A/N: Heyyy so I'm working hard on the next chapter of Little One (among other things), but it's coming along slowly because I'm getting pretty meticulous about making sure it's good. So here's a thing in the meantime. It was originally going to be a really long one-shot, but now I'm thinking it will be a collection of smaller one-shots.
The title Hawkins Graffiti is a reference to the film American Graffiti, which was my original inspiration for this before I Stranger Things-ed it up. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it if you enjoy Coming-Of-Age/Slice-Of-Life. Plus, it was directed by George Lucas, and its success gave him the money to be able to work on a certain space-centered passion project...
It all started after the fight between Billy and Steve, and Max's final intervention. Things had gotten tense between Max and her step-brother. Very tense.
But after a disastrous pair of rides to and from school, Max decided that she would never set foot in that car ever again. Not if she could help it. Even if she had to skateboard all the to school.
Needless to say, this didn't bode well when Neil Hargrove found out his son wasn't watching out for his step-sister. Max didn't feel sorry for him. But she definitely wasn't happy to have Billy tracking her everywhere like a dog, demanding she get in the car as she skateboarded to school. He would cruise beside her and shout insults and threats to her.
On one of these occasions, Billy was doing his usual cruise-and-threaten gig. However, now that Max was taking more populated routes, he wouldn't dare risk actually forcefully dragging her into the car like he definitely wanted to. But as he leaned heavily out the window, Max's eye was guided to another car that happened to pull past Billy's and into her line of eyesight. Leaning somewhat out of the driver's window was none other than Steve Harrington.
"Hey!" He called, and Max didn't even know how to respond for a moment. What was he doing here?
He glanced toward Billy's car before jerking his head to gesture to the interior of his own vehicle. "Get in!"
Max's eyes widened and she stopped her ride along the sidewalk instantly, while Steve's car slowed to a stop. Billy's stopped shortly after. She had to move fast. She got off her skateboard and flipped it up into her hand before running in the biggest strides she could muster.
Her eyes darted to Billy's car, and she saw him already getting out and shooting her an icy glare. She threw open Steve's passenger car door and flipped her step-brother the bird before shoving her skateboard against Steve - despite his protests - and getting into the seat. She shut the door and locked it while Steve moved her skateboard into the back seat.
"Don't shove things on the driver!" Steve complained, frowning in a clearly half-hearted manner.
"Go!" Max barked, wide eyed as she saw Billy descending toward Steve's side of the car.
Before too late for Steve to react quickly, and too late to lock his own seat's door, Billy pulled against the handle, but Steve seized it and started fighting against the pull on the opposite side.
"Drive! He'll let go, just drive!" Max screamed, lunging closer to Steve in her own attempt to reach the gas pedal.
"I know!" Steve barked back, "I'm working on it!"
Amid the chaos of the shouting exchange between the three, Steve managed to keep the car door from being thrown open, shove Max off of him and away from the gas pedal, and slam down on the pedal himself, and like that, the car was off, and as soon as it was way too fast for Billy to keep up, Max's step-brother was left in the dust, giving Steve the freedom to finally shut the door while he cursed under his breath.
Max slumped in her seat, breathing a shaky sigh and looking out the window. After a long silence, she eventually collected her thoughts enough to appreciate what Steve did for her.
"Hey." She said, her face turning to him. Suddenly, as he just barely glanced at her, she got cold feet and forgot what she was planning on saying. He definitely expressed his fondness for the boys (especially Dustin) in his own way, but Max hadn't interacted with him enough to really get a feel as to where he stood with her. She couldn't deny the small amount of admiration she held for the teenager, but he maintained an unreadable aloofness with her. Not that she expected anything more than that - why would a seventeen-year-old boy really think twice about a thirteen-year-old girl? First of all, it was just kinda weird, and second of all, most people were under the impression that those were two completely different demographics that wouldn't in any way be able to relate to each other.
...And yet, he was going out of his way to give her a ride. That meant something, didn't it? Or maybe not. Maybe Lucas said something, because he was thoughtful like that. But still, Steve could have said no.
Anyway, his aloofness was undeniably somewhat intimidating. Not intimidating really, but... enough to make her second-guess herself. She maintained her own indifference as she looked out the window again. "...Don't you have school, too?" She asked, as indifferently as possible.
"Yeah. I'll get there on time." Steve replied.
Max's face flushed and she frowned. "Well - I can get to school fine by myself, you know." She said, a little more harshly than she really meant it. She meant to say something like, "Don't worry about helping me, it's okay, really. Thanks anyway.", but her Max-filter turned it into defensive snark.
Steve shrugged. "Yeah. Sure." He replied, in an amused and doubtful tone.
" - I mean, I could take the bus, but I hate the people who ride it," She complained before she could stop herself, slumping in her seat and crossing her arms. "But it's better than riding with Billy."
"You could." Steve echoed, once again exaggeratedly doubtful.
Max shot him an indignant glare at his tone. "Why'd you pick me up anyway?" She asked, not being able to help her curiosity.
Steve rolled his eyes. "Hey, hey, I can drop you off if you really want." He said, his voicing rising slightly in defense instead of his earlier, more intentional tone, oddly enough.
Max eyed him, trying to see if the reason would find its way out of him, and also finding herself not wanting to get out of the car now that he had suggested it.
" - I was just trying to do you a favor since you have that douche-bag brother, but you know, I'll just pull over, and -" He casually said, as the car started to make a turn toward the curb.
" - No!" Max blurted out.
Steve's eyebrows rose and he looked at her, yet again exaggeratedly doubtful. He was playing along with her cryptic speech, and pulling out what she truly thought. And it worked so easily. Dang it.
"I'll take the ride." Max mumbled, her chin tucking against her chest.
"Alright." Steve replied, as though he didn't know she was going to say that. But he clearly did.
"...Thanks." Max added quietly.
"Yeah. Don't mention it." Steve replied.
When they had almost reached the school, he pulled over about a block away. Max gave him a curious look.
"What? You don't want to get embarrassed?" She asked, somewhat accusatory, yet mostly amused.
"Nah, nah. Just... you know, if they see me driving one of you kids, pretty soon I'll have them all piling in." Steve explained with a barely-there, vaguely affectionate eye roll.
Max smirked. "Yeah. You're probably right."
They exchanged a look and a slightly uncomfortable silence, as if to wordlessly exchange:
"So this is our secret, then?"
"Yeah."
And then Max laughed, not being able to help feeling pretty smug at having a secret from her friends - especially one they would be so interested to know about. It involved their teen hero Steve Harrington, too. She nodded and grinned widely at him. "Nice." She said.
Steve nodded dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. It's not a big deal, now get your skateboard and keep your mouth shut." He retorted instructively.
Max, feeling like she actually had more of a footing with him now, and feeling pretty confident because he actually seemed stilted and actually sort of flustered, just smirked and raised her eyebrows in a teasing manner. "Okay, Mom." She joked.
"Keep that up, and I'll just drive past you next time." Steve complained while she exited the passenger seat, and she just shot him a grin as she went to the backseat and pulled her skateboard out.
"Is there a next time?" Max asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.
"...Don't push your luck." Steve replied warily.
Max eyed him. She almost went and shut the car door, but then she leaned back into the doorway to add: "Well, Billy will probably be wanting to pick me up after school, too."
She shut the door, and continued her way down the block to school on her skateboard. She rode up to the boys as they gathered around their usual bicycle rack gathering spot, acting as if nothing had happened.
At 3:00, Max rode down the block to find a familiar car parked in the place she had seen it that morning.