Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Thursday March 19th, 1987.

Hawkins, Indiana.

"As most of you probably know, we're coming up on the one year anniversary of the infamous Hawkins earthquake and today we're gonna talk to the renowned profess-"

Mike shut the door, cutting off the annoying sounds coming from the tv, and got into Nancy's car.

"Does he always have to listen to that crap?"

"You know how he is," she reminded him.

"I mean, I know," he threw his backpack on the empty seats and put his seatbelt on, "but there's enough shit going on here, why does he need more bad news? I don't get it."

As Nancy started the car, Mike kept ranting.

"All week they've been repeating the same shit over and over again. Who knows how toxic those spores were, who knows how long it'll take to fix the road down by the gas station, who knows what caused it and just-" he groaned.

"So… guess you're not gonna go for journalism in college," she joked.

“I think one journalist Wheeler is enough. Besides,” he scoffed and threw his head back, "Please don't mention college, dad's already bugging me about it and I'm not even a junior yet."

"Alright, alright," she chuckled.

“What about you, though? How’s it going at Emerson? You never mentioned it.”

“Uh… it’s… going?”

He snorted.

“Okay, I-” she sighed, “I guess it could be going better.”

“Really? Oh, uh, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it’s fine, I just- I don’t know. I thought spring break would help but… coming back here… I just have this bad feeling.” She shook her head, “I’m probably just being paranoid.”

“Well, it makes sense. After everything that happened, plus what you saw.” He scratched his neck and tried to go for a joke, “Just don’t turn into Hopper.”

“I’ll try my best,” she played along. "Hey, before I forget, do you guys need a ride today?"

“What? Oh, for Max? Uh, nah, I don't think so? Jonathan doesn’t work today so… but I’ll let you know.”

“Oh! Right, yeah. Totally. Well, uh, say hi to him for me.”

“Yep,” he replied awkwardly. “You two still haven’t talk-”

“Don’t.”

“Right.”

They remained silent for the rest of the (short) car ride and just listened to music but Mike didn’t mind. Things between him and Nancy were still a tad awkward at moments but they had definitely grown closer over the years and he was really glad for that.

“Have fun!”

He reached for his backpack and opened the door, “Impossible, it’s high school.” He got up and turned to her, “But thanks.”

He closed the door and she waved at him before leaving.

He had arrived with only a few minutes to spare, so he immediately headed for the classroom.

His first period was science and Mike distinctively remembered the teacher telling them to pick seats based on who you’d be working with for the pair projects. He hoped Will had arrived earlier to save him a spot.

Unfortunately, as soon as he stepped in, he noticed that Will had in fact not saved him a seat; but at the very least, he had the decency to mouth him a “sorry.”

Dustin pointed to an empty seat in front of him and he walked over to it. The seat right next to it didn’t have anyone there but there were already some supplies on the desk, so whoever was occupying it was probably in the group that was chatting by the window.

“Seriously?”

He dropped his stuff and sat down but turned to face his friends.

“Good to see you too, Mike,” said Lucas.

“Hey,” Dustin shrugged, “not our fault you got here late.”

“I’m not late! The bell hasn’t even rung yet!”

“Okay, well, you knew we were picking partners and the rule is to always come early when it’s picking partners time.”

“Honestly, you got lucky.” Lucas pointed to the empty desk, “Apparently Sam’s out sick for the whole week so you get Kelsey as your partner. She’s kinda type A and science’s like her whole thing, she probably won’t even let you lift a finger.”

Dustin laughed, “Can’t say I’d blame her. Remember when we had that other science project in seventh grade and you almost set your hair on fire?”

“Dude! Yeah! And Mr Clarke had to-”

“Guys, I got it. You can drop it.”

The two boys looked at each other in a way that Mike didn’t appreciate and he rolled his eyes.

“Sheesh, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” said Dustin.

“I’m not-” he sighed and turned the other way, looking at Will and El in the second row, “I just always pair up with Will.” He faced his friends again and shrugged, “That’s all.”

“Well, what did you expect? It’s not like he can leave El alone?”

He rolled his eyes, “I know that, Lucas. Okay? I’m just saying…”

“Riiight.”

Mike knew Lucas had a point.

After all, El hadn’t been able to make any friends outside of the Party and they knew she was disappointed.

Mike also thought, given her reactions during movie night when she saw couples, that she probably missed the whole structure of having a boyfriend but they were way better off as friends and besides, that was a whole different conversation.

Her social life outside of the Party? Well… some of the girls who had a crush on Will were nice to her as a way to get to him but that’s as far as it went and it was all pretty fake anyway.

So, he understood… but he still didn’t like that he couldn’t go back to having Will’s full attention now because she had gotten so attached to her new brother that one might think they were actual twins.

It wasn’t even a compromise type of situation. No, Will fully picked El’s side every time and they all felt bad leaving Lucas alone because of Max not being there so Mike and Dustin had to suck it up and take turns drawing the short straw.

(And no, Mike still hasn’t forgiven Will for abandoning him during pair exercises in gym class. He had never been more mortified in his entire life and he will complain about it for the rest of time.)

“Look, Ms Lawry said we have to work on this during class and we only have this week, so you only need to get through three more lessons.” Dustin pointed to Kelsey, “Besides, she’s nice and smart! The week will fly by, you’ll see.”

He sighed, “I guess.”

The bell rang and everyone got to their seats. Ms Lawry started explaining the instructions but Mike found himself having a hard time focusing on the blackboard.

