"Clove, stop pacing!" Dustin yelled at her violently.

"How can I not pace? Did you not just see that!" she yelled back after what just happened with her girlfriend. Their voices were twice as loud in the school hallways, bouncing off the metal lockers.

"Both of you, shut up!" Max shined her flashlight on them before turning back to the end of the hallway. "It was here. Right here."

"A grandfather clock?" Nancy questioned her.

"It was so real." Max's voice broke some, Clove frowned as she listened to her. "And then, when I got closer, suddenly I just...I woke up."

"We believe you." the blonde reassured her.

"It was like she was in a trance or something." Dustin looked around. "Exactly what Eddie said happened to Chrissy."

Clove went back to pacing.

"That's not even the bad part." Max turned around to look at them.

"Fred and Chrissy, they both came to Miss Kelley for help." Max spoke as they all looked down at the files. "They both were having headaches, bad headaches that wouldn't go away. And then...then the nightmares. Trouble sleeping. They'd wake up in a cold sweat. And then they started seeing things. Bad things. From their past. And these visions, they just...they kept on getting worse and worse, until eventually...everything ended."

Clove wrapped her arms around her waist from behind and leaned her head on her shoulder, hoping her warmth would provide at least an ounce of support and comfort.

"Vecna's curse." Robin nodded.

"Chrissy's headaches started a week ago." Max pointed out. "Fred's six days ago. I've been having them for five days."

Clove kept it together for Max's sake, but deep down she wanted to cry, wanted to scream, wanting to hurt something or someone. She was lost between angry and sadness. She knew what happened to Chrissy and Fred, she knew it perfectly. She hadn't even been very close with either of them and the way they died still hurt. This was her girlfriend. The same girl that stuck with her through out her year of insecurities when she questioned if Max even wanted to be with her. The same girl that didn't give up on her despite deserving it at times, because she understood that deep down she was doing it for Max to leave her, because she thought she deserved better. Clove would never get someone like Max, no one would ever do that. She'd never love anyone the way she did her.

"I don't know how long I have. All I know is that, for Fred and Chrissy, they both died less than 24 hours after their first vision." Max's voice broke as she tossed her hand around slightly. "And I just saw that goddam clock, so.. looks like i'm gonna die tomorrow."

Clove shoved her head into Max's neck more as she shut her eyes. The sound of one of the doors opening got all of their attention. Clove leaned off Max some, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they followed Steve toward the hallway. He gripped a lamp, yanking it back as a figure ran around the corner.

"It's me!" Lucas' yelled as he threw his hands up.

"Lucas?" Nancy squinted as she shined her light on him.

"Lucas!" Clove yelled as she ran to him.

"It's me." Lucas exhaled, catching Clove in a hug. "Where did you go? I thought Eddie stole you before Eddie was revealed to not be a murder."

"Max attacked me in my house." she pulled back as he panted. "Have you been stabbed? Why can't your breath? Want one of my anxiety pills? I got em on me."

"I was biking for eight miles." he clutched his chest with deep breaths.

"Why didn't you walkie? We would have gotten you, fool." Clove held his shoulders. "As my therapist says, deep breath, then breath out slowly."

"Clove, not the time for a therapy session." Steve cut in.

"Give me a second. Shit." Lucas clutched his chest. "We've got a code red."

"What?" Steve shook his head.

"Dustin." Lucas pulled Clove with him to stand before the Henderson boy. "I've been with Jason, Patrick, and Andy, and they've gone totally off the rails. They're trying to capture Eddie, and they think you know where he is. You're in terrible danger."

"They know?" Cloves eyes widened. "Gareth tossed us under the bus?"

"After his hand was nearly broke!" Lucas ranted.

"What!" Clove called. "Not my favorite young man, Gareth!"

"I know!" Lucas ranted. "Moral of the story, Dustin, you are in a shit ton of danger!"

"All right. Yeah, that definitely sucks, but we've got bigger problems than Jason now." Dustin inhaled as he stared at him. Lucas looked to Clove, a similar look in her eye.

That night, as everyone slept, Clove couldn't. She took Mikes bedroom, after staying plenty of nights in there, and waited for Max to join her. She said she'd be up soon, but it had been nearly an hour and there was no sight of her. Clove got out of Mikes bed, carefully creeping down the stairs to avoid Robin and Nancy in her room. She opened the basement, knowing which ones squeaked the loudest, stepping over them. She saw the boys asleep, smiling at each of them before turning to see Max at the desk.

The redhead looked back when she heard her feet. "You need a bell."

"You're probably right." Clove agreed as Max moved some for the blonde to sit on her lap, wrapping her arms around her neck and laying her head on her shoulder. Max gave a little smile, resting her head on hers. "I'm sorry, for being such a bad girlfriend before I figured everything out. For not just being honest."

"Clove, that was a year ago." Max said in return. "We've already talked about this. I understand your mind."

