Chapter 27

019

• 𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐲 •

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ The soft sounds of two girls hopping on the carpet met with the voices of the girls as they dramatically pointed at each other.

“You must be an angel. I can see it in your eyes,” Stella and Max sang while Eleven nodded her head to the music. “Full of wonder and surprise. And just now I realize…” the couple trailed off as El’s eyes widened at a page in the magazine she had been flipping through.

“Ooh, you found Ralph Macchio,” Max chuckled, kneeling with El. Stella joined, sitting across from Eleven on the bed.

“Macchio?” The brunette echoed, Max nodding. “Yeah, he’s the karate kid.” She lifted her arm, swinging it back down. “Hai-ya!”

All three girls laughed, Stella adding once she caught her breath. “Yeah, he’s eye candy for most, I’ll tell you that,” she muttered, then fell back onto the bed.

“Eye candy?” El repeated, a confused look on her face. Stella nodded still not bothering to sit up. “Everyone thinks he’s hot, thinks he’d be such a great kisser, blah, blah, blah.”

“Hey, uh…” Max seemed on the verge of laughing as she stood, moving to sit down beside Stella, who had moved over for her. “Is Mike a good kisser?”

“Ew,” Stella turned her head, Eleven just shrugged with a grin. “I don’t know,” she said, not having anything to compare it to. “He’s my first boyfriend.”

“Was.”
“Ex-boyfriend,” Max and Stella said in unison, making El’s face falter a bit, and Stella’s head perked up.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Okay?” Max put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “He’ll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness.”

“Oh, yeah, totally,” Stella said, now fully sitting up. “Knowing him, he’s all mope-y right now.”

Max nodded. “Yeah. I guarantee you, him and Lucas are, like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now. They’re like, ‘oh, I hope they take us back,'” she whined, Stella deciding to join as she shook her girlfriend’s shoulder. “Oh, but what will I do without her?” She cried dramatically, and all three of them erupted into laughter.

“God, what I wouldn’t give to see their stupid faces,” Max said once her laughter simmered down.

El went silent, her face seemingly thoughtful.

“What is it?”

“What’s going on in that head, El?” Stella leaned on her arm.

–

☄. *. ⋆ “Is this really gonna work?” Max asked over the static of the radio. Eleven nodded as she secured the blindfold, making Max grin. “Holy shit, this is insane.”

“Cali.”
“Max.”

“Yeah. Quiet. Sorry,” she quickly lowered her voice, hands going to her lap while Stella chuckled breathily, letting her head fall on Max’s shoulder.

Eleven took a deep breath, letting the darkness take her, a moment passing before she spoke. “I see them,” she said, her tone holding a seriousness which worried Stella.

“What are they doing?” Max approached El’s side when Stella lifted her head, the couple exchanging intrigued looks.

“Eating,” Eleven replied, and Stella nodded with some relief. “That checks out.”

“They say we are species,” El said after a moment, Max and Stella glancing at each other before replying simultaneously. “What?”

“Emotion, not logic.”

“What?” Their voices rose.

Eleven ripped the blindfold off, a gasp sucking into her mouth as her eyes widened.

“Shit, are you okay?”
“What? What happened?”

The girl looked at her friends, bursting into laughter with no words, and despite their cluelessness, the couple laughed along. “What?”

Although, they fell silent when they heard a distinctive car pull into the driveway.

“Shit, that’s Hop,” Stella shot up. The girls looked between each other before suddenly jolting into action, scrambling to get everything put away.

Stella tossed three magazines to the floor after turning off the radio, practically throwing herself to the ground to quickly act as if she had been reading the whole time. “Come on!”

“Hey,” Hopper growled from outside. Stella looked over to Max, who fumbled with the drawer where they hid the blindfold. “Cali!” She whispered, hurrying to her feet, throwing the blindfold behind the dresser, and dragging her girlfriend down with her and El.

Just as Max picked up a magazine, Hopper slammed open the door.

“Hop!” Stella acted startled.

“Do you knock? Jeez!” Max pretended to be just as shocked and confused, El simply repeating her. “Yeah, jeez!”

“Oh, hey,” Hopper’s eyes were wide. He obviously wasn’t expecting to see them, and he was also obviously drunk. “I’m sorry. I thought that, uh…”

“Mike’s not here,” Max told him, Stella nodding along. “Recently dumped, actually.”

“Stella and Max wanted to have… a sleepover,” El recalled what they told her. “Is that… okay?”

“Yeah,” Hopper replied dazedly. “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your parents know about it?” He looked to the other two.

