"Whoa…" Mike said as he looked around, blinking slowly. "Are you uh, feeling it?"

Max lifted her head from the edge of the inflatable kiddie pool with monumental effort and nodded. "Um… yeah."

The first week of June had ended, and with it so had their final exams and their sophomore year of high school. Yesterday had been the last day, and now there was nothing but the glorious freedom of summer stretching out before them, and Mike and Max had decided to celebrate by making pot brownies with a recipe Phil had given them.

Ted and Karen had dropped Holly off at a friend's house for the weekend and taken Nancy for a tour of some of the Midwest colleges she'd been accepted to in order to help her decide, although Mike had told Max about the large envelope from Berkeley he'd found in the mail earlier in the week that he was pretty sure Nancy hadn't told their parents about yet. Max certainly wasn't complaining, because now she got to spend the entire weekend alone with Mike.

And she had plans.

Plans which were currently on hold because she felt unable to move her limbs from the high that had just settled over her like a heavy quilt.

"Maybe we should've waited a little longer instead of eating more of them," she said, her voice sounding strange to her ears like it wasn't her own.

Mike laughed and rested his hand on her knee. "Phil did warn us. Rookie mistake."

Once the baking was done they'd opted to leave the kitchen a complete disaster and fill up Holly's old kiddie pool in the backyard, reclining in opposite directions and eating popsicles while they waited for the brownies to kick in. And kick in they had.

The cool water sloshed over the sides of the tiny circular pool as Max hauled herself up into a seated position, and she took a moment to look around the yard while sipping from the juice box she'd forgotten was in her hand. In the distance, she could hear a chorus of lawnmowers, the smell of freshly cut grass permeating the air. She'd lost track of the time, but judging by how high the blazing sun was in the sky it was still early afternoon. She eyed Mike, his pale, bare torso glistening above his horrible tiki print swim trunks.

He saw her looking and propped himself up on his elbows, squinting at her over the top of his sunglasses. "How are you feeling?"

"Stoned."

He chuckled and grabbed her wrist, tugging her forward so she landed on top of him with a splash. "I like this," he murmured, snapping the halter tie of the black bikini Rachel had talked her into buying last weekend. Max smiled against his shoulder and adjusted herself so she was laying between his bent legs.

"I don't think there's enough room in this little pool to do anything," she said, wrapping the drawstrings of his shorts around her finger.

Mike snorted. "Even if there was, there's no way I can get anything going down there when I'm this high." She laughed and moved her hand back up to his chest, deciding not to take his words as a challenge, perfectly content to just lounge around in the refreshing water for a bit longer.

After they'd gotten out of the pool they spent a few hours lying catatonic on the sofa in the living room, watching music video countdowns on MTV, and now the brownies were finally starting to wear off a little. The sun was starting to set, turning a dark orange as it disappeared below the horizon, casting a warm glow over the living room.

They'd opened up all the windows to air out the pungent smell that resulted from cooking down the weed, and there was a pleasant draft blowing through the house. Max was curled up lengthwise on the sofa, flipping through another of the Wheeler's many photo albums, while Mike sat next to her and fiddled with the new Polaroid camera his parents had bought Nancy as a graduation gift.

She looked down at the album and sighed, tracing her fingers over a picture of Mike and Nancy as toddlers, gap-toothed smiles on display as they sat on the carpet of the same room she was currently in, Easter baskets filled with chocolate clutched in their tiny hands.

"What?" Mike asked, glancing over at her, his eyelids still heavy from the effects of the brownies. "Is it another one of me naked?"

Max laughed. "You were such a naked baby. Did you have something against clothes?"

"Early middle child syndrome?" he shrugged.

Her smile faded and she shook her head. "No it's just… this place is like a real home, you know? I mean, you all took your first steps here, you celebrated your first Christmas, you said your first words… and I just- I haven't had a place that really felt like home in a long time." Even when her parents were still together they hadn't stayed in one place for very long. When Max tried to picture her childhood home she drew a complete blank.

