🅢🅐🅕🅔 🅗🅐🅥🅔🅝| Madwheeler

chapter 4

(Tw for this chapter a little bit)

Max walked in to find the house oddly empty and quiet which was unusual and in some cases, something to be worried about. She wandered through the house until she came across Neil's room to find him passed out on the bed from having drinking too much the night prior. She was thankful he had gotten drunk last night because that meant there was less of a chance of him having realized she never came home. Less chance of her getting beaten.

As she was about to head into her room her mom came rushing out from the bathroom and brought her into a hug. "Max, where were you last night?! I was worried sick!" "I spent the night at a friends house," she said back, it wasn't really a lie. "Why didn't you let me know first?" She then fussed as she pulled away and placed her hands on Max's shoulders, looking at her face as if scanning for any injures. "I don't know, I guess I just forgot. I'm sorry mom, honestly," she said back.

She wasn't sorry, she was glad to have been away from home. Even if she did love her mom she couldn't stand to stay at home most of the time because there were more negatives than positives about it.

Susan nodded as she sighed, "okay. I'm just glad you're home and safe now." Max nodded back and pulled away and headed into her room.

"Max... just a fair warning, I would stay away from Neil tonight sweetheart," her mother then warned, which was rare for her to do since she normally didn't even seem to care whenever Neil was drunk or angry.

But Max was thankful for the warning nonetheless. She nodded as she shut her door and set Mike's hoodie down on her bed.

She was a bit surprised her mother hadn't noticed she was holding a hoodie but she reminded herself that her mom didn't notice a lot of things. She then collapsed onto her bed, falling into a light sleep.

***

Once Mike got back home and came through the front door his mother asked, "how was the arcade?" "Wh-it was fine," he said, having partially forgotten he had lied to his mother saying he had gone to the arcade when he really had dropped Max off at her home, even though he was at the arcade for a few minutes.

His mother nodded and Mike then started heading towards the stairs when she stopped him, "wait.""What?" He asked as he gave her a curious and slightly annoyed look.

"While you were out Eleven called and you should call her back because she said she had something important to tell you," his mother informed him. He nodded slowly as he muttered, "Oh okay."

He had been so distracted by Max the last day he had forgot about El and was feeling guilty for that again. He was happy she called though and wondered what important thing she had to tell him.

He rushed downstairs to the basement to use that phone so his mother couldn't see or hear him talk to her. He dialed the Byers number and waited for someone to pick up.

Once they did he knew immediately that it was El when she asked excitedly, "Mike?!" "Hey El!" He said back, trying to match her enthusiasm which was honestly quite hard since she was someone who is very easily excited and pleased.

"So what do you have to tell me? My mom said you called while I was out," He then asked, wanting to get straight to the point since he was so curious. "Hopper is alive! He came back because Joyce and Jonathan rescued him and we're going back to Hawkins to live in the cabin!" She exclaimed so loudly that he had to pull the phone away from his ear a little.