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Maxine Mayfield was 14 years old when she was invited to her first party in Hawkins, Indiana.
It had happened during lunch period, when a kid from her english class- Will Byers, his name was?- handed her and her friend El a couple of cheesy invitations encased in white envelopes. They both read: “Join us to celebrate Will’s 14th birthday! Saturday 5:00pm-10:00pm,” and also listed an address. He had a sheepish look on his face and rubbed the back of his neck. “My mom and Mike’s mom are throwing me this big thing and they’re making me invite more than just my usual friends,” he said, glancing at another table where a few other people Max recognized were sitting. She had a variety of classes with them; this was a small school, after all. Dustin, Mike, and Lucas, she recalled.
Mike she knew particularly well, as El never seemed to stop talking about him. Max really never understood the complexities of their friendship, but she really did love the strange girl. And for the entire time she knew her, El had a huge crush on the awkward, lanky nerd. Max didn’t really ever have a problem with him, and she did sometimes catch him stealing glances at her best friend. She supposed the two could be cute.
Dustin was nice. He had a great sense of humor and a loud laugh, and Max often found him to be a great distraction in math and science. The kid also had the most wild curly hair she had ever seen and a shared interest in video games. Yeah, he was cool enough.
Lucas, on the other hand, was a complete mystery to her. Max only had history class with him, and that was a relatively crowded class, so she never got a chance to work with him or know him. He seemed smart, and yeah, she thought he was kind of cute. But only a little. And obviously, if he hung out with kids like Will and Dustin, he had to be a huge dork, right?
So, when Will Byers handed her the invitation and El looked up at her with hopeful, pleading doe eyes, Max nodded. “We’ll be there!” She promised, a small smirk on her face. If only she knew was she was getting herself into.
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When Max arrived home that day, neither Billy nor Neil was home, but her mom was, and she seemed to be in a good enough mood. She sighed in relief. The teenager put her bag down on the counter and pulled the invitation out of her pocket, rereading the information again to double check it.
“Hey Mom, there’s this lame party on Saturday, can I go?” She asked casually.
“No, Neil wants you home Saturday, remember?” Her mom replied, trying and failing to keep the nerves out of her voice.
“Oh, yeah.” Max sighed. Why did Neil even want her home? He never paid any attention to her. In fact, he often pretended she didn’t exist. She shrugged, picked up her stuff, and went to her room. The door closed with a slam behind her. Glancing down at the invitation, she debated with herself heavily. To avoid her step-father she would probably just seclude herself to her room all day Saturday anyways. Max knew they wouldn’t notice if she snuck out, as long as she was back by curfew.
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And so, on Saturday evening, having spent the entire day with her door locked, Max examined herself in the mirror. A solid outfit for late March: a striped yellow and white shirt, her red jacket, and distressed jeans. She ran her fingers through her wavy red hair and decided she looked good enough. Not that she cared too much about her appearance, anyway.
Max could just barely hear her mother and Neil’s heated conversation over Billy’s music coming from the next room over. Just like she thought- nobody cared about what she was doing. With a nimble motion the redhead climbed out her bedroom window and into the surprisingly chilly evening air. She jumped down with ease and ran out to the street, hopping on her board and quickly escaping the hellish household she didn’t dare call home.
On the ride, Max kept her hands in her pockets. Even though it was technically spring, the bitter winds of winter still rolled through Indiana and chilled the California girl to the bone. Thankfully, it was just a short ride to the Wheeler residence, where the party was being held. “Maple Street,” she repeated out loud to herself, watching her words puff out as tiny clouds, “Maple Street, Maple Street.”
For whatever reason she couldn’t place, she was nervous. Maxine Mayfield was nervous.
Maybe it was because she hadn’t been here in Hawkins long, or maybe it was because this was her first boy-girl party. But there was no reason to be nervous, right? She was cool, and she was collected. Nobody could break past her barriers. She could handle this.
When she arrived at the Wheeler house at 4:55 and rang the doorbell, Max only had to wait a few moments before Will’s friend Lucas opened the door. Her breath caught in her throat. He was wearing khakis, a plain grayish blue sweater, and a soft smile. She gave him a small wave and his expression made her heart skip a beat.
“You’re here early,” he commented, stepping aside to let her in.
Max nodded, “It was now or never. I had a good opportunity to leave so I did,” she quipped lightheartedly, not realizing quite what she said until the words had already spilled out of her mouth. After an awkward moment Lucas chuckled.
