I've been pretty busy so here's this cute sketchbook page I made inspired off my boyfriend :p

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I've been pretty busy so here's this cute sketchbook page I made inspired off my boyfriend :p
#Repost @thetalkcbs ✨ You’re in for a RAD show today, #DanielRadcliffe is here! ✨
Everybody Talks | Chapter 16: Epilogue
Fandom: Stranger Things Pairings: Mileven, Lumax Rating: K WC: 7,870 Summary: You can hear it in the silence. You can feel it on the way home. You can see it with the lights out. You are in love.
[AO3] Chapter Selection: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]-Epilogue-
It’s the 14th of December. Mike and El are seated on her bed, legs crossed as they face each other. Fat, flaky snowflakes fall against her bedroom window, dissolving into water droplets that trail down the glass. Though it’s only 4:30, the world outside is already fading into a charcoal-grey, and El has to keep her beside lamp on in order for them to see each other properly.
El fidgets with the index card she’s holding in her hand. As she talks, she flutters it back and forth, willing herself not to look at it.
“Genes are...” She begins slowly, mind working frantically. She pauses as she tries to remember the definition she’d copied onto the notecard. Their Biology oral presentation is only a few days away, and she has to have this memorized by then.
Mike smiles at her as he gives her an encouraging nod. “You got this!” He assures her.
El throws him a grateful look before continuing. “They’re…segments, segments of…” She shuts her eyes. Maybe she can see the word if she tries hard enough.
“Deo—?“ Mike offers.
“Deoxyribonucleic acid!” El exclaims, “DNA!”
“There you go!” Mike beams proudly. As El smiles proudly, he adds a hesitant offer, “Are you sure you don’t want me to start our speech? I don’t want you to feel so much pressure to say all these hard words.”
“No,” El refutes with a small shake of her head, “I want to do it. I want to get it right.”
Mike gives a nod of assent. “Okay.”
“Besides,” El adds casually, “Pressure isn’t always bad.” Her voice is light, nonchalant, unrevealing. Nevertheless, Mike seems to pick up on the coy connotations she’s purposely giving.
She really shouldn’t do this to him, but she can’t help herself. He just always gets so flustered looking and it’s completely adorable.
“Uh, yeah,” he admits, voice a little higher, “I guess pressure isn’t always so bad.”
El gives him a knowing look before continuing with her speech. “DNA synthesizes the proteins in our bodies,” she states, “Each molecule is a…a double helix shape. The helix is made of two strands, one of sugar, or…deo…deo…”
Her voice trails off as she tries to think of the proper name. Why did every word have to start with deo? After a few silent moments pass, she gives up and takes one glance at her notecard. “Deoxyribose! One strand is sugar, or deoxyribose, and the other is phosphate molecules.”
Mike is still looking pretty riled up. His cheeks are still pink and he keeps staring at her all wide-eyed. He’s so distracted by something that he doesn’t even congratulate her on her successful pronunciation.
At least, not in the way that she expects.
When he only blinks at her, El pouts a little. “I know I had to glance at the notecard,” She confesses, “But I can keep trying. I don’t want Mrs. Hawthorne to take off presentation points for reading off my notes.”
“No!” Mike finally exclaims, “You…you sounded great!”
El gives him a skeptical look. “Then why do you look so…weird?”
“I do?”
“Yes,” El smirks, raising her finger to bop his nose lightly. She turns her attention back to the index card in her hand. Maybe if she keeps looking at it, she’ll be able to memorize all the big words easier.
“I’m sorry,” Mike sighs, “It’s just…you sounded really good.”
“You said that already.”
“No, I mean like…really good.”
El frowns — not only because the words she’s reading are making her head hurt, but also because there’s no way her boyfriend is actually getting worked up over her reading off scientific terminology.
She glances up at him, just to make sure she’s not making assumptions, but nope — he’s giving her that look. The look that’s a hopelessly smitten mix of flushed cheeks, dark eyes, and a hopeful smile.
He’s seriously the biggest nerd ever.
“Thank you,” El replies dryly, forcing herself not to smile as she looks down again.
There’s a moment of silence and El can practically feel the tension brewing between them. Maybe tension isn’t the right word though. It sounds so negative, and this feeling is anything but. It’s like growing embers — warm and comforting with the potential for more.
After a minute or so of El looking over her notes, Mike interrupts the quiet. “Your dad’s not home, is he?” He asks, glancing at the doorway.
“No,” El replies, not looking up from her index card, “He has work, and then he’s going to help Will’s mom go get a Christmas tree. He said that we’ll go to Will’s house tomorrow to help decorate it.” El pauses as she processes this before adding, “You know, I think Max is right. I think he might like Joyce. He’s been acting so weird around her lately. I guess I’ll see tomorrow.”
She realizes that she’s been rambling (a trait she’s starting to pick up from hanging around Mike all the time), and probably taken the longest way possible to answer Mike’s simple question. “Anyway,” she concludes, glancing up at Mike, “He’s not home. Why?”
“Because,” Mike smiles shyly, “If he was, I’d kinda be too scared to do this.”
“To do what?” El frowns, but then without warning, Mike cups her face in his hands and pulls her in for an affectionate kiss.
Oh.
Oh.
El smiles against his lips as she uses her index card to playfully swat his shoulder. She wants to tease him for being such a big dork, or maybe say ‘deoxyribose,’ again, just to mess with him, but as their kiss increases in intensity, she starts to lose all coherent thought.
Mike is still the smartest person El knows. Not only that, but he’s also the fastest learner she knows. He’s a sponge for information. He can finish a book in a matter of hours or watch a documentary once and he’ll remember practically everything he learned.
This apt for quick learning naturally extended to everything, including kissing. The kisses they’d shared during the first couple weeks of their relationship had been soft and reserved. Neither really had any clue what they were doing, but that’s kind of what made it so fun — they got to figure it out together.
Mike was a very dedicated learner. He paid attention to every hitch of her breath, every contented sigh, every moan she blushingly tried to hide. Needless to say, his dedication paid off.
Like right now, for example. He pulls back just enough to capture her lower lip in an impassioned kiss. He uses his teeth to ever-so-gently tug and bite, and that’s when El just melts like the snowflakes against the windowsill.
Or, at least she would melt if she could get comfortable enough. Because as wonderful as Mike’s kisses are, they’re both still sitting with their legs crossed, which means they have to strain their necks to reach other, and it’s starting to get a little uncomfortable. Plus, they’re surrounded by their Biology textbooks, notes, and binders, so it’s a little crowded too.
She needs to fix this.
With a flick of her hand, El uses her powers to push all their schoolwork off her bed. It falls to the floor in a flurry of thudding books, fluttering notebook paper, and clattering pencils, but El could care less. She can always pick it up later, but she needs more of Mike now.
When their school things hit the floor, Mike pulls away in startled confusion. “What just happened?” He asks, looking at the mess.
El only grins as she uncrosses her legs and slides closer to him. “We need more room,” she says simply, obviously.
“Oh,” Mike grins back, looking unfairly adorable.
El leans in to pepper him with kisses because she really can’t get enough of him, she never will, and she doesn’t quite know what else to do with the warm, bubbly feeling growing near her gut. Her heart rate spikes as she continues to shower Mike with kisses. He’s all squirms and laughs and bashful exclamations of her name and El just wants more.
She pulls back and, with a playful smile, pushes Mike back onto the pillows. Mike falls backward, looking breathlessly excited—
—And winds up gasping in pain.
“Shit!” Mike groans, rubbing the back of his head.
“Mike?” El pales, looking alarmed. She hadn’t pushed him that hard, had she? He’d just landed on her pillow—
Shit.
“I hit my head on something,” Mike frowns, turning to look under the pillow. He retrieves the Hawkins High 1984 yearbook with a puzzled look on his face. “What the—?”
Shit, shit, shit, shit. WHY hadn’t she gotten rid of that yet!?
“Give me that!” El pleads.
She throws herself at him, but Mike shifts to the side and she falls face-first on the pillows instead.
“Jesus, El!” Mike exclaims, sounding torn between laughter and alarm, “What’s wrong?”
“You can’t look in it!” El snaps, squirming towards him.
“Why not!?” Mike asks, moving out of the way again. He looks at the yearbook more closely and spots the yellow Post-It notes. “Why do you have pages marked?”
El uses her powers to pull the yearbook out of Mike’s hands and into her own. The impact causes her to fall back against the pillows, but she doesn’t let go of the yearbook. She already had to go through this with Max, there’s no way she’s going to do it again.
However, just like Max, Mike is incredibly persistent.
“I wanna see!” He pleads, moving to hover over her.
“No!” El insists, holding the yearbook close to her heart as she looks up at him.
“Please?” Mike begs, giving her his signature puppy dog pout.
“No!” El repeats. She has to shut her eyes to avoid his pout. It’s too adorable, too powerful, and she knows she won’t be able to maintain her resolve if she keeps looking at him.
Of course, shutting her eyes turns out to be a fatal mistake, as that’s when Mike strikes. Without warning, he leans forward and attacks her sides, tickling her relentlessly.
“Mike!” El squeals, trying to squirm away. “S-stop!”
Mike only grins as he continues to wriggle his fingers over her stomach, sides, and hips. He knows how ticklish she is, because he’s done this before, and El both loves it and hates it.
As she writhes from his tickles, she raises her arms to defend herself. This causes the yearbook to fall from her grasp, and that’s all Mike needs. He catches it as it falls, straightens up, and sits on top of El’s legs so that she can’t get up to grab the book from him.
“Does this hurt?” Mike asks, looking down at her.
“No!” El huffs, trying to squirm away.
“Good — just checking,” Mike nods, turning his attention back to the yearbook.
She could use her powers to take the book back, but at this point, it seems pretty futile. Now that Mike knows about the yearbook, El can’t really think of anything she could do to deter his curiosity. So, she instead settles for crossing her arms and glaring up at him as he begins to flip through the pages.
“Alright,” Mike says, turning to the first sticky-noted page, “What do we got here?”
El remains silent as Mike looks over the page. When his gaze lands on the picture, his picture, the picture that she’d decorated with heart stickers after Homecoming night, his jaw drops.
“You were looking at my picture?” Mike gasps, glancing down at her.
El quirks an eyebrow at him. “Maybe.”
Mike’s eyes light up as his mouth curves into a smile. “Like…since when?”
Here we go.
“….Last year,” El admits.
Mike keeps smiling as he turns to the second marked page, the one with his AV Club photo. “You were looking at this one too?!” He exclaims in shock.
“Yes,” El sighs.
“Why!?”
El eyes him. Wasn’t it obvious? “I liked you.”
“You had a crush on me!?” Mike gawks.
El, still eying him warily, nods.
“Since last year?!”
Another nod.
At this admission, Mike bursts into laughter. It’s not a deriding or mocking laugh though, but rather one that radiates with happiness, like he’s stupidly, giddily excited about something.
“What’s so funny?” El asks defensively.
“I can’t believe you had a crush on me!” Mike replies gleefully, “That’s like, so embarrassing.”
“How?! We’re dating!” El exclaims, hitting his thighs (the only part of him she can currently reach with him sitting on her legs and everything).
“I know!” Mike continues to laugh, “But still!”
“I hate you,” El grumbles, poking his thighs a couple more times.
“Really?” Mike asks, turning to grin at her.
“Yes,” El insists, hating how her gaze lands on his smile or, to be more concise, his lips. She knows she supposed to be (pretending to be) mad at him, but it’s so hard when Mike sets the yearbook down, places his hands on either side of her, and hovers over her again.
El’s style is still evolving. Instead of strictly sticking to slick-backed hair and leather jackets, she sometimes opts for freed curls and soft sweaters. Other times, it’s a unique combination of both. She’s also decided to let her hair grow out — in the past, she had to trim it regularly so that it wouldn’t look too weird when it was slicked back. Now, she’s allowing herself to just leave it be and see what happens.
Consequently, her hair is a little longer, a little curlier. When Mike lowers his face so that it’s inches from hers, their curls brush in a way that almost makes El giggle, because they kind of match.
Mike has that look in his eyes as he scans her over. Still supporting himself with one hand, he carefully runs his opposite hand through her hair, over her shoulder, and down her arm. Despite the chill that seeps into her room from the outside, his touch leaves trails of embers down her skin.
She loves when he’s forward like this, when he’s not afraid to get closer. It’s admittedly rare, but lately he’s been getting better, bolder.
Except for when he’s not.
He’s leaning in to kiss her when he suddenly pulls away, leaving her high and dry.
“Mike,” El whines. She curls her fingers in the front of his shirt and tugs him back to her, “Come back.”
Mike, for once, doesn’t give into her pleads for kisses. Instead, he looks down at her torso skeptically, as if something has just dawned on him.
“What?” El asks nervously. Is something wrong?
“Isn’t this my sweater?” Mike questions, tugging on the hem of the sweater she’s wearing.
“Um,” El hesitates, looking down at the article in question.
Was it his sweater? Her favorite sweater of his? The one he’d worn when he was fixing the projector, or during their first Biology lab? The sweater she’d found crumpled up on the floor of his bedroom when she hung out at his house last weekend? The sweater that she’d hastily stuffed into her backpack, just because she really wanted it? The sweater that was impossibly soft, and smelt like his soap, his laundry detergent, and the musk that was unmistakably him?
Obviously not.
“No!” El answers innocently.
“I’m pretty sure it is,” Mike smirks, “So, like, first you’re staring at pictures of me, and now you’re stealing my clothes?”
El feels her cheeks flush red with embarrassment. “You left me 20 voicemails!” She reminds him.
“You snuck into my house,” Mike counters.
“You got into a fight for me!”
“You got in one for me!”
“You bought me every kind of Eggos!”
“You’re still obsessed with me.”
And you’re still in love me, El wants to say, but the words die in her throat. She doesn’t know if she dares to say something so…so resonant. She knows that she’s in love with Mike, but she’s never told him. He’s certainly never told her that he’s in love with her. Even though ‘in’ is such a tiny word, to be in love with someone somehow seems so much more weighted than to just love someone.
“You’re still dumb,” she mumbles instead, averting her gaze.
“And you’re still wearing my sweater,” Mike mutters back, idly running a hand over her sleeve.
This time, the words El wants to say come out before she can stop them. “Then come take it back,” she offers, and this time, her connotations aren’t coyly masked, but flirtatiously candid.
Mike’s eyes widen in surprise, because she’s never said anything like that, they’ve never done anything like that, but when El only smiles invitingly up at him, she’s pretty sure she can pinpoint the exact moment his heart explodes.
“Okay,” he mumbles back thickly, and then his lips are back on hers, and El is pulling at the back of his hoodie, dragging him closer to her.
She can feel her heart racing faster in her chest, filling her veins with adrenaline. She’s not sure that she’s ready to go super far, but she’s definitely willing to test the waters a little…maybe a lot…
Mike lowers the arms he’s been using to support himself. He instead allows himself to lie on top of her, all the while being careful not to move too quickly or crush her under his weight. El doesn’t mind the feeling of him pressed against her though. The pressure is quite nice, actually, but it’s still not enough.
More, her thoughts plead, more, more, more.
She tentatively spreads her lips and Mike eagerly accepts the invitation. It’s admittedly a little awkwardly clumsy at first — he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he hasn’t learned, not yet — but then his tongue brushes against hers in just the right way, and El’s pretty sure that she sees stars. The adrenaline pumping through her pulsates with an electric charge, like she’s been struck by lightning or gotten her finger too close to an electrical socket.
As they continue to kiss openly, it idly occurs to El that neither of those are great analogies, as both would most likely get her killed. Then again, in that sense, maybe those are the perfect analogies, since Mike’s kisses are certainly going to be the death of her.
His fingers are just brushing underneath the hem of her sweater when the doorbell rings.
El and Mike don’t part at the sound, not at first. Instead, Mike keeps kissing her with an increased sense of urgency.
She doesn’t want to stop, but then the doorbell rings a second time, and El can’t bring herself to ignore it, especially since she knows who it is.
“Mike,” El says as she grudgingly pulls away, “We have to go.”
Mike doesn’t seem to care. He stays connected to her like static cling, moving his lips to her neck the moment she breaks their kiss. He nibbles and sucks on her skin fervently, seemingly determined to convince her to stay through his kisses.
“Mike,” El repeats. She tries to make her voice sound firm and reprimanding, but it’s so, so hard when his mouth is doing that.
“Five more minutes,” Mike pleads, breath hot against her skin.
“Our friends are here,” El reminds him.
“They can wait,” Mike shrugs, not moving away.
“It’s snowing. They can’t wait in the cold.”
“Says who?”
“Says...nice people.”
“I’m a nice man,” Mike quotes.
“No you’re not,” El quotes back, “You’re a scoundrel.”
Mike replies by smiling into the crook of her neck. He continues to kiss and bite her there with a renewed fervor, much to El’s reluctant enjoyment (also: why did he always have to get so worked up over Star Wars? He’s responding way too eagerly to her quoting it to him).
“Mike,” she pleads.
“El,” Mike whines back.
El jokingly muses to herself that her true powers aren’t telekinesis, but rather the strength it takes to pull away from Mike. She forces herself to squirm out from under him and get off the bed, making sure to step over the mess of their school things on the floor.
Mike makes a disappointed whining sort of sound, like a kid who’d just gotten a time-out. He rolls onto his back and stays on top of her bed, pouting at her.
“I have to get the door,” El says as the doorbell rings for the third time.
“Why don’t you get the door, bring them to the living room, then come back up here?” Mike suggests.
When El was in middle school, Hopper had given her The Talk. It was horribly uncomfortable for both of them, but Hopper pointed out that it was necessary because she was getting older and needed to be careful, since boys only ever had ‘One Thing On Their Minds.’
This much is evident in Mike’s case. Whenever they get intimate like this, it’s obvious that he has One Thing On His Mind: not pressuring her or going all the way, but anxiously waiting until they can kiss again and planning exactly how he can make that happen. El only knows this because she often feels the same way.
Except for right now, when all of their friends are downstairs.
“I’m not doing that,” El snorts.
“Please?” Mike pleads, “I miss you.”
“I’m right here!”
“But you’re not over here.”
“Correct!” El teases.
Mike groans dejectedly and slumps back on the pillows.
“Maybe we can continue later,” El offers.
“Really?” Mike asks, perking up excitedly.
“Maybe,” El reiterates.
“When’s later?”
“I’ll tell you.”
“Fine,” Mike sighs, rising from the bed. He moves to stand in front of her, leans in, and presses one final kiss to the tender sore spot on her neck.
—Wait a minute.
El gasps in alarm as she runs to her dresser and grabs the handheld mirror lying atop it. When she looks at her reflection, her worries are confirmed: Mike’s left a huge, mauve-colored mark on her neck, right above her collarbone.
If their friends see it, they’ll never let it go. It’d be the next Fruit Loops debacle.
“I can’t believe you!” El huffs. She turns around to glare at Mike, but he only replies with a smirk. It’s the same kind of smirk he’d given her when he’d said ‘bullshit’ just to get detention with her: accomplished, self-satisfied, and irritatingly endearing.
“Sorry,” Mike says, not sounding apologetic in the slightest.
El turns back to the mirror with another huff. She plays with the collar of her (Mike’s) sweater, trying to get it to lay over the hickey, but it doesn’t work. The sweater just slumps back down every time, leaving her neck exposed.
Damn it.
“Here,” Mike offers, walking over to her side. He peels off his navy hoodie and hands it to her, leaving him in a collared shirt. “This should help.”
El turns to accept the hoodie and slips it on. Thankfully, the hoodie is bulky enough to cover her collarbone.
It also smells like him. So, that’s like, an additional bonus.
“Thank you,” El softens, already secretly plotting how she can keep this hoodie.
“You’re welcome,” Mike smiles back, leaning down to give her lips a small peck.
El beams up at him. It takes everything within her to not lean back in for another kiss, but she knows that if she does, she won’t be able to stop.
Plus, then the doorbell rings for the fourth time, and then the fifth, and sixth, and she realizes that their friends are probably getting impatient.
“Let’s go,” El instructs, grasping Mike’s hand and leading them out of her room.
Mike follows her dutifully, interlacing their fingers as they head to the stairs. “Why do our friends have the worst timing ever?”
“They’re here at the time we told them to be,” El reminds him.
“I know,” Mike whines, “But still.”
“I still don’t see why we would couldn’t do this at your house,” El replies as she and Mike, still hand-in-hand, descend the stairs together.