Mike wrapped a hand around one of her sock-covered feet, his thumb gently tracing circles around her ankle bone. "I could be your home," he whispered, squeezing her foot. Max felt her heart do a somersault and thought about how beautiful that would be—if she could just shrink herself down and crawl into the space under his rib cage, curl up and live there. Warm and cozy. Safe.

Outside, a cloud moved and the setting sun behind Mike illuminated the room, a golden halo glowing around his head. The video for that cheesy song from Top Gun was playing quietly on the TV, and it was all very stupid and romantic.

Max stood abruptly. It was too quiet, too intense. She walked over to the window, leaning her forehead against the glass and gazing out at the way the sun was creating distinct beams of light between the houses.

A sharp, metallic click followed by a mechanical whirring sound startled her out of her trance, and she whirled around to see Mike looking down at the film coming out of the bottom of the Polaroid camera.

"Mike," she groaned. She'd always hated having her picture taken.

"Oh wow, that's just not fair," he said as he shook the small square and studied the image developing on it.

"What?"

"That you're this pretty without even trying."

Max rolled her eyes. "Oh, fuck off." Mike smirked unapologetically and raised the camera again, but this time she quickly held up her middle finger in front of her face as he took another picture. "Give me that," she grumbled, stalking back over to the couch and jumping on him as she reached for the camera. His reflexes were slow and they slid off of the couch and onto the carpet, wrestling over the camera on the living room floor.

"Don't break it!" Mike gasped as he attempted to wrench it out of her grasping fingers. "Nancy'll kill me."

"Give it to me then," she shot back, finally yanking the camera out of his grip while she pinned him down with her knees. Mike lay back in surrender, his hands falling to the carpet next to his head.

Max looped the strap over her head and shifted backwards so she was straddling his hips, peering through the viewfinder and studying him in the diffuse evening light. She took in his sharp jawline and impossibly high cheekbones, slowly tracing her fingers over his delicately arched eyebrows, and she thought that he was the prettiest boy she'd ever seen.

He bit his lip and turned his head to the side, suddenly shy under her intense scrutiny. She cupped his chin and turned him back towards her, pulling his full bottom lip down with her thumb. Then she leaned in to capture the bottom half of his face and pressed the button on top of the camera. Click.

Mike gently bit the tip of her thumb and she pushed it further into his mouth, gasping when he sucked on it gently. The camera ejected the photo and Max tossed it to the side and spread her knees wider, feeling him getting hard underneath her. She ground down against him and grinned when she heard his breathing hitch, a sense of satisfaction spreading through her at the power she held over him.

Shifting further back, she let the camera hang around her neck while she reached down, pushing his t-shirt up and unbuttoning his jeans, exposing the waistband of his Calvin Klein boxers. The outline of his hard cock was clearly visible through the grey cotton, and she spread her fingers over it and raised the camera. Click.

Max let out an embarrassingly breathy gasp when he suddenly flipped her, almost dropping the whirring camera as her back landed on the scratchy carpet. Mike carefully lifted it over her head and set it down somewhere above her before holding her wrists down on either side of her.

"You're evil," he whispered against her lips just before he captured them in a slow kiss. He coaxed her mouth even further open with his tongue, and she moaned softly as he traced the roof of her mouth.

The makeout was unhurried and leisurely, both of them knowing they didn't have time for anything more before the pizza they'd ordered arrived. She wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him down against her so she could feel his hardness pressing against the seam of her shorts. He tightened his grip on her wrists, extending their arms up overhead, and rolled his hips against hers, making a strangled noise against her neck as they increased the incredible friction between their bodies.

They were still panting and writhing against each other when the doorbell rang several minutes later, and Mike groaned as he reluctantly peeled himself off of her. Max got to her knees and gathered the Polaroids still scattered around the floor, slipping the ones she'd taken of him into her back pocket. For safekeeping, she told herself.

Twilight turned to dusk while they stood around the still-messy kitchen island scarfing down their pizza, and when they were finished they draped themselves over each other on the couch to watch Jeopardy!, and Max let herself pretend this was their real life instead of just them playing house for a weekend. Maybe someday it would be—in the distant future when they'd had enough of seeing the world and going out and were ready to be old and boring. She thought maybe she could be really happy that way.

