This chapter didn't turn out to be as long as I'd expected. I'm a little nervous about posting it but at the end of the day I'm proud of it. I put my real feelings into what I write. Sometimes that comes back to haunt me.


It wasn't as though Eleven had nothing growing up in a secluded cabin. Hopper made sure to get her any book she was interested in reading and El was very smart. She read all the textbooks he'd bring home, she'd do the puzzles he brought her. She could finish a puzzle of 1000 pieces in under an hour and could solve a Rubik's cube in less than 6 seconds. She could do advanced calculus by the time she was 14, which blew Hopper's mind to no end, and she could label every part of the human anatomy on a chart.

She was clinical, one could say. Like a laboratory.

What she didn't have was popular culture, magazines, teenage slang…regular kid stuff that made young people feel like they belonged. While Hopper brought her educational books he said he felt weird buying magazines meant for teen girls so he balked on that. And they only had a few television stations, so El's experience with the culture of the time was limited at best.

After their move into town and after she discovered Hopper's lies, El had confronted him. She was livid but had managed to not fly off the handle, remaining calm enough to get her point across without throwing a tantrum and destroying their new home. She made her case and Hopper couldn't deny that she was right. He reluctantly granted her more freedom. She could go places alone.

El discovered that not really knowing how to navigate teen culture was difficult. She'd thought that telling Mike that he should give Max closure was the best thing to do, but once it happened, she found it hurt a lot more than she'd imagined. What she hadn't expected was for Mike to break down.

The scene played again and again in her mind as she walked along the streets of Hawkins. El liked being able to go where she wanted. On this particular Saturday she was walking toward Mike's house, although she knew he wasn't home. His family had gone to visit his grandparents for the weekend. Still, she liked being near where he lived. She liked being near her first ever safe place.

As she walked El thought about their conversation from a couple weeks prior, the one where Mike told her about his last time with Max.

It had started off normally enough. El and Mike had gone for ice cream and on the way back home he'd mentioned that he'd given Max closure. El remembered her chest feeling heavy and having to take deeper breaths. She suddenly didn't feel like eating her ice cream.

El, please say something, Mike had pleaded.

El had been quiet, so many thoughts and feelings swirling around her head. Finally she spoke, sighing heavily.

I told you to do it. If I didn't mean it I shouldn't have said it. Friends don't lie. All you can know is what I tell you. I guess I thought it would hurt less. I'm not good at being a regular person.

Her statement had caused Mike to stop walking.

What? El, don't say that. You're perfect just how you are. Mike had taken El's hands in his own and El could see written on his face a mixture of worry, regret, sadness, and horror. He had tears in his eyes. It happened so quickly that it caught her a little off guard.

If I could take it back I would. I promise! El, it was just sex. Sex isn't love. It just feels good. But I love you, Mike had said, so sex with you is the best. It makes me feel like I'm home. Like, anything I've done doesn't matter, like it was all practice, or dry runs, like just a placeholder for what I really needed. El, being with you and feeling how you make me feel is a better feeling than anything in my life. You make me feel relieved.

Mike had started to really cry, not even caring that they were in the middle of the sidewalk. El was thinking about this as she turned onto Maple Street.

I get it, she'd finally said when Mike's sobs started to die down. El's heart had broken a bit at how devastated he'd seemed to be and she'd hugged him while he cried. Doesn't mean it feels good, but I understand. You have to try things. Sometimes maybe they'll be good things, sometimes maybe they'll be bad. But you have to experience stuff. I don't have a lot of experiences. I guess I feel a little jealous.

El, I swear that I'll never again put you in a situation where you might feel jealous, Mike had promised. She could tell how sincere he was.

I want to feel everything, she'd admitted. I promised myself that if I ever got to be free, if it was ever safe, that I'd try everything. And I love you, Mike. I want to experience everything with you.

They had shared a kiss and then Mike had taken her home. El remembered how much he'd tried to show her how sorry he was. She'd been touched by his sweetness and how caring he'd been as they tumbled in her bed. El smiled at the memory, knowing that even if Hopper had come home she wouldn't have cared.