“Because, Nancy just came home for Christmas break!” Mike explains, “And the last time you guys hung out together at Thanksgiving, you went through my baby pictures with my mom and it was totally embarrassing!”
“Exactly,” El replies, giggling at the memory.
“‘Exactly’ is right,” Mike huffs.
“Well, your mom invited me over for Christmas Eve,” El reminds him, “So, I’ll see her then.”
“Fine with me — that gives me plenty of time to hide every photo album we own.”
El throws him a light-hearted eye roll before she stops in front of the entryway door and opens it.
They’re greeted by the sight of all four of their friends bundled in puffy coats, long scarves, and knit hats. Their noses and cheeks are a frosted pink, and as the door swings open, a rush of icy December wind rushes into the foyer.
“Finally!” Max exclaims.
“We were freezing our asses off out here!” Dustin adds, teeth chattering.
“Thanks for inviting us over!” Will pipes up.
“Now let us in!” Lucas begs.
El and Mike move out of the way and allow their friends to hurry inside.
“I’m sorry you had to wait,” El apologizes as they stomp the snow off their boots. She releases Mike’s hand and moves forward to close the front door, shutting out the bitter chill.
“We were studying for Bio upstairs,” Mike adds, hands in his pockets.
“I’m sure you were,” Dustin smirks.
“You guys are gonna ace the human anatomy section,” Max adds wryly.
El and Mike’s cheeks flush even redder than their friends’, which is really saying something, since their friends still look like they’re freezing.
“We’re studying genetics!” El defends hotly, “Not...not that.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Lucas sighs, taking off his jacket and boots, “Let’s just get started.”
“Okay,” El nods. After her friends remove their winter attire, she leads the way into the living room. There’s a hearty fire flickering in the fireplace and a modest sized Christmas tree in the corner. The couches that normally rest in the center of the living room have been pushed to the sides of the room to make space for the folding table and chairs she and Mike set up earlier in the day. On top of the table rests the Dungeons and Dragons game board, along with all the pieces they’ll need to play.
“You have a nice house,” Will smiles, taking a seat in one of the chairs.
“Thank you!” El beams back. She motions to the coffee table off to the side, “I have some snacks if you guys get hungry. There’s pretzels and cookies and candy canes and—“
“Oh my god,” Dustin exclaims, already rushing to grab some of everything, “Your girlfriend is amazing, Mike.”
Mike turns to throw El a small smile. “She is,” he mumbles, so low that only El can hear it.
El almost starts to consider Mike’s proposition to leave their friends in here while they return to her room. Almost. But she knows that wouldn’t be very polite, and besides, she did say that she and Mike could continue things later. ‘Later’ would only come after they finished this game, so she had to get a move on.
El goes to take her seat at the table, followed by Mike and Lucas. Max and Dustin join them a few moments later, both carrying several snacks.
“So,” Mike begins, retrieving a binder from where he’d left it under the table, “Did you guys finish creating your characters?”
El nods proudly. She’d spent more time than she probably should have designing her Mage, but whatever — it was fun. Mike had helped her create a backstory for her character and everything. He also assured her that yes, her Mage could secretly be dating his Paladin, if that’s what she really wanted (it was).
“Yeah, me too,” Max concurs, “I had time to work on designing my character after I finished studying for my English final.” As the words leave her mouth, She pauses and grimaces. “Oh my god, I think that’s like, the geekiest thing I’ve ever said.”
“One of us, one of us!” Dustin chants teasingly, pounding his fists on the table.
Max flicks a pretzel at him, the first of what will probably be many.
“What character class did you decide on?” Will asks Max.
“Zoomer,” she answers confidently.
Though Mike’s face is partially obscured by the DM’s screen he’s sitting behind, El’s still able to catch the bewildered frown he makes. “A what?”
“A Zoomer,” Max repeats.
The boys exchange hesitant glances. They all look like they’re deciding whether or not to tell her something.
“That’s not a real character class!” Dustin finally blurts out.
“So?” Max shrugs, “You said I could create my own.”
“Your own character,” Mike clarifies, “Not your own classes.”
“Is there a difference?” Max asks flippantly.
“Kind of,” Lucas admits.
“It’s okay,” Will assures Max, “I think it’s cool that you created a new class.” He turns to give the other boys warning looks, to which they reluctantly relent.
“Yeah,” Mike sighs, “I guess it’s cool.”
“Super cool!” Lucas adds, sounding far more believable than Mike.
Dustin manages to not say any further challenging comments, but that doesn’t stop him from shaking his head forlornly. “Anyway,” he says, turning to Mike, “What’s the name of this campaign?”
Mike clears his throat and replies in a dramatic, theatrical sort of voice. “Expedition to the Castle of the Forgotten King!”
“That’s the title?” Max questions, raising an eyebrow.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to come up with a better one, okay?!” Mike justifies, “I’ve been busy!”
“With El?”
“With studying for exams!”
“I think the title is great!” El cuts in, throwing Mike a reassuring look.
“Can we just start already?” Lucas pleads eagerly, “We haven’t had a campaign in forever.”
Mike clears his throat again before he proceeds to read the introduction to the campaign. He gets so dramatic about the entire thing, it’s actually like, the cutest thing El’s ever seen. He keeps reading in that theatrical voice, pauses to create tension, and uses his own sound effects to make it all feel so much more real.
El turns to glance at her friends excitedly, because this is already the best thing ever, but the rest of them are watching Mike seriously, listening closely, taking it all in. Even Max seems determinedly focused, so El decides that she better pay attention too.
As this is her and Max’s first campaign, it takes a bit for them to fully get into it. The boys have to walk them through all the gameplay, like how to take actions, how to make die rolls, and how to gain experience points. It’s all pretty complicated and confusing to El at first, but the boys are chivalrously patient with both her and Max.
As their adventure continues, the stakes grow higher. The action increases in tenfold, and soon they’re all on the edges of their seats, hanging onto every last word of Mike’s direction.
In the final moments of the campaign, through their collective skills and abilities, their party successfully slays the dragon that dwells in the dungeon beneath the castle. They then stumble across a trove of treasure, which Mike describes in vivid detail.
“You’ve found it!” Mike reads quickly, excitedly, “The lost treasure of the Forgotten King! While the dragon’s lair was dank and decrepit, this room glows with the shine of thousands of jewels. Their light reflects off the towering abundance of golden coins, goblets, and crowns. Through your face is speckled with the blood of the slain dragon and the dirt of a journey long traveled, when you slip the crown onto your head, you feel the power of success flow through your veins. Your valiant efforts have paid off. You’ve won.”
El and the rest of her friends burst into cheers. They exchange fist-bumps, high-fives, and sighs of relief.
“Holy shit! We’re freaking loaded!” Dustin exclaims, “We’re gonna have enough gold to do whatever we want!”
“What happens next?” El asks Mike enthusiastically.
“That’s it,” Mike shrugs, shutting his Dungeon Master’s manual.
There’s a beat of silence as everyone realizes that the story has come to an end.
“Wait, that’s it?” Max frowns, “That’s the ending?”
“Uh, yeah?” Mike replies, as if this was obvious.
“But we just got started!” Dustin whines.
“We’ve been playing for five hours!” Mike points out, holding up his watch. Sure enough, it’s now well past 10 PM. The once-gray sky has now darkened into an inky black, leaving the fireplace as the main source of light in the room. The reflection of the flames dances off their faces, making everyone’s faces glow with a warm amber light.
“It felt shorter,” Lucas laments, “I think it should have been longer.”
“Forget longer!” Max huffs, “It should have been better written!”
“What do you mean?” Mike asks indignantly.
“There’s so many things that you either didn’t finish, left out, or glossed over!” Max critiques.
“Like what?!”
“Like the prince!” Lucas offers, “You just left him stuck in the tower!”
“He’ll get out!” Mike frowns.
“But what about the princess and her two knights?” Dustin adds, “You mentioned them like, once, and we never even got to meet them.”
“Or the Captain of the Guard and the Halfling storekeeper?” Max says, “You kind of made it seem like they had some kind of relationship going on, and then it just went nowhere.”
“None of those things mattered to the campaign!” Mike snaps, “All of those characters were NPC’s! Why do you even care?”
“We were invested!” Dustin exclaims.
“Fine!” Mike huffs, “I’m sorry, I guess. But just because this adventure is over doesn’t mean that the story of the campaign is over!”
“Are you going to continue it?” Will asks hopefully.
“Maybe!” Mike shrugs, “I dunno!”
“Well, if you do, it better be good,” Lucas replies, “Like, better than this one.”
“That won’t be hard,” Max snorts.
“Even if it wasn’t perfect, it was good,” El says definitively, “We had fun.”
None of their friends can disagree with that.
“Yeah, I guess it was pretty fun,” Max admits. Her eyes widen as she glances at everyone anxiously, “That doesn’t leave this room.”
“Too late,” Dustin grins, “Your secret is out Max! You’re a nerd!”
“I’m not!” Max insists.
“You like arcade games, Star Wars, and Dungeons and Dragons,” El points out, counting off the items on her fingers.
“And Lucas,” Mike teases.
Lucas and Max both try to look offended, but both of them know that everything El and Mike just said is completely true.
“We’re all kind of nerds,” Will summarizes, turning to give everyone a smile, “But that’s good.”
“Only because being normal is overrated,” Max sighs, slumping back in her chair.
“It totally is,” Mike nods.
The conversation concludes when one of their parents rings the doorbell. Every member of their party jolts at the sound. It feels as if some sort of spell has broken. Their adventure really is over, and it’s time for them to return home.
Mr. Sinclair has arrived and offered to give Max a ride home, so the party gathers in the foyer to wish Lucas and Max goodbye.
“I’ll see you Monday,” Max murmurs to El as she hugs her goodbye.
“See you Monday,” El mumbles back, hugging her friend tightly.
“And,” Max adds, voice a dry whisper, “Next time you and President Nerd decide to get busy, you might wanna bring a scarf.”
El frowns in confusion, but then she glances down and realizes that her hoodie has slipped lower, revealing that damned hickey.
El makes an embarrassed squeak as she quickly readjusts the hoodie, but Max only smiles, pulls away, and heads out the door hand-in-hand with Lucas.
Though the snowfall has stopped, the night is still bitingly cold. The streetlamp near El’s house illuminates her front lawn, causing the untouched snow to shimmer. As Max and Lucas follow Mr. Sinclair to the car parked in the driveway, their steps leave wandering trails of footprints in their wake. El, Mike, Dustin, and Will watch them from the front doorway as they leave, waving goodbye forlornly.
“See ya’ later dweebs!” Max calls out as Lucas boards his dad’s car.
“Later, MadMax!” Dustin calls back.
For once, Max doesn’t flip him off for the nickname. Instead, she only throws Dustin an exasperated smile before following Lucas into the car. Mr. Sinclair’s car backs out of the driveway, and much too soon, Mrs. Henderson’s car has taken its place.
Since Hopper and Joyce were going to get the Christmas tree today, Dustin’s mom is going to drive him home.
“We’re still gonna compare our To Kill a Mockingbird notes before our exam on Monday, right?” Dustin asks as he hugs El goodbye.
“Of course!” El nods.
“Awesome!” Dustin replies gratefully. He moves to wish Mike goodbye and Will steps up to hug El like Dustin had.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Will,” El murmurs as she gives Will a comforting hug goodbye.
“I can’t wait!” Will replies excitedly, “I made a new mixtape for you, this one has Bowie on it!”
The mixtape exchange is a thing the two of them started recently — Will makes one for her with some of his favorite songs, and El does the same in return. Thanks to each other, El’s grown an even bigger soft spot for pop, and Will has developed an appreciation for music that he likes to call ‘loud, but good.’
“Mine has Metallica!” El smiles, “I think you’ll like it. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”
“Sounds good!” Will nods.
More goodbye hugs and lighthearted banter are exchanged before Dustin and Will leave through the front door. The house is noticeably quiet once their friends are gone, and even though El knows she’s going to see them within the next couple days, she already misses having them here.
Mike returns to the living room and proceeds to pack up his Dungeons and Dragons supplies. El watches as he carefully sorts the pieces into bags and little boxes before placing everything into the messenger bag he likes to keep it all in. Once he finishes, he sets the bag on top of the table and goes to lie on top of the couch. As he lowers himself onto it, he lets off a heavy, tired sigh.
El knows that he puts so much effort into his campaigns and that he must be pretty exhausted, but she doesn’t want him to get too sleepy, not yet.
She carefully tiptoes over to him, trying to stay as stealthy as possible. Mike doesn’t hear or see her coming, and when he closes his eyes to sigh again, that’s when she makes her move.
“Surprise!” El squeals, throwing herself on top of him.
Mike yelps in startled surprise as El lands on him. “El!” He exclaims as she wraps her arms around his neck, pulling herself up so that they’re face-to-face.
“Mike!” El giggles, rubbing their noses together.
Any indignation Mike may have harbored over her surprise attack quickly melts away. His face softens as he looks up at her. Their chests are pressed together and El can feel that her heart is still racing from leaping on top him, and from just being near him.
She hopes that he feels it too.
“What time is your Mom coming to get you?” El asks after a moment, running her fingers through the back of his hair.
“11:00,” Mike replies, lips curving into a gentle smile, “So, we still have like, plenty of time.”
“Good,” El smiles back.
Despite the fact that they’re alone, blissfully alone, neither moves in to kiss the other. Instead, they take time to study each other’s faces. Their features are still shadowed in the amber light of the fireplace, but now that they’re on the couch, closer to the tree, their faces are also dotted with the colorful reflection of Christmas lights. Mike, with his warm shadows and vibrant highlights and cheekbones and effortlessly wavy hair, looks like a mosaic, like a work of art.
With the way Mike’s looking at her, she gets the feeling that he’s thinking something similar. He raises his thumb to brush against her lips, and El gives it a gentle, chaste kiss as it passes by.
The clock that’s mounted on the wall ticks as the seconds pass. It’s the only sound to be heard in this secluded living room, alongside Mike and El’s steady, even breathing.
And then it happens.
“I think I’m in love with you,” Mike whispers.
It’s simple, down-to-earth, and not incredibly romantic. Well, at least not by the standards of the soap operas and romance movies she watches. On TV, the dashing love interests always proclaim their feelings with chauvinistic grandeur. There’s sweeping music, profound and poetic declarations of love, and sometimes even a ring, depending on the situation.
All of the romance movies she watches are kind of boring like that, El suddenly realizes. The movies don’t even begin to capture what love really feels like. It’s not always dramatic proclamations of adoration from a hunky, dreamboat actor. Sometimes love was a scrawny kid covered in heart-adorned band-aids showing up at her door with an armful of Eggos. Sometimes love was that scrawny kid comparing her to a star system. It didn’t have to be poetic; sometimes it was only seven-words — tentatively whispered, yet resoundingly true.
The more El thinks about this, the more she realizes how silly she was for ever doubting that Mike loved her. That he was in love with her. The signs were right in front of her all along, she just wasn’t daring enough to admit that they were true.
And so, when Mike tells her that he’s in love with her, what else is there really to say?
“I know,” El whispers back.
Mike’s eyes widen. “Did you just—?”
—Quote Star Wars in response to his declaration of love?
Obviously.
El bites down on her lip as she tries not to giggle. “Yes.”
There’s no way to properly describe how Mike looks at her then. The only way El can really process it is in relation to other things.
He breathes out, like the way one might as a rollercoaster finally comes to an end. Like his nerves are still jumbled, his heart is still racing, but he can finally breathe again.
His body relaxes with contentment, like the way one’s might after returning from a long trip away.
He reaches out to touch her cheek and his eyes are full with reverent wonder, like the way he looks at the photographs of galaxies in his science textbooks.
He looks at her like she’s his sense of repose, his home, his world.
El knows that they’re still young, probably too young to be feeling this strongly about each other, but as El into his eyes, her mind flutters with perennial, fragmented words like binary stars, the one, and forever.
She can’t even think in complete sentences, that’s what he’s done to her.
Mike leans in so that their lips are only inches apart. His voice soft, loving — he whispers, “Hey, El?”
“Yes, Mike?”
“Is it later yet?”
In 15 minutes, Hopper will return from The Byers. Mike and El with jolt up from the couch with a start, blushing furiously and hoping that Hopper won’t notice (he will).
Tomorrow, El will spend the day at the Byers, and as she helps Will decorate his Christmas tree, she’ll notice the strange look her Dad gets on his face when he looks at Joyce, like he’s found something.
In 11 days, it’ll be Christmas morning. Mike will come over sometime during the afternoon to give her the necklace he’d gotten for her — a simple, silver chain adorned with two tiny stars. Hopper will give Mike his present — a new bike, and El won’t be able to stop herself from taking a picture of the stupidly surprised look Mike gets on his face. Mike will get all huffy, because he hates pictures, but then when El gives him her present, a limited edition Star Wars comic book, all will quickly be forgiven.
In one year, one of El’s best friends (and future step-brother), will finally confess the feelings he’s been trying to sequester. El will assure Will that he’s not a freak, that there’s nothing wrong with him, just like he’d done to her.
In less than two years, during the summer between their Junior and Senior year, El will finally grow tired of wanting more of Mike, instead needing all of him. It’ll be another learning curve peppered with ‘are you sure?’ and ‘is this okay?’ (she’ll be completely sure; it’ll totally be more than ok), but as always, they’ll figure it out together.
As time goes on, there’ll only be more things to figure out about love. Mike and El’s future, while currently unknown to the both of them, is still unfurling and expanding with every moment they spend together. There’ll be time to discover what’s in store, all the time in the world, actually, but right now—
“Yes,” El murmurs, brushing her lips against his cheek, then his jaw, “It’s later.”
Tag List: @pixie813, @lovecolesprouse, @miss-sad-marshmallow, @wrongirish, @lonewolfhard, @bbc-radio-phan, @ontariokid, @catalystofhighhopes, @iliketheinternet, @e1vn , @the-proud-princess, @bugheadqueen , @mother-harrington , @finnywolfyy, @ethoctransierit, @elevenhawkins, @kathpride18, @sherlock-salvadale, @creepyfangirlwhosucksatedits, @barbara----holland, @puzzlingsnark, @milevenbeauty , @gemel-dreamer, @itssciencefitz, @michitesoro, @jenn0bi, @miss-elhopper, @bitchin-promises, @bestmomsteve, @mileven-353, @irisskk, @lostinhawkinss, @didi-stranger-things
My OTP, They are endgame🥀 Dickbabs
chapter 14 was great!! can you write mileven waking up together though? i was curious to know how that happened.. it can be short
Everybody TalksChapter 13 ½: In the Wind WC: 940(title inspired by this lovely, soft song)
El’s not exactly the outdoorsy type. Growing up, when she wasn’t trapped in the laboratory, she was stuck inside Hopper’s house. Now that’s she’s older, all her free time is mostly divided between classes, going to the arcade, and hanging around the record shop.
Consequently, she never expected that the forest would be so noisy.
She awakens Sunday morning to the sounds of a crisp, whistling breeze, rustling leaves, drilling woodpeckers, and—
Snoring.
It takes her a moment to remember where she is (in the middle of the woods, tucked inside a sleeping bag, casually snuggling Mike Wheeler), but once she comes to, she doesn’t think she’d be able to fall back asleep if she tried — everything is just so vibrant and alive.
Mike still has one arm wrapped around her, and the other is sprawled out across the forest floor at a slightly odd angle. The morning light is a warm, faint yellow that casts shadows over his face. His head is tilted back, his mouth is hanging ajar, and that’s when El realizes the restful, sonorous snores are coming from him.
El smiles as she takes in the sight of him. She doesn’t think she’ll ever grow tired of waking up like this, nestled in his embrace.
She glances over her shoulder at the rest of her friends. Max’s beanie has slipped off during the night, and her vibrant red hair is splayed out across the forest floor. Beside her, holding her hand, lies Lucas. Even while sleeping, his facial expression is one of soft contentment. Then there’s Dustin. Unlike Max, his hat has stayed firmly on his head (El can’t help but wonder if it’s permanently attached to his hair — she’s never seen him without it and she doesn’t think she ever will). Dustin’s snoring too, even more loudly than Mike, and El is just grateful to not be Will, who’s sleeping inches away from him.
As her gaze moves back to Mike, El makes a mental note to not invite Max over to her house for the next couple days. After all, Max promised Hopper that she’d ‘keep an eye on Wheeler,’ and if there’s one thing that El knows about her best friend, it’s that Max won’t be able to stop herself from making a joke about how El and Mike ‘like, totally slept together.’ Then Hopper’s head would explode, because he’d think that that happened, even though that’s not what happened, but Max would totally make it seem like that is what did happen, because it’s Max and El is convinced that she and Hopper are dedicated to embarrassing her in every way possible.
