30- Bonding
Summary: Erica and Max are bonding by having a sleepover.
Requested by: Elvenheart65 and Boris Yeltsin
Max was disappointed.
She was supposed to have sleepover with El, but she had just radioed and said she was sick.
Ever since winter started a couple of weeks ago, El had been under the weather since her first winter was basically in solitude and her second was spent in warm, sunny California and her body wasn't used to sickness.
The two girls had been having sleepovers basically every week since the Byers moved back after spring break.
But, because El had been sick lately, they haven't had many.
Right before El ended the radio call, she suggested that Max go over to Lucas's.
Max considered it, then grabbed her skateboard, passing by her passed out mother and skated toward the Sinclair's.
When she got there, she rang the doorbell, expecting her boyfriend to open the door.
Instead, it was his little sister.
Erica Sinclair.
"A shadow was creeping up the wall, a creaking of steps as it did so. It reaches, coming closer and closer until-"
DING DONG!
Erica sighed, the doorbell stopping her from continuing on.
"Coming!" she called, even though whoever was at the door wouldn't be able to her due to the distance from her room to the door.
She raced down the stairs and opened the door.
When she did, her brother's girlfriend was standing there.
Max Mayfield.
"Hi," she finally says after a few moments of standing there just staring at each other. "Is your brother home?"
"No, he's out of town for the day. I thought he said he told you guys?" Erica had become pretty close with the Party after spring break, being an honorary member of the Hellfire Club and occasionally coming to their hangouts.
Max vaguely remembered Lucas excitingly telling the group that he was going to be out of town to shop for new basketball gear, but she had been too wrapped up in sleepover planning to actively pay attention.
"Oh, okay sorry for bothering you." Max said, turning to go. "Have a good weekend."
"Wait," Erica stopped her. "Do you need a place to stay?" Erica looked at Max up and down.
There had been times Max had to stay the night away from her house because of her family.
Max shook her head.
"No, just bored. I was supposed have a sleepover with El, but she's still not feeling great."
"Well, I'm home alone and am probably going to be bored in an hour or so." Erica said, not sure why she was telling the older girl this. "Want to hang out for a bit?"
Max hesitated, but then shrugged and walked past the girl into the house.
Erica shut the door and saw that Max had already ascended the stairs, turning into her room.
When Erica got there, Max was looking down at her desk, where Erica was working on some DND stuff.
"You're really dedicated to this stuff, huh?" she asked.
During the summer, Max and El started playing DND, but neither were completely into it as the others.
"Yeah," Erica said, flipping through some of her material. "I've been asking Eddie to use some of my ideas, but he hasn't been listening."
"This is what you do," Max turned to her. "You steal his binder and put some of your playing sheets in there and when he's reading, he'll read them, making it your game."
"Good plan. Except that's one of three things he protects with his life."
"Well, yeah." Max considered it. "Maybe you could just annoy him until he listens."
"Or knock him in the head." Erica joked.
"That works too." Max chuckled.
Max moves across the room to Erica's dresser.
"Dude! You have Tales of Suspense #52?" Max asked, pushing the rest of Erica's collection out of the way.
"Of course," Erica smirked, coming up behind Max.
"Black Widow's first appearance is in this!" Max said excitedly, sitting down on Erica's bed.
"I know! That's why I have it!" Erica sat next to Max. "She's so awesome."
"Oh, the best!" Max retracted. "Well, after Wonder Woman."
"No way! I mean don't get me wrong, Wonder Woman's great, but nobody beats Black Widow." Erica argued.
"Whatever you say." Max said, rolling her eyes.
Erica and Max both leaned back into the formers pillows and started to read the comic book.
After reading all of Erica's comic collection, it's starts getting dark.
"I probably should go." Max tells the younger girl, though not moving from her position.
"Yeah." Erica sighs.
She starts fiddling with Max's hair.
"Uh, whatcha doing?" Max asked.
"You know your hair would look great in pigtails." Erica commented.
"No," Max said immediately, knowing what Erica was getting at. "You're not doing my hair."
"Please?" Erica sits up. "I haven't done pigtails in a while; my friends think it's too childish."
Max buried her head in a pillow.
"Fine." she sighed.
"Yay!" Erica slides off the bed grabbing her hairbrush and hair ties off her dresser.
