(Tw for this chapter for mentions of abuse, self harm, etc.)

Mike, after a few mintues of her not returning like he hoped she would, got on his bike and headed home. He hadn't meant to upset her at all and he felt like shit for having doing just that.

He was worried because he had no idea where she went. He didn't know if she was heading home or not. For all he could know she could be going to the quarry cliff to jump off and end her life. He knew she wasn't happy with her life so he wouldn't be surprised at all if she were to do that.

Once he got home he immediately went up to his room, his parents not noticing him come in since they were watching tv with the volume up loudly. He shut his door behind him and went over to lay down on his bed.

He brought a hand up to his head and rubbed it, trying to process all that had happened. He felt really bad but it was too late to fix it now.

He couldn't stop worrying about her. He kept trying to get her off his mind but just couldn't. It's because he was afraid of her dying. Since after all, he would care if she died.

He didn't hate her anymore so it's not like he wanted her to die. He still wanted to help her even though he felt she probably wouldn't want his help anymore.

He fell into a light sleep that he woke up from at least several times throughout the night, his mind not drifting off Max at all.

***

Max woke up to notice she was laying in the bathtub, her mom holding a towel wrapped around the arm she had cut. She rubbed her head a little before remembering what had happened.

"Oh good you're awake," her mother spoke softly as she offered Max a small reassuring smile. The smile only made Max feel worse.

Max lightly pried her moms hands off the towel and lifted it up so she could take a look at the damage she had done. It was no longer bleeding but it still looked really messy with dried and cacked blood and it still stung like hell. She winced before placing the towel back over it.

She looked up to notice that her mother was giving her a sad look which she hated. "What?" She asked, her tone sounding harsher than she intended it to sound.

Her mother frowned slightly before bringing a hand up to Max's face, brushing some of hair behind one of her ears. "Why did you do that?" She asked.

Max couldn't believe how oblivious her mom was. "Because Neil acts and treats me like he wants me dead so I wanted to see how he would react if I actually tried to kill myself," she replied in the simplest way she could.

Susan nodded slowly as she took in what Max said, frowning more. "Neil isn't a good guy mom. I wish you would realize that," she then said to her. She really wished her mom would divorce him and that he would leave.

"I'm sorry I didn't notice before," her mother replied pitifully. Max didn't accept her mother's apology at all because she knew she still wouldn't do anything to try and get rid of Neil.

Max only nodded at her mother's words as she looked away from her and said as she pressed her hand on the towel covering her hurting arm, "I can hold it for now on." That was her way of telling her mom to leave her alone.

Susan hesitated for a moment before removing her hands from the towel and getting up, giving Max a small sad smile before closing the bathroom door behind her.

Max needed time to think about this. Did she really almost kill herself? Yes she did.

She knew she wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer if something she dealt with everyday had pushed her over the edge of no return.

She felt no one could save her now. She no longer had a safe haven, or even a friend to talk to about her problems. She had nothing.

Just her stupid thoughts and feelings that made everything worse and drove her closer to wanting to die. She shut her eyes and let out a breath as she slowly drifted off to sleep since she was exhausted.

***

Max's mother had warned Neil not to hurt her anymore but she knew it wouldn't be enough and would only help for a little while. So far she didn't get beaten or even slapped which she was thankful for but she knew not to get used to it.

One day in the middle of the week Max decided to go to the arcade without thinking too much about it. At first it had been fine but after a little bit she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned around to come face to face with Mike.

Her face immediately fell, she hadn't been wanting to see him. Mike was giving her a really concerned look and she realized why, the other day she had just ran away and left. He probably had no idea where she went or if she had even been okay.

"Are you okay? After the the other night I've been worrying about you," he said to her in a soft tone, a tone she used to admire but now she hated because she knew that in just a few short days she wouldn't be the only person he used that voice for.

"I'm fine," she said simply. She subconsciously glanced at the arm she had cut, checking to make sure her hoodie sleeve was down and not rolled up.

Unfortunately for her Mike knew to look for signs like that with Max and he noticed, "you didn't do anything to yourself, did you?" He wasn't sure if Max had ever hurt herself before but with the shitty life she had he figured she probably had and if she had been in a bad place the other night she might of just done that.

"No," she answered simply, her expression neutral and unconcerned. She was trying her hardest not to grip the end of her sleeve to protect it in case he decided to try and roll her sleeve up.

Mike studied her for a moment before glancing down at her arm and giving her a look. "What?" She asked as she furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"You did something," he said matter of factly like it had been so obvious.
"No I didn't, why do-" she started to argue but he stopped her by interrupting as he carefully grabbed her arm.

"I could tell you were lying and even though you may think you were being discrete you are being obviously protective of this arm," he said as he held up her arm that he had gotten ahold of.

She gave him an annoyed look and tried to pull her arm away as she scoffed at him. "Max please just let me look at it," Mike pleaded with a sad, concerned tone that made her feel like he cared so much about her, like she was the only thing in the world worth worrying about.

Which she figured was very far from the truth. But that's just what she thought, that didn't make it true at all.

She was about to ask why when she had caved, becoming still as she watched him roll up her sleeve. Once he had it all the way rolled up he could see the pretty fresh scar which looked quite deep and ran all the way from her wrist to her elbow.

