Chapter 40

HELLO BAGUETTES. i just want to say that i think you guys are DEFINITELY gonna like this chapter 😉 let the gayness begin.

Maggie shows up at the Wheeler house at 10 a.m. sharp, which is rude, criminal, and deeply on-brand.

Nancy answers the door in pajama shorts and a confused face, “Why are you awake?”

Maggie pushes past her, “Mission day.”

Nancy groans into her hands, “I shouldn’t have let you talk yesterday.”

“You absolutely shouldn’t have,” Maggie agrees cheerfully, already raiding the fridge, “But here we are.”

When Nancy finally wrangles her into the car, she buckles her seatbelt with a sigh, “Okay. Explain the plan again.”

Maggie pops her gum, legs up on the dashboard, “We pick up Max, then we bring her to El. And then Max and El bond. And then magic happens.”

“Nobody is falling in love today,” Nancy says, backing out of the driveway.

“You don’t know that.”

“I really hope not.”

Maggie grins, “You say that, but you kinda want it to happen.”

Nancy refuses to look at her, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Liar.”

Nancy mutters something that sounds like a prayer.

They pull up outside the Hargrove-Mayfield house. Maggie hops out before the car fully stops, marching up the steps and banging on the door.

Max opens it with half a Pop-Tart hanging out of her mouth, “What did I do?”

“Good morning to you too,” Maggie says, “Put on shoes. We’re doing something.”

Max squints suspiciously, “Is it illegal?”

“Not today,” Maggie says, “Probably.”

Nancy calls from the car, “It’s safe, Max! I promise!”

Max eyes them both, then shrugs and grabs her jacket, “Fine. But if this is stupid, I’m blaming you.”

“You always do,” Maggie says, slinging an arm over her shoulder as they walk back.

Max yanks it off, “Don’t touch me.”

“Love you too.”

“Shut up.”

Nancy smiles into the steering wheel, “You two are exhausting.”

“Thank you,” they both say.

Once they’re all inside the car, Max finally asks, “So… where exactly are we going?”

Maggie spins in her seat dramatically, “To see El.”

Max goes very still, “Oh.”

Nancy glances at her gently, “You don’t have to if you’re not comfortable.”

Max waves her off, cheeks going pink. “No, it’s fine. I… I wanna get to know her like everyone else.”

Maggie wiggles her eyebrows at Nancy, who kicks her seat in retaliation.

“Maggie had this idea,” Nancy says, “that you two might get along.”

Max shrugs again, but this time it’s too casual, “Maybe. She’s… interesting.”

“Oho,” Maggie says, pointing at her dramatically, “You like her.”

Max kicks her seat, “Say it again and I’m jumping out of this car.”

Nancy intervenes, “Maggie, behave.”

“I’m very well-behaved,” Maggie lies.

“No, you’re not,” Max and Nancy say together.

They arrive at Hopper’s cabin, and before Maggie can knock, the door flies open like El has been waiting behind it, sensing the approach of chaos.

“El!” Maggie beams, “I brought a friend!”

El’s eyes drift to Max, curious and shy.

Max lifts a hand, “Hey.”

El echoes softly, “Hi.”

Awkward and weirdly adorable silence drops..

Maggie elbows Max, “Say something.”

Max elbows her back harder, “You say something.”

El looks between them, “Are you fighting?”

“No,” they both say.

“Yes,” Nancy mutters.

Maggie claps loudly, “Okay! Let’s hang out. Nancy and I will sit over here and supervise absolutely nothing.”

Nancy drags her by the wrist to a pair of old chairs before she can further terrorize anyone.

El and Max sit on the floor near the coffee table, stiff at first, like two feral cats trying to decide if they’re friends or if one should bite the other.

Then Max pulls a card from her pocket, “Uh. I found this. It’s from that fantasy card game. Do you play?”

El’s eyes brighten, “Dustin teaches me.”

“Oh! Uh—yeah, Dustin taught me too.”

Suddenly, the awkwardness cracks like an egg.

They start talking nervously at first. Then fastern and then smiling.

Maggie nudges Nancy, whispering, “See? Crushing it.”

Nancy whispers back, “If you say ‘matchmaking genius,’ I’m leaving you here.”

Maggie smirks, “I would never.”

Nancy gives her a look that says she absolutely would.

Across the room, El giggles at something Max says.

Max tries not to smile too big.

Nancy and Maggie both soften and the cabin warms around them. After a while, El looks over.

“Maggie?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“Can Max come back again?”

Max freezes and Maggie beams. Nancy bites her lip to hide her grin.

Maggie leans back smugly, “See? A masterpiece.”

Nancy rolls her eyes and Maggie rests her hand on Nancy’s thigh.

Nancy goes very still. But…she doesn’t move away. Instead the girl leans into it, a soft smile playing on her lips, and Maggie’s smugness doubles.