Her head was resting on a pillow in Mike's lap, and he was running his fingers absently through her hair. He was occasionally answering the host's questions but Max wasn't even really watching—all she could think about was what was going to happen once the credits scrolled across the screen. She felt like she was buzzing with equal parts anxiety and anticipation, shivering involuntarily when he lightly raked his nails over her scalp in a particularly pleasurable way.

And then she blinked and it was somehow already Final Jeopardy, her heart rate ratcheting up when the well-known theme song built in intensity as the seconds ticked down. Then the next thing she knew the audience was applauding and Alex Trebek was wishing everyone a good night and signing off, and she felt Mike shifting to grab the remote. There was a soft click as the screen faded to black, and the air in the living room was suddenly thick with tension. Max swallowed past the dryness in her throat and rolled onto her back to look up at him.

"Upstairs?" Mike asked quietly, tracing his fingers from her temple to her chin. She nodded and sat up.

Max was sure her heartbeat was on par with that of a hummingbird as she followed Mike up the stairs and into his room. The window was still open and the night air rushed into her lungs. It smelled like a combination of barbecue smoke and the remaining blooms of the neighbours' lilac bushes.

They stood and faced each other in the dim light of the bedside lamp, and Max laughed nervously at the immediate awkwardness of the situation. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to him, both of them reaching for each other as they leaned in for a kiss, but the angle was wrong and their noses bumped clumsily. They chuckled as they readjusted and this time their lips slotted together smoothly and it was just as it always was—as natural as breathing.

Mike backed her up until they reached the bed, the mattress creaking as she sat down on the edge and tilted her head back as they stared at each other. Her skin felt hot and prickly under the weight of his intense gaze.

God, he made her feel so completely dismantled.

Her eyes went wide as he knelt down in front of her, and then he trailed his fingertips up the backs of her calves, his hands splaying over her hips, her waist, warm on her stomach as they slid higher, pushing the fabric of her tank top up and up until she raised her arms and let him skim it off over her head.

Mike's hands travelled up her lower back to the band of her bra. He unhooked it after a few seconds of fumbling and then reached for the straps, letting his fingers run under them, his knuckles grazing her skin before slowly peeling them down her arms.

Max found she was grasping at the bed sheets in an attempt to ground herself, head spinning from the feeling of sparks flying over her skin wherever he touched her.

She gasped in pleasure when he immediately ducked down to take one of her breasts in his mouth. His tongue swirled around one nipple while his thumb and forefinger slowly rolled the other into a hard, sensitive peak. Max rose up on her knees to grant him better access, her fingers weaving through his hair to hold him close as she squirmed against him.

He sucked in a shallow breath and pulled back to tug his t-shirt off over his head, casting it aside before pushing her gently back on the bed, her head landing on a soft pile of pillows. She lay back and grabbed at the waistband of his jeans, tearing the fly open while he did the same to her denim shorts.

She desperately wanted to be closer to him. She needed to feel his skin on hers; she needed to feel him inside her.

He frantically kicked off his jeans before kneeling on the bed and hooking his fingers in the waistband of her underwear, tugging them down along with her shorts. And then she was fully naked in front of him for only the second time.

Max felt her flush spreading down her neck and chest as he sat back and stared at her heatedly. This time she wasn't shy and she let her knees fall apart, certain that she was already visibly wet with arousal. But that was okay—she wanted Mike to see what he did to her. He gulped as his gaze dropped down to her centre, reaching down almost reflexively to palm himself over his boxers.

"Mike," she said quietly, "come here." He nodded and crawled over her, stopping to lightly scrape his teeth over each nipple and then her collarbone on his way up to her lips.

His hand travelled back down between her legs while they kissed wildly, and Max moaned into his mouth as he circled her clit with a maddeningly light touch, his fingertips sliding around easily through the copious moisture.

