𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗜 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗗 ━━━━ 𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚

[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗥: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗨𝗡𝗔 𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧]

BACK AT MAX'S HOUSE, ELEVEN WAS brushing her teeth as max and sage were on the bed, looking through comics.

"hey, max?" sage asked, flipping the page to the comic. "hm?" max hummed, putting the comic down and looking at sage.

the wheeler teen stopped what she was doing then turned her head to look at max.

"did you break up with lucas?"

max stares at the wheeler twin in confusion.

"what?" max asks. "did you break up with lucas? 'cause when we were at hopper's you said —" sage said but got cut up off the mayfield teen.

"yeah, i broke up with him . . . i'm just confused about something at the moment." max replied to sage. "what are you confused about?" sage asked the red-head, furrowing her eyebrows.

max stared at the wheeler teen, debating whether or not she should tell her. just as max opened her mouth to speak — eleven walked out of the bathroom. sage and max turned to look at the girl and smiled softly at her.

max picked up the two comics and showed them to eleven, smiling. "which one?" sage asked her.

"i don't know," el replied as she crawled onto the bed next to max, getting under the covers. max put the comics down, noticing eleven's discomfort. "hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" max told her.

sage looked up at max from the opposite side of her before glancing at eleven.

"it doesn't make sense," eleven said. "i agree with her," sage says making max look at her. "what doesn't make sense?" she asked the two girls.

"heather," el said, staring at the blanket over her.

"the blood, the ice, her creepy offer," sage listed, fiddling with her fingers — picking at the skin.

"heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now." max told them. "and i don't know what that cookie offer was, but that one did seem off. that has to be it. i don't know where that blood came from, but . . . we saw her. we all saw her. she's totally fine."

"what about billy?" eleven asked the red-head. sage nodded. "what about him?" max asked. "he seemed wrong," the hopper teen replied.

max chuckles, "wrong is kind of like his default. but it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."