CHAPTER THREE.
because you are you and that is magnificent.

ho, beans! i have returned and even though school is kicking my ass i shall do my best to deliver the chapters quickly.

EDIT: ok so this chapter looked way longer in draft than it does as an actual chapter wtf
—

nineteen woke up with a start as the bedroom door was slammed close. eleven walks in, holding the phone to her ear. "..where are you?" she says. nineteen grumbles and lays back down, trying to go back to sleep. she hears eleven's muffled conversation with, probably, mike and shoves the covers over her head.

"do you lie?" she then hears and her eyes slowly open. she takes down the cover.

nineteen turns around towards the short haired girl as she pulls the phone away to look at it in confusion. eleven then turns and walks out and she hears the ding of the phone and hopper say something. eleven doesn't reply and instead walks back in, slamming the door.

"what?" nineteen asks, snuggling into her pillow and planning on going back to sleep.

"mike." eleven states, somewhat angrily. nineteen lifts her head slightly, peeking through one eye. "i think he's lying to me."

nineteen sits up, crossing her legs and patting down her bed head. she furrows her eyebrows. "why?"

"i don't know." she says, pacing back and forth. "he.. just.." she then stops. "weird." she says, using a word lucas had said once.

nineteen purses her lips. eleven sits down next to her and puts her hands on her knees. she sighs. "i don't know..."

nineteen scratches her bare calf and turns to eleven. she closes her eyes and tries to find mike, zoning in on him.

it's difficult today. honestly, there's some days where she has to use all of her energy, and other days where she can't get anyone out of her head. those are both bad.

her eyes snap open as she finds mike.

"he's lying." she states, confirming eleven's fears. eleven's mouth drops open slightly, and her eyebrows slant. she looks down at her lap sadly.

nineteen scoots closer to the girl and lays her head on her shoulder, grabbing her hand. "i'm sorry. maybe he's got a good reason?"

"why did he lie?" she asks to no one in particular, ignoring nineteen. nineteen respond, as they sit in comfortable silence. el lightly leans her head on nineteen's.

the moment is interrupted when a drop of blood falls onto nineteen's hand that's in her lap. she immediately stands up and walks to the vanity, grabbing the box of tissues and wiping away the blood from her cheeks.

"i hate it." she says, folding the tissue. it's like she can't even think about her power without bleeding. it gets in the way of everything!

she throws away the bloody tissues and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath in. the bed squeaks as eleven stands up and then arms wrap around her shoulders. eleven lays her cheek on her back and sighs.

"i'm glad i have you." she says. nineteen smiles, grabbing eleven's wrist that's across her chest. "me too."

she breathes in, looking in the mirror at herself.

"what do you wanna do today?" she asks, glancing behind her. eleven moves her cheek and shakes her head roughly, her nose and forehead rubbing against nineteen's shirt.

"i have to do something." she says, pulling back. nineteen turns and they face each other. "but.. i don't know." she sighs. "i just don't understand."

nineteen stares at the ground before a thought pops into her head. she looks up quickly.

"max!"

they get ready quickly. eleven was all for the idea after nineteen had tried to explain. she just wanted to find out why mike was lying.

the walk to max's was a while, but nothing that nineteen wasn't used to. she voluntarily took walks, even when she would sneak out and go to steve's house in the middle of the night. the journey between the cabin and the harrington house took at least 45 minutes on foot.

when they reach there, max is outside her house, skating around quickly. she lightly jumps in the air, doing a trick on her skateboard. she flips slightly and stumbles a bit. when she tries again, she stumbles again and almost falls. the skateboard goes rolling towards the two other girls.

it lands right in front of eleven's foot and she slams her foot down on it. it pops upwards and she picks it up. nineteen recognizes that she copied it from a part on miami vice.

eleven and nineteen walk forward. max is staring kind of intimidated yet confused. she feels better that nineteen's there, though. since she's hardly said a word to eleven.

eleven and nineteen stop in front of max. "hi." eleven says, handing max her skateboard.

"hi?" max says, completely confused. nineteen purses her lips. eleven plays with the pockets on her pants and glances beside her at nineteen.

"c-can we talk?" she asks. max looks confused for a moment as she looks to nineteen. nineteen nods and then sighs. "it's mike." she reveals for the short haired girl.

max's eyebrows raise and she nods. she nods her head to the house next to them and then walks up the steps and towards the door. eleven and nineteen glance at each other before walking after the redhead.

-

"and then he said he-he missed me."

eleven and nineteen sat next to each other on max's bed. max stood in front of them, pacing back and forth.

"and then he just hung up." eleven finishes.

nineteen, despite not having any type of boy problems, (unless you count steve stealing the last poptart last week) she felt pretty supportive and understanding of eleven's situation.

"he's a piece of shit." max states, turning to them.

"what?" eleven immediately asks. nineteen's mouth drops open slightly. she knew what that word meant, but was given strict orders by literally almost everyone around her not to say it.

"mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, as we've established, and his nana obviously isn't sick. i can't believe he didn't even think of nineteen knowing he would be lying." she scoffs. she then walks towards them, a triumphant smirk on her face.

"i guarantee you, him and lucas are playing atari right now."

"but friends don't lie." eleven replies. that was what confused her so much. mike had stressed it so much, so why wasn't he doing it?

"yeah, well, boyfriends lie. all the time." max says, putting emphasis on her words. nineteen's eyes widen and her and eleven look at each other in shock.

max suddenly kneels in front of her.

"you're going to stop calling him. you're going to ignore his calls. as far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist."

"doesn't exist?" eleven immediately asks.

"he treated you like garbage. he treats blue like garbage! blue, i know it hurts you." she says, turning her best friend.

nineteen inhales, looking down. "he just...it doesn't... i-" she's at a loss for words so she just sighs. max turns back to eleven.

"doesn't it make you mad that he's being mean to your best friend? to your sister?"

nineteen's heart feels like it's gonna launch out of her chest at max's choice of words. sister. eleven's her sister. her best friend.

eleven looks over to her. she bites her lip slightly.

"yeah..." she almost whispers. "yeah." she turns back to max. "makes me mad."

"then you're gonna treat him like garbage. give him a taste of his own medicine." the redhead states.

"give him the medicine." eleven states, nodding.

"mm-hmm. and if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself... dump his ass."

eleven's eyes widen and the corners of nineteen's mouth quirk up as she stares at max.

"come on." max suddenly says, taking one of eleven and nineteen's hands in both of hers. "where are we going?" eleven asks.

"to have some fun." max says. "there's more to life than stupid boys, you know. be lucky that you don't have to deal with this bullshit, blue."

nineteen nods. "okay." max chuckles at that and leads them out of her bedroom and to the door, where she takes them on one of the wildest rides of their lives.

-

"oh, no." nineteen suddenly gasps. she feels of her face.

"what? what is it?" max asks, leaning forward. nineteen glances up at her and then eleven. "i left my glasses." she says quietly.

"glasses? you got glasses?" max asks with a small smile. nineteen nods slowly. max leans back.

"well i can't wait to see 'em." she looks out the bus window.

nineteen turns back forwards. she smiles at that and lightly slumps on one side, her shoulders rubbing with eleven's.

soon, the bus pulls to a stop and the girls get up. eleven walks down the steps of the bus first, followed by nineteen and then max, excitedly looking out. she squeezes herself in between the brunettes.

"so, what do you think?" she asks, looking up at the building that had so many people entering and exiting. on the top, it spelled out in bright words: starcourt mall.

nineteen's eyebrows scrunch together. this wasn't right.

eleven must be thinking the same thing, because max looks between the two of them before asking, "what's wrong?"

"too many people." eleven tells her. "against the rules."

"hop will be mad." nineteen adds.

"seriously?"

nineteen looks to the redhead in the middle of them. "you guys have superpowers. what's the worst that could happen."

i could kill everyone. nineteen grimaces.

stop it.

nineteen looks down at eleven who was staring at her with clouded eyes. she then glances back up.

not stupid.

nineteen bites her lip, and nods as well. not stupid.

they walk forward amongst the crowd of people. max has a tight grip on both of their hands and is chattering as she points out different stores in the mall.

max leads them to the center of the building, where the sun shines through the glass ceiling. nineteen's looking everywhere in astonishment, the look on her face as sweet as can be.

it's so overwhelming. she's never seen anything like it!

"so, what should we do first?" nineteen and eleven look at each other, not even knowing what to say. their mouths are dropped into small o's.

"neither of you have ever been shopping before, have you?" max chuckles. the two girls shake their heads.

"well, then i guess we're just gonna have to try everything."

nineteen glances up at the ceiling again, before max lets out a, "ooh. come on" and is tugging her and eleven by their hands.

she takes off running, and the sisters do the same, excitedly smiling. max runs into a store, and nineteen doesn't even get a chance to see the name of it. her mind is moving so fast, she doesn't even hear any voices in her head, besides her own.

there's bright clothes hanging everywhere in there. max leads them over to a section and tells them to just start looking. the girls are lost, though, having never been taught literally anything about it.

they touch every item they see, mouths hanging open in wonder. the clothes are all so pretty! how are they to choose?

eleven moves quickly, before suddenly stopping at a piece of clothing hanging off of a pole on a table.

"do you like that?" max asks eleven as she stares up at it.

"how do i know.. what i like?" eleven asks.

"you just try things on. until you find something that feels like you." max looks up at the shirt.

"like me?" the short haired girls repeats.

"yeah. not hopper. not mike..." she turns to her right and looks at nineteen. "especially not steve." nineteen looks down as max smiles at her. she looks back up.

"you."

—

hey guys how are y'all

so this whole mike and nineteen thing is gonna go deeper because it's a real situation and i think it deserves a plot point to institute max's actual reason for mike being a 'piece of shit' and all.

headcanon: nineteen is fluent in russian, japanese, and german. english is still rough for her, despite mostly being around english people. she knows what type of guns are what and how to kill a man with her bare hands and without using her powers. even though brenner was head of the lab, she was directed under a different section of the system. she was trained to be a weapon.