oaklynziegler
The summer after highschool graduation feels like standing still while everything else overwhelmingly moves around you.
The friend group knows it too, but no one has said it out loud. This is probably the last summer where everyone is in Hawkins at the same time, with nowhere important to be and no real responsibilities yet. Once college starts, everything changes. Different schools, different cities, different lives. Some of them are excited. Some of them are terrified. Most of them are both. They talk about majors and dorms and what they'll miss, but they avoid talking about goodbyes. It feels too final, like saying it out loud might make it happen faster.
Max and Lucas are in the middle of it all, and somehow, being together makes everything feel easier. Sitting side by side, joking about nothing, driving around with the windows down, it's like the rest of the world slows down for them. They have each other, and right now, that's enough.