It was the last day of school and Max Mayfield was done with freshmen year of high school. It was exhausting and it sucked, especially without her best friend El. Max struggled more than she liked to admit and she had become more reserved and kept to herself a lot. Her grades were pretty awful and she could never focus.

It was all mostly because of Billy's death. It plagued her mind and made her very sad a majority of the time. She hated the affect his death had on her. And what made matters worse was that her stepdad, Neil, was now taking his anger out on her since there was no Billy to do that to anymore. At first it wasn't that bad but overtime his abuse had gotten worse. She tried to avoid him as much as she could but that always resulted in getting worse abuse.

She wanted to tell someone but she preferred to keep things bottled in and was afraid no one would believe her anyways if she did.

She was walking out of the school, not bothering to stop by the boys and say hello to them. She and Lucas had broken up halfway through the year when they both decided that how on and off they were wasn't good for either of them and that they would just be better as friends.

Max was still good friends with Dustin though she had become distant with him.

As for Mike Wheeler, he still wasn't the kindest towards her and in fact, had turned to bullying her for some reason. It was like he thought that made him look cool in a high school environment. Or because he was just mad again that El and Will were gone. Whatever the reason she didn't understand it and just when she thought she couldn't hate him enough he had become more of an asshole.

Dustin and Lucas didn't like how Mike had changed either. It was a pretty significant change and not only just to her but it unfortunately affected her the most.

As she walked by the bike rack Mike whistled to gain her attention. She contemplated ignoring him but didn't as she stopped and looked back at him. She didn't have her skateboard with her because she had forgotten it that morning. He approached her casually with his hands in his pants pockets as he noticed a sizeable bruise on her neck. "What are you? A slut?" He asked, being mean to her like usual and now having a reason since it looked like she let herself get a hickey by a someone.

Max gave him a confused look and said, "shut the hell up. I don't even know what you're talking about." Max didn't. She knew she had a bruise on her neck but she didn't realize he could see it.

"That hickey on your neck, did you let your temporary boyfriend give you that?" He taunted in response.

Max's expression turned to hurt as she fiddled with her hair and moved it to where it covered her neck. She cursed mentally, wishing he hadn't seen the bruise and wondering how many others saw it and now probably thought poorly of her.

"What? Are you embarrassed?" He asked as he laughed a little. Max didn't reply as she frowned and started to walk away from him. She didn't need to put up with his bullshit.

She didn't know why she had stopped anyways. Maybe she hoped he would have been nice to her. Maybe she had a tiny ounce of hope that he would talk to her like another human being rather than treat her like shit.

It took a long moment but Mike realized something was wrong and that the bruise was from a negative cause and that he had messed up severely for teasing her about it. "Wait...Max," he then said, calling out after her softly, hoping it wasn't too late.

She whirled around sharply to face him and asked harshly, "what? Want to tease me some more even though you don't know one single thing about my personal life?!"

Mike was taken back and felt worse at her words. She was right. He was being an asshole, teasing her about things he had no idea if they were true or not and when he had absolutely no idea what her personal life was like. He bullied her for no reason and he was now realizing how wrong that was. "What is it then? Did something bad happen-?" He then asked, showing her some concern.

Max's eyes softened for a second before she quickly gained back her cold expression and said, "It's none of your business. And you don't care anyways."

"No. I do. I've realized I've been an ass to you and now I'm actually worried something bad is happening to you at home," he said back, not sure where all this sudden worry was coming from. He just felt like he needed to be worried about her to make up for how badly he had been treating her.

"It's nothing," she then said dismissively as she started walking off again, obviously not wanting to get personal or vulnerable with Mike.

He quickly moved to get in front of her to stop her. She stopped and looked up at him with a serious expression. "Mike, I do not want to talk about it," she said fiercely as she tried to move past him but he didn't let her.

"If you don't want to talk about it that obviously means something bad is happening," he said back matter of factly.

Max let out a huff as she again tried to move past him as she hissed, "let me go home." "Do you want to go home?" He then asked seriously as he stopped her yet again.

Max looked at him like she was shocked by his question and hesitated. "Hmm?" Mike asked impatiently as he rose an eyebrow at her. "No..." she muttered quietly as she looked down.

As she did Mike cautiously moved her hair back to get a better look at the bruise. Max didn't fight him as she stood limp in front of him, staring hardly at the ground. He then ran a hand over the bruise slightly, touching it. Max moved away a little and flinched once he did that.