He tried to ignore how staring at Will had become a common occurrence during every class they shared.

—

They were all on their way to lunch when Mike remembered to ask about Max.

“Hey, Nancy told me to ask if we need a ride to the hospital later? I told her I’d call her during break and let her know.”

“Oh, Jonathan said he can drive us!” Replied El.

“Alright then. I’ll head to the phone booth real quick, you guys go ahead.”

He had a brief call with his sister and immediately went back inside, joining the group at their usual table in the cafeteria.

“What time are we going? ‘Cause I wanted to get her some new flowers.”

“That is sweet, Lucas.”

The boy smiled at her.

The two of them had bonded a lot and Mike was sure Max would appreciate it once she woke up.

“Is four, four-thirty good with you?” Asked Dustin.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Works for me.”

Will cleared his throat, “I-uh, actually, I can’t go.”

El scrunched her face, “Why not?”

Will avoided her gaze, “I’m behind on some stuff. Sorry. I’ll go next time, I just really can’t afford to get any bad grades if I want a scholarship.”

“Nah, man. It’s cool, we’ll tell her you said hi.”

He sent Lucas an awkward smile, “Thanks.”

“To be fair tho, we’re not even juniors yet. One bad grade won’t kill you, so don’t stress about it too much.”

“Dustin’s right. You basically always get straight As and your art is- it’s… perfect. So, that alone should get you into any fancy New York art school you want. You’ll be fine.”

Will rubbed his neck and turned away, “I wouldn’t really put it like that but thanks for the confidence boost, Mike.”

He smiled, “Any time.”

They moved on and started talking about the newest Spider-man and Batman issues that Dustin was able to get from Steve and Robin as a loan since they worked at a comic book store, after getting fired from Family-Video by Keith, but Will remained quiet the whole time.

They had a few more classes for the day and he actually shared the last one with Will. Only with Will. Meaning, he didn’t have to fight for the boy’s attention for once.

They walked together in relative silence, which was quite odd for the two of them, but Mike let it slide.

They got to their final class and sat together.

The teacher was a few minutes late and Mike tried to start a conversation but Will didn’t really say much. The weirdest thing though was that he wasn’t even drawing anything in the margins of his notes. He was… doing some scribbles but they looked messier than his usual warm up exercises.

“Man, you’re really worried about that subject, huh?”

He furrowed his brows, “What?”

“The subject where you fell behind?”

“Wh- oh, right, um. Yeah, I guess.”

“Which one is it, anyway? Maybe I can help?” He tilted his head awkwardly, “Well, actually, unless it’s english or history, I doubt I can be of much help but I can still try! We could exchange notes or I can help you make flashcards and revise them.”

He shook his head, “It’s fine, go visit Max. I’ll manage. I’m not that behind. I just need to be careful, is all.”

“Right, of course. But let me know if you change your mind.”

“I will.”

—

“I’ll go get a coffee at the vending machine,” Jonathan walked away.

They nodded at the man as he walked down the hall and the rest of them entered Max’s room. Lucas threw away the old flowers and deposited the new ones in the vase by the bedside table.

“They’re really pretty,” smiled El. “I really missed the spring flowers when I was in Lenora.”

“We should pick some together next time! There’s this whole field of them, close to my house.”

She nodded enthusiastically, “I’d like that!”

Dustin opened his backup and held up the two comics he had recently acquired, “Which one do you think she’d like more?”

El frowned, “Do you have Wonder Woman?”

“Shoot, sorry. I forgot to ask if they received that new shipment ‘cause last time they were out of it.”

“She really likes Batman too,” pointed out Lucas.

“Alright, Mr Brooding it is.”

He handed Mike the comic and they all sat down while he dramatically read the whole issue to her.

Reading to Max had been Lucas’ thing at first but they decided to start visiting her as a group, so it wouldn’t get too sad, and Mike was known for his dramatic flair during D&D campaigns and for his love for reading and writing so they decided he was the designated reader.

He actually enjoyed it quite a bit but he was feeling a bit off with Will not being present and overall acting so weird all of a sudden.

The others seemed to notice because he could feel their eyes boring into the back of his head, so he finally closed the comic and turned to them, “What?”

They looked at each other and then back to him.

“Nothing,” Lucas leaned forward on his seat, “just… are you good?”

“You usually read better.”

He snorted, “Thanks, El.”

“No, I mean- do you not like the issue?”

He looked down at the closed comic and turned it around in his hands, “Nah, it’s good. Any Batman comic without the Joker is already a win for me, that shit gets repetitive.”

Dustin nodded and murmured, “That’s what I’ve been saying!”

“Then what is it?” Asked Lucas. “‘Cause El’s right, you’re usually more-” he gestured wildly and that actually got a laugh out of Mike.

“Thanks and sorry. I guess, I’m not feeling it today.” He awkwardly straightened up, “Did you guys- did you notice how weird Will’s been acting, lately?”

Dustin leaned back, “Ohh, that. Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay and you don’t, like, find it weird or anything?”

The other boy shrugged, “He said he’s stressed over his grades. Makes sense. College costs like ten organs and the only way to get even a hint of a scholarship is to go all out with your GPA and extracurriculars.”

“Yeah,” Lucas chimed in, “he joined the art club and track for a reason. But now it’s probably adding all up a bit. Maybe he got too comfortable during spring break.”

El frowned, “No, he was fine during spring break.”

“Exactly. He got to relax and have fun so maybe he’s getting burnout now from starting up again and immediately having the science project and that track meet next week-”

“Plus Mr Thompson’s quiz tomorrow,” added Dustin.