El forces herself to push these thoughts away. Hopper isn’t here, Max is still fast asleep, and Mike is as warm and soft and cuddly as ever.
She gently raises a finger to run it along his jawline. The bruises from before are now gone, and yet El still feels like she has to be so delicate with him. Like if she touches too hard, he’ll disappear, like he had in the Void. Like she’ll realize that all along he’s just been nothing more than a beautiful dream.
As her finger reaches his chin, Mike snorts, then stirs, and El feels her eyes widen in alarm.
He’s waking up.
El doesn’t want this to end, not yet. She knows that if Mike wakes up, it’ll only be a matter of time before he’s bashfully stammering and pulling away — always the gentleman, always so impossibly considerate. She’s not ready for that, not yet.
El quickly snuggles back into him, presses her head against his chest, and closes her eyes. She tries her best to even her breathing as her body falls limp against his lean frame.
She feels Mike shift as he yawns and arches his back slightly. She senses him glancing around, familiarizing himself with his surroundings, before he tilts his head down to look at her.
“El?” Mike whispers, voice still thick with sleep.
He gives her a little nudge and El replies with what she hopes is a believable snore.
It seems to convince Mike, as he doesn’t say anything more. Instead, he takes the arm that was previously sprawled out and wraps it around her. As his hands gently run up and down her back in slow, lazy strokes, El hears him sigh happily.
It takes everything in El to continue pretending to be asleep, and not tackle him or shower him with kisses. This moment is far too perfect to pass up, and El wants to enjoy every last second of it.
In five minutes, Dustin will awake with a start, sleepily mumbling something about hook hands and lizards and serial killers. Then Max will wake up, tell Dustin to shut up, and Lucas will lament that they’re literally always fighting. Then Will will awaken, shaking his head at his friends’ antics, and get breakfast started. Mike and El will exchange shy glances before pulling away bashfully. El will return to her own sleeping bag, and the feeling of Mike pressed against her will have her feeling tingly and light-headed for the rest of the day.
But right now?
Right now, it’s just the two of them. Right now, as they continue to snuggle each other, legs intertwining, hearts beating, breaths slowing, five minutes later might as well be years later. This intimate morning moment is timeless.
Everybody Talks - A Mileven 80′s High School au
In which Mike Wheeler, president of Hawkins High’s AV Club, falls for El Hopper, Hawkins’ resident punk outcast and secret telekinetic. They meet in detention. The rest is history.
(AO3)(FF.net)(Tumblr)
Everybody Talks | Chapter 14: My My Kind of Girl
Fandom: Stranger Things Pairings: Mileven, Lumax Rating: K WC: 10,259 Summary: As Homecoming draws closer, emotional tensions start to run high.
[AO3] Chapter Selection: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]-14-[15][Epilogue]
As it turns out, the boys’ Homecoming video winds up airing on the news Saturday night. However, since most of the students are at the actual football game during this time, the only people who really see it are the boys’ moms.
So much for becoming famous.
Throughout the Monday school day, Dustin tries to tell people about their video, but the general consensus seems to be that no one really gives a shit.
“This is a conspiracy!” Dustin insists later that day, “A plot to keep us from ever getting the recognition we deserve!”
In reality, Mike realizes, it’s probably not a conspiracy, and more likely because everyone’s minds are elsewhere. Not only is Halloween this week (Thursday), but so is the big Homecoming dance (Saturday).
There were several big Homecoming proposals scattered throughout the past couple weeks, but on Monday morning it kicks into overdrive with deliveries of gaudy flower bouquets, love songs played over boom boxes in the middle of the hallway, and declarations of ardor shouted while standing atop a cafeteria table.
The whole thing is a little overwhelming, mostly because Mike can’t help but feel pressured. Throughout the entire day, he can barely make eye contact with El, he’s so nervous. Is he supposed to do something crazy for her? His friends haven’t really talked about whether or not they’re going to the dance (other than Max griping that all this cheesiness made her want to slam her head into a wall, repeatedly).
By the time the school day ends, Mike is anxious for a way to distract himself from the daunting prospect of Homecoming. Thankfully, Will asks Mike to accompany him to the school’s darkroom to help him develop some of the photos he’d taken over their weekend camping trip.
Mike is pretty sure that Will’s only asking because he finds the darkroom a little creepy (to which Mike completely agrees — the pitch black classroom illuminated by a single red lightbulb feels like walking into the living definition of the word ‘unsettling’), but regardless, Mike is eager to not only help his friend, but to also get a break from all the Homecoming hormones.
He watches in awe as Will expertly develops the photos. As creepy as the room is, it’s admittedly fascinating to watch all of the pictures that Will took slowly emerge into existence.
By far, Mike’s favorite photo is the group shot that Will’s mom took of them before they left. Even though Mike isn’t a big fan of getting his picture taken (like, ever), he has to admit that this one isn’t that bad. His arm is around El, he’s surrounded by his friends, and they just look so happy.
Will creates six prints of that photo, one for each member of their Party, he explains.
“Our Party?” Mike questions.
“Yeah,” Will nods. He’s finished making all the prints and is now carefully packing up all his supplies. “Like in D&D.”
“I know that,” Mike flushes, “But I never thought El and Max were in it.”
“They are,” Will says simply, handing Mike one of the group-photo prints.
As Mike smiles down at the photo, he knows that Will is completely right. “They are,” he echoes before quickly adding, “Max would probably hate that, though.”
“No, she’d only say that she hates it,” Will replies, shaking his head, “Then secretly be happy about it. Like with Lucas.”
Mike can’t help but snort — Will’s observation is so painfully true. He’s still not sure if Max and Lucas are official, or anything, but by the way they held hands on the walk home after the camping trip, and the way Lucas hugged her goodbye and whispered into her ear, and the way Max’s eyes lit up when Lucas walked into school this morning...
In the eyes of their friends, they were a couple now. Just like how the girls were in their Party now. It didn’t need to be vocalized, it was just felt and known.
“If El’s our Mage,” Mike ponders as he and Will exit the dark room, “Then what’s Max?”
“I dunno,” Will shrugs, rubbing his eyes as they adjust to the lighting change, “We’ll have to let her choose.”
It’d taken about an hour to develop the photos, so most students have already left school. Despite this, as Mike and Will walk through the deserted hallway, they can hear the distant sound of arguing voices. As the boys slowly continue down the corridor, the voices grow increasingly louder.
“What’s that?” Will asks nervously.
“It sounds like it’s coming from the gym,” Mike replies, taking the lead. He guides the pair closer to the gym and, motioning for Will to stay close, carefully pushes the door open and peers past it.
Inside the gym, several girls are darting about, animatedly waving around rulers as they measure out the distances between various points around the gym.
The loudest of the voices seems to be coming from none other than Jennifer Hayes. “Oh my god! I told you guys that the South wall was 55 feet wide!” She laments, stomping her feet in frustration, “Not 50! Now we’re not going to have enough balloons for the balloon arch!”
“It’s just the Homecoming committee,” Mike mutters, turning to glance back at Will, “It looks like they’re just prepping for the dance.”
Will, curiosity evidently getting the better of him, leans past Mike to look into the gym as well. That, as it turns out, is a fatal mistake, as the second Will ducks his head through the doorway is the same second Jennifer Hayes glances over her shoulder and spots them.
“Will!” She gasps excitedly.
“Oh no,” Will whimpers.
Before Mike can ask Will what’s wrong, Jennifer’s already flipped her blonde ponytail over her shoulder and started sauntering over to them.
Mike and Will back up into the hallway, exchanging nervous glances.
Seconds later, Jennifer pushes open the gymnasium doors and joins them, smiling as perkily as ever. “There you are!” She beams, gaze locked on Will, “I’ve been looking for you!”
“Really?” Will asks worriedly.
“Yes!” Jennifer nods, “I want to ask you something!”
Even though Mike is still by Will’s side, from the way Jennifer’s gazing at Will, he basically doesn’t exist. As Mike glances between the two, he starts to feel a little uneasy. After all, the last time Jennifer asked them something, El wound up passed out on the floor, there was a mass power outage, and Mike and his friends nearly suffered death by lamp.
“Okay?” Will replies, looking increasingly anxious.
“Well,” Jennifer begins, flipping her ponytail again, “So, I know we didn’t really get to talk much at my party, or afterwards—“
“—Because you got grounded?” Mike cuts in.
“—Yeah?” Jennifer falters, quickly throwing Mike a scowl, “But whatever. That’s not the point. The point is that we never got to hang out, which like, totally sucked.”
“I guess,” Will mumbles.
“So,” Jennifer continues, smiling again, “I was basically just like, wondering if you wanted to go to Homecoming with me?”
Mike’s honestly surprised that neither he or Will keel over from shock. Jennifer Hayes, who was literally the most popular sophomore at Hawkins high, just asked Will to Homecoming. Dustin’s going to lose his shit once he finds out.
Even though their past experiences with Jennifer have been dicey at best, this is still an incredible development. Mike turns to smile excitedly at Will, but to his surprise, Will doesn’t look thrilled. Quite the opposite, actually.
Will’s swaying on the spot, his face is pale, and he’s not really looking at anyone or anything in particular. “O-oh,” he stammers.
“Will?” Jennifer asks concernedly, “Is everything okay?”
“I-I’m fine,” Will insists, glancing at her.
“Great!” Jennifer smiles, “So you’ll go with me?”
“I mean…” Will hesitates, “I…I…uh…”
Mike, completely taken aback why the entire situation, turns to look at Will. Why wouldn’t Will say ‘yes?’ Sure, Jennifer could be a little…intense at times, but she’s usually pretty nice. Plus, according to the opinion of most guys in their school, she’s really pretty (not as pretty as El, obviously, but that’s beside the point).
And yet, despite all this, Will only looks terrified. He turns to glance up at Mike anxiously, still swaying on the spot.
Even though Mike’s not completely sure why, he knows that Will doesn’t want to go to Homecoming with Jennifer.
“Will?” Jennifer asks again, looking confused.
“He can’t!” Mike quickly cuts in, “He can’t go with you to Homecoming!”
Jennifer eyes Mike. “And why not?”
“Because!” Mike replies, “He’s…uh…”
“He’s what?” Jennifer frowns, crossing her arms over her chest.
Will’s eyes widen as he turns to glance frantically at Mike.
“He’s already agreed to go with our friends!” Mike explains, “We all promised each other we’d go together as a group.”
“…Oh,” Jennifer pouts, shoulders slumping.
“Yeah,” Mike nods, “We’ve been like, planning on this for months, so it’s kind of a big deal.”
Jennifer only nods, looking a little miffed, but nothing more.
“Sorry,” Will mumbles, offering Jennifer a small apologetic smile.
“It’s fine, I guess,” Jennifer sighs, “Maybe I’ll just ask like, Troy or something.”
Mike and Will can’t help but exchange judgmental glances as Jennifer pivots and saunters back into the gym.
“Good luck with that,” Mike mutters as the door slams shut behind her.
Will smiles shakily. “Yeah,” he mumbles, glancing down at his feet.
Mike turns to look at Will, brow furrowed in concern. “So, why didn’t you want to go with her?”
Will shrugs, suddenly preoccupied with the strap of his camera bag.
“Do you not like her?”
Will hesitates. “It’s not that I don’t like her,” he answers slowly, “I just...”
“Yeah?”
“I’m...I’m not sure that I really...”
As Will continues to stammer helplessly, Mike feels torn. On the one hand, he wants Will to tell him whatever’s on his mind. On the other hand, if there’s one thing Mike’s learned from El, it’s that it’s not a great idea to pressure a confession out of someone.
“I d-don’t think I...” Will continues to stammer, “I mean, I don’t really want to...”
“It’s okay,” Mike finally laments, “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”
“Okay,” Will mumbles. As he glances over at Mike, he physically looks relieved. His face gets less tense, he stops swaying in place, and he’s able to manage a small, grateful smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Mike shrugs.
“It’s just...” Will continues suddenly, “I’m not sure yet. I don’t know if really...like...you know.”
Mike isn’t 100% sure if he knows exactly what Will’s talking about, but he thinks he may have a faint idea. Either way, he’s still not going to push Will to make a decision or confession that he might not be willing to make yet.
“That’s ok,” Mike assures Will, placing a hand on his shoulder. He’s a little unsure of what to say, in all honesty, but just like with El, Mike wants Will to know that he would never judge one of his friends for being who they truly were.
Thankfully, Mike’s simple assurance proves to be enough for Will, as he seems less anxious afterward.
The boys spend the rest of the walk to the bike rack in silence. When they head outside, Mike has to slip on the hood of his hoodie to keep his ears from getting too cold.
As Will boards his bike, he turns to glance back at Mike. “You should ask El to Homecoming,” He suggests.
“What?!” Mike blusters.
“Well, we never really planned to go as a group,” Will points out, “So, if you wanna go, you better ask her.”
Even though Mike’s been fantasizing about asking El to Homecoming for weeks now, when Will makes his suggestion, Mike finds himself stupidly trying to think of excuses to not listen to it.
“Why would she even agree to go with me?” Mike asks thickly.
“Because she likes you!”
“She does?”
Will eyes him. “Of course. Did you not know?”
Mike hesitates. If he’s going to be perfectly honest, he would have to admit that he didn’t know. Like, he knows El likes him as a friend and everything, but a part of him is still a little paranoid that she’s just being really nice.
Then again, ‘just-being-nice’ usually doesn’t entail cuddling with someone and kissing them (twice). At least, he’s pretty sure it doesn’t.
As Mike thinks back to that moment, he starts to feel a little light headed. The whole thing had just felt so surreal — El, hovering inches away from him. El, pressing her lips to his cheek and jaw in a chaste touch that’s burned into his sensory memory. Even if his friends had kind of totally ruined it, everything before that felt like a dream.
“I kind of thought you guys were already dating,” Will continues, “I mean, you’ve kind of gone on dates already.”
Mike scoffs. “No, we haven’t—“
Then he pauses.
Asking her to Jennifer’s party. Studying at the library together, not once, but twice. Watching cheesy soap operas at her house and eating waffles until they felt ready to explode.
Were those dates? Mike didn’t think so, but maybe they were. The realization causes another question to dawn on him.
Is he El’s boyfriend?
“You guys look at each other the same way Max and Lucas do,” Will says gently, “Only maybe even mushier.”
Mike feels his cheeks flush red. “Really?”
Will nods. “Also, El really wants to go to Homecoming. She won’t say it, because she’s worried we’ll tease her about it, but I can tell. We were talking about it on the walk back from camp and...”
“And?” Mike asks hopefully.
“And it’d make her really happy,” Will finishes, “She deserves to be happy.”
After all El’s been through not only in the past month, but in her entire lifetime, Mike can’t help but agree.
“I’ll think about it,” He assures Will.
“Good!” Will smiles. He turns his attention back to his bike and, as he begins to pedal away, he turns back one last time to wave goodbye to Mike. “See you tomorrow!”
Mike waves back before beginning his own trek home. As he walks, he keeps the photograph Will gave him in his grasp. He glances at it occasionally, mind heavy with the weight of the decision before him. Between what happened with Jennifer and Will, to the new development in Lucas and Max’s relationship, and to the mounting pressure Mike feels within his relationship (if that’s what it even is) with El, his head kind of hurts.
Thankfully, the long walk home does him good. As he walks past houses decorated with glowing jack-o-lanterns and spooky lawn ornaments, the chilly evening air seems to clear his head.
He forces himself to, for once, not overanalyze everything. Instead, he focuses on what (who) he feels he really wants. As he looks down at the photo, at El smiling beside him, who that is becomes crystal clear.
By the time he reaches his house, he knows what he has to do.
He climbs the stairs two at a time and rushes into his bedroom. After he kicks off his sneakers and shrugs off his backpack, he grabs his old walkie-talkie off his nightstand. Even though the boys mostly used their Supercoms to communicate when they were younger, Mike still prefers the privacy it offers as opposed to the family phone in the hallway.
And, Mike thinks as he pulls up the antenna and turns the walkie-talkie on, he definitely needs privacy. If his mom overheard him talking about asking a girl to Homecoming, he’d never hear the end of it.
As the walkie-talkie crackles to life, the white-noise roar of radio static fills Mike’s bedroom. He fiddled with the dials, tuning in to the right channel and causing the roar to die down to a steady hum.
“Hello?” Mike calls out, taking a seat on the bottom bunk of his bed, “Does anyone copy? This is Mike, over.”
As he waits for a response, Mike drums his leg against the floor. They had to be home by now, it was nearly 5:00.
A minute passes.
Mike is just about to repeat his message when his friends’ voices finally crackle over speaker.
“10-4, Mike, this is Dustin,” Dustin announces.
“I’m here too,” Lucas chimes in.
“Me too!” Will adds.
“Great!” Mike smiles, relaxing back on his bed, “I need to talk to you guys.”
“If this is another plan to sell our test answers,” Lucas says dryly, “The answer is no.”
“It’s not that!” Mike huffs, rolling his eyes.
“Then what the hell is going on?” Dustin asks.
Mike hesitates, trying to keep his voice as casual as possible as he suggests, “I think we should go to Homecoming.”
“Aww, Mike!” Dustin gushes, “I never thought you’d ask me! I’m touched, really.”
”Oh my god, Dustin,” Mike scowls, “You know what I mean. Like, all of us should go as a group. I think it’d be fun.”
“That’s what you said about Jennifer’s party,” Lucas points out, “And that was like, the exact opposite of fun.”
“I know,” Mike admits, “But this is different. This is going to be at school, so there’ll be teachers around to supervise everyone. Plus, now that we know about El’s powers, we can protect her if anything happens.”
“And keep her away from the punch,” Dustin adds dryly.
“You have a point,” Lucas admits to Mike.
“I think we should go,” Will agrees, “We didn’t last year, so we don’t really know what we’re missing out on.”
“Exactly,” Mike nods. Even though Mike already knows that Will is on his side in this, it’s still nice to have his vocal support. Hopefully it’ll be easier to get Dustin and Lucas to agree if both Mike and Will want to.
A beat of uninterrupted radio static passes as Lucas and Dustin consider this. And then—
“I guess we should,” Lucas eventually relents.
“I mean, is it even really a choice?” Dustin teases, “You have a girlfriend now, Lucas, so you basically have to go.”
Lucas replies with an indignant little scoff that’s nearly lost amongst the radio static. “I don’t even know how I’d ask her!” He confesses, “She doesn’t really seem like the ‘dance’ type.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing,” Mike continues sheepishly, “I don’t really know how to ask El, either.”
At that statement, Dustin and Lucas hoot and holler both excitedly and teasingly.
“So, Mike!” Lucas croons, “You’re finally gonna admit that you’re into El?”
“Everyone knows that Mike is into El!” Dustin snickers, “It’s been obvious since the day he met her!”
“Technically, he met her in 6th grade,” Will points out.
“Well, in detention, then,” Dustin amends.
“You guys are so annoying,” Mike groans, cheeks flushing pink, “Why does it even matter? Lucas literally just admitted that Max is his girlfriend.”
“Yeah, but we all knew that,” Dustin explains, “And, like you said, Lucas admitted it. You and El are still in complete denial about the fact that you’re basically dating already.”
“Because we’re not dating!” Mike insists.
“Exhibit A,” Dustin sighs.
“Well, whatever,” Mike dismisses, cheeks still warm, “I just wanted some advice on how to ask her, okay?”
“We can help you!” Will offers graciously, “At least, we can try.”
“I promised you that I’d be your wingman for Jennifer’s party,” Dustin reminds Mike, “And that offer totally still stands.”
“I’m pretty sure you’d make things worse,” Lucas remarks.
“I would not!” Dustin defends.
“You could make El a mixtape,” Will suggests, cutting off Dustin and Lucas before their bickering can escalate any further, “You could put a bunch of songs on it about going to a dance, and then write ‘Homecoming,’ on the label.”
“That could work,” Mike hesitates, “Except I don’t know that many songs.”
Even though Mike continued listening to El’s favorite bands in his free time, he still doesn’t feel confident enough to pick out enough songs that fit both the right message and El’s musical taste. Knowing his luck, he’d probably fill the tape with a bunch of songs that she didn’t even like.
“I know!” Lucas pipes up, “You could take her to Benny’s, and like, buy her some waffles.”
