CHAPTER EIGHTY
LATE NIGHT TALKS

Despite being ecstatic at the fact Max had called her, Kimmy was extremely nervous to meet her friend.

The brunette was well aware that it had been quite some time since they'd even talked never mind hung out. That on top of the fact that Max was quite obviously taking the death of her older brother extremely hard, Kimmy was worried things would be awkward between the two girls.

The brunette was so nervous that she found it difficult to sleep the night prior, coming up with endless possibilities on how the day next could possibly go wrong.

What if Max only wanted to talk to her in person so she could tell the girl she didn't want to be friends anymore? What if Max would meet her once, and then everything would do back to how it had been? What if Kimmy really wouldn't see much of her afterwards?

She was sat straight up in her bed, biting her finger nails as the anxiety quite frantically consumed her. Endless questions and doubts flooding her brain and would not allow her a moments peace.

It must have been near three in the morning and she really should have been asleep like she usually was, the girl was just so nervous that it got to the point her mind wouldn't even allow her to calm enough to let her sleep for even a few hours.

After much debate with herself on what she should do, the girl secretly hoping that the boy next to her hadn't been able to sleep either so she could talk to him and get her mind off all her self afflicted worries.

Much to her displeasure, the boy was asleep, by the looks of it he had been for some time. Aaron was turned away from her but he was still much closer to her than he needed to be. He had a tight grip on the blanket, Kimmy just able to catch a glimpse at his pyjamas. He had his dark green plaid bottoms on as well as his navy colored Scooby-Doo pyjama shirt and his hair was a complete mess, she could even see that in the dimly lit room. He was fast asleep.

Under his arm was his small green stuffed rabbit, Kimmy was pretty sure he slept with it every night. The only time she hadn't seen him sleeping with it was when he'd sneak down to see her and hadn't expected to stay.

If Kimmy hadn't worked herself up so much, she probably would have cracked a smile at him. She could never understand how he would get into such a mess while sleeping, it was something she'd noticed since staying with him.

The blond boy moved around in his sleep constantly, although Kimmy didn't find it too annoying, it definitely explained how he could wake up looking like he did. It would take him much longer than Kimmy would have expected for him to actually fully wake up once he'd open his eyes in the morning.

Each time she managed to see him on the rare occasion she'd wake up before he did she found herself having to hold back a laugh, his hair was always extremely messy after waking up - worse than usual. And after seeing him enough times in his near sleeping state, she could tell when he'd actually fully woken up and when he hadn't, the sleep was practically written all over his face.

"Aaron?" The brunette whispered as she shook his shoulder gently, her voice utterly riddled with anxiety and worry. "Aaron?"

Kimmy paused for a brief moment, trying to hear some sort of response. Still, he was turned away from her and was fast asleep, his face practically buried into his pillow.

"Aaron?" She tried again, only in a slightly louder voice. There was a momentarily pause before she heard him mumble in a tired voice, his tired words muffled as he did not move an inch.

The girl shook his shoulder once more and repeated his name one final time, Aaron reluctantly shifting to face her with his arm over his face.

"What's wrong?" Kimmy could hardly hear Aaron's response, his voice completely blurred from sleep.

"Do you think Max only wants to meet up tomorrow because she doesn't want to be friends anymore?" The girl blurted the second she was given the chance, hoping that at least if she told Aaron some of the outrageous theories she was coming up with he could tell her why they were stupid and talk some sense into her. "Like, what if she only called because she realised she's too upset to keep up with being friends with me?"

The blond moved his arm away from his face, looking up at the girl with a puzzled expression. He still had a dazed look about him, sleep completely consuming his features.

"Why would you think that?" Aaron frowned at her, he was up less than a minute ago and was already deeply worried for the girl.  

"I don't know..." Kimmy trailed off in a small voice, his words only causing her to panic even further. "I'm just nervous."

Kimmy watched with a worried look painted into her features as he sat himself up next to her, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands as he did so.

Kimmy always felt horrible when she woke the boy up, whether it be by accident or on purpose. Aaron had always insisted that he didn't care and that he'd rather she woke him up if she felt she needed to, but she always felt so guilty for doing it. She knew Aaron found it difficult to actually drift off to sleep, she also knew that he wasn't getting very much sleep at night as it was, never mind with her waking him up.

"Wait what are you nervous about again?" Aaron asked her in a slightly strained tone, his voice still affected by his recent awakening. "Seeing Max?"

Kimmy simply nodded, now biting the inside of her cheek as she watched warily, too engrossed in what his answer would be to focus on anything else.

"I thought she was your best friend?" The boy spoke quietly with a look full of concern. He leaned his head against the headrest of the bed they shared, clearly forcing himself to stay awake so he could talk to her.

"I know but I haven't seen or heard from her in so long and then she just suddenly called me out of the blue, what if somethings wrong?" Kimmy stressed to the boy next to her, shifting so she too had her head leaned against the headrest of the best and turning to fully face him. "I'm worried things won't be the same with us when I see her."

Aaron was so tired that it took him a little longer to understand what she was saying than usual, pulling his blankets closer to him as he thought over what he should tell her or how he was supposed to comfort her.