“Yup,” Max nodded, Stella staying rather quiet, and thankfully, Hopper didn’t seem to notice. “Uh, yeah. It’s cool. Yeah. That’s– it’s really cool.”

They were left with the awkward silence of Hopper remaining in the doorway, staring at them as he said nothing.

“Um,” Stella whispered, looking beside her to Max, who then spoke up. “Did you need something?”

“No. No, I’ll leave,” Hopper seemed to realize. “I’ll just let you… I’ll leave you…” he shut the door before even making a coherent sentence.

–

☄. *. ⋆ “Holy shit, I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Max laughed as she finished writing Billy’s name on a card. She put the marker down, turning to the others. “Ready?”

“Ready,” El said, Stella just nodding as she shoved the uneasy feeling down.

Eleven reached for the bottle on the game board, letting it spin to see who she’d spy on.

“Mr. Wheeler,” the trio read aloud.

“Boring,” Max scoffed.

“Yeah, boring,” Eleven agreed.

Stella concurred, although part of her was relieved they landed on someone so plain. No news is good news.

“Spin again,” Max grinned, Stella starting to wonder why they added the man if they wouldn’t want to choose him.

Eleven moved to spin the bottle again, then paused. “Against the rules?” She wondered, her hand hovering over the glass.

Stella and Max glanced between each other before Max shrugged. “We make our own rules.”

A smile growing on her face, El chuckled before spinning the bottle again.

It slowed to a stop, the top landing below the name they read aloud simultaneously. “Billy.”

Stella’s lips pulled back into a grimace, her brows cocking as she looked up between the two other girls. Silent glances were shared between the trio before Max broke it, moving off the bed to stand. “Okay, look. I should just warn you, if he’s with a girl or doing something gross, just get out of there before you’re scarred for life,” Max told as she lifted the radio from El’s dresser, deciding the answer to the question they all were silently asking of whether or not to follow through with this.

“Max–” Eleven tried while Stella cringed, not wanting to imagine what they might encounter.

“No, I’m just saying, I’m serious! He’s really gross!” The redhead persisted.

“Max!”

“Okay, shutting up now,” Max smiled, the others returning it.

The radio switched from the song it was playing to another, then into static when Max turned the dial again.

As El’s blindfold was tied, Stella’s smile dissolved, replaced with a knot in her gut that she didn’t need elaboration on to grow nervous.

They were left without a word, chills down Stella’s spine bringing her to mutter. “Maybe we should spin again…”

Max looked to her girlfriend, eyebrows furrowed. “Why?”

“I just… Billy’s–” she started, intending on making some comment on how El might watch something she certainly doesn’t want to, but her words were cut off by firm, declaring ones from beside them. “I found him,” Eleven informed, her voice holding a seriousness that only worsened the lump in Stella’s throat.

“What’s he doing?” Max wondered, obviously picking up on the change in demeanor too.

“I don’t know,” El whispered. “He’s… on the floor. Talking to someone.”

Stella felt the tingling in her hand, unable to bring herself to look. She knew what she’d see. “Maybe El needs a break,” the brunette’s voice quivered.

“Ess, are you okay?” Max asked, leaning forward slightly, although they jumped back when a sharp gasp cut through the air.

“El,” Stella hurried to put her hands on the girl’s shoulders.

“What is it?” Max panicked. “What happened?”

Stella shot up, hurrying to the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her, paying no mind to the passed-out Hopper on the recliner. She heard her name called as she left the room, undoubtedly by Max, although she persisted to the bathroom.

“No, no, no, no,” she whispered to herself, her eyes committed to glossing over as her lip trembled, her eyebrows wrinkling despite her attempts to stop them.

Her head began to ache, the splitting pain tearing through her skull, intruding into the house it once visited regularly the year before. Safe to say Stella didn’t welcome the pain back. She led herself to the floor beside the bathtub, vision growing hazy while she gripped her knees.

Smoke arose from Stella’s hands, a phenomenon she had never met with before.

She could feel it leaving her, out of her control. As if it were being stolen, rather than released.

No flames followed the inky gas until it faded out, and a knock on the door sounded, leading Stella to wonder for a moment how long she had been in there. “Ess?”

Stella’s tear-stained face was revealed as the door creaked open, and she found Max standing before her.

The redhead’s face softened as she immediately stepped forward, shutting herself in the bathroom with her girlfriend. “What happened?”

Stella let out a sharp exhale, almost as if she didn’t want to release the breath. She had no other chance now. “I gotta tell you guys something.”

