Analysis: Studying the data collected during the experiment to determine if it supports the hypothesis and what steps should be taken next.
Dating a girl was different then dating a boy. Or maybe dating Max was just different then dating Mike. Sure in a lot of ways the two were actually very similar, but there were also some clear differences. They both liked holding hands, but Max was more touchy, and it seemed to take a different form than it had with Mike. Of course they would kiss sometimes, but it wasn't Max's go to the way it had been for Mike. Instead her affection came in the form of a lot of smaller things, seeming to constantly want some sort of physical connection between them. Not that El was complaining. She loved the feeling of Max next to her. It was just interesting.
Only when they were alone though. In public Max wouldn't do anything more then hold hands. If El was being honest, she did miss the more public elements of dating. She didn't blame Max for being careful, it wasn't like when she was dating Mike and he was being overly cautious. They'd talked about it extensively when Max had first proposed the idea. There were legitimate dangers if they were to affectionate in public. In private all bets were off, and eventually they would tell the rest of the party, but until then it had to be a secret. El understood why, and if that was the trade off for dating Max she'd take it in a heartbeat. Dating Max in secret was better then not at all. But that didn't mean it didn't suck sometimes or she never missed it.
She was doing her best to not be jealous when she saw Max and Lucas interact, and most of the time she genuinely wasn't. El didn't mind when the two of them kissed, she actually sort of liked it. The small bounce onto her toes Max did in order to reach him and the flush of excitement Lucas always had when he bent down to meet her were both adorable. But sometimes when they were in public and Max leaned over to kiss his cheek or Lucas threw an arm over her shoulders, she couldn't help the pang of jealousy. She wanted to be able to do that too. It wasn't fair that they couldn't.
But that wasn't the only thing bugging her. There was something missing. Something she hadn't really put together till he'd been showing her how to make his mom's pasta. They'd spent the night talking like they used to when they'd had hours to kill. It had mostly been about nothing, no important information coming up, but it had still been nice. Which was when what she'd been feeling had finally started to make sense to her.
They'd always been friends, but El hadn't realized how close Lucas and her had really become well Max was asleep. A lot of it had come from a shared grief, an understanding of what the other was going through that the rest of their friends hadn't seemed to quite get. So when Max woke up, she hadn't thought about it anymore. But now she was realizing she was wrong. Since then they hadn't spent much time alone together, basically only when they were on their way to or from Max. Not that El minded all three of them hanging out. She loved being around both Lucas and Max, but even that was starting to seem rarer. Especially after her and Max had started dating too. And El missed it.
Lucas had such a different view on things then Max did. She loved Max's way of looking at things too of course, loved listening to the way her brain seemed able to analyze everything even if she couldn't see the details. At first El had thought it was pure pessimism, but she'd slowly learned that wasn't it. If Max didn't like a movie or book, she would simply ignore it or start talking about something else even well it was still playing. When she criticized them it was usually because she had enjoyed it, but liked to think about how it could have been even better. She would happily nitpick even her favorite movie, but all it meant was that she was seeing details no one else did. Could attribute a deeper meaning to things El hadn't even noticed.
Meanwhile Lucas always seemed to look at the bigger pictured. It was that he didn't see the details, in some ways he was even more analytical than Max was, but he didn't let them bother him as much. He'd excuse small, or even big, moments if it was in service of a good product. Which also tended to mean he was more receptive to movies he didn't like, happy to just be along for the ride.
El loved listening to both.
She was coming to realize that there were a lot of things like that. Max and Lucas were very different people. They had similar interests, but enjoyed them in different ways. And in ways different then how El generally enjoyed them. But that wasn't bad, El actually sort of loved it. Missed it. Had been missing it for awhile. That day at Lucas's it was like it had all clicked together for her. It wasn't just some abstract idea that she missed. She missed Lucas.
From there her thoughts spiraled. She knew her and Lucas were friends, but she'd never really thought about him as more than that. Of course she'd missed him when they moved to California, but her feelings about missing Mike and Max had been so much stronger. Plus she'd still been mourning Hopper. So her feelings for Lucas, and Dustin for that matter, had sort of been shifted to the side. They were friends, that was all. But at some point, between the hours in the hospital filled with conversations about anything and everything, it had become more then that. She just had never bothered to really think about it because it hadn't mattered. He was dating Max. But now so was she, and she couldn't imagine being happier. But maybe…
It was something she would have to think about.
On the whole though she was happy. Despite all of the complicated feelings. Happier than she'd been in a long time. She loved spending time with Max, the warmth when they kissed. Talking to her about anything. How relaxed they always seemed when they were together. She'd even started to not mind the way her face flushed whenever Max complimented her.
