Being a girl was fun, she supposed. You could be underestimated by thousands and have the satisfaction of seeing their disbelief at seeing something deemed impossible accomplished by a woman. You could dress up for a night and flirt with everyone in a room before going back to the way you always were and pretend it never happened.

But friendship, friendship between two girls, was the best thing Max ever supposed was great about being born a girl. Everything was intimate and there wasn't discomfort or awkwardness between the two of them. There was a mutual understanding and almost whimsical serenity to the gaps in their friendship. They didn't have to second-Guess each other, and trusted each other with their lives.

Despite making friends with Erica Sinclair and Maureen Quinfrey later on in her life, she was still sure that Elle would always hold the title of knowing her heart better than Max ever did. Elle knew her inside-out and, even though Max didn't want to admit it, wished she could know her Best Friend as well she knew her.

Elle, Max supposed, was one of those girls. Her Best Friend Forever. Her genuine soulmate.

Which was why she called the fashionable brunette over to her home when she couldn't find a good outfit for her date with Mike. Snowflakes fluttered gently down the surface of her window, mounds of soft white powder clustered in her backyard and front, the roadsides alight with cheery Christmas lights and houses all decorated with the primary Christmas tree and presents glimmering beneath its green shining branches.

Fussing with her auburn hair, she worried that calling Elle over was a bad idea, not wanting her to get stuck in a traffic jam. But surprisingly, barely even a minute had gone by and Elle was already situated in her bedroom, nose as pink as a berry and lips as red as a rose. She wasn't shivering, thank god.

"Do you think this will be too over the top? I don't want to mess up my whole green only scheme. Dark green, hunter green, and camo green are way to dark. I can't find a good colour and the rest are all bright and red." The stressed redhead ranted, her voice growing increasingly shrill the more she spoke. Elle set down her Mug filled with warm cocoa and walked over towards the open closet, clothing and Jewelry in all colours strewn everywhere. Normally the brunette didn't have that much trouble with her wardrobe, Lucas not really minding what she wore as Long as she liked it ( they were the least likely to become a couple but Max wasn't complaining as Long as Elle and Lucas were happy).

"Oh Max, why are you so worried over a simple dress? Why don't you wear your grey stone bell-bottom jeans, that lovely off-the-shoulders sweater-blouse, and your little reindeer earrings with the ruby noses? Oh, you'll look so cute in a get-up like that!" Elle squealed, Brown enthusiastic eyes glancing over towards a sheepish Max.

"Um well, you see..."

"Max?" Elle asked, narrowing her eyes at the girl and placing her hands on her hips bossily.

"Is this your first date with Mike after two months of dating?!" Max winced at her tone and shook her head in response. "Oh Max, really? How Long were you going to just not go on a date with Mike?"

"I've never exactly been on a date before Mike."

"Well then you could have come to me and Joyce! Joyce would love to give you makeup tips and I could always go on a double-date with you." Elle insisted, annoyance seeping into her tone and Brown eyes filled with amusement and exasperation.

"Joyce hates me!" Max exclaimed, blue eyes wide for emphasis. "She hated me after Mike broke up with you months ago and you went into your daze." The ginger girl sighed, falling back onto her bed, arms flailed out and wavy dark orange locks spread over her pillows. Elle frowned from above her. "No she doesn't hate you. I've already told her a million times that it's not your fault."

"Really?"

"Yes I swear! Now get off that bed and try out these sweaters while we talk about your dating situation!"

Max groaned playfully, grabbing the dress that was handed to her and locking the closet door behind her.

"Can we not?"

________

Elle was right, dresses were highly overrated. Especially right since Mike had brought her to the last, but pleasantly surprising, place on earth for their first date officially.

"Ugh, I think I'm gonna puke my guts out!" Mike groaned heavily as the lights around them spun faster and faster, everybody on the ride laughing and screaming happily. Raising her hands over head, Max let out a whoop of joy as the ride took another slow round before picking up its pace and whirling the people on the ride as fast as The Brain Shake.

"Oh god, Mike, I can't believe you're such a weenie! This is just one little ride! How can you-" a wave of nausea hit Max as she spun for the fourth time before kneeling over, cupping her hands over her mouth. Triumphantly, Mike released his hands to make a chicken face before going back to holding his stomach. "Haha, look what you got, Mayfield! Karmas a bitch!" He whooped, face as green as spinach.

