"All right, shitheads, we're here!" Steve says as he parks his car in the Byers' driveway.
Steve may as well have mumbled it to himself because the kids are still talking over each other. Mike is arguing something about Max while Dustin, despite being in the passenger seat, is also having an animated argument with Lucas. The kids have been going non-stop and he's not even sure what they're arguing about because they're all talking over each other.
"Hey!" he says again even louder this time clapping his hands together to get everybody's attention. Maybe it was a bit too loud but it seemed to have worked though because all eyes are on him now. The other boys stare at him with a confused look on their faces while Max stares with tense shoulders and wide eyes. Fear. Shit. Getting yelled at by an older teenage boy in his car must be how school rides go for Max. Great job, Harrington! C in Chemistry but A+ in rehashing trauma! he thinks to himself.
"We're here," Steve says gesturing to the house in a, hopefully, calmer voice than before. Recognition dawned on the eyes of the middle-schoolers like they didn't notice they reached their destination. The boys shouted various forms of thanks as they left the car while Max remained silent when she got off.
"Hey, Max," Steve calls out as he rolls down the window of his car to talk to her. This stops the girl dead in her tracks still avoiding his gaze but still close to the car.
This is it. This is where the other shoe drops. I knew Steve can only tolerate so much of my bullshit. I shouldn't have argued with Dustin. Now, whatever this... thing with us is over. It's fun to pretend while it lasted. Max thinks to herself preparing for the worst.
Do I say 'sorry for yelling'? No, she's not a delicate flower. She's more like a prickly cactus. Maybe reassure her I'm not mad? Extend an olive branch? Buy her a pony? No, that's dumb. It'd take weeks to buy a pony. Steve thinks to himself as silence fills the air.
"I can pick you up in a few hours. What time do you have to be home? Maybe around 6? If you want to go home earlier or later, you have my number. I'm sure Mrs. Byers wouldn't mind you using their phone. Just call if you need anything, yeah? The offer stands." Steve says hoping it conveys the message of 'I'm here and I'm not going anywhere'. Metaphorically. Physically, he's going home after dropping them off.
We're good? No, he must be doing this out of guilt or something. Max lifts her head from the ground and looks at Steve. She's expecting a non-committal look at best to a snarl that reminds her of her step-brother at worst. Instead, she finds him with a… smile(?) on his face. At least she thinks it's a smile. Not meaning to, she bursts out laughing.
"What the hell is that? You look constipated," she asks between laughs.
The boys walk back to the car curious about what the laughter is about.
Steve's face goes from constipated to shocked to annoyed. His trademark face.
"It's supposed to be a reassuring smile! Shut up! Whatever, I'll see you later." he says exasperatedly with a hint of a childish rant almost starting.
Wait. He's not going inside?
"Wait. You're not going inside?" Max asks him.
"What!? You can't just go!"
"Yeah! Will and Mrs. Byers would love to see you, Steve!"
"You're causing delay, Steve. Let's go!"
Dustin, Lucas, and Mike yell out, respectively as they get to the car.
"Oh, I don't, um…" think I'm welcome Steve finishes the thought in his head. Outside of end of the world scenarios, he hasn't really spent time in the Byers house. There's also his guilt from picking a fight with Jonathan and saying horrible things about his family about a year ago. Yeah, Steve got him a new camera but he doesn't think there's enough money in the world to fix all the shitty things he said to Jonathan that day. Throwing money at the problem. Christ, he's turning into his father. There's plenty of reason for him to think he wasn't welcome.
Steve thought it was a simple pick-up and drop-off situation. He didn't expect to be invited inside. "I just came to give you guys a ride. I should get home. I'm sure Mrs. Byers is busy and, besides, Will doesn't need me bugging him. He should be having fun with you guys."
"Don't be stupid, Steve," Mike says accompanied by an eyeroll.
As if it was rehearsed, Max reached out to the rolled-down car window and unlocked the driver-side door. Lucas then pulled the door open and Dustin unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled him out of the car. Lucas closes the door and pushes him from behind while Dustin and Max are pulling each of his arms towards the house as Mike leads the way. Basically, it's the second time in a week that Steve has been kidnapped by middle schoolers.
"Hi, Mrs. Byers! We're here to see Will," Mike yells as he enters the front door. Jesus, the kid didn't even knock. Acting like he owned the place.
