Every Breath You Take

Chapter 50

03/14/85 - 05/29/85

In the upcoming months a lot changed...but at the same time not. The party keep hanging out at El's cabin and in Mike's basement. Will was flickering through channels on the TV wherever they went and Max dug her head in whatever comic/magazine she could find to ignore everything happening around her and disappeared in her thoughts. She got irritated at Lucas at least once a day but she didn't break up with him once, not even when he compared Billy to a super villain.
Talking about Billy, he got more and more brotherly for everyday that went by.
The drives to school started getting more comfortable for them both and sometimes, when Billy was in the right mood, they'd rock out to old hits from California from the time when they lived there. But Billy always changed to his punk music as soon as they got close to the school.
Max also got better and better at hiding not eating. She started grabbing full meals in school but instead of eating it she separated it to small pieces, which definitely fooled the guys. It was only when Lucas occasionally got to touch her during their make our sessions that he could feel she just got more and more thin.
Oh yeah, that's another new thing that happened over the months. Max had let Lucas kiss her more and more for a longer and longer time. Eventually she'd even let him slip his tongue into her mouth. They'd both been awkward about it at first, not really knowing what to do, but then it just came naturally. After awhile one of them had started laying down and the other one had followed. Sometimes Max let Lucas move his hands over her body but she never did it to him. Instead her hands often held her hair or laid still somewhere around his neck.
Sometimes Lucas would try to kiss her neck and sometimes she'd let him but most often she led his mouth right back to hers with her hand.
But these stuff only happened at night, when they were alone in one of their rooms and none of their family members would see them. Max had made the mistake to let it happen in day time once but Billy walked in on them, luckily they weren't doing anything else than laying in bed at the moment. Even more luckily, Billy hadn't told Neil or Susan. But he'd given Max a small lecture the next morning in the car but Max hadn't listened to him, even though she knew his intentions were good.

Every Saturday Max spent at Lucas' house, or with the party, so she didn't have to go home to Neil.
Neil didn't change much. He kept treating Billy and her mom the same way. Sometimes he'd hit her and scream at her but not nearly as bad as her other family members.

Max had visited her dad once but then she'd only hung out with her dad. Chad followed Sam to the airport as usual but she'd rejected hanging out with him and instead followed her dad around everyday.
Lucas met her at her house the night she got home. They'd read comics, make out, talk and make out some more. Lucas had gotten a lot taller than before and she was sure she'd stopped growing. Now her head was around his chin.

Max also talked to Nancy occasionally, but only when she had to. The conversations were always awkward since Max denied everything Nancy said. But Nancy knew, which scared Max. Nancy saw how Max's hair got thinner, so Max started putting it in braids. Nancy noticed how Max's eyes got more and more lifeless so Max started smiling as wide as she could as soon as Nancy was around. Nancy knew that none of the guys would help Max, since they hadn't already, so she decided to do it herself. She just didn't know how to.
Will also noticed everything happening to Max. Well, everything Max did to herself. He wondered why, he even got mad sometimes. But he'd always end up feeling sorry for her. Sometimes he'd hug her randomly which everyone else thought was weird, including Max.

The party hung out as often as they could cause they knew that after this summer al lot would change. They even met up at Mike's house the morning Dustin went off to camp. It was the day after their last day of middle school. Everyone was excited to start their summer, except Max who just saw it as a reason for her to be at home more.

"Don't miss me too much" Dustin said.
His mom's car was right outside Mike's house and everyone said goodbye to Dustin on the porch.
"We'll try" El said.
"And be bored without me, okay? I don't wanna miss anything fun." Dustin said.
"I'll make sure of that" Lucas said.
"And don't change. I don't want to feel like an outsider when I come back" he finally said.
"We'll try" Mike said.
"I'll miss you guys" Dustin said and they all went in for a group hug.
"We'll miss you too" Max said.
"Dusty!" Ms. Henderson said from the car.
"See ya" Dustin said and ran off.
They all watched as the car left. Max prayed that nothing would change, as Dustin asked for, but she knew that it was an impossible wish. So much was about to change just before their eyes.