Epilogue (Chapter 30)

                                    

                                          
El
The sun had set daintily behind the creamy white clouds that stretched over the endless sky.
We had snuck out before Hopper arrived home, leaving a note taped to the fridge in true El and Max style.
Max lay beside me on the roof of Hawkins High, the two of us watching the day evaporate into another summer night.
The last few weeks had been wild and I had seen more things and felt more emotions than I had in my entire life.
It was confusing and tiring but in the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter.
I loved Max with all my heart.
I was probably too young and far too naïve to have even a vague understanding of what love was, but I did.
And I also knew something else.
That even though there are many people you care about and many people in life you share romantic feelings for, there will only ever be one true love.
One soulmate.
And maybe this person is somebody you love romantically.
Maybe your love story is dramatic and star-crossed and has a fairytale ending.
Or maybe not.
Maybe your true soulmate is a friend. Somebody who understands you so well and laughs and smiles at the same things you do.
Or maybe its not that either.
Maybe the person, your person, is somebody that's been right in front of you all along.
Maybe they hated you, or you hated them. Maybe you simply never spoke to one another.
Maybe, when you do, they teach you things you would never have dreamed of knowing.
Maybe they teach you how to be happy, or how to love or how to be a person.
Max was all three.
She was the person my stars aligned with the day I was born. She was the person that I was destined to be with.
She was mine.
My everything.
"One day. One day we'll get out of here. We'll go and do amazing things. We'll get married and do everything that you think is impossible right now," Max whispered.
And I believed her.
I believed every word, no matter how insane or impossible, that came out of her mouth.
Because it was all true.
Max had been hurt so many times, broken by so many people and cried so many tears.
But she always smiled at me.
No matter how angry she was, no matter how much she wanted to scream and cry and burn the whole world down, she smiled.
She loved me.
And I loved her.
That's the true meaning of soulmates.