Eventually, the sun dips low and Hopper starts banging cabinets around like a warning shot, which everyone correctly interpreted as “start winding down before he loses his mind.”

Max and Nancy end up in the living room deep in a very intense, very nerdy discussion about whether drums or guitar matter more in a rock band. Nancy is arguing drums. Max is arguing guitar. Both of them are wrong.

El tugs on Maggie’s sleeve.

Maggie glances down, “What’s up, peanut?”

El looks weirdly nervous, “Can we talk?”

“Yeah,” Maggie says, like it’s not even a question, “Lead the way.”

El guides her down the hall, the two of them slipping into her bedroom and closing the door behind them. The moment it clicks shut, El exhales like she’s been holding something inside her chest all afternoon.

Maggie flops backward across El’s bed, arms spread, boots already kicked off and shoved somewhere under the quilt.

El sits at the edge of the mattress, legs crossed, watching Maggie with that intense little stare she does. Like she’s trying to read her brain with sheer willpower.

“You look tired,” El says.

“I look fantastic,” Maggie corrects, draping an arm over her forehead, “I’m in the prime of my youth.”

El giggles, which makes Maggie drop the act and grin. She reaches over and ruffles El’s hair purely to watch her squawk and fix it frantically.

Out in the living room, Max and Nancy chat in low voices. It’s not sneaky. It’s very obvious. Max keeps snorting and Nancy keeps shushing her. If Maggie had to guess, Max is grilling Nancy about something extremely personal and Nancy is regretting the entire concept of mentorship.

El turns toward the door, listening, “They’re talking.”

“Max is probably telling Nancy embarrassing secrets about me,” Maggie says, “And Nancy’s pretending she doesn’t love it.”

El thinks about this, “Nancy likes when you talk.”

Maggie sits up, “What?”

“She smiles more,” El says simply, “When you’re around.”

Maggie clears her throat in a very dignified and normal fashion, “Uh, sure, okay, maybe a little.”

“Do you like her?” El asks.

Maggie chokes on air, “What?!”

El tilts her head innocently, “Nancy. You like her.”

Maggie flops back down again, staring at the ceiling, “She’s… look, Nancy’s great. Like, actually great. And pretty. And smart. And terrifying in a good way. But we’re… complicated.”

El frowns, “Why?”

“Because I’m me,” Maggie says, “And she’s her. And also I kinda keep almost dying.”

El nods gravely, “This is a problem.”

“Yeah.”

“Maggie?” El asks.

“Yeah?”

“What is gay?”

Maggie shoots up, “Oh. Wow. Jumping right into the heavy-hitters.”

El waits, patient and curious.

Maggie scoots until she’s sitting cross-legged in front of her, “Okay. So. Gay means… you like girls. Or you fall in love with girls. Or you want to kiss girls. Sometimes all three. Sometimes just some.”

El chews on her lip, “And you are gay?”

“Yeah,” Maggie says, “I like girls. I have for a long time.”

El thinks about that.

Then softly she says, “Am I gay?”

Maggie’s brain briefly bluescreens.

“Well,” she says, rubbing the back of her neck, “do you… like girls? Or think about girls? Or feel weird around certain girls? Or maybe you feel something and you don’t have words for it yet. That’s okay.”

El pulls her knees up and hugs them, “I don’t know. Max makes me feel… warm.”

Maggie’s eyebrows shoot up, “Warm like ‘I’m comfortable’? Or warm like ‘my brain is making fireworks and I don’t know why’?”

El hides her face in her knees, “Both.”

Maggie grins like an idiot, “Kid, that’s extremely gay-coded.”

El peeks up, “Gay-coded?”

“Yeah. Like… signs. Clues. Vibes.”

El leans her head forward, “So I might be gay?”

“You might,” Maggie says gently, “Or you might be something else. Or you might figure it out later. You don’t have to know everything right now.”

El nods slowly, “I want to know. But my head feels messy.”

“Good news,” Maggie says, patting her shoulder, “Messy is normal. Especially when you’re figuring out who you are.”

El studies her for a moment, then whispers, “Is Max gay?”

“Oh, I am so not answering that,” Maggie says, “That’s her journey.”

El tilts her head, “Journey.”

“Yeah. People don’t always know this stuff right away. And sometimes it takes a while to get the courage to say it out loud,” She pauses, then adds with a crooked smile, “You know… if I had a dime for every time a child came out to me, I’d only have two, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”

El giggles into her hands. “Who was the other?”

“No one you need to worry about, it’s not my story to tell. But apparently, I give off ‘safe older lesbian’ energy.”

El’s eyes widen, “You do.”

“I absolutely do not.”

“You do,” El repeats, completely confident.

Maggie flicks her forehead. El yelps.