She sucked on his bottom lip and thrust her hips up against his hand, desperate for either more pressure or for him to put his fingers inside her. He chuckled at her demanding movements and pulled away from her lips only to quickly reattach his mouth just below her jaw, sucking the sensitive skin between his teeth as he trailed his fingers down to her entrance and slid one inside, only to the second knuckle, teasing her with infuriatingly shallow pumps.

"More," she groaned, frowning as she tried to push herself down on his hand. Mike raised himself up and gave her an amused look before adding a second finger and continuing with his short, frustrating strokes.

He raised an eyebrow. "Like this?"

"No," Max whined, covering her eyes with her arm to hide herself from his cocky smirk.

"Oh," he said casually, as if she'd told him it was going to rain tomorrow. Then the next time he pulled out he plunged both fingers deep inside her, and she cried out as he curled them against her front wall. Max felt the familiar coil tightening in her abdomen as he dragged his fingers out slowly and thrust them back in quickly, her staccato moans echoing around the room with each wet pump of his hand.

"Like that?" Mike rasped, a trace of humour still evident in his tone even though he was obviously affected by her wanton reaction.

"Fuck you," she panted, reaching up and curling a hand around his neck so she could tug him back down towards her. She gave him a punishingly hard bite on his bottom lip that made him hiss in what she was pretty sure was more pleasure than pain.

Max was embarrassingly wet now, she was pretty sure she was dripping onto the sheets, and-

"Oh!" she gasped, her train of thought severed as he added a third finger, the not entirely unpleasant stretch of him inside her only adding to the pressure building deep in her core.

Mike sped up his thrusts and she felt like a stick of dynamite had been lit inside her, the spark rapidly travelling up the fuse until she tensed, her back arching, chest pressed against his as the spring inside her snapped and endless waves of ecstasy rolled over her.

He cradled the back of her head with his hand while the aftershocks of her intense orgasm pulsed through her. When he slowly withdrew his fingers Max opened her eyes and realized she'd been digging her nails into his back quite hard. She relaxed her grip and gently stroked her fingertips over the angry raised scratch marks on his shoulder blade as she gazed up at him.

There was a pensive look on Mike's face as his eyes flicked back and forth between hers, seemingly searching for an answer as to what she wanted to do next.

Max's lips twitched up in a smile as she reached down and wrapped her hand around his dick, giving it a firm squeeze before shoving the waistband of his boxers down as far as she could. Mike swallowed audibly and shifted over to the side so he could pull his underwear off the rest of the way and toss it onto the floor.

He rolled back on top of her and she could feel his cock, hot and hard and insistent against her thigh as their bodies pressed together, her chest rising and falling against his as they breathed deeply. She moved her hips to align with his, both of them gasping simultaneously when his erection slipped through her slick folds and over her throbbing clit.

Mike lifted his hand up and gently swept her hair back from where it had become plastered to her sweaty face. "Do um, do you want to-"

"Yes," Max replied immediately, reaching up and wrapping her hand around his wrist where he was still cupping her jaw. "Condom?"

Mike nodded quickly. "Yeah, I have some." He got up on his knees and reached over into the drawer of his nightstand, and her eyes widened as her gaze fell to the rather intimidating erection in front of her, the reality of what they were about to do quickly sinking in. Suddenly her heart was pounding, blood rushing loudly in her ears.

The crinkling of a foil packet pulled her attention away and she looked up to see him tearing it open with his teeth, tossing the wrapper on the floor before carefully rolling the condom over his length.

He lowered his body over her again, bracing himself on his elbow as he reached down and lined himself up with her. She could feel the weight of his tip resting at her entrance, pressing lightly but not going in as he breathed deeply through his nose.

His bangs were falling in his eyes messily, and Max reached up to gently push his hair off his forehead, cupping his cheek when she was done. Mike turned and kissed her palm, meeting her eyes, and the look of pure adoration she saw in them was overwhelming—her heart was bursting with affection as she gazed back at him, hoping her own feelings were just as evident on her face.

He dipped down to kiss her softly, their swollen lips melding together in a way that was gentler and slightly more reserved than before, but no less passionate, and she wrapped her arms around his back and pulled him against her.

