Sweet Misery~Max Mayfield

Caring

Eleven POV:

I woke up with a groan because of the bright light in the room. As I blinked with my eyes they slowly adjusted to the lit room. I wanted to look for Max because normally she would lay next to me when I wake up but she wasn't here, so I tried to get up to quickly fall back onto the bed as a sharp pain shot through my left side. I slowly lifted my shirt to find a blood soaked bandage on my side. Now I remember what happened last night- The displacer beast, it got to me. I heard the door crack open to see Max walking  in with a somehow angry expression on her face. When she noticed that I was awake her face softened immediately.

"El oh thank god you're ok, I was so worried about you. I've made some tea, do you want some?" she asked me with this cute smile on her face that just made me feel happy, Max smiles so rarely that I was always happy when she did smile.

"Yeah I'm fine but my side hurts really bad. I would really love to have a tea." I answered. Max just nodded and left the room to get me a cup of tea. She was acting very strange somehow, so I decided to ask her what's going in when she's back. About 2 minutes later the redhead finally came back with a cup of tea, painkillers and a clean bandage and placed everything on my nightstand. I took the cup and the painkillers and swallowed the pills down with a sip of tea.

"Thank you Max" I said with a smile, she was always there for me.

"No problem. Do you want me to help you to put a fresh bandage on?" I just nodded in response. I actually had no idea how to do that because I never did that before. A few months ago Max also helped me to put a bandage on when a part of the mindflayer was stuck in my leg, so I trusted her on this.

"Okay so could you please lift your shirt a bit?" she asked, getting red all over the face. I did what she said and watched her movements as she changed the bandages. When the old bandage was off, she examined my wound.

"Oh that's good, the wound nearly stopped bleeding. It should be okay soon."

"Thanks again for your help Max", I said "but can I ask you something?"

"Yes of course El, what is it?"

"Why were you angry earlier?"

"Well me and Lucas got into some kind of an argument. I told him that I needed a break from our relationship because I don't feel like he cares for me anymore. He got really angry at me and we decided that we should break up completely, like forever. I didn't wanted it to escalate like it did but I guess it is for the best, if we don't get back together. He said some things that really did hurt me..."

"I'm sorry for that" I said, but somehow I wasn't. I almost felt relieved now that they aren't a thing anymore. I didn't know why I felt like that. Max didn't respond and just finished to put the new bandage on.

"Max how do you feel? I mean a lot of sh*t happened to you the last days, are you ok?" I wanted to make sure that she didn't forgets herself like she always does. She's always the one that helps everyone else at first place. But she forgets to take care of herself by helping others. For example she once helped a girl in our class with the homework after school and came totally beaten up to school the next day. Neil did this to her because she was late.

"I'm fine" she said in a small voice. I hated that answer because every time she says that it's a lie, I could tell that.

"Come on Max, you don't need to be strong all the time, it's okay to show emotions." I tried to comfort her.

"Okay fine, what else do you want to hear? That I'm so damn close to the edge and that the light inside of me is slowly dying? That I am in constant pain mentally and physically? What are you gonna do about it, huh? It doesn't matter if I tell someone how I feel because no one can fix my issues, ok?" she broke out in sobs. I quickly pulled her close to me and hugged her fragile figure tight, rubbing her back in small circles as she cried into my shoulder. We stayed in that position for a while until she pulled back from the hug, smiling weakly. It made me sad to see her like this. Her once ocean blue eyes were puffy and red, small bruises and scars covered her beautiful body and she lost so much weight at the lab that you could see some of her bones.

"What are you looking at?" the redhead asked me in confusion.

"Nothing" I simply said and pulled her back in the hug, inhaling her hair that had the scent of strawberry and getting that felling of warmth in my stomach again as our body's were so damn close. For once in a while I finally felt save. But that feeling was interrupted by Hop storming in my room.

"Hey kids, the beast, it striked again!"

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Hey, chapter 15 is here. I hope you enjoyed it. If you guy want something specific to happen just text me and I'll try to include it in this story. My Covid test was positive by the way and I can't smell anything but besides that I'm totally fine. Have a good weekend! Word count is 978