A Good Friend: a stranger things fanfic

Fragmentation

"I'm ready for Jack to come home, Max hardly does anything, but play that stupid bass since she bought it." Lucas said to my right as we worked on our math sheets. It had been two weeks since Lukus had skipped town and we hadn't heard anything from him, or Julie.

"She keeps freaking out about using fingers or using pic and it's driving me crazy. Not to mention, anytime I try to comfort her she always makes some comment about being a strong woman and it just.." He sighed frustratedly as he dropped his pencil. I looked at him worriedly as he held his face in his hands.

"Who care's how she plays it?" I asked as I looked back down at my worksheet.

"She thinks if she plays with a pic she's letting Jack down, which if that's the case then why the heck does it matter, he left her anyway." I looked over at him quickly, a tad angered by his hateful words of our friend.

"He's coming back." I said.

"I know, I know." He sighed and continued his worksheet.

"It's just frustrating, everyone she loves has left her and I think she's trying to push me away to keep me from hurting her too." He said thoughtfully as he finished his worksheet.

"I understand why you'd be upset. I would be too if El was sad and she wouldn't let me comfort her." I finished my last problem and looked up at him.

"How's she coming in the bass stuff and the songs too?" I asked as I folded my arms.

"So she finally got set on a list, Trooper, Bell, Runaway, Whole Lotta Love, Liz's song, Iron Maiden, and Highway Star."

"I love that one." I said quietly at the mention of the last song.

"Yea well, she's freaking out about the bass on For Whom The Bell Tolls and Iron Maiden... I don't know man." He sighed again. I patted his shoulder with a sympathetic look as the bell rang. We got up and walked to lunch, we met up with the rest of the party before we got to the lunch room.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

I moved my smiling face to look at Max who looked bad. She probably looked the same way I had when El had been gone. She wasn't wearing any make up which, for her, wasn't uncommon. However, it revealed the dark circles under her blood shot eyes. I was so confused why she was taking it so hard. It was a horrible thing to think because it was obvious she'd be upset if her brother basically took off on her, but she confused me why she wouldn't confide in Lucas. She seemed to be missing him more than she would her own boyfriend. I hadn't told anyone my feelings, not even El, yet, I didn't want to make the situation any worse. I looked down at El as we walked into the lunch room and she knew what I was thinking. We sat down beside each other, I sat at the end of the table with Will and Jen in front of us. Dustin was talking about something, but I wasn't listening to him though as I pulled my lunch out and focused on El. I rested my hand on her thigh and she hugged her arm and laid her head on my shoulder.

"Hey Dustin can you just pray already?" Max asked in a sleepy voice with her head propped up on her hand.

"Oh, sure." Once he had we all started eating. I took a bite of my sandwich and watched Jen. Whatever her little outburst had been about two weeks ago we still didn't know. Well I didn't know, if she had told anyone they hadn't told me, I wasn't sure what she could've gotten so mad at Will about. At this point I couldn't even remember what had been said other than Will laughing at a joke and looking at her. She looked up at me and I quickly looked down, shoving pretzel in my mouth quickly. I glanced back up and she was looking at Liz who was talking next to her, I leaned over to El.

"Why did Jen get so mad two weeks ago?" I whispered into her ear. She turned her head and looked at me.

"I don't know." She shrugged and went back to finishing her salad, which by this point was almost gone. I leaned away and stared down at my food in thought.