Max rolls off the bed and sits at Erica's desk.
Erica starts pulling Max's long red hair into two ponies.
"Do you want glitter?" Erica asked.
"Don't push it, kid." Max said warningly.
"Fine." Erica ties off the first pigtail.
"How's school going?" Max asked.
"Pretty good." Erica said, concentrating on making sure there are no lumps. "I'm getting A's in all of my classes."
"Nice job." Max is reading some of Erica's playing sheets.
"Thanks."
Erica finishes the second ponytail, walking around the chair to look at her work.
"You know makeup would really finish the look."
"No," Max stated. "I let you do the ponytails, no makeup."
"Please?" Erica begged.
"Can't you do it with your friends?"
"Yeah, but it's not really fun when I do it with them."
Max looks at Erica questioningly for a moment before she closes her eyes and nods.
"Thank you!" Erica said grabbing the makeup kit her mom gave her.
"It'll only be blush, eyeshadow, and lipstick." Erica assures her, pulling blush out.
Max says nothing but gives Erica a good death glare.
Erica ignores it, starting to apply the blush to Max's cheeks.
"Question." Max says when Erica moves to her eyes.
"Shoot."
"Why is it not fun when you do this with your friends."
"Well, first off," Erica said. "I don't actually love doing makeup in the first place, I'm just practicing for the SnowBall."
"Ooh, who are you going with?"
"Probably just my friends." Erica said with some disdain.
"Do you not want to go with your friends?"
"Don't get me wrong, they're great, but sometimes they can be so dramatic." Erica pulls out her three lipstick colors and holds them up, seeing which one would look best on Max.
"Yeah," Max said, thinking of something. "If you want, I can go with you."
Erica stops. "Really?"
"Yeah, El might want to come too."
"That'd be great."
"So, back on to why this isn't fun to do with your friends."
"Well, they always gossip and just," Erica decides to go with a light pink. "I don't know. Does things that I find immature I guess."
Erica carefully dabs the lipstick on Max's lips.
"It's just. When you've fought real life monsters, things that my friends gossip about and stuff don't seem all that important."
Erica puts the lipstick away.
"It's been hard to connect with my friends lately. We used to be really close but after summer and spring break-"
"It's hard to go back to the life you've known before." Max stated with sad eyes.
Erica doesn't look at the older girl, just turns and puts her makeup kit back.
"Kid." Max starts. "How long have you've been feeling this way?"
"Since we went back to school." Erica whispered.
It was almost Halloween.
"You know you can talk to us, right?" Max asked. "We all went through the same stuff you did."
"I know." Erica said. "But you've helped. Just being around you guys, makes me feel I'm not alone. It's usually when I'm with my friends."
Max didn't know what to say.
"How about this," she finally said. "Whenever you don't want to hang out with your friends, because I know you still want to, you can hang out with any of us."
"Seriously?"
"Yep. All of us have taking a liking to you Erica. You wouldn't even have to explain it to them when you want to hang out. Just radio and ask if anyone's free."
Erica nodded.
"And," Max said. "If you ever feel sad or confused about something, let one of us know. It's not okay to bottle stuff up. I learned that the hard way."
Erica winced but when she looked up, Max was smiling.
Erica smiled back.
Max yawned.
"Man," she said. "Giving a pep talk sure is tiring. I don't know how Steve does it."
Erica chuckled. "Want to stay here?" she asked.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
Both girls climbed into bed, snuggling under the covers.
"Be quiet when you go in," Mrs. Sinclair called to her son. "She could be sleeping."
Lucas opened the front door and climbed the stairway.
His little sister's door was open.
He quietly crept up to check on her.
Even though neither would admit this, both siblings had become protective of each other after spring break.
When he got to the doorway, he saw something he wasn't expecting to see.
His girlfriend and sister were cuddling under the covers.
He has to get a picture of this.
Going downstairs, he grabbed the family camera and sneaked up to the bed, trying not to wake up either girl.
Lucas snapped a picture and exited the room.
When the picture showed through, Lucas smiled.
"Perfect blackmail."
AN: Hope you liked it, Elvenheart65 and Boris Yeltsin! Busy week over! The schedule will be going back to normal. I can't believe we're at 30 prompts! Thank you all for you requests and comments! Requests are open!