“Oh, maybe,” El replied but she didn’t sound convinced either.

Ever since they broke up, they seemed to be on the same page a lot more.

Funny how things work out in the end.

“I don’t think that’s it,” he insisted.

“I don’t know, dude. I think you’re just overthinking it.”

“You know it’s bad when Dustin’s the one saying that,” joked Lucas.

“Yeah,” Mike cracked a smile but it felt forced, “maybe you’re right.”

He was handed the Spider-man comic and he read that too. Then they just updated Max on the latest school gossip, who had invited who to the spring dance, why they had to close the music room for a week and whatever else had occurred since last time they had visited her.

They weren’t even sure if she could hear any of it but they didn’t dare to talk about it. It was one of the Party’s new agreed upon but unspoken rules. Besides, the doctors explained that it could actually help with her cognitive… something. He had tried to pay attention at the time but it had all been very confusing and overwhelming.

Mike feared that the less they knew about her progress, the better. Can’t get your hopes up if you refuse to have any.

He spent the rest of the visit plus the car ride back silent, until he remembered what he had wanted to ask before leaving the hospital.

"Hey, actually, do you think Mrs Byers will mind if I pop in for a second? I wanted to give Will a book he forgot at my place. My dad gets off work late on Thursdays so I can call him and tell him to pick me up after.”

The lie probably didn’t fool anyone but they all let it slide.

“Uh, sure, Mike. I think mom’s out right now but you know she doesn’t really mind.”

“Hop will,” snickered Lucas.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll deal with him.”

They dropped off the other two boys, said goodbye to them and headed to the Byers-Hoppers household.

Turns out Hopper wasn’t there either and Mike felt a slight sense of relief. The two of them actually got along a lot better once everything with El settled down but the man still enjoyed playing with him on occasion and it could get pretty embarrassing.

Especially when it was in front of Will who seemed to find it hilarious.

He instantly headed for Will’s room and as soon as he opened the door, he noticed how messy the space had gotten; which was highly unusual for Will. He wasn’t exactly a clean freak but he liked to keep his things, especially his art supplies, all organised… the opposite of the current situation.

Will shrieked, “Mike!”

“Hey,” he waved awkwardly.

The other boy was at his desk, on the opposite side of the room, seemingly drawing but he hastily hid everything before Mike came up to him and it set off an alarm bell in Mike’s head because Will had never had to hide his drawings from him before. From the rest of the party? On occasion, sure, his friend happened to be pretty self-conscious but not with Mike.

“Ever heard of knocking?”

“Wh- oh, um, I didn’t- I don’t know, I guess, I didn’t know you wanted me to?”

“Well, it’s the usual costume.”

He fidgeted on the spot, “Right, no, we just don’t really do that, though? Us, I mean. Like, you and I- uh, yeah, sorry. I’ll do that next time.”

He sighed, “It’s fine. Not a big deal. I was just saying.”

“Right.”

“So… what are you doing here?”

“Impromptu decision. I don’t know. Wanted to see how you were doing, that’s all.”

“Well, I already told you: I’m fine. I’m busy, catching up and stuff, you know? But fine, so…”

He inched closer and furrowed his brows, “Are you sure you don’t have a fever or anything?” He gestured to the other boy, “You’re kinda sweating a lot. At least for spring.”

Will looked down at his own clothes, “Oh, this. Uh, no, I’m fine. Hop forgot to do the laundry and I ran out of clean clothes so I had to dig into the cold weather drawer.”

He walked over to the window, “Let me open the window for you, might help.”

“No, it’s fine. I want it closed.”

He stopped in his tracks and turned around, “You sure?”

“Yeah, I-uh, hate bugs, sooo, wouldn’t wanna let them in.”

“I… guess?

“Yeah, uh,” he got up and sat on his bed, “I’m just feeling a bit under the weather, okay? It’s the test tomorrow. I was just taking a break from studying but I should really get back to it soon…”

“Oh, um, of course. Yeah, I was just making sure.”

“Yeah, thanks,” he replied stiffly.

“Right,” he pointed towards the door, “I guess I’ll call my dad and ask him to pick me up. Maybe we could do something while I wait? It might take a bit.”

Will smiled weakly, “Of course.”

He walked to the living room where Jonathan was sitting on the couch, watching tv, and cleared his throat, “Gave him the book.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, so, I’ll call my dad to come pic-”

“Oh, no, that’s fine,” he got up and clumsily put on his shoes again, “I can drop you off.”

“You sure?”

“Of course, don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, uh, cool. Thanks,” he smiled. “I’ll just go say bye to Will then.”

He walked back to his friend’s room, “Yeah, so, nevermind, your brother’s actually giving me a lift, so…”

“Cool, uh, see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah, right, of course. See ya.”

Turns out, Jonathan had been so eager to drive him home because he needed an excuse to say hi to Nancy. Mike rolled his eyes and got to his room as quickly as possible, not wanting to get in the middle of that.

He threw himself on the bed and groaned, not moving for a few minutes.

He knew it wasn’t the most productive use of his time but he was too distracted to try to study for the upcoming test he had. He could, however, put some music on and try to clean his room; so, that’s what he did.

He got up, loudly sighing, and he took one quick glance around the room. The floor could be barely seen through the mess of dirty clothes and that’s where he decided to start.

He sat down and separated the clothes based on colours, since most of them would have to go to the laundry, and he tried to somewhat fold the few items that were somehow still clean.