"Still, it's not an excuse." she sat up to look at her. "I should have just been honest with you about feeling insecure about our relationship instead of purposely trying to make you see the bad. That's stupid, especially when I love to talk, and even th-"

"Clover." Max smiled as she used her full name. "I know. You've told me this before. You're gay in the eighties, obviously you questioned our relationship and, yeah, maybe expressed it in the wrong ways, but that's changed. That was forever ago, and now you've figured things out and your mental health is better. That played a big part in everything. I don't blame you, all that matters is this past year. And while things have sucked, you're the one thing that i've actually enjoyed."

Clove gave a sad smile as her eyes watered. "We're gonna figure this stupid thing out."

"We might not." Max shook her head.

"We will." Clove nodded her head. "I'm gonna fight for it. And you should know by now that I usually get what I want."

Max had to laugh. "Yeah, I guess you do."

Clove smiled, leaning into her again as she kissed her cheek and laid her head back on her shoulder.

"Okay, be honest. Uh, do you guys understand any of this?" Steve looked up from the paper the group was looking over.

"Get there." Clove waved him off with a sipped her her orange juice.

"No." Lucas said honestly.

"Pretty straightforward." Dustin shrugged.

"Oh, straightforward, really?" Steve scoffed.

"Depends how much you know about stuff that isn't suppose to exist." Clove looked up at him. "Something tells me you didn't spend high school learning about D&D?"

"No, Clove, I didn't. Because I actually like sleeping with woman." Steve mocked her as she rose her hands in surrender.

"What's confusing to you?" Dustin sided with the blonde. "So far, everyone Vecna has cursed has died, except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him."

"We don't even know if he was cursed. How can Vecna have existed back in the '50s? It doesn't make sense." Steve shook his head as he paced like Clove did yesterday.

"Far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down." Dustin shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh but you're not gonna yell at him?" Clove turned her head to him in disbelief. "Have I not been fighting for equality all year?"

"He doesn't breath like an animal when pacing!" Dustin yelled back at her.

"Hey." Lucas scolded them both. "Enough."

"The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions." Dustin sighed as he looked to Steve again. "I wouldn't be surprised if it predates the dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs? What are we-" Steve started as he stopped pacing.

"Okay." Lucas cut in again. "But if a gate didn't exist in the '50s, how did Vecna get through?"

"And what's his purpose?" Clove tilted her head.

"And why now?" Lucas nodded.

"And why then." Steve stopped pacing as he looked at the three. "Just pops out of the 50s, kills one family, and he's like, 'I'm good.' And poof, he just disappears. Just...gone? Only to return thirty years later to start killing some random teens? No, I don't buy it. Straightforward my ass. Honestly, Henderson, a little humility now and then, it wouldn't hurt you."

"Sorry."he sighed, looking to Max, still at Mikes desk.. "Any idea what she's writing?"

Clove watched the back of her head. "Carful. She does have eyes in the back of her head."

"Did she sleep?" Dustin shook his head.

"I mean, would you?" Lucas looked over to him with a small shrug.

Clove looked to the stairs ad Robin and Nancy ran down. Nancy held a box of Breakfast Bars to Clove. "For you because you put the idea in my head."

"I did?" Clove gapped at her.

"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions we are now rock-star psychology students at the University of Norte Dame." Robin held up two files, Clove still seemed confused. "You did a speech at Norte Dame. To talk about how Hawkins High will like to host a bake sale to help students raise money for text books. Nancy wrote an article about it for the newspaper."

"That's right, you drove me!" Clove smiled as she gave a little bow. "Happy to help."

"I'm now Ruth." Nancy smiled.

"And i'm now Rose." Robin nodded her head.

"Nice GPA." Dustin looked down at the number.

"Thanks." Nancy sat up straight. "So we called Pennhurst Asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics-"

"To which they said no." Robin sighed.

"But we landed a three o'clock with the director." Nancy continued to explain.

"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor." Robin shrugged with a bright smile.

"And then maybe we can rid Max of this curse." Nancy nodded to Clove

"How big is this maybe?" she gave a serious look.

"You'll be the first to know what size maybe this is." Robin reassured her.

"Yeah, about that. We're been doing our Victor Creel homework, and, uh...we got some questions." Steve grabbed all the papers.

"Lots of questions." Lucas nodded his head.

"So do we. Hopefully, Victor has the answers." Nancy stood up as Robin followed.

"Wait-Wait-Wait a second. Uh..where's mine?" Steve gave a nervous chuckle at the two files. Only two.

"I can feel you staring at me." Max voiced with her back turned.

"Staring?" Clove asked in disbelief.

"Did you need something?" Lucas cleared his throat.

They all kept their eyes off her as she walked over, standing infront of the couch. "You can look at me now."

Clove nodded as she looked up. Max held an envelope out. "For you, Prez."

