𝙴𝚕𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚊𝚗 ~ 𝙴𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚡

《𝟾》

August 23, 1985
2:15 PM

El kept on examining Max's wound for a few seconds while the other girl was trying not to shiver at every brush of the brunette's fingers. She wanted to be able to not show any kind of vulnerability towards El. But she just couldn't. Her body was responding on it's own and she was unable to stop it.

~ "Madmax!" Lucas's voice suddenly reached Max's ears and she startled, jumping backwards in surprise a bit. She looked to the side and saw that their three friends noticed them now. Lucas moved his arm high up and waved at her as if she couldn't see him from where she was standing. El now switched her attention from Max to the boys too. They were far from the shore and the water was deep in there. She was getting worried.

~ "Hey Stalker." Max chuckled a little even though all she wanted was to stay right where she was. The bubbly feeling in her stomach was lingering for longer than she thought was possible. And honestly, she loved it.

~ "Come here! You can help me drown Dustin!" Lucas shouted from his spot before Dustin jumped up and ducked his head under the water with a snort.

~ "What the fuck dude?!" Lucas said when his head was out of the water again and tackled Dustin, making them both fall into the water. While the boys were having a 'fight', El was watching all of it with an expression Max couldn't really recognise. Then the brunette quickly glanced in the direction of the shore before looking down at her feet, feeling the cool water around her ankles.

~ "Come on! I promised to teach you how to swim. I want to keep my promise!" Max smiled at El, making her look at her. The redhead made a movement with her hand to tell El to follow her before starting to walk further and further away, making El feel more and more unsure if she should do this or not. The brunette didn't want to stay there alone. Especially when the water was all around her. So, she slowly started following Max, who was just few steps away from the other boys by now. El watched as the water slowly came up to her knees as she was walking. Then her thighs and sides. She stopped there. She couldn't see her legs under the dark blue water and it was making her anxious. The familiar and for her unpleasant feeling of being in the water was not helping either. She just stood there, arms, legs and stomach sprinkled with goosebumps. She looked forward at the group, seeing that she was still pretty far from them. The rest of the teens had the water up to their necks and were trying to duck each other's heads under the surface. El was starting to panic. She was too far from the shore to turn back now. She didn't want her friends to think she's even weirder than they think she is. She didn't want to go further either though. She felt stuck on the spot. The brunette didn't even notice that her breathing was faster until she felt someone's hand on her shoulder and flinched, looking up at the person.

~ "...um...hey. Are you...are you okay?" Asked the fourth boy from the party that was missing until this moment. Mike had a concerned and sad expression on his face. He didn't want his and El's friendship to end like this. She is his best friend afterall. He didn't plan to go with his friends to the quarry at first but...he thought that it would be a good opportunity to maybe...change things. And while he was hoping that El's reaction from the previous day was just temporary, the brunette's now wide eyes started welling up with tears against her will all over again. Suddenly, she just wished she'd never agreed to come here. She wasn't ready to see Mike. The boy could see all the hurt and sadness he caused again by simply looking in her eyes. He hated this...wanted to be able to stop it. Because even though he didn't feel the romantic connection with the girl, he still deeply cared about her. El's lips turned into a thin line, trying to just swallow the sob that was trying to come out of her throat. She still had feelings for the boy. Ones that won't go away so easily. She still loved him. And that was confusing her. How can she love a person that lied to her about loving her?