." max teased as they got closer to the group.

"wow... you take my high score slot on one game YEARS AGO might i add... and now you're forever a pro, huh? well mad max... i bet i can get a high score on any one of these games before you can." the small boy fired back.

"any one of these games you say..." the girl trailed off as she glanced around the large room. apparently she had found the game she had been looking for because she yelled a quick, "BET" before grabbing lucas and running off down the rows of arcade games. dustin took off not too long after, will trailing quickly behind him. this left the small girl and her brother's freckled faced best friend all alone.

"they're way... too competitive. you know, that's actually how we met max... well how lucas and dustin met max. i wasn't the biggest fan of her when she first moved to hawkins." the boy in front of her chuckled before slowly making his way around her to walk with the small girl down the isles.

"... why so?" the brunette asked shyly, looking down at her shoes as they walked. there she goes again... her body going cold whenever he tried to talk to her. even after their conversation on the hill, eleanor found it hard to get comfortable around mike. to be fair... she found it hard to get comfortable around anyone.

however, the atmosphere was still awkward between the two. of course, it wasn't as bad as when mike first arrived and after opening up to him in the hill she did feel better about being around him. yet, her thoughts still told her that the boy was just being nice to her because of her brother. she couldn't help to think that their relationship was simply factual... that it had no personality to it.

"... i'm actually not completely sure. i think it was cause my parents were going through a divorce at the time and i was just... angry. not that they were splitting up... they needed to. but just... i guess cause everything was changing all at once. max was just another thing that meant change to me... i didn't like it." mike rambled as he slowly came to a stop in front of one of the games.