He had progressed quite a bit by the time he was forced to stretch out his arm to get a sock, semi-hidden under the bed. In doing so, he noticed something that made him momentarily freeze.

Shoving the remaining clothes aside, he crawled forward and reached under the bed.

It had been so long since he’d checked under it that he had forgotten about what he had placed there.

A small box.

Fairly normal.

What was special about it was its content.

Letters.

A whole stack of them, tied together with a rubber band.

After setting the lid aside, he took the rubber band off and he browsed through the letters.

Most of them were in pretty good shape since they were only a little over a year old but some of them were pretty roughed up from when he had thrown them in the trash before changing his mind.

He extracted one of those worn-out letters and smoothed it over.

September 9th, 1985

Dear Will,

Hey! How’s it going? I hope you’re doing well. El told me I was told that you joined the art club in Lenora, that seems cool! I joined a club too actually I’m not really one for extracurricular activities, although my parents say that they’re good for college applications but we’re only freshmen, why worry about that now, right?

What else have you been up to? I’m assuming not much, probably just getting accustomed to Lenora and high school. I don’t have much to tell either (besides the fact that I hate high school and it barely even started). Lucas wants to join the basketball team, so I guess there’s that but Dustin and I don’t really care for it, I doubt you’ll find it surprising.

It feels weird writing to you. Not being able to just bike over or even use the walkie. I could ask Dustin for his cerebro but I’m sure we’ll both get used to it and I’ll visit as soon as I can!

Anyway, I guess I should get going. I don’t wanna make this too long you probably have better things to do and bore you to death.

I miss you. A lot.

Love, Mike.

He placed the letter back in the box and picked out another one. This one was different, way less wrinkled and probably one of the most recent ones.

January 14th, 1986

Will,

Hey! Sorry I haven’t called or written in a while, I’ve just been really busy with school and trying to help out more at home. Holly actually asked me if I could help her with a drawing homework she had because she saw some of your old drawings and I guess she thought I did them so I had to tell her I’m also trying to help out Holly when I can and just play with her more. I guess you know a bit about that too now, not that it’s the same, El’s your age but you know what I meant

Still, sorry. Don’t worry though, we’ll catch up when I visit during spring break.

Lov Take care,

Mike.

He went for a third letter and just as he started reading it-

“Mike?”

He straightened up and hastily put the letter and lid back on the box.

“Come in!”

He got up and awkwardly stood in front of his mom.

“Oh, were you cleaning your room?” She looked around and murmured, “About time.”

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah, so can you go? That way I can finish?”

“As much as it pains me to interrupt you when you’re cleaning your room for the first time in probably two weeks,” he tried to interject but she didn’t let him, “I need you downstairs. You can finish here later. Hopefully.”

“What?” He scrunched his face, “Why?”

She put her hands on her hips, “Because I need you downstairs.”

“Why can’t Nancy go?”

“Because she already did her part by driving you to school today and she’s still on break, which she should enjoy because college is a lot harder than high school and she deserv-”

“Yeah, okay, okay. I got it.”

“Good,” she walked away.

The chores took him a bit longer than he had hoped but he eventually managed to please his mom and be allowed to go back to his room.

On the last few steps of the stairs, he noticed that the door was ajar and he frowned. 

He always considered himself a pretty private person so he tended to leave the door closed but maybe he’d forgotten, so he shrugged and kept going.

“Mike!”

Holly was sitting on his bed, flipping through the stack of papers inside of it and he immediately panicked.

“What are you doing?” He rushed over.

“I heard music!”

It was only then that he remembered he had forgotten to turn off his cassette player.

“You know you can’t be in my room when I’m not here.”

“I thought you were!” She played with the papers she was holding, “What are these?”

Luckily for him, his sister was only seven years old, still too young to read anything too complex but his handwriting was fairly neat and easy to understand and she probably had managed to catch a few words here and there… especially…

“Is Will coming?”

“What? Oh, uh,” he sighed and sat next to her, “no, he’s not.”

She holds up one of the letters and slowly reads, “Deeear Will.”

“Uh, well, do you remember when he was gone for a bit?”

She nodded, “Caulifornia.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, California. So, I went there too, to visit him; but sometimes I also called him or wrote to him and now that he’s here, we don’t have to do that anymore. We can just talk and see each other whenever we want.”

“Cool! I like his art!”

He ruffled her hair, “Yeah, I know. Me too.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I like his art and when he teaches me.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she kicked her feet again and giggled, “and he’s cute. I like him!”

He snorted, “Yeah, I know.”

The little girl’s crush wasn’t a mystery to anyone who had seen her when Will was over at their house. It was all cute and fun until she pestered them to let Will go play with her instead but he was a good sport, so most of the time he insisted on playing with her for a few minutes.

“Do you like him?”

“What? I- he’s my best friend, of course I like him.” He cleared his throat, “Same way you like your friends, Macy and Trevor, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah, so… yeah.”

“And that’s why you write?”

“Yep, I write to him because he’s my… friend.”

“I wanna write to Macy and Trevor!”

“Oh, um, okay? I can help.”

She bounced off the bed, “Let’s go!”

He stopped her in her tracks, holding her hand, “Wait, Holly, not now okay?”

“Why not?” She frowned.

“I have to finish some stuff but I’m gonna help you before dinner, okay?”

In true seven year old fashion, she dramatically sighed, “Fiiine.”

He smiled at her and let go of her hand, “Good. I’ll be quick.”

She left the room and he closed the door.