El was thinking of Mike and experiences, or the lack thereof, lost in her own thoughts. As she was passing in front of Mike's house, walking slowly and lazily, never minding how the clouds had built up, how they'd become much darker, how the wind had picked up, she literally ran into none other than Max Mayfield.


The last few weeks had been rough for Max. First her thing with Mike had ended which made her both angry and sad. She knew she had a weird kink but it was hers and she liked it and Mike was good at giving her what she liked. Max hated losing it.

She was torn about El, being so curious to get to know her but also being so remarkably jealous that she just couldn't bring herself to want to be civil. It was an embarrassing feeling, for sure, but Max was good at being stubborn.

She'd realized how very lonely she was, that she needed more than the boys whom she'd always called friends. She needed to feel close to someone, someone who maybe could understand feeling alone. Max wished she had someone who wasn't a boy to confide in. But it couldn't be El. El could never possibly understand Max's life or her feelings. Max was sure of it.

And she'd been fighting with Lucas a lot more frequently lately, which was why she was in the cul-de-sac to begin with. She'd been trying to apologize for some petty argument but Lucas wasn't at home. In fact, the streets all seemed to be deserted.

Max had been looking up at the darkening skies. The electricity in the air combined with the eeriness of the streets being totally empty gave her a chill and she let out a startled scream when she smacked into someone walking in her path.

Oh fuck. Eleven.

"Out alone, huh? Did you clear that with Mike? You know he'd lose his shit." Max chided sarcastically, her long red hair whipping in the wind.

Despite everything El still wanted to try to be friends with Max. But she could tell by Max's demeanor that the girl definitely didn't want the same. So El had to stand up for herself.

"I don't have to have Mike to do everything. He just makes things better. I'm not a baby. I'm quiet and I don't talk much but I'm not stupid, though I can tell you think I am," El said quietly. "It's not my fault I don't know all your special words or that I haven't done anything regular. I know you think I'm a weirdo."

"Because you are! Who can do the things you supposedly can do but can't go to a store without looking like you're in fucking Disney World?"

"At least I'm not selfish like you," El countered. "You don't even love Lucas but you keep him because you're scared of being alone. What is it you said? Oh, right, you'd lift right out."

Max looked at El and suddenly it clicked. She remembered where she'd seen her. Thunder boomed loudly, rumbling across the sky.

"You visited my fucking dream?!"

Max was angry but couldn't help remembering how safe she'd felt in that dream. Of course, at the moment, remembering that only made her angrier.

"You weren't dreaming. You were talking to me for real. I just let you think you were dreaming," El stated as raindrops started to fall.

Max was seething. She really didn't even know why. She'd blown an opportunity to just talk to El and she'd started an argument. They were standing so close together, facing each other, trying not to yell at each other but failing. There was no one around to hear them anyway. Max could feel her desire to slap Eleven getting stronger. She didn't care if the girl could break her with her mind, Max wanted a fight.

El sensed it too, but she was determined to not use any sort of powers for an argument with a girl her own age. She feared that would only cement her weirdo status.

The rain pelted them harder as they argued. Neither of them noticed how drenched their clothes had become.

"You think you're hot shit?!" Max yelled mere inches from El's face as the rain cascaded down their skin.

"Hot or cold, who wants to be shit?" El spat back.

That was when Max shoved El. El kept her footing and quickly shoved Max back. Surprised by El's boldness, Max shoved her again. The shove was much harder than even Max had anticipated.

El fell backwards into a small flowerbed that was beside the Wheeler's mailbox. As she fell, her leg scraped along a small garden flag Mrs. Wheeler had that depicted an autumn scene and said Welcome. Max watched it all as though she was seeing it in slow motion. She saw El fall, she saw the flag scrape the entirety of the inside of El's right thigh, going up underneath her dress. Max saw El hit her head, the left side, on a garden rock.