No matter what else happened, what conclusion she came to, right now El was happy. All the sneaking around was more then worth it. It wasn't even a question.
Things were going well. Surprisingly well. If he was being honest, Lucas hadn't really been sure the idea would work when he'd brought it up. Mostly he'd just been trying to find a way to make Max happy that let him hang on to her for a little bit longer. It wasn't that he'd doubted Max still cared about him, it was obvious that she did, but he'd seen the way Max smiled at El and the way El looked at her like she was the most amazing person in the world. Sure, Max loved him, but he hadn't been able to erase the doubt that maybe it wasn't as strong as he'd thought. They'd been dating since middle school, he was the only person she'd ever dated, it sort of made sense that maybe she wanted something new.
It wasn't like he'd thought Max had been lying when she said she cared about both of them, but just the idea she liked girls had sent her into a spiral. Which Lucas didn't blame her for, it was a scary thing, but it also didn't seem that far fetched to him that maybe her feelings for El could trigger that same panic, and maybe to try and lessen it she'd clung to her relationship with him. And if that was the case, then it couldn't last forever. As much as Lucas loved her, he didn't want to keep her from being as happy as possible. So the plan had made sense in his head. It gave Max the chance to explore and become more comfortable dating a girl, El a relationship she clearly wanted, and he got to be with her for a little while longer.
But the conversation he'd been expecting never came. If anything Max had been more present in their relationship since she'd started dating El too, quicker with kisses or compliments than before. For the first time in a long time it didn't feel like she was holding anything back, and she seemed more relaxed and confident. It was subtler, but it was obvious that El was happier too. She got so excited even when Max did something as simple as leaned against her and there was a small smile that seemed to be reserved for when she kissed her cheek. All around, it had turned out to be a really good thing for both of them.
It wasn't all good of course. Lucas had noticed El giving them longing looks some times when they were in public and Max pulled him into a kiss or wrapped an arm around his waist. Lucas hated seeing those looks. He knew how shitty it felt to have to worry about what people were going to think if they saw them, and it was a lot more dangerous for the two of them then anything he and Max had had to deal with. At least they could still publicly date even if they had to be careful, and at least he hadn't had to watch her happily kissing someone else the whole time.
But on the whole, things were going well. Now that the fear that Max was just putting off breaking up with him had worn off, he had to admit that the two were adorable. They'd always been comfortable around each other, but they seemed almost giddy about it now. Learning how to navigate their new relationship, all of the small things like how Max preferred to initiate kisses so she knew they were coming or El was more likely to rest her head on Max's shoulder then wrap an arm around her. Lucas couldn't help being tempted to help sometimes, when they got flustered and he was pretty sure he knew what the problem was, but he did his best to stop himself. It was their relationship to figure out. He was connected to it, but he wasn't part of it, as hard as that could be to remember sometimes.
The line wasn't always super clear. Not telling El how Max liked to be kissed was obviously stepping over it, but what if El was braiding her hair and he had a tip? Was he being helpful or did it seem like he was trying to intrude on a moment that was just for the two of them? Even if his intention was just to help, would the girls, especially El, actually see it that way or would it come off like he was jealous or trying to assert some sort of dominance?
Was that what he was doing?
Lucas didn't think so. Honestly he was sort of surprised by how not jealous he was about the whole situation. If anything he was more self conscious about when he was affectionate towards Max then when El was. When she was around he was already more aware of everything they did, and that seemed to double when they were out in public. The last thing he wanted to do was flaunt the fact that he could date her in a way she couldn't. He wanted El to be happy too, it sucked that it all had to be so complicated.
That didn't mean there was no jealousy though. Not much, nothing Lucas couldn't keep to himself, but that didn't mean ti wasn't there sometimes. At first he'd been able to reason it away easily enough. It was natural for a guy to feel jealous when his girlfriend kissed someone else even if he'd told her he was fine with it. He assumed as time went on he would just get used to it, but if anything the feeling was getting stronger. And the more the thought about it the clearer it was becoming that El wasn't the person he was jealous of.
Max was.
The idea had never truly occurred to him before. Maybe during the long months in the hospital it had crossed his mind, but he'd never considered acting on it. He loved Max. Had always loved Max. So it didn't matter what he felt for El, they were just really good friends. They'd been through something together that no one else had. Understood each other in a way the others didn't, that probably even Max couldn't. But it was more then just the shared grief. Lucas liked talking to her about books, liked listening to her explain the way the plot processed in her head, and it didn't hurt that the way her whole face seemed to scrunch up when she smiled or was confused was adorable.
None of that had ever meant anything. It couldn't have because his feelings for Max had never wavered. But if Max could have feelings for both of them…
Different, but equally intense. Parallel feelings. Lucas was struggling to come up with a better way of describing it.
