Max takes my hand and drags me inside the huge building.

There are so many different lights, coming from my right and left, even from the ceiling!

So many shops... I've never seen that before. I just saw some stores on the street, when I was in Joyce's car and she drove past them.

Max takes me to the very middle center of the mall. "So, where do you want to go?", she asks me excited. I still look very carefully around me. This whole thing is impressive.

I look a bit clueless at Max, because I never went shopping and I do not know where to start or what to do. "You've never been shopping, have you?", she asks me, as if she could read my mind. "No..", I answer. "Then come on let's go!", she chuckles, takes my hand again and runs towards a store, called "the GAP".

We enter and I've never seen so many clothes. There's not a single one, that looks like something out of my closet. I'm amazed.

We go past many random clothes an Max follows me. She's smiling, probably because she finds it amusing, that I've never been shopping.

Suddenly I stop, infront of an overall. It's so colorful! The base color is black and there are so many colorful shapes on it. It looks awesome. "Do you like it?", Max asks. "How do I know... what I like?*", I ask her. "You just try things on*", she explains. "Until you find something, that feels like you*", she adds. "Like me?*", I say, confused. Shouldn't I be looking for something that Hopper, Mike or Max likes on me?

"Not Hopper*", Max says, "Not me or Mike, you." Again, she reads my thoughts. It's magic. She's magic.

We take the outfit and many others, what El thinks are 'bitchin'. I don't know where she caught that word, but it's adorable when she says it.

When we finally finish searching, we go to the changing rooms. She tries the outfits on and we have way too much fun in front of the mirror (enjoy the pics 😍):

We're buying at least half of the clothes El tried on and that is a bunch. She has one of her new outfits on and I'm so proud of her, because she finally found something that she likes, not something from Jonathan or Joyce, like she told me.

So we pay and march out of the store, full packed with shopping bags, giggling and enjoying ourselves. I put on my red sunglasses, so we both feel super cool. El says, it looks bitchin' and we laugh again. It's so much fun spending time with this little brunette girl.

Now I lead her into "Flash Studio", where you can make photos and pose and way more. We decide to make photos and the photographer is super nice. We try many fashion-things on and pose for the camera. It's pure fun.

(Enjoy more bitchin' pics🤪)

As we have the photo tape, I put it carefully away in my pocket. We walk out of the store and I suggest to get some ice cream, as even more reward for this successful shopping day; so we turn to Scoops Ahoy. I know there are working Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley. Lucas and Dustin told me about them, apparently Dustin is close with Steve. Also I already was here last week, because it's almost summer break and the temperature is going up.

There's (for our luck) no waiting line, so we go up to the ice cream parlor; there are so many flavors! After the hard decision, we tell Steve our order. I order classic strawberry and El orders vanilla, with extra whipped cream and sprinkles. We are very satisfied with our choices and we decide to have a sleepover, like last week. So we walk towards the exit and then we want to take the bus home.

We push the exit door open and go outside. "Wanna trade?*", I smirk and hold my ice cream in El's direction. She nods. I look at her and see, that she has a whipped-cream-mustache. It looks absolutely adorable. I smile and we trade our ice cream.

I lick the strawberry ice cream I just traded, but suddenly Max stops. "Oh, you've gotta be shitting me*", she mumbles and walks over to the bike stand. I follow her. There are Lucas, Will and - Mike. So I was right, he lied. I'm still a bit hurt, because he never lied to me before.

"Isn't this a nice surprise.", Max cuts their conversation off.

Mike and Lucas look like they're frozen. Mike's bike drops on the floor, as he asks:

"What are you doing here?*", looking at me.

"Shopping*", I answer him cold.

"This is her new style; what do you think?*", Max helps me.

"What is wrong with you? You know she's not allowed to be here!*", Mike shouts, not answering Max' question.

I can't believe, what I'm hearing. I'm literally standing in front of him.

"What is she, your little pet?*", Max frowns.

"Yeah? Am I your pet?*", I mean.

"What, no!*", Mike responds.

I'm getting kind of angry. I remember what Max told me.

"Then why do you treat me like garbage?*", I say.

"What?", Mike stammers.

"You said Nana was sick*", I confront him.

"She is! She's sick!", Mike says, looking helpless at Lucas. Now Lucas is defending Mike's answer too: "She is s-sick, yeah she is, she's super sick! That's why we're here, actually.*", he tells further.

"Yeah, we're shopping! Not for us, but for her, for Nana..*", Mike jumps in. It's clear, that he's lying now. Both of them.

"You lie.", I say. Mike looks confused at me. "Why do you lie*?", I ask him. He doesn't bring out a word. I hear the bus behind me, driving to our station. We need to take it, so it has to be quick here. I'm sick of Mike anyway. I go up to him, so that I'm very close to his face.

"I dump your ass.*", I tell him. Not a word more, I turn around and see, that Max' jaw has dropped. I take her hand and we run up to the bus and sit down on two free places. I look at her and chuckle nervously. "That was impressive, shorty", she laughs. 'Shorty' ? Did she just call me that? I blush.

Max' POV:

I can't believe my luck right now. El just broke up with her stupid ass Mike boyfriend and she doesn't even look sad!

We finish our ice cream, right when the bus stops at our station.

We go to my house, tell my parents that I'll sleep at El's and we go upstairs, to pack my things. "So... what should I take?", I ask. "Well.. a pajama and a toothbrush. And maybe a plushie.", El answers. I chuckle. I take my red backpack and stuff my turquoise sleeping shirt and a toothbrush in it. "I can take you as my plushie", I smirk at El, proud of this little joke. Now she's blushing. Mission completed.

I also take some of my comics and magazines and I'm ready. "Come on let's go", I smile and take my skateboard. We go downstairs and I don't even bother to say bye to my parents, because I'm too distracted by the exciting fact, that I'm going to spend another night at El's.

We do it like last time: El stands on my skateboard, I infront of her, she holds my waist and I push off the ground with my foot. This time, El feels safer I think. She grabs my waist a bit less tight and snuggles my back, while cold air is enveloping us.

Soon we arrive at the comforting little cottage house, that the Hopper's live in.