The first thing he did was hide the box again but this time he tried to avoid looking at the letters, just a quick glance was enough to turn him red for some reason he didn’t exactly want to look into at the moment.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to study at all for the day so he resigned to actually finishing to tidy up his room.

—

The following day, he definitely regretted the lack of studying but he had managed to revise before leaving school and had studied during the previous days, so he crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.

It seemed that Will might have needed some of that luck too.

After all his studying and worrying, Mike thought Will would’ve aced the test or at the very least passed it but when it was time to hand in their papers, he caught a quick glance of Will’s and it seemed mostly blank.

He tried to talk to him once the bell rang but he was shut off, his friend was apparently going to have a quick talk with the professor.

Strangely enough, he was also nowhere to be seen at lunch, later that day.

“He said he was just going to the bathroom, I said I could wait but he told me to meet you guys here but it’s been taking a while,” El frowned. “Maybe there’s a long line?”

“In the boy’s bathroom? Yeah, no, there’s never a line there.”

“Dustin’s right,” said Lucas, “but hey, it does make you wonder why the girls always have to wait.”

“Well, not really. I mean, our bathrooms have stalls and urina-”

Mike scrunched his face, “Dude.”

“What?”

He gestured to the plates in front of them, “A, we’re literally eating. Gross. And B, who cares? Not the point.”

Dustin nodded, “Right, of course. What is the point?”

“Will. Being weird as fuck lately.”

“Ohhh, yeah, that. Okay,” he mimicked a robot rewiring, “refocusing.”

Mike rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I don’t know, I thought he was just stressed because of school but I’m getting a bad feeling now.”

El turned to Lucas, “Maybe he is sick because of stress? Joyce says that sometimes when you feel really bad, your body can start to feel bad too.”

Dustin furrowed his brows, “Hey, El, what class did you have?”

“Now, before lunch?”

The boy nodded.

“Oh, math.”

“And then the bell rang and you both started walking towards the cafeteria?”

“No, I started walking but he stopped and said what I told you before.”

“Okay but he kept walking in your same direction?”

El looked around confused, “Uh, no. He went the other way.”

“Then that makes no sense.”

“What makes no sense?” Asked Lucas.

“Yeah, man, what are you talking about?”

“Guys!” Dustin pointed to El, “they were in math class!”

Mike raised an eyebrow, “So?”

“So h-”

“He didn’t go to the bathroom,” finished Lucas.

“The only bathroom on that side of the school is after those lockers before spanish class and they’re in the direction of the cafeteria, where El was walking. Do you think he’s skipping or something? That’s not like him.”

“Normally, yeah; but as we established, he’s been a bit weird lately. Sometimes people who are stressed over grades end up skipping school, which seems counterproductive but I get it.”

Mike shook his head, “If he’s skipping then he must be going somewhere or have a reason. I saw his test and it was basically blank so why didn’t he skip before the quiz this morning? Playing hooky for no reason and for only half the day?”

“Then what do you think?” Asked El.

Mike looked at the windows, “I think he’s going on a walk.”

“A walk?”

“Yeah, at the end of that hall you were in there’s an emergency exit. Some people go there during breaks, it’s mostly smokers and stuff because it’s the closest part to the woods and they try to hide and shit. Not get caught, you know?”

Lucas tilted his head, “How do you know that?”

Mike looked down and Dustin flinched.

“What is it?” The boy asked.

“Uh,” Dustin cleared his throat, “that’s where Eddie used to…”

“Oh.”

“Used to what?”

“Uh, do you remember when you were in Lenora and you told me that Jonathan was smoking funny plants?”

The girl nodded.

“Yeah, so, our friend Eddie used to sell some funny plants like that and some of them are pretty safe but others a bit… well, uh, they’re not exactly legal, let’s just say that. Eddie needed to make some extra money but he didn’t wanna get caught so he’d sell them there.”

“Wait, you don’t think he’s…”

“Buying drugs? Dustin, you think Mr I won’t even drink a beer ‘cause I don’t wanna end up like my dad is skipping lunch to buy drugs?”

“Alright, Lucas, then you tell me what he’s doing out there.”

The other boy shrugged, “I don’t know? But I know it’s not buying drugs.”

“He didn’t like it when Jonathan smoked the funny plant.”

“See? El agrees.”

“What do you think, Mike?”

He looked towards the windows again, “I- honestly? I don’t know. Maybe he changed his mind and he’s trying to take the edge off.”

Lucas added tensely, “I guess that’s what happened to Chrissy. I was there when the cops talked to Jason and I’m telling you, he refused to believe she would buy drugs and okay, he was a piece of shit but I’m pretty sure he knew his girlfriend.”

“When Max came over to my house, she didn’t believe Chrissy was buying drugs at first either. But she did try to buy them… because she was scared.” He frowned, “What if Will is too.”

The shift in the air was so sudden, Mike suddenly felt a chill running down his back.

El was the first one brave enough to break the silence, “Scared of…”

“Vecna,” they all said in unison.

The following few minutes were filled with panicked “What do we do?”, “We should go find him!” and such but in the time it took them to discuss it, the bell rang again, signaling the end of lunch break.

Walking out of the cafeteria, they decided to skip the rest of the day and look for Will but they weren’t even halfway across school when they bumped into him.

“Hey, uh,” he glanced behind himself and then back to his friends, “what are you…”

Mike shrieked, “What are we? What were you doing? We were about to go look for you in the middle of the fucking forest!”

