Max had received a phone call from her Mom in California, telling her that their flight back home was delayed. Rather than arriving on the current day, the eighth of July, they would be coming on the morning of the ninth. Max had no problem with this; it meant she could enjoy a couple more hours without living in the hell that would surely arise when they returned. And she could spend more time freely with Lucas in her house, which was an opportunity that did not arise often at all.
The two of them had a relaxed rest of their afternoon and evening. They had gone for a walk in the woods and even swam at the quarry with one another, and had gone back to their house and had made a rudimentary dinner of Kraft Dinner.
And after a movie and a little bit of fooling around, they had gone to sleep, the two of them in Max's bed.
Lucas was in the middle of a very pleasant dream; he was hanging out with all the guys, and they were all in Mike's basement. They were doing regular guy shit; watching movies, talking about girls, eating junk food. But in his dream, a sudden banging started echoing off the walls of the basement. Then a voice started calling out; "Max! Max! Max!"
"MAX!?" Lucas's eyes shot open and he sprang out of the bed, only wearing his boxers and the shirt he had been wearing last night. The calling for Max's name continued before he heard another voice. "Oh, for God's sake, Neil, I have the key, calm down…"
Lucas's heart dropped. Her parents were home, and he was still here. He heard the door being unlocked, and realizing that he did not have a moment to spare, he sprung into action. He jolted Max awake by violently shaking her shoulder. He stirred. "Jesus, Lucas, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Your parents are home!" he hissed. "Keep your voice down!"
"Oh, fuck!"
He ran to the other side of his room and grabbed his clothes and bag. "I'm leaving, out the window. Don't tell them I was here."
"No shit, dumbass," Max said sarcastically. Lucas didn't take the rude comment to heart; she was not a morning person at all, and it didn't help that her parents were currently standing under the same roof as he was.
"Okay, bye. Good luck," Lucas whispered, before flinging himself out of the open window, and taking off across the lawn in only his sleepwear.
Max watched the rather comical sight of her boyfriend running through the grass and along the street wearing his boxers, but it was early morning on Sunday, and the streets were dead. No one was going to be out to see him. As soon as he disappeared from sight, she heard a knock on her bedroom door. "Max? Sweetie, are you still in bed?"
It was her Mom. "No, Mom, I just woke up," she replied. The door opened, and her Mom stepped in quickly and gave her daughter a hug. "Oh, sweetie, it's so good to see you, I missed you so much."
"I missed you, too, Mom," she replied, squeezing her Mother tight in her arms. As much as she enjoyed the period of time with unlimited freedom when her parents were gone, she was certainly glad to have her Mom back. That would also mean proper food again.
"Where's Neil?" Max asked once they had separated from their embrace.
"I think he's checking the mail, he'll be in soon." Max's breath caught in her throat when she heard her say that. She braced herself for what was about to come; there was only one thing that he could be looking at from the mail right now.
She heard loud footsteps coming from the front door, and they grew louder and louder as they approached her room. Neil stepped into the room, holding a piece of paper. There was an incredulous look swept across his face like he was looking at something he did not understand.
"Neil? What's wrong?" Susan asked. Max felt the tears start to form in the corner of her eyes, and she knew that soon she would be helpless to stop what was going to happen. She decided that it would be best for her to leave the room before anything else happened, because she did NOT want to be here when the shit hit the fan.
"I need to use the bathroom, I'll be right back," she announced, her voice slightly shaky. She stepped up hurriedly leave the room and made toward the bathroom briskly. But then Neil stepped sideways and blocked the doorway. He looked directly at Max, who was not able to meet his eye.
He took a deep breath. "Did you know about this?" he asked her. He did not sound angry. It's not like she anticipated him to be angry; she knew that he would never lay a finger on her because she was not his child, she was his wife's.
"Yes," she whispered, still gazing at the floor.
"How did it happen?"
"Doesn't it say in the letter?"
Like lightning, Neil's hand shot out from where it was position against his side and struck Max across the face. Right on the bruise from Billy hitting her a few days ago, at that. It felt like a cement block crushing her right in her head, and she nearly fell over.
"Don't fucking talk back to me," he said. It was quiet and seemed void of all emotion. It was the same way that he spoke with Billy. It was haunting. "If you use that lip with me again, you'll be getting a lot more than just a fucking slap."