“I don’t have a bike though,” Mike reminds him, “So I’d have to walk there.” Not only that, but Mike’s last big display of affection included waffles, and while he’s sure that El wouldn’t mind, he doesn’t want to seem so repetitive. He has a feeling that his friends will only tease him further if he tells them about his Eggos apology, and consequently decides to keep that last bit of information to himself.
“I got it!” Dustin exclaims, sounding excited.
“What?” Mike asks warily.
“Oh, it’s perfect,” Dustin enthuses gleefully, “It’s so perfect.”
“What is it?!”
Dustin takes a deep breath before he proceeds to fill Mike in on every detail of his proposed plan. As he talks, Mike can practically envision him grinning and waving his hands excitedly.
“So, what do you think?” Dustin asks once he’s finished.
Though Mike was slightly hesitant toward the idea of any Homecoming-proposal of Dustin’s, he has to admit that Dustin’s suggestion is the best of all. While not extravagant, it’s simple, sentimental, and brings things back full circle. Plus, it’ll hopefully save him from having to do a lot of talking, which never really seems to go well when he’s around El.
“It’s perfect,” Mike beams, “Like, completely perfect.”
“See?” Dustin replies confidently, “Wingman.”
El’s lying in bed, looking through the polaroids she took last weekend when the phone on her nightstand rings.
Puzzled as to who would be calling her at this hour (it’s almost 11:00!), she reaches over and picks up the receiver and brings it to her ear. “Hello?”
“Hey, El!” Max greets.
“Max?” El smiles, crinkling her brow, “What’s going on?”
“Oh, you know,” Max replies nonchalantly, “Nothing really.”
She’s obviously lying. Mainly because Max wouldn’t call her this late for no reason, and secondly because Max’s voice is a little higher-pitched than usual, which either means she’s mimicking El or hiding something.
“I know it’s not nothing,” El replies.
“It is!” Max insists.
“Max,” El says, exasperated, “Just tell me.”
Max gives a heavy, elongated sigh. “Fine,” she finally huffs, “But...don’t laugh, okay?”
El gasps eagerly. “Is this about Lucas?”
“No! Well...I mean...kind of.”
Another gasp. “Tell me!”
Max takes a breath before quickly blurting out, “Iwanuhgotohimkimmimg.”
El frowns. “What?”
“I wanna go to Homecoming!” Max repeats, sounding embarrassed.
El grins. She knows she probably shouldn’t, but she can’t help but tease Max in response (plus, in El’s defense, Max has teased her a million more times than El has teased Max). She thinks back to the last time they’d talked about Homecoming, at that Friday night sleepover that now seemed like it was years ago.
“Homecoming?” El echoes, “You mean the dance?”
“Obviously.”
“The dance that they’ve put up ten million posters for all over school?”
“Yeah.”
“The one this weekend?”
“Yes.”
“The dance that only dweebs go to?”
“El!” Max huffs, half indignant, half amused, “Don’t use my words against me!”
“I’m sorry!” El giggles.
“You’re evil,” Max gripes.
El only giggles even more at this. She probably sounds totally, giddily dumb, but she can’t help herself. She’s secretly always wanted to go to the dance, but the deck always seemed stacked against her. Max thought it was lame, Mike didn’t even know that El existed...
But now, neither of those are true.
Well, sort of.
Mike has kinda been avoiding El all day. She tried not to notice it, but she couldn’t help it. He’d barely made eye contact with her, he didn’t walk her to class, and he’d kept the conversation curt during Biology.
She’s not sure what’s going on. Maybe he’s just having a bad day. She shouldn’t worry about it…
…Right?
“I know it’s lame,” Max continues, “But—“
“It’s not!” El negates, shaking her head, “We should go! Did Lucas ask you?”
“No,” Max admits, sounding a little annoyed.
“Oh,” El pouts.
“That’s why I’m going to ask him,” Max continues confidently.
“Oh!” El gasps in surprise.
“Do you think that’s dumb?” Max asks worriedly.
“No!” El adamantly insists, “It’s perfect!”
“Really?” Max brightens.
“Yes!”
“Okay, great, because I kind of already have a plan to ask him.”
Of course she does.
“What is it?” El asks curiously.
Max tells her, voice laden with an odd mixture of both embarrassment and excitement. When she finishes though, El can definitely tell that Max is feeling more of the latter.
“I think it’s perfect!” El smiles after Max concludes.
“Me too!” Max agrees, “He’s gonna lose his shit probably, but it’ll be worth it.”
“Just be careful,” El advises, “You don’t want to get in trouble.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Max confesses, “Do you think you can help me?”
“Help you?”
“I don’t want to do it alone,” Max explains.
El only needs to consider the proposition for a few seconds before she agrees. After all that Max’s done to help her and Mike, it’s the least she can do in return. “I’ll help you,” El nods.
“Then let’s go!”
“Right now?!” El balks.
“Yeah! We only got ‘till the end of the week, and I wanna make sure no one else asks him before then!”
“Who else would ask him?” El asks, trying not to snort.
“No one, because I’m going to first,” Max states firmly, “And if anyone else tries to, I’ll like…kick them.”
“Max!”
“I’m kidding!” Max swears, “…Mostly.”
El holds back a laugh. “I’ll meet you there,” she assures Max.
“Thanks, El! I owe you!”
El wishes her goodbye before hanging up the phone and rushing over to her closet. She slips on a black hoodie, layers her favorite leather jacket over it, and grabs her skateboard. Slipping the hood over her head, she tiptoes to the window and carefully uses her powers to open it.
If her dad finds out she’s sneaking out, she’ll be grounded for longer than Jennifer Hayes was.
Doesn’t matter, El reminds herself as she crawls out the window and uses her powers to lower herself to the ground, Her friend needs her.
It takes about 20 minutes to skate to school. When she arrives, Max is already waiting for her, wearing her backpack and her favorite gray hoodie. She’s standing at the very front of the school, beside the bike rack and the brick wall with the giant tiger logo on it.
“There you are!” She whispers, as El comes to a stop, “I was getting worried.”
“Sorry!” El apologizes, “My house is so far away.”
“It really is,” Max nods. With that, she slips her backpack off, unzips the main compartment, and flips the entire thing upside down.
Numerous cans of spray paint fall to the ground with a loud clatter that echoes off into the empty parking lot.
“Shit,” Max winces, “That was louder than I expected.”
El snorts and smiles wryly. “So, what do you want it to look like?”
“Whatever,” Max shrugs, bending over to pick up a can, “I’m thinking I’ll just write out the words, and we can add like, geeky stuff around them.”
“Good idea!” El nods enthusiastically.
“Then let’s do it!” Max grins. She tosses El a can of spray paint before giving her own can a rattling shake.
There’s an empty stretch of brick wall next to the tiger logo, and the girls use it as their canvas. As they get to work, their progress is soundtracked with muffled giggles and the familiar hiss of spraying paint. The tingling metallic fumes from the paint fill their noses as they go through can after can, working quickly and efficiently.
“I’m going to add one heart,” El whispers, “Or maybe ten.”
“Don’t you dare!” Max gasps, nudging her.
El doesn’t. She does add several more stars though.
By the time they’re done, El’s nails are speckled with colors and her fingers hurt from pressing down on the caps of the cans for so long.
But, as El and Max step back to admire their handiwork, El knows that it’s totally worth it.
The wall is adorned with spray-painted doodles of stars, Dig-Dug icons, and Darth Vader’s helmet. In the center of it all, in Max’s sloppy handwriting, is scrawled a message, simple and to the point.
L.S., Homecoming. M.M.
It’s not eloquent, but El can’t picture Max doing it any other way, vandalism and all.
“Nice work, Hopper,” Max beams, turning to nod proudly at El.
“You too, Mayfield,” El nods back, just as proud.
They exchange high-fives, pick up the empty spray cans, and hurry to the back of the school to dispose of them in the dumpster. With a final goodbye hug, they part ways, each skateboarding back home, vanishing into the night, faces glowing with excitement.
According to the rumors that spread on Tuesday, Lucas Sinclair basically has a mental breakdown in the school parking lot before classes start. But, unlike the last time a similar situation involving spray paint and Greg McCorkle happened, when Lucas reportedly ‘squeals like a girl,’ it’s not out of enraged fury, but rather shocked happiness.
Also unlike the last time: the culprit actually gets caught. After seeing the initialed signature, it doesn’t take long for Mr. Coleman to track down Max Mayfield and punish her with yet another detention.
Evidently, that detention is comprised of Max having to scrub every last speck of spray paint off the brick wall after school. According to the gossip exchanged between fellow students, Lucas finds her doing this, helps her clean it off, and almost gets a detention for an ‘overly enthusiastic public display of affection’ afterward.
Or, as Dustin Henderson reportedly puts it, “They like, totally made out. It was disgusting.”
On Halloween night, while most of the kids in their school are at Greg McCorkle’s big house party, El and her friends decide to go over to Mike’s house to watch scary movies instead. As Max points out, since the boys ‘forced her to sit through Star Wars,’ it’s only fair that she gets a turn to pick out the movie they watch.
The boys agree (to varying levels of enthusiasm), which is how El finds herself back in Mike’s basement, casually snuggled beside him, and munching away on what’s more than likely an unhealthy amount of candy. Mrs. Wheeler has provided them with plenty of snacks and candy bags for their movie night, and consequently everyone’s a little extra jittery from all the sugar.
They’re sitting in the same order that they did while watching Star Wars: Mike and El on the couch, Dustin and Will on their own recliners, and Max and Lucas on the floor. Only this time, instead of Max making snarky comments, it’s Dustin.
“If someone gets murdered at a summer camp,” Dustin states, unwrapping a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup, “That camp needs to be shut down forever. I don’t care how long it’s been; only an idiot would reopen it.”
“Agreed,” Max nods, not taking her eyes off the screen.
“Did you two just agree on something?” Will teases.
Dustin and Max exchange annoyed grimaces. “No!” They both insist.
El smiles and turns to roll her eyes at Mike, but for once, he’s not looking back at her. Instead, he’s sitting stiffly and his face looks a little anxious. He’s drumming his leg against the floor, something El knows he does when he’s impatient or nervous.
“Hey,” El murmurs, nudging him gently, “Are you ok?”
Mike flinches and turns to look at her, wide-eyed. “What?”
“Are you ok?” El repeats, smiling gently.
“Oh!” Mike blushes, “Uh, yeah, I’m fine.”
He’s totally not, El can tell. He looks all jumpy and freaked out, and he’s hardly touched the ghost-shaped sugar cookies that Mrs. Wheeler made for them (the same cookies that El now knows are Mike’s annual favorite, as Mrs. Wheeler had earlier revealed, much to Mike’s embarrassment and El’s delight).
“Are you scared?” El asks concernedly.
“S-scared?” Mike stammers.
“Of the movie?”
“Oh,” Mike pauses, turning to glance at the screen, “No.”
“You’re totally scared, Mike,” Dustin teases, “You’re shaking like crazy.”
“Am not!” Mike frowns, stilling the foot that was drumming against the floor.
“What’s wrong with being scared?” Will questions. He has his sketchbook open on his lap, but instead of drawing anything, he’s using it as a flat surface to sort his M&M’s into color-coordinated piles.
“Because it’s just a movie!” Max shrugs, digging through the bowl of Red Vines she’s keeping between her and Lucas.
“Well, we never watch scary movies,” Will admits, adjusting his pile of red M&M’s, “So we’re not really used to it.”
“What do you nerds do on Halloween, then?” Max frowns, confused.
“We usually went trick-or-treating,” Dustin shrugs, “But now we’re apparently ‘too old’ for that.”
“One time in 8th grade, we dressed up as the Ghostbusters to school!” Will offers.
Max’s eyes widen as she gasps excitedly. “I remember that!” She nods, “Everyone was talking about what huge nerds you guys were.”
“Yeah, we know,” Lucas acknowledges flatly.
Max shakes her head as she grins at Lucas. “So, you were basically born nerds, right? I mean, you guys are like this big geek family. I think it’s genetic!”
“Yup,” Dustin nods, “And you’re marrying into it.”
As their friends continue to banter back and forth, El can’t help but worry about Mike. He still looks so nervous, though El has no idea why. Even though she’s pressed up against his side, he hasn’t tried to cuddle her once, or even play with her hair, which she’d specifically worn loose for the sole hope that he’d run his hands through her curls while they watched movies. The hairstyle change had gotten her several odd looks at school earlier that day, but El could honestly care less.
Things have still been just as tense as they were Monday. Everything was different ever since they shared a sleeping bag Saturday night. Mike’s barely been able to make direct eye contact with her, he avoided her in the hallways, and he continued to deflect any attempts at conversation.
His sudden shyness doesn’t make any sense, and it’s a little hurtful, if El’s going to be honest. She thought that they were making progress in their relationship.
Part of El wonders if it has anything to do with Homecoming. They haven’t talked about it, or anything, but El can’t stop herself from secretly hoping that he’ll ask her.
She considered asking him like Max asked Lucas, but at the same time, she feels far too worried to actually go through with it. After all, it feels like Mike’s backtracking big time. Maybe the kisses she’d given him had been too much too soon. Maybe this is his way of showing that he’s not interested anymore, that he’s changed his mind.
El glances over at Mike, but he’s still not looking back at her. His eyes are clouded over, as if he’s deeply lost in his own thoughts.
El frowns. As her heart sinks lower in her chest, she carefully inches away from him, leaving a noticeable space between them.
Coincidentally, just as a storm approaches the summer camp in the movie they’re watching, a distant roll of thunder rumbles throughout Hawkins. Moments later, the basement is filled with the sound of rushing wind and drumming rain.
“Sweet!” Max grins, glancing at the ceiling, “It’s storming, just like in the movie!”
“How is that a good thing?!” Dustin yelps, “Why do you want our lives to be like a horror movie?”
“Because then you’d be killed off,” Max smirks.
“I think Mike made it clear that you and Lucas would be killed off first,” Dustin snorts, “Right, Mike?”
Mike blinks and looks around nervously, as if he’s suddenly just awoken from a haze. “What?”
“El, I think your boyfriend is malfunctioning,” Max snorts.
“He’s not,” El mumbles, wrapping her arms around herself. She’s not quite sure whether she’s denouncing that Mike’s her boyfriend or whether he’s acting weird. Either way, the rest of their movie night passes with a tangibly awkward tension between Mike and El. El finds herself so worried over it, she doesn’t even react to all the gore and carnage in the movie (well, for the most part — she still cringes when the killer gets decapitated at the end).
When the movie’s finished, it’s verging on 10:30. Mrs. Wheeler comes down into the basement to remind them that while she ‘loves having you girls here,’ it is a School Night and that they all really should be In Bed.
It’s still pouring rain outside, now even more so than ever before. As El and her friends walk up the basement stairs, the sound of booming thunder and cracking lightning grows only louder.
Not really wanting to skateboard or bike home in the pouring rain, everyone uses the Wheeler’s phone to call their parents for a ride. As they wait for their rides, they all lounge around in Mike’s living room, chatting idly.
Time passes. One by one, cars pull into the driveway, and one by one, another member of their group wishes everyone goodbye. First Will, then Dustin, then Lucas, then Max, and before long, only El and Mike are left.
Under any other circumstances, this would be an amazing turn of events. Unfortunately, the current circumstances mean that Mike and El are left sitting on his couch, silently glancing at the other and listening to the clamor of the thunderstorm.
El picks at her blue bracelet, hoping that Hopper will get here soon. Either that, or that Mike will finally say something.
She gets the latter.
“I need to talk to you!” Mike blurts out unexpectedly.
El glances at him, surprised. “What?”
“I wanna talk,” Mike reiterates, looking a little nervous.
Finally.
“Okay,” El replies evenly, “Talk.”
“So,” I know I’ve been acting weird—“ Mike begins.
That’s an understatement.
“—But that’s only because...it’s because there’s something I wanna do.”
El doesn’t want to feel hopeful, but she can’t stop herself. Her heart skips a beat as she meets his gaze. “What?” She asks curiously.
“Well,” Mike smiles shakily, “I’m not really sure how to do it. That’s what I’ve kinda been thinking about all night.”
Oh, god. Oh, yes. This is happening.
El smiles. “Go ahead!” She encourages, sliding a little closer to him.
Mike nods, ducks his head, digs into his pocket, and retrieves an object. He doesn’t show it to her at first, instead keeping it hidden between his palms.
This is it, El thinks, holding her breath, He’s going to ask me to Homecoming.
“I wanted you to have this,” Mike says, holding out his hand to her.
El braces herself. Is it a ring? What if it’s a ring? No, it couldn’t be. They aren’t even dating and this isn’t a movie and if he’s actually giving her a ring that’d be a little weird.
Though her heart starts hammering in her chest, El pushes aside her frantic thoughts and wills herself to look down. In Mike’s outstretched hand lies—
“Your Rubik’s cube?” El says, voice sinking with confusion.
“Uh, yeah!” Mike smiles shakily, “I wanted you to have it.”
“That’s…that’s it?” El asks warily.
Mike shrugs. “I mean, kinda, yeah.”
El swallows. She doesn’t want to seem petty, or anything, but she can’t help but feel a little disappointed. And frustrated. Very frustrated. All week, she’s been wasting time just sitting around and waiting for Mike to ask her to the dance. She thought that he liked her! He’d cuddled her, and they’d almost kissed! Why would he do that stuff if he didn’t like her? And if he liked her, why wouldn’t he ask her to the dance? Why would he just act so weird?
“Thanks,” El mumbles, taking the Rubik’s cube out of his hand. It’s all mixed up and covered in black scribbles and scuffs, and as El slips it into her pocket of her hoodie, she can’t help but feel like he’s only giving it to her because it obviously got ruined somehow. Great.
“Do you wanna solve it?” Mike offers, raising his wrist and pointing to his watch, “I can time you!”
Seriously? El’s seated right beside him, the dance is less than 2 days away, and all Mike can think about is his Rubik’s cube?
“I don’t really want to,” El mutters, averting her gaze.
“Why not?” Mike frowns.
El hesitates. “I’m tired.”
It’s not a lie, not really. She is tired. Tired of all this confusing back-and-forth with Mike. They hold hands, and then they don’t. They cuddle, and then Mike can barely meet her gaze. It’s all so confusing and she just wishes she knew what she was doing wrong.
“Are you sure?” Mike asks, looking anxious, “I really think you should—“
Thankfully, Mike’s cut off by the sound of a car horn. El turns to look out the window and sees that her dad’s cruiser is waiting in the driveway.
“I gotta go,” El says, thankful for the interruption. As much as she loves Mike, she’s just feeling so hurt and upset with him, she doesn’t think she can stand to face him a moment longer. She rises to her feet, slipping the hood of her hoodie over her wily curls.
Mike glances out the window and catches sight of her dad. “Oh,” he mumbles, face falling.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” El mumbles back. She steps into the foyer, grabbing her skateboard from where she’d left it propped against the wall.
Mike only nods as he watches her leave, still looking a little upset. “Okay,” he pouts, and even though El’s frustrated with him, she can’t help but note how cute he looks right now, even though he’s sad.
Damn it.
It’s not fair, really, El thinks as she leaves through the front door and dashes out into the pouring rain. She shouldn’t think that Mike is cute, not when he’s being so irritating.
And yet, as she climbs into her dad’s cruiser, soaked to the bone, she finds herself already missing him. She hasn’t even left his driveway yet.
“Hey, kid,” Hopper greets.
“Hey,” El replies stiffly, buckling herself into her seat.
Hopper backs the car out of the driveway and commences the long drive home. He manages to go a full 2 minutes before asking about Mike, which has to be a new record for him.
“So, how was Mike’s?” He asks casually (curiously).
Confusing. Complicated.
“Fine,” El mumbles, shivering slightly. Though her dad has the heat blowing through the car vents, the pouring rain has left her feeling icy all over. Her hoodie sticks to her back and her socks make a heavy squelch sound as she shuffles her feet.
“Just fine?” Hopper asks, eyeing her.
El chews on her lower lip. Honestly, the more she thinks about Mike, the more irritated she gets. She just wants things to be simple between them, like with Max and Lucas. At least Lucas never pretends like he didn’t like Max — he practically drools over her on a daily basis.
“Not fine,” El mutters, eyes narrowing a little.
Hopper glances at her with a frown. “Did something happen?”
“No!” El bursts suddenly, frustrating boiling, bursting, “Nothing happened! Nothing ever happens!”
