the circle of idiots

✧

and down to the music. She sang along to Angel by Madonna, trying to enjoy her night with El. Max slowed down, feeling deja vu as she danced. She remembered dancing with Rue not too long ago.

She felt weird sleeping over. No, it wasn't her first sleepover, but it was with El. Max has gotten so used to the Byers room and cuddling with Rue every other night. It was weird to sleep in any other room that wasn't her own or Will and Rue's room.

When she caught a glimpse of the picture El lingered to stare at in the magazine. She stopped, putting the hairbrush she was using as a microphone down and she kneeled before the bed. She smiled, looking up at the girl, "You found Ralph Macchio!"

Eleven made a wide-eyed face, looking at Max in confusion. "Macchio?"

"Yeah, he's the karate kid," She nodded, using her arm to make a karate move she saw in the movie, "Ha-ya!" she burst into a small fit of laughter. "He's so hot, right? I bet he's an amazing kisser too," she said. Max looked at El, who stared down at her with the same confused expression. She cleared her throat, and a silly question wondered her mind, "Hey, uh . . . is Mike a good kisser?"

El's eyes widened at her sentence. Her face turned about three shades of scarlet red. "I don't know . . ." she mumbled, a goofy smile crawling to her face, "he's my first boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend," Max corrected her, with a nudge to her shoulder.

El frowned and looked back at the magazine.

"Hey, don't worry about it, okay?" Max said, "he'll come crawling back to you in no time begging for your forgiveness. I guarantee you he's just like totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now. He's like oh I hope she takes me back," she mocked him, and they both broke into a fit of laughter.

El grinned slightly, grabbing Max's hands and pulling her to sit on the bed. "Max?"

The red-head blinked and stopped laughing, looking at El, "Yeah?"

She sighed, "Sky seemed really nice. . ."

Max frowned, nodding, "She is,"

"Then why did you ask me to explode her drink?"

"I don't know . . ." Max scrunched her nose. If she was honest, she had no clue. From what Max knew, they were all at the mall, then Rue had disappeared, and the next time they saw her, she was with Sky. But Max felt guilty in a way. She didn't even bother to look for Rue when they were going to leave The Gap. She shrugged, "It was stupid."

El picked on the spine of the magazine, "Rue says people do stupid things when they're jealous."

Max choked, "She told you that?"

"No," El said, shaking her head softly, but she kept her gaze on the bright pictures. "But I've heard her say that to Steve once."

"Oh?"

"Yep," She nodded, "There's nothing to be jealous of . . . Rue doesn't like Sky the way she likes you — " El bit her tongue, stopping herself from saying more, and she hid her face behind the magazine quickly. "Oh no!"

Max's gaze shot down to El's bed sheet. Her face was burning, and she could only imagine how red it was. "El—" she tried to say something, but nothing could come out. Why was she so flustered?

Rue was her best friend. The best friend who she loved to be around — the girl she loved to see smile. The best friend she knew she had to stay close to since Max met her that one day in the arcade — the easily flustered girl who loved nature — the girl Max worried about every day — the ticklish girl who always understood what Max was going through — the pretty girl she nearly kissed every time they went on a date.

Date? Oh, God. Just hangouts. But then . . . no. Max was getting annoyed, not with El, but her feelings. Why were they so fucking bipolar? Why couldn't they make up their mind? Why did they always switch up on her?

She frowned, "What?" Max said, almost inaudible. She looked up at Eleven, who had her head in her hands, in the brim of bursting to tears. Max moved closer, worriedly, "What's wrong?"

"I just told you!" El cried, looking up at Max, "I promised —" she sniffed, "— I promised Rue I wouldn't tell you. . ."

"El—" she tried to comfort her, but Eleven pushed her away.

"I'm a bad friend. . ."

Max wrapped an arm around her, hugging her tightly, "You're not a bad friend," she said, looking at her in the eye. "I'll talk to Rue, okay?"

El panicked, "But don't tell her I told you!" she said quickly, "I don't want her to get mad at me! I've seen her get mad at Will — she's scary when she's mad."

Max let out a breathy chuckle. "She is, isn't she?" She asked, and Eleven nodded. Max chewed on her lower lip for a second before saying, "El, did you mean what you said?"

"What?"

"That Rue likes me?"

"Why?" she asked, looking up at Max as a smile grew on her face. "Do you like her too?"

"I — of course I do — "

"Not in the friend way," she cut in quickly, "in the me and Mike way—"

"I'm just a little confused right now. . ." Max admitted, "can we not talk about boys?"

"We're not talking about boys, Max."

Max ignored what she said. "What do you think the boys are doing right now?" she asked.

El shrugged, leaning to pick up another magazine, "I dunno. . ." she trailed off for a moment before an idea popped in her head. The girl beamed, grinning at Max.

"What is it?"

Quickly, El told Max her idea and looked around for the bandana she kept in her room. Max turned the radio to an empty station, the soft crackling of static filling the room as she sat on the bed again.

El made herself comfortable on the floor in front of the radio.

"Is this really gonna work?" Max asked her as she tied the bandana around her head, covering her eyes. She nodded and took slow and deep breaths to concentrate.

"Holy shit, this is insane!" Max exclaimed, excitement filling her veins.

"Max." El said seriously.

"Yeah — quiet. . . sorry,"

（ ₊˚. ✰┊📼 ! ）

"What did I do wrong?" Eleven could hear Mike's voice. At first, it was distant until the static stopped. She opened her eyes, and she was there in The Void. She stepped closer to where she saw a familiar yellow couch from Mike's basement.

Mike sprawled on the couch, a bag of cheese nachos in one hand and his fingers covered in the cheese dust on the other. "What could I have done wrong?" he whined, crunching on the nachos.