Max started to cry. Not just little tears, or a brewing sadness within her, but it only took a few moments for her to start bawling right in front of her Dad. And she hated herself for it, hated herself so much. She looked over at her Mom, who was standing in the corner of the room, jaw open, paralyzed with fear. And she knew why; besides the obvious that he hurt her daughter, but the fact that never once had Neil hit Max. Never.
Neil started to walk out of the room. "What about? Anything from you, whore?" Susan did not reply.
He strode out of the room, leaving Max and her mother together. Horror and shock hung in the air like toxic gas. And at the moment,
Max made a decision.
She was going to run away from home.
So, through the flurry of tears rushing down her face, she pulled herself off the floor. And as soon as she put her weight on her feet, her head started throbbing unbearably. She touched her cheek and felt that it was sticky. She moved her fingers away and saw blood. Neil's watch must have broken the skin. It had stung severely when she had touched it. She bit down on her lip to stop her from whimpering in pain, not wanting to show any ounce of weakness to anyone. Even if it was just her Mom.
"Max?" her mother choked out, barely able to form words. "Max, are you okay?"
She ignored her. Without looking in her direction, she went to the closet and grabbed her backpack, and some clothes. She started putting them in her bag. "Max, what are you doing?"
Still ignoring her, she made for the bathroom to grab some toiletries that she thought she would need. "Max, what are you doing.?"
"I'm getting the fuck out of here," she spat at her. She was absolutely furious with her life right now, and furious with her mom. How the fuck could she have married such a despicable, hateful, evil fucking man? "Fucking anywhere is better than FUCKING here."
"Max, you can't leave. Where are you going to go?" she asked, visibly fighting tears.
"I don't care. I'm leaving."
"So what? You're gonna leave me by myself, here?"
Max turned around, just inches away from your window, about to climb out. And what she broke her heart, but also set it on fire with rage at the same time. Her mom looked like she was about to shatter at any moment. Over her eyes, there was pain written in so many layers she could not believe. She of course loved her Mom, but in the end, it was her fault that this prick asshole was in their lives.
"Yes," she replied, her voice breaking. "Yes, I am."
And she stepped out of the window and ran.
"What do you think about El living with us?" Jonathan asked Will.
They were currently in the forest, rebuilding castle Byers. Jonathan was hammering a two-by-four into the ground, and Will was salvaging leftover wood from the demolition site. The site of the ruined Castle Byers had nearly made him cry. Thinking back to the night where he had been so blinded with rage and sadness that he had taken it down with a baseball bat. And as soon as Jonathan had heard about had happened, he insisted that they go to rebuild it.
"I think it's a really good idea," Will replied. "But not if we are going to be moving away."
Jonathan chewed the inside of his lip. He recalled the events of the day in his head silently. After they had parked the car and cried for nearly an hour, Jonathan had driven near the forest and parked the car, and they have ventured out to rebuild Castle Byers.
"That's the problem I see," Jonathan said. "If I'm honest, I'm not even that upset that we're moving. I can drive probably to visit Nancy, and I can take you with me. But we aren't the ones that are orphaned, and we aren't the ones who have a boyfriend here that literally is our only lifeline. I don't even know the two of them that well, and even I can tell how close Mike and El are."
"It's gonna destroy her," Will confirmed. "I've seen them for the last six months together, they might as well share the same organs. It's gross."
"Hey, it's not gross," Jonathan laughed. "They're really cute. It's nice."
"It's not nice when it means you can't do anything fun. It was really annoying for a while."
"What changed?"
"What?"
Jonathan turned to look directly at his brother. "You said that it was really annoying. Is it still annoying?" Will pondered his words. It was true that the last six months for him were agonizing; he had watched El take his best friend completely away from him. But, he did feel that after their exchange a few days ago when Mike apologized, things were going to be different. So even though he had been mad, he was not anymore.
"We talked it out, I guess. He apologized, we reached a compromise and shook hands. It was fine."
Jonathan nodded. "Good. It would be a shame for you and Mike to stop being friends just because one of you has a girlfriend." Will agreed with his brother's sentiment.
They continued to work on the castle, not talking for a little while. "Where do you think we are going to move?" Will asked.
"I'm not sure," Jonathan sighed, placing his hands on his hips. "I hope nowhere too far because then I won't be able to come to visit that often. I still want to be able to see Nancy."
"Well," Will said. "Wherever we go, I just hope El will be okay. Even though I don't like that she took Mike for so long from us, I still care for her a lot. She saved my life."
"She saved all of our lives," Jonathan nodded to Will.
"Do you think we could change Mom's mind?" Will asked.