Seeing El hurt was nothing like Max had envisioned. She knew the boys would be mad at her, probably would hate her. She knew Chief Hopper would be pissed. She knew it was all her fault. But underlying all of that was the strongest sense of regret she'd ever felt. Max knew in that moment that she didn't hate El at all. If anything, Max hated herself. She suddenly wanted to protect El. She wanted it more than she'd wanted anything maybe.

"Oh fuck! El, I'm so sorry! Shit!" The rain was falling in torrents as Max tried to assist El, who was lying in the flowerbed crying softly.

"Oh, God, your leg. Fuck, and your head! Goddamned rain. Lucas isn't home. We've gotta get you inside so I can see how bad it is." Max cradled El's head before helping her to her feet.

Through sniffles El helped as best she could.

"Mike's. The basement. I can get us inside."

Max helped El hobble to the back of Mike's house and watched El use her powers for the first time, unlocking the basement door with a simple flick of her head. The girls went inside. Their clothes were sticking to them, saturated by the rain. El was muddy from her fall.

"Why is there an air mattress set up down here?" Max wondered aloud.

"Mike's mom had the bedrooms painted and his still smells like paint so he's been sleeping down here," El replied.

Max glanced at El. She could see her shivering.

"We've got to get out of these wet clothes. I can do a load of laundry. Just stand here for a second? Can you?" Max asked.

"Yeah, I think so. But hurry."

Max quickly crossed to the washing machine, which had a basket of folded clothes on top of it. She could see on the top of the stack two very nerdy Mike Wheeler t-shirts, one Star Wars and one Indiana Jones.

"I'm gonna get you a towel to get the mud off, then we can wear these shirts while our clothes are washing," Max informed El as she disappeared into the basement bathroom, returning just seconds later with the aforementioned towel. She had one for herself too. She also had a tube of antiseptic.

Feeling like there wasn't time to waste before she really needed to turn her attention to El's injuries, Max began to undress. She removed her wet clothing, underwear included, and slipped the Indiana Jones shirt on. Then she helped El do the same, making sure to be careful with her head and reminding herself not to stare. Soon enough the Star Wars shirt was covering El to her upper thighs and the mud was removed enough with the towel as to not soil Mike's air mattress, which, Max noted, had been left unmade with covers strewn about on top of it. Max threw the wet and soiled clothes in the washing machine and started it.

"Okay, just lie back and let me see how bad it is," Max said softly after helping El to the air mattress. She was still surprised at how quickly her mind had changed about El.

"Ow, it stings," El hissed as Max's fingers grazed the deep scrape.

"I know. I'm gonna put some medicine on it. I'll be gentle," Max tried desperately to focus on El's leg and not the fact that she could see her private area. When El laid back, the shirt didn't cover as much.

"Is it bad?" El asked.

"I know it hurts but I think that's more because of where it is. Your inner thigh is more sensitive than your outer thigh, you know? It's not bleeding, just a really deep scrape. It'll probably bruise." As she spoke, Max was applying the antiseptic cream as gently as she could. "My neighbor once had a big dog, he was playful and friendly, but he'd jump up a lot. One day he jumped up at me and his paw scraped my leg a lot like this. But it was on the top part of my leg. I'm sure this hurts more."

The feeling of Max's fingers on her thigh wasn't at all unpleasant to El. She knew Max could probably see her too. She knew she was basically naked.

"Um, Max? I'm sorry I let you think you were dreaming. I'm sorry I pried. Thanks for helping me now."

Max sighed.

"This was my fault, El. I'm the one who should be sorry. And I am." She had finished applying the antiseptic but was still massaging El's leg absentmindedly. El's legs were spread and Max was sitting in such a way that El's thighs were resting on the top of her own. Max was kind of on her knees. They were very close together, the angle quite intimate. It hadn't been planned, obviously, it had happened that way because of necessity, but still there they were, their naked centers almost touching while Max gently rubbed El's thigh.

"You know, I didn't really mind the dream, or whatever it was," Max admitted softly. "It was…I don't know. It was kind of nice. Kind of really nice."

