Chapter Twenty-Two: Style

The next day, Max and Annie had already decided to hang out as a make up for the other day. Annie came over after Billy was gone for work and the girls pretty much just hung out. They moved outside at some point, Max trying a few moves on her skateboard, Annie watching and laughing every now and then.

A couple times, Max tried to get Annie on the skateboard but she didn't want to sweat through her pink t shirt today (hoping to avoid how gross she felt yesterday).

"You've almost got it!" Annie encouraged as Max geared up to try whatever move it was again. Max went for it and got one foot on the board, but the other landed on the road and made the board shoot off.

"Shit!" Max yelled, and started to run after it. Annie laughed and stood up to make sure she made it.

The girls stopped when they saw a third person, now holding the runaway skateboard. "El?" Annie asked, now standing beside Max.

El walked up to them and handed the board to Max. "Hi."

"Hi?" Max questioned.

El looked hesitant, glancing at the ground and fidgeting with her hands before she settled them on her hips and looked back and forth between the girls. "Can we talk?" she asked.

The other two looked at each other and nodded quickly, then looked back at El. "Yeah, of course, lets go inside," Annie said, and they walked into Max's house and into her room.

"What's going on?" Max asked. El looked around for a second, not sure what to do, then mimicked Annie as she sat on Max's bed.

El thought for a second. "Well, it's Mike. I think something is wrong," she started.

Annie tilted her head and Max started to pace as she thought. "What do you mean? You guys looked great yesterday," Annie asked.

"We were in my room and Hopper came in to talk to us. He said there was something wrong with Mike's grandma. So he left. But then Hopper came back and told me it was actually a false alarm. I thought Mike would be back but when I called he said there was something with his grandma, his nana. And then he said he... he missed me," El explained. "And then he just hung up."

All throughout her words, Annie sat on the bed and contemplated and Max paced the floor and contemplated. "He's a piece of shit," Max concluded.

"What?" El asked, lost.

"Normally I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, but Max is right."

"What do you mean?"

Max threw her hands up and got pissed. "Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, and his nana obviously isn't sick. I guarantee you, him and Lucas are playing Atari right now," she said.

Annie looked at El's face and saw it start to drop more and more. "But friends don't lie," she said, and it hurt Annie to see her put so much trust into Mike when he clearly was lying to her. But why?

"Yeah, well, boyfriends lie. All the time," Max countered.

El thought for a moment. "So, he's lying? What do I do?"

Max sat down on the other side of El, causing her and Annie to turns towards the redhead. "You're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore his calls."

"As far as you're concerned," Annie butted in, "he doesn't exist."

"Doesn't exist?" El questioned, leaning in to learn more.

Max popped back in. "He treated you like garbage. You're going to treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine," she said.

El nodded. "Give him the medicine."

"Mhm," Annie agreed. "And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself..." She trailed off and looked at Max, who was thinking the same thing.

"Dump his ass."

El was stunned into silence. So, the other two shared another look and nodded again. Max got up and grabbed El's hands to pull her up, too, Annie following in suit. "Come on," she said.

"Where are we going?" El asked.

"To have some fun! There's more to life than stupid boys, you know," Max said.

"Okay... how are we getting to the 'fun'?" El then asked.

This was a very valid question. Annie and Max looked at each other and thought for a second, then Annie shrugged. "Bus?"

"Bus?"

"Bus."

That's what they did. About half an hour later, the girls arrived at Starcourt Mall with El, who had been starry-eyed the whole time.

As they all exited the bus, Max asked El, "So, what do you think?" When El wasn't immediately responsive, Max put a hand on her. "Hey, what's wrong?"

El looked at Max and Annie, who was beside the redhead. "Too many people. Against the rules," she said. Hopper and Mike did have some rules for El about being in public places, but today, those didn't matter.

"Those rules don't matter today," Annie said, smiling wide. She couldn't wait to see El's face when they walked inside.

"You have superpowers," Max reminded her. "What's the worst that could happen?"

El took in her words and slowly started to nod, causing both girls to smile and hurry inside. They hurried to the center where El spun around, taking everything in with wide eyes.

"So, what should we do first?" El didn't know how to respond. "You've never been shopping before, have you?" She shook her head.

Annie smiled. "Well then, I guess we'll have to do it all! We'll grace every store with our presence!"

El smiled as did Max, and the girls were off to their first stop: the Gap. Max had grabbed the girls' hands and ran them into the store. El was immediately drawn to look at everything they had on every single rack in the store. Annie couldn't help but laugh, looking around herself.

She stopped and stared at a shirt that was up on display. "Do you like that?" Max asked the girl.

El looked over at her. "How do I know... what I like?" she asked.

Max shrugged, and Annie watched as she explained everything to El, how it was supposed to feel like her, something El hasn't gotten the chance at. Now, it was fashion show time.

The girls rushed around the store together, grabbing things for themselves and each other to try on. Once Annie was sure they had half of the entire stock in their hands, they all went to the dressing rooms to try it all on.

They all put on some of the cutest and dumbest outfits they could, laughing and spinning around in the giant mirror. Possibly hundreds of different outfits were tried on, all of them coming with their own poses and laughter.

El ended up with a bag of stuff, as did Annie and Max. They walked with arms linked to their next stop, El wearing a new romper she just got.

"Where to?" Annie asked, pulling down her sunglasses. The ones Max had gotten her.

Max pulled down her sunglasses, too. The ones Annie got her. "Let me think- ooh! No outfit is complete without shoes," she said, and the girls hurried along to their next stop.