“Well, nobody else is here yet but The Party and El, and it was my turn for door duty-“
“The Party?” She interrupted, curious more than anything. Her blue eyes sparkled.
“Yeah, me and my friends, that’s what we call ourselves,” Lucas explained, his deep brown eyes emanating warmth. Max felt her cheeks flush, and she brushed a small piece of hair back into place.
“You guys are a bunch of dorks,” she teased, smirking.
“Thanks!” He shrugged and laughed along with her.
“Anyways, everything is set up downstairs. Let me show you the way,” Lucas said, lightly placing his hand on her back. Again, Max felt her breath hitch at his soft touch, but allowed herself to be guided towards a set of wooden stairs leading down.
“Thanks.” She nodded towards him, playfully rolling her eyes when he saluted her.
“It was my pleasure.” Lucas joked with a flourish. Max couldn’t be entirely sure, but she almost thought she saw him wink before he turned and walked back towards the door. The redhead paused before she made her way down. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect of this party.
When she saw the scene, Max had to stifle a laugh. It was so awkward- so typically teenager. Will was finishing up pouring pretzels into a bowl on what appeared to be a snack table, making last-minute perfections; Mike and El were sitting about a foot apart on a couch, blushing and making stiff conversation; Dustin was standing near a cassette player debating whether to go with Queen, Bon Jovi, or what looked to be a homemade mixtape.
“Hey, Max!” El greeted, getting up and giving her friend a hug. Her large eyes sparkled. Clearly, she was enjoying her conversation with Mike. After El sat back down, Max said her hellos to everyone else.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long for a couple of their other classmates to arrive, breaking the silence with casual party conversation. For the first hour or so, that’s all the party was. People chatted, snacked, joked, laughed. Max enjoyed herself mostly sticking by El’s side. However, the conversations soon slowed, and Will was getting anxious that people weren’t having fun anymore.
“Truth or dare?” Dustin suggested. The Party agreed. It was cliche, but it was popular for a reason.
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If Lucas was being honest, which he usually was, it felt odd having people in Mike’s basement that weren’t officially part of The Party. Especially girls. He had noticed Mike finally making a move on El. They had been talking all night- not alone, though, he noticed they were mostly accompanied by Max- and now they were next to each other in the large circle everyone sat in around the room. Max was sitting next to El, and next to Max was Lucas. He admits, this girl intrigued her. She was spunky and different. He couldn’t help but examine her features: the freckles that painted her cheeks, the bright blue eyes that lit up whenever she smiled, the way her entire face crinkled up when she laughed, the way her brows furrowed whenever she concentrated on something, the way her unique wavy red hair framed her features. His stomach flipped when she suddenly turned to him, an unexplainable mischievous look on her face.
“Hey Stalker, didn’t you hear? Livy asked you truth or dare.” Max explained, smirking and playfully elbowing him in the ribs. She didn’t want him to think she had missed the entire past 2 minutes of the game, when he had completely zoned out, just staring at her.
“Oh, uh-“ He stammered, looking around the circle for where the girl he barely knew from science class was. “-truth, I guess?”
“Ooh, okay...” The petit platinum blonde thought to herself, apparently not expecting him to answer truth. “Who was your first kiss?” She asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at him. Up to this moment the questions and dares had been relatively tame; this was the first “grown up” question- the first boy/girl question. Everyone in the circle let out some kind of shocked noise, and they all turned to him expectantly.
But Lucas was only aware of the intense blue eyes sitting to his right. He was hyperaware of her steady gaze as he prepared his answer. “Um, well, to be honest, I...” He looked around nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. “I haven’t had a first kiss yet.”
This came as a shock to most of his peers, and Lucas felt his face flush with heat.
“That’s okay, I haven’t either,” Livy responded directly, making intense and somewhat uncomfortable eye contact with Lucas. They all knew that was a lie though.
“Alright, now it’s Lucas’ turn to ask someone!” Will blurted out, breaking the tension.
“Um, Max, truth or dare?” Lucas asked, trying to think quickly on his feet. Her name was the first that popped into his mind.
“Dare.” She replied, with a look that said, ‘challenge accepted.’
“I dare you to go upstairs and steal something from Mike’s older sister’s room.” He declared, matching Max’s level of intensity as he gazed at her. It was almost as if their peers weren’t watching at all.
