Chapter Text
Max never felt that she deserved Lucas. She knew herself. She was sarcastic, abrasive and, aside from being considered outcasts, they were nothing alike. So she didn’t understand his fixation with her.
On her first day at Hawkins Middle School, basically the moment she walked into the classroom, he was staring at her. Well, they all were. Lucas, Dustin, Mike, and Will. If they thought they were subtle, maybe they weren’t as bright as their social status suggested. Max didn’t care. She was used to it. People stared at her and talked about her when they thought she wasn’t within earshot. They’d get bored within a few days and then she could turn invisible. But they didn’t.
They kept following her and, once she called them out—tried to scare them away by accusing them of stalking—they began inserting her into their conversations without her permission. She’d be walking through the congested school hallways, only to find herself suddenly flanked by Lucas and Dustin. It didn’t take long for her to see why.
They had crushes on her and the way they began competing for her attention was as subtle as their stares. But she decided to put up with it. Their interest in her stemmed only from the fact that she was new and, before long, some other girl or piece of nerd equipment would capture their focus. Like birds distracted by shiny objects. But in the meantime… It wouldn’t hurt to have someone to spend time with who didn’t take all their shit out on her.
Max knew herself and, despite her subpar grades, she wasn’t stupid. She knew she was all bravado, arcade games, and skate-board tricks, because the alternative was admitting that she didn’t belong. It was far easier to disguise her anger as snark and sass than to reflect on its true source. These boys were supposed to be brilliant. They’d figure it out eventually. Mike and Will clearly already had and, after a few days, Dustin couldn’t seem to figure out what he thought of her anymore.
But Lucas still didn’t get it. He kept following her like a damn stalker. He kept trying to pull her into a group that clearly didn’t want her. He bribed one of the arcade employees to help him get her alone, so he could divulge his most dangerous secrets to her, even if she didn’t believe a word he said. When he failed to fully convince her that there were monsters and an alternate dimension lurking within Hawkins’ borders, he came to her house. She’d never given him her address, making his intrusion peak stalker behavior. But Max had to admit that she was intrigued by his delusions that he seemed so eager to share with her. It was better than lingering at home, waiting for Billy to snap.
She let Lucas take her to a junkyard of all places. There, as they hid out in a dilapidated bus, waiting for the monster—or demodog, as Max had been informed—something happened that she couldn’t explain. Her facade faltered. More accurately, Lucas broke through it. Without even trying. Before she could stop herself, she was telling him about her dad and Billy. She told him why she lashed out the way she did, part of the reason anyway, and she even apologized for it. When a tear rolled down her cheek, she was almost ready to leap off that bus roof to escape her own embarrassment. To escape the judgement that she knew would come because it always did.
But when Lucas responded, his brown eyes were warm and the smile he gave her was kind. He said she was cool and different. She could at least agree that the latter was true. Then he said she was super smart, which was ridiculous. This nerd was calling her smart. He clearly hadn’t seen her grades, which was shocking, considering his stalker tendencies. But when she tried to find the satire in his remark, she couldn’t. He meant it.
Lucas had called her different but, to Max, he was the anomaly here. He made her laugh, making jokes for the sole purpose of forcing a smile out of her. And he listened, even when she talked about her own dismal issues. He didn’t have to give her his undivided attention, but he seemed to want to. He said he liked talking to her and, incredibly, she found that she enjoyed conversing with him just as much.
That night, on the bus roof, Max made a decision. She didn’t expect their relationship to last. Nothing ever did, not for her. But for now, Lucas made her happy.