They walked along and Annie caught sight of something. She pulled on El's arm as she jumped and said, "We should go there, we have to!" The other two girls looked to where Annie was looking and saw a photo studio.

"Oh my god yes let's go!" Max said and the girls all but dragged El into the place. They got dressed up in hilarious costumes and held the best props they could. Trying not to laugh during the picture was hard, and each girl made sure to get a set so they could all enjoy the memories. Even the photographer was getting into their vibe.

"Okay, now shoes," Max said, and they went a few down to find the expensive shoe store. Annie immediately had El try on a pair of heels that were definitely too big on her, but it was too funny.

Annie and Max each had one of El's arms as they helped her balance. At one point, her foot went sideways and she fell to the ground. The other two immediately doubled over in laughter as El laughed on the ground.

Max helped El off the ground while Annie made sure she was stable enough to not go down again. They looked over as their laughs were dying down to see a group of girls almost glaring at them.

Rather than getting mad, they laughed even more. Annie couldn't help but look at Max as she laughed, she was so pretty when she was so happy.

"Come on, I've got an idea," Max said, snapping Annie from her trance. The girls left the store and then hid behind some plants, waiting for the other girls to leave the store.

When they did, they went and grabbed some snacks from Orange Julius and talked to some guy. The girls moved to a pillar that was a bit closer. "Perfect," El whispered, and she went quiet.

A second later, she nodded her head up and the drink exploded. It was everywhere. Max, Annie, and El burst out laughing and hurried away before they were spotted.

"See? What'd we tell you? There's more to life than stupid boys," Max said as the trio ran off into the mall.

Annie laughed and spotted Scoops Ahoy. "Oh! We should so get some ice cream and say hi to Steve!" she suggested. The girls changed their course to the ice cream shop and went right up to the counter.

"Hey Steve," Annie said, smiling with the other two.

Steve said hi back, not paying too much attention to El being there, because she and Max were already pointing at what they wanted. As Steve scooped the ice cream, Robin opened the window to the break room and Steve turned towards her, they exchanged some words, about 'the first sentence,' and then Robin closed the window again.

"Okay, here you go, you got a strawberry and then a vanilla with sprinkles, extra whip cream, and a cookies and cream," he said, handing each girl their cone. While Annie's favorite was strawberry, she decided to branch out and try and different flavor, hence the cookies and cream.

They all took their cones as Steve finally noticed El was there. "Wait a second. Are you even allowed to be here?" he asked. The girls shared looks with each other. Then, Annie slapped a couple bills on the counter and they sprinted away with laughter. She'd tell him all about it at a different time.

"Ooh, you know what we should do now?" The girls were leaving the mall, done with their shopping for the day. Annie and El looked at Max for her to continue. "We should totally have a sleepover!"

They pushed the mall doors open. "Oh absolutely, that would be so much fun!" Annie agreed. She then looked at the ice creams. "Should we trade?" she asked.

Max took El's, Annie took Max's, and El took Annie's. Annie called it a win for her since she now got her favorite flavor (cookies and cream was good, but it just didn't hit the same spot).

Just after the cones were traded and El was going to ask what a sleepover was, Max stopped while staring at something. "Oh, you've gotta be shitting me."

The other two turned their heads to see Lucas, Mike, and Will getting on their bikes. Max was never one to back down from confrontation, so she sauntered up to the boys, El and Annie following close behind.

"Isn't this an interesting surprise?" That got the boys' attention, mainly Lucas and Mike's.

What really got him, though, was the girl on Max's right. Mike dropped his bike and pointed an accusing finger at her. "What are you doing here?" he asked, and he was pissed.

"Shopping." Only El could give such a hilarious, deadpanned answer. Annie held in her laugh, making eye contact with Will and shrugging at him. He looked miserable.

"This is her new style," Max said, gesturing to the romper El was wearing, different than the pants and large hand-me-downs she used to wear. Something that was hers. "What do you think?"

Mike was so pissed. "What is wrong with you? You know she's not allowed to be here."

"What, is she your little pet?" Max retorted.

"Yeah, am I your pet?" El added on, now making Mike less angry and more... begging. This definitely wasn't supposed to happen, him getting caught at the mall.

He shook his head, saying, "What? No!"

"Then why do you treat me like garbage?" She wasn't holding a thing back. Annie had a smile grow on her face.

"What?"

"You said Nana was sick."

"She is!" Mike said, repeating the phrase and even getting Lucas to back him up.

Annie looked at Max, eyebrows raised. They had been caught and didn't even have big enough balls to admit it. Who needed television when you had this!

"That's why we're here, actually," Lucas said.

"Yeah, we're shopping! Not for us, but for her, Nana," Mike continued. "Also, we're here to get a gift for you. Just we couldn't find anything that suited you, and I only have, like, $3.50, so it's hard.

"Super hard," Lucas reiterated. "It's-it's expensive."

El didn't take any of it, though, stepping closer to Mike. "You lie." Mike looked caught, now. He didn't even try to defend himself anymore. "Why do you lie?"

Mike looked like he wanted to say something, his mouth open and searching for words. Annie would've loved to hear his excuse, but the bus pulled up that the girls needed to get on.

El noticed, too. Looking at it and then back to Mike, she took a few slow steps forward and got up in his face. "I dump your ass." Mike looked shocked, but a mad shocked.

Annie and Max, on the other hand, were a proud shocked. They shared a look with each other, then followed El as she walked to the bus.

They sat down, managing to find three seats next to each other in the back. Annie expected El to be a bit sad, maybe even regret it, but she was laughing and smiling widely and high-fived Max.

"Come on, let's go have the best sleepover ever!"

A/n: my fav trio right here 🫶