Max dances around El's room to the music playing while I do El's hair. El looks at magazines to occupy herself while I do my work.

"Oh, you found Ralph Macchio." Max says, laying across the bed.

"Macchio?" El asks.

"Yeah, he's the Karate Kid," Max karate chops the air, "Hai-yah!" The three of us laugh and she continues, "He's so hot, right? I bet he's an amazing kisser, too. Hey, uh, is Mike a good kisser?"

I finish El's hair and sit next to her on the bed.

El smiles and shrugs, a light blush tinting her cheeks, "I don't know. He's my first boyfriend"

"Ex-boyfriend."

El looks down and I grab her hand, "Hey, don't worry about it. Okay?"

"Yeah. He'll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness," Max adds, "I guarantee you, him and Lucas are, like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now. They're like, 'Oh, I hope they take us back'"Max mocks, and they both laugh, "God, what I wouldn't give to see their stupid faces," El looks down in thought, "What is it?"

El smiles and goes to the radio, She finds a station that is just static and digs through her drawers for a blindfold.

"Is this really gonna work?" Max questions, scooting closer to me on the bed.

El nods and sits down on the floor and puts the blindfold over her eyes, tying it in the back.

"Holy shit, this is insane!" Max exclaims.

"Max."

"Yeah, quiet. Sorry."

El takes a few deep breaths, "I see them."

Max and I jump down to the floor next to her.

"What are they doing?" Max asks.

"Eating." El is quiet for a moment, "They say we are 'species'."

"What?" Max and I question in unison.

"Emotion, not logic."

"What?" Max repeats and I chuckle softly.

El's face contorts in disgust. She tears the blindfold off and then stares ahead.

"What—What happened?" Max asks.

El starts to giggle, falling to the ground. Max and I laugh with her as a car pulls up out front. The girls sit up and I wipe the blood that trickled out of El's nose.

The three of us grab the magazines and El turns the music back on. The front door opens and slams and we sprawl out on the ground, flipping through the magazines.

"Hey! Hey!" Hopper's voice booms through the cabin his pounding footsteps getting closer, "When I say three inches, three—"

The door snaps open, hitting the wall behind it and I let out a small yelp, placing my hand against my chest.

"Do you knock?" Max groans, "Jeez!"

"Yeah! Jeez!" El adds.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hey," Hopper's eyes are wide, "I'm sorry. I thought that, uh—"

Max cuts him off, "Mike's not here."

El nods, "Max and Y/n wanted to have...a sleepover. Is that...okay?"

Hopper stands in the doorway in shock, "Yeah...Yeah. Yeah...Yeah," he looks at Max, "Your parents know about it?"

"Yep."

"Uh, yeah. It's cool." Hopper slurs, "Yeah. That's— That's really cool."

"...Did you need something?"

"No, no, no, no. Uh, I'll leave. I'll just let you— I'll leave you..." Hopper shuts the door and Max and El stand up.

"I have an idea," Max announces.

I sit on the ground, still flipping through a magazine while the girls set up a game.

"Holy shit. I can't believe we're actually doing this." Max says as she finishes writing down the last name, "Ready?"

"Ready." El nods.

El spins the Coke bottle, "Mr. Wheeler." they both read the name out loud.

Max groans, "Ugh. Boring."

"Yeah, boring." El agrees.

"Spin again."

"Against the rules?" El questions.

Max shrugs, "We make our own rules."

They both chuckle and El spins the bottle again, "Billy."

I perk up, abandoning the magazine and sit on the bed with them, "If he's with a girl or doing something gross, just get get out of there right away before you're scarred for life. I can tell you from experience, that shit sticks with you."

"Y/N—"

I cut El off, "No, I'm just saying, seriously. It's really gross."

"Y/N!" The girls say my name in unison.

I put my hands up in defense, "Okay, shutting up now."

Max grabs the radio and switches the station back to static.

El puts the blindfold back over her eyes and I get nervous. Maybe I'll finally get to find out why Billy hasn't called.

We all sit in silence until El speaks up, "I found him."

"What's he doing?" I ask, "Is he okay?"

"I don't know." El says quietly, "He's...on the floor...talking to someone..."

El gasps and rips the blindfold off of her face. She pants and Max grabs her shoulders, "What is it? What happened?"

Tears well up in El's eyes and I pull her into a hug, stroking her hair, to calm her down.

I drive through town with Max and El in the backseat.

Max groans, "We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something."

"You don't believe me?" El asks.

"I believe you saw some super weird stuff, totally, but you said Mike had sensed you in there before, right?" El nods and Max continues, "So maybe it was like that. Maybe Billy just...sensed you somehow."

El shakes her head, "But the screams."

"Yeah, I know. But here's the thing...When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like, really crazy noises."

"They scream?"

"Yeah, but, like...happy screams."

I laugh quietly as Max tries to explain the 'happy screams' to El.

"Happy screams?" El questions, "What is happy screams?"

"It's like..." Max gives up, "I'm just gonna lens you my mom's Cosmo."

We pull up at Max's house and my eyebrows furrow, "His car's not here," I look back at El, "You really wanna do this?"

El nods and the three of us climb out of the car and walk into the house, going straight to Billy's room. It's not the first time I've been in here, obviously, I consider Billy my bestfriend, and I'd like to think of myself as his. Every time I stay at their house, I always borrow some of Billy's clothes, so I've also rummaged through his drawers before. But something about his room feels different from all the other times I've been inside it.

"Why do I get the feeling we're gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?" Max says as we step through the door. There's still heavy metal playing on his stereo. Max opens his nightstand drawer to find some questionable magazines, "Ugh. Gag me with a spoon."

She snoops around a little more and then the three of us head to the bathroom.

"Guys?" El says, leaning over the bathtub.

I look inside to see empty bags of ice that must have melted.

Max picks up a bag, "Ice. It's just ice."

I nod in agreement, "It's probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac."

El looks over at the sink and I follow her gaze to the cabinet under it. There's a red substance on the knobs that looks like blood. El walks over and opens the cabinet, pulling out a wastebasket.

"El, what is it?" Max asks.

El pulls out a lifeguard fanny pack and a yellow whistle.

I inspect the whistle closely and notice that it has the same red substance on it as the cabinet does.

I gasp, "Oh, God, Billy, what did you do?"

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