"For you. For you. And for you." Max gave the trio the other ones. "And give these to Mike, El, and Will. If you ever hear from them again."

All four of them started to break the envelope.

"Don't open them now!" Max yelled at each of them.

"Jesus." Clove clutched her heart. "You scared me."

"Don't...okay." Dustin cleared his throat as he dropped his into his lap. "What is this about?"

"It's, um...it's a fail-safe." Max nodded as she looked down. "For after. If things don't work out."

"Woah, Max. Things are gonna work out." Lucas shook his head at her.

"No!" Max rose her voice in his direction. "No, I don't need you to reassure me and tell me it's all gonna work out. Because people have been telling me that my entire life and it's almost never true. It's never true. And I mean, of course this asshole curses me. Should've seen that one coming."

Clove frowned, tucking her letter into the waist band of her shorts. Max stared at her before she looked away, eyes beginning to fill up again. They fixed upon the walkie on the desk. "If we go to East Hawkins, will this still reach Pennhurst?"

"Of course." Dustin nodded.

"Wait, why are we talking about East Hawkins?" Steve frowned his eyebrows.

"Do you want me to keep you company?" Clove got out of the car with Max when Steve pulled up to the graveyard.

"No, you stay in the car." she nodded to her.

"Max, what happened at your house?" Clove frowned, because she didn't want to talk about it when she stormed from her trailer with fear in her eyes. "You can talk to me. Whatever you say, I will listen to you."

"Look, Clove, I know your thing is talking and that you're good at it, but mine just isn't." Max snapped at her slightly. She didn't mean to be hurtful, but after the day she's already had, she just needed to do this. "Just say in the car, please."

Steve poked his head out the window when Max walked off. "You good, Miss Thang?"

"Yeah." Clove exhaled as she crossed her arms over her stomach. "I just...have to try to understand."

The boys got out of the car to stand around with Clove. She repetitively tied and untied her platform shoes, moving on to doing the same to Dustin's. Steve exhaled loudly.. "All right, that's enough."

"Steve, just give her some time." Lucas rolled his eyes.

"I have, okay? I'm calling it. She wants to get a lawyer, she can." Steve waved them off as he headed up the hill toward Max.

"Heart anything from El or Mike yet?" Lucas looked over at Clove, knowing she was trying to reach them last night.

"Nothing. Line just goes silent." she shook her head with an exhale. "Which is weird because it was working fine when I called the morning of Wills birthday."

"Maybe Joyce yanked it off the wall again." Dustin shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe so." Lucas agreed, looking over at Clove. "Clove?"

She stared at Steve shaking Max. The blonde didn't say anything, running over quickly. The boys were on her heels, Steve's yells getting louder and louder as they made it over. "What happened? Did she say anything?"

"No, she was just there." Steve ranted.

Clove fell on her knees infront of Max, holding her face gently. "Max. Maxine. Hey, look, look, you can come back. Can you hear us?"

"Max!" Dustin called when Cloves voice started to shake.

"Max, you gotta get out of there." Lucas kneeled with Clove.

"Max." Clove's voice was more of a whimper now as everything started to blur. "Please come back to me. I know you can. We've got so much to do still."

"Max!" Steve yelled before gripping Dustin. "Call Nancy and Robin! Call Nancy and Robin!"

"Dustin, hurry!" Clove cried out as Dustin ran off. She went back to trying to her Max up. "Please don't take her from me, please don't take her from me."

Lucas held Clove with one arm as he shook Max with the other. "Max!"

"Wake up!" Steve yelled.

"Hey!" Dustin ran over. "Running Up That Hill!"

"What!" Steve yelled.

"Max's song." Dustin dropped the cassette tapes. "Nancy and Robin said to make her listen to her favorite song."

"Jesus christ, why didn't she use the color codes I made?" Clove ranted as she looked through the tapes. "Running Up That Hill!"

"Give me it!" Lucas hurried to put it into the walkman.

Dustin secured the headphones over Max's ears. "Now!"

But, they were late. Lucas hit play and she began to float. When he fell back, he took Clove with him by default. The blonde stared up at her girlfriend, high in the sky. Her empty stomach made her feel even worse. "No!"

"Max!" the boys yelled.

"Max, wake up!" Clove cried up to her, her head strained so far that her throat was hurting. Crying and looking up gave a bad taste in her mouth, but she didn't notice it much. "Max, please! Come home! Come back to me!"

Max's body fell, hitting the ground as she cried out in fear, thrashing around. Clove dropped onto her knees quickly as Max immediately latched onto her. The blondes arms locked around her, feeling her heart beat, hearing her breath, knowing she was here. "You're okay. You're here with me. You're okay."

"I'm here." Max gripped onto her tightly, letting the familiar cherry smell slowly calm her down. "I'm with you."

•

kylie speaks

idk if i wanna cry in sadness
or cuteness