1983 || Stranger Things

ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ-ᴇɪɢʜᴛ | ʜᴇ's ʙᴀᴄᴋ

      At 4819 Cherry Lane, rain was coming down. Hard. Max had insisted that El stay overnight and have a double sleepover and Julie didn't have the heart to say no. El was getting ready for bed in the bathroom, while Julie begrudgingly changed Max's sheets for the girls to sleep in.

      "You okay, JJ?" Max asked from her spot on the floor, sifting through her comic book collection.

      Julie merey nodded, and continued covering the bed with Max's duvet. "I'm fine." Julie was not fine. It had been a wild day, and all Julie wanted was to skip the upcoming conversation with Max and go to bed.

      Max crinkled her brows. Julie was great at convincing others that she was fine, but she always failed to do so with Max. The redhead could read Julie like a book, and Julie hated it.

      "Are you sure?" Julie was now stuffing Max's pillows into fresh pillowcases, rather agressively, one might add.

      "Yeah." Julie gave a glance to Max, who held two comic books in her hands. "Are you sure you're fine with me sleeping in here?" El had insisted that Julie stay in the room that night. She didn't want Julie to have to sleep on the couch, and Max just went along with it.

      "Yeah, it's fine. Before, I would've made you leave, but not anymore." Max's answer sparked curiousity into Julie. It was a weird answer, even for Max.

      "Before what?" Julie asked as she stepped over Max to get to her own bed where her seagull and her walkman resided.

      Max's eyes widened, and before she could speak, El walked in from the bathroom in an old striped shirt she borrowed from Julie. Julie planned to let her keep it. Max climbed into her bed, patting the spot next to her for El, and dragging Julie down next to her. Max held up her two comic books to El as she got settled.

      "Which one?" Max asked. El's choices were Wonder Woman or The Incredible Hulk.

      "I don't know." El answered. She seemed distracted, and both sisters sensed it. Max put the comic books down, and Julie inched closer to the girls.

      "Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" Max said to her friend. El's eyes darted between Max and Julie as she found the words she needed.

      "It doesn't make sense." El said.

      "What doesn't make sense, El?" Julie asked, her eyes ripe with concern for the girl in front of her.

      "Heather." She paused, making eye contact with Max and Julie again. "The blood. The ice."

      "Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now." Max said calmly. She refused to believe that something was wrong, even though Julie had explained what she had heard two days before. "That has to be it. I don't know where that blood came from, but... we saw her." Max gestured to the three girls. "We all saw her. She's totally fine."

      El looked away as she thought for another second. "What about Billy?" She turned her head to Julie as she asked the question.

      "What about him?" Julie asked. She guessed that El had picked up on what she noticed about the boy who happened to share a birthday with herself.

      "He seemed wrong." El said.

      Max chuckled. "Wrong is kind of like his default, and I've only known him for like five years." She said, nudging Julie. Julie wasn't smiling.

      "Max is right, and Billy is all kinds of messed up." Julie admitted. It was true, after all.

      "It's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked." Max joked, making El smile.