23

The letter.

August 19th

Max

"I can't believe we're really doing this," Max said looking over at her mother where she stood next to the washing machine, but the older woman said nothing simply taping up the boxes. Boxes of his things, Neil's. After what felt like forever her mom had finally gotten a restraining order and the house back in her name fully and they were kicking him out today.

"Hey what do I do with this?"

Max looked over to see her boyfriend holding up a pair of socks.

She rolled her eyes as she went over to him and grabbed them from his hand. "Those are my dummy."

"Your feet are that big?" Lucas asked.

Max narrowed her eyes at him, and in that moment he knew he messed up because not a second later she hit him with the socks a few times. Not hard but still he got the point.

He put his hands up in defeat, "okay, okay I'm sorry."

"Go pack up more boxes," Max said.

"Fine, I'm going," Lucas said, but he was smiling and so was she.

"Honey, would you go check on your other friends and see how they're doing?" Her mom asked her, "And please thank them again for doing this, they didn't have too."

She nodded and went into the living room to find Mike, Dustin, and Will all doing something, packing up t-shirts and jeans in boxes, his old books, and other small things like that. "Thank you guys for doing this, I know it's kinda weird," Max said.

"It's fine," Will said looking up at her, "It's giving us practice for next month."

Max nodded, "And I'll be helping you then."

"Yeah then it's your turn to move the books," Dustin said as he threw another book into a box.

"Fine by me," Max said with a little smile but it fell as she looked around and found El missing from the group.

"Where's El?"

"Oh she went looking for more boxes a few minutes ago," Mike answered pointing to the hallway before he went back to trying to find the end of the tape gun.

Max turned towards the hall and started down it looking into the hall closet next to her room where the boxes were but El wasn't there and she wasn't in her room or the bathroom. Meaning there was only one room left. Billy's.

She bit her lip before walking down to the last room and looked in to find she had been right. El sat on the bed looking at a piece of paper.

"What are you reading?" Max asked, coming into the room.

El jumped and looked up at her with wide eyes.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Max said sitting down next to her, "What is that?"

"I found it on that bookshelf the last time I was here," El said, handing it to her, "It's from his mom this spring."

Max took it surprised, she didn't know that his mom even knew where he lived. As she read it over her heart sunk at the meaning, his mother had wanted him to come find her and move back to California. "He could have left anytime he wanted," Max said, her voice almost a whisper as she looked at the money on the bed.

"But he didn't," El said.

Max got up from the bed to walk around the room confused.

"Why would he stay here, he hated it here with his dad and my mom and he hated me since the day we met."

"But he didn't hate you," El said, " You were his little sister."

Max paused in her pasting and let out a breath. "Do...do you think he stayed because of me?" Max said facing her, "And don't lie just to make me feel better."

"Friends don't lie," El answered, "He knew what kind of person his father was and maybe he knew what would happen if he left you here on your own…"

Max nodded, knowing she was right, and that Billy had been right too, Neil was simply a bad person who only knew to hurt the ones he loved when they do what he said.

They were both quite a moment before El spoke. "Does his mother know? I didn't see her at his funeral."

"My mom looked for her address but we couldn't find her and Neil didn't even want her there," Max said looking down at the letter, at the address.

"We need to tell her," El said and Max nodded slowly.

"I-i can write a letter," Max said, but even she could tell her voice sounded unsure.

El stood and came over to her and took her hand, "We can write it together."

"You don't have too," Max said.

"He's the reason I'm alive right now," El said, "Of course I want to."

Max nodded, as they both went to sit back on her bed. "Where do we start?" Max asked, grabbing a piece of paper and two pens.

"Let's start at the beginning," El said, "Maybe that night."

Max let out a breath before she began to write, every now and then she would let El look at it and add something if she thought it needed it. She didn't know how long they were writing it, just that when she finally looked up at the clock it was after one a clock.

"We need to get it out in the mail but look it over for me one last time," Max said, handing El the letter.

El took it and started to read.

Dear Mrs. Hargrove, we are writing to you to tell you about your son Billy. On the 4th of July this year, he passed away in a fire at the star court mall. I and my mom have been trying to reach you but we couldn't find an address until now. We wanted to let you know before the funeral but we couldn't. He died a hero that night saving people and he will be missed by everyone he knew here. We did want to let you know that he had kept your letter to him from this spring and that's how we found your address, he loved you very much.

"It sounds very grown-up," El said, handing it back to Max.

"It has to be," Max said as she got off her bed and went over to her desk and pulled out an envelope. She folded the letter and put it into the envelope.

They were both quiet as she wrote the address. "What are you planning to do with his room? " El asked finally.

Max closed the envelope as she turned back to El and answered. "We're keeping it the same. My mom actually wanted to have a yard sale for his stuff but I asked her not to because…" She trailed off a moment as she sat back on the bed looking down at the envelope.

"Because you still miss him?" El said.

Max nodded, "I come in here when I need to remember him, at times it feels like he's going to walk through the door and yell at me for being in his room but then he doesn't and I've started coming in here more and more when I feel sad or upset like it's a comfort blanket."

"That's not a bad thing," El said, "I have a long sleeve shirt of Hoppers I keep around so when I miss him in the middle of the night I have something to hold on to."

Max looked up at the other girl both of them having lost someone and didn't know how to deal with that.

El reached over and took her hand, "Mrs. Byers told me it's okay to hurt, for the people you miss, it's better to let it hurt then to hide it."

Max hurriedly wiped away her tears as she nodded before she hopped off the bed again. "Come on let's go put this out in the mail.

El hopped off the bed as well and joined her.

They ran down the hall and into the living room where the boys were still packing up but looked to be almost done.

"There you are," Lucas said, "Finally came back to help?"

"We'll be right back," Max called over her shoulder to him as they opened the door and went outside closing it behind themselves.

The boys looked after them a minute before Lucas shook his head, "Girls."

"Girls, " Mike and Will agreed before going back to work.

"Do you think she'll come down here? El asked.

"Maybe," Max said, closing the mailbox.

"She loved him a lot but why would she just leave him with his father?" El asked as they walked back up the driveway.

"Fear of his father," Max said simply.

"I'm happy he's away from you and your mother," El said, "I think Billy would be too."

Max paused her hand on the handle of the door. "I think he would be too," Max said before she pushed open the door to a new kind of life, one she didn't know how to live in yet, but one where she still had her friends with her and that made it better, earlier to go on with it.

AN

As always thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. Only three more chapters now. Stay safe everyone :D