“Okay!” Hopper exclaims, startled, “Jesus, kid. Just…slow down. Tell me what happened.”
She knows she’s being irrational and over-emotional. She also knows that complaining about Mike to her dad might not be the best idea, but she just needs to vent to somebody, and Hopper is her only option right now.
“I thought he was going to ask me to Homecoming!” El snaps, “But he didn’t! He’s so confusing and I don’t understand!”
“Maybe he’s just nervous,” Hopper offers tentatively, “Maybe he’s just working up the courage.”
El snorts dismissively.
“There’s still time,” Hopper reminds her, “The dance is—“
“—The day after tomorrow,” El seethes.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” El replies, hating how her voice cracks near the end, “He’s not going to ask me. I thought he was tonight, but all he did was give me this!”
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the Rubik’s cube, presenting it to her dad. Hopper glances back and forth between the cube and the road a few times before cautiously reaching out to grab it.
“What’s this?” He frowns, continuing to glance at it as he drives.
“It’s ruined,” El pouts, not quite sure if she’s just talking about the Rubik’s cube anymore. “He scribbled all over it and it’s all mixed up and—“
Her voice breaks as she slumps back in her seat. Rain continues to pummel against the car from all sides, and El suddenly just feels so exhausted from her impatience and disappointment.
Hopper turns the cube over a few time in his hand, using his other hand to keep the wheel steady. “I don’t think these are scribbles, kid,” he remarks several moments later.
El frowns. “What?”
“Look,” Hopper instructs, tossing the cube back to her, “There’s letters.”
El’s brow furrows even further as she peers at the Rubik’s cube more closely. Sure enough, etched on one of the white squares in Sharpie marker is a single word.
Forever.
El’s breath hitches as her mind starts racing to come up with an explanation. She flashes back to Mike’s living room, to the nervous, hopeful smile he’d given her as he passed her the Rubik’s cube.
Do you wanna solve it?
I really think you should—
Oh, god.
Her heart starts pounding as she immediately begins shuffling the cube. Even though her hands are shaking, she works at lightning speed.
“White cross,” she mutters under her breath, moving the cube accordingly, “Sides still match.”
“Huh?” Hopper questions, sounding lost.
El doesn’t respond. With the amount of sheer and undivided attention she’s dedicated to solving the Rubik’s cube, she’s pretty sure that the world could be ending around her and she wouldn’t notice.
She counts off the seconds in her head, and solves it in record time. 3 minutes, 53 seconds.
Her heart stops as she examines her completed work. As she does so, every other sensory detail fades away. She doesn’t hear the pouring rain, the howling wind, or the rhythmic squeak of the windshield wipers frantically trying to keep up with it all. She doesn’t feel her wet socks or her damp hoodie. She doesn’t smell the scent of coffee and cigarettes that’s permanently embedded into the seats of this car.
She sees. She sees every last, nonsensical, completely sentimental thing that Mike’s scribbled onto the Rubik’s cube in Sharpie. The frog smiley face. The doodles of waffles. The music notes. The lightsabers. The Ramones lyrics.
You are my kind of a girl, I think we would look pretty good together, dancing through the school gymnasium, and this time I think it is forever.
Scrambled up, it hadn’t made any sense, but now, pieced together—
Oh god, she’s been such a knucklehead, El realizes, a huge, overreacting, dramatic, wasteoid. She really needs to stop watching so many soap operas.
He edited the lyrics for her. He took the time listening to songs for her, and solving the Rubik’s cube for her, and drawing everything for her, and he’s so impossibly considerate — El doesn’t know what she ever did to deserve him.
She finds herself crying, for some nonsensical, intangible reason. Mainly because she’s happy. Ridiculously happy. It’s so ridiculous that even when she bursts out laughing, her giggles bubble forth as nothing more than choked-up sobs.
As Mike lies back in bed, he contemplates why his life is so terrible all of the time. It’s probably because of his own stupidity, honestly.
After Dustin suggested that Mike use his Rubik’s cube to ask El to Homecoming, since they were so ‘weirdly obsessed with it,’ Mike spent the rest of the week working on it.
It took him all of Tuesday to solve the Rubik’s cube, since he’d never managed to finish it at the arcade. He spent all of Wednesday listening to all of El’s favorite bands, trying to find the perfect lyrics. In between classes earlier today, not feeling quite satisfied (and partly inspired by Max), he doodled everything else that he could think of.
It wasn’t until El showed up at his doorstep tonight to watch movies that he realized he had no plan on how to actually present the Rubik’s cube to her. Not only that, but he’d been so focused on crafting his plan, he’d accidentally isolated El in the process.
He could tell by the despondent way she kept glancing at him throughout the night. He’d taken too long, he’d disappointed her, and then the pressure to make sure that everything was perfect, that he was perfect, was higher than ever.
By the time he’d finally summoned the courage, it was too late, and once again, El was gone. He’d missed his window, all because he was too scared and he overanalyzed everything, like he always did.
Why does he always have to be such a colossal idiot?
Mike groans as he rolls over to bury his face in his pillow. The storm has stopped outside, and yet Mike still feels like he’s trapped in the horror movie they watched.
He has to try again. He has to think of another plan. The first one was an obvious failure, not that it was really any good to begin with. Max basically had the same idea as him, so even if El did solve it, she’d probably think it was stupid and unoriginal.
His self-pitying contemplation is interrupted by the sound of his bedroom door creaking open.
“Michael?” His mother calls out, ducking her head through the doorway, “Are you awake?” Her voice sounds all sing-songy and eager, like she’s super happy about something.
“Yeah,” Mike mumbles into his pillow, “Why.”
“You have a phone call!” Mrs. Wheeler replies, practically squealing from excitement, “It’s El!”
Mike snaps upright so fast, he’s genuinely surprised that he doesn’t break his spine in the process. “El?” He echoes disbelievingly.
“Mmm hmm!” Mrs. Wheeler nods, beaming from ear-to-ear, “She really wants to talk to you!”
Mike doesn’t need to hear anything more. Within seconds, he’s already leapt out of bed, darted out of his room, and made it halfway down the hallway. He descends the stairs two at a time, heart pounding so hard it feels like it might just beat right out of his chest.
He skids to a stop in front of the family phone and picks up the receiver, feeling a little winded.
“Hello?” He asks breathlessly, trying not to pant into the phone.
“Mike?” El asks shyly.
“El!” Mike smiles, slumping back against the wall in relief, “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s okay,” El says carefully, “I just…”
Mrs. Wheeler comes to join Mike in the hallway, not even attempting to be subtle with her eavesdropping. Mike motions for her to go away, but she only smiles and shakes her head.
Go on, she mouths, motioning for him to continue.
His mom seriously has to be the most embarrassing mom in the world.
“I solved the Rubik’s cube,” El continues.
If there’s anything that could be said to get Mike’s mind off his eavesdropping mother, it’s that.
“Y-you did?!” Mike stammers.
“Yes,” El replies. Though her voice seems shy, it’s also surprisingly steady, so Mike can’t really tell what she’s feeling, “I beat my record.”
“And?” Mike asks anxiously.
“And…and I’m sorry.”
Mike pales. “Sorry?”
“Yes! I’m so sorry,” El apologizes profusely, “I was stupid. I made assumptions, again.”
“Wait, what?! No!” Mike rejects, “You’re not stupid! You’re never stupid! I’m the one who’s sorry. You wouldn’t have had to make assumptions if I hadn’t acted like a total wasteoid. I shouldn’t have acted so weird. I was just so nervous, you know?”
“Nervous? Why?”
“I dunno,” Mike frowns, “I guess…I guess I just wanted everything to be perfect. I was so worried that you were going to say no.”
“You worry too much,” El chides him gently.
“I know,” Mike admits.
“It’s cute,” El continues, “…Sometimes. Other times, it’s annoying.”
“I’m sorry,” Mike mumbles, shuffling his feet in place, “I know I can be an idiot.”
“You can,” El says bluntly, and Mike has to stop himself from laughing at her sheer brazenness.
“Jeez, El,” he blushes, rubbing the back of his neck.
“It’s true!” El points out dejectedly, “I told you I was sorry for ignoring you when I was scared. Then you did the same to me.”
He can hear the hurt in her voice, and it kills him. “You’re right,” he admits, “I shouldn’t have done that.”
El is silent for several moments as she broods over his response. “Promise me,” she finally says, voice firm.
“Promise you?” Mike echoes, “What?”
“That we won’t shut each other out, ever,” El explains, “No lying. No ignoring.”
It’s an offer Mike is more than willing to accept. “I promise,” he assures her, clutching the phone receiver tightly, “I’ll never do that again.”
“I promise too,” El vows.
“Okay,” Mike nods, breathing out a small sigh of relief, “That’s, uh, good.”
El makes a small hum of agreement, and then a beat of silence passes between them. Hoping to keep the conversation from faltering for too long, Mike again rushes to make sure that El knows just how sorry he is.
“I just still feel so bad,” He confesses, “About making you feel bad.”
“Well,” El pauses, then tentatively replies, “You should make it up to me, then.”
“How?” Mike pleads, “I’ll do like, anything, I swear.”
El sighs indifferently. (Or is it coyly? It’s hard for Mike to tell over the phone.) “Maybe you could…”
“Yeah?” Mike responds hopefully.
“…Take me to Homecoming?”
She still wants to go?! With HIM?
Mike can hardly believe his luck. Even though he doesn’t know what he did to deserve someone as amazing as El, he does know that having her in his life is something he’ll be eternally grateful for.
Mike feels his cheeks flush red as he breaks into a wide grin. “Uh, yeah!” He beams, “I think I can definitely do that.”
“Good!” El replies with a small, contented giggle.
“So, it’s a date?” Mike asks, instantly wincing at his word choice. A date? Really? Was that too much?
But, to his relief, El doesn’t audibly cringe in response. Instead, she gives another light, excited laugh, and replies simply, “Yes. It is.”
Mike feels like he’s about to burst, he’s so excited. Okay, so maybe his life isn’t so terrible all the time. After all, how could it be when he’d just secured a date with literally the most amazing girl in the entire universe? A girl who also had actual superpowers?
“I guess,” El continues, “I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”
“Definitely!” Mike smiles, “See you then!”
“‘Bye, Mike!”
“‘Bye, El!”
“Goodnight!”
“‘Night!”
“‘Night!”
“‘Night, El!”
“‘Night, Mike!”
They’re talking in circles, neither wanting to hang up first. But then Mike glances over and sees that his mom is still smiling all excitedly at him, and he’s abruptly reminded that his mom has already overheard way too much.
“Okay, bye,” Mike says definitively.
“Bye!” El replies wistfully.
Mike hangs up the phone.
“Well?” Mrs. Wheeler asks expectantly.
“We’re going to Homecoming,” Mike huffs with an eye roll, and even though he’s trying to make it seem like it’s not that big of a deal, he can’t stop himself from grinning.
Mrs. Wheeler lets out an excited squeal (again, most embarrassing mom ever), and brings a hand to cover her mouth, as if she’s about to cry, or something. “You have a date!” She simpers, getting all teary-eyed, “To Homecoming! With a girl!”
“You don’t gotta sound so surprised,” Mike grumbles.
“I know, I know,” His mother continues, “It’s just…you’re so grown up! You’re becoming a man!”
“What?!” Mike exclaims, scrunching up his nose.
“Oh, just wait until I tell Nancy!” Mrs. Wheeler continues, “She’ll be so excited for you!”
“No!” Mike yelps, “Don’t tell Nancy!” If Nancy finds out that Mike’s dating (?) someone, he won’t hear the end of it when she comes home for Thanksgiving break.
Sadly, it’s already too late. Mrs. Wheeler is already moving past Mike to dial the phone herself, rambling on about girls and tuxes and corsages and all the photos she’s going to take. All this commotion wakes up Holly, who comes down from her room to ask what’s going on, and then Mrs. Wheeler is telling Holly, and then Nancy picks up the phone, and suddenly Mike is being doted over by every female member of his nuclear family.
“How did Mike get a girlfriend?” Nancy teases over speakerphone, “He never leaves the basement.”
“Can I do your hair?” Holly pleads. Their parents had purchased her a Barbie styling head for her last birthday, and (in Mike’s opinion) the only thing scarier than the large disembodied head of a Barbie was the hairstyles that Holly had given it.
“No!” Mike exclaims.
“Her name is Eleanor,” Mrs. Wheeler says, still talking to Nancy over the phone, “She’s lovely.”
“Are you sure she’s real?” Nancy jokes, “I mean, remember when he was 7? He said Princess Leia was his girlfriend.”
All the clamor causes his father to come over, and that starts yet another round introductions and explanations and Mike-has-a-GIRLFRIEND!?’s.
“Have we met this girl?” Ted asks, looking confused.
“Dad,” Mike says, exasperated, “She’s literally been here two times. Including tonight.”
“I don’t think so,” Ted thinks aloud, “I would have seen her.”
“Can I do her hair?” Holly asks hopefully.
“I remember that!” Mrs. Wheeler gasps to Nancy, “He was so cute! He had her picture up in his room and everything!”
“Oh my god,” Mike groans, burying his face in his hands. He honestly can’t believe he’s related to any of these people. It seems way too ridiculous to be true—
—just like El actually agreeing to go with him to Homecoming.
Despite his family’s antics, it’s impossible for Mike to stay upset with that in mind.
“It’s a date,” he repeats under his breath, smiling like an idiot.
Tag List: @pixie813, @lovecolesprouse, @miss-sad-marshmallow, @wrongirish, @lonewolfhard, @bbc-radio-phan, @ontariokid, @catalystofhighhopes, @iliketheinternet, @e1vn , @the-proud-princess, @bugheadqueen , @mother-harrington , @finnywolfyy, @ethoctransierit, @elevenhawkins, @kathpride18, @sherlock-salvadale, @creepyfangirlwhosucksatedits, @barbara----holland, @puzzlingsnark, @milevenbeauty , @gemel-dreamer, @itssciencefitz, @michitesoro, @jenn0bi
Everybody Talks | Chapter 13: Into the Woods
Fandom: Stranger Things Pairings: Mileven, Lumax Rating: K WC: 13,562 😵 Summary: When Will invites the group on a weekend camping trip, everyone gets a lot more surprises than they bargained for.
[AO3] Chapter Selection: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]-13-[14][15][Epilogue]
El is crowded with her friends in the A.V. Club room when Will brings up the idea.
“Are you guys busy this weekend?” He begins, glancing at everyone curiously.
Mike is crouched in front of the TV, trying to get it to turn on. Dustin is hovering beside him, snacking on a 3 Musketeers bar, and trying his best to instruct Mike on what to do, even though Mike claims he already knows what to do. Max and Lucas are seated in two of the desks, with Max’s legs draped across Lucas’ lap.
It’s Monday after school, and they’re all in here to see the boys’ final cut of their Homecoming video. El is seated on top of the third desk, near the back of the group. She finds herself torn between eyeing Mike (because he looks really cute whenever he’s focused), or eyeing Max and Lucas (because she can’t help but wonder: are they dating now? It’s kinda unclear. El’s pretty sure that Max would tell her if they were, so they’re probably not, but first it was holding hands during movie night, and now Max is totally acting even weirder than usual around him).
Despite all the clamor, when Will poses his question, everyone stops what they’re doing to turn and look at him.
“I dunno,” Dustin shrugs, “I mean, whatever we do, we’re probably going to be together anyway.”
“Why?” El asks Will, intrigued.
Will, seated in the fourth desk, hesitates before continuing. “Well, I was just wondering if you guys wanted to go camping?”
“Camping?” Lucas frowns, confused.
“That’s kinda random, Byers,” Max nods, eyeing him.
“I know,” Will blushingly admits, “It’s just…I don’t know, it’s kinda dumb.”
“No, what is it?” Mike asks concernedly, “You can tell us.”
Will gives Mike a grateful smile before turning to look back at the rest of the group. “Well,” he begins, “Jonathan and I kind of have this tradition. On the last weekend of October, we take a camping trip to the woods, you know the big forest out by the Quarry? And we like, set up sleeping bags and build a campfire and roast marshmallows and…I dunno, it’s just always a lot of fun.”
“And you want us to do that with you?” Mike offers.
Will nods.
“Let me get this straight,” Max cuts in, removing her legs from Lucas’ lap and sitting up straighter, “You want us, a group of teenagers, to go spend a night in the forest, alone?”
“Yes?” Will hesitates.
“You realize that that’s like, the set-up for every slasher movie ever?” Max points out, “Friday the 13th? Madman? Sleepaway Camp? You’re basically asking to get murdered.”
“Those are just movies,” El frowns.
“I dunno, Max has a point,” Dustin shrugs, “It sounds kinda risky; we’d basically be tempting the horror fates.”
“I know,” Will patiently replies, “But…I mean, we’ve been doing it every October since our dad left, and this is the first year that Jonathan’s not going to be here since he’s at NYU now.”
Everyone falls silent at that, looking a little guilty.
“I dunno, it was a dumb idea,” Will hastily continues, slumping back in his desk, “Just forget I said anything.”
“No!” Mike frowns, “Let’s do it!”
“Really?” Will asks hopefully.
“Yeah,” Max nods, looking a little embarrassed, “It could be fun, I guess. And if a serial killer does come after us, we could always use Dustin as bait.”
“Why me!?” Dustin protests, looking offended.
“My dad has a lot of old camping stuff,” El offers, ignoring Dustin and Max’s bickering, “If we need anything.”
“Okay!” Will replies, starting to look more excited. “I mean, if you guys really want to.”
“We really do,” Mike assures Will before turning back to fiddle with the TV.
“But wait,” Lucas suddenly pipes up, looking concerned, “Isn’t the homecoming dance this weekend?”
“No, that’s the football game, you dweeb,” Max huffs with an eye roll, “The game is this weekend, the dance is next weekend.”
“Why do you know that?” Dustin snorts.
“Why don’t you?” Max snaps back defensively, “You’re the ones who made a whole video for it!”
“But do we care about going to the football game?” Will points out, looking puzzled.
“No,” Dustin snorts again.
“Speaking of,” Mike segues, “I finally got the TV to turn on, so we can watch our video.”
“Finally,” Max sighs, “Let’s see this thing.”
“Full disclaimer,” Dustin prefaces, “It’s kinda super boring, because it’s about football, but in our defense, we did the best we could.”
“It’s not boring,” Lucas counters, “I mean...it kind of is, but it could be worse.”
“I think it’s fine!” Mike insists, “Let’s just watch it and see.”
“Have you guys not watched it or something?” Max asks skeptically.
“This is our first time watching the final cut,” Will explains, “We just finished it today.”
“It’ll be good,” El assures them, “I know it. You guys are all really talented.”
Mike glances over his shoulder to smile at El thankfully, and El feels her heart flutter in response. It’s not fair how he manages to look insanely cute even when his face is still a little bruised and he’s wearing the most basic of hoodies.
El watches Mike as he inserts the tape into the VHS player under the TV, hurries to the back of the room, and turns off the lights. As the tape clicks into place and begins to whirr inside the player, Mike comes to sit beside El on the top of the desk.
This, of course, causes El to blush like mad. It’s a pretty small desktop as is, so having Mike squeeze in beside her means that they’re seated rather close to each other. It’s not like she minds this, or anything, but she’s still adjusting to being this up close and personal with Mike on a regular basis.
Ever since they spent Saturday afternoon eating waffles and watching cheesy soap operas at her house, things have felt a little different. El’s not quite sure what it is, but something has definitely changed. They’re more comfortable around each other (for the most part), and El notices that Mike’s been casually gazing at her more often, like before school, during lunch, during Biology, right now...
“Aren’t you supposed to be watching the video?” El whispers, giving him a teasing smile.
Mike flinches and nods, looking flustered. “Uh, yeah,” he admits, turning to look back at the TV.
El has to bite down on her lower lip to stop herself from giggling. As she turns to look toward the screen, she does her best to pay attention to the video, and not the fact that Mike currently smells like Ivory soap (a fact that, while albeit slightly strange to point out, is nevertheless pretty distracting).
El doesn’t know too much about sports, but from what she can tell, the video is constructed well. There’s plenty of footage from the games, the transitions are nice, and she can tell that the boys must have worked really hard on it.
When the video ends, Mike leaves El’s side, turns on the lights, and goes to retrieve the tape from the VHS player. “And that’s pretty much it,” he summarizes, glancing at all the members of the group as he stands before them.
“So, what do you think?” Dustin asks, turning to look at Max and El, “Did that not just like, blow your mind?”