If this was a certain large empty house and the house's said owners were home, Mike would've been smacked or verbally abused or, most likely, both for barging in like that. But it wasn't. This was the Byers' house and Joyce's face lit up like a Christmas tree seeing the boys, a girl she doesn't know and their half-hearted hostage enter their home.
"Go ahead, I'm preparing you and the boys snacks," Joyce says with a smile as Steve is being dragged towards the hallway to Will's room. "Can I borrow Steve and Max real quick?"
The boys look at each other and shrug, Dustin and Lucas promptly let go of Steve and head toward Mike. Max, still holding on to him by the sleeve, drops his arm and stands next to him. Steve shoots her a questioning look hoping she knows what's going on but the redhead returns a shrug. They both look at Joyce. Uncertainty must've been on their face because Joyce smiled at them patted them on the shoulder and motioned for them to follow her.
"Come to the kitchen. You can take the snacks to the boys once they're ready. I just want to talk," Joyce says.
The two follow the older woman to the hallway to the kitchen. The kitchen. Shit. Is this because Dustin made him put a demodog in the fridge? Are they going to get thrown out? Get an invoice for a new fridge? Steve looks at Max and she mouths the words 'demodog' and 'fridge' with a questioning look. Apparently, they're both thinking the same thing. Did those shitheads throw them under the bus because they weren't here yesterday?
As they get to the kitchen, Max sees the fridge now closed with duct tape. She doesn't envy whoever discovered the demodog in there. When they came to a stop, she hears Steve blurt out, "Dustin made me do it!"
Max rolls her eyes and punches Steve lightly in the arm, "Idiot, we don't know why she wanted to talk to us yet."
"You said it was because of the fridge!" Steve shouts back with his hand running over the arm that got hit.
"I said it might be because of the fridge."
"You didn't say might. You just said 'fridge' and 'demodog'. What was I supposed to think?"
"You're supposed to think 'Maybe I shouldn't have put a monster inside the fridge because Dustin told me to'."
"Oh, really? Where was all this when we were cleaning up? I don't remember you arguing when Dustin suggested cleaning out the fridge to make room!" Steve says in an accusing tone.
Joyce watched the two continue to argue and go back and forth. Max got redder and Steve grew more exasperated but you can hear the fondness in their arguments. It's kind of sweet really, it reminds her of Will and Jonathan, not that those boys would ever get this loud but in spirit. She also thinks it makes sense. Based on the boys' story about Billy, Max didn't exactly win the lottery in the brother department, and based on Nancy's story about the Harringtons not being around a lot, Steve must be lonely in that big house of his.
"Kids, I'm not mad about the fridge," Joyce says in a tone that only mothers have when cutting off their kid's verbal sparring.
"Though, I am disappointed about that," Joyce continues as the two looked embarrassed and avoided her gaze, "That's not what this is about. You were both out sick yesterday and Nancy said you two had another near-fight with Billy at the school parking lot. I just wanted to check in and see if you're okay. I've already checked on the others yesterday, call it peace of mind. I wouldn't want you two getting hurt out for helping Will out."
Both teenagers look at her with a mixture of confusion and uncertainty. Steve has never really had an adult check on his well-being for years now. He's used to being on his own. While Max knows that Steve is technically an adult and sort of cares about her, Joyce is an adult adult. It's way different than some slightly older teenager checking up on her.
Joyce motioned for the two to sit by the table as she's preparing the snacks. The two teens glanced at each other, shared a verbal shrug, and did as Joyce asked. As they sat down, Joyce approached Steve first.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" Joyce asks in a tone that Steve would characterize as motherly. He hasn't quite experienced that himself. If he did, he was too young to remember. But if TV and movies have taught him anything is that parents are supposed to be there for their kids and this vaguely feels like that. Joyce runs her hands from his arms to his shoulders like she's feeling for a hidden bruise. Satisfied she found none she moves on to his face.
"How's your face feeling? I heard you got knocked around real good." Joyce says. She tilts Steve's head at various angles and checks his face. She spots the stitch the nurse made.
"I don't remember you having a bruise on the top of your head. I'm sorry, sweetie. I must've missed it with everything that happened that night." Joyce says in an apologetic tone.
