CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
GIRLS NIGHT IN

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

WHEN MAX SUGGESTED the three girls have a sleepover, Liz was all for it. El was confused at what exactly a sleepover was but the two girls explained it to her. Max suggested they had it at Liz's since her house was the biggest and they would be able to have Liz's entire basement to themselves but Liz explained that her parents were being extra annoying ever since Steve told them he didn't get into any of the colleges he applied to. Max really didn't want to deal with her brother, so they all decided to have it at El's house.

Max was dancing around the room, using a hairbrush as a microphone, while Liz and El looked at magazines that Max had brought from her house. Liz hadn't really been looking at the magazines, though, as she was too focused on Max and her beautiful singing voice. She didn't understand how this girl was so perfect and didn't even realize it.

Liz watched as Max jumped around, her hair falling across her shoulders and looking slightly messy, yet still perfect. The blue hairbrush was gripped in her hand and she started to sound almost as good as Madonna does when she sang, Angel. Liz couldn't help but notice the lyrics described Max perfectly, at least, to Liz they did. Max winked at her as she sang before noticing El's smiling face as the magazine was opened to a large poster of Ralph Macchio.

Max stopped her singing and set down the blue hairbrush. She chuckled as she kneeled beside El's bed, "Oh, you found Ralph Macchio?"

"Macchio?"

"Yeah, he's the Karate Kid," Max nods, surprised that El didn't know. Max then did a karate chop which made all three girls laugh. "Hai-yah!"

"That is one of Max's favorite movies," Liz informs El. She then smirks, "I don't think Max likes it for the story, though..."

Max's eyes widened and she slapped Liz's thigh lightly, "Shut up! I like the story, I just... maybe like Ralph Macchio more." Max turns to El. "He's so hot, right? I bet he's an amazing kisser, too."

"Ew, Max," Liz chuckles, shaking her head.

"What?" Max questions, looking between Liz and El who both had similar expressions of shock on their faces. "You guys never think about that?" El just shakes her head and Max looks to Liz. "Come on, Liz. You see a guy as hot as him and don't think about his kissing abilities?"

Liz shakes her head, "Not his."

"Okay, then who's?" Max asks curiously.

Liz tries desperately to think of another cute, young actor but the only person she could think of was the girl kneeling beside the bed. Liz's eyes landed on Max and Max raised her eyebrows, waiting for an answer. Liz hated admitting it but she had had many dreams about kissing Max, especially after that day she walked in on Lucas and Max making out. Liz sighed, "River Pheonix, maybe, I don't know. Ralph Macchio just isn't really my type."

Max hesitated before looking up at Liz, "Who is your type then?"

Liz shrugged, feeling a sudden burst of confidence come over her as she smirked at Max and said, "I don't know. I think I'm more into redheads."

Max bit her lip before shrugging as well, "I guess I'm just more into brunettes."

Liz felt her mouth drop open slightly at Max's words. A thought came to her head and she knew she was going to have to talk to Steve about this the next time she saw him. Liz knew that she was flirting but what she wanted to know was, was Max flirting with her too or was Liz just reading too much into it. It made sense since Max was dating Lucas who's hair was black and Ralph Macchio was a brunette and Max was obsessed with him. Still, Liz knew if anyone would know if that was flirting, it would be her brother.

"Hey, uh..." Max starts, turning to El. She got off her knees and sat down next to Liz on the bed. "Is Mike a good kisser?"

"I don't know," El smiled, a red hue appearing on her cheeks which made Liz chuckle slightly. "He's my first boyfriend."

Max nodded before correcting her, "Ex-boyfriend." El's face fell and Max put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. Okay? He'll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness. I guarantee you, him and Lucas are, like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now." Max then proceeded to imitate what they were probably thinking. "Oh, I hope they take us back! God, what I wouldn't give to see their stupid faces!"

Liz chuckled, "I bet Mike still has that stupid look on his face he had when El dumped him. That was priceless!"

Max laughed along with her, "I'd give anything to see it again!"

"I know how we can," El tells the two girls, a smirk on her face. "You have to be quiet, though."

Liz and Max are immediately intrigued. They watch as El gets off the bed and grabs a black piece of fabric to use as a blindfold. She then tunes the radio to a station that wasn't being used, letting the static echo throughout the room. Liz and Max watched as El sat down on the carpet with her legs crossed and tied the bandana around her face, covering her eyes. Liz could tell that El had done this before but she didn't know where she learned it from, the lab or some other place.