Through the thin walls, they hear Max and Nancy again.

“…so you just let her drag you around like that?” Max teases.

Nancy huffs, “I do not get dragged.”

Maggie smirks, “She gets dragged.”

El leans closer, “Do you want to kiss Nancy?”

Maggie sputters so hard she nearly falls off the bed, “Jesus Christ.”

El shrugs, “You said honesty is good.”

“Yeah, and now I’m rethinking that life stance.”

El looks confused, “But you do?”

Maggie buries her face in a pillow, “I plead the fifth.”

El pats her back like she’s comforting a wounded animal, “You can tell me.”

Maggie peeks out, “Maybe one day. Not when she’s in the living room listening to Max bully her about me.”

El hums thoughtfully, “She likes you too.”

Maggie goes still, “She does not.”

“She does,” El says simply, “She watches you all the time. Like she is worried about you. And like she wants to hold your hand.”

Maggie’s soul leaves her body for a brief vacation.

She sits up, cheeks red, heart doing backflips, “If you’re wrong, I’m gonna die of embarrassment.”

“I’m not wrong,” El says confidently.

Maggie groans into both hands, “Oh God.”

El leans over and bumps her shoulder gently, “You help me. So I help you.”

Maggie snorts, “Yeah. We’re totally a healthy emotional feedback loop.”

El rests her head on Maggie’s arm and Maggie pats her head.

Hopper finally herds all three girls toward the door like an exhausted sheepdog who regrets ever learning the concept of responsibility. Max goes home first. El hugs Maggie so hard she pops her back. Nancy promises Hopper she’ll have Maggie home by a “reasonable hour,” which Hopper translates as “chaos is coming” but lets them leave anyway.

The night air is sticky and soft, cicadas buzzing like they’re aggressively narrating.

Maggie shoves her hands in her jacket pockets as they walk down the quiet gravel drive. Nancy walks beside her, arms crossed, hair catching the porchlight behind them like some glowing halo. Which is rude. Maggie is trying not to fall in love harder than she already has.

They don’t talk for a minute.

Then Nancy says, “You really threw Max to the wolves today.”

Maggie snorts, “El is the opposite of wolves. She’s like… gentle wolf puppets.”

Nancy gives her a look, “Max has a crush.”

“I know,” Maggie says, “She practically stuck a neon sign over her head.”

“And El has a crush,” Nancy adds.

“Yeah, that one was a surprise, actually. Fairly adorable. They’re gonna panic their way into being soulmates.”

Nancy walks a few more steps, stiff and thoughtful, then suddenly stops in the middle of the driveway. Maggie stops beside her.

Nancy turns, jaw tight.,”I need to ask you something.”

Maggie’s stomach flips, “Okay…?”

“Why do you keep giving everyone else love advice,” Nancy says, voice sharp but cracking at the edges, “when you can’t even admit what you want?”

Maggie freezes.

It’s like every neuron in her brain tries to run in a different direction. She tries to laugh it off.

“Whoa. That’s— hey, that’s bold. Little brutal, Wheeler.”

Nancy folds her arms tighter, “You push Max. You nudge El. You even tease Steve. But when it comes to you? You run.”

Maggie swallows hard, “I don’t run.”

“You sprint,” Nancy steps closer, eyes fierce, “You act like you can solve everyone else’s feelings, but you never deal with your own.”

Maggie’s heartbeat tries to break a land-speed record.

“Nance,” she says carefully, “you really wanna have this conversation right now?”

“Yes,” Nancy snaps, cheeks flushing, “Because I’m tired of waiting for you to say something real. I’m tired of pretending we’re not— that this isn’t—”

She stops, shaking her head, furious with herself.

And Maggie… something just snaps.

Not in a bad way.

More like finally.

She grabs Nancy by the collar of her jacket and kisses her.

It’s not soft or careful. It’s months of slow burn, stolen glances, and refusing to acknowledge how badly she’s been wanting this.

Nancy gasps against her mouth, surprise melting into something hungry. Her hands come up to Maggie’s waist, warm and grounding, clutching like she’s been waiting for permission.

The whole world tilts.

When they finally break apart, their foreheads stay pressed together, both breathing like they just sprinted a mile.

Nancy whispers, “That’s what I meant.”

Maggie tries to speak but only manages, “Yeah. Okay. Fair enough.”

Nancy laughs once, breathless, a little shaky, “You’re ridiculous.”

Maggie grins, dizzy, “You started yelling at me. That was very attractive of you.”

Nancy pulls back just enough to look at her properly, “So are you done running?”

Maggie nods, “Yeah. I think I’m done.”

Nancy threads their fingers together.

They walk the rest of the way down the driveway like the universe isn’t on fire for once.

And Maggie feels stupidly, painfully happy. Which is terrifying and incredible.