Mike listened intently as El spoke.
"Ok...so what really happened was much more complicated than the story I told you before.
I walked out of the door and into the ally. Then the group of girls- I think there were 5 of them, walked over to me. They seemed nice… until they injected me with some sort of serum that, I dunno, deactivated my powers? That's why I didn't fight back. They told me that papa was back."
Well shit
Mike sat up, now terrified of what could happen to his girl. He sympathetically looked in her deep chocolate brown eyes.
"El you aren't safe here. Damn it! I knew this would happen. We need to get you out of here. We need to-"
"Mike, slow down. We are going to be fine. They have no clue where we are."
He considered this but got up to call the rest of the party.
"Mike what are you doing! I told you not to tell them!" She was furious.
Eleven didn't understand the grave danger that she was in.
"El I love you so much, so I'm not going to risk your life by keeping the truth a secret. Those girls...they are working for Brenner. Don't you understand? You could go back there."
She was in tears.
Mike resisted the urge to put the phone down and just hold her.
Max picked up. "Hello? Mike, what do you want? Is it El? Is she ok?"
"She is doing fine, but can you please come over and bring Lucas with you?"
"Yeah...why?"
Mike sighed, "No questions." and hung up the phone.
Mike then proceeded to call Will who called Dustin.
Once everyone was there Eleven had stopped crying and accepted the fact that Mike wasn't going to listen to her, despite protests. Mike walked over to her and whispered in her ear, "El… Tell them."
She glared at him. "Ok guys so...um...the reason your here is because...I didn't tell you the whole truth about what happened."
They weren't mad. They were just a little...well offended that she didn't just tell them the truth.
El then looked at them expecting them to throw the 'Friends don't lie' quote they have promised each other, but no, they just looked as if they were waiting for her to explain what happened.
Eleven explained what really happened. Their jaws dropped.
Dustin looked at the party, "Well...Were in deep shit."
"What are we going to do? We have to tell Hopper and Joyce!" Max, although she had never actually seen the bad men had a pretty good idea of what would happen to them.
"We will, but later." El looked down.
"Ok El listen we are going to come back later when hopper and Joyce are here and discuss this."
Will demanded.
She nodded slowly.
Dustin, Lucas, and Will left while Max stayed behind because Mike needed to go home and get a few things.
"Hey, El?" Max asked a little after Mike left "Can I tell you something that I have never told anyone?"
Eleven gave her a confused look, Why would she want to tell me a secret?
"Uh...sure."
"So you know how I walked out when you woke up and told us partly what happened? I will tell you but you can't tell anyone not even Mike."
El nodded.
"Before my stepdad married my mom my real dad would….physically hurt me. And give me bruises just like yours, seeing this sort of thing happen to you makes me really upset." Max tried to explain in the easiest way possible that she had been abused by her dad.
El gave her a quick glance and pulled her into a hug.
"I'm so sorry Max. I had no idea." She whispered into her shoulder.
"Don't feel sorry for me, I told my mom about it and well here we are. In a brand new spot away from that shitty life," She smiled and continued, " but hey…i'm ok now and have really good friends that I can talk to if anything like that happens again." Max really adored her friends and knowing that they would all support her made her love them even more.