Mike broke the kiss but stayed close, his parted lips hovering above hers, leaving her lightheaded as they breathed each other's air. Max felt her heart slow, or maybe she felt it pick up the pace, she couldn't tell anymore.

Then he was pushing forward, and he was inside her, filling her up inch by inch, and it was like nothing she had ever felt before. She took a shaky breath and focused on relaxing her body, finding she wasn't really nervous anymore. It was Mike, and she wanted this so badly, and she'd been ready for it for so long. She was also pleased to discover it wasn't really painful, just a burning stretch and a wholly unfamiliar feeling of fullness, so different from his fingers.

Mike tensed and froze above her, and she looked at him questioningly. "Is it all the way in?" she panted, peering down at where it felt like she was being split in half.

He gave a shake of his head. "No, um, it's like halfway," he breathed, reaching down to squeeze the base of his shaft. "I just needed a sec." Oh god, Max thought, her eyes going wide at the prospect of more of him needing to fit inside her. "Should I- should I stop?" Mike gritted out, a look of concern crossing his face as he stroked her cheek.

"No, no," Max said quickly, shaking her head. "Keep going, it's good." He nodded and leaned down to kiss her again, his tongue slipping into her mouth at the same time that he surged further into her, swallowing the loud moan that left her throat when their hips finally slotted together.

"Okay?" he whispered against her lips. Max forced her eyes open and nodded, letting her right knee fall back to her chest to give him a better angle.

Mike took a shaky inhale and pulled back incrementally, his rigid length dragging against her tight walls until just the tip was inside her before sliding back in just as methodically. She could feel her pulse where they were joined, and as he pumped in and out of her the uncomfortable stretch melted away to a pleasant feeling of fullness, quiet pinpricks of electricity tingling through her.

He was moving steadily inside her, slow and deep, his jaw slack and eyebrows knit together, and Max reached up to trace the planes of his beautiful face. It felt so right being this close to him.

Then she snaked her hand down between them, grazing over her clit but finding it was too much, so she moved lower and traced her fingers over where she was stretched around him, marvelling at how perfectly they fit together.

"Fuck," Mike breathed when she nudged against his shaft with her fingertips. Max wrapped her left leg around his hips, pulling him even further inside her. He dropped his face to her shoulder and groaned, his hand coming up to the back of her right knee to push her leg back a little more.

Then he shifted the angle of his hips and it did something that made her draw in a shuddering, gasping breath, one hand flying up to grab his hip as the nails of her other hand raked across his back. A sharp, hot jolt of pleasure shot through her every time he pumped into her now, and she squeezed her eyes shut as her head tipped back against the pillow.

"You feel so good," he grunted next to her ear as he sped up his thrusts. Max gave a high-pitched moan in reply, completely incapable of forming her thoughts into words as she spiralled further into bliss.

Nothing existed outside of the four walls of this room. The Soviets could send a nuke straight to Hawkins right now and she wouldn't even notice.

Mike's rhythm sped up and then began to falter, his body shaking as he braced himself over her. "Fuck, Max, I can't-" he choked out through clenched teeth into the pillow next to her.

Max trailed a hand up his back and tangled her fingers in his hair, urging him forward with the leg that was wrapped around him. "It's okay, don't stop."

His fingers tightened around the back of her thigh and he thrust into her harder, his movements short and quick. She turned her head to the side so they were nose to nose, panting against each other's mouths. They were too close for her to see him clearly but she could tell his eyes were squeezed shut and his eyebrows knit together, and then he was tensing above her, a low, guttural moan leaving his mouth as his hips jerked, sinking into her to the hilt and staying there as his orgasm wracked his body.

Max tightened her arms and legs around him, delighting in the feeling of him completely losing himself to her. Inside her.

After a few seconds, Mike slumped on top of her, crushing her into the mattress as they both caught their breath. Max gently trailed her nails up and down his back, leaving goosebumps in her wake.

He exhaled shakily and lifted himself up with what seemed like great effort. She cringed at the wet slide of his cock pulling out of her, squeezing her thighs together to soothe the sharp sting that remained while he got up and disposed of the condom.

