*41. oh my god pt. 384748

OH MY GOD PT. 384748

✧･ﾟ: * After Nora made everyone wait outside the van so she could change out of her sweaty clothes, the group was on their way again.

Mike had a totally uncharacteristically genius moment and pulled apart the pen, finding the number the group had to call to find more information on the Project Nina thing.

They drove on until they found a phone booth on their deserted road, Will alerting Argyle so he could slow down for it.

Argyle, in his true nature, breaks suddenly for it, causing Nora to fall forward, right into Max, not for the first time in that van.

She dusts herself off, still pretending to be mad about the pushing her into sand thing, and the group all moves to crowd around Mike who inserts a quarter and calls the number on the piece of paper.

"Is it ringing?" Jonathan asks and Mike stands with the phone to his ear, not saying anything.

"No, it's just making weird noises," Mike provides and Nora pushes forward so she's next to him, pushing her head into his personal space so she can hear the phone too.

"Busy?" Will offers, but neither Mike or Nora answer as they hear a strange trilling noise.

"That sounds familiar," Nora frowns, trying to pinpoint the sound.

"Wargames," Mike answers for her, also recognizing the sound.

"What?" Jonathan takes the phone so he can hold up to his own ear.

"We're not calling a phone," Nora starts as she realizes something.

"We're calling a computer," Max finishes, nodding as she understands.

The group unanimously goes back to the van, Mike grabbing a map as they go to the trunk so he can lay it out flat.

"So, all we need is a hacker to tell us where the call is going to, then we'll probably find out where El is too," Mike starts, unfolding the paper. "The only hacker I know-" he flattens out the paper. "Lives in Utah," he points to the map.

"Utah?" Jonathan repeats from the furthest end of the opening.

"Salt Lake City, to be exact," Nora catches onto what Mike is saying, answering from the other side of Mike, in between him and Max.

"Oh my God," Will grabs his head as he stands a little behind and next to Jonathan and Mike.

"Oh my God," Max repeats, also realizing what's happening.

"'Oh my God'? 'Oh my God' what?" Jonathan's still lost.

"Turn around," Will starts.

"Look at what you seeeeeeeee," Nora joins in and they finish the verse together.

"Oh my God," Jonathan punches the bridge of his nose comically.

"'Never Ending Story' that scared the shit out of me, dude," Argyle doesn't quite get it, but takes part in the conversation nonetheless.

"You can't be serious," Jonathan still isn't convinced.

"If we take I-15 North, we'll be there by morning," Mike gets them back on track, drawing a trail with his finger.

"Oh, you're being serious?" Jonathan stares.

"Suzie did save the world last year," Nora takes Mike's side for this. She's always down for a road trip. "Maybe she can save it again."

At that, they all pile into the van for the millionth time, and go on their way.

Argyle and Jonathan take turns driving, so they don't have to deal with last night's hassle and can continue on for the whole night, only stopping for gas.

Nora slept with her head in Max's lap for most of the trip, waking up once or twice to see Mike and Will's stares before they looked away quickly like nothing happened.

Nora's decided not to read into it, never in the mood to hide her relationship but also smart enough to know she shouldn't advertise it for the whole world.

"What are you thinking about?" She would ask Max during the short moments that both girls were awake at the same time, getting more and more concerned with the way Max seemed constantly deep in thought now, especially at night.

"You," the redhead would always reply, never elaborating further, and Nora couldn't decide if it was worth pushing.

Nora could feel something in her gut telling her something was wrong. She couldn't help but feel like this is just another one of those phases that Max is in where she'll be all over her one minute then cold as ice the next.

But Nora's not emotionally stable enough to make herself mentally suffer like that, so she ignores the feeling that she gets saying that Max isn't telling her everything.

She kinda isn't telling Max everything either.

Nora knows she loves Max. She could say it in her subconscious and write it in notebook margins, but there's else something about saying it out loud.

She doesn't think she's scared, and she's said "I love you" before. She says it to Lucas when he gives her the homework answers, and Dustin when he buys her chocolate, and Will right before they hang up the phone, and even Mike when he agrees to let her stay for dinner so she can eat his mom's pie.

Her and Steve have never had trouble saying it to each other, even if they make fun of the other for being gross and mushy seconds after it happens. Nora thinks she was the first one to say I love you to El when the girl bought her popcorn at the movies one time and then stared kinda confused at Nora's way of saying thanks.

Nora says it to the dogs that come up to her in the street for pets and her math textbook when she gets a good grade back.

But with Max. . . it's different.

It's more than an "I love you" it's an "I'm so glad that you were the person that made me realize who I was and how I don't have to be ashamed of it and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you and I know it sounds ridiculous to say stuff like high school relationships can last forever but I genuinely can't imagine myself with anyone else and I try to find parts of you in every person that I meet because every second of every day I'm thinking about you and your hair and your eyes and the way you still tie your shoes with the bunny rabbit method and how you hide your test grades because you don't want people to think you're a nerd because you're actually so cool and you skateboard and are the best at video games and you had half the people in our party tripping up over you because we all had a crush on you and everyday I feel so eternally grateful that I ended up with you and I love you so much."

. . . Or something like that.

But obviously Nora can't say it like that! That's so creepy and stalker-y and desperate and embarrassing especially if Max doesn't say it back, y'know?

So she wants to say it, she just needs to find the perfect words and then everything else will fall into place.

a/n:

Max's pov when