Paradise||Max Mayfield

005

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Chapter 5!
Lessons
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"What happened between you and Nancy?" Corey asked his brother.

They were in Steve's car because, once again, Steve was driving Corey to the arcade.

"Nothing. Nothing's happened." Steve replied, not even glancing at Corey. Corey knew that Steve was lying, Steve had come home extremely early from the Halloween party he had attended with Nancy.

Corey remained silent, giving his brother the type of look a mother would give her child when she knew they were lying.

"Don't give me that look Cor. I'm telling the truth. Nothing happened."

"Alright, I don't believe you, but if you don't want to talk about it I won't push you."

Both boys didn't talk for what seemed like forever, but in reality was probably only a few minutes, until Steve broke the silence with a big sigh.

"Fine. Nancy and I had a little argument at the party. Apparently everything is bullshit and she doesn't love me."

"And do you love her?"

Steve took a deep breath, "Yeah, I love her."

"This was a drinking party right? She was drunk right?" Corey asked and once Steve had nodded, he continued. "So she wasn't thinking straight. She probably didn't mean it."

"Drunk words speak a sober mind, she definitely meant it."

"You should talk to her."

"I did. Turns out she went home with Jonathan Byers, her soon to be new boyfriend." Steve said as he parked up outside the arcade.

He turned to face his brother and said, "Promise me you won't get into a relationship until you're at least sixteen. Wait no! Eighteen! You're way too young to get your heartbroken right now."

"But-" Corey started.

"No buts Cor. Promise me."

Corey sighed, "Fine, I promise."

He knew he wouldn't be able to keep that promise but he wanted to make his brother feel better.

"Good! Now get your ass out of my car and go have fun." Steve said with a smile.

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Corey had been at the arcade for almost an hour when a familiar redhead walked through the door.

When she spotted Corey standing in front of Galaga she rolled her eyes and started walking away from the door. Corey was quite surprised when he realised that she was actually walking towards him.

"Oh great, you're here." Max said when she reached him.

"Yup, I'm here." Corey replied, intensely focusing on the game he'd just started playing.

"Still trying to beat my high-score I see."

"Unfortunately. It hurts to admit but it turns out that you created a high-score that's impossible to beat."

"You're joking! I had a higher score back home in Cali."

Corey lifted one of his hands up to quickly flip Max off, "Not making me feel any better Mayfield."

Max laughed, "I'm not trying to."

"Don't you have anymore high-scores to beat? Why are you watching me?"

"Because I want to watch you fail miserably, I've had a pretty bad day so it'll bring me some joy."

Corey let out a curse as he died on Galaga for the fifth time that hour. Then he said, "What reason do you have for hating me so much?"

"You're an asshole, that's the only reason I need. Now step aside and I'll show you how easy it is to beat my score."

Corey moved out of Max's way. "Okay maybe I was an asshole when we first met but-"

"And on my first day of school, and on Halloween, and-"

"Okay, okay I get it. So why don't you tell me about this bad day you've just had, I'm sure mine can top it."

"Mike Wheeler is an asshole too. I win."

"Really?! I had no idea." Corey said sarcastically. There was a reason Corey didn't like Mike and it wasn't just because he was a loser.

Max backhanded Corey's arm, "Shut up, just watch what I'm doing. You're distracting me."

"First of all, Ow! Second of all, I am watching and I'll shut up now."

Both kids fell silent, Max playing the game and Corey intently watching what she was doing. It took Max almost ten minutes to beat her old high-score and once she had done it, Corey still had no idea how.

"Your turn now." Max said with a smirk.

"Yeah... I think I'm going to need more lessons."

"Oh no! You're kidding, this was enough torture for a life time. There is no way I'm spending any more time with you."

"Trust me, this wasn't fun for me either but I just want my high-score back!" Corey wasn't exactly telling the truth, he'd actually had fun but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"Okay fine but not today! You've annoyed me enough for one day. Plus my step-brother is picking me up soon so I'm gonna go beat some other high-scores until then."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then?"

Max sighed, "Yup, see you tomorrow."

Then she turned on her heel and walked towards Space Invaders. As she did so, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was actually excited to spend more time with Corey. She didn't like that feeling but, maybe she had been wrong about him? Maybe he wasn't as bad as she thought he was?