MARLEY // Max Mayfield

Snowball '84

One Month Later

"Marley come on! We need to pick up Dustin!"

Two black leather oxford clad feet planted themselves at the bottom of the stairs and began moving forward, kicking at the floor lightly to better fit Marley's foot. The girl sighed, doing up her belt buckle and running a clump of gel through her bangs.

The mirror in the hallway reflected a tall girl in suit pants and a white blouse, an undone tie hanging around the girl's neck, with suspenders dangling loosely at her legs.

A black jacket curled around her shoulders and Marley glanced to the face behind her seeing Steve smiling proudly, "Look at my little sister...breaking the social norms like a bulldozer in a china shop."

"I'm pretty sure it's just bull, Stevie. A bull in a china shop," Marley smiled softly she sighed though and turned around, Steve taking up her tie and doing it for her, "I don't even know why you're making me go..."

Social gatherings were definitely not her thing.

"Marley!" Steve whined, "It's not that bad besides, Max will be there~" He gave her a nudge and a wink to which she just rolled her eyes at. In the past month, Max and Marley had gotten considerably closer than they already had been, going to the arcade whenever they got the chance and picking at Lucas and Dustin whenever they saw them only for them to immediately shoot back with their own comments often ending in the two girls with flushed faces. "Honestly, sis, just put yourself out of your misery already."

"Whatever..." She grumbled and the fidgeted in her clothes, pulling at her collar nervously.

"You look fine Marley!" Still, she pulled at her tie.

"If I'm gonna go to this thing I want to make myself look presentable, not like you'd know anything about that..."

"What was that last part?" Steve questioned, his hands on his hips.

"Nothing Stevie, fine, I'm done, let's get this over and done with," She rushed grabbing her walkman from the dining room table and strapping it to her belt.

Steve drove to Dustin's house blasting his music at a level not socially accepted but allowed and Marley smiled slightly, tapping her foot to 'rock you like a hurricane'. At least it was good music, she noted, if it was the shit he used to listen to, she would have just jumped out of the car then and there.

They pulled into Dustin's driveway and Steve turned his music down a little, looking over to the boy as he left the house, his mom waving and blowing kisses after him. Marley glanced up and her mouth dropped, a snort escaping her involuntarily.

"He looks good right?" She looked at Steve, mouth still agape, "Come on, just say he looks good."

Dustin approached the car and Marley turned to him, her pearly white teeth on show as she forced a smile, a laugh bubbling at the back of her throat, "You look...good Dustin, it actually suits you pretty well now that I've seen it up close," She managed, giving him her slightly honest opinion, he looked at what she was wearing and got in the back seat.

"You look amazing Marley, Max is gonna love it!" He teased and Marley sighed, shaking her head as Steve and him fist-bumped. The thing that had made the boy drop his crush on Max that month ago was the knowledge that Marley liked her as well, a piece of knowledge so helpfully bestowed on the boy by Lucas as they were sorting through trash. It seemed everyone besides the girls themselves knew before they did.

Especially Nancy who had not stopped pestering Marley about asking Max out since a week after the whole incident. Even Hopper and Joyce knew and tried to encourage the girl. Honestly, it had been tiring and through all of that, Marley still did not know if Max liked girls.