El remembered what she'd done. She'd only been inspecting, trying to see if Max had been hurt by Mike, but she could remember how her body had reacted. She could remember how Max's had as well. El could feel the same reactions beginning to occur as Max cared for her leg.

"Yeah. But Hop came home. I had to leave."

"I wonder what would have happened if he hadn't come home then," Max said. Her fingertips danced along El's thighs, plural now. She could feel them against her own thighs. El's skin was soft and smooth. She was no longer shivering.

"I guess we'll never know," El breathed, though she had an idea. It had been quite exciting and feeling Max's fingers slide along her legs now was definitely okay with her.

"Is your head okay? Need another pillow?" Max asked.

"That would be nice," El replied.

She wasn't thinking. Max gave no forethought to the way they were sitting, or the way she was sitting because El was lying back. Max simply leaned forward to grab one of Mike's pillows to put under El's head without moving from her position and when she did, she felt her pussy push against El's.

The feeling was exquisite and Max didn't want to pull away but she also hadn't intended for it to happen. She heard El's audible gasp.

"Oops, shit. Sorry, El." Max tried to play it off, quickly grabbing the pillow and placing it under El's head before returning herself as quickly as possible to an innocent position.

But El had other plans.

"Wait," she whispered. "Do it again?"

Max was suddenly more turned on than she thought she'd ever been. And she wasn't being used, or being degraded. She wasn't being put down in any way and still her arousal intensified.

"What? Do this?" She asked quietly. She knew what El meant but she didn't want this to be some silent unspoken dance. Max pushed herself against El's pussy again, slowly dragging her lips over El's. She watched herself do it. "Oh damn. Can you see?" Max hoped El could. The sight was too hot to not be able to view.

El looked down to watch.

"Your pussy is very smooth. It looks like you're licking me with your clit," El murmured.

"See? You do know some of the special words. You should give yourself more credit." As Max slowly began to fuck El, she let her fingers slide along El's body, her stomach, under the shirt, feeling El's skin with delicate touches.

El was moving herself too. Their pussies rubbed together, their clits touching again and again.

"You're really wet," El said as she watched.

"So are you. Look," Max lifted herself up slightly to show El how their slick moisture stretched and tethered them as she pulled away slightly. "There's so much. Does it feel good?"

"Uh huh. I l-like it when you do it slowly. Watching is hot too. You feel really soft." El held on gently to Max's waist as she went back and forth between watching Max's face and watching Max's clit licking her aroused pussy lips.

Max liked it too. She let herself drag slowly along El's slippery lips, teasing at times, and then she'd go back to fucking her. El's soft moans only made Max moan too. It went on like that for a while.

Max watched herself. She watched how El's body would meet her own, how their pussies connected like lovers kissing. Max played with her, using her hands to tickle El slightly, touching her clit and her inner thighs. She was always careful to avoid El's injury.

"This is the hottest thing I've ever seen, El," Max whispered as her speed increased. "You feel so nice. It's like I can't get enough of my pussy touching yours." She started to grind harder. "It's like I want to put my clit inside you."

"Just don't stop. You're gonna make me cum. I love wat-watching this. Rub me harder." El looked at Max pleadingly. The sensation was intense and she didn't want it to stop but she also wanted to cum. El wanted to cum while she was feeling Max's pussy smash against her own.

Max wanted to lean down and kiss her. She wanted to play with her breasts. She wanted to rub her body all over El. But this was basically their first real interaction and it had gone from an argument to a shoving match to El getting hurt and now Max was fucking her. Max laughed at the situation.

"What's funny?" El asked. She was pulling Max against her harder, not letting their pussies disconnect.

"I was just thinking I want to kiss you right now but that seems odd since we argued and I pushed you and now I'm fucking you." Max felt it coming. "And now I'm about to cum on you."

"Oh, do it. I wanna feel it. Don't…don't stop. So cl-close. You're f-fucking m-me really n-niice." El moaned.

"I'm…I'm about to cum," Max announced before quickly following with, "I'm cumming." It was a whisper. She couldn't believe how amazing it felt to be cumming on El after rubbing her slick wet pussy on hers for all this time. She couldn't believe it was happening and she couldn't believe how hot it was to watch it and to feel it.

