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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ ʏᴏᴜ
ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴍᴇ ғᴇᴇʟ ꒱


❝ I LIKE THE FEELIN'
YOU'RE GIVIN' ME ❞

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"So, who were you pissed at earlier?" Jessie asked as they approached the arcade a little while later.

"Lucas," Max answered simply. "All the boys, really. Have they always been like this?"

The brunette shrugged. "Sure. You shouldn't try so hard, you know. They're not that great to be around." She gave the redhead an uncharacteristically charming smile. "I think that girls are much better to hang out with."

The other girl gave an amused chuckle as she pushed open the doors. "I have to agree with you there. Come on."

Curiously, Jessie followed her inside the dark space. She'd never been inside the arcade before as she never had quarters to spare but had heard much about it from the boys. Almost immediately, her ears were assaulted by the beeps and repetitive music of the consoles that stood in rows around the room. She winced at the noise and quickly placed her headphones over her ears, sighing with relief when the sound became muted.

Despite the fact that it was approaching four in the afternoon and quite bright outside, the lights indoors had been dimmed until only the neon illuminations of screens and decorative signage on the walls lit up the area. The floor was mostly clean with crumbs of arcade food gathered around the most popular games.

She startled when she felt a hand grasp hers which was followed by a tug on her arm. Max rolled her eyes at the brunette's hesitation. "Let's go!"

Jessie allowed the girl to pull her farther into the unfamiliar space to one of the back consoles that had the least amount of people nearby. She grimaced slightly at the sight of sticky buttons that were used to play the game before she turned an expectant gaze on the redhead. "Alright, what do we do?"

"Don't tell me you've never been to the arcade before!"

Flatly, she responded, "I've never been to the arcade before." At the redhead's rather shocked look, she shrugged again. "You don't have to look so surprised. I'm sure lots of people in Hawkins have never been to an arcade. You'll just have to show me how to play."

"Wow," Max said after a moment. "I thought with your friends— sorry, acquaintances—being who they were you'd have at least one top score on a game."

"Nope," Jessie replied easily.

"Alright. Well, do you have any quarters?"

"Probably, hold on." Despite her misgivings about wasting money on such an unnecessary activity, she'd already shared so many secrets that she was sure if she added another one to the list, Max would be gone for good. So, she rummaged around in her many pockets instead of saying that she really couldn't afford to spend more than fifty cents on a game.

Thankfully, she produced the right amount of money and slid the coins into the indicated slot. The screen lit up to reveal rows and dead ends that formed a maze with gold coins lining the paths. In the center of the screen, multi-colored ghosts began to float out of the box to become obstacles in the game.

"Right," Max began. "In Pac-Man, you're supposed to collect the coins with the yellow circle there while you avoid the ghosts. If you collect everything you get a perfect score."

The brunette snorted. "That's not gonna happen. How do I move?"

"Like this," the redhead said. She dropped Jessie's hand to grasp the controller as she demonstrated the movement of the character. Jessie nodded in response and took control after the other girl let go. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she focused on the screen to follow the directions.

As Max watched the brunette's attention hone in on the game, she couldn't help but smile slightly. Like any normal person, she'd been anxious about moving to a new town, especially one as small as Hawkins after living in California. It also didn't help that her relationship with her stepbrother was contentious at best.

Somehow, though, she'd found people she could see herself becoming friends with and had even become. . . fond of the unique brunette. She liked how Jessie stuck with her dorky braids and stupid coat no matter how the world changed around her. She liked that Jessie stood up for herself and wouldn't let others bully her because of her different background, even if it did make her a bit prickly.

Jessie groaned as she accidentally hit a ghost and the game ended. "Dammit. I knew I wouldn't be good at this." She turned to the other girl and looked at her curiously. "What?"

The redhead guessed that she must have caught her expression. Instead of trying to play it off, though, she shrugged. "You're cute, kooky."

Rather than turning pink like Max had thought she would, the brunette smirked slightly. "So are you, Benny. You wanna show me how to play this game properly?"

"If you insist," she replied as she stepped up behind the other girl. This time, she put in the money for the game before she placed her hand on the controller only to find Jessie's already there.

As the game began, the brunette found her concentration harder to come by and was glad that Max's hand was helping to guide hers. The girl's other hand was placed on the solid top of the console so that Max was essentially hugging her from behind. Jessie was taller than the redhead, though, so the shorter girl had to stand on her toes slightly to see the screen properly.

This time, they were able to make it to the end of the level with their teamwork. Jessie turned and grinned at the redhead as she held up her free hand. "I guess you could say that we make a totally tuuuubular team," she announced, drawing out the vowels in the slang word.

Max rolled her eyes in amusement but offered her own hand to complete the high-five. "You are such a dork."

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

They stayed in the arcade for a few more hours until the sun began to set for good. Reluctantly, Max pulled away from their final game. "I should go call my brother."

"Brother?" Jessie echoed, having remembered her reference from before.

"Stepbrother," she explained. "I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't pick me up. He's not exactly the. . . caring type."

"I'll wait here," the brunette offered uncertainly, unused to having family that could be interacted with.

The redhead nodded and went to go use the phone while she leaned against the Pac-Man console. From where she stood, it looked like the conversation wasn't going well. When she returned, Jessie looked at her expectantly and the girl grumbled, "he'll be here."

They went outside to wait at the curb but the good mood Max had been in was clearly gone. The brunette stuck her hands in her pockets as she took in the bitter expression on the other girl's face. "At least he's coming to pick you up, right? I mean, you thought he wouldn't."

"I'd almost rather walk home," she said with her blue eyes fixed on the pavement in front of her. "He's only coming because he wants to keep tabs on who I hang out with."

Jessie quieted. "Oh." (Because she certainly wouldn't pass the test.)

"It's just so fucking stupid. He only cares because he's worried about his reputation," Max continued. "If I wasn't 'family' he wouldn't give two shits. I should be able to be friends with whoever I want because who cares what this town thinks. He pretends he does it because he's loyal but that's just BS that he feeds his dad. It's so messed up."

"Yeah," the brunette mumbled as she looked over at the other girl. While she had her own family problems, they weren't any that they could talk out and eventually be resolved. "But you have your mom, right?"

"It's not like she does anything," she said scathingly. "She lets my stepdad run the house because she doesn't want to say the wrong thing." Max glanced over at her and seemed to suddenly realize who she was talking to. "Sorry. I don't know why I'm telling you all this."

"It's fine," Jessie told her. "I mean, it's better than keeping it all in, right?"

Max gave her a faint smile. "I suppose. I've never told anyone that, you know."

Unable to stop herself, Jessie reached over and squeezed the redhead's hand but dropped it quickly before anyone could see. "I won't tell anyone," she promised quietly.

It wasn't long before the loud engine of a car reached their ears and roared into the parking lot. The redhead sent her an almost nervous smile. "Well, I'll see you around."

"Yeah. See you," she agreed. She watched as the other girl approached the car and got in. Her stepbrother wasted no time in driving off as soon as she closed the door.

Jessie could only imagine what kind of conversation they were having and she knew it certainly wasn't anything good. (This was true as Billy warned the younger girl to stay away from 'those types of people.') 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

The next day, Jessie was doing chores around the house when her radio crackled to life: "'guys, this is Dustin. Does anyone copy? This is a code red! I repeat, code red!'"

She rolled her eyes at the sound of his voice but didn't shut off the radio. Instead, she ignored it and continued with her current task, which was folding her laundry. She was trying to get through her responsibilities so she could go out and check on the farm fields again so she didn't have time for whatever problems the party was having.

However, her radio went off again a half an hour later: "'guys, this is Dustin again. Does anyone copy? This is a code red! I repeat, code red!'"

Jessie groaned at the repeated warning and tossed aside her rag, having moved on to cleaning the dishes. With a sigh, she picked up the receiver and clicked the on button. "Dustin, we're busy! Can't you deal with it yourself?"

"'Jessie? Jessie, is that you?'"

"God, yes! Can't you get anyone else?"

"'No one's picking up. I seriously need you to come over!'"

If it had been Mike asking for her help, she would've immediately said no. However, she could hear the panic in the boy's voice and while she tried to keep to herself, she wasn't about to be responsible for the end of the world. "Ugh, fine! I'll be over in twenty!" 

"'Meet me at Mike's!'"

[edited jul. 2022]