Jonathan was about to reply to Will when he heard some rustling in the woods behind him, a faint sound that he almost didn't hear. He looked around but did not see anything at that moment. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I did," Will said, looking equally as concerned. His head swiveled on his shoulders trying to pinpoint what had made the sound. Then his question was answered.
"Will?" He whipped around toward the female voice that had said his name.
And it was Max. "Max? What are doing here?"
"I need help," she panted. She had clearly been running for a long time.
"What the hell are you doing way the hell out here?" Jonathan chuckled, approaching her. His face grew more worried when he saw her face. "And what happened to your cheek? Are you okay?"
Max gave him a pained expression. "I'm fine, I just needed to get out of my house. The circumstances were kind of...bad." Will sensed that there was more to this story then Max was openly telling him.
"But why are you out here in the woods? I would have guessed that you would have gone to Lucas's or something."
"I was going to," she replied, still out of breath. "But I was running, and I just went into the woods, and then I got turned around. I couldn't find my way out."
"Why were you running into the woods?"
Max's face seemed to glaze over when Will had asked that question, and he sensed that something bad was going on. "Just some trouble with my parents...is all," Max told him. He was still skeptical.
"I can give you a ride to Lucas's, Max, if you want." Jonathan offered. "I think Will and I were going to start heading back anyway."
"That would be great, thank you," Max said gratefully.
Max had been silent the entire drive to Lucas's. Will nor Jonathan had attempted to make conversation with her and had the right of mind to know not to try to prod her. She seemed very distressed.
They pulled up to the front of Lucas's home. "Thanks for the ride." She got out before Jonathan could even say "You're welcome."
She nearly ran to the front door of Lucas's house but did not want to fully run because
that would have looked like some baby running to her mommy. And she didn't want to look like a baby in front of anyone but Lucas right now. She needed to be with him so bad.
She rapped her knuckles on the door, hoping that she would be greeted by Lucas and not one of his parents. She probably did not look her best right now. She sighed thankfully when Lucas pulled back the wooden door and stood there in the doorway. "Max? What are you doing here? What happened do your face?"
She looked back and saw that Jonathan and Will were still watching, probably making sure that she would get inside okay. "Let's talk inside, please?" Lucas nodded in compliance and stepped sideways to allow her entry. He waved at the Byers brothers and closed the door.
"Why did-?"
Max had already thrown herself around into Lucas, squeezing him relentlessly, still fighting the tears that threatened to break through her eyes. She was not quite sure why she was fighting it; probably because she did not want to look like a complete pussy in front of Lucas. "Are your parents home?"
"Uh, no, my Dad's at work and my Mom and sister are out. What's going on Max?" he pressed away, forcing her to meet his concerned eyes.
"My parents came home," she replied, still trying to push down the lump in her beck. "It was... FUCK!"
Lucas jumped back at her sudden outburst. "Jesus Christ, Max, just tell me what happened, it's okay. Just calm down."
Max fought with herself, and she managed to bring down her blood pressure, which she almost felt increasing by the second. "And what happened to your face?"
"Take a guess," she spat, moving toward the fridge to get some long-needed ice to put on her face.
Lucas did not like where this was going. He thought that her parents would never do anything to Max, especially her stepdad because she was not even his daughter. But he expected that something bad had happened; and in spite of his previous notion, he had a deep, unsettling feeling that he was wrong. "It was your stepdad, wasn't?"
Max did not meet his eye, nor did she speak. "But why?" he asked.
"I don't fucking know," she cried out, throwing the ice tray on the floor of Lucas's, and bits of ice scattered across the hardwood floor. "I'm not going back to that fucking shithole again!"
"Okay, it's fine, you can stay here for as long as you want," Lucas soothed. He almost said and stop making a mess but he fancied the idea of staying alive. "Let me get you some more ice, sit on the couch."
Max nodded, and shuffled over to the living room, her hand covering her bloody cheek. "You should clean that up a little bit, do you want help?" Lucas asked, noticing that her
skin was still cut open and seemed to be bleeding a little bit.
Max had no idea where Lucas kept all the medical stuff in his house. Although she was not really in the mood to be helped and coddled by Lucas right now, she caved. "Yes please."
"Okay, go to the bathroom," he told her, and she obliged. Lucas walked through the door a couple of seconds after she did, and he reached under the sink and got some disinfectant and a cloth. He poured out some of the disinfectant onto the rag and dabbed it on her cheek. Her eyes were glazed over and unfocused, and Lucas could not tell what she was thinking. She was completely zoned out from the world.
