“You okay?

Max looked around her, pulling her headphones off her ears. Sat alone in the lunch hall as always,
nobody ever seemed to notice her anymore, and that was the way she liked it. Or that’s what she
told herself.

“Hm?” She stared at the tall guy stood before her- he had on one of those geeky Hellfire shirts that
Dustin and Mike always wore and shaggy brown hair that fell just past his shoulders. He held his
hand out to her.

“Eddie. Eddie Munson.”

“Max Mayfield.” She shook his hand as he sat down opposite her.

“Oh, shit.. Hargrove’s sister?” Eddie asked, his smile turning to a frown.

“Yep.”

Silence. Max chewed on her bottom lip nervously.

“So,,, what brings you to this corner of the lunch hall, Eddie Munson.” She asked, finally meeting his
eyes. Eddie sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

“This is about to sound really creepy but I promise I mean it genuinely.. I always see you sat over
here by yourself and honestly I was that kid once and it sucked. Also you looked like the kind of kid
who’d smoke weed so…”

“So you thought I was an easy sale huh?” Max folded her arms, raising her eyebrows.

“Yes. Wait that sounds awful. No. But also, kind of yes.” Eddie shrugged, picking at the chipped black
nail polish on his thumb.

“Alright.” She lent forwards- Max knew this was a bad idea. But she had nothing left to lose.

“Wait what?” Eddie looked up, meeting the younger girl’s eyes once again.

“How much for… I dunno… a gram?” Max had no idea how drug deals like these worked or if Eddie
was even legit but she didn’t care. She just needed an escape- sleep didn’t work, and she couldn’t
exactly live off of Tylenol forever.

“$12- Goddamn, I can’t believe I’m actually discussing a drug deal in a high school cafeteria with Billy
Hargrove’s little sister.. this is insane.” Eddie grinned. “Oh shit, kid, your nose is bleeding.” He
nodded to Max, who’s nose was infact slowly dripping blood.

Max quickly wiped the bloody stream with a crumpled bit of tissue, already bloodstained. She tried
to laugh it off but boy did Max Mayfield hate a nosebleed.

“Damn, that thing isn’t letting up huh?” He stood up, grabbed a handful of napkins and gestured for
Max to follow him. “Come on, kid, I’ll help sort you out.”

Max stood up, shoving her headphones into her bag as she followed Eddie out of the Cafeteria. The
pair trekked down the hallway, Max desperately trying to play it cool but failing drastically. Eddie
looked down at the kid, smiling. It was weird, as though something in him just felt.. warm? He knew
he’d do anything to protect her, even though he’d only known her for 5 minutes.
The pair reached the old water fountain around the back of the school. Max had never been there
before, but she trusted Eddie. She didn’t know why she trusted him. He was a 6ft Senior who yelled
at Jocks, sold weed and played DnD with 15 year old nerds. She had literally no reason to trust him.
But he knew who she was, and seemed to genuinely care. For some reason, Max felt safe.

“Right, lean forwards, let me try clean you up a bit.” Eddie wet one of the napkins he’d grabbed from
the lunch hall, and gingerly wiped under Max’s nose. He was so gentle, and rubbed Max’s back
soothingly with his other hand as she leant over the fountain, blood still dripping everywhere.
“Damn, kid, you’re dripping a lot of blood.” He muttered. Max laughed a bit at that. Despite the
blood and the pain, something about standing over a water fountain with Eddie Munson just felt
right.