Stranger Than Normal

Chapter Forty-Four

The next morning I found myself regretting every life decision I'd ever made. It started with a call from Dustin, at ass-crack of dawn o'clock, telling me to meet him at Scoops Ahoy in the mall at ten. Which isn't even that early, except for the fact that after he called me, I couldn't go back to sleep. And I was still very tired.

I teleported around the side of the building so I wouldn't have to take the bus, and I could leave as late as I wanted, and started jogging down the escalators, shoving people out of the way just so I'd make it in time.

I got to the threshold of the ice cream store, now breathing heavily, to see Dustin and fucking Steve Harrington doing some weird-ass handshake routine with fake lightsabers. "Ha!" Steve laughed, as he and Dustin laughed at each other.

"How many children are you friends with?" The girl, Robin, behind the counter asked Steve. Steve just sighed and made a face, gesturing towards her while he looked at Dustin as if to say she made a fair point. Which she did, I'm not even going to deny that without the whole, Upside Down context, it's very strange.

I walked up to Dustin and gave a small wave to him, to which he beamed at me, as I gave a tired yawn. "We couldn't have done this later in the day?" I asked him, squinting a bit from the bright lights hitting my exhausted eyes. Dustin just glared at me and told me to sit down at a table while he talked to Steve.

I begrudgingly walked over to a booth that was still in the parlor but the back of it was in the rest of the mall. I folded my arms onto the table and laid my head down on top of them, resting my eyes until I felt the seat move underneath me from the boys sliding in next to me.

I started to fall asleep as Dustin and Steve caught each other up on what their summers had been like so far. However, I jolted awake, ungracefully might I add, when Dustin yelled, "We intercepted a secret Russian Communication!"

"You did," I grumbled, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as everyone in the nearby vicinity turned to look at us. "Jeez, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said. What--What does that mean?" Steve responded, looking completely baffled.

"It means, Steve, that we could be heroes. True American heroes." Dustin explained to him. "Huh."

"Mm-hmm?" "American heroes," Steve stated dreamily. "Just think, you could have all the ladies you want and more," Dustin told him, trying to sell him a vision. "More?" Steve asked wistfully. "More," Dustin stated confidently. They were both dreamily nodding their heads together, looking kinda like douchebags. "I like more." Steve told Dustin."Mm-hmm."

I caught Robin's eye over the table, where she was sweeping the floor and made an annoyed face to her to which she bit down on her lip to keep from laughing outright.

"What's the catch?" Steve asked now suspicious, his eyes flicking back and forth between me and Dustin. Why he kept looking at me I don't know because I didn't know shit.

"No catch. We just need your help." Dustin told him. "You keep saying 'we' yet I'm just as clueless as him in all this," I told Dustin, slightly offended that he kept bringing me into this. "Because you were there with me when I heard it." He tried to defend himself.

"With what?" Steve asked Dustin, bringing us back into the main topic at hand. Dustin brought his backpack around and unzipped it, taking out an old, worn-down "Russian-English English-Russian dictionary".  "Translation," Dustin told him, holding up the book for us to see. 

"Yeah, I'm out. I'll catch up with you guys later." I told them before sliding down the booth and crawling underneath the table since I was sitting between them. I figured no one else would be able to see me so I went ahead and teleported into the trees next to Max's house.

I saw Max trying to do tricks on her skateboard and started to walk out of the treeline, towards her. She looked up and waved at me, a smile gracing her face, just as she lost her skateboard.

"Shit!" Max yelled as she literally just stared after her board, rolling down the street. It was stopped by someone's foot a few feet away. They kicked it up into their hands, making Max and I both look up to see who it was, shocking us both to see El. 

She walked over to Max, stopping ring in front of her. I quickly went to stand next to Max as I knew El hadn't really liked Max when we came back in the fall and didn't know what she was here for. "Hi," El said to Max, handing her skateboard back to her.

"Hi?" Max replied, confusion covering every inch of her face. She turned to look at me for a split second, becoming even more confused when she saw that my face matched her own. "Can we talk?" El asked her.

*********

"And then he said he--he missed me. And then he just hung up." El confided in us as she pushed her hair out of her face. She was sitting on Max's bed with one leg hanging off the bed and the other folded in front of her. I was sitting cross-legged behind, and then next to her in the middle of the bed to leave Max some room to sit too if she chose so. As of right now, she's pacing in front of us while El spilled all about Mike's bullshit.

I was listening, but I was also eating a package of Oreos I'd raided from Max's kitchen. Seeing as I'm in a pretty healthy relationship, I didn't think I'd be much help in the advice department so I just left that to Max. Who has been on and off with Lucas since they started dating.

"He's a piece of shit," Max told El. I nodded along with what she was saying, knowing she was one hundred percent correct. "What?" El asked, looking back and forth at the both of us, affronted by what we were saying about her boyfriend.

Max stopped pacing right in front of her door and started throwing her arms around as she spoke to emphasize her point. "Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, and his Nana obviously isn't sick."

Max walked to the other side of the room again before turning around and stopping right in front of El, pointing her finger at her. "I guarantee you, him and Lucas are playing Atari right now. Will too, probably." She told El, directing the last bit to me. I nodded, "Yeah, they're all at Mike's right now."

Max gestured at me and gave a look to El in an 'I told you so' manner. "But friends don't lie," El said confusedly, her gaze switching back and forth from me and Max.

"Yeah, well, boyfriends lie. All the time." Max told her, sitting down in front of El and next to me on the bed.

"You're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore his calls. As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist." Max advised El. "Doesn't exist?" El asked, eyes widening.

"He treated you like garbage. You're gonna treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine," Max told her. "Give him the medicine," El repeated.

"Mm-hmm," Max nodded, a devilish grin growing on her face. "And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself, dump his ass. Come on." Max told El, then grabbing one of each of our hands and the last statement and pulling us to our feet.

 "Where are we going?" El and I asked at the same time. I went to say jinx before stopping myself by biting my tongue, remembering that was only with Will and me. "To have some fun. There's more to life than stupid boys you know." Max answered as she practically dragged us out of her room.

"Wait!" I yelled, loosening myself from Max's grip on my arm. I dashed back into Max's room, grabbing the container of Oreos I'd forgotten on the bed when we got up.

I ran back to the living room where El and Max were waiting by the front door expectantly. I held up to Oreos, waving them around a little. "All good," I spoke, grinning when Max rolled her eyes at me.