Strawberries and Cigarettes // Max Mayfield x girl OC

Golden Days

The sun beat down relentlessly as Chris ran through the fairgrounds, much like a child, maneuvering throw crowds easily due to her small stature. Her laughs trailed behind her, filling the ears of her girlfriend, who chased after Chris with a smile. 

Max was amazed by the fact that Chris had been through so much trauma, yet still managed to seem so innocent, so untouched by life's cruel sting. 

Suddenly, Chris stopped running, causing Max to shoot her a confused look.

"I want to ride this one!" Chris exclaimed, pointing to the Tilt-A-Whirl. 

Just looking at the spinning carnival ride made Max want to throw up the corn dog she had eaten earlier.

"Are you sure, babe?" Max asked, attempting to change the girl's mind. "We only have enough tickets for two more rides, so choose carefully."

"I'm sure," the brunette nodded, grabbing Max's hand and pulling her to the ride's line.

Max rolled her eyes and mumbled a string of curse words under her breath, knowing that there was no escape.

Eventually, the two girls made it to the front of the line, and Max handed the man six tickets, three for each of them. Max decided it was for the best to carry Chris's tickets for her after Chris had earlier proven she couldn't be trusted not to spend the tickets on the rigged carnival games. 

Excitedly, Chris ran to the nearest open cart, dragging a begrudged Max along behind her.

Max squeezed her eyes tight as she felt the ride start. Chris, on the other hand, was having the time of her life. She screamed as loud as she could as the ride spun round and round. 

Finally, and much to Chris's dismay, the ride slowed to a stop, and everyone was forced to exit. Max walked out, hand on Chris's shoulder for balance as she tried not to lose her lunch.

"Okay, since I picked that last ride, you can pick the next one we go on," Chris said, pecking Max on the nose as the redhead blushed.

"Oh, I know exactly the ride I want to go on!"

Chris smiled and let Max lead her to the next ride. However, her smile quickly vanished as she noticed what ride Max wanted to go on.

"Nuh-uh. No way," Chris protested, looking up at the two-hundred-foot Ferris wheel in front of her.

"Oh, come on! You made me go on the Tilt-A-Whirl, and we all know that ride is the worst of all the carnival rides ever to exist! Besides, it only moves, like, ten miles per hour, what's the worst that could happen?" Max explained.

"Uh, I could slip out of the seat and fall to my death!"

"Babe, come on, that's not going to happen! People ride these things every day, and the likelihood of dying is only like one in a billion."

Before Chris had a chance to protest, Max was pushing her up to the entrance. She handed the carnival worker the remainder of their tickets and sat down in the cart, pulling Chris down next to her. 

As the ride ascended upwards, Chris buried her face into Max's shoulder.

"Max, I really don't like this!" She yelled, her voice sounding muffled since it was nuzzled into Max's arm. 

Max merely chuckled at the frightened state of her girlfriend and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

The Ferris wheel neared the apex of its ascent just as the sun began to set over the horizon. 

"Babe, look," Max nudged Chris, trying to get her to look at the beauty that was Hawkins, Indiana.

Slowly, Chris removed her head from Max's side and gazed upon the small town. In the distance, she saw the now-vacant Hawkins Lab and the lot where Starcourt Mall once stood. She thought of all she and her friends had been through; She felt lucky to be sitting there with the girl of her dreams.

"Okay, I'll admit, it's very pretty. Can we please come down now?" Chris begged as if Max were the one controlling the ride.

As if on cue, the Ferris wheel started moving again, but quickly jolted to a stop.

"What's happening?" Chris began to panic, her breathing becoming shallow.

"Hey, look at me," Max took the girl's face in her hands, "just breathe, okay? In and out. In and out."

After a few repetitions of copying Max's breathing, Chris's airflow evened out, and she felt her heart rate slowing back to an average speed.

"Attention all Ferris wheel riders," the carnival manager's voice boomed. "The Ferris wheel is temporarily broken down. We have an engineer on the way, and we plan to get it up and running again as soon as possible. We thank you for your patience."

"Shit!" Chris yelled, feeling herself start to panic again.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay! Just lay your head on me and close your eyes. It'll be over before you know it."

Chris nodded and took Max's advice. She rested her head on Max's shoulder and closed her eyes, trying to even out her breathing once more. 

The next thing she knew, she was being shaken awake. Chris opened her eyes to see that she was once again at ground level. The cart stopped, and the employee let them off of the ride, handing them both a free ice cream coupon as they walked off. 

Chris barely made it to the carnival's exit before sighing and tapping Max's shoulder.

"Carry me?" She asked, raising her arms and making a pouty face.

Max tried to resist, but it was too hard.

"Dammit! You know I just can't say no to you when you give me those puppy dog eyes!"

Chris grinned cheekily and climbed onto Max's back, resting her head down and, once again, falling asleep. 

Max carried the sleeping girl all the way back to her house and up to her room, only putting her down when she realized that there was no possible way of getting Chris into the top bunk without dropping her. 

"Chris," She shook her shoulder, waking the girl up.

"Hmm?" Chris hummed.

"You're home. I can't carry you up the ladder, though."

Chris nodded and slowly made her way up to the top bunk, where she laid down and called back out for Max.

"Yeah?" Max replied.

"Don't leave me."

Max chuckled and climbed into Chris's bed and laying down next to her, running her finger's through Chris's hair absent-mindedly as Chris curled into Max's side.

"Wouldn't dream of it."