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The sun is brightly shining the day Eddie comes to Mike, his smile reflecting the bright day, to tell him that Richie Tozier had finally asked Eddie to be his boyfriend. Mike’s smile drops a fraction, but Eddie’s over the moon and doesn’t notice how quiet Mike gets as he’s rambling on about how sweet Richie was and how goddamned happy he is now. He doesn’t notice how Mike refuses to look at him as he continues to plant flowers in the garden behind his house and he certainly doesn’t notice how roughly Mike is pressing down on the dirt around the flowers. All Eddie cares about in this moment is himself and his happiness and he sees no reason his best friend shouldn’t be happy for him.
The days have grown shorter when Mike realizes he isn’t Eddie’s best friend anymore. After all, how could they be best friends when they haven’t hung out, just the two of them, since before school started and haven’t talked on the phone since before the first snowfall of the year. No, Mike isn’t Eddie’s best friend anymore, but Richie certainly is. Mike still thinks Eddie is his best friend, even though he spends more and more time with Ben and Bev. He likes their company and doesn’t mind if they kiss or hold hands around him, he doesn’t feel the pang of jealousy he gets when Richie and Eddie do the same thing.
It’s the middle of spring when Eddie starts coming to Mike’s door again, though for all the wrong reasons. He shows up at Mike’s out of breath and on the verge of tears, ranting about something Richie’s done or a fight they’ve had the second Mike opens the door. It breaks Mike’s heart to see Eddie so hurt and Mike grows to resent Richie for all the pain he causes Eddie, but somewhere deep inside, Mike is happy Eddie is coming to him again. Mike lets him in each time, listening to whatever he has to say and ending the night with Eddie sleeping on his couch.
The heat of summer is in full effect when Mike realizes Eddie has stopped coming to him. The losers are spending the day together at the quarry, but Richie’s spent the whole day smoking and snapping at anyone to say anything to him and Eddie refuses to look at Richie or Mike. When it’s just Bill, Mike, Ben, and Bev crammed in Bev’s beat up car, Ben finally asks what they’d all been thinking the whole day: what happened between Eddie and Richie. He’s asking Mike, but it’s Bill who tells them Eddie had called him late last night crying over a fight the two had. Mike is silent, he’s hurt. Eddie always came to him after he fought with Richie and Eddie had avoided looking at Mike all day, surely Mike had to have done something to make Eddie so mad at him.
It’s the next winter, halfway through their junior year, when Eddie shows up on Mike’s door again, heartbroken and sobbing. Rather than pulling Eddie in and comforting him like Mike had done the year prior, Mike slams the door shut, his chest tight with anger as he calls Bill to come pick up the crying boy. He waits until the headlights of Bill’s car light up his living room before breaking down and calling Ben. Twenty minutes pass of Mike sat in his hallway sobbing before Ben and Bev let themselves in, both already knowing what had happened, after all, Richie had called Bev and cried on the phone to her an hour ago. Ben quickly gets on making Mike tea while Bev sits down, pulling Mike into a hug while he cries on her shoulder and mumbles about how sad Eddie had looked and how much he hates himself for closing the door on the only boy he’s ever loved.