“Oh, it did,” Max nods, “But not in the way you probably wanted.”
“What do you mean?” Lucas frowns.
“Isn’t this supposed to be a video supporting our school?” Max asks incredulously.
“Obviously,” Dustin scoffs.
“Then why did you dweebs put in so many shots of the other teams scoring on us?”
The boys pale and turn to look at each other worriedly.
“We did!?” Mike exclaims, looking panicked.
“But the crowd was cheering!” Will pouts, “Doesn’t that mean we scored?”
“That means that the other team’s crowd was cheering,” Max replies, “Not ours.”
The guys exchange collective groans of defeat.
“It’s a small mistake!” El offers encouragingly, “I didn’t notice!”
“Still,” Mike sighs, “We’re gonna have to fix it.”
“But Mr. Coleman wants it turned in by Wednesday!” Lucas laments. “That gives us less than two days!”
“I’ll help you geeks fix it,” Max huffs.
Dustin eyes her. “You know about video editing?”
“No,” Max admits, “But I know how to tell the difference between winning or losing, which you guys obviously don’t.”
The guys nod reluctantly, all unwilling to argue with that.
“Let’s meet after school and work on it tomorrow,” Mike instructs, “It’s already getting late. We’ll work on it tomorrow, finish it up on Wednesday, and then we can start planning for the camping trip.”
Everyone else nods in agreement before rising out of their seats.
“I can’t believe I’m gonna have to help you nerds,” Max gripes as she grabs her backpack and skateboard.
“If you’re helping them make the video,” El nonchalantly responds, “Does that mean you’re in the A.V. Club now?”
Max pauses to crinkle her nose in disdain. “Please, no,” she groans.
“Too late!” Lucas smirks, giving her a light nudge, “You’re one of us now, Mad Max.”
Dustin bursts out laughing at this, which only causes Max to look more annoyed (though, to be fair, El is certain that Max’s annoyance falls under the “pretending like she hates something even though she secretly likes it” category).
Max exits the classroom while bickering with Lucas and Dustin on whether or not she’s a nerd like them (according to Dustin, since she has the highest scores at the arcade and she’s seen 2/3 Star Wars movies she is; according to Max, Dustin can shut up).
Will grabs his backpack and moves to follow them, but first stops to look at Mike and El.
“Thanks for agreeing to go on the camping trip with me,” he says, smiling shyly, “I know it sounds dumb, but...it really means a lot.”
“It’s not dumb,” El assures him.
“El’s right!” Mike nods, “If it’s something important to you, then it’s important to all of us.”
“Still,” Will insists, “I just wanted to say ‘thanks’.”
El and Mike both give Will reassuring smiles before he continues to head out the door.
“See you tomorrow!” Will cheerily calls back over his shoulder.
“‘Bye, Will!” Mike calls back.
And just like that, they’re alone.
There’s an awkward beat of silence as Mike and El exchange nervous smiles. Even though they’ve been more comfortable with each other since Saturday, this current newfound privacy came quickly and by surprise.
Thankfully, Mike, as usual, has something to talk about.
“Did you see that Troy was back in school today?” He asks. He moves closer, sits on top of the desk that Max was previously seated in, and positions himself so that he’s facing El.
“Yes,” El nods, “We have Biology with him.”
“Right!” Mike blushes, looking embarrassed.
It was true, Troy had returned to school that day. He was sporting an arm cast and a surly glare, but other than that, he’d kept to himself. El caught him looking her way during Biology class, but all it’d taken was one cold glare from her to get him to snap back in the other direction.
“I don’t think he’s going to bother us,” El remarks.
“Yeah, all thanks to you!” Mike beams.
“And you,” El reminds him.
“I guess,” Mike shrugs, “But it was mostly you.”
El doesn’t feel like turning this into a debate (mostly because she knows that Mike would never give it up), so she chooses to give him a soft smile instead.
“Speaking of all that,” Mike continues, “I kind of have an idea.”
“An idea?” El frowns.
Even though they’re completely alone, Mike still glances around the A.V. Club room before leaning in a little closer. “I think the camping trip might be a good time to tell everyone,” he says, voice low, “About your...you know.”
Her powers.
El glances down at her hands before looking back up at Mike. “Why?”
“Well, just think about it,” Mike explains, “We’re gonna be completely alone in the woods, so you don’t have to worry about anyone overhearing you. Plus, both Max and I will be there to help you explain everything.”
“That’s a good point,” El nods, though with slight reluctance.
While they watched soap operas and ate waffles on Saturday, they’d also discussed ways that El could reveal her powers to the rest of their friends. It had to be just right, Mike pointed out, so that their reaction wouldn’t be like his reaction. But after finishing off two boxes of Eggos and learning that Jessica’s sister, who was thought to be dead, is really alive and having an affair with Robert, her long-lost half-brother, Mike and El still hadn’t come up with any plan. The subject was eventually dropped in favor of discussing how “totally insane” soap operas were (Mike’s words, not hers).
El knew that she was going to have to tell her friends, she just didn’t think it was going to be as soon as this weekend.
“Do you think you’re ready?” Mike asks concernedly.
El sighs and shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know, but...I think I should get it over with.”
“Yeah,” Mike nods, “I think so too.”
“You’ll help me?” El asks, glancing up at him.
“Yeah, totally!” Mike assures her, “I promised you! I’ll make sure that they don’t freak out like I did.”
El gives him a small, relieved smile as she feels herself relax. “Thank you,” she murmurs.
Mike smiles back, nods, and leans forward in his seat to give her a quick little hug.
Before he can move away, El grasps him tighter and holds the hug longer, not wanting to leave his arms. She nuzzles her face into his shoulder, taking in both the scent of his Ivory soap and of the fabric softener that lingers on his hoodie.
Safe.
On Tuesday, everyone stays late after school to finish the video. The time is mostly comprised of Max teasing the guys, Dustin getting offended, Lucas not-so-subtly drooling over Max, and Will and Mike trying to keep them all on task. Even though El doesn’t know much about film editing, she still hangs around to give moral support (and to pass out lots of caffeine-filled sodas for stamina). They finish the video around 8 pm, and when they’re done, they’re all pleased with the final product.
“If this doesn’t get on the news,” Max says after they drop off the finished tape at the main office, “I’m gonna torch Mr. Coleman’s car again.”
“Because that’s a reasonable reaction,” Dustin replies dryly.
Since they finish editing the video early, they get to spend Wednesday solely focused on planning their upcoming camping trip. Though El’s excited, she can’t help but worry. While everyone else already got their parents’ permission to go on the trip, El has yet to ask Hopper for his, mainly because she’s almost 100% certain that he’s going to say no. He’d just met Mike, and while Hopper had admittedly treated him well, El can’t help but feel like she’s asking for too much too soon.
When she confides these concerns to Max after school, Max offers to help El ask Hopper, a proposition that El readily accepts.
Since Hopper is still on duty, the girls decide to visit him at the police station. While El doesn’t spend a lot of time there, the secretary, Flo, is always super nice, and Max always gets a kick out of messing around with the handcuffs, badges, and other police equipment that Hopper now says are ‘Off Limits.’
As the two girls walk down the sidewalk with their skateboards under their arms, El shares the details of her planned confession.
“So, you’re going to tell all of them?” Max summarizes.
El nods.
“And this is all Wheeler’s idea?”
“Sort of,” El frowns, “But...I want to do it. I don’t want to lie to my friends.”
Max nods. “Yeah, that makes sense.”
They walk in silence for a moment before Max speaks up again. “Well, I got your back, okay?” She assures El.
“Thank you,” El smiles gratefully, before reluctantly adding, “But it won’t matter if I don’t get my Dad’s permission.”
“Why wouldn’t he give it to you?”
El gives Max a wary look. “He made me keep the door open when Mike was in my room. I know he won’t be happy about us going to the woods, alone.”
“But you won’t be alone,” Max points out, “The rest of us will all be there.”
“That’s true,” El admits.
“Plus, if your Dad wants, I’ll make sure that you and Mike are never alone together. I’ll be your personal third wheel.”
“But then Lucas will be lonely,” El teases.
The late-afternoon air is rather chilly, so when Max gives off an exaggerated, indignant huff, her breath fogs into a wispy mist. “What?!”
El holds back a smirk, instead keeping her expression innocently inquisitive. “I thought you liked him?”
“No!” Max fervently exclaims.
“You were holding his hand during the movie. You sat by him on Monday.”
“So?! That doesn’t mean anything.”
El can’t hold back her smile any longer. Max likes Lucas so much, it’s completely obvious. She can try to deny it all she likes, but El sees right through it.
“Are you dating him?” El asks, studying Max’s reaction closely.
“No,” Max answers, rolling her eyes dismissively.
“Do you want to?” El smiles, giving her a light nudge.
In a rather out-of-character reaction, Max actually blushes and seems a little flustered. “Maybe,” she mutters.
El opens her mouth to gasp excitedly, but Max quickly moves in and clamps her hand over it.
“Don’t!” Max hisses, “You can’t tell him, or anyone!”
El nods, still smiling elatedly.
Max likes Lucas and Lucas likes Max and they’re probably going to date and everything is perfect!
She’s about to voice these elated thoughts to Max, but then she realizes they’ve finally arrived at the station. Her thought process shifts to the main task at hand: convincing her Dad that allowing her to spend a night in the woods with her friends is a good idea.
Flo greets the girls when they enter and cheerily guides them back to Hopper’s office.
“Hey, Hop!” Flo calls out as she knocks on the closed door, “Your 3 o’clock is here.”
“I don’t have anyone at 3 o’clock,” Hopper grumpily replies from inside.
El and Max have to bite down on their bottom lips to keep from giggling out loud.
“Well, I got two people here who really need to talk to you,” Flo continues, smiling at the girls.
“Send them in,” Hopper sighs.
Flo gives the girls a wink before walking off. El and Max give her appreciative waves before El moves forward, turns the doorknob, and steps inside.
Hopper is seated behind his desk, surrounded by empty white mugs, miscellaneous documents, and a couple untouched apples (El doesn’t know why Flo insists on giving Hopper apples every morning — he never eats them and El just winds up throwing them away after they start to rot). When Hopper sees the two girls walk in, he’s surprised at first, but his expression quickly relaxes into a warm smile.
“Hey, kids,” he greets, putting his feet up on his desk.
“Hi, Dad!” El smiles, trying to stay calm. Her dad is so much more intimidating when he’s in full uniform, and as she and Max sit in the two chairs in front of his desk, she can’t help but feel like one of the suspects in his cases.
“What are you two doing here?” Hopper asks, glancing at them, “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Max shrugs. She slumps back in her chair and puts her feet up on the desk, mimicking Hopper’s pose.
“Really?” Hopper asks flatly.
El forces herself to smile, though she feels like crumbling. What if she’s the only one who can’t go on the trip? Would they go without her?
“I…uh…have to ask you something,” El states, trying to sound as confident as possible.
“Okay,” Hopper replies, eyeing her cautiously.
“I want...I want to go camping.”
“Camping?!”
“...With my friends.”
Hopper blinks at her, confused.
El takes a deep breath and without further hesitation, proceeds to spill out the entire plan, from where she’d be going (the woods near the quarry), how she’d get there (she would skate to Will’s house Saturday morning, or Hopper could drive her, if he really wanted), how long she’d be gone (they’d hike Saturday afternoon, camp in the evening, come back Sunday morning), and who would be coming with her (Max, Mike — yes, that Mike — Dustin, Lucas, and Will).
When she finally finishes, she’s slightly breathless from talking so much. As she stops to catch her breath, she crosses her fingers under her seat, hoping that her dad will be understanding.
There’s a minute of silence has Hopper processes all this information. As it starts to settle in, he takes his feet off his desk and furrows his brow.
“Let me get this straight,” Hopper finally says, leaning forward, “You want to spend a night in the woods, alone, with a bunch of teenage boys?”
“Not just teenage boys,” Max pipes up, “I’m gonna be there.”
Hopper eyes Max, most likely dwelling on the fact that that’s not the most comforting news.
“It’s for Will!” El pleadingly continues.
“Byers?”
“Yes. He used to take the trip with his brother, but now he left for college.”
Hopper nods. “Yeah, I know. I know the Byers. I…I went to high school with their mother. We were pretty close.”
Max snorts. “What, did you like her?”
Hopper and El both turn to look at Max indignantly, Hopper especially.
“Max!” El hisses, hoping that her chances of getting her dad’s approval weren’t about to be thrown away like one of Flo’s daily apples.
“I did not like her,” Hopper huffs, though he looks slightly flustered, “I’m just saying I know her, so I know her boys. Will’s a good kid.”
“He’s Mike’s best friend,” El adds quickly, “Well, one of them.”
“Is that so?” Hopper remarks. He keeps studying El, but El can’t read his expression.
“If it makes you feel better, I can be your eyes and ears the entire time, Chief,” Max offers, “I’ll make sure that El doesn’t get into any Mike-related shenanigans.”
El, cheeks burning, throws Max a dirty look. She’s not sure if that statement is going to help or hurt her chances of getting permission, and with the stoic look on Hopper’s face, there’s no way for her to tell.
It seems to work though, if the way Hopper proceeds to smile is any indication.
“I’m not that worried about Mike,” Hopper admits.
“Why not?” El frowns, not liking his tone.
Hopper hesitates. “Well, you know, he just seems kinda...”
“Like, the biggest nerd ever?” Max finishes.
Hopper hesitates again, but then nods and shrugs. “Yeah.”
Even though this is pretty much true, El can’t help but feel offended on behalf of Mike. “He is not!” She insists.
Hopper and Max only exchange knowing looks.
“He’s not!” El huffs, slumping back in her chair.
“He seems like a nice kid,” Hopper amends, sounding like he’s trying not to laugh.
“He is,” El grumbles.
Hopper gives her a small smile before stopping to think.
He’s deciding.
Another minute passes, though it feels more like an hour. El keeps her fingers crossed as her heart pounds in her chest.
Please, please, please, please!
Finally, Hopper gives a sigh and replies, grudgingly saying, “I guess you can go.”
“Really?” El replies, breath hitching.
“Only,” Hopper warms, holding up a finger, “If you promise to behave.”
He turns his finger to point it at Max. “You’ll keep an eye on Wheeler?”
“Totally!” Max nods.
“Okay.”
El leaps out of her chair and leans across the desk to give him a hug. “Thank you!” She beams, heart soaring.
Hopper returns the hug, patting El on the back. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”
“I won’t, I promise.”
Hopper nods and relinquishes the hug. “Alright, kid,” he replies, “You better get going, I got a lot of work to catch up with.”
“Okay!” El nods.
She and Max both prepare to exit the room, but just as El reaches the doorway, she remembers that she almost forgot one of the most important parts.
“Dad?” She asks nervously, turning to face the desk again.
Hopper glances up at her. “Yeah?”
El swallows. She’s probably asking for too much at once, but if she doesn’t do it now, she’ll miss her chance.
And so, tone mild and hesitant, she voices her next request.
“Can I have $5?”
It’s Thursday afternoon and El is standing in the parking lot of Bradley’s Big Buy with the rest of her friends.
“Alright, did everyone get the five dollars?” Mike asks, standing in front of the group.
Everyone nods, digs into their pockets, and retrieves a bill to show him.
As El shows off the $5 she was able to get from Hopper, she can’t help but smile. Now that she’s been given the all-clear from her dad, she feels as if she can finally allow herself to be excited.
While they were planning the trip on Wednesday, Dustin pointed out that they were going to need food for their travels. Will wholeheartedly agreed, mentioning that he and Jonathan always had a great time making s’mores. Lucas worried that they wouldn’t have enough money to afford food, so Mike proposed that they all ask their parents for just $5, that way when they all put their money together, they’d have a lot.
Mike’s so smart like that, El dreamily muses, smiling at Mike as he continues to say something. What he’s saying — she’s not sure, but he looks really cute saying it. He’s wearing a blue collared sweater under his windbreaker, and El is probably enjoying the sight more than she should. As she continues to gaze at him, she takes note that his wounds from the fight have finally started to heal. While he still has scars and a few bruises, he doesn’t have to wear the band-aids anymore, and his face looks less discolored overall.
She snaps out of her lovesick daze when she realizes that Mike is now yelling at someone. She flinches, startled, and glances over her shoulder to see that Dustin and Lucas have climbed inside a shopping cart, and Max is pushing said shopping cart in figure-8’s around the parking lot.
“Holy shit!” Dustin and Lucas gleefully exclaim as Max zooms around.
“Stop! We’re gonna get kicked out!” Mike exclaims, irritated. “What are you guys even doing?!”
“We wanted to see how fast I could push them!” Max calls back as Lucas and Dustin cheer her on.
Mike sighs and frowns, but El and Will both give him comforting smiles.
“I’m sorry,” El smiles sheepishly, even though she knows that she really has nothing to do with their friends’ antics.
“It’s not your fault,” Mike grumbles.
“Don’t worry,” Will reassures them, “I know what will get them over here.” He turns and cups his hands around his mouth, but even when he proceeds to call out to the others, his voice still isn’t very loud. “If you guys don’t stop, we’re gonna get sugar-free marshmallows and whole-grain graham crackers!”
The shopping cart comes to a screeching halt.
“What?!” Dustin and Max snap, sounding disgusted.
Sure enough, that does the trick.
Five minutes later, they’re hurrying down the aisles of the grocery store together. Will pushes the cart, reading off a shopping list that he composed, while the rest of the group darts around, listening to his instructions.
They get a little bit of everything: cereal, juice boxes, water bottles, hot dogs, trail mix, potato chips, cookies, and, perhaps most importantly, plenty of supplies to make s’mores.
When the time comes to check out, they all step up towards the register and place their $5 bill into the hand of the slightly confused-looking cashier.
The money they have left over, while not much, is given to Mike. The group, despite Mike’s humble protests, insists that he should keep it so that he can start saving up for a new bike.
“Thanks, guys,” Mike blushes as everyone grabs a shopping bag and heads out the door.
“This is gonna be the best trip ever!” Dustin exclaims.
“You know, I’ve actually never been camping,” Max admits.
“How?!” Lucas gapes.
Max shrugs. “I dunno. It’s just not really something my family does.”
“Well, I’ll have to teach you then,” Lucas states, gently nudging his arm against hers.
“Fine, whatever,” Max replies with an eye roll.
El has to clamp her mouth shut in order to not giggle out loud. They like each other and it’s so obvious and—
“Are they like, dating?” Someone mumbles into her ear.
El is startled, but when she looks over her shoulder, she sees that it’s just Mike.
“Not yet,” El whispers back, eyes shining with mischief.
Mike smirks back with a small shake of his head, as if he can’t believe they aren’t together yet.
As El smiles at him, heart fluttering, she can’t help but feel the same.
El and Max both decide in advance to dress down for the camping trip. They agree to ditch the eyeshadow, hairspray, and leather jackets in exchange for softer, more comfortable attire.
When Saturday morning comes, El borrows one of her dad’s flannel jackets, which is more than enough to keep her warm, even if it is really large on her. She also decides to keep her hair natural. While she’s slightly worried about getting teased by the other guys, the whole point of this trip, at least from her standpoint, is revealing her true self to them.
Plus, it had felt amazing when Mike ran his fingers through her curly hair, so maybe, he’d like, do that again.
Hopper offers to drive her to the Byers’, which is a little surprising, since El knows he has a lot of tough case files that he’s supposed to be working on. Nevertheless, she accepts the offer gratefully. Skateboarding while also lugging a sleeping bag and heavy backpack was not a feat that she was looking forward to.
When they pull up at Will’s house, everyone else is waiting outside in the front yard. There’s an older, pretty woman with mussed brown hair talking to Will, her hands on his shoulders. She’s short, Mike’s taller than her, but she still stands out amongst the clamor of jabbering teenagers.
“Is that Will’s Mom?” El asks, turning to glance at Hopper as he pulls the car to a stop.
El’s never seen her dad look anything close to shy, but that’s the only word she can think of to describe the way he’s glancing over at Ms. Byers.
“Yeah, that’s Joyce,” he nods, hastily averting his gaze back towards El.
El eyes him. He’s acting so weird. “Do you want to talk to her?”
Hopper gives a gruff, indifferent sort of huff.
El rolls her eyes. “C’mon,” she says, stepping out of the car.
Hopper composes himself and follows El. As they approach the group, her friends turn to greet them excitedly.
“You’re here!” Mike beams.
“Finally!” Max grins.