“I was- I was just,” he sighed, “I just wanted some fresh air. That’s all.”

“Yeah, well, we got worried,” replied Mike.

Will crossed his arms and shrugged, “Okay?”

“Okay?”

“No, I mean, sorry. I’m here now.”

“Yeah, we can see that much,” he scoffed before schooling his expression again.

“Look, it- it’s fine if you need some space or fresh air or whatever but we were worried, alright? After everything that happened… at least be honest and warn one of us when you’re about to take off and… brood or whatever.”

Will visibly relaxed and laughed, “Okay.”

“What?”

He grinned at Mike, “Brood? I don’t know, feels funny. That’s kinda your thing.”

Mike tried to scoff at his friend but what came out was more of a chuckle, “It is not.”

“Mmm, I don’t know, Mike. I think Will has a point,” joked Dustin.

The others laughed along too as they started to walk back to class, though they were all incredibly late. After the laughter died down though, the awkward tension arose again but Will clearly wasn’t in the mood to keep talking about… whatever it is that was going on with him, so they dropped it.

Mike then tried to ask if they’d be up for a round of D&D at his house, later that day, but Will denied the invite and promised everyone that he was fine, just tired and overwhelmed.

El also suggested he may be getting sick because he was sweating more than usual.

It was actually her comment that led Mike to notice his friend’s odd choice in clothing, or rather, his odd choice in clothing for the specific season they were in. Of course spring had a tendency to have a lot of wind but it usually wasn’t too much and when the wind was lacking, it could actually get pretty hot…

So, why was Will wearing a whole sweater?

—

Fast forward a few hours and Mike was once again moping in his room when he heard a knock.

“Come in!”

“I’m just here to drop some clothes, don’t worry, I’ll be quick.”

“Sure.”

His mom started putting the clean clothes in his dresser, “Everything cool at school?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

She finished with the clothes and sat down next to him, “Go on, what is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s been bothering you?”

“Nothing.”

She threw him a look.

“Okay, so, maybe not nothing.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder, “Whatever it is, you can tell me. You know that, right?”

He nodded awkwardly, “I know.”

She waited.

“It’s, ugh, okay, here it goes. It’s about Will.”

“Oh. Um, is he well?”

“No? I don’t think so? I don’t know, he’s being weird and refusing to talk about it and when we tried to press it, he said it’s just school being stressful but I think he’s lying. I know what he looks like when he’s stressed out over school and that’s not it.”

“I see.”

“So,” he cleared his throat, “any tips or…”

“Just one.”

“Okay?”

“Let him know you’re there for him. I know that patience isn’t exactly your virtue but continuing to pressure him to talk won’t work, if anything, it’ll have the opposite effect. We all have a flight or fight response and pushing him so much is going to activate it.”

“So, what? I do nothing?”

“No, not nothing. You let him know you’re there for when he is ready to talk and then you just… wait. Remember Michael, waiting is one of the most important but overlooked things that you can do for someone you love.”

He turned red and looked the other way, “Right, well, uh- thanks, mom. I think I got it, so…”

She chuckled, “I’ll leave you alone. Got it.”

He laughed at her mocking and before she left the room, “Really though, thanks, mom.”

“Anytime, honey.”

She closed the door and he was left alone with his thoughts.

His Will thoughts.

He had already told Will that he was there for him whenever; step 1 of his mom’s advice was already done, all there was left to do was wait.

That’s what he did.

(Even though it frustrated him to no end.)

—

Clink, clink, clink!

“Wha-” Mike yawned and looked around, “what the hell?”

He was sleeping peacefully when he started hearing some weird noises coming from outside. He tried to sleep regardless but they intensified and he finally gave in, moving the blanket aside and getting up.

“Will?”

His friend had been throwing small pebbles at the window, which Mike had now opened.

“Wait there,” he was going to go downstairs and open the front door but was interrupted by Will shushing him.

“You’ll make too much noise. I don’t wanna wake up your parents.”

“Then what do yo-”

He wasn’t even done with the question and Will had already started climbing up the side of the house, much like Steve had done all those years ago (although with a different room destination).

“Are you crazy!”

The other boy simply rolled his eyes as he got to the edge of Mike’s window.

Mike was about to help him in but Will managed flawlessly on his own and, for some reason, he suddenly became much too aware of his own body and lack of athleticism, compared to Will at least.

It was a feeling that had come up on more than one occasion, mostly during p.e or the occasional bike race, and Mike both enjoyed it and hated it.

“What the hell were you thinking? You could’ve fallen and broken like half of your bones!”

Will snorted, “Don’t take this the wrong way but it’s really not that hard.”

Mike blushed, “No, I- whatever, what are you doing here?”

He turned on the lamp on his nightstand and looked at the time, a bit past midnight.

“Does your mom or Jonathan know you’re here?”

Will grimaced, “Uhhh… no?”

“Will!”“I know! I know! I’m sorry. I’m not trying to cause another search party, trust me.”

Mike sat on the bed and gestured for his friend to do the same.

“I just- well, you said,” he shook his head, “I’m sorry for waking you up.”

“It’s okay,” he said as softly as he could.

“I didn’t know I was coming here… until I was. And then it seemed too stupid to turn back but then you weren’t hearing me and I was scared of scratching or even breaking your window and I thought hey, maybe I should leave and then y-”

“Will,” he placed a hand on his friend’s knee, “it’s okay. It’s fine.” He laughed, “We don’t even have school tomorrow so we can party all night long if you want.”

He chuckled, “Right, yeah.”

“So… what is it?”

He still hadn’t taken his hand off. He wasn’t planning to, either.

“You said… if- if anything happened… that I could tell you. That I should tell you. Because it’d be easier that way… because we’re best friends.”

He nodded.

Will finally looked him in the eyes, “I saw something.”

“Wh- what? What do you mean, you saw something?”

“You know how I didn’t visit Max with you guys this time?” He waited for Mike to nod again. “And then, remember how I couldn’t make it last time too because I had that, uh-”

“The track meet, yeah, I remember.”

“Right, so, I went alone like three days after ‘cause I felt bad.”

“Okay?”

“When I was there,” he gulped, “I think I had a- a vision? Like Nancy’s? Or maybe not like Nancy’s but it also wasn’t like the now-memories, so…”

Mike tensed up.

“I-uh, I just tapped Max’s hand kinda to say goodbye you know?” He murmured, “If she can even feel it,” he raised his voice again, “but… when my hand touched hers… something happened and I don’t know what it was but- calling it a vision is a start, I guess.”

He dreaded asking this, “What did you see?”

He was afraid Will was going to say Vecna or anything of the sort but what he said instead was…

“Max.”

That somehow felt worst.

“Max? You mean…”

“I don’t know, that’s the problem! What does it even mean? Is she… spiritually dead or something? Or maybe it’s a good thing and it means she’s alive alive and she’ll get better or we’ll have to do something to help her get better?”

Mike remained silent. Absorbing it all in.

“But that’s not all.”

“You saw something else?”

“Well, yes and no.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“I just- I just kept seeing the same stuff over and over again. I’ve been seeing the same exact thing… every single night.”

“Like, in your dreams?”

“Yeah. The first time, I told you, I was awake and I guess it was triggered by… touching her? Which doesn’t make any sense either because I always sort of pat her hand as goodbye, but anyway, so that happened and I didn’t visit her again but every night since then, without fail, I see her. I go to bed, I fall asleep and I see her. ”

He choked on air and started tearing up.

“Every night I see her and I wanna help her but I- I can’t because… what do I even do? I’m not- it’s like I’m at the movies and there’s this fog and I’m not with her. She’s just… in front of me? For me to see. Like, uh, like, I don-”

“Like behind a glass, maybe?”

“Yeah! Exactly! And so, I can’t- I can’t do anything. I just… I just watch and then I wake up and I wanna help her which is why I’m telling you and I know I should’ve done it sooner but-” he gulped, “I’m scared. Not of her, obviously. Just of… everything else and- and I’m scared for Lucas too.”

“For Lucas?”

“Mike, I don’t know what any of this means. For all I know, it could very well be just a trap from Henry. If I tell Lucas right now, when I can’t even make sense of it myself, he’s gonna-"

He shook his head, "fuck, I don’t even know what he’s gonna do or think or say but I know it won’t be good and he’ll- Max would want us to help her but I also know she’d want him to be safe.”

“Okay, okay, let’s just- let’s rewind? Alright? Just… what exactly did you see? You said about Max and the fog but what is it exactly that you saw? Was she… asleep? Awake? Talking?”

“That’s the problem! When I wake up… I only remember some of it but I have this feeling that tells me that there’s more. When I’m sleeping, I know I see more than what I remember when I wake up.”

“Okay but let’s start with what you do remember. Even if it’s just a quick glance.”

He frowned and looked down in thought, “I- I don’t know how to say it. It’s all so fast and it feels like- it’s so weird, it feels like- more than a glass, it feels like a movie.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, you could see me even when the window was closed because the glass is clear. You just needed to open the window to talk to me and let me in but you could still see me.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, it’s different. With a movie, you know when they lag? Like that time at the mall. The power went out but the movie didn’t cut out immediately. It started, like, shaking? And then the-” his eyes widened, “frames! That’s the word I was looking for!”

“Frames?”

“Yeah, it all starts shaking or moving and the frames start overlapping each other and things start to look different, like you can’t make any sense of it all because multiple frames are fighting for the spotlight and then it cuts off. That’s what it’s like.”

 “I think I got it? But, okay so, what can you tell from these frames? Is there one that’s clearer or that stands out more?”

“I can’t explain it like this but I tried to draw it? I don’t know if it’ll be of any use ‘cause it’s all so… messy and confusing? But I tried, more than once, maybe you’ll be able to see a bit of what I saw.”

He looked his friend up and down, he wasn’t wearing a backpack but he had pockets so maybe… “Do you have them right now?”

Will shook his head, “At home. Like I said, this was kind of a spur of the moment deal. All I did was quickly change clothes, didn’t even see what I was picking, put on some shoes and then grabbed my bike and left.”

Mike was about to ask something else when Will spoke again, “She was screaming.”

“What?”

“Max. You asked if she was talking. She was screaming.”

“What was she saying?”

“Names. Mine too, I think the rest of the party’s as well but mine was the only one I could actually hear. It was like the frames. The sounds were all over each other too. Overlapping. Making everything muffled and hard to make out.”

“Then how do you know sh-”

“That she was screaming other names too? Not just mine over and over again? I asked myself that after the first time but I was still at the hospital and felt like everybody was watching me and I just rushed home.”

“Of course.”

“Then there was the first nightmare and I obviously woke up in my bed, so it’s like I had more clarity? And time to absorb it all?”

Will fidgeted with his hands, “I know it sounds stupid but it’s the same feeling as knowing I’m missing something when I wake up. I can’t actually hear any of the other names she’s saying but I know she’s saying more names.”

Mike finally lifted his hand from Will’s knee and instead placed it on top of his friend’s, “It’s not stupid.”

He soothingly rubbed his thumb over the back of Will’s hand, “Look, this supernatural shit is confusing. That’s not your fault. You didn’t even ask for any of it. None of us did.”

The other boy weakly smiled, “Right, thanks, Mike.”

Mike was a terrible person because he had just heard all of that… and yet for one moment, all he wanted to think about was how nice it felt to be this close to Will again, both emotionally and physically.

He quickly turned red and took his hand off, clearing his throat, “Well, uh, tomorrow I’ll go over to your place and see the drawings and then- then we’ll talk about it more and decide what to do.”

Will nodded.

“You already had the nightmare today?”

“Yeah, um, sometimes it happens sooner and sometimes later. It depends.”

“Think it’ll come back if you go to sleep again?”

He shook his head, “Never happened before. Except…”

“Except?”

“I never got it twice the same night but there were two times where I got it twice in 24 hours. The first time was the day at the hospital because that was also the day I started getting it as a nightmare.”

“And the second time?”

“The second time was yesterday.”

“The woods.”

“Yeah.”

“Wait, why were you going there anyway? Were you… you know.”

“Buying drugs? No. I just needed some fresh air because I knew you guys would talk about Max during lunch but I completely forgot about the stoners.”

“And what? You just… had a vision? Just like that? Randomly?”

He shrugged, “I guess? I don’t know, I was just walking to avoid all the smoke and stoners and I started feeling weird and then… then it happened. And I rushed back inside.”

Mike passed a hand through his hair, “Man, this makes no sense.”

Will chuckled, “Tell me about it.”

Mike sighed, “Look, it’s late. We’re not gonna solve anything right now. Let’s just go to sleep and talk about this again tomorrow.”

“Oh, uh, right,” he looked around uncomfortably, “guess I’ll bike back.”

He frowned, “What? Dude, don’t be weird. You can stay here. I mean, it’s not like we haven’t done this before.”

They hadn’t done a sleepover in a while though.

“You sure? I already woke you up, don’t wanna bother anymore than that.”

“Dude, it’s fine.”

It was a lot more than fine and yet it was also terrifying.

“Cool,” Will smiled.

He smiled back, “Cool.”

“Oh, wait, uh, you should probably-” he headed to his dresser and reached for the first few items, “here, you’ll be more comfortable with one of my pajamas. I doubt sleeping in jeans would be comfortable.”

“Thanks,” he took the clothes.

“Hey, speaking of uncomfortable clothing… is this, all of this, why you were wearing all that heavy stuff? You were sweating so much and acting so weird, El thought you were physically sick.”

Will chuckled and began to change into the offered clothes, “Yeah, not my brightest idea but,” he shrugged.

“I’d get you something warmer but I’m pretty sure mom already did the whole wardrobe change for the season, the warmer stuff is probably in some boxes in the basement right now.”

“It’s alright.”

Mike tried to pretend he wasn’t looking.

Probably would’ve been easier to actually look away.

“I have another blanket here though, if one’s not enough.”

“Mike, it’s fine, really. Thanks.”

“Of course.”

His friend finished changing and they finally lifted the blanket, laying under it.

“Do you want the light on or off?”

“It’s alright, you can turn it off.”

Mike proceeded to do so and then turned to face his friend.

“By the way, thanks.”

“For what?”

“Confiding in me. I missed that… missed you.”

“Oh. I- well, thanks for being there.”

He wanted to fall asleep to Will’s kind smile but they weren’t kids anymore and he wasn’t sure what lines they were still allowed to cross, so he painfully turned around, “Night, Will.”

“Good night, Mike.”

—

The next morning, they were woken up by Mike’s mom, barging in.

She always hated when he slept in late on his days off.

“Will? Oh, um, what… a pleasant surprise?”

Both boys turned crimson and rigid.

“Yeah, sorry Mrs Wheeler, I mean Karen, um, I was in the neighbourhood last night and stopped by to say hi, Mike was still awake and we got to talking and I guess it got too late and we fell asleep.”

“Oh, I see. Well, you know you’re always welcome here. I’m just sorry you had to see Mike’s room in this state.”

He laughed, “Trust me, I’ve seen worst.”

“Okay, well, to be fair, I started cleaning it like two days ago. It takes time.”

His mom sent him a look, “It’d take a lot less if you did it more consistently.”

“Yep, got it. We have to get dressed so can you…” he gestured for her to leave.

“Breakfast is already on the table. I’ll set out a plate for Will too. Don’t take too long, it’ll get cold.”

“Thank you,” the other boy politely smiled as she closed the door behind her.

It was only once they were alone again that Mike noticed their close proximity.

He tried to detangle himself from Will in the smoothest way possible but he felt like his body and his brain were on different rhythms and his movement ended up being incredibly clumsy.

His friend merely raised an eyebrow at him and chuckled, “You okay?”

“Uh, ye-yeah. You? Slept well?”

He smiled, “I did. Probably the first time this whole week.”

“Good,” he smiled but then quickly added, “I mean, that you slept well today! Not that you slept like shit all week.”

He was on his way to say more but was thankfully saved by Will’s laughter, cutting him off.

“Mike, you know, you really do take your time to wake up in the morning, huh?”

“Eh, guess I do,” he laughed.

“We should probably…” Will trailed off.

“Oh, right, ye. Breakfast and all.”

They quickly got dressed and went downