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E R I N

ERIN CARVER HAD MANY reasons to be repulsed by the situation that she had found herself in. She was walking along a desolate railroad, dropping chunks of uncooked meat for every few steps that she was taking. The smell wafted into her nose, traveling upwind from her metal bucket.

And on top of the slight nausea that Erin had been battling from the odor, she had to listen to Steve Harrington and Dustin Henderson explain to her what the hell was going on. The nervousness she felt from hearing the true details of Will Byers' disappearance only made the pit in her stomach grow larger. But not even that wasn't the brunt of the conversation that Erin was listening to.

Dustin had to explain to both Steve and Erin what exactly the creature was that he'd held captive. Amidst the boy's explanation, it was easy to conclude from early on in his story that he was trying to use it to impress a girl he liked. Much to Erin's dismay, Dustin's description of the mystery girl was beginning to sound an awful lot like Max.

Erin Carver didn't know why having to hear the boy talking about Max was worsening her mood—it just was.

Even though she had several other things to adjust to that day, the boy's crush on Max seemed to be the one thing that she couldn't quite wrap her head around. And in the past few hours, Erin had been thrown face-first into things a lot worse than Dustin's moping.

Quickly after she'd unexpectedly discovered Dart, Dustin Henderson scooped Erin from the ground behind his shed, remarking that she already knew too much and that he'd explain the rest on the way. The girl had no idea where exactly the two were heading, but she had little say in the matter before Dustin began to quickly move on his feet.

The two then managed to grab ahold of Steve Harrington, amidst their empty search for Mike Wheeler. Apparently, Steve was in on it too—whatever this all was. And, similarly to what happened with Erin, Dustin also didn't give Steve much of a choice when including him on this escapade.

But by the time the two kids finally got Steve back to the basement, Dart had long-since made his escape, leaving the three with an entirely different assortment of problems. Locating the creature would soon turn into a task destined to occupy the entirety of their next day.

After what seemed like an eternity of Erin having to listen to Steve giving Dustin his signature girl advice, the three stepped out of the woods and into the old junkyard. The three had hardly gotten a chance to take in the landscape of their future battlefield before they realized that they weren't alone.

"I said medium-well!" Someone shouted from the other side of the junkyard, in regards to the pile of meat at its entrance.

The three had to look up from the pile in order to see who it was. Lucas Sinclair was the one marching up to the junkyard, wearing a wide, unsuspecting smile and walking next to someone unexpected. Steve turned his head towards Dustin and Erin. "Who's that?"

Max Mayfield was walking right next to Lucas, resulting in subtly shocked stares from Erin and Dustin. She seemed nervous, hugging her sleeved arms tightly to her body, as she offered a shy smile to the three of them. It only took Steve a few moments to piece together who this girl was, just by the bothered look on Dustin's face.

Immediately, Dustin pulled Lucas behind an old, rusty car in order to bicker about whatever it was that was bothering him. Subsequently, Steve, Max and Erin began working in silence, scrapping together pieces of sheet metal with the goal of later reinforcing the old bus.

They'd all been walking around the yard for what seemed like much longer than the few minutes it'd actually been. Erin, once again, began making her journey from the other end of the junkyard, towards the bus, dragging along a wobbly piece of what used to be an old metal roof. "Is all of this stuff—new to you, too?"

Erin turned her heads towards the familiar voice. Max was waiting for the girl to finish approaching the front of the bus, balancing a thin, metal sheet between the ground and her hand. The girl didn't need much time to think about the question presented to her.

"Yeah." She nervously responded, before turning back around and walking backwards to drag the metal through the dirt.

"Good," Max cheekily started. Erin leaned her metal scrap against the pile that they'd accumulated, then she began walking back to the other corner of the junkyard, away from the bus. "That means I'm not alone in all of this."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Erin stopped in her tracks, waiting a few flustered moments before turning around and facing Max. Her shy smile was fighting against every bit of her willpower. Max noticed it, matching Erin's smile without a second thought. The girl averted her shy eyes from Max's before turning back to complete her journey across the junkyard.

Erin Carver allowed her smile to overcome her cheeks, as soon as Max could no longer see her face. She had no idea why the minuscule conversation had completely changed her mood, but she wasn't about to complain.

That was until Erin grabbed another sheet of metal, and began to make her way back to the pile by the bus, where Max still stood. The redhead seemed distracted by something on the other side of the courtyard: the two boys bickering on the other side of a rusty car.

Max's attention being on the two boys who obviously had a crush on her was enough to reverse Erin's momentary flattery. The girl's smile immediately fell from her face, as she tightened her lips and began advancing towards the pile of metal.

Once she was close enough to the front of the bus, Max, once again, turned to face Erin—only for a moment—before gluing her eyes back to the tops of Dustin and Lucas' heads. "What do you think's going on over there?"

Erin was taken aback by Max's obliviousness about the two boys. It seemed evident to anyone with working eyes and ears what exactly the two were loudly whispering about, behind that car. If not actually arguing about the presence of the two girls who were supposed to be kept in the dark about all of this, their unspoken motives were more of a competition to win the heart of the new girl.

Not caring to hide the disbelief on her face, Erin forced a tight-lipped smile and sent it Max's way. "With those two, there's almost no way of telling."

With a slight huff and somewhat of a dramatic tossing of the metal sheet from the girl's hand to the pile, Erin was on yet another trip across the junk yard. This time she was almost eager to get to the other side.

"Wait!" Max spoke up. Erin's eyebrows raised, as she turned around—optimistic that Max would soon realize that she already had the answer to her own question. The redhead glanced between Erin and the two boys on the other side of the junkyard a few more times, before jogging to catch up with the girl. She lowered her voice. "D—Do you think that this is all some sort of joke?"

Erin Carver's eyebrows immediately furrowed. Max was too busy staring down the boys on the other side of the yard to notice the look on the blonde's face.

The girl stared at Max, who continued to look over the car at Dustin and Lucas. She couldn't quite pinpoint the source of her discomfort about what the redhead was saying and doing. The girl didn't know whether it was Max discrediting everything that she'd been through in the past few days, or simply that the girl was focusing on two boys, not knowing about their obsession with her.

Rationally, the girl realized that the source was the latter, considering Max had seen no real evidence of the story she was being told and hadn't known what happened to Erin on Halloween. Irrationally, however, the girl decided that her frustration was caused by Max's obliviousness and not Erin's growing competitiveness over any gust of attention that she could get from the new girl.

But, despite the girl's denial, what was happening in Erin Carver's busy mind was the process of figuring out how to get Max's attention away from the two boys and back onto her, in that moment. The girl then reflected on the advice that Steve Harrington had given Dustin, earlier. Surely if the older boy could win over Nancy Wheeler, he knew something about girls that Erin seemingly didn't.

Max finally tore her eyes away from Dustin and Lucas, taking in the judgmental look on Erin's face. "What?"

"Would it surprise you?" Erin asked. For the first time in her life, she seemed to speak with an angry confidence.

Max furrowed her thin eyebrows. "Would what surprise m—"

Erin pointed across the yard, her finger aiming at the car that Dustin and Lucas were arguing behind. She then used her hands to accompany her words, as she spoke. "If those two lied to get you out here. If they made this whole thing up just to spend some time with you?"

The girl's unexpected attitude had Max's eyebrow raised almost immediately. Her eyes fluttered closed and she began to shake her head. "I don't know what you're talking ab—"

"No," Erin started, once again cutting off Max's words. The girl angrily shook her head, beginning to walk towards the other side of the junkyard. She did not travel very far before projecting her muttered voice, behind her own back, in Max's general direction. "I guess you really don't."

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Erin Carver was out past curfew, sitting in an abandoned bus, awaiting the uncertain arrival of whatever creature had escaped from Dustin's basement. The junkyard smelled of raw meat and gasoline. The girl might as well have stayed there to witness everything happen—it beat her destiny of spending another night in the closet. If not already taken by Dart, her life was pretty much bound to be over by morning, one way or another.

Although the girl was buried deep underneath several layers of life-threatening issues, she couldn't manage to keep her focus on the task at hand. Ever since her dispute with Max, the tensity in the air was all that Erin could pay attention to. The girl was wondering how long Steve Harrington's advice would take to actually start working. Waiting around for any crumb of attention that she could receive from Max seemed to build more suspense than an impending attack from Dart.

Erin Carver was not the only person nervously awaiting something within the walls of the rusty bus. Dustin was not as tame about his impatience, as he allowed himself to pace, back and forth, within the confined space. Lucas Sinclair stood by the wall, leaning against it as he fiddled around with the sleeve of his jacket. Steve couldn't quite contain himself either as he flicked his lighter open and closed, repeatedly.

Max Mayfield, however, chose to go about her anticipation in a different way.

"So you really fought one of these things before?" Her question was aimed at Steve, who sat across from her. The older boy only stopped the repetitive flicking of his lighter to shoot the girl a quick nod. Max leaned forward. "And you're like, totally, one hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"

"Shit. Don't be an idiot. Okay? It wasn't a bear." The sudden, angry voice came from Dustin Henderson. The boy's nervous pacing came to an immediate halt, in the middle of his words. Every pair of eyes was on the angry boy. Lucas, Steve, Max and Erin all watched as Dustin continued speaking, amidst a frustrated shrug. "Why are you even here if you don't believe us? Just go home."

For a few moments, everyone was taken aback by the boy's abrasiveness—especially Max. After fully absorbing his words, the girl wasted almost no time before standing to her feet and heading towards the ladder. "Sheesh. Someone's cranky. Past your bedtime?"

Erin watched in awe as Max climbed upon the roof of the bus, disappearing from everyone's view. She had no idea why the boy would suddenly be so rude to her. He'd relentlessly dealt with the girl's badgering before all of this—almost to the point where his compliance became annoying and desperate—and the girl didn't understand why he'd stop tolerating it now.

It wasn't long before Dustin continued on with his pacing, and Steve Harrington turned his head towards his curly-headed trainee. "That's good. Just show her that you don't care."

Erin Carver's face immediately softened—similarly to Dustin's—after Steve's words echoed out into the bus. But the girl wasn't in tune enough to hear Dustin maintain his carelessness on Max's behalf. She began to realize what exactly it was that just happened. The boy was taking Steve's advice, completely screwing things up with Max as a result.

Her stomach sunk when she realized that she'd done the same, just a couple of hours before. Erin had just witnessed history repeat itself out of someone else's desperation to grasp the attention of the new girl. The new girl who now sat alone on top of the bus risking her safety to be away from an uncomfortable environment created by two kids who'd been fighting for her attention.

Not only had Erin Carver probably completely ruined any pending friendship with Max—she'd also tried to changed herself, in the process. And the girl was beginning to realize that the one thing that'd been getting Max's undivided attention was being herself—no matter how embarrassed she was to do so.

With a few shakes of her head, the girl stood up from her seat on the bus, heading towards the ladder. Erin knew that she had to make things right. And she also just didn't want Max to be alone up there, in case anything were to happen. If she hated Erin, then she could do so within the parameters of the buddy system.

Erin pulled herself onto the roof, before sitting down in front of some old tires that were across from where Max was sitting. She could feel the redhead's eyes watching her every move as she adjusted herself against the cool metal. Although she couldn't tell if Max's stare was angry, she was just glad that the girl was no longer by herself.

"It reminds me of Halloween." Max huffed. Erin was surprised by how unbothered Max was by her presence, as she expected nothing but the complete opposite from the girl.

She looked over at Max, whose gaze was wandering all over the junkyard. "Huh?"

"The fog, I mean." Max tilted her head, shifting her gaze toward Erin for only a moment, before pulling it away to scan the yard.

Erin Carver looked around to see what the girl was talking about. Waves of fog concealed the piles of scrap wood and metal that littered the junkyard, only leaving their peaks to reveal themselves over the thick layer of air. The girl could feel the humidity surrounding her, as the air surrounding the bus was almost wet. The only things not making the Erin feel completely suffocated by the atmosphere were the chilly air and the girl sitting across from her.

Max leaned over, pulling herself closer into the corner of Erin's wandering eyes. "It's just suspenseful."

"And how exactly was Halloween suspenseful for you?" Erin let out a chuckle in response. She finally met Max's gaze. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who scared us."

The two girls chuckled to themselves, careful not to disturb the quiet atmosphere of the elaborate junkyard trap that they'd spent all afternoon setting.
It was Max who sucked in a breath and ended the laughter. "You would be remembering correctly."

A few moments of silence passed after Max's remark. It was clear that the two girls each had their own thoughts to ponder. Erin had just gone from being slightly afraid of the new girl, from being a different type of afraid. It wasn't fear that she was feeling anymore. It was the happy feeling brewing inside of her that she knew would be over in the blink of an eye. She'd enjoyed herself so much in Max's presence that it made her almost regretful for a future where she'd possibly never feel this way again.

"The suspense I was talking about—it came from what happened to Will, that night." Max started, breaking the silence. She finally had an answer to Erin's question, although it had obviously been asked rhetorically. Their mood straightened out in an instant—but this conversation between the two girls almost seemed inevitable. "I guess now we know what that was all about."

Erin shrunk in on herself as she began to realize what territory Max was trying to approach. The girl's curiosity was poking awfully closely to the details of that night—especially about the weird events that'd occurred after. For a few moments, she tried to figure out how she could avoid being the one doing the talking. "So Halloween was weird for you, too?"

The girl nearly cringed at her own words as she realized that she'd left room for several of Max's questions while trying to ask a question of her own. Max pulled her lips together, before looking down and shaking her head. "You have no idea."

Max seemed distracted by the thought of whatever'd happened on the night of Halloween. Erin sat across from the girl, staring at her with parted lips. The girl knew, deep down, exactly what'd happened to the new girl that night. And although the evidence was pointing to what Erin saw being real, she still continued on with her life as if it was a dream—a really bad, vivid dream that she'd even remembered smelled of cigarette smoke.

"Did something weird happen to you? After what happened to Will?" Erin didn't mean to pry, however her eagerness for the answers left her hanging onto Max's every word.

"Uh—no," Max shook her head, in response. "Not really."

