dark red- max mayfield

xiii. the host

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

"YOU NEED to call her." said Lucas, sighing as he put the radio down on the table. He was looking at Josh, who was shaking his head.

"Doesn't matter if it's me or you, she's not gonna answer." replied Josh sternly, shaking his head and crossing his arms. Rolling his eyes, Lucas raised his radio up to his mouth again.

"Do you copy?" he shouted into the radio impatiently. "This is a code red. I repeat, this is a code red. Max. Do you copy? This is a code red-"

"Shut... up!" shouted Max, before turning her radio off and leaving the boys in silence. They looked at one another anxiously.

"She turned it off." said Lucas, stating the obvious. All three of his friends turned towards Josh, who tilted his head back so he was facing the ceiling. Then, he groaned loudly.

"Why do I have to do it?" he muttered, before getting up and going over to Mike's phone. "You owe me five bucks, Sinclair."

He dialed Max's number, leaning against the wall while he waited for a response. He assumed she wouldn't answer— she could just let it ring, although it would probably annoy the hell out of her. And then, she remarkably answered.

"I'm sleeping!" she huffed angrily. "Go away."

"Max!" Josh exclaimed into the phone, hoping she wouldn't hang up. "It's me, Josh. Don't hang up, okay? Something really bad happened. Our lives could be at stake."

"What are you talking about?" queried Max, and Josh let out a baited breath knowing for sure she didn't hang up on him. The third option (which Lucas came up with) was to bike over to her house. If Billy was home, Josh didn't want to be anywhere near there.

"Just come over to Mike's house." Josh gave a very vague reply. He didn't want to waste time on the phone when it would be a hundred times easier to explain it to her and El in person. "I swear, I-we'll explain everything." he heard Max open her mouth, to which he quickly added, "Hurry." and hung up the phone.

"Try Dustin again." said Mike, turning towards Lucas, who sighed once again as he raised the radio up to his face. They'd been trying the whole party all morning, including calling the Byers to see if Joyce or Jonathan would answer, Colby's house (Jayson, his brother, answered and they quickly hung up), and Hopper's cabin to see if he would answer. None of them did.

"Dustin, do you copy?" said Lucas urgently. "I repeat, this is a code red."

There was static. Dustin couldn't hear them. If he could, he was choosing to ignore them. It was very rare for Dustin not to be using his radio, but he chose not to use it at the worst possible time. Josh was starting to miss the company of one of his best friends.