When he finished dabbing the wound, he looked at her. "Max? Are you there?"
Silence for a few moments, then she replied. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
"What do you mean?"
"It's not like I can just go back there, Lucas. You have no idea what my house is like right now," she said, near the edge of tears. "I told my Mom I was leaving."
"Well, you did leave. I'm confused."
"I meant that I was running away. That's the meaning that I was trying to get across. I don't know if that's the message my Mom got, but…"
Lucas was floored. "Why would you want to run away, Max?! That's insane!"
"How it insane?" Max shot back, her temper flaring immediately. "Do you have any fucking idea what is like being in that room with my Mom and Dad, when they found out that Billy had died? Do you know what it's like being in the same house as that fucking disgusting excuse for a human being? I didn't even fucking know he had any good feelings for Billy, but apparently he did, and now that he's gone he's gonna take all his shit out on me and my Mom, and I don't want to fucking be there for that."
Lucas was taken aback by the hostility that was laced in Max's words. He immediately felt bad for scolding her for running away. "Jesus Christ, Max, I'm so sorry, I didn't...I didn't know it was that bad."
"Look at me!" she yelled, pointing at her face. "You see this bloody gash?! You see the bump right underneath it?! Do you also see the tears coming out of my eyes right now!? God FUCKING DAMNIT!" she screamed and stormed out of the bathroom pushing Lucas out of the way.
"Where are you going?" he called out in exasperation.
"Well, nowhere outside this house!" she yelled back sarcastically. "What am I gonna do? Go back to my house?"
"No, I don't want to go back to your house, you can stay here for as long as you want-"
"So why are you treating me like this?" she interrupted him, practically flaming with anger and frustration.
"Like what?" Lucas asked, becoming increasingly frustrated at Max's seemingly radical behavior.
"Like I'm retarded or something for running away from my house! The first thing you said when I told you was, 'you ran away?' Like I was stupid for doing it, or something!"
"Well, of course, I was a little bit surprised!" Lucas said back, his voice rising although not intentionally. "That was kind of a bombshell you dropped!"
"So the fuck what? I would have thought that you would be glad that I'm leaving that place!"
"But are you really leaving for good? Do you actually think this is gonna work out?"
Max was silent for a moment. She considered the words of her boyfriend, even though part of her was honestly considering breaking up with him at this fucking point, with everything that she was feeling right now. But in her heart, she knew he was probably right. This was going to be something that she would try to do at first, but then she would realize that she needed to go home, or the police would get involved, or some other bullshit.
But at least for now, she wasn't going to think about that; right now, she was running away from home, and that was what she was going to tell Lucas, without a hint of a question in her voice.
"It's going to work out. I'll think of something."
Lucas knew she was lying. But he knew that right now, especially right now, all she needed was his support. She would come to reason eventually, so... "Alright, alright, just...calm down, okay? I'm sorry."
"Thank you," Max said, returning to a calm state again.
Lucas paused to think. "What are you going to do now?" he asked her, already suspecting her answer.
She looked at her shoes sheepishly. "I was hoping to spend some time here, at least just for a little bit."
"Uh-huh," Lucas said, a smirk crawling itself onto his face quickly. "Of course you can stay here. For as long as I can hide you, at least."
"Hide me? Your parents are fine with me, you don't have to hide me."
"But if you're gonna sleep here, that won't go over well."
"I was actually planning on…" Max trailed off, realizing that she did not have a plan. "Yeah, you need to hide me. Sorry, Stalker."
Lucas laughed. "Let's go to the basement."
Lucas listened carefully to Max as she recalled the exact events that had transpired a couple of hours ago, in painful and angering detail. It made his blood boil to the point where he thought he might explode, knowing what Neil had done to Max and Susan.
"I wish I could fucking kill that fucking piece of shit," he seethed, getting up from the couch to pace back and forth on the carpet floor. "How on Earth could God have created someone like him?"
"Fuck if I know," Max said. At this point, she was past tears of frustration. All she could feel was a deep pit of hatred for just a singular person burrowing itself into her insides like a parasite. "Can we talk about something else? I need to get my mind off this."
"Okay, sure," Lucas replied, feeling bad that he had let his temper get away for him for a moment. He stopped his pacing to look at her. "What do you wanna do?"
"Just...come here and lay with me," she responded, stretching her arms out a little bit like some kind of baby animal toward its mother.
"Okay."