"Max will be fine, Kimmy, I promise." He eventually told her in as convincing of a voice as he could. "It's good that she wants to hangout with you, that means she's not ignoring you. She's not going to stop being your friend and she doesn't think anything bad of you. Everything will be fine."

Kimmy looked to him blankly for a moment, watching as each of his blinks got slower and slower, the boy having to stop himself from falling back asleep.

The brunette forced an appreciative smile, knowing he was doing his best to comfort her despite the fact he was so tired that she knew he probably wouldn't remember her waking him nor their conversation in the morning.

In response to her smile of appreciation, Aaron simply smiled tiredly down at her, lifting his arm and rubbing his eyes as sleep threatened to overpower him.

Of course all her worries had not been put to rest, she was still stressed about meeting her redheaded friend the next day, although she was now calm enough she could get herself to sleep. Even if it did end up only being a couple of hours.

With the way the boy suddenly slumped against her, Kimmy was almost one hundred percent sure that he was already asleep. However he abruptly moved away from her slightly and planted a firm kiss to her forehead before shifting back to where he'd been slumped against her, his eyes now closed. Kimmy's brows furrowed in surprise, having not expected him to do that what so ever.

Aaron often did things like that when it was just the two of them. However he seemed to completely lose all his confidence when the pair were around others.

It was obvious to anyone who would ever see the two together that the girl made him nervous, not because he was scared of her but simply because she managed to fluster him without trying to.

On top of that it was almost like sometimes he felt like he was scared someone would say something to him or people would stare at him weirdly if he was to do anything like kiss her forehead or something while they were out. This was why it would take the girl by such surprise whenever he did do something like that when they weren't within the walls of his house.

Although despite this he always held a tight grip on her hand, it didn't matter where they were or who they were with, it was clear as day to the girl that he just liked to do it and that it no longer phased him in the slightest. It was like he didn't even think about holding her hand anymore, he just did it.

It might have sounded weird to others and she'd never actually told anyone this in fear of that - especially not Aaron - but she was proud of him in a way. She felt he'd come a long way since she first met him.

Sure, he still had issues with germs and cleaning, but it was obvious to the girl that he was doing his best. He couldn't just get over it and she didn't expect him to, it was probably something that would stick with him for the rest of his life. But he was trying.

The party - some more than others - would still sort of... tease him for it. But a lot of the time it was clear that some of, if not most of the remarks thrown at him were rude if not point blank nasty comments disguised as jokes.

Kimmy truly didn't think they understood the extent of it. It wasn't like he did it for a reaction or that he could control it, the girl knew that he really couldn't help it and it frustrated her at times that his friends were so quick to shrug it off him being dramatic and would make him feel quite bad about it at times.

Aaron had never told her that the comments or teasing bothered him, and only on a rare occasion had she seen him snap or walk away when things sometimes went too far. However he didn't need to, the blatant hurt was always written all over his face.

No one knew how much he had helped Kimmy when she'd been in the hospital as well as when she'd gotten out. No one knew how much he'd been there for her or how hard he tried to try push down his feelings on the matter when around people so none of his friends would think he was weird or something like that.

Lucas never seemed to say anything about the blond boys antics, Kimmy figured that this was because just like the brunette, he knew Aaron better than some of the other members of the party. He knew the blond couldn't control how he acted.

However the same couldn't be said for some others.

It seemed that he tried to downplay his feelings, Kimmy'd noticed this especially when it came to his brother. Aaron always brushed things off as no big deal just to stop any sort of disagreement.

The brunette bit the inside of her cheek as she glanced to the boy who was now fast asleep, he was already beginning to shift and move around.

Kimmy rubbed her eyes and pursed her lips, she too going to sleep. It being much easier the second time.

...

The next morning Kimmy was nervous, trying to get some reassurance from Aaron that everything would be fine without actually asking.

Kimmy was scared Max would ask her about her arm, or in case she would catch a glimpse at any of her bruises. The brunette didn't know what she would say to her in response.

It's not that Kimmy didn't want to tell Max what had happened or that she didn't trust her - she did. However Kimmy feared that Max had enough to deal with, she didn't want to burden her with what had gone on.

In the end, Kimmy ended up wearing a usual long sleeved shirt. Even though the summer heat was boiling outside and she had a cast that went up to her elbow, the shirt she had on wasn't tight, so it really wasn't a problem.

It wasn't even that she was so worried about the last bruises they had yet to completely fade, they were only on her arms and her stomach with some still on her legs. However she was concerned about her scars.

Aaron knew about her scars and so did Steve, but no one else did. She did not want anyone else knowing. Steve had never outwardly asked her about it but he'd checked in to see if she was okay, although on the other hand Aaron had directly asked her about it. He had asked her once and never again but that conversation had been the most serious Kimmy had ever seen him.

Kimmy had arrived about ten minutes earlier than she needed to, waiting rather impatiently for her friend to show up. And only when Kimmy had just managed to calm herself down did the redhead appear, the brunette panicking all over again.

Max had a sort of defeated look about her. It was really just a bunch of little things, but it was enough for Kimmy to notice.