Max knew she had no right to complain. In so many ways she was beyond lucky. She knew it wasn't the adjective most people would pick out for her, but that was because they didn't see the details. They saw the cane or where she lived or the way she flinched at sudden noises and could tell she'd had to deal with her fair share of shit. What they didn't see was how lucky she was to be alive at all or how everyone in her life had done their best to help her adjust. They didn't see that she had the best boyfriend in the whole world, one who had been okay with her exploring the fact that she also had feelings for her best friend, or the amazing girlfriend she was quickly falling in love with, or how okay both of them had been with the whole situation.
So yeah, despite everything, Max felt lucky. She had no right to complain.
And in general she didn't want to! Things had been going great! Lucas was as incredible as ever, still doing all the little things he'd always done. Picking her up before school whenever he had access to a car, a small kiss on her cheek when they met up for lunch, the stupid sappy comments that made her roll her eyes but she also couldn't stop herself from grinning at. He still seemed to instinctively know when she was having a bad day and walking or holding a fork was harder then normal, and would offer support without commenting on it. He made her feel safe and supported, and his unwavering faith that she could do anything she put her mind to had gotten her though so much. She was so incredibly grateful, and beyond in love.
And he was only half of the reason. It was kind of remarkable how well her and El had seemed to snap into place once they'd gotten over their initial awkwardness. There were still figuring things out, but there was so much they'd seemed to just naturally know how to do. They'd been so close for so long that it felt like things like gaps for quick kisses were already built in and it was easy to shift from harmless compliments to sincere flirting. They already knew how to fit together. More importantly Max could feel herself falling more in love with her every day. El had a way of making her feel like anything was possible, and it had nothing to do with magic powers or bringing people back from the dead. It was the way she looked at everything with a sort of wonder and curiosity. It wasn't naivety or stupidity, El would never deny a fact that was right in front of her, but she would get excited about things the rest of them took for granted, and that excitement could be contagious. Her optimism and determination was enough to crack through even Max's usual pessimism. She made her feel warm, and giddy, and Max was happier then she felt she had any right to be.
That didn't mean everything was perfect. She was still tense whenever El did anything that could be seen as overly affectionate in public, even if it was something that before she wouldn't have thought twice about, and Max could tell that it hurt her feelings, even if she didn't say anything about it. Max hated having to sneak around, she'd promised herself she would never do that again. She'd seen the toll it had taken on Lucas, knowing that they'd both be in danger if her family ever found out. It had taken a toll on her too, though neither had ever said it outright. Luckily Neil wasn't around anymore, and her mom loved Lucas. She loved El too for that matter, so it wasn't like they had to sneak around exactly. El could come over, they could still cuddle on the couch or play with each others hair or stay up late talking without having to worry. They just couldn't do everything, even in the privacy of her home, and that could be hard sometimes.
Max didn't want to care, but the truth was she didn't know how her mom would react. She doubted she'd just be okay with it, but it was also doubtful she'd actually do anything about it regardless of how she felt. Most likely her reaction would just be that soft, barely noticeable, disappoint. The kind that drove Max insane. She would take any argument or fight over that, at least she knew how to respond to those. But when her mom got reserved, seeming to pull in to herself, she never knew what she was supposed to do. As much as she didn't want to hide, Max wasn't sure she was ready to deal with that either.
Mostly though, Max couldn't shake the feeling that something was off when all three of them were together. For starters it was becoming rare for that to even happen, and when they were all together it seemed like there was a sort of tension that hadn't been there before. The others hadn't said anything about it, but she wasn't sure if they were just being polite or if she was the only one noticing it. Either way she felt it. Every time she showed affection towards one of them it felt like she needed to do something equal towards the other. A kiss to the top of El's head, meant a kiss to Lucas's cheek. If she laid her head in El's lap well they watched a movie, the next day she made sure to lean against Lucas during lunch. It was almost mathematical, keeping track of who's hand she took when to make sure she switched off. As if she had to prove she'd been honest when she told Lucas that one feeling wasn't stronger then the other. It was driving her slightly insane, and she wasn't even sure why she was doing it. Neither of them had asked her to or said anything about it, but she also couldn't seen to turn it off. The only thing she could do about it was hope that sooner or later everything would click into place and feel less like she was maneuvering a tightrope.
Even with the tension and the hiding though, Max was happy. She had an amazing boyfriend and an incredible girlfriend, both of whom had no problem with her dating the other. Both of whom made her feel warm, and safe, and special. She was luckier then anyone had the right to be, definitely more then she had any right to be. The only thing either had asked was to make sure they kept talking to them about what was going on. So that's what she had to do. They'd figure it out, all of them together. It just might take a little bit of time.