voyager // max mayfield

EIGHT: THE SHRINK

"I'm not doing it!" Eve argues with Steve as they sit outside of Mrs Kelly's house, arms crossed over her middle as Steve tries his best to persuade her to go to the door.

"Why not?" Steve asks her, just as annoyed as she is.

"Because she's weird, okay! She makes you admit to all your secrets without you even realising you're doing it!" She exclaims, "I don't like it, and I'm not having a trauma dump just to get you some information on a dead cheerleader."

"You don't need to do that," Dustin argues with her, "you're seriously not gonna do it - you're gonna risk people's lives just because you won't talk to some lady about something? You know I miss the old Eve, who was hands in ready to fight for what was right. All you do now is mess around and act like you don't care."

"You know Dustin, I'm getting real sick of your jabs at me," Eve then says, turning around in her seat to look at him, a glare clear on her features, it reminded Dustin a lot of the old, popular Eve, ready to hurt anyone who crossed her.

"Then stop acting like you don't care!" He argues back.

"Guys, Stop!" Max finally yells, "I'll do it."

Dustin and Eve continue to glare at each other as Max gets out of the car and walks up to the house. Steve rolls his eyes at the two next to him, and looks over at Max walking up to the house.

"I do care," Eve says to Dustin after a pause, "I just don't want our lives to be ruined all over again because we didn't keep our noses out of it. We don't need any more trauma."

"I get that, but if we don't, who will?" Dustin asks her, "It's bigger than just you, so stop being selfish."

Steve's mouth drops open at that, a little shocked, "Dustin!"

"Fuck you, Henderson," Eve shakes her head, getting out of the car and walking down the street a little, just so she didn't have to be in the same car as him. She ended up sitting on a bench further up the road, seething.

"Dude, way outta line," Steve says to Dustin.

"I'm right though, Steve, she hasn't been herself in a long time," Dustin argues, moving forward in his seat to talk to Steve.

"Yeah, but you don't know the shit that went on," Steve tells him, his voice a little softer now.

"Can't be worse than what we all went through with the mind flayer," Dustin said, "I mean, Max I get, Billy died, but Eve? It doesn't make sense."

"She went to conversion therapy," Steve finally dropped the penny, as Dustin stayed silent, a little shocked at the revelation, "Our parents set us up, and they took her away to some clinic in Florida. She was gone for months, Dustin, and she never opened up about what happened. She's just... she's not the same anymore."

"Shit," Dustin mumbled, "She didn't tell you anything about it?"

"She came home crying and screaming and then fell silent for four days, what do you think?" Steve asked him.

"I feel like an asshole," Dustin mumbles, "I'm gonna talk to her."

"Be back by the time Max is," Steve said, making Dustin nod and leave the car, running down the road to try and find Eve. She wasn't hard to spot, picking apart a daisy she found on the little patch of grass, her knees pulled up to her chest on the bench.