The second Kimmy caught sight of the girl, she instantly began talking. Filling any sort of silence to try insure that things wouldn't get awkward. Kimmy asked how the girl was getting on, how she was feeling, if she was any better - anything and everything she could think of.

Max had ended up asking about her cast, Kimmy told her she'd hurt it while at the fair with Aaron and it had worsened the brake.

The redhead did not want to talk about her brother any more than she had to, that much was clear. She appreciated Kimmy checking in on her but besides that, that's all she wanted to talk about it.

Kimmy got the idea that Max didn't want her best friend to treat her any differently because of what had happened. Kimmy understood that.

"So you guys are like official?" Max asked Kimmy with raised brows, listening intently as the brunette told her all about her date with the boy from all those weeks ago.

"Yeah." Kimmy shrugged as calmly as she could, her face going red at the sight of the look Max was sending her. "Stop looking at me like that."

"What? I'm just interested." The girl laughed in response, evidently having fun teasing her friend. "It's just difficult to imagine Aaron like that."

"Like what?" Kimmy questioned with furrowed brows.

"I don't know..." Max trailed off in thought, her face screwing up as she tried to find her next words. "He just seemed so nervous with you all the time. I can't believe he'd ever make a move on you."

"Lucas was like that with you too at the start." The brunette reminded half serious, looking to sort of back him up without actually talking about him. "He'll be fine. He's already alot better than when he last saw you."

Max simply hummed in response, her lips pulled up slightly in amusement. The girl then snickered and nudged Kimmy before speaking up in a teasing tone. "And you're staying over at his house now, must be serious."

"Shut up." Kimmy laughed in an almost bashful way, trying not to look too flustered. "It's nothing weird, I'm just... he just asked me if I wanted to stay over."

"If you say so." Max snickered, going to say something else before she stopped herself. The smile wiping from her face as she turned to Kimmy with wide eyes and stopped walking. "Did you hear about Eleven?"

Kimmy began to worry, fearful something had happened to the girl. No, she hadn't heard much from Eleven. But it was clear with the loss of Hopper she wasn't going to be doing good, but Kimmy didn't really know. She didn't hear from El as much as she probably would have liked.

"What's wrong with, Eleven?" Kimmy stressed with a panicked look.

"Lucas was telling me that she's been staying at Will's house since... you know... Hopper." The girl awkwardly explained, pausing momentarily before hurriedly finishing her explanation. "And they're moving, like, literally to a completely different state. Will's family is moving and El's going with them."

Kimmy's expression was unmoving for a moment, simply blinking in surprise. The news that El and the Byers' were moving was obviously sad, but what seemed to bother Kimmy more was that she hadn't been told. Clearly this wasn't a sudden thing. She understood that El had other shit going on, but Kimmy also knew that it wasn't a surprise that she and Max were the ones that hadn't been told and had to find out from others.

Lucas would probably tell Aaron seeing as they were out at that very moment - well, she knew this for a fact, they were best friends.

"When are they leaving?" Kimmy asked Max after a moment of silence, wondering if they'd all still be going to high school together.

"Next week. Next week, can you believe that shit?" Max scoffed, clearly frustrated with the situation. "Why is it that we are still the ones that get left out? If it wasn't for Lucas and Aaron I'd bet we'd get told nothing. It's complete bullshit, and I'm sick and tired of it."

Kimmy couldn't say she was surprised, she hadn't really heard much from anyone since that night at the mall besides Aaron, Lucas and Dustin, and to be completely honest she'd never been all that close with Will and Mike. But she was still part of the friend group, and she still considered the two boys her friends. She supposed it was up to them if they viewed her the same way.

"So we won't be going to high school with them?" Kimmy thought out her answer carefully, choosing her words cautiously as to not say anything bad about her friends.

Max simply shook her head, sticking her hands in her pockets before speaking up once more. "Apparently they leave next Wednesday, Lucas was wondering if we should all go, you know, to say bye to them. Are you going to go?"

"Yeah," the brunette nodded instantly. "Yeah. If I'm invited, of course I'll be there."

"Okay I'll go too." The redhead reassured her friend with a sincere look.

Kimmy and Max didn't stay out much longer, although the brunette left with a smile on her face. Just glad she'd gotten the chance to see her friend again.

Upon arriving back at the Harrington household, Aaron had instantly told her exactly what Max had said about the Byers' and El leaving. Lucas having told him, who had heard from Dustin.

Kimmy pretended like she didn't care about having to find out so late, convincing herself she was being stupid and telling the blond that Max had told her before simply asking him how his day at the arcade was.

Aaron must have been wanting to talk about it, because the second Kimmy asked him he went on and on about the complete horror show which was known as Hawkin's Arcade.

...

Omg this book got 14k, 15k AND 16k reads literally in days?!?! What?! TYSM!!! All the support means so much to me!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the story and liked the chapter even though this one was quite boring, but they'll be in high school soon!!

Sorry I haven't updated as frequently recently I've just been so so busy but I will do my best to keep the updates as regular as possible!!

I would also like to thank everyone who helped me out when I got hacked, I'm still having some issues with my account but I'm pretty sure it's mostly fixed!!

- AJ :)