Strawberries and Cigarettes // Max Mayfield x girl OC

Crush Culture

"Okay, I am never watching that again," Mike said as the end credits rolled on the tv screen.

The Byers' family was visiting, so Mike, Chris, Max, El, Will, Lucas, and Dustin all decided to have a sleepover.

They were all sitting in Chris and Mike's basement on top of various pillows and blankets they had thrown on the floor to make a giant cushion.

"Seriously, Mike?" Chris laughed. "You've fought off multi-dimensional monsters on multiple occasions, and you get scared by the movie Gremlins?"

"Oh, shut up, Chrissy," Mike argued, lightly shoving her shoulder.

"No, she's got a point, though," Lucas agreed with Chris.

"Whatever, can we just move on to something different?" Mike rolled his eyes.

Chris smiled. It was nice to be with her friends — and girlfriend — again, just like things used to be.

"I've missed this," Chris spoke, earning weird glares from everyone.

"Missed what?" Dustin asked.

"This," She repeated, gesturing around the room to her friends. "Us. Hanging out like we used to. I missed being kids. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I feel like I lost, like, three years of my childhood."

"Yeah, I totally get what you mean," Will nodded. "It's nice to be able just to hang around and be careless again."

"Definitely. Hey, by the way," Max started, "I never got the chance to say it before, but thanks for being so accepting of Chrissy and I. It means a lot to us."

Suddenly, the tension in the room grew thick enough to slice, and all heads suddenly turned to Chris.

Well, all except for Max.

"Guys? Hello? What just happened? Why did everyone just freeze?" Max asked, curious about the sudden mood change.

"It's just... no one's really ever allowed to call her 'Chrissy' except for Mike. Oh, and Will, like, once," Lucas pointed out.

Chris simply sat there with a blank expression on her face. Her friends all tried to read it, but it seemed as though she were utterly void of any emotion.

She stayed that way for another minute or so before anyone said anything else.

"You okay?" Max asked hesitantly. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you didn't like people calling you that. I promise it won't happen again!"

Suddenly, Chris broke out into a huge grin, and she threw herself towards Max, playfully tackling her and laying on top of her.

"Don't ever be sorry. You're right. I normally don't like people calling me 'Chrissy,' but if I'm honest, it's so damn cute when you do it! I'm serious; you're so adorable and, uh... I mean... if you want... you can call me that anytime," Chris admitted, blushing and looking down towards the end of her sentence.

"Okay, Chrissy," Max said, kissing the tip of Chris's nose.

Chris buried her face in the crook of Max's neck and smiled widely.

Max wrapped one arm around Chris's waist and ran the other through the girl's dark brown hair.

"Yeah, yeah, that's cute or whatever, but can you guys knock off all the PDA around us? It's getting a little excessive," Mike asked, teasing slightly.

"Come on, Mike. I think it's sweet," El argued, vouching for Chris and Max.

"Oh please, you're one to talk," Chris laughed, moving from her position on top of Max and instead deciding to sit in her lap. "You and El do stuff like that. All. The. Time."

Mike flipped her off, seemingly unable to think of a perfect comeback, which led Chris to beam proudly at leaving her brother speechless.

"Oh, that reminds me, Mike," Chris started. "You're not allowed to call me 'Chrissy' anymore."

"What?! But I've literally been calling you that since we first learned how to talk!"

"Sorry," Chris shrugged. "But that name is reserved for Max and only Max."

"Oh, come on! That is so not fair! That's supposed to be my special nickname!" Mike continued to argue.

"Relax, spaz. I'm just messing around. You're still allowed to call me that. This just means now you're not the only one with nickname privileges."

Max smiled towards Chris and delicately grabbed her hand, giving it a tight squeeze before pulling her back down to lay on the floor.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Max asked.

"Mm, not as amazing as you!" Chris replied back.

Of course, the comment earned a groan from everyone, but the two girlfriends just let it slide. They knew that their friends meant it out of love, and that's what made Chris the happiest: being surrounded by the people she loved and the people who loved her back.