After several more rounds, the ride finally stopped, slowing down and stopping as soon as the mechanical voice of a worker crackled over the PA systems, announcing that the ride was officially over and that they could exit on their left. On their way out, Max made her way towards the photo collectors, scanning the many pictures freshly laminated and hung on the orange walls on the booth. "Max, what are you doing? Come on, let's go get some lemonade and cool off for a bit before we chow down some hotdogs." Mike groaned.

The raven-haired boy looked up from his hunched position and at Max's excited red face. "Whats got you all worked up, Princess?" Max rolled her eyes at the ridiculous star wars nickname and pointed at the picture that was clipped at the farthest end of the booths walls.

The picture that hung there was a quick snapshot of Max and Mike, holding hands on the twirly-whirly monstrosity they had just been on minutes ago, their hands intertwined and huge beaming smiles on their sweaty pink faces. Max's hair was like a cape, Long and hanging almost in motion, creating the effect of having gotten electrocuted. Mike on the other hand had his normally tamed curls wild and incredibly bushy, puffing up like a dandelion in the summertime.

"Look at us! We look like tubular idiots!" Max chuckled, pulling out a few dollars and paying the bored teen with too many nose piercings at the counter for their photo. Grabbing the photo, she slid it into the mouth of her red sling bag before grabbing a dazed Mike and dragging him to the lemonade stand.

"Come on, let's get your dehydrated ass some lemonade before you pass out." Max giggled, buying two large cups of the ice-cold beverage before handing one to a pale Mike. The teen snatched it from her and gulped it down like a madman, his eyes huge and wild. With a sigh of relief, Mike collapsed onto a soft seat and laughed.

"Oh my fucking god, that was a shit ride." Mike said breathlessly, holding Max's soft pale hand like glass, tenderly and softly. Max nodded her head, suddenly feeling sleepy all the sudden, like all he energy was just drained out of her by a pipe. Maybe it was all the twenty-five different rides of rollercoasters, Ferris wheels, and rides like the twirly-whirly monstrosity that finally exhausted her of all her nervous excited energy.

Or the two big pizzas and array of Danish pancakes with heaping spoonfuls of Nutella, you tell her.

"Hey Mike? I think I'm going to pass out."

"I think I'm going to die. God, I never should have brought you here knowing that you would make me ride so many rollercoasters."

"Not happy anymore? Just a minute ago you were smiling like a man with gold." Mike gave her a tired smirk, ruffing her messy waves of red. "That's because you were happy. I didn't want to mess up your happiness so I just smiled along with you." Feeling touched, Max pulled him closer and gave him a peck on his lips. "Thank you."

"You know you love me." He chuckled.

________

It was close to midnight and the 24th Of December. In just a few minutes, it would be Christmas. And she would be spending it with the boy she loved.

Nothing could compare to this.

The snow lessened, tinier snowflakes raining down on them like fairy dust, decorating the two in white powder from head to toe. Pulling her denim jacket tighter, Max exhaled blissfully, watching her breath mingle with the cool air before disappearing. Smiling, she did it again and again until she felt dizzy.

There was something beautiful being with Mike, he was like a eel, electrifying her every time they touched, making her atoms in her body buzz.

"Thanks for today, Mike. I never thought you would bring me to a carnival of all places, but I loved it all the same." Mikes face transformed into one of happiness the moment he heard that. "Really?" The raven-haired teen said. Max nodded her head, her brilliant teeth shining.

"It was so fun and I felt so..so...free. Free and happy. It's been a Long time since I've felt that way and after today, I don't think I could ever live without you." The redhead confessed, shyly glancing down at their connected hands. Her peach and golden freckles made her skin glow like stars, like a beautiful pale galaxy in stark contrast to the dark winter. Connected with Mike's hand, Max felt her entire being relax. Like her mind and body knew, even before she could realise, that he was her home and the one person she ever wanted to spend the rest of her summers with.

"Imagine if we lived together, god I could make you pancakes and wake up to your sleepy cute face and you could be a mom. Mother my children and all that bullshit." Mike joked, letting out a yelp when Max pinched him. "Hell no, if anything you're doing all the cooking and mothering. I'll be the dad and bring them to swim meets and school. I'll be the dad. You can be their mommy." Max snickered as Mike pouted.

"We could have four."

"How about one? I don't think I'm prepared to have to fuck like rabbits just to get four kids. No thank you, Mr Wheeler." The ginger swore.

It sounded like a promise, the way Mike said it. The way he said so smoothly that they would have children and that he would love to wake up to her everyday made her heart twinge with romance and warmth and goo. It made her want to believe him and tell him to take her anywhere in the world, to be hers as much as she was his.

"What do you think you're going to do after we graduate?" Graduation was only a year away, yet it seemed so close now. Memories of vengeance and escaping back to sunny California floated back to the front of Max's mind. California, her escape route to California.

You could do it right now. You're seventeen, you're legal. You could walk out your door and take a bus ticket back to California. What's stopping you? A part of her whispered wickedly, it's tendrils encasing part of her mind in a battle between denial and escape. Mike didn't know of the wicked battle brewing in her, and if he did, he never spoke a word of it.

No, she couldn't leave Hawkins just yet. She had so much more to look forward to now. She had a Boyfriend, best friends, a group that she could finally belong in, and people that loved her and welcomed her into their lives. She had her family now, as crazy as it sounded. Her family, her Hawkins family.

Mike's dark eyes met hers, soft yet hard at the same time.

She didn't know what to say. Her words were already stuck in her throat, ready to spill forth onto her tongue, yet the words never came even as she let out a quiet gasp. There was nothing to say. Running away from Hawkins was running away from the one person that was her only motivation to even breathe and live anymore. To see life through tinted windows and glasses. To be herself in every possible way. To be free.

" What would you want to do after graduation?"

" Be a doctor maybe. I've always liked the idea."

"Why?" Her throat sounded impossibly dry yet she pushed on. "Why?"

"A gut feeling."

"Why would you trust your gut feeling?" And not your heart or your mind? Why trust something that could let you down just as easily without a single bit of tangible evidential proof that your gut was right all along?

"Because I didn't trust my gut when it told me to make a move on you when I was with Elle. I didn't trust it when it told me to end things fast before everything became complicated and messy. Imagine if I had, Elle wouldn't have had to suffer through months of getting over our breakup and you wouldn't have had to be cautious about moments between us before we even dated. Everything could have been better. And that's how I know."

"But look where we are, Mike. We're together."

"Gut feeling or not, I still love you." Max said.

"I know." He whispered back.

As the two teens with so much ahead of them laid under the night sky, the trouble of their past and the ghosts of their ever-nearing future loomed over them like monsters. Both so troubled and so young, many would think that they had nothing to worry about.

Max looked at Mike. At his dark curls. His sweet lips. His strong hands. His dark eyes. He was a angel to her, did he know? Should she tell him?

"Can I kiss you?" Max asked, the air around them turning heady and sweet like honey.

Max had never asked to kiss Mike before. It was always Mike that kissed her before he left. And now that the tables were turned, She felt a rush of excitement brewing in her body, slightly embarrassed of the fact that she was getting worked up all over a kiss.

"Okay." He breathed.

Slowly, Max Mayfield inched closer and closer to Mike, pink lips closer and closer to his, until she leaned in and captured his in a sweet embrace. His hand found her cheek and hers snuck under his shirt, feeling his bare skin and thrumming heart beneath bone and flesh and blood. Tendrils of translucent air escaped between them, their oxygen mingling and their lungs and tongues hungry for more more more. Warm lips crashed against each other like waves, moving so sensually it made Max blush. Her eyes opened slightly to see Mike's own flushed face staring back at her.

"Mike."

"Yeah?"

" You didn't answer my question."

Mike smiled against her lips, curvy and wide, before tugging her body closer to his until ever atom in his body could feel hers through their thin clothing.

"Wherever you go."

Somewhere in the distance, a clock struck midnight, a wind rushing through Hawkins.

A cold one, filled with promise.

________

☮︎✧✞ nicole speaks! ;
Hope you like this ending!! Sorry that it took so Long my peeps! Writing this story was so fun, I feel kinda sad that it's all over now. Maybe, I might write another one! (LmAo) ❤️❤️ vote, comment, and maybe I'll write another one soon! ✨