I Belong to You - Elmax

-6-

Pov. El
Shit shit shit. Max just got fucking slapped! "Why are you guys in such a rush?" Will's mom Joyce asked when we ran into her living room. "So there's this new girl at school, names Max, and she has the locker above mine so I decided to try and make friends with her today." Will started to explain, "we walked home with her today because turns out she lives just a couple blocks away, so we walked and everything was fine but then we got to her house. She was about to open the door when some guy opened it from inside, said she was late, and backhanded her right across the face! We didn't know what to do so we just came here!" Will semi-yelled frantically. "Ok well first of all calm down Will. Second of all sounds like we need to get ahold of this man. What was her address?" "274 Hagworth St." I said quickly just hoping Joyce knew what she wanted to do. "Ok, let's go" Joyce said calmly. "We are not going over there!" I said thinking it would be incredibly stupid. "Of course we aren't! Don't be ridiculous, we're going to get your dad from the station El, he'll know what to do here." Oh yeah that made sense. He is chief of police after all.
We went down to the station and got dad, he was not happy about this scenario. Not happy one bit. He got a search warrant as quickly as possible (which sadly is about 4 hours) and we headed to the house. He told Will and me to stay in the car until he had the situation sorted out, and him and Joyce walked up to the house. "What do you think they're going to do?" Will asked me, clearly panicking, "I'm not sure but I don't think it'll bode very well for Max's step-dad." I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, on the one hand he did slap her for a minor accident, she was only like 5 minutes late, but on the  other hand her step-dad might be a fine guy who was just seen at a bad time. Hopper knocked on the door. A different boy opened it this time, he had long dirty blonde hair and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Max's step-brother I'm assuming. I couldn't hear anything from the car but soon enough Dad was in the house. It wasn't long, maybe 3 minutes, until Max and Joyce were  leaving the house. Will went and sat up front with his mom in the driver's seat, him in shotgun, and me and Max in the back. "What's Hop doing mom?" Will was practically yelling at this point. "He's got the guy cuffed it's alright, calm down. He's having some guys from the station come over and take Mr.Hargrove to the town jail for the night. It's getting late so they decided not to take further action till morning. Billy is an adult and so is Mrs.Hargrove but Max is not, so looks like you two lady's will be having a sleepover tonight!" Ha. Ha. Ha. Man I'm even awkwardly laughing in my head! I can't have a sleepover with MAX! I just met her! And not to mention the fact that I think I might have a MASSIVE crush on her, AND I have a BOYFRIEND! This... might not go well...

Pov switch
Max
Time back to when she got slapped

Ow.
That
Hurt.
Really
Bad.

"You wanna say that again pipsqueak?"
"No sir." Let me leave fucking asshole Neil "Good. Go to your room. And stay there. You're mother will bring your dinner around 6." Go Max... Don't try to be a smart ass... Just go.
I got up to my room and in all reality just wanted to break down. It wouldn't have been bad if this was the first time it had happened. Or 2nd. Or 3rd. Or 10th. Or even maybe 20th. But no... This was an everyday occurrence. I think part of what really got to me this time was that El and Will totally saw it. Noone has ever seen it before. Noone but Neil and Billy. Mom sees what he does to her, and the marks on me, but I think she just doesn't want it to be true so she chooses to ignore it. I don't blame her though. She left my dad because he was a "deadbeat" then Neil appeared to be a lot better for her, and was for a while. But that all changed once they got married. After mom signed that prenup... Everything changed. I actually started to prefer being at my dad's. When we lived in New York I got to go see him every other weekend. Now I'll only get to go see him on Easter and Thanksgiving. At first I thought that sounded great. Even though my dad is actually a really good guy he just is kinda, how to put it... Lazy. The man's lazy. But now that I'm living here, in fucking Indiana, and getting slapped every time I try to have a bit of fun. Well let's say I'm kinda wishing to be in my dad's run down apartment building back in NYC. Mom brought my food up at 6 like Neil said she would. I didn't say anything to her but she gave me a kiss on the cheek and whispered a quick "I'm sorry" in my ear. Mom really is trying. But she's tied down now. She's got herself stuck in a trap so well camouflaged that not even a blood hound could sniff it out. At around 8 there was a knock on the door. Then a woman came into my room. "Hey! You must be Max" "uhh, yea" "ok well my name's Joyce, I'm Will's mom!" She said oddly cheerfully and shook my hand "El's dad Hopper is chief of police and El told him what happened with your step-dad earlier." She said that with a bit less enthusiasm. "Oh. She did? Ok I guess." I really appreciate El trying to help me but it's really fine, is what I felt like saying. But I don't think that would get me anywhere with this Joyce lady. "Ok so if you'll just come with me your going to spend the night with El tonight. Sound good?"
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Spend the night?
With EL?!?
"Uh yea sure! Sounds good"
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH