Chapter Text
Most Saturday nights at Hawkins College, the dorms are empty with students taking a break from the grind of the school year and letting loose for the weekend. However with finals approaching and the winter settling in quickly this year, this Saturday night was a different story. Dorm common areas had turned into study halls and groups of students clumped together furiously looking over notes from the semester and trying to ignore the regret for skipping those couple morning classes. Needless to say, stress levels were high tonight. Especially for one first year student.
El drummed her fingers nervously on her laptop. This was not the time for it to be freaking out again, not when finals were about to be upon her and she had so many deadlines to meet.
Her eyes glanced over at the small digital clock on her desk.
1:20 AM.
Shit.
It was definitely too late to call the tech center on campus.
She knew that the center was open until three in the morning, but she still felt guilty about calling. Yes it was their job, but… this would be her fourth call in a MONTH. There was no way she was going to be able to stomach the embarrassment. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the students who worked there put bets on when she would call next or had some sort of running tally going on her. These theories did absolutely nothing for her nerves.
A couple more minutes of staring at her computer screen and nervously biting her fingernail didn’t lead to anything except for the conclusion that she was royally fucked and probably should call the IT guys. El was pretty positive your screen wasn’t supposed to go all white with a flashing gray question mark on it.
Well, if she did call there was the added benefit of not only fixing her laptop, but also that Mystery Guy could be working tonight.
When El had first told Max about the guy who almost always was the one to answer her panicked computer-problem related phone calls, the redhead had burst out laughing.
“What?” El asked, stabbing the plate of waffles in front of her frustratedly. She really didn’t see what was funny about how embarrassing it was for the IT guy to recognize your voice on the phone because you had yet another problem that needed fixing.
Max had rolled her eyes, casting her signature smirk towards her squirming friend.
“El. Come on. I lost track of how many times you mentioned the sound of his voice. Could you be any more in love with him?” she finished her question with a jab of her fork towards El, sending a spray of spaghetti sauce her way.
With a blush quickly taking over her face, El mumbled something in her defense and wiped away the speckles of sauce that had reached her plate. It wasn’t her fault the guy had a particularly soft, deep voice that explained things really well. She supposed she had been talking about him since the two girls had first entered the dining hall, all of the way to when they had sat down at their usual table shoved into one of the back corners. But still. She didn’t feel like she could bring herself to acknowledge out loud to Max that she had a crush on a guy purely from his voice alone.
Okay, maybe it was sad that she was falling in love with someone just from hearing them describe the inner workings of her laptop.
“He’s the first tech person to not make me feel stupid, that’s all,” she finally grumbled back when she had looked up to still see Max’s pointed gaze.
Max had snorted and El quickly changed the topic to the football game that weekend to get her best friend to drop the issue. The two of them still in the early phases of their first year of college excitement that lead to them going to almost every event available filled with school spirit. To be fair, they were usually El’s idea and she would tow a groaning Max with her (though El knew Max actually had fun and just didn’t want to acknowledge that she was capable of enjoying a school-sponsored function).
That had been two weeks ago and El now found herself curled up in her uncomfortable desk chair staring at her malfunctioning laptop. Her phone lay tauntingly next to it and she knew that if she clicked on the “recents” button, she’d be able to find the tech center’s number quickly.
The clock clicked to 1:24 AM. The laptop screen had not magically fixed itself in the four minutes El had been staring it. Instead the only progress that had been made was a slightly chewed nail and a slight cramp in her ankle from where she had been sitting on it.
With a sigh, El caved and grabbed her phone. It was practically autopilot at this point and her fingers quickly pulled up the number she had managed to memorize by this point.
Rubbing her eyes tiredly, she waited as the phone rang. After what felt like an agonizingly long period of time where she considered hanging up and just dropping out of school, the other line picked up with a quick air of static and then a clear voice.
“Hi, Hawkins College Tech Center, what can I do for you?”
El felt her stomach flip and couldn’t fight the grin that grew on her face. It was him.
“Um, hi,” she finally squeaked after she realized she hadn’t responded for. an embarrassingly long beat. “It’s uh, El. El Hopper. I have a laptop problem again.”
She heard the voice laugh on the other line and she felt herself practically swoon, just like the women in the soap operas she still watched religiously (despite efforts from Max and her dad to get her to stop). There was no way that someone’s laugh should sound that good. Especially over a phone.
“Hey long time no talk, it’s been like a week right?” he asked teasingly and El responded with a groan.
“Yeah sorry about that,” she replied, burrowing her head in her arms. She wasn’t sure things could get more embarrassing, having a crush on an IT guy who she didn’t even know or that he recognized her because his only connection to her was her multiple computer issues and general technology incompetence.
“It’s an older MacBook,” she continued, “I swear I didn’t mean for this to become a regular thing.”
She could still hear him chuckling and she tried to ignore the butterflies that were fluttering in her stomach. It was so easy to talk to him, contrary to her normal phone call anxiety, and she almost wished they could just chat about normal things. She bet he was an amazing storyteller too, hell maybe he had a podcast.
“What’s up this time?” he asked and she could hear him begin typing on his computer.
“Uh,” she looked back at the laptop in question. “It’s like a white screen. With a gray folder and a flashing question mark.”
He let out a low whistle, “Damn, yeah that’s definitely not good.”
Yeah tell me about it, El found herself thinking. This had to be one of her worst nightmares. On the other hand though, her computer may be completely screwed but at least she was getting to watch her grades’ utter destruction with this guy’s perfect voice in her ear. There were worse ways to fail fall semester.
He was muttering to himself and she could hear the rapid fire clicking of his hands typing, no doubt hunting up the root of the problem.
“Okay,” he finally said, breaking her daydream about them calling each other in between class to schedule a coffee date, “Have you tried re-selecting your startup disk?”
El couldn’t help the laugh that burst out of her.
“You know I call you for a reason right? I don’t know shit about computers.”
“Ah so it isn’t just so you can hear my voice?” he asked and El felt her heart absolutely stop before it registered he was being sarcastic. She hoped he hadn’t heard the sigh of relief she let out. Her secret was safe. He hadn’t magically figured out her crush on him and that she actually did massively enjoy these phone calls, even if it was at the expense of her stress levels and laptop.
Choking down her nerves with a cough, she tried to quickly move past it.
“Very funny, but what do I need to do? I have a presentation I really, really need to finish,” she pleaded, trying and possibly failing to keep the panic out of her voice as she imagined Professor Brown’s face on Monday when she failed to present her research.
“Alright, well this is the first thing you can try…”
It turned out none of his ideas had worked.
They had stayed on the phone for almost 45 minutes before he had given up, his stubbornness refusing to let the issue go. Even while battling a serious case of yawning, El forced herself to focus on the phone call. This was one of their longest ones and if her computer was truly dying, she didn’t want this one to end, with his soothing voice helping her through its final moments.
He finally conceded and told her to drop off her laptop in the morning. The tech center opened at 10:00 AM on Sundays and it would probably be easier to look at the issue in person since it might be a hardware problem instead of software.
At the suggestion of dropping it off, El felt her mouth go dry and her heart rate increase. There was no way that he would still be working there in the morning but the possibility of running into him alone made her palms sweat and a blush cover her cheeks.
She had agreed that it was the best solution and with that she found herself waking up a bit earlier than normal on Sunday to ride her bike over to the tech center.
While she had briefly considered dressing up, she hadn’t been able to combat the tiredness from a brief night’s sleep and instead had thrown on one of her dad’s old police academy sweatshirts, leggings, and her favorite pair of white converse. With a ruffle of her messy curls, she chided herself for even considering getting dressed up to drop off her laptop. For one, he probably wasn’t even going to be there. Second, if he was there and couldn’t handle her at her laziest comfiest, then maybe it wasn’t worth it just for the voice.
The air was crisp that morning and El found herself actually enjoying the ride to the center. Only a few handful of students had emerged that morning and she was able to enjoy the trek in peace. Last leaves slowly dropped to the ground and her bike’s wheels crunched delightfully on the frost as she cut across a quad.
Her inner peace was disturbed slightly as parked her bike outside the small brick building. Adjusting her backpack on her shoulders, El quickly tried to dry her palms on her leggings. It was crazy to feel this nervous but she couldn’t help herself.
She pushed the glass door open and stepped in.
Just as she expected, no other students had shown up and instead it was just two of the student workers behind the desk.
While El wasn’t positive either of them were him based purely on gut instinct, she was pretty sure she recognized one of the guys from her biology class. They were currently tossing a small paper ball back and forth.
“Hello,” she called out, giving a small wave as they turned to look at her.
The one closest to her, a guy with super curly brown hair poking out from under a hat, gave her a huge grin and his eyes crinkled up with it. El couldn’t help but grin in response, the air of positivity from him practically palpable.
“Hey! What’s up?”
The boy further back rolled his eyes.
“He means ‘Welcome to Hawkins College Tech Center, what can we help you with?’”
El pulled out her laptop, “Uh well I was having issues last night with my laptop and was told to bring it in here this morning.”
It was at this point that both guys turned and looked at each other, nearly getting whiplash at the speed of their reaction. With what seemed like in an instant, they appeared to have had an entire conversation with their eyes before looking back at El who was watching the interaction nervously.
“Oh so you’re El!” exclaimed the curly haired boy.
Mouth dry, El nodded and glanced between the boys. The darker boy in the back let out a small whoop and smiled at her.
“Mike said you’d be coming in this morning,” he told her, explaining how they appeared to know her already.
“Mike,” El breathed, feeling the name in her mouth and instantly feeling a warmth course through her. Her Mystery Guy finally had a name.
Realizing the two were still staring at her, El blushed furiously and placed her laptop on the counter in front of her. This was a sufficiently awkward moment but she couldn’t fight back the giddiness that was growing in her.
“I’m Dustin and this is Lucas,” the guy in the hat said, passing the laptop back to his friend. “Mike’s our best friend but he’s been working the late night shifts for a bit.”
Lucas nodded and El was relieved she also wasn’t crazy that she recognized him.
“You’re in Professor Clarke’s 10:40 biology class right?” She asked, her gaze turning to focus on him. He nodded, already firing up her laptop, but then snapped his fingers as he looked back up.
“That’s why you look familiar! Yeah I sit up front, do you sit in the back?”
El shrugged sheepishly.
“Yeah science isn’t exactly my forte, I’m a lot better at English and my psych classes.”
Lucas had begun to refocus on her laptop but he still had a wide smile on his face, and she was pretty sure she heard him say something along the lines of how he would have mentioned it to Mike if he had known. El tried to not think about what that meant too much.
“Are you a freshman?” Dustin asked, breaking the silence in the room.
“Yep finishing my first semester and was feeling good about it until this,” El replied gesturing to her laptop helplessly. Dustin smiled back at her.
“I wouldn’t worry about, between the two of us we’re the masters of this shit. You’ll have it back in no time,” he said comfortingly. “It probably can be fixed today even. We’re sophomores here,” he added on.
Lucas hummed in an agreement from his desk.
“Yeah it looks like she needs a new connection to her hard drive. I can see if we have one in the back or just run out and grab one and install it. Couple hours tops.”
El let out a huge sign of relief and felt the invisible tension in her shoulders disappear. It sounded like she was actually going to be able to finish her projects in time. Now to just kill time until they were done.
“Would it work if I go chill at Benny’s across the street?”
Lucas nodded and Dustin gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up.
“Go for it, your number is logged into the system so just keep your sound on and we can give you a call when it’s all set up,” Dustin promised.
Feeling lighter already without the panic of needing a new laptop hanging over her head, El gave the boys a nod before making her way across the street.
Benny’s was a small coffeeshop located on campus, run by a local Hawkins resident. It was one of the most popular places on campus to go hang with friends, study, or even on weekends, get a beer flight on the opposite side of the coffee bar. El occasionally would squeeze in on weekdays but generally stuck to the library, so she was excited to finally get a chance to fully enjoy it.
A small bell dinged when she pushed the door open and she ducked in, immediately cloaked by the smell of coffee beans and the hum of the machines. With a deep inhale, El felt any last remnants of her nerves go away. It was hard to be stressed when you were surrounded by coffee.
A group of girls were one of the corners going over flash cards (one of them looked like the back Jennifer Hayes, the sorority girl in her Interpretations of Literature class) but other than that, there was only a couple other students.
Making her way to the counter, El smiled up at the owner, Benny himself. He was absolutely massive compared to her petite frame and his name was legendary at Hawkins both for the coffeeshop and his days being on Hawkins’ wrestling team. To this day he was still solidly built and towered over most of the students. However he perfectly fit the idea of the gentle giant, always ready with a kind word for the students with a rub of his bald head or a stroke of his beard.
“Good morning,” he greeted El, “What brings you over this morning so early? Finals?”
El shook her head, curls bouncing as she did.
“Nah, my laptop is dead so I’m going to hang out here for a bit while it’s fixed,” she explained, gazing at the menu behind him.
He nodded understandingly.
“Well it’s a good spot to do that, what can I get you kid?”
El tapped her foot as she contemplated before finally deciding on getting just regular coffee and then decided to treat herself with the maple cinnamon scone.
Benny had barely started punching her order in before shaking his head in disappointment.
“Ah sorry kid, I think we’re out of those today.”
El’s jaw dropped and the noise of desperation escaped her before she realized it had come out, clapping her hand over her mouth. Damn, she swore to herself, eyes raking over the menu desperately. She really wasn’t sure what else she would want and they were always out of the maple flavored scones whenever she came in the afternoons so she had been convinced that today was finally her chance.
As if sensing her conflict and dismay, Benny let out a sign and glanced back at the kitchen.
“You know what, let me go see if we can make some quick for you. I’ll get Mike to get on that,” he said.
El was so thankful for her second stroke of good luck that day, the name of the person working back in the kitchen completely escaped her.
Thanking him profusely, she pulled out her student ID to charge the order to her snack credits before making her way over to a small table in the back corner. Plopping down, she took a deep gulp of the coffee, letting it burn her throat. Her dad had finally kicked her of her habit of drowning her coffee in sugar and cream, though she now found herself on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and only drinking her coffee black.
She smiled at the memory of seeing her adoptive father’s face when he had first seen her pouring her fourth packet of sugar in her coffee. “Mornings are for coffee and contemplation, not giving yourself a heart attack,” he always said (though he usually said this with a donut in his mouth so she was never too bothered by his criticisms).
After a while of losing herself in her book, she felt someone’s presence in front of her. When she looked up, she felt her heart manage to both stop and also speed up beyond what could be considered healthy.
She knew guys could be pretty, but she didn’t know they could be this pretty.
The guy standing in her front of her was tall, really tall, and she craned her neck to look up at him from her seat. He had silky black hair that flopped almost delicately around his face and freckles scattered across his face, almost like the stars on her astrology themed calendar. But past all of that, his eyes were such a deep, dark brown that she felt herself falling into them just staring at him.
He seemed to be equally taken by her and there was a good couple seconds (eternity maybe, El wasn’t sure), before he cleared his throat and awkwardly shoved a paper bag in front of himself towards her.
“Maple cinnamon scone?”
El excitedly reached out for the bag but her hand froze when his voice registered with her mind. Eyes shifting to look at his chest, her brain slowly processed the messy scrawl that read out his name on the sticker.
Mike.
Gulping, her eyes darted back to him. He was Mike. Her Mystery Guy, her computer savior and the voice that occupied her mind more than she’d like to admit. And here he was standing in front of her holding her scone.
Realizing her was staring at her with a confused expression on her face and that her hand was still stuck just reaching towards him, El finally pulled herself together.
“Hey uh, I’m El, the incompetent laptop girl,” she quickly said.
Mike’s eyes widened and he opened and closed his mouth a couple times before dropping in the seat across from her. The bag with the scone lay forgotten between them.
“Wow. It’s weird hearing your voice in person,” he said with a grin and El felt a small grin forming on her face. She was almost dizzy with the way he was looking at her, maybe she hadn’t been the only one enjoying their phone calls.
“Ditto,” she replied. “I actually dropped off my laptop over at the tech center before this, I’m just waiting for it to be fixed.”
She cocked her head looking at him as she realized he was wearing a polo with Benny’s logo on it.
“Wait, do you work here too? Even after working so late last night?”
Mike shook his head, “Nope I normally just work at the tech center. One of my best friends Will went home for the weekend for his baby brother’s birthday so I volunteered to cover a shift for him,” he explained.
The two ended up chatting for a while, eventually splitting the scone that had brought him over to her table. While there had been initial awkwardness as they transitioned from purely just phone call conversations to actually having the ability to talk in person, it quickly went away as they talked and soon Mike’s shift had ended and they fell deeper into conversation.
It was just as easy as El had always imagined. She even felt her shyness melting away and they leaned in excitedly across the table as they swapped stories about their crazy friends. She only let one comment about his voice slip when she mentioned that she could see him having a podcast. To her relief, he mentioned that he had been considering creating one for his Dungeons and Dragons campaign but he wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested in it. She had quickly assured him that she would convince Max to listen too so they’d have at least two listeners (and secretly vowed to look up what the hell Dungeons and Dragons was later).
Before she realized that almost two hours had passed, El’s phone buzzed and she saw the tell-tale phone number of the tech center.
“Looks like my laptop is cured,” she said with a soft smile, holding her phone up to Mike.
He reached across the table, taking it from her hand. She shivered at his touch, and gazed at him as he answered the call.
“Sup Dustin,” he answered with a grin, never taking his eyes off of El.
Even from across the table El could hear the shout of surprise on the other end and stifled her giggles as she could hear the boys no doubt grilling Mike as to how he had El’s phone.
A huge grin had settled on his face and he shrugged. “It’s a long story dude, sometimes things just happen at the right time. Yeah, yeah, we’ll head right over.”
After a minute more of shouting on the other end, Mike went ahead and hung up on the guys before handing El her phone back. His ears were tinged pink and he seemed slightly embarrassed but proud.
“Yeah so we’re probably not going to hear the end of that.”
El giggled and put her book in back into her bag, standing up.
“Well, how about we get my laptop and escape to the library so I can actually finish my finish my presentation now?” She offered him her hand.
Her heart fluttered as he smiled back up at her, reaching forward and grasping her hand and pulling himself up.
“Only if we can grab a study room and I can take a nap too.”
The two made their way out of the coffeeshop, each waving at Benny who waved back with a small twinkle in his eye. El came up to about Mike’s shoulder and the occasionally bumped into each other while walking, giving each other teasing nudges. Falling into an easy rhythm, they crossed the street still talking, completely absurd in their conversation, neither able to get over their new ability to hear each other’s voices in person.
Fall semester had been pretty good, but El had a feeling that things were about to just keep getting better. And now she knew exactly what Mike sounded like when he nervously asked to go on a real coffee date.