"Is this really gonna work?" Max asks eagerly, now sitting on the edge of the bed along with Liz, the two girls right next to each other. El just nodded in response. "Holy shit, this is insane—"

"Max."

Max quickly calmed down and nodded, "Yeah, quiet. Sorry."

Liz let out a small chuckle at Max's eagerness and excitement. She watched as El took deep breaths, slowing her heart rate. A couple of seconds went by until El's nose started to drip blood and El announced, "I see them."

Liz and Max shared a similar look of awe before getting off the bed and sitting in front of El on the floor, "What are they doing?"

"Eating."

Liz chuckled, "No surprise there. Dustin is constantly eating. He eats more food from my house than I do."

"Dustin isn't with them," El states.

Liz frowns slightly. Dustin had been out of town for a whole month and she thought once he got back in town, Dustin wouldn't be able to get away from them. She thought back to the mall and remembered Dustin wasn't with them either. She wondered where he was and what he was doing and she hoped he wasn't lonely.

"They say we are, species," El announced, pulling Liz out of her thoughts about Dustin.

"What?" Max and Liz asked in unison.

"Emotion, not logic," El continued.

   "What?"

Liz's eyes widened and she scoffed, "Who said that?"

"Mike," El tells her.

Liz scoffs again and shakes her head, not surprised that Mike was the one saying that, "Of course."

A few more seconds went by before El tore off the blindfold, her eyes wide. Liz furrowed her brows, placing a hand on El's shoulder, "What is it?"

"What happened?" Max asked.

El didn't answer, instead letting out a loud laugh. Liz raised her eyebrows and laughed a little herself as El laughed so hard that she fell to the floor. Max and Liz shared similar looks of confusion as they both asked, "What happened?" She continued laughing, which only made Liz and Max laugh as well, mainly in confusion as to what had happened that made El laugh so hard. They laughed together, their ribs starting to hurt until the sound of a car pulling up to the house was heard. El sat up instantly, her laughter stopping.

All three girls looked at each other before El stood up, quickly turning the radio back to the station they had been listening to before. Max grabbed the magazines from the bed and gave one to each of them as they laid on the floor to read them. Just as they heard Hopper push open the door and shut it loudly, Liz noticed El's nose was still bleeding. She quickly used her finger to wipe away the blood just as they heard Hopper yell out, "Hey!"

He barged in loudly, the door slamming against the wall. Liz furrowed her brows as she noticed his colorful shirt was very not like Hopper and the bottle of fancy wine in his hands. He was definitely drunk. Max was the first to speak, yelling out, "Do you knock? Jeez!"

"Yeah! Jeez!" El added, imitating Max which Liz found cute.

"Oh, hey," Hopper said, a surprised look on his face, not used to seeing two girls in El's room and not Mike. "I'm sorry. I thought that, uh—"

"Mike's not here," Max tells him.

"It's just us," Liz nods.

"Max and Liz wanted to have a sleepover," El informs Hopper who still look surprised, although, Liz thought that was mainly because he was drunk. "Is that... okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah," Hopper slurred. Liz had to stifle a laugh. "Your parents know about it?"

Max nods and Hopper turns to Liz, "What about you, Liz? Your parents know or your brother?"

Liz smiles politely and nods, "My parents know."

"Uh, yeah, it's cool. Yeah," Hopper awkwardly responded. "That's—that's really cool."

The three girls awkwardly stared at Hopper, waiting for him to leave. He continued standing there awkwardly, obviously not knowing what to do. He looked shocked and surprised and almost stunned as the two groups just stared at each other. Max finally spoke up, filling the awkward silence, "Did you need something?"

"Uh, no, no. Uh, I'll leave," Hopper shakes his head. He grabs the doorknob, pulling it closed. "I'll just let you—I'll leave you..."

As soon as the door closed, quiet laughter erupted from the three girls. Hopper was clearly very drunk and because of that, he was being very awkward especially since he didn't expect Max and Liz to be in El's room instead of the usual Mike. Liz sat up, sitting against El's dresser just as Max sat up as well and asked, "Alright, what should we do next?"

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

[ 1744 WORDS ]

this was originally going to be
the whole sleepover but i'm already
on ep 3 & i really want a lot of
chapters like act one so the sleepover
will be continued in the next chapter!!