She immediately felt cold from the absence of Mike's body heat and the sweat cooling rapidly on her skin. It felt wrong to be separated from him even for a second.

But then he was back, tumbling onto the bed next to her. He was still short of breath as he wrapped an arm around her, tugging her into his side and pulling the plaid comforter over them. Max shifted closer to him, stretching the length of her body against his, tangling their legs together, her toes pressing down on the top of his foot. Mike reached down and tilted her chin towards him, claiming her lips in a long, slow kiss that left her breathless.

When they parted he planted a soft kiss on her forehead, keeping his lips there as she rested her head back down on his shoulder, his breath tickling her hairline. "So, that was…"

"Yeah," she murmured, her eyes drifting closed. She felt Mike's breathing even out after a few minutes, the room silent save for the occasional car passing outside and the intermittent hooting of an owl. And as Max felt the inescapable pull of sleep dragging her into unconsciousness, she thought that her heart had never felt so full.

The next morning Max was awoken by the loud, melodic chirping of a bird outside the open window. She cracked her eyelids open and squinted at the bright light shining directly onto the bed, shivering when a cool breeze blew through the room.

She tugged the duvet up around her neck and rolled over, smiling as she took in Mike's sleeping form next to her, suddenly struck with the memory of the first time this had happened. When she had woken up hungover in this same bed, the slant of the light nearly identical, wrapped in these same clean-smelling sheets while Mike slept on the floor. When she'd looked at him and her whole world tilted on its axis.

This time she was wearing a different t-shirt, the one he'd been wearing yesterday, and it wasn't as perfectly oversized and worn in as the Pacers shirt that was back in her trailer, folded neatly under her pillow.

Max smiled as she glanced down at the black Star Wars shirt, remembering that she had picked it up off the floor in the middle of the night when she'd gone to get a glass of water. And then when she'd padded back to the room she couldn't stop herself from climbing over Mike in the pitch dark, hastily rolling on a condom and sinking down on him while they were both still half asleep, rocking together lazily until his hips stuttered and he held her down on top of his pulsing length, circling his fingers rapidly over her clit until she followed him over the edge not even a minute later.

Her eyes roamed over his striking profile, and her hand reached out of its own volition so she could gently trace her fingertip down the bridge of his nose. Mike inhaled sharply at her touch, one eye cracking open as he smiled at her.

"I hate my nose," he mumbled, stretching his arms out overhead with a jaw-cracking yawn before rolling onto his side and pulling her closer to him.

"Why? It's amazing," Max said as she ran the tips of her index fingers down either side of it. Then she hooked her leg over his hip and rolled them over so she was straddling him, wincing at the unexpected dull ache that was present between her thighs, like pressing on a bruise.

Mike frowned and gently squeezed where his hands had landed on either side of her hips. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and raised herself up a little. "I guess I'm a little sore."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, a playful look suddenly crossing his face. Max raised an eyebrow but before she could say anything he was sitting up and flipping her onto her back, her head landing at the foot of the bed.

He shoved the borrowed t-shirt up under her breasts and then he was planting quick kisses all over her abdomen, making her gasp in surprise when he dipped his tongue in her bellybutton. Then he was kneeling between her legs and her eyes went wide as he pushed her knees apart and started to lower his mouth to the apex of her thighs.

"Wait, what are y-oh! Kay…" He pressed a kiss directly to her clit and she felt a shaky exhale leave her in what might have been something like a laugh.

Mike looked up and gave her a wicked grin. "I'm kissing it better," he said just before he dipped back down and licked a stripe all the way up her slit. Max covered her face with her hands as her toes curled at the unfamiliar sensation. Jesus fucking Christ, his tongue was between her legs, licking her all over with shocking enthusiasm and it felt… very interesting.

She dragged her hands halfway down her face and peered down at him, his dark hair a curly mess between her thighs.