“HOLY SHIT! Your hair!” Dustin squawks. “What happened?!”
“Dude!” Lucas snaps, punching Dustin in the arm, “Shut up!”
“I think it looks nice,” Will states, giving Dustin a disapproving frown.
El feels her cheeks start to burn as she shyly tucks a curl behind her ear. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, it does,” Dustin quickly adds, rubbing his arm, “You look great!”
Joyce steps forward to give El a warm hug. “You must be Eleanor,” she says, pulling back to examine El’s face.
El nods shyly. “Yes.”
“Will’s told me so much about you,” she continues, “More than your dad has, anyway.”
Hopper, who’s been hovering on the sidelines this whole time, flushes pink at this. “‘Hello’ to you too,” he grumbles.
Joyce gently pulls away from El and moves to stand in front of Hopper. Her smallness compared to Hopper’s largeness makes for an interesting contrast, to say the least. Will’s Mom has to crane her neck way back to even make eye contact with Hopper.
“Hopp,” she smiles.
“Joyce,” Hopper smiles back.
Will’s Mom steps forward to give Hopper a hug, though her face only meets his upper torso.
El frowns, still a little confused as to how weird they’re acting. She turns to glance at Will, hoping for an explanation, but he looks just as puzzled as she does.
As Hopper and Joyce begin exchanging pleasantries, El steps closer to her friends. Everyone’s sporting bulging backpacks, bundled in warm coats, and carrying a sleeping bag under their arm.
Max is wearing a beanie with a large pom-pom on the top. The pom-pom bounces around as Max tilts her head to the side, and El has to force herself to not laugh at how funny it looks. “I’m pretty sure your dad likes Will’s mom,” she comments, eyeing Hopper and Joyce.
Will’s brow furrows in confusion, but he shakes it off, instead turning his attention back to El. “Is that a camera?” He asks, motioning to El’s torso.
El glances down where indeed, she has her Polaroid camera hanging around her neck. It’s kind of a bulky thing, but she loves using it to take photos of her and Max whenever they hang out. “Yes,” she nods, smiling at Will, “I wanted to take pictures.”
“Me too!” Will enthuses, pointing to the camera hanging around his own neck.
El’s eyes widen curiously as she leans in to look at Will’s camera. It’s different from hers; it has a bigger lens and more buttons to work with.
“It’s a 35 millimeter Pentax MX,” Will says proudly, “It’s Jonathan’s old camera; he let me have it when he got a newer one.”
“Where does the picture come out?” El frowns.
“It doesn’t, you have to develop it,” Will explains, “I can show you sometime, we have a dark room in the school for it!”
“We should get a picture of all of us,” Mike smiles, “Before we leave.”
“El could use an updated one,” Max mutters wryly.
El gives her a warning look, but thankfully, no one else seems to have noticed her comment.
“Good idea!” Will nods. He walks over to his mom, gently tugs on her arm, and asks her to take their picture.
As Will walks her through how to use the camera, El and the others drop their things and huddle together. El and Max stand in the middle with Mike and Lucas at their sides, respectively. Dustin crouches in front of them, and as soon as Will hands the camera to Joyce, he runs over to crouch beside Dustin.
As Mike wraps his arm around El’s back, she shivers, and not just because the morning is a little cold.
“Alright,” Joyce announces happily, peering into the viewfinder as she aims the camera at the group, “Smile!”
Everyone smiles, leans closer together, and the camera flashes. The flare leaves El’s vision dotted with colorful splotches for a moment, and she has to blink several times to get them to go away.
“You all look so cute!” Joyce gushes, causing Will to blush.
“Mom!” He bashfully whines. As he runs over to get his camera back, everyone else picks up their backpacks and sleeping bags again.
“We should probably get going,” Lucas reminds them, glancing at his watch, “It’s already after 11 o’clock.”
“Yeah, and I wanna eat the snacks,” Dustin chimes in.
“You already did!” Max snaps.
“Uh, no!?”
“Uh, yeah? Someone opened the box of Fruit Loops!”
“Oh, yeah,” Mike hesitates, “That was me.”
“What?!” Max exclaims.
“I got hungry!” Mike defends.
“El,” Max gripes, “Tell your boyfriend to stop digging into all our food like a weirdo.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” El insists at the same time that Mike stammers, “I-I’m not her boyfriend!”
Max, Lucas, and Dustin all exchange doubtful stares just as Will rejoins the group.
“What’d I miss?” Will asks, glancing at everyone.
“Nothing new,” Dustin snickers, “We’re just ready to go.”
Hopper and Joyce step forward to wish the kids goodbye. As Joyce fretfully lists off a series of reminders for Will (all of to which Will replies, “Yeah, I know Mom”), El moves in to hug her dad goodbye.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Hopper mumbles, patting the back of her head.
“Tomorrow,” El agrees.
They pull away, Hopper gives her one last smile, and El waves goodbye.
“Let’s go!” Lucas says eagerly.
“Hopefully we won’t get murdered,” Max jokes.
As they enter the forest that surrounds Will’s house, their feet crunch against the fallen leaves and their backpacks brush against protruding tree branches. Even though the morning is cold, the sky is a clear, vibrant blue.
“We won’t get murdered; there’s no serial killers out here,” Will sighs as he takes the lead.
“Other than Mike,” Dustin snorts, “He totally killed all those Fruit Loops.”
Everyone but Mike gets a good laugh out of that, Max especially.
“Wheeler’s a cereal killer!” Max cackles, shaking from how hard she’s laughing.
“Yeah, I got that,” Mike replies flatly.
The camping site isn’t too far from Will’s house — it only takes a little over an hour until they’re there. Will leads them to a small, secluded clearing. Trees stretch on for miles, their branches curving over the clearing, almost protecting the stop. Sunlight filters through the branches, causing the ground of the clearing to look like a mosaic of light and leaves. In the distance, El can make out the rocky bluffs of the Quarry’s edge. The air is tinged with the faint scent of clean, crisp freshwater, musky oak trees, and sticky sap.
“Well, here we are!” Will announces, motioning around the clearing, “This is the spot Jonathan and I always come to. It’s right by the Quarry, and there’s plenty of firewood, and—“
“Isn’t this place right by the kissing rock?” Max interrupts, looking around the forest skeptically.
Will pauses and frowns. “The what?”
“I think she’s right,” Dustin nods, “I mean, I’ve never been there, but I heard it’s in the woods right next to the Quarry.”
“It is!” Max nods, “I’m pretty sure it’s like…a 5-minute walk from here.”
“What’s a kissing rock?” El asks, brow furrowing in confusion.
“It’s this big boulder by the edge of the quarry where all the kids at school go to like…kiss,” Lucas explains, blushing.
“Where all the lame kids go,” Max corrects.
“I mean, I guess we’re by it then?” Will pouts, “I dunno.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mike huffs, setting down his things, “It’s not like any of us are gonna—“
His voice trails off, and El suddenly realizes that he’s glancing at her. When El sees that he’s doing this, and Mike sees that El sees that he’s doing this, they both look away from each other quickly, cheeks crimson.
“Whatever,” Max sighs, shrugging the entire conversation off, “Let’s just unpack.”
Everyone else nods and proceeds to do so.
It takes the entire first half of the afternoon to set up camp. Will designates that they leave the center of the clearing for building the fire, so everyone else sets up their sleeping bags in a radial formation around it (first Lucas, then Max, then El, then Mike, then Will, and finally Dustin). After the sleeping bags are rolled out, the group proceeds to hike into the woods in search of sticks and stones for the fire pit.
The forest floor is covered with a thick layer of dead leaves, and El has to kick them all out of the way to find the stray twigs and sticks hidden beneath. As she bundles sticks into her arms, she tries to formulate a way to reveal her powers. She wants to tell them at just the right time and place, but there doesn’t seem to be any organic way to work it into the conversation.
By the time they finish gathering enough supplies to make the fire, it’s already late afternoon, and El’s mind is still as blank as ever.
“Okay,” Will says as soon as they return to the clearing, “We should probably get the fire going.”
“Already?” Lucas questions.
Will nods. “It’ll keep us warm, and it’s kind of hard to start one once it’s really dark out.”
El’s pretty sure that they’re all eager for a heat source right now, so Will doesn’t need to tell them twice to help him build a fire pit. They follow his instructions eagerly, setting up a circle of stones in the middle of their clearing and placing a pile of sticks and dead leaves inside.
“Great, so, how do we get it started?” Mike asks once they’re done.
“We’ll just use some matches,” Will shrugs. He gets up, goes to kneel beside his backpack, and starts digging through it.
“Can we make s’mores?” Dustin asks, “I’m really hungry.”
“Those are for after dinner!” Lucas disputes.
“Says who?”
“Says…I don’t know! Rational people!”
“We could have s’mores for lunch,” El points out, “And then again after dinner.”
“Yes!” Dustin beams at El, “That sounds like the best idea ever.”
“You guys are gonna get a stomach ache,” Mike smiles wryly.
“It’d be worth it,” Dustin insists, “I wanna eat nothing but s’mores for the rest of my life.”
“What about baloney sandwiches?” Max counters dryly.
“Those too.”
“Hey, guys?” Will calls out, still rummaging through his backpack, “Did you guys take the matches?”
“No,” Mike frowns, “Why?”
“I can’t find them!” Will says worriedly, turning to look back at the group.
“Are you serious?” Lucas groans.
“I’m sorry!” Will frets, starting to shake a little. “I think I forgot them!”
“Hey, it’s okay!” Mike insists. He rushes over to Will’s side and gently places his hand on Will’s shoulder. “It was an accident!”
“An accident that’s gonna leave us cold and hungry,” Lucas mutters under his breath.
“What should we do?” El asks, trying to remain calm.
“We could try to start one without matches!” Dustin offers, “You just gotta rub two sticks together! I saw someone do it on TV once!”
“If we wait for that to happen, we’ll all freeze to death,” Max snorts.
“Well, do you have a better idea?” Dustin snaps crossly.
“Uh, yeah? It’s going back to Will’s house and getting the matches!”
“But that’s like, an hour long walk!” Mike points out, “Plus another hour back! That’s two hours!”
“I know,” Max huffs, “I’ll do it.” She walks over to where she’d set her things down, picks up her backpack, and slings it over her shoulders.
“But it’s dangerous to go alone!” Lucas hesitates.
“Then come with me,” Max shrugs.
“Me?”
“Didn’t you go to karate camp?”
“Karate camp?” Lucas echoes, confused.
“Remember?” Max raises an eyebrow. “Jennifer’s party? Dustin told me you spent all of last summer at karate camp.”
Dustin and Lucas exchange quick glances. “Right!” They both exclaim, nodding quickly.
El doesn’t remember any of this, but she’s pretty sure the boys are lying. Either way, the whole situation is pretty amusing, and she can’t help but snort into her palm.
“Then let’s go,” Max orders, already starting to walk off, “I wanna get back before it gets dark.”
“Okay!” Lucas nods, grabbing his backpack before hurrying after her.
“You better not die!” Dustin calls out after them, “If this really is a horror movie, one of you probably isn’t going to make it back!”
“Dustin!” Mike scolds.
“What!? I’m just stating the facts!”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“I’m sorry,” Will mumbles woefully, “This is all my fault.”
“You make a mistake,” El reassures him, “It’s not that bad.”
Will only pouts in response, still seeming pretty resentful of both the situation and himself.
Mike turns to glance at El, looking pretty helpless.
El racks her mind, trying to think of a way to cheer Will up. “Why don’t we take some pictures?” She offers, motioning to both of their cameras.
“Of what?” Will asks curiously.
El shrugs as she glances around their surroundings. “Everything.”
Will hesitates, seemingly unsure, but then El raises her camera. “Like you!” She smiles, snapping a picture of Will and Mike.
“El!” Mike exclaims, looking frantic, “I wasn’t even ready!”
El catches the polaroid as it slowly prints out of her camera. “I know,” she smiles teasingly, slipping the photo into her pocket.
Will smiles back, looking more excited. “Okay!” He nods, rising to his feet.
Time passes by quickly as Will and El explore the clearing together, snapping pictures of everything. The weirdly-shaped knot on a tree trunk, the dandelion peeking out amongst the dead leaves, the squirrel sitting on a tree branch. Mike and Dustin follow them around as they work, pointing out all the potential subjects of interest (including themselves).
Before long, the two hours has nearly passed. The sun is a little lower in the sky and the air has grown colder, but they’re having too much fun to notice.
At least, they are until they’re abruptly interrupted by the sound of a high-pitched, terrified scream. It echoes through the trees, causing some birds to fly off with a frightened squawk.
“Shit!” Dustin hisses, eyes wide, “What the hell was that?”
“Someone screamed,” Mike replies, balling his fists.
“Was that Max?” Will asks worriedly.
“I’m not sure,” El frowns, “It didn’t sound like her.”
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! We’re gonna die!” Dustin exclaims, clutching the sides of his head, “I knew this would happen! I told you, we’re tempting the horror fates and now we’re all gonna get picked off one by one and—“
Dustin’s interrupted by the sound of twigs snapping.
There’s a collective gasp as they all jolt in both surprise and fear.
Someone’s coming closer.
El takes a deep breath and prepares to raise her hand. This isn’t how she planned on revealing her powers, but she’s more than willing to do so if it means keeping her friends safe.
As it turns out, her determined gallantry is for naught. Moments later, Lucas marches into the clearing and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
“Son of a bitch, Lucas, you scared the shit out of us,” Dustin says, slumping his shoulders.
Lucas doesn’t reply. Instead he looks annoyed. Really annoyed. He drops his backpack onto the ground with a grumpy huff, not really making eye contact with anyone.
“Did you get the matches?” Will asks hesitantly.
“Yes!” Lucas snaps, sounding just as irritated as he looks.
El doesn’t know why Lucas is so upset, but moments later she gets her answer when Max rushes into the clearing. She’s holding a box of matches in one hand and a metallic, sharp-looking object in the other.
“C’mon, Lucas!” Max laughs, “Are you still pissed off at me?”
“Yes!” Lucas scowls, crossing his arms.
“Wait, what happened?” Mike questions, glancing at both of them.
“When we were walking back, Max thought it’d be funny to hide behind some bushes and jump out at me!” Lucas snaps bitterly. “She snuck off, and I thought she was hurt or something, but no! She just wanted to scare me! With a knife!”
“It was funny!” Max counters, “You screamed like a girl!”
“You had a knife?” El frowns.
“It’s not even a real knife!” Max defends, “It’s from my old Michael Myers costume.”
“Why did you bring it?”
“Just in case,” Max shrugs.
“It doesn’t matter!” Lucas replies brusquely, “It wasn’t funny!”
“I thought it was!”
“Well, you thought wrong!” Lucas dismisses.
With that, he storms off again, disappearing amongst the countless trees that surround the clearing. He leaves both a tangibly awkward silence and a worried-looking Max in his wake.
“Here,” Max mutters surly, tossing the box of matches to the guys.
Mike, Dustin, and Will exchange uncomfortable glances, but ultimately decide to turn their attention back to the main task at hand: starting the fire.
El, on the other hand, walks over to Max, not wanting to leave her feeling upset. “Are you okay?” She asks gently.
“Not really,” Max grumbles.
“It’s ok,” El murmurs, placing a comforting hand on Max’s shoulder. “It was just a prank.”
“I didn’t think he’d get so mad,” Max mutters, not looking directly at El.
El pauses. Even though she doesn’t want to hurt Max’s feelings, she ultimately decides that it’d be best to tell her the truth.
“You pretend to not like things, even though you do,” El states, making sure to keep her voice low.
“That’s not true!” Max protests.
“It is,” El nods, not bothering to waste time further arguing this fact, “I know it. But Lucas doesn’t. He doesn’t know that you teasing him so much is good. You tease him because you like him, but I think…he might think you’re doing it to be mean to him.”
Max’s head droops as she silently considers this.
“I think you should be honest with him,” El advises.
“Be honest?”
“Tell him how you feel.”
“Like…that I like him?” Max gulps, looking terrified.
“That you don’t hate him.”
“Oh.”
El watches as Max shuffles in place, contemplating what to do.
“I guess you’re right,” Max finally admits. She drops her backpack, tosses her prop knife onto her sleeping bag, and turns to smile gratefully at El. “I’ll go talk to him.”
“Good luck,” El smiles back, giving Max a reassuring hug.
Max nods before darting off, running off in the same direction that Lucas had.
El’s smile falters as an uneasy feeling starts to churn in her gut. As she turns to rejoin the others, she can’t help but feel incredibly guilty. Here she is, telling Max that she needs to be honest with Lucas, and yet, she still hasn’t managed to tell her friends about her powers. She’s a giant hypocrite.
Will has the beginnings of a small fire going. There’s a faint trail of smoke streaming from the fire pit, and the sound of crackling leaves fills the air.
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if we didn’t even need matches?” Dustin comments as Will gently blows into the glowing embers.
“What do you mean?” Mike frowns, eyeing Dustin.
“Like, if I had superpowers,” Dustin elaborates, “Like Pyro.”
“Pyro?” El blanches, wondering if that’s some kind of codename. Does Dustin know? How did he figure it out? Did Mike or Max tell him? No, they wouldn’t, not without telling her that they’d told him—
“From the X-Men comics?” Dustin offers.
“Oh,” El flushes. Even though she feels slightly dumb for rushing to judgment, she’s still left rattled. She just doesn’t know how to tell them. It has to be as normal as possible, with seems highly improbable. She almost wishes that it was a serial killer that’d walked out of the trees, and not Lucas. At least then she wouldn’t have to use any words.
Even though El’s trying to remain outwardly calm, Mike seems to notice how anxious she looks, because he suddenly gets up and walks over to her.
“Do you wanna talk?” He whispers.
El meets his eye and nods gratefully. “Please.”
“Okay,” Mike murmurs before turning back to Will and Dustin to announce, “We’re gonna be right back!”
“Sure you are,” Dustin snorts.
Mike rolls his eyes indifferent and doesn’t reply, instead grasping El’s hand and leading her off down a forest trail.
El blushes as their fingers intertwine, but she accepts the comforting gesture gratefully. “I’m sorry,” she mumbles as soon as Dustin and Will are out of earshot.
“For what?” Mike asks concernedly.
“For being so nervous,” El answers, “I just..I don’t know how to tell them. I don’t want to just blurt it out.”
“You don’t have to be sorry for being nervous,” Mike reminds her, “I would be nervous, too.”
El nods, grasping Mike’s hand a little tighter. She remembers how shocked Dustin had been upon seeing her hair this morning. If curly hair had been enough to make him shout HOLY SHIT, she could only imagine how learning she had powers would make him react.
“Well, there’s no pressure to do it right now,” Mike points out, “We can wait until the night, that way you’ll have more time to think about what you want to say.”
El glances upwards, towards the sky. The blue sky is already beginning to fade. The days feel so much shorter as November draws closer. Waiting until the night still doesn’t give her much time.
“It’ll be okay, I promise,” Mike assures her, giving her hand a squeeze.
“Okay,” El murmurs.
It’s not until El pauses and looks around that she realizes they’ve walked a pretty good distance away from the camp. They’ve exited the wooded area and are now standing on the rocky terrain that surrounds the top of the quarry. There are large boulders scattered about, and El realizes that one of them is probably the kissing rock.
Oh.
El feels herself flush pink as she cautiously turns to glance at Mike. He seems to be thinking the same thing, if the way he’s flushing bright red is any indignation.
El bites her lip shyly, and Mike turns to meet her gaze. “Maybe we should—“ He begins.
“Yes?” El asks hopefully.
Mike swallows, still blushing like crazy, but then his gaze moves to something just beyond El’s shoulder. “Holy shit!” He whispers, eyes widening.
El pales. “What?”
“Look!” Mike says, still whispering. He uses the hand that’s not intertwined with hers to point behind her, and El cautiously turns around to look.
She spots two figures sitting on a large rock about 20 or so feet away. At first she can’t tell who it is, but then she spots that silly pom-pom hat and the long, vibrant red hair tucked underneath it.
Max. Talking to…Lucas. Their heads are ducked low together, deep in conversation. Since they’re so far away, El can’t make out what they’re saying.
“What are they doing?” Mike murmurs.
“She was going to say sorry,” El murmurs back, “For scaring him.”
“Oh.”
El hesitates, unsure of whether or not she and Mike should leave. She can’t help but feel like they’ve walked in on something, even if Max and Lucas are just talking.