The girl's words—or lack thereof—were not fulfilling Erin's necessity for an answer. She tried to act calm, not knowing if her hidden anticipation was noticeable to Max. "Well what did you do? After we all left Loch Nora?"

"Geez—A little nosy, aren't we?" Max said, playfully. Her words would've made Erin's antsy nerves skyrocket, had they been said in a conversation where she could focus on anything but getting confirmation she needed. The redhead quickly dropped her sarcastic suspicions and looked down to her fingers—those of which she fiddled around with in her lap. "Nothing. I just walked home, ate some candy and went to sleep."

Those words seemed like music to Erin's ears. Though she didn't expect Max to confess to every painful detail of what happened in her dream, the girl claiming to have walked home was more than enough evidence to contradict what Erin'd thought she'd seen.

In Erin's dream, Max and Billy were arguing about his drunk driving. The girl thought that her vision was a done-deal when she was staring out of the passenger window of Jason's car the next morning and saw that the Clifton's mailbox had, in-fact, been destroyed. But now, the coincidentally destructed property was nothing more than a result of different Halloween shenanigans to Erin Carver. And she could not have been more relieved about it.

Now that the girl had floated back down to earth and was present enough in the moment to realize that she was under Max's gaze, her usual nervous habits picked up right where they left off. "Yeah—Uh, me too."

The casual lie rolled off of the girl's tongue, as that was far from what'd happened to her on Halloween. But now that her mother's meltdown had officially become the worst part of that night, Erin sort of grew grateful.

"Do you know that movie you were telling me about? That night?" Max reignited the conversation.

The girl nodded. "Nightmare on Elm Street?"

"You never told me the name of it." The redhead started, shaking her head. She lifted her gaze from her twiddling fingers, right into the pair blue eyes that sat across from her. "But you seemed excited for it. Maybe we should go see it—you know, when this is all over."

Erin stared into Max's eyes with lifted eyebrows and parted lips. She'd been flattered enough that the girl even remembered the small detail about her. But what the girl felt about the invitation was far beyond the point of simple flattery.

"Y—Yeah," The girl started, once she realized how long she'd been staring. A smile began to form across her lips. However, this time, the girl didn't conceal it from its source. "I'd like that."

The two girls broke eye contact, keeping to themselves for a few moments. Erin could only focus on her own nervousness, until she noticed Max lift her arm, moving a few strands of her wavy hair behind her ear. The girl's eyes couldn't help but drift to Max's arm as her sleeve began to inch its way downward.

What began as Erin's nervous staring, turned into a focused stare in Max's arm, when she saw something on the girl's pale skin. The girl's suspicions quickly got the better of her, as she unexpectedly reached over and grabbed Max's forearm.

"What are y—" Max started apprehensively. Although confused by Erin's actions, the girl did not pull her arm away, and instead allowed Erin to inspect the mark on her arm.

The girl was no longer paying attention to Max's eyes that were glued onto her. She was focusing on the small, round burn mark that held a contrast against her pale skin. An unsettled feeling crept into Erin's gut, when she realized precisely what that patch of skin was in the process of healing from; a cigarette burn.

She should've known that this perfect moment was too good to be true. Max had lied to Erin about the night of Halloween the same exact way that she lied to Max. The girl quickly thought of herself as quite dense for not piecing it together sooner. Why would she expect Max to tell her the truth when she knew why the girl was so quick to brush it off? Why would Max tell even a portion of what happened to her to a complete stranger?

As the girl's nervous breaths intensified, she couldn't help but let one word slip from between her exasperated lips. "Billy."

It was only then that Max became irritable with her forearm being in Erin's grip, as she began to slowly pull her elbow back. The girl shook her head. "How do you kn—"

An echoing shriek cut off Max's words. It was something inhuman, approaching from a distance. The two girls had become so wrapped up in their conversation that they'd forgotten why they were on top of that bus, in the first place. Erin dropped the girl's arm as the two whipped their heads in the direction of the sharp noise.

What was once a peaceful moment of forgotten worries, for the girl, was completely flipped inside out ever since the moment her eyes landed on that burnt patch of skin. And as she stared off into the darkness surrounding the junkyard, Erin Carver was, once again, thrown into an entirely new assortment of problems.

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3997 words
January 3, 2023
11:33 P.M.

A/N

HAPPY (LATE) NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!

I've been planning this chapter for so long and it's finally seeing the light of day!! also, sorry for the long wait. I've been busy with the holidays, family, and my other book!!

I don't want every author's note to be "I'm sorry for how long this chapter took" so I'll try my best to get updates out faster!! And if they still take forever, I just won't mention it in the A/N anymore LOLOL

We're almost done with season 2 and I'm kind of emotional!! my babies are so cute rn.

anyways enjoy this update and I hope to see you for the next one!!

☆vote for world peace ☆