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Hawkins Middle School. Hawkins, Indiana. Later that day.
The rest of the school day felt insanely long for Mike. He tried to concentrate as best he could, but he just wasn't worth a decent lick of schoolwork. Mad Max Mayfield had marked his thoughts as her own personal domain and she seemed to be in no great hurry to give them up. As the red haired beauty lived rent free in his thoughts, Mike couldn't help but feel wrong about it. His private thoughts had once been reserved for El and El alone. Now, another had taken her place.
The thought of what El would say or do if she knew he was hanging out with a girl who was as badass and beautiful as Max was plagued Mike. He knew in his heart that she would either be furious, pissed as Hell, crush him with her powers, or all 3 in succession; and that was definitely something to be avoided at all costs.
Mike tried to block out the thought my imagine what Lucas and Dustin and Will would say if he had told them about his arcade meet up with Mad Max. Mike would like to think that his fellow party members would ensure him that despite wishing it weren't so, Eleven was most likely dead after destroying the Demogorgon. That even though El would be beyond pissed at Mike for even entertaining thoughts of another girl, that deep down, she would want him to be happy. That it was totally all right for Mike to pursue Max Mayfield and see if there was any chance of a relationship between them. But Mike didn't know if the guys would say that; if they said anything at all.
The truth was that Mike had specifically refrained from telling the guys about his impending rendezvous with the badass from Cali because he was afraid that they would be jealous at him; Lucas and Dustin especially. Mike was afraid that they would be considerably pissed because he seemed to be getting all the girls while the other members of the party had fuck all.
He had been the one to give El her first kiss and now he was pursing Max; despite the fact that Mike continually tried to reassure himself that it was an outing as friends and nothing more. The ugly truth was that there was a considerable part of Mike's heart that wanted it to be more; that perhaps Max was having the same kind of thoughts about him that he was having about her.
Mike quickly shook himself out of his conflicting thoughts as the final bell of the day rang. He picked up all of his school shit and sped out the door, narrowly avoiding the party. The last thing Mike needed was them trying to hold him up from his gaming session with the best gamer in Hawkins.
Arcade. Hawkins, Indiana. Later that afternoon.
As Mike pedaled into the arcade parking lot, he got there just in time to see mad Max herself glide in on her skateboard. He hated to admit it, but she looked like a fucking goddess on that thing.
"Do you know that your mastery of skateboarding and arcade games just makes you more insanely awesome?" Mike remarked as he parked his bike on the bike rack.
"Yep, and now you know it too, Wheeler." Max replied with a smirk as she dropped her board right next to the rack. The 2 headed inside and saw that the arcade wasn't particularly busy at that moment; which was good for Mike and Max because it meant less distractions for their gaming session.
"So, which game should I school you in first?" Max asked, motioning to all the machines. Mike let his eyes wander until he settled upon Centipede.
"I want to see exactly how you best Dustin's high score." Mike answered, almost challenging her. Max said nothing as she walked over to the machine, dropped in her quarter and away she went.
"Watch and learn, Wheeler." She said as it was utterly impossible for him to do anything else. Mine couldn't help but watch in awe as Max made the game her bitch.
"I can barely make it past the first few levels, how are you still going after 10 minutes?" Mike asked in disbelief as Max had not been hit once.
"First, Kill the spiders when they get close, each of them's worth 900 points." Max explained, not even taking her eyes off of the screen. "Then, you keep the bottom clear and kill as many fleas as you can."
"How many points are they worth?" Mike asked.
"Not a whole lot, but it's fun." Max answered with a shrug."
"What about the mushrooms?" He inquired.
"It would be a good idea to clear them out if you have moment to spare." She explained as she kept playing without losing any lives.
"Damn, you're about to hear your high score!" Mike said anxiously as he truly hoped she would.
"You have to control the board Wheeler, don't let it control you." Max said as she went in for the final kill. "You determine the path of the Centipede. You determine when a Flea will appear and when it won't." Finally, Max was able to top her precious high score with a new high score of 270,000 points.
"Hell yes!" Max exclaimed as Mike shared in her excitement.
"You kicked Dustin's ass again!" Mike exclaimed in return as he unwittingly grasped her hand. The excitement stopped as the 2 realized that they were holding hands.
"Yeah...I did." Max said with a small smile as she and Mike looked at each other awkwardly.
"We should, probably let go." Mike pointed out.
"Yeah, we should." Max agreed, even though they continued holding each other's hand, not wanting to let go of the moment.
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