𝙴𝚕𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚊𝚗 ~ 𝙴𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚡

《𝟺》

August 22, 1985
3:45 PM

The feeling of burning pain was gone for a while now. Max woke up after sleeping for a few hours. She sniffed and wiped her tear stained cheeks with the back of her palm, noticing a wet spot on her pillow. When she looked around and the tiredness slowly faded away, she remembered what happened earlier and rolled her shirt up. The blisters got a bit bigger. She carefully touched one of them and let out a puff of relief when it didn't hurt that much. She had to do something with them and knew that the aid kit was in the bathroom that was by the stairs. She couldn't go out of her room as long as Neil is in the house though...she decided to check the driveway, opening the window and looking out of it. To her surprise, there was no car. He wasn't here. This was her chance. She quickly went over to the door and slowly opened it. There might be no car but still...it could be a trap. She was being a little paranoid. But she knew that Neil was one of the people who were capable of a lot of things. It was almost giving her nausea when she imagined getting burned again. She nervously scratched her freckled arm and took a deep breath before squeezing the door knob and finally stepping out of the room. The floor creaked a little and she stopped and listened for any sounds coming from downstairs. Even though she was probably alone, she could feel her hands shaking. When she didn't hear anything, she started walking again, faster this time, before finally reaching the bathroom door and opening it to enter. She slipped in and closed it behind herself, making sure to lock it just in case. She then stood in front of the mirror, watching herself with a somehow empty expression as she was leaning on the sink with her arms. She turned on the tap in a few seconds, making a little bowl out of her palms and letting the water fill them before taking few gulps of it and splashing her face. The cold droplets felt nice on her skin. She sighed loudly before turning the tap off and crouched to open the cabinet under the sink and took out a small aid kit. She stood again and opened it, placing it in the sink. She then took her shirt off, throwing it on the floor and standing in front of the mirror just in her sports bra now. She took a cooling cream out of the kit and spreaded some on each of the blisters before taking a bandage and cutting few pieces out of it, covering the red marks and taping it to her stomach after. When she was satisfied with her work, she put everything back where it belongs and left the bathroom, going back to her room. She sat on her bed and looked out of the window. It was such a perfect weather outside and when Neil was gone, he was usually gone for a few hours so...she had some time right? Plus, she needed to clear her mind a bit so she stood an took her skateboard under her arm, preferring to go out through her window just in case some of the neighbors would be able to see her if she went out through the door. She walked to the driveway, cautiously looking around. Everything was clean...no people. She knew exactly where she wanted to go and dropped her board on the road, riding away as fast as possible.

15 minutes later, Max finally reached her favorite place to hang at. Skatepark. Yes, a small town like Hawkins actually had a skatepark. A light smile appeared on her face when she saw two figures of her friends. When she came closer, one of them saw her and stopped his skateboard, moving his hand high up and waving at the redhead.

~ "Hey, Madmax!" The boy with auburn hair shouted, stepping on the edge of his skateboard and catching it when the other side jumped up.

~ "Hey, Benji." Max said as she came closer, giving him a light smile. He approached her and lifted up his arm. She did the same and they highfived.

~ "Long time no see Rusty! Missed you here." Shouted another person who came riding on her skateboard. She got off of it once she was close to the two and pulled Max into a hug.

~ "Yeah. I missed you too Sam." Max said honestly, hugging the girl back.

~ "Rough week at home?" The boy asked with a raised eyebrow. Max let go of Samantha and sighed, shrugging as they all put down their skateboards and sat on them in a circle.

~ "The usual. I don't even know though...I've been out of the house a lot."

Benji saw that Max's mood fell a bit so he tried to change the subject.

~ "Oooh. You were with your girlfriend again?" He asked with a little smirk on his face while Sam rolled her eyes. Max tried not to smile at the boy's teasing but the corner of her lips quirked up a bit anyway. She crossed her arms on her chest, chuckling.

~ "She's not my girlfriend. How many times do I have to tell you."

~ "You can tell me as many times as you want. I don't believe you." Benji chuckled. Max shook her head, looking down at the grass and still smiling lightly.

~ "She's not. But yeah. I was with her most of the time." She admitted.

~ "You know you can come to our house whenever you want too. Right?" Sam asked the girl with scrunched eyebrows.

~ "Yeah, yeah I know. Thanks." Max gave Sam a thankful smile and the girl nodded. Benji looked at his twin sister with a small smile, sighing with a laugh after.

~ "What's funny?" Max asked, confused.

~ "Nothing." Benji said, continuing to smile and got up, taking his skateboard. "Let's see if you still remember how to skate huh?"

Max made an offended expression, standing up and picking up her board too before offering a hand to Sam to help her stand.

~ "Come on. Let's kick his ass." She whispered to her, chuckling.

Sam accepted the hand with a smile and stood up with a nod.

~ "Gladly." She said and followed the redhead to the ramps.