–

☄. *. ⋆ “It’s gonna start pouring soon,” Max pouted. “We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something,” she spoke over the soft crunching of their shoes. Slowing just a bit, Eleven faltered beside Max. “You don’t believe me?”

“I believe you saw some super weird stuff, totally,” Max’s brows raised, ensuring that she didn’t doubt what the girl had told her. “But… you said Mike has sensed you in there before, right? So maybe it was like that, maybe Billy just… sensed you somehow.”

“But Stella,” Eleven added, the girl in question biting her lip, unable to pretend she was invisible anymore in hopes of going unnoticed. Clearly, it hadn’t worked; she earned an uncertain glance from Max. “Ess has… had that thing before. On her hand? It doesn’t mean Billy had anything to do with it…” she sounded as if she was explaining it to herself just as much as she was El.

“And the screams–“

“Yeah, I know, but… here’s the thing:” Max searched her brain for the words, rather unwilling to have this full on conversation with the girl at the moment. “When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like… really crazy noises,” her nose turned up at the simple mention of whatever the hell went on with Billy and girls his age. She had… rather easy guesses.

But now it was El’s turn to sound doubtful. “They scream?”

“Yeah, but, like… happy screams,” Max tried, and even through her anxiety Stella cringed.

“Happy screams? What is ‘happy screams’?”

“It’s like…” Max sighed, giving up. “I’m just gonna lend you my mom’s cosmo,” she surrendered, grateful to have a change of topic when they arrived at her house. “His car’s not here.”

The observation held no use in calming Stella’s nerves, an almost involuntary curse escaping her lips in a sigh.

Max looked nervously from her girlfriend to her best friend, each on one side of her. “You really wanna do this?” She asked, the question aimed at Eleven, who gave a curt nod.

Billy Hargrove’s room reeked of cigarettes, sweat, and a rather prominent tinge of beer, all of which Stella could simply lump together and label as ‘teenage boy’ without being very vague. She had to say, the scent was in no way a surprise. She glanced at Max in front of her, somewhat in awe. How could someone as perfect as Max exist when she’s been surrounded by a man like Billy for so many years?

“Why do I get the feeling we’re gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?” Max stepped in first, starting to wander through his things.

Stella took her own process of glancing around, cringing at the underwear haphazardly thrown near the laundry. She noticed a dartboard, deciding to grab a dart from his dresser. She silently applauded herself when she launched it almost perfectly in the center of the bullseye. She guessed she still had it from last summer.

She turned to Max when she heard her scoff with disgust. “Gag me with a spoon,” she grimaced, shutting a drawer that Stella became very intrigued about, although she had plenty of guesses.

But before Stella could ask or offer a joke with a smirk, Eleven meticulously started towards the bathroom, and the others followed.

El’s eyes landed on the bathtub. “Stella? Max?”

Their sight followed the brunette, and the knot in Stella’s gut began to form again when she spotted the now-melted bags of ice in the full tub.

“Ice.” Max reached into the water, pulling out the wet plastic bag. “It’s just ice.”

Stella’s mind found itself back at Will’s house from the year prior. “He likes it cold,” she muttered, loud enough to earn a worried stare from El and a thoughtful glance from her girlfriend. “It’s probably for his muscles or something,” the redhead tried. “He works out like a maniac.” She looked back at Stella, “Ess, that’s a thing, right? Ice baths?” She checked, El’s nervous gaze looking to the Harrington as well.

She bit her cheek. “Well, yeah… it can– help with soreness,” she recalled the times she had plunged herself into cold water after workouts. It was reasonable. Logical. But there was something more to this, Stella was nearly certain. And according to the behavior from Will over the past week, she wasn’t crazy for the thought.

El didn’t seem to buy the explanation either, and the whole ‘something is up’ feeling was immediately validated as they all followed to see the scarlet splotch that stained the white cabinet.

Blood.

“Oh, shit.”

-─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

hello hello!!!

okay okay i have an announcement bc im tired of keeping it a surprise and i think it’s been long enough that i can announce it

SO ive seen a few people do it and ive decided that im gonna make a stranger things fic !! its kind of just an oc insert, so the basic plot of stranger things with some new ocs added into it :). ive read a few and ive really enjoyed them so i thought it’d be fun to write my own!

it’s called paracosm and theres already a good amount written of it but chapter one will release late november soon after st5 comes out.

i’d reaaaally appreciate if yall read it! im working really hard on making the chapters long and well written!!

hope to see you there 😋

ty for reading !!