"Does it hurt?" He asked worriedly as he pulled his hand away. She nodded and he asked again, "Max what happened?" "My step dad," is all she said as she hugged herself and sighed. "How often does he hurt you?" He then asked back. "He never had before. But since Billy's death he now takes all his anger out on me. It's gotten worse over the year," she explained quietly.

Mike frowned a little at the information and felt bad for her and even worse for having treating her horribly. She already got that treatment at home, she didn't need it from him too. He decided he would treat her nicely now because she needed it, very badly.

"Hey you know what?" He asked her as he perked up a little. Max looked back up at him, "what?" "How about you spend the night at my house tonight?" He suggested, wanting to offer her a safe haven.

Max vigoursly shook her head, "thanks for the offer but I'll just get in trouble if I do that so no." Mike frowned again but insisted, "I want you to feel safe for at least one night." Max scoffed as she replied, "and you think I'll feel safer with you?"

Mike sighed and said, "at least I don't physically abuse you." Max shrugged and didn't reply. He had a point but she didn't want to admit it. "At least try it. I don't want you going back to him if he's just gonna hurt you some more," he said sadly.

"I don't understand why you care so much all of a sudden," she snapped at him. She truly didn't. One second Mike could be an asshole and the next he could be the most caring person in the world. It made no sense to her.

"I just feel like I need to make things up to you because of how poorly I've treated you," he said honestly. Max nodded slowly as she eyed him for a moment as if she didn't trust him. Mike gave her a comforting smile.

After a moment of silence, the air thick with awkwardness, Max nodded a little and said, "okay I'll stay tonight." Mike nodded as he then said, "okay, come on."

He then led her to his bike and got on. Max stood there and looked at him for a second. "What are you waiting for? Get on," he said as he chuckled a little. Max sighed a little and got on his bike, reluctantly wrapping her arms around him to make sure she wouldn't fall off.

The feeling of her arms wrapped around him gave him an odd sense of comfort and warmth but he didn't understand why. Mike rode back to his house and luckily his parents weren't home so they weren't questioned when they entered.

He shut the door after them once they were inside and asked her, "Do you want to sleep in the basement or my room?" Max shrugged, "I don't care." Mike nodded as he headed downstairs and said, "okay hold on!"

He rushed and grabbed a sleeping bag and pillow from the basement and came back up with them. Once he was back upstairs he told her follow him upstairs to his room. She did and once they got in there he laid the sleeping bag and pillow down on the floor next to his bed.

"Make yourself comfortable, if you need anything let me know," he told her politely. She nodded as she looked around his room a bit since she had never seen it before. She's only ever been in his basement before and that was all. Mike noticed her looking around and he did also, taking a moment to see how much his room had changed over the years.

After a moment of silence he looked at her and said awkwardly, "so what do you want to do?" His intention had been for her to stay over just so she would be safe from abuse but he hadn't thought about what to do while she was over, especially since they weren't on good terms with one another.

Max turned around and looked back at him before shrugging merely. "Well do you just want to rest early or actually do something?" He asked, hoping to get somewhere with that question. She was about to shrug again but he spoke before she did, "give me an actual answer please."

She let out a soft huff before saying back, "I guess I'll just go to sleep early." He nodded and went to his door as she made herself comfortable in the sleeping bag. "I'll be in the basement playing atari," he informed her before shutting the door and heading down to do that.

He wanted to talk to her and actually get to know her so he could stop hating her for no reason and be her friend but he was scared to talk to her for some reason. Like he would say the wrong thing and he would make her hate him more than she surely already did.

Once he got down to the basement he put Adventure in and started playing, not doing a good job since his thoughts were fuzzy and he couldn't focus well.

Max on the other hand was trying to go to sleep but couldn't for some reason. Everytime she shut her eyes to try and fall asleep she would get restless and sit up. She was bored to death and couldn't sleep so her only option left was to talk to Mike. Maybe she wouldn't even have to talk to him, maybe she could just go down to the basement and watch him play whatever game he was playing.

So that's what she did, she headed downstairs and to the basement doorway. She took in a deep breath before walking down the stairs that she had been down once before.

***

Okay so this was the first chapter! I hope you're intrigued even though so far it's like any other stereotypical Madwheeler story lmao. It does get more interesting though...