Nightmares - Lucas Sinclair

Dear Billy (Part 3)

Nikki never realized how loud a silence could be until Nancy and Robin left, leaving everyone else to watch Max as she continued to write whatever she needed to. It seemed like everyone was burning their stares in the back of Max's head, waiting for something to happen to her.

"I know you guys are staring at me," Max cut up the silence, making everyone jump and pretend that they weren't, in fact, staring at her.

Both Dustin and Lucas picked up things to pretend to read, while Steve tossed a baseball around and Nikki started to mess with the outfit Nancy let her borrow as they all mumbled back responses, pretending they weren't even paying attention to her.

"How you think your eyes boring into the back of my head is protecting me from Vecna, I don't know," Max started to clean up her workspace and stood up from the desk to join the group.

Nikki looked up from her plaid skirt as the boys continued to pretend to do anything else. Max sent her a weird glance as she continued to watch the guys.

"You can look at me now," Max said, getting them to stop what they were doing and apologize, getting Nikki to fight back a laugh.

"For you," Max held out an envelope to a confused Dustin, who took it after a few seconds and then moved on to Steve. "For you. for you, and for you."

Nikki was the last one to receive an envelope, and she couldn't help but noticed that Max's handwriting seemed a little shaky with her name.

"And, um, give these to Mike, El, and Will," Max gave Nikki three more envelopes, trusting Nikki would be able to give them to her friends when she saw them next. "If you can't ever get a hold of them again."

"I'll find a way," Nikki nodded, reassuring the girl that she made the right call of who to give the letters to.

"What are you doing?" Max stopped Steve and Dustin from opening their letters. "That's not for now. Don't open it now."

"Don't...okay," Dustin said, setting the letter down on his lap. "I'm sorry. What is this?"

"It's, um..." Max fidgeted with her hands as she tried to come up with an answer. "It's a fail-safe. For after. If things don't work out."

"Wait, whoa. Max, things are going to work out," Lucas tried to keep calm but Nikki could see that he was beginning to stress over his friend's safety.

"No!" Max cut him off as Nikki took his hand and gave it a gentle squeezed that helped him relax a tiny bit. "No, I don't need you to reassure me and tell it's all gonna work out. People have been telling me that my entire and it's almost never true. It's never true. I mean, of course this asshole curses me. should've seen that one coming."

Silence filled the room once again as Max looked around until she found Dustin's radio.

"If we go to East Hawkins, will this reach Pennhurst?"

"Of course, yeah," Dustin nodded.

"Why are we talking about East Hawkins?" Steve asked as Nikki looked at Lucas.

"We have an East Hawkins?" she whispered to him, giving a nod back in return. "What's in East Hawkins?"

It seemed like Steve already figured that out as he began to shake his head. "No, no, no!"

But Max was already gathering up her stuff and racing up the stairs, getting everyone to follow her.

"Max, Max. Seriously," Steve ran after her as she walked towards his car. "Seriously, I'm not joking. I'm not driving you anywhere."

"If you think I'm going to spend what is likely the last day of my life in the armpit that is Mike Wheeler's basement, you're out of your mind. So either take me where I need to go or you're gonna have to tie me down, which is technically kidnapping of a minor. And if I live to see another day, Steve, I swear to God, I will prosecute."

"Jeez," Nikki muttered under her breath as they watched Max try to open the door to the car only to find it locked.

"Open the door," Max glared at Steve.

"Uh, no," Steve shook his head.

"I know a good lawyer," Max said as they stared each other down.

Finally, Steve broke and got out his keys. "Henderson, that super walkie of yours better reach Pennhurst."

Nikki and Lucas climbed in the back as Dustin and Steve got in the front. As they got ready to take off Nikki noticed that Max wasn't in the car and looked through the opened car door to see Max looking at something off in the distance. Nikki lightly grabbed Max's arm making the girl jump and turn to her.

"Are you okay?" Nikki asked her quietly, getting a nod but a fearful look as Max got in the car and they finally drove away.

***

Steve had just put the car in park as Max was already half way out the car. "This better be fast, Mayfield."

"Twenty seconds," Max replied shutting the car door and running inside the older trailer home.

"So, this is Max's house?" Nikki asked looking around at all the look-a-like trailers around them.

"Yup," Lucas nodded as Nikki sat back in her seat.

"What happened to her old one?"

"After the fourth, everything sort of became different. Max's stepdad left a her mom could afford this place to live."

Silence filled the car as they waited for Max to come back.

"That thing's got batteries in it, right?" Steve asked, looking at Dustin's radio.

"I'm not even answering that question," Dustin shook his head, sounding like a disappointed parent. "Yes, it has batteries."

"Yeah, I got it."

"Please tell me you made fun of him for the song," Nikki said quietly, looking over at Lucas, who gave her a smile before laying an arm across her shoulders.

"Oh, yeah. He hated us by Christmas time."

"Good job."

"I can hear you," Dustin said, spinning around angrily in his chair getting the couple to laugh.

"We'll do it again once this is all done," Lucas whispered before placing a kiss on top of Nikki's head.

"I'm looking froward to it."

Authors note

Hello! Two things: Hopefully I will be able to start posting a little more since I just quit my job for more free time with school, I'm very much looking forward that!

And second, how many of you understood the reference with the outfit (Picture above). to those that understood it, I love you, you are my people!

See you guys again soon!

Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️