talk too much | max mayfield

*35. right

RIGHT

✧･ﾟ: * Nora and Max sit beside each other in the police station as Mike, Will, and Jonathan all stand at the counter, trying to convince the lady to let them see El before they send her jail. Or rather, not send her to jail at all, but Nora's a realist.

"I was coming over to apologize," Max says.

Nora let's her heart flutter in hope. "Me too. I mean, I was coming over to yours so that I could apologize too."

"I still meant it all, though," Max looks at Nora, already realizing she was getting the wrong idea. "This isn't going to work out."

"Oh," Nora can't bring herself to turn her head. "No, yeah, okay."

"I just realized I could've said it nicer, I know I sprung that on you out of nowhere," Max further clarifies.

"Yeah, um, it's. . . it's okay, I guess."

"We can still be friends," Max keeps trying. "It just- you understand where I'm coming from, right? Like, I feel like-"

"I don't- I don't really wanna get into it right now," Nora interrupts before Max can make her feel any worse. "I mean, this whole thing with El, like, I don't know, we don't have to do all this when there's bigger stuff going on."

"Right," Max turns away, finally. "No, yeah. Right. Totally. Right."

"Right," Nora nods, biting her lip slightly.

"Thank you," Jonathan's voice brings the girls out of their awkward silence, and they stand up together to follow the three guys out the door. "That was such bullshit," Jonathan complains as he walks out the door. "She didn't even try to help!"

Nora sees Mike look out at something in the parking lot, and in a desperate attempt to get as far as possible from Max, she follows his steps a few feet out and sees a police van driving away.

"There must be something we can do," she vaguely hears Will saying as the gears in her brain start working similarly to Mike's - anything to get Max out of her brain.

"Hey!" Mike starts running towards the van, clearly not working as hard as Nora to come up with a real plan, but obviously she has no choice but to follow him too.

"Hey, wait!" The two of them are now running out to cut off the van before it gets too far, Will, Jonathan, and Max in the background trying to get them to stop.

The van takes a turn out of the parking just as Mike and Nora come up behind it, and the two are stuck watching it drive away, El's face showing up in the window.

—

✧･ﾟ: * "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding all of this," Jonathan says. "I mean, what's going on in Hawkins, what's doing these killings?"

Jonathan, Will, and Mike are sitting on the couch in the Byers' living room, Max and Nora leaning over the backside as the group sits in front of some weird lady and two intimidating looking bodyguards standing behind her.

Nora's head was kind of fuzzy at the start of the conversation at the close proximity to Max, but she discerned the creepy people kidnapped El to protect Hawkins from a scary monster - nothing new.

"That's what we're trying to ascertain," the lady answers, but Nora's still thinking about how close Max's hand is to her own.

Jesus Christ, what's wrong with her?

"Where is El, like, right now?" Mike asks, genuinely concerned for his girlfriend, making Nora feel bad about how she thinks her problems are most important right now.

"For her safety, it's best if you don't know."

"This is insane! This is insane," Mike stands up having enough of it, and Nora follows him into the connecting kitchen, also having enough - not of the conversation, but mostly of the fact that Max seems completely unfazed about the fact that she broke her heart.

Jonathan asks more questions, but Nora pays no mind as she feels her lip starting sting from how deeply she's biting it.

Mike paces back and forth as they talk more about safety and whatnot and Nora has trouble separating all the voices in her head that she can't even follow one coherent train of thought.

El's in danger- Steve's in danger- Max- Steve- why is Mike pacing so much- her voice is so annoying- Max- is Steve okay? Is El okay? Max. My lip hurts- my head hurts- I feel like I'm gonna throw up- can Mike sit down? Max.

Mike goes back to the group to complain some more, as Nora gets some napkins to hold at her lip as she starts feeling a metallic taste in her mouth. Blood.

—

✧･ﾟ: * "I mean, I don't think they've thought any of this through," Will continues his rambles as he paces back and forth the room, dodging the pencils Nora keeps throwing at his shoes, trying to trip him from her seat on the ground against a desk leg.

Max is lying on the bed, face up, throwing a baseball up and down, and Mike is sitting at the end of the bed, looking down at the note El left for him earlier.

"It's not gonna change no matter how much you stare at it," Nora directs her assault attempts at Mike and a pencil lands in his lap, causing him to look at her annoyed.

"I know."

"I need to talk to you, Nora," Max stands up suddenly before Nora and Mike can get into one of their normal spats.

"Why?" Nora stares hesitantly, using every ounce of self restraint to not stand up immediately and follow Max to the ends of the earth.

"Please?" The redhead stands closer to the door now, looking at Nora expectantly.

Mike has gone back to gazing longingly at his note and Will is pacing in his own thoughts again, so Nora stands up to follow Max deciding her thoughts were too conflicting to logically plan this out.

a/n:
I was gonna make this conflict last for like the whole season but I don't think I physically can so be excited for the next chapter