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"Todays your lucky day." the office came to the cell Scout was sitting in, taping her foot. "Your one call fell through."
Scout stood up, following him as he gripped her upper arm. As they made it to the front, Scout wanted to sob in relief when she saw Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Max waiting for her. She ran to Dustin first, hugging him as she squeezed her eyes shut. Robin touched her back. "What happened?"
"I parked my bike in the middle of the road and someone hit it, crashed in the ditch." she inhaled as she held onto them a second longer. She never thought getting arrested, being put in a police car, and sitting in a cell jail would be as terrifying as it was. "The man was really old, he hit his head and had to go to the hospital."
"Let's get out of here." Steve spoke up.
"I don't wanna go home." Scout wiped her eyes as she pulled back from Dustin.
"You aren't going home." Max grasped her wrist. "I have a lot to tell you."
"I don't know, Max." Scout walked with her. "I mean, is it really impossible? After everything that's happened, i'd probably believe a monster was here before believing it was just a murderer. As horrible as that sounds."
"I know, I guess I just don't want it to be true." Max said honestly as Steve and Dustin hit on the windows and door, yelling out to Rick in hopes of finding Eddie.
"No, of course." she nodded quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't think-"
"It's fine." Max cut her off, shaking her head. "I know that was a really hard time for you too."
Scout looked down some. Max looked over. "I never told you that I was sorry, about Tate. I am sorry though."
Scout shook her head. "I'm sorry about Billy."
She couldn't say Tate was still alive, not when she wasn't sure now that she knew something haunted Hawkins again. She wanted to believe he was still there, wanted to believe that it wasn't her mind playing tricks on her. Scout inhaled. "Are you coping in, like, the way people say you need to?"
"I don't think so." Max said honestly. "You?"
"I don't think so." she agreed. "When I lost him, Tate, I kinda went away for a while. I can't really remember a lot of the time from after it happened up until I told El and Will bye when they left for California. And, over time it wasn't so bad, but then it was kinda empty. I just, I don't know, I hated him for so long and then he was my favorite person in the world. Then I lost him. It just doesn't seem real, I keep thinking i'm going crazy."
"Yeah." Max looked around at her as they looked around the house. "I mean, our situations are really different. No one gets it though."
"I get it." Scout nodded to her. "The after is kinda worse, I think. I sometimes just can't sleep at all, I can't really think, and it just plays in my head over and over. But-"
