Mike woke up and felt someone right against his back and figured Max had snuggled very closely to him at some point during the night, probably because of a nightmare. He let out a sigh and brought his hands up to rub his eyes, he hadn't slept well. He was having all sorts of bizarre dreams that didn't make any sense and they had messed with his normally peaceful deep sleep. He knew he would be more easily agitated because of his lack of sleep so he wanted Max to leave as soon as she could, it would be the best for her so he wouldn't end up snapping at her. He carefully pulled away from her before getting out of bed and shaking her by the shoulders. "Max get up!" He whisper-yelled.

A groan was heard from the girl as she shifted a little but only to get comfortable again without him on the bed. He let out a sigh before shaking her again, more vigorously. "Wake up!" He said again, a little more loudly than the first time.

"Ugh fine," she let out as she opened her eyes and sat up, letting her eyes adjust to the morning light before getting out of his bed.

"Thank you," he sighed once she was up and standing. He knew that if she had wanted to she could've tried to sleep for longer and getting her out of bed would've taken all morning. So he was thankful she had actually decided to get up.

Max nodded then asked him as she looked over at him, "can we go to arcade?" He looked back at her, squinting because of the sun coming through his window behind her. "I'm sorry Max but no. I have things to do today," he said back. It wasn't a full lie but he mostly just wanted her to go so he could think and not accidentally get angry with her. He wanted to protect her from anymore of his emotional outbursts since she had dealt with enough of them in the past.

Max frowned a little and Mike gave her an apologetic half smile. He was truly sorry but knew it was for the best if he didn't hang out with her for the day. He actually didn't know when he would feel it would be okay to hang out with her again but he tried not to worry about that.

"I guess I'll just get going then," she mumbled, more to herself than to him. The air had began to become thick with awkward tension and Max needed, wanted to get out. She felt like it was suffocating her and she needed to leave before she died.

Mike nodded back, "okay." She went over to his window and opened it before climbing out. He came over to the window as she looked back at him, wondering if he would say anything before she would leave.

"See you another time," he told her as he gave her a small smile. He didn't feel happy at all in the moment but he was trying to be so she wouldn't think he was upset with her or anything. Because he wasn't.

Max nodded and only gave him a light smile in return before sliding down the roof a bit to get to the gutters before jumping off, landing on her feet much to his surprise. He watched her as she took off, unable to help the frown that found it's way to his lips as he did.

He shut his window with a sigh as he got onto his bed and laid back down. He didn't really feel like doing much of anything and just wanted to lay down and think. He wanted to figure things out and not feel any guilt or whatever else but he knew that was impossible.

He swung an arm over his eyes to block the sunlight from them, he was not the biggest fan of bright mornings. He let himself relax as much as he was able to and just laid there, trying to think of nothing and feel nothing.

***

Max had left and decided to go to the arcade rather than home because she was not in the mood to deal with Neil's shit. Hell, she actually never was in the mood but she still dealt with it anyways. Because she had to, she had no other option.

She figured playing some games would help to keep her mind off of everything. She was confused about Mike's behavior last night and how he seemed off and a bit cold towards her both last night and this morning. She had seen right through him, how he had been pretending to be happy when he wasn't. She didn't know what had happened and why he acted that way but she didn't want to worry about that.

As soon as she got into the arcade she made her way over to her favorite game, Dig Dug. She started playing it, knowing she would be playing for quite a while since she was so good at it.

She kept playing into the late hours of the day until Keith came over and told her to stop and let others have a chance at playing. Normally she would tell him to piss off or give him a middle finger but she didn't this time, she was too weak to be mean at the moment.

Besides, her mind had immediately wandered back to Mike as soon as she had taken her focus off the screen. It was too late now, she felt a break down coming that she didn't want. She nodded simply at Keith, she had been almost out of quarters anyways.

She made her way out of the arcade and sat down on the sidewalk to the side of the building, more in the shadows and out of view. She didn't know why Mike had acted so cold to her last night and she couldn't help but feel she had done something wrong. She didn't know what that thing was of course but her mind really got her to believe she was the problem and that she had messed up their blossoming friendship.

She took some deep breaths to try and stop the tears that were forming from falling but she couldn't help herself. She was such a screw up who couldn't keep friendships because she always did or said something wrong. She was finally given a chance to become friends with the boy who had hated her for the longest time and now it seemed to be going down in flames.

She was angry at herself. Why had she expected them to actually become friends? He had always hated her so why would anything change that? And why had she expected herself not the mess anything up?

