The Way She Makes Me Feel-Elmax [UNDER EDITING]

|Chapter 2-HOLY SHIT|

-Max's POV-

It was Friday and someway, somehow I wound uo walking up the Wheeler's driveway for a sleepover with Mike and the other boys. My mom was exhilarated that I had already made friends and was persistent that I go, despite it being all guys. All guys, I reminded myself.

"Hey Max." I turned to see Lucas and walking up the driveway.

"Lucas," I said in a friendly voice, not letting my fear seep through.

He cracked a smile and walked up to Mike's front door with me. Lucas knocked and an older woman who's probably in her forties answered.

"Hello Lucas," she said with a smile.

"Hey Mrs. Wheeler" Lucas greeted "Did you do something with your hair? It looks great." She smiled and looked away.

"Thank you. You are always so nice." Mrs. Wheeler's eyes finally fell on me. "You must be Max. Mike and the others are downstairs."

I nodded and said a simple greeting to Mrs. Wheeler before walking in. "Did you flirt with Mike's mom?" I whisper to Lucas.

"What? No!" Lucas said. "She's married to an asshole though, so I always compliment her."

"Aw, how sweet," I say flatly.

We rushed down the basement stairs and saw Will, Mike, and... another girl.

"MIKE!" Lucas snapped as he came down as well. "WHAT is she doing here?"

Mike scoffed. "You brought your girlfriend so I figured I'd bring mine." Mike threw an arm around the girl and she looked away with a sigh.

"She's not my girlfriend," Lucas said as we stepped away from one another. Soon Lucas and Mike are full blown arguing and things do not simmer down when Dustin walks down, in fact it gets worse. I put my stuff near every else's and sit on the couch with Will and the girl.

"Hey," I say to them both. Will has his nose buried in a comic book, but he looks up when I sit down.

"Hey," he smiles. Me and Will have gotten close fast. Well, as close as I can get to any of them.

The girl mumbles a quick "hi" before running her hands through her short curly hair.

"So what's your name?" I ask. "I'm Max."

"Eleven. El for short," she says without looking at me.

I give a small smile to myself. "I'm a 'for short' too. Max is short for Maxine." She finally turns to me. My eyes lock with her chocolate brown ones. My heart speeds up for a moment before she sighs. She looks at Mike, Dustin, and Lucas and rolls her eyes. El gets up and walks to up to them.

"Shut. Up," she demands.

"El-" Dustin starts but then El just glares at him. "OW! OW! EL STOP!"

El turns back around and wipes her nose as Dustin grabs his arm. It's weird because I didn't even see her do anything. Maybe it was from my angle. El sits back next to me and smiles.

"They argue every time I come over." She pauses and thinks. "I come over all the time."

I laugh. Of course they do. They're boys. Lucas and Mike begin setting up the game.

***

After a few hours of D&D Mrs. Wheeler tells us to lay down, so we all crawl in our sleeping bags, turn out the lights, and decide to play truth or dare.

"Alright who first?" Mike asks, pointing a flashlight up at his face to make creepy shadows.

"Do me, and truth," Will says.

"Going first? Bold," I state. Will nods as Mike grins.

"What is your deepest darkest secret," Mike asks him. Will's face drops. Something about his energy shifts. Sensitive topic, I soon realize. "Answer or drink a shot of mayo," Mike says. Will scrunches up his face and sticks out his tongue.

"Yuck." Will sighs and put his face in his hands. He mumbles something, but due to his quiet volume and his hands blocking the noise, none of us hear him.

"What?" we all say. He mumbles again but a little louder.

Dustin seems to figure out what Will's saying before any of the rest of us. "HOLY SHIT!" he exclaims, covering his mouth with his hands. "He's saying he likes a boy."

The rest of the group falls silent and stares at Will with judging eyes. I look at Will, who is practically buried in his own knees, then I glance to El, who looks like she's still processing everything. My eyes drift back to Will as I crawl across the circle in the middle of all of our sleeping bags and wrap an arm around him. I can hear the quiet sniffles coming from him. The other boys just sit there, silent. I roll my eyes at them.

"C'mon Will, get up," I say. He doesn't move so I pick him up bridal style. He tenses at first but once I get a good hold on him he lets me carry him to the bathroom.

I'm pretty strong since all I did was do things outside in California. I used to help kids in my neighborhood build giant forts and climb trees and stuff. I also have to be strong to be able to defend myself. So all of that on top of Will being light as a feather, it isn't a hard task.

I sit Will down on the toilet and wet a piece of paper towel at the sink. I walk over to him and begin wiping tears and snot off of his face before he grabs the towel and starts doing it himself.

"Will it'll be okay," I say.

He shakes his head. "No, it won't. They think I'm some weird freak now. More than they already do."

"Okay and?" I ask. "If that's what they think then fuck them. We'll eat lunch at school together, just me and you. We'll make the coolest lunch table, the badass skater and the kid brave enough to come out during the AIDs pademic." Will smiles for a moment. "But," I start. "They don't think that. They're just processing, guys can be slow sometimes." Will hugs me and I hug him back. "I'm gonna go back out there, you come out when you're ready." He nods and I walk out to the others

The boys and El are whispering when I sit back down Mike snaps his attention to me. "Where's Will?" He asks

"In the bathroom," I answer flatly. "Why the hell did you carry him off? He's not a baby!"

"Well Mike maybe you guys shouldn't have been such assholes and stare at him like he grew three feet taller out of nowhere then maybe I wouldn't have to bring him somewhere private."

Honestly Mike just pisses me off sometimes.

"How are we being assholes?" Lucas asks. He doesn't sound defensive, but as if he genuinely doesn't know. I scoff at him. There's no wa he's this stupid.

"Will told you he liked guys, and you just, looked at him, with so much judgement behind your eyes. Like look at all of you! You're the weirdos and outcasts. You're supposed to stick together, you probably made him feel like that won't hold through now. He thinks you'll leave him because he's different, when looking at you guys, you're all different. You're the D&D nerds for crying out loud. You're his best friends so fucking act like it."

I pulled my sleeping bag over my body and turned in my sleeping bag, facing away from them, silently crying, because if only they knew how important them being supportive was to me.

I'm not gay or anything, I mean there were a few girls back in California that I thought were super pretty and that I wondered about kissing them, but that's just me being curious. I had a whole boyfriend in like 2nd grade, and I liked hanging out with him, so I'm not gay. I just want them to support Will. That's all.

A/n:

Old count: 1296 words
New count: 1387 words
Go me for getting this out faster than I update my in progress book. Again, I mostly fixed grammar and some dialogue that didn't make much sense but hey, it's better than before so 🤷. Anyways, you guys make sure you drink water today. Love you ❤️