Not being able to get a word in between the questions and the physical exam Steve blurts out, "I'm okay, Mrs. Byers. I think I'm healing up rather well. And, don't sweat it, even I didn't notice I had something on the top of my head."
Max scoffs loudly, "Billy shattered a plate with your head and you didn't think it would leave a mark? Did you forget blood gushing down your head?"
Joyce looked shocked. A plate to the head? Is that why those ceramic shards had blood on them? She knew the fight was bad but she didn't know it was this bad. She's starting to think the kids weren't exaggerating about what happened that night.
Steve must've not noticed Joyce's reaction because he quipped, "I must've forgotten. Don't blame me, getting smacked in the head isn't really good for short or long-term memory so…"
Joyce's expression went from shocked to horrified and this time Steve noticed.
"Sorry, Mrs. Byers. I was just joking around with Max. I feel fine. Great even. Honest." Steve says reassuringly to calm the woman down.
"Quick give her your reassuring smile," Max says with a smirk. Steve replies with an eyeroll.
"I'm fine, Mrs. Byers. Honest. Max is just being a little shit," Steve says fondly while lightly tapping Max on the shoulder. Joyce nods, partly believing the teenager, and gives Steve a small smile before moving on to Max.
"What about you, sweetie?" Joyce asks performing the same gestures she did on Steve on Max to make sure she's okay.
"Um… I'm fine, Mrs. Byers," Max answers in a voice she usually reserves for adult adults. Unlike Steve, she knows what motherly is and Joyce Byers is definitely acting that way to her and to Steve, two teenagers she barely knows.
"I don't get into fights I can't win unlike some people who shall remain nameless," Max says while throwing shade at Steve. She knows Steve doesn't take it personally and the banter is also fun. She'd call it sibling-like if she knew the word.
Max sees Steve flash her a mischievous smile. That's not good, she thinks.
"Are you sure you're okay, Max?" Steve asks in a faux-concerned voice. Max knows what he really sounds like when he's concerned. "Didn't the vines grab your wrist in the tunnels? Did it heal nicely?"
Max looked like a deer caught in the headlights, her jaw dropping slightly with what Steve said. Oh, he went there. Steve knew damn well the bruise on her wrist was from the run-in with Billy in the parking lot the other day. This would just cause Joyce to fuss over her. Well played Steve, Max thinks begrudgingly.
Steve sports a satisfied smirk as Joyce had a look at Max's wrist and Max tries to reassure Joyce that she's okay. Not only did he win this little whatever it is he was doing with Max, he gets to see how her wrist was doing. He's been meaning to check up on it but is unsure how to bring it up.
"This looks to be healing nicely Max," Joyce says with a warm smile. Max smiles back at the woman and Joyce moves back towards the table preparing the boy's snacks. Max throws a glare at Steve this time lightly hitting him on the arm.
Steve laughs silently at the gesture. It wasn't meant to hurt him, it was an 'I'll get you next time' warning. He was glad Max is okay both physically and with him using the incident at the parking lot as ammunition for this game of parental chicken. He does feel a bit guilty using Joyce as a proxy, after all, she only wanted to make sure they were okay. She's good people.
"Okay, snacks are ready. Can you take these to the boys?" Joyce motions to the table with a plate of sandwiches and a pitcher of juice and some cups, interrupting Steve's thoughts of guilt.
As they get to the table, Joyce puts a hand on each of their shoulders, one on Steve and another on Max, and gives them both a one-armed hug and says, "I'm glad you guys are okay. Thank you for everything you did. If you ever need anything, let me know. "
The two teenagers not used to parental affection returned the hug with their free arms. They offered Joyce assurances and gave her a smile. Satisfied, Joyce exits the kitchen. The two didn't move choosing to let the moment breathe.
"That was weird, right?" Max asks with no judgment in her tone.
"Little bit," Steve replies back. He hears a car pull up to the house which must mean Jonathan's home. Maybe he brought Nancy with him. That's not going to be awkward at all.
"It was nice though," Max says in a tone of fondness and warmth while looking at Steve.
"Yeah, it felt great." Steve agrees meeting Max's gaze with a smile. "C'mon let's get these snacks to the shitheads," Steve says as he picks up the pitcher and stack of cups. Max nods at Steve and picks up the plate of sandwiches and they both exit the kitchen.
Food, wellness checks, and hugs? Maybe they should visit the Byers in less world-ending circumstances more often.