She’s just about to voice this concern to Mike when suddenly, without any hesitation, Max shakes her head, cups Lucas’ cheeks in her hands, pulls him towards her, and presses her lips to his in a firm kiss.
El hears a gasp, and she’s not quite sure if it’s from her or Mike. Maybe both of them. Either way, her brain seems to have stopped working, because she’s instantly overwhelmed with surprise, happiness, and excitement all at the same time.
“She kissed him!” El whispers gleefully, turning to beam at Mike.
“I can see that,” Mike replies bashfully, averting his eyes away from the still lip-locked couple.
El bounces in place excitedly, squeezing Mike’s hand in order to keep herself steady. “On the kissing rock!”
“Where all the ‘lame’ kids go,” Mike jokes, pitching his voice higher in what is apparently his best Max impression.
El giggles as she gives Mike a gentle, chiding nudge.
A beat of silence passes as they both turn to steal one more glance at Max and Lucas.
“We should probably go,” Mike whispers, motioning his head in their direction.
“Yes,” El nods, still beaming.
Mike, still clutching her hand, pulls her back into the woods. As they hurry back to camp, El just can’t stop giggling. She’s just so happy for her best friend that there aren’t even enough words to express it.
By the time she and Mike reach the clearing, the sky is a rich ochre and a few crickets have begun to chirp. Dustin and Will have successfully gotten a fire going, and the flickering flames cast dancing shadows against the surrounding trees.
El and Mike release each other’s hands and come to sit beside the fire, both grinning from ear-to-ear.
“What’s so funny?” Will asks, eyeing them suspiciously.
“Nothing!” El smiles.
“Ugh, ew, I don’t even wanna know what you guys just did,” Dustin frowns, wrinkling his nose. “It’s probably going to ruin my s’mores appetite.”
“It’s not like that,” Mike insists, throwing Dustin a look.
“Uh, huh. Whatever you say, Mike.”
Thankfully, neither Dustin or Will presses them for any further information, and instead focus on setting up the fire for hot dog roasting.
15 minutes later, Max and Lucas rejoin the group. As they step into the clearing, El studies them carefully. If she hadn’t seen them kissing with her own eyes, she never would have guessed that they had. Their expressions are neutral and they’re not holding hands or anything. Lucas’ cheeks look a little more flushed than usual, but that’s about it.
“What took you guys so long?” Dustin asks as Max and Lucas come to sit with everyone else.
“We just talked for awhile,” Max shrugs, grabbing a roasting stick and a hot dog. She comes to sit beside El, face completely unreadable.
“How did your talk go?” El quietly asks, making sure to keep her tone nonchalant.
“Fine,” Max breezily murmurs back. “He’s not mad anymore.”
“That’s not surprising,” El mutters under her breath.
“What?” Max asks, sounding confused.
“Nothing!” El quickly amends, “I’m glad you talked.”
Max eyes her warily but ultimately turns her attention back to the fire pit. “Me too,” she says, and even though El knows Max’s trying to hide it, there’s no missing the faint smile pulling at the corners of her lips.
“—And with that, the creature gave off a final screech, dragging his last victim into the night,” Dustin concludes dramatically.
“How the hell is that a scary story?” Max snaps.
“Because the dog turned into a giant, killer lizard!” Dustin defends.
It’s long after nightfall. The forest is pitch black and the only light comes from the crackling fire.
After the hot dog roast and the seemingly endless, completely delicious s’mores feast, Max suggested that they all tell scary stories. They all gathered around the campfire, seated atop their sleeping bags, faces illuminated by the glow of the warm flames. Max had kicked things off with a story about a deranged killer with a hook for a hand that stalked the forests of Hawkins. After that, any story would have really paled in comparison, but Dustin’s tale of a boy adopting a dog that secretly turned out to be a lizard seemed especially weak.
“Lizards aren’t scary,” Max snorts.
“They can be!” Dustin insists. He turns to glance at the rest of the group for validation. “Right?”
“Not really,” Will yawns, looking a little sleepy.
“Well, it was a killer lizard,” Dustin reminds them.
El is trying to focus on the stories, she really is, but her mind is still elsewhere. She feels like she’s not actively engaging with her friends, but rather, waiting on the sidelines, praying for a way to work her confession into the conversation.
“Killer lizards are still just lizards,” Lucas says, shaking his head, “They’re not scary.”
“What about Godzilla?” Dustin points out.
“You didn’t say it turned into Godzilla,” Lucas counters.
“What do you think, Mike?” Dustin asks.
“Honestly?” Mike shrugs, “When you said killer lizard, all I could picture is that newt Mr. Clarke had in the terrarium back in 8th grade. With like…little fangs.”
The conversation is going nowhere. Nowhere near telekinesis, at least. El realizes that she probably gave up her perfect chance when Dustin had mentioned the X-men, and instantly hates herself for it. She had her opportunity practically handed to her, but she’d freaked out and given it up. She could be such a knucklehead…
“El?” Dustin pleads, turning to her, “Please tell me that you think my story was scary. You’re my only hope!”
“Now you’re quoting Star Wars?” Max smirks.
“Now you’re recognizing Star Wars?” Dustin smirks back.
“I am not!” Max insists.
“You literally just did!”
“Are you even gonna let El answer?” Mike huffs.
They’re all growing a little louder, and little more heated, and all the commotion is making El’s head hurt.
“Does El need to answer?” Max snorts, “Literally nobody thought that story was scary.”
“And your hook-hand story was?” Dustin glowers.
“Uh, yeah!”
“Uh, no! Having a hook for a hand isn’t scary!”
“Yes, it is!”
“Captain Hook has a hook for a hand!” Dustin points out, “And he’s from a kids’ movie!”
“Can you guys please stop fighting?” Will pleads, “It’s getting kind of late.”
“Dustin is the one who keeps on arguing!” Max insists.
“Am not!” Dustin argues, “It’s not my fault her opinions are wrong!”
“Your opinions aren’t facts, Dustin!” Lucas retorts.
El doesn’t know what comes over her. She just wants everyone to stop arguing over their dumb stories, and her head hurts, and she’s just so frustrated and tired of trying to wait for the perfect moment that’s probably never going to come. And so, before she can’t stop to second-guess herself, she just blurts it out.
“I’m a telekinetic!” She bursts.
That shuts everyone up quickly.
Mike and Max’s heads snap over to El, looking startled. Will sits up a little straighter, suddenly looking less tired. Lucas and Dustin both freeze, eyes wide.
“Wait, what’d you say?” Dustin asks, cautiously.
“El?!” Mike hisses, sounding confused. Since his sleeping bag is located next to hers, he’s able to reach out and grab her arm in a protective manner.
El gently shrugs him off with a shake of her head. Even though she’d initially pleaded for Mike’s help, she now knows that she needs to do this on her own. She needs to come to term with her abilities once and for all, no more hiding, no more secrets.
“I’m a telekinetic,” she repeats, keeping her gaze locked on her friends, “I have superpowers.”
Lucas, Will, and Dustin exchange confused glances. They look at Max and Mike for some sort of explanation, but Mike and Max only have eyes for El. They both give her encouraging nods, silently showing their support.
“Wait, are you being serious?” Lucas questions, looking hesitant.
El nods solemnly.
“A telekinetic?” Will asks slowly, “Like…you can move stuff with your mind?”
El hesitates. The easiest way to get them to understand is going to be by showing them. Taking a deep breath, she raises her hand, points it at the fire pit, and uses her powers to raise one of the burning sticks into the air. As it hovers before their eyes, spinning slowly, flickering embers crackle off the stick and drift off into the cold night air, extinguishing with a faint whisper.
After several seconds, she relinquishes her hold on the stick and allows it to fall back into the flames.
“Holy shit,” Lucas breathes, looking floored.
“That’s so cool,” Will whispers, eyes wide with wonder.
Dustin, shockingly, still hasn’t talked. He seems to be responding in the same way that Mike did: stupefied, unadulterated shock. His jaw is hanging open, his eyes are nearly bugging out of his head, and for a moment El worries that she might have broken him.
“H-how?” He finally manages to stammer.
El proceeds to give them an abridged version of her history, starting from growing up in the lab, escaping with Hopper, becoming his legal daughter, and finally joining their class in the 6th grade. She explains how her powers work, how she was the one who saved them at Jennifer’s party, how she broke Troy’s arm. By the time she’s finished, she’s left emotionally exhausted and slightly out-of-breath, but satisfied all the same.
“Oh my god,” Dustin whispers, still frozen in place.
“That’s so COOL!” Lucas exclaims, “Like, holy shit!”
“Right!?” Mike beams, “El’s amazing!”
“Wait, you knew?” Will asks, looking surprised.
“She told me last week,” Mike nods.
“And you didn’t tell us?” Lucas exclaims, sounding a little offended.
“I told him not to,” El cuts in.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Will asks curiously.
“Because,” El mumbles, suddenly feeling a little sheepish, “I…I didn’t like being different. I wanted to be normal, like you guys.”
“Us? Normal?” Lucas jokes.
“You know what I mean,” El smiles wryly, “I didn’t want to be a freak.”
“Well, you’re definitely not a freak,” Dustin beams. It appears that his mouth has finally started working again, as he proceeds to ramble quickly and excitedly. “You’re so awesome! Like, the coolest person ever! You’re like a wizard, or a superhero, or Yoda!”
“Or a mage,” Mike adds affectionately, giving El a playful nudge.
“Yeah!” Dustin gushes, before pausing and adding, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry I that ever called you our enemy, and a murderer, and a Drow!”
“What?” El frowns.
“Nothing!” Dustin hastily backtracks. “I just…uh..I’m really happy you’re our friend.”
“Me too,” Will nods, “And not just because of your powers. You were always nice to us, even when we judged you at first.”
El flushes pink, unsure of how to react to the unexpected slew of compliments. “I’m happy we’re friends too,” she murmurs, ducking her head shyly.
“Just so you guys know, we can’t tell anyone else about El’s powers,” Mike pipes up, “We have to keep it a secret, just between all of us.”
“Of course!” Will nods.
“I’ll never tell anyone!” Lucas agrees.
“Never!” Dustin insists.
El feels her heart swell with happiness. The feeling of finally feeling accepted not only by her friends, but by herself, radiates within her, leaving her warm and bubbly inside.
She reaches out to grasp Max’s hand. Max smiles and blushingly grabs Lucas’ hand. Then Lucas grabs Dustin’s, Dustin grabs Will’s, Will grabs Mike’s, and Mike finally closes the circle by grasping El’s free hand.
As they all grasp each other’s hands tightly, huddled around the warm light of the fire, no further words need to be said. They’re friends, but their bond isn’t like everyone else’s. Their friendship isn’t the kind that’ll just dissipate after high school or over a silly argument. It’s the kind that’ll keep them all connected for years to come, through good times and bad times, through whatever toils they’ll have to face.
El isn’t sure how she knows all this, since she can’t see into the future, or anything, but as she smiles at each of them, she knows that it’s true. She can hear it in her heart like a whisper, like a promise, reminding her that this moment is one she’ll remember.
It’s the start of the rest of her life.
The night is calm and the forest is still. Off in the distance, the reverberating hoot of an owl echoes through the trees.
El’s not sure what time it is, but she knows it’s late. Everyone else is nestled inside their sleeping bags and the fire has died down to its last glowing coals. Consequently, it’s cold. Very cold. Despite her sleeping bag, flannel jacket, and thick sweater, El feels the chill settle into every pore. It makes it hard to sleep, and while El definitely doesn’t regret coming on this camping trip, she’d be lying if she said she didn’t miss her warm bed and soft quilt.
She flips onto her side, hoping that maybe if she moves around a little, she’ll be able to keep warm.
It doesn’t work.
El sighs and flips onto her other side. She’s now facing Mike, who’s bundled up inside his sleeping bag less than a foot away from her. Since he’s situated so close to her, she’s able to make out his features in the faded silvery light of the moon. As she shuffles around, she sees his eyes flutter open.
“Mike? Are you awake?” El whispers, even though it’s pretty obvious that he is.
“Yeah,” Mike whispers back, locking eyes with her.
“What time is it?”
Mike shuffles a bit around before he manages to pull his arm out of his sleeping bag. “Like, 3 am?” He whispers, eyeing his watch.
“Oh.”
“Can’t sleep?”
El shakes her head.
“Me neither.”
“It’s just...it’s pretty cold,” El murmurs, shivering slightly.
“Yeah,” Mike agrees with a quirked smile, “I guess that’s what happens when you go camping in the fall.”
El nods and wraps her sleeping bag more tightly around herself. Even though she doesn’t want to look like a dopey weakling in front of Mike, she can’t stop her teeth from chattering.
“You look really cold,” Mike murmurs concernedly.
“I’m o-okay,” El lies, “I j-just need to f-fall asleep.”
Mike looks her over for a moment before his cheeks start to flush red. “Maybe,” he begins, voice cracking a little, “You could, like...uh...”
“W-what?” El shivers.
Mike smiles nervously. “Like...come over here?”
Now El’s the one blushing bright red. “N-next to you?”
“There’s room,” Mike explains, looking flustered, “And you’d be warmer.”
That’s definitely true. El’s not even next to him yet, and already she feels incredibly warm (mostly from blushing so much, though).
“Okay,” El whispers with a small shrug.
“Really?” Mike whispers back, sounding like he’s trying (and failing) to not seem too hopeful.
El nods.
With shaking hands, Mike moves his hands down to unzip the side of his sleeping bag. El quietly wriggles out of her own, crawls over to Mike, and snuggles up against him.
As Mike zips the sleeping bag closed again, El instantly feels enveloped in warmth.
Mike slides over so that El can rest her head on the pillow with him. As she wriggles upwards to do so, she can’t help but feel flustered, being pressed this close to him.
She rests her head on the pillow, shyly meeting Mike’s soft gaze. Their faces are only inches apart. As El studies his face, she can feel his warm breaths as they faintly brush against her skin.
“Hi,” she whispers teasingly.
“Hi,” Mike whispers back with a smile.
El falls silent, content with just enjoying the sight of him beside her. As she gazes at him, Mike wraps an arm around her back and starts playing with her hair. He runs his hands through it idly, almost mindlessly, and it takes everything within El to not melt on the spot. She’d give up anything to just spend the rest of eternity in this moment, snuggled beside Mike, his fingers nestled in her curls.
She gives off a contented sigh before she’s able to stop herself. As she relishes in this moment, her vision starts to seem a little hazy. Nevertheless, she does her best to take in every last one of his features: his warm, chocolate-brown eyes, his ruffled dark hair, his pink, though still faintly bruised lips, and of course, his freckles.
The sky above them is glittering tapestry of stars, way more stars than what El’s used to seeing in town. As she examines Mike’s face more closely, she realizes that the freckles on his cheeks remind her of constellations.
She’s definitely losing her mind.
“What are you thinking?” Mike murmurs, twisting a strand of her hair around his pointer finger.
“Your freckles are like stars,” El mumbles, not caring how insane she must sound.
Mike doesn’t say anything, he only nods, but it seems like he gets what she means. Either that or he’s just too nice to call her out on how weird she is.
The longer El gazes at him, the more she feels drawn to him. She wonders if it’s possible for people to be made up of magic, even if they don’t have superpowers. Mike has to be. The way he makes her feel is unlike anything she’s ever experienced before. Surely, if his cheeks are dotted with constellations, then his insides must radiate with stardust.
She’s getting pulled closer into his embrace, deeper into his orbit, and El realizes that she’s tired of wasting time. Her eyes close as she carefully leans in and presses her lips to his cheek.
It almost feels like the first kiss she gave him, only this one is far better. The first time, he’d just laid in bed, lifeless and cold. Now, while still a little cold, El can hear his breath hitch in awed wonder and feel his eyelashes flutter against hers.
It’s an intoxicating feeling, and El, feeling emboldened by his awestruck reaction, moves her lips down to press them against the corner of his mouth.
It’s not a kiss, not quite — her lips land more against his jaw than anywhere else — but it’s close. Very close. Close enough to make Mike’s breath hitch in another faint gasp.
Maybe the gasps aren’t a good thing though.
El pulls back to examine his face, suddenly worried that she might have overstepped her bounds. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs, looking a little embarrassed.
“Don’t be,” Mike murmurs back, shaking his head ever-so-slightly. His eyes seem almost glazed over, like he’s somewhere in between waking and dreaming. His fingers curl more tightly in her hair, slowly pulling her closer to him.
El feels light-headed, but in the best of ways, like she’s floating. Like the only sense of gravity she possesses is the force that’s pulling her closer to Mike, slowly narrowing the gap between their parted lips. Just a couple centimeters closer, and—
“Oh my god,” Dustin’s voice grouses, “Are you guys making out?”
Mike and El jump apart as quickly and jerkily as is they’d both been hit with an electric shock. Since they’re both still stuck inside the sleeping bag, they don’t manage to get that far apart, and only wind up accidentally elbowing each other instead.
“DUSTIN?” Mike yelps, “You’re awake?”
“No, Mike, I’m clearly asleep right now,” Dustin replies dryly.
Oh, god. Dustin’s awake and he’s heard everything, including that El thinks Mike’s freckles look like stars. She instantly wants nothing more than to jump off the edge of the Quarry.
“We weren’t making out!” El blushingly insists. She’s thankful it’s dark out — at least Dustin can’t see how humiliated she looks right now.
“You better not be,” Max suddenly pipes up, “Because the first teenagers to get it on in a horror movie always die first.”
“W-what!?” El stammers.
“MAX!?” Mike again yelps.
“Mike,” Max mimics in a whiny voice, “I couldn’t sleep over the sound of your mush-fest.”
“How many people are awake?!” Mike demands, sounding mortified.
“Like, all of us,” Lucas admits.
“Yup,” Will concludes.
“You’ve all been listening this entire time!?” Mike exclaims, “And you didn’t say anything?!”
The rest of their friends all shuffle inside their sleeping bags as they make an indifferent sort of mumble.
“Oh my god,” Mike mutters.
Oh no, no, no. This is officially the most embarrassing thing ever.
“Great,” El mumbles, turning to bury her face in the pillow.
“You guys are pretty cute,” Lucas snickers.
“And you guys are pretty much hypocrites!” Mike grumbles.
“How?!” Lucas counters.
“If this was a horror movie, El and I wouldn’t be the first people to get killed off, it’d be you and Max!” Mike explains bitterly, “‘Cause you guys totally made out on the kissing rock!”
As everyone falls silent, the sound of chirping crickets fills the air.
“Wait...you guys kissed?” Will asks.
“Um,” Lucas hesitates.
“Fine!” Max snaps, “We did! It wasn’t a big deal!”
“It wasn’t?” Lucas asks worriedly.
“I mean,” Max pauses, sounding flustered, “I guess it was.”
“Oh my god,” Dustin groans, “I mean, I’m like happy for all of you, but you guys seriously need to get a room, like, right now.”
“A room? In the forest?” Will questions.
“Lucas and I aren’t the ones being all weird! At least we understand the concept of privacy!” Max gripes, “Instead of trying to get to second base in front of literally everyone.”
“We thought you were asleep!” El insists.
“We weren’t trying to get to second base!” Mike adds.
“Because you were already there!” Max counters.
At this point, El knows that she wouldn’t need to cuddle Mike for warmth, her entire body feels like it’s been engulfed in flames. “Let’s just go to sleep,” she pleads, “Please.”
“It’s pretty late,” Will agrees with a yawn, “We should try to get some rest.”
“Fine by me,” Max sighs, settling back down into her sleeping bag.
A beat of silence passes as everyone tries to settle down. Unsurprisingly, the silence doesn’t last long.
“Wait, so are you and Lucas dating now?” Dustin asks Max.
“Dustin!” Everyone snaps.
“Jesus!” Dustin exclaims, “Sorry! I’ll go to sleep!”
“Thank you!” Lucas sighs.
As everyone finally falls silent, El wonders if she should go back to her own sleeping bag. Maybe Mike is too embarrassed to do this anymore.
But to her surprise, Mike doesn’t push her away. Instead, he draws her closer to him, gently tucking her head under his chin and wrapping his arms around her protectively.
Her ear is pressed against his chest, and as she cuddles Mike back, she listens closely to the steady, pounding rhythm of his heartbeat.
As embarrassing as that entire interaction with her friends was, a small part of El is relieved that they’re not afraid to tease her. Even though they know that she still has powers, they’re not treating her like some strange oddity, or someone to handle with rubber gloves.
To them, she’s still just El, and as El drifts off to sleep in Mike’s embrace, she realizes that that’s the most comforting feeling of all.
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