"So, what did you want to talk about?" Lucas asks Max after she had finished swallowing two pills with water.
"Troy and you almost fought?" she asks. Lucas makes a scrunched-up face as he thinks about how to explain it. Max sighs, annoyed she is involved with guys so dumb.
"I don't think we were actually going to fight. I wouldn't. He's not worth it."
"Am I worth it? …To you, I mean."
"Of course, you are! But I know you'd hate it. You hate and-I-quote "chauvinistic displays of masculinity and monogamy,"" he repeats to himself slowly hoping to get it right.
"Misogyny," she corrects him.
"Misogyny, right! I tried limiting that as best I could because we're friends. He's just—you know," he rolls his eyes. Max doesn't smile. She's dealing with too many conflicting thoughts.
"Are we friends though?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course, we're friends," he responds confidently. "Not that great right now, but I know we will be one day." As he says it, he knows it's true.
"What if—what if I wanted to be more than friends?" she pauses. Lucas freezes in an effort to not get excited. He's never been on this side of a break up. She isn't taking me back this time, he thinks, I'm the one who's in control.
"I don't know. I mean you broke my…you know—" he waits for her to say it.
"Your heart?" she offers. "Well so did you," she sighs still conflicted. Max's heart is telling her two different things that cannot co-exist. Lucas squints wondering what she meant by that. Max shakes her head. "Forget it. It's dumb."
"I don't think it's dumb at all," Lucas says, relinquishing any control he had. "I'd like that. You know to go back to the way things were…"
That's the last thing Max wants to hear. They can never go back and that was the point.
"Ugh! Or, maybe I don't want to be friends at all," Max snaps. Lucas is shocked. "Do you even get why we broke up?"
"Whoa!" he interjects. "Look, just to clarify, you dumped me after one stupid fight!" Lucas may not have had any other experience with relationships, but he still knew that he had no part in her decision to break them up.
"That's what you think!" her eyes widen. "IT WAS "STUPID"? That is just like you Lucas! That's what you always do, you wipe away your fault and make yourself into the good guy."
"What are you talking about?" he looks at her baffled. "You're crazy!"
"You just apologize and everything's supposed fine. That doesn't work all the time, dummy! It can't!"
"It wasn't important; it was stupid! I missed one date because I made plans with Mike and Dustin. You made a huge stink—you called my house twice while I was out—and then, you wouldn't answer me back, and like a week later, you were with Troy," Lucas tries to hold himself together, but she makes it extremely difficult. "How is that my fault?"
"You're unbelievable," she said brushing him, and the couch blanket, off of her and heading out of the room. The back door leads to a padded backyard with a patch of grass and a garden shed.
"Alright then, what was it?" Lucas chases after her. "I know it wasn't your birthday—February 8th—and it wasn't our anniversary—December 15th; so, what did I do to break us up?"
"We should go back to our friends," Eleven says as she pulls away from a kiss.
"Already? No way, it's too early."
"Twenty minutes."
"So?" he asks her incredulous.
"I'm only here for one night."
"That's exactly why we should stay!" he says. His tone says that she just proved him right. He sneaks another kiss.
"Mike." It's a clear statement. Mike throws his head back and groans. He gets up slowly and gives her his hand to help her get up too. Eleven smiles knowing he feels that way.
"Now you come say hello to your friends!" Dustin cries out when he sees Mike and Eleven on the staircase hand-in-hand. "Where have you two been? Hmmm." His attempt at embarrassing Mike doesn't work. His friend roughs him up jokingly.
"We came back to enjoy the party," Mike's smile is painfully fake and he throws in a thumbs-up for good measure. Eleven nudges her head into his shoulder.
He's grown even taller since the last time she saw him, but she'll always remember him as the little kid she first met in the woods. He'll always be the boy who kept her safe in a tent in his basement and defended her when she thought she was a monster. Her friends supported her in dark, and light, times. Nearly losing them brought to life some of her worst fears and being apart from them is one of the worst pains she ever felt. At least for tonight she felt safe again.
Mike wraps his arm around her and poses a question to his friends.
"So, what did we miss?"
~A.N. We're so close to the bombshell: why did Lucas and Max break up?! I knew they were going to be broken up when I first started the story but I had to really think before I could come up with something that would suit their characters and the direction I wanted the story to go in. I hope you don't mind my big reveal next chapter. Leave a comment about relationships. What makes them work or fail? What do you think? I'm curious to hear :)