The more she thought about it the more she convinced herself that a friendship between them was impossible and that she would just have to go back to spending her nights locked in her bedroom or outside somewhere, without any comfort. As she kept thinking about how shitty her life was she kept crying, trying her best to keep her sobs quiet so she wouldn't draw any attention to herself.

***

After dinner Mike had decided to go to the arcade to blow off some steam, to distract himself from his thoughts about Max or El or anything. But as soon as he arrived at the arcade on his bike and spotted the redheaded girl sitting down on the sidewalk looking like she was crying, all his thoughts came rushing back.

He went up to her, he wasn't just going to ignore her. Even though he didn't really want to talk to her right now since he still wanted time to sort his thoughts he had to. He needed to know what was wrong. He immediately started fearing the worst, thinking maybe her step father had done something bad and she fled to the arcade. He wouldn't know how very wrong he was until he asked.

He approached her cautiously, feeling like he would scare her more easily since she was in such a weak and vulnerable state. Max heard someone approaching and looked up to see Mike looking down at her with a concerned expression.

She was surprised, not that he was at the arcade, but at the fact that he had decided to actually approach her. She wiped her tears, she didn't care if he had already seen her cry before, she still hated anyone seeing her so vulnerable and upset. It made her feel so small and weak and she hated it.

Mike kneeled down to get to her level, meeting her eyes though she looked away as soon as their gazes had connected.

"What's wrong?" He asked with his soft, gentle voice that she had grown used to since he had been using it quite a bit with her ever since she had decided to take comfort in him. She didn't want to tell him what was wrong and she didn't even know how to explain it anyways.

"I'm sorry if I did anything wrong to make you hate me again," she said simply, feeling the need to apologize since she figured that's what had happened.

Mike gave her a confused look then realized what she was talking about, how he had acted when she came last night. He shook his head, "no no you didn't. I'm sorry about how I acted last night, I just had a lot on my mind." He was being honest and hoped she would believe him. He didn't want her to think he didn't want to be friends.

Max felt like she understood what he meant when he said that he had a lot on his mind. "Yeah. I get it. You don't want me to spend the night anymore because you feel guilty because of El," she said back, almost bitterly.

He was about to reply when she continued, not realizing she had interrupted him, "it's okay I understand. You love her and being with another girl so closely like that feels wrong to you. No worries." She shrugged, she was pretending like she didn't care when she did, so much.

Max wasn't necessarily wrong so he couldn't disagree. He just nodded, not sure of what he could say anyways. He thought for a moment then felt like she needed to know that El was returning soon because he figured she didn't know yet. "About that... El and Hopper are moving back here in the next week or so," he informed her as he stared at her, studying her like she was so interesting, trying to read her.

Mike had never been the best at reading others, especially not Max since she was so good at putting up a facade. He wished she wouldn't but he couldn't stop her from hiding her true emotions. He didn't blame her though. Sometimes showing your true emotions was a terrible idea.

Max couldn't take it anymore. At knowing that news she just couldn't anymore. Eleven was coming back and with that she definitely wouldn't be able to go over to Mike's anymore. The news had only made her feel so much worse. "Okay," she managed to get out as she nodded at him. She stood up and started to walk off, him quickly getting up too to try and follow her. But it was too late, she had started running. She was gone, her red hair lost in the last glowing light of the evening.

Mike was left standing there in confusion, staring where he had just seen her a moment ago. He didn't understand what he had said that upset her. Was she really that upset about Eleven's return? Maybe she was, it wasn't like that idea was a definite no. After all, El returning would probably ruin their friendship.

It seemed like it already had. So he supposed he couldn't blame her for being upset. Though he wished she wasn't. He had every intention of being friends with her still, he wanted to be friends with her still. So badly. But at the same time it felt wrong too.

He could try to apologize but he felt like he had messed things up enough already and that she wouldn't forgive him. He had taken away her only sense of comfort, the only place she could feel safe.

He had taken away her safe haven. All because of the stupid ass guilt he had felt for giving her some comfort that she had needed so badly. Still needs so badly, it's like her lifeline. And he might of just killed her. She could never forgive him for that, could she?

***

Okay finally here is chapter 5! I'm sorry I took so long getting this chapter out, I had been suffering from writer's block. But luckily I had gained some inspiration today, enough to write a full chapter. Hope this chapter isn't too bad, I tried my best. I personally am quite proud of it