GIRLFRIEND, max mayfield. (DISCONTINUED)

eight, the gate.

mike and el stared at each other, both tearing up as they slowly approached each other.

"eleven," he breathed out.

"mike," she gasps as they embraced each other.

"is that..." max trailed off. y/n nodded.

mike lets go, "i never gave up on you. i called you every night. every night for-"

"353 days," she finishes for him. "i heard."

"why didn't you tell me you were there?" he asks. "that you were okay?"

"because i wouldn't let her," hopper chimed in. he walks towards el, "the hell is this? where you been?"

"where have you been?" she asked back and he hugged her tightly.

"you've been hiding her," mike realized. "you've been hiding her this whole time!"

"hey! let's talk. alone."

they walked to another room to talk and y/n can already hear mike yelling and screaming.

el walks towards the others and immediately hugs lucas, dustin, and y/n.

"we missed you," said lucas as they embraced each other.

"i missed you too," el said.

"we talked about you pretty much every day," dustin adds. they let go.

el looked at him weirdly before touching his mouth, "teeth."

"what?"

"you have teeth."

dustin and lucas smiled as he chuckles, "oh. you like these pearls?"

y/n sighed, "oh, please don't-"

he purrs and el looked at him confusedly.

"eleven?" max walks up to them. she held out her hand to el, grinning. "hey. um, i'm max. i've heard a lot about you."

the girl just glared slightly at her before pushing past her, shoving her in the shoulder. max looked down sadly.

"she'll warm up to you," y/n assured her. she nods, still feeling a little upset.

-

hopper sighs, "it's not like it was before. it's grown. a lot. and, i mean, that's considering we can get in there. the place is crawling with those dogs."

"demo-dogs," dustin corrected.

"i'm sorry, what?"

"i said, uh, demo-dogs. like demogorgon and dogs. you put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"

"how is this important right now?" he cuts him off.

"it's not. i'm sorry," dustin responds sheepishly.

"i can do it," el spoke up.

"you're not hearing me," hopper shakes his head.

"i'm hearing you. i can do it," she repeats herself.

"even if el can, there's still another problem," mike chimed in. "if the brain dies, the body dies."

"i thought that was the whole point," max says confusedly.

"it is, but if we're really right about this... i mean, if el closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..."

"will's a part of that army," y/n realized.

"closing the gate will kill him," he concluded.

silence overcomes us as they start to feel scared and concerned. joyce starts walking towards will's room and they follow.