She could hear a groan and an annoyed Lucas appeared, "Do I have to go through this again?" He asked, already sick of his friend's complaining.

"I see them," Eleven said.

"What are they doing?" she heard Max ask in the distance.

"Eating."

Mike shoved another nacho in his mouth, chewing it with his mouth open. "I just don't understand! What I did to deserve this."

"Nothing!" Lucas exclaimed. "Nothing, that's my whole point, you are the victim here,"

"I know. It's just — why is she treating me this way?"

"Mike—" Lucas tried to say but was cut off by the boy who was eating his feelings away.

"What did I do wrong?!" he yelled.

"Jesus," another voice whined, and El turned her head to find a blond boy sitting by Mike's legs. He sat upside down, and his head was red from hanging off the couch cushion as he tried to solve a Rubix Cube. "Do you ever stop talking, Mike Wheeler?"

"But—"

Then, El heard something click, almost like a door. She turned around to find a door opening, and then Rue stepped out of it. It was probably the bathroom. "You probably talked so much until she got sick of your voice," she smirked.

Mike rolled his eyes and flipped her off. Rue began to laugh when she saw that he had flipped her off without his thumb. "Idiot," she shook her head, running a hand through her head.

"Rue is with them," El said.

"Oh," she heard Max's voice echo. "How is she?"

"She looks fine,"

"What's she wearing?"

"The new clothes she bought—"

"How is her hair done?"

"Max," Eleven sighed, "Stop asking for many questions."

"Sorry."

Mike let out another groan, "It's just — what did I do wrong?!"

"Mike, stop," Lucas told him, "just relax, okay? Stop asking rational questions," he said, sitting on the edge of the couch.

"Irrelevant questions," Rue corrected him, "if she broke up with you, it's probably because she doesn't like you anymore."

Mike let out a strange noise and moved his feet, kicking the boy who sat next to him. "Sorry, Alex," he sighed. "Lucas is right," Mike said, "Because women act on emotional and not logic,"

Lucas' mouth dropped, "That's not what I said,"

"Where did you get that from?" Alex asked, turning around to sit straight. "Sure, girls are confusing—"

"It's a totally different species," Mike nodded.

Alex froze, "I think you need to clean your ears."

"They say we are species," El said.

"What?" Max exclaimed.

"Emotion . . . not logic,"

"What?!"

"Okay, um — hello?! I'm not deaf, you fucker," Rue mocked, standing straighter after she and Will had finished setting up their game of D&D. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, offended by their words.

"Most women act on emotion," Mike corrected himself. Still, Rue rolled her eyes. She could not believe that's what her friends thought about girls. She scoffed, walking over to the other side of the room for her bag.

"Guys, it's ready!" Will cheered, standing up and motioning to his game.

Alex stood up, walking towards him, "I don't know how to play," he said, sitting on the seat closest to Will, "could you teach me?"

"Will, not right now," Lucas waved him away, but it seemed that Will didn't even hear him as he began explaining how D&D works to Alex.

"She broke up with you, what else is there to talk about?" Rue asked.

"Tons!" Lucas told her.

Mike shook his head, "you wouldn't understand Ruth, you haven't even had your first kiss," he teased, making a kissy face towards the girl with virgin lips.

"Oh shit, is he for real?" Lucas gasped, turning to look at Rue.

Rue didn't answer as she pulled things out of her bag. There was a hint of a smile when she found a comic book in it. She knew that Sky must've put it in there since at one point they were talking about the new Captain Marvel comic when they passed the comic book store.

When she stood back up, she found Mike and Lucas staring at her expectantly. "What?"

"You've never been kissed before?" Lucas asked.

Her cheeks went red, "No,"

"You know, most girls would have already had their first kiss," Mike said, wiggling his eyebrows. "This is what I mean!" he exclaimed, turning to Lucas, "Girls don't make any sense! Do you want us to kiss you or not?"

"Oh, God no," Rue huffed, "I'd rather kiss a frog than kiss you."

"Not much of a difference," Lucas chuckled, and Rue smiled.

"Could you not?" Mike asked, "I'm trying to solve the great mystery of the female species!" he said. It was a joke, clearly, only to get back at Rue for laughing at Lucas' frog joke.

He didn't mean it. Mike respects women. He only has a hard time showing it. Like said: he did it to piss Rue off, which worked because she stepped towards him and whacked Mike in the face with her comic book, making him laugh.

Rue spun around with a huff, rolling her eyes at the boy. She froze in shock. "El?" she mouthed, her eyes wide. Rue tilted her head, stepping closer. She could see a faded version of her friend, El, like a ghost. Just before she could reach out to it, she jerked around after hearing Mike let out a disgusting belch.

She cringed, and he laughed. "Dude, you can smell the nacho cheese," Mike chuckled.

Will groaned, rolling his eyes. "Gross,"

"I got that beat," Lucas smirked.

Mike sat up, dropping his bag of nachos. "What?"

"Oh no," Will covered his face while Alex looked at him strangely.

Rue's eyes widened, already knowing what was about to happen. "No, Lucas. No."

"No," They all told him, but that didn't stop him from slightly lifting his leg and let out a loud fart on Mike's face.

"Lucas!" Mike screamed, "Lucas! No!"

Alex jumped up from his seat as if something bit him. He stood next to Rue, who gagged at her disgusting friends. "I can't stand boys."

He nodded, "Me neither."

"Fuck, Lucas, what did you eat?" Rue plugged her nose and waved her hand in front of her face as if it would make the smell go away.

She glanced behind her to see if Eleven was still there, but she only saw her fade away. Rue thought if she should tell them she was spying on them but decided not to. They were idiots anyway.

（ ₊˚. ✰┊📼 ! ）

if rue was in the harry potter universe

she would get along with luna or cedric.

and then they're sky blowing

shit up with the twins and lee