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Without a moments hesitation, Max stood up and started toward the stairs. She ignored all of Mike’s protests, and consequently all of Lucas’s consolations that “it was just a game.” The redhead had no worries about this challenge; on multiple occasions she has had to sneak into Billy’s room to get her skateboard back when he took it away.
Max made her way upstairs, and knocked gently on the door of the room she assumed was Nancy’s. When nobody answered, she tried the handle, and it opened with ease. She didn’t even have to pick the lock! This was going to be a breeze. As she explored the room using only the quickly-fading sunlight streaming through the window, Max found the perfect thing- a small, worn-looking Cheer Bear stuffed animal sitting upright on the bed.
With swift, quiet movements, she snuck out of the room, closed the door, and crept back downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs she held up the toy like a trophy with pride, accompanied by cheers from the other partygoers. Her gaze focused on Lucas, who’s expression was both of disbelieve, fear, and at least a little bit impressed. She had done the challenge rather quickly. “That was absolutely insane. I should start calling you Mad Max.” He teased. Max didn’t complain, but she did roll her eyes playfully.
As she sat down in her spot, Max handed the stuffed animal back to Mike. He would have to replace it, she figured. Not her problem anymore. “Alright, now that it’s my turn, who shall I torture?” She narrowed her eyes and looked over the group, her eyes finally landing on the pair sitting next to her.
“Mike, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
A couple of groans emitted from him peers, but he didn’t care. Mike would rather answer this spunky girl’s crazy questions than do whatever outrageous and potentially dangerous challenge she could suggest.
“Do you have a crush on El?” Max asked, her tone completely (and falsely) innocent as she gazed at her best friend.
El’s eyes widened and Mike’s cheeks were visibly flushed, but in one hand he took hers and the other he used to brush away a small piece of her mousy brown hair out of her face. “Friends don’t lie, so I have to say yes... Yes I do.” Mike said, somehow managing to keep his voice steady as he gazed into the eyes of the sweetest girl in all of Hawkins, Indiana.
El smiled and hugged him tightly. “I like you too,” she whispered. At first, she was angry at Max for asking such a question, but now she was too happy to care. Hell, she was over the moon. Max gave her best friend a wink as Mike slipped his hand into El’s, both of their faces plastered with stupid, lovesick grins. It was kind of cute.
The next couple of rounds passed rather uneventfully, round after round. Whenever she would think of something funny, Max would lean over to Lucas and whisper something, and they would burst out in a fit of laughter. Occasionally he did the same. There was no doubt in her mind that this boy was something special.
In the back of her mind, Billy and Neil’s voices were bothering her. How she could never, ever be with someone like him. How she shouldn’t even bother. How he wouldn’t even bother if he knew how damaged she was, how broken she was. How he could never change to be good enough for her. How her family would never accept him. How if they saw her kissing him, *with* him, they would both be hurt. Maybe even killed.
One look at Lucas and his soft brown eyes and his kind smile, his smooth complexion gently reflecting the golden light of the numerous lamps in the Wheeler’s basement, and Max knew all she needed to know. But that didn’t stop guilt from prickling at the bottom of her stomach when she felt his fingertips rest over top of hers on the ground between them, the distance of which was quickly shrinking.
“Earth to Max? Max!” Dustin called out, waving his hands to get her attention. The redhead hadn’t realized he had asked her truth or dare.
“Dare!” She answered, a little because she didn’t want to accidentally move her fingers out from under Lucas’, but mostly because teenagers were nosy and she had too much going on that most of them wouldn’t understand. Doing something stupid or dangerous was far better than answering a hard question about her relationship with her asshole stepbrother.
“I dare you...” Dustin thought for a moment, gazing around the room, his eyes finally landing on Lucas. Time for a taste of her own medicine. “...To go play 7 minutes in heaven with Lucas.”
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Everyone in the group fell silent. Lucas wasn’t sure he heard what his friend said quite right. He could have sworn Dustin just told Max to play 7 minutes in heaven... with him. He looked down at the girl sitting to his right, and she looked about as shocked as he felt. But before he could say anything, Max shrugged, got up, took his had, and flashed him a reassuring smile.
“It’s just a game, right Stalker?” She teased, smirking.
“Y-yeah... j-just a game.” He stammered. Since Lucas knew the Wheeler’s house better, he led the way to a closet large enough for the two of them to fit.
The first few moments were awkward and silent as they averted each other’s gaze.