He looked at it for a moment, Max finding his expression to be quite unreadable. He then gently placed his other hand on where the scar started by her wrist, tracing the jagged line that the cut had left on her as a reminder of it. The way he was tracing the scar felt oddly intimate in a way, like he shouldn't have done such a thing unless he was her boyfriend. She just wasn't used to being touched in that way, especially gently. She was so used to her arms being pulled or hit, not traced like they were some form of beautiful artwork and the artist was going over to make sure they were satisfied with their work.

Once his hand reached the end of the scar he removed his hand and rolled her sleeve back down before giving her a sad look. "Max you shouldn't do that," he said as he let go of her arm. She stared at him for a moment, a bit in shock from what he had done before snapping out of it and looking at him, taking in what he had said.

"Look I know. But I had been so angry because Neil-" she started but stopped herself once she realized she was about to be vulnerable with him, she couldn't make that mistake again, not when it was so close to El's return.

"Because Neil what?" Mike asked as he rose an eyebrow and gave her a curious look. "Nevermind it doesn't matter," she spoke back as she let out a huff and tried to start walking away. She hated the way he made her feel, vulnerable. Whenever she looked into those chocolate brown eyes of his she felt like she could tell him anything and everything about her life and they gave her an odd sense of comfort which she thought was the weirdest thing since she used to hate him, fear him even.

Mike grabbed one of her wrists and made her turn back around to face him, "it does matter. What happened?" God, why did he care so much? She had been vulnerable with him for two fucking nights and he was acting like they had been best friends since they were little kids.

"He slapped me, okay? I was crying and he hit me. You happy?" She spat angrily as she narrowed her eyes and tried to twist her wrist out of his grip, she was not going to let his worry affect her. She knew it would just lead to her getting her heart broken if she trusted him with her problems again.

He let go of her as his expression softened. "Why did he?" He then asked. He figured there had to be some reason why he had hit her, even if it was small. Max met his eyes and regretted it as soon as she did, getting that feeling of comfort again when she did.

She muttered an incoherent curse before caving, "He was mad about me staying out and knew I stayed somewhere over night so he got mad at me when I lied about it." She then shrugged, bringing her arms up to hug herself to give herself some sense of other comfort since she knew she shouldn't rely on him for comfort anymore.

Mike nodded as he frowned a little. He knew there was probably no way for Max to avoid getting hit by her step dad. Her only way before had been when she could come over to his house to hide. But now that he took that away from her she didn't have any escape. He knew she still needed one though. He was torn. He wanted to keep letting her come over whenever she needed but also knew that if El found out it would probably be the end of their relationship.

"Forget what I said yesterday, you can still come over whenever you want," he decided after a moment of thinking. He gave her a comforting smile. He didn't want her to be left alone to deal with her step dad. She needed help still and he wasn't going to take it away from her, that wouldn't be fair at all.

"No," she answered fiercely and he couldn't understand why she would decline his offer. He was offering her a safe place and she didn't want it? "Why not?"

"It'll just risk me getting into more trouble," she said, a lie she knew was believable. But as much as she wanted to accept his offer she knew she couldn't because if she did she knew she would only fall more in love with him and she couldn't risk that.

Mike nodded slowly at her answer as he thought about it. He supposed she had a point. If she went out and her step dad found out it would just lead to more beatings for her. Something in his gut told him there was something more to it that she wasn't telling him but he didn't question her.

"I'm sorry," he then said, feeling the need to apologize, for everything. For last night, for what she had to deal with. Everything. He just felt awful for her.

"No, I'm sorry," she said back without explanation before heading out of the arcade, abandoning him there once again but this time in the middle of the day instead of the approaching darkness of night.

I'm sorry for falling in love with you so quickly when I didn't even think I could.

***

Towards the end of the week Max realized that El would be back by now and despite how upset she had been about it when she originally found out, she wanted to go and visit her.

So she grabbed her skateboard and rode over to the cabin to see her best friend. Once she got there she tucked her skateboard under her arm before she rushed up to the porch and knocked on the door.

To her surprise it was Mike who answered and not El or Hopper. Since Mike was even there she figured maybe Hopper wasn't even home, especially since he hadn't been the one to answer the door.

Mike gave Max a small smile and she regretted having come at all when she looked up and met his eyes. She gave him a fake smile in return before asking, "Is El here? May I see her?"

"I'm spending time with El right now," he let her know, which of course she figured. She hadn't expected anything less. "Right, making out in one of the bedrooms huh?" She shot back, regretting her words as soon as she said them. She was trying to be nice to Mike but it was hard to be in that moment. Now she felt he would hate her again for saying that, which is what she didn't want. This was part of why she hated herself, she always ended up saying something wrong that drove people away from her. She could never keep her thoughts to herself.

Mike gave her a mean glare before slamming the door shut. She pounded on the door as she exclaimed, "Mike I'm sorry! I didn't mean that! Please just let me see El for a minute!" There was no response from the other side, not even something like "go to hell Max." To her, the silence was so much worse. She let out a heavy sigh as she sulked back to her house, carrying her skateboard tucked under her arm rather than riding it.

***

I feel like this chapter sucks but I needed to get something out. But this is actually the longest chapter so far so it can't be too bad then, right?