"Doesn't it… taste weird?" she asked hesitantly. Mike glanced up at her and shook his head wordlessly before plunging his tongue into her opening as if to prove exactly how much he didn't hate it. Max's hips jerked up involuntarily, her hands clutching at the sheets as the base of her spine started tingling, and she let her eyes fall closed.

He started swirling his tongue around her clit and she figured he was probably doing something stupid he'd overheard in the locker room, like drawing the letters of the alphabet or spelling out her name. Except whatever he was doing wasn't stupid at all. It was incredible.

A breathy moan left her every time he licked over her clit in a certain way, and soon he started doing just that. The familiar heat was pooling below her belly button, the strangeness of the situation starting to fade away.

"Is it good?" Mike asked after a minute, raising his head up to look at her.

"Yeah, it– oh my god," Max gasped as she opened her eyes and looked down at him, her eyes going wide. His eyebrows knit together in concern at the look on her face. "Mike, I'm... all over your face," she motioned at his lips and chin which were absolutely glistening with her wetness.

Mike chuckled and leaned down to bite gently at the inside of her thigh. "That's kind of the point," he murmured as he dove back between her folds, spreading her open with his tongue and circling her clit.

"Fuck," she cried out, her head falling back against the pillow as she thrust up against his mouth, and her anxious thoughts quickly melted away to feelings, a dizzying euphoria swirling throughout her body. And then somehow one of her legs was resting over his shoulder and the other fell open to the side, held down by his hand.

He started sucking on her clit and her hands flew to his head, fingers tangling in his hair to hold him there. The sensation was all-encompassing, so overwhelming in its intensity that her legs threatened to snap closed, but he held her knee down firmly and redoubled his efforts, sending molten threads of pleasure unfurling through her abdomen.

"Mike, I'm-" she choked out, her head lifting up as her body tensed, stomach muscles straining as she felt her orgasm rapidly approaching. He looked up at her while maintaining the perfect suction on her clit, and her breath caught as something tangible and intense passed between them. And then she collapsed back into the mattress as she shuddered against his mouth, her foot skidding desperately across the flannel sheets, and she came with a loud, breathless cry, feeling like her body was about to crack in half as white-hot pleasure swallowed her whole. It felt like every nerve ending was firing at once, sending wave after wave throughout her body, spiralling outwards from her core.

When Max drifted back down to earth after what could have been seconds or minutes or hours, her eyelids fluttered open and she was greeted with an upside-down view of Mike's bedroom. She must have shifted backwards during the act and now her head was hanging off the edge of the mattress, adding to her lightheadedness.

She felt Mike turn his head and press a kiss to the inside of her knee before sliding it off of his shoulder. Max felt completely wrung out. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, still trying to catch her breath from the absolutely ridiculous orgasm she'd just experienced.

Then she felt something wet at her temples and she swiped at her face with her fingers, finding that the moisture appeared to be from the tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. She laughed weakly. If someone had told her last year—hell if someone had told her four months ago—that Mike Wheeler would make her come so hard she cried, she would have recommended an extended stay in the psych ward.

"How do you even know how to do that?" she breathed as the blood continued to rush to her head, feeling too boneless to move herself into a less inverted position.

Mike chuckled as he wrapped his hand around her ankle. "Uh, my cousin Ben might've brought a Hustler to my grandparent's house on Memorial Day." Max burst out laughing, finally gathering the strength to haul her body up and orient herself the right way on the bed with his help.

He stood up to pull on some new underwear and smiled down at her as he covered her with the comforter again, leaning down and planting a chaste kiss on her lips.

"Where are you going?" she frowned, sitting up as Mike started to turn towards the door.

"I'm gonna make you breakfast."

Max raised an eyebrow skeptically. "You cook?"

"Pop-Tarts count as breakfast last time I checked," he said with a wink.

Max laughed and fell back against the pillows, grinning up at the ceiling like an idiot. She was so stupidly happy. Just a month ago she wouldn't have thought that this kind of happiness was meant for her, that she didn't deserve it.

But now as she closed her eyes and pulled the blankets tightly around herself, breathing in the comforting, familiar scent of Mike's pillow, she thought that maybe she fucking did.