"Me too- Oh! Don't pull away! Oh, fuck! Please stay on me. Please keep rubbing me. Max! Oooohhhhhh!" Feeling Max cum on her had sent El over the edge. She could feel herself throbbing and wanted to make it last. They were both shaking, still glued together; fused by their pulsing cores. Max kept rubbing her softly after they came, using her own pussy to stroke El's until both of them stopped trembling.

After the excitement finally diminished, Max rolled onto the air mattress beside El.

"I'm really sorry I didn't give you a chance before. I'm a total bitch. You never deserved for me to be mean."

El rolled to face Max.

"I know how it feels to be lonely. I know how sad it is. I know how it is to feel like all you want is someone to talk to, someone to understand. Like, if you only had someone who was okay with who you really were, your life would be okay even if it's bad otherwise. I forgive you, Max. Are we friends now?"

El could smell Max's lotion. Max smelled like coconuts.

"Do you want to be my friend?" Max asked.

"I think if an argument between us can turn into an intense orgasm then a friendship could be pretty great."

"Orgasm. How very doctor-y." Max laughed.

"I might be someday," El mused. "Um, do you um, still feel like you, um, wanna kiss me? I only ask because I promised myself new experiences and after today, I think maybe I skipped ahead."

"I really think I should. How can I be someone who's had sex with a girl but has never kissed one? That seems backwards." Max leaned in.

El could feel hear heartbeat in her ears. She felt nervous but not at all strange. She was experiencing new things and she still loved only Mike. This had just happened. And as she felt Max closing the space between them she realized that both she and Max were experiencing new things. Together. To El, that was what a friendship should always include.

Max's lips brushed gently and hesitantly against El's. At first it was only their lips that were touching, exploring. They both giggled at their obvious nervousness.

"Do it for real," El whispered between giggles.

Max became more serious and the kiss deepened. For her, it was soft and sensual, not at all like Lucas or even Mike. It was caring.

For El, who adored kissing Mike, the kiss was very different than what she was used to. Max was extremely gentle and her skin was smooth. Her lips were softer than Mike's. There was a playfulness to it, something that seemed to hint that all games with Max might be fun. It was then that El realized that Mike was love and Mike was home and Mike was everything she wanted. But Max…Max was fun. Not that Mike wasn't, but El could easily see the benefits of having a female friend.

They only stopped because Max remembered she still had to put the clothes into the dryer. When she came back to the air mattress, she examined El's head again.

"Still hurt?" Max asked as her fingers gently probed El's slightly bruised head. She could feel a knot that had formed.

"Just a little," El replied.

Max kissed her where it hurt, softly, not applying any pressure so as not to make it hurt more.

"I'm really sorry, El. I'm so sorry I pushed you." Max hung her head. How could she have hated a girl who was so caring and so amazing?

"I'm kind of not sorry you pushed me. I wanted to be your friend. And now I am. I've never had a female friend. You can always talk to me. I might not understand every situation, but I'll try. And you can explain things I don't know, like girl things. There's a lot of regular stuff I don't know and I could ask Mike, but some girl stuff he's not gonna know either."

Hearing El mention Mike made Max cringe.

"Fuck, El. I'm sorry about that too. I shouldn't have used Mike, or let him use me. I'm a shitty person."

"I don't know everything, but I know we do weird things when we're lonely," El said. "And I think you're better than you think you are. I don't think you're a shitty person. I think you're trying to find your way just like I am."

Max wasn't ready for the hug that followed. El embraced her and held her. Max could feel the tears coming. She hadn't known until she felt it how terribly badly she just needed a hug. She moved her arms to hang on tightly to El, clinging as though she had finally been found after being lost for so long.

A/N: I've got to do some touch-up and rewriting of parts of chapter 19 so it might be a few days. Everybody please stay safe, from anywhere in America, to the Netherlands, to Romania, and Wales and everywhere else. A trampoline park I once visited had a great sign that is just plain old good advice: AVOID OTHERS.