But then, Max took the brave first step and opened her mouth to speak. “You know, we don’t actually have to do anything in here,” she said quietly, her tone rather soft. It was surprising to Lucas, who had never heard her speak that way before.
“Yeah,” he responded.
“Especially if this is your first... experience,” Max explained, her pale blue eyes glittering in the darkness. Lucas couldn’t help but notice the way the slotted doors cast striped shadows across her body, her eyes especially catching the light. “It should be special. I don’t want it to be wasted on me.” She said sheepishly, breaking their eye contact and looking down at her feet. Lucas thought she had never looked more attractive than in that moment.
“Yeah.” Was all he could say.
“But, if it makes you feel any better, it’s my first time too.” She said even quieter, her voice barely audible over the loud conversations occurring in the next room over. “And I’m not sure I want to do it in a dingy closet that smells like mothballs in the house of my best-friend’s-basically-boyfriend with some guy I barely know.” Max muttered, her eyes low. She kept Billy and Neil in her mind, not by choice, but by fear.
“Well, then get to know me. We probably have like 5 more minutes in here, so we might as well utilize them.” Lucas suggested practically, smiling once she returned her gaze to his.
Max took a moment to think. “What’s your family like?” She asked, and he could see the remorse in her expression. It confused Lucas but he answered anyways.
“They’re the best. I have a mother who makes the best pasta salad in the world, a father that gives the greatest advice, and an annoying little sister, Erica, who I pretend to hate sometimes. She knows I don’t mean it though.” He explained with complete sincerity. Lucas loved his family and he wasn’t afraid to show it. “And on holidays I have aunts and uncles and cousins that come from all over the place to stay with us, since we have the biggest house that can hold the most people. Everyone brings food and gifts, no matter what the occasion is.” He laughed, recalling how last Halloween his Uncle Matthew came to visit and brought him a new cassette player that also had a cool recording feature, and a new Lite-Bright for Erica. “How about you?”
Max watched with envy as he practically glowed talking about his family. They sounded like everything she had ever dreamed of in her family- something she knew was unrealistic and would never happen. Was she supposed to tell him about her stupid, racist, sexist, abusive stepfather and stepbrother? Was she supposed to tell him about her mother, who was nothing but an empty shell of the woman she used to be because of her stupid fucking abusive husband? Was she supposed to tell him about her real father, back in California?
Lucas quickly noticed the many emotions flashing in her expression and immediately regretted his question.
“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Max looked for the pity in his eyes, but to her relief, she saw nothing but compassion and a slight bit of concern.
“Don’t be. They’re not worth your time anyways,” she muttered, looking up to make eye contact. Her soft blue eyes were full of admiration as he spoke so highly of his family, and how he remedied the quickly-souring moment so easily. After a more comfortable moment of silence, Lucas realized he was still holding her hand and dropped it.
He took a deep breath and finally spoke. “You know, we don’t have to stay in here if you don’t want to. There are probably only a few minutes left anyways, and I would hate for you to miss too much of-“
“Oh, just kiss me already, Stalker,” Max demanded, fiercely wrapping her arms around his neck and standing on her toes to reach her lips up to his.
The moment their lips collided, Lucas’ world changed. It only took a second for him to process what was happening before he started kissing her back. One of his hands rested gently on Max’s waist. He brought the other up to hold her cheek. Her skin, her hair, her lips, her touch- everything was so soft, so warm, so sweet. Yeah, the kiss was messy, but it was a perfect first for both of them.
Too bad a muffled timer went off, and even more too bad was neither of them heard it.
When Dustin and Will opened the closet doors, with everyone watching, to see Max and Lucas not only locked in an endearing embrace but kissing, there was a loud choir of mixed cheers, “ew’s,” and “wow’s,” accompanied by a wave of bright light that temporarily blinded the couple. They quickly untangled themselves and shuffled apart before stepping out of the closet. Both of them, however, were filled with too much joy to feel any sort of shame or embarrassment. Lucas took Max’s hand, and led her over to the couch as if nothing happened. Quickly their peers lost interest in whatever possibly happened in that closet, and most of the crowd returned to normal, save for El and Will, who were glancing curiously at Max and Lucas, respectively.
Lucas promised himself he would tell Mike, Dustin, and Will exactly what happened. He was, after all, the first of the Party to have his first kiss.
Meanwhile, Max resolved she would tel El everything: how it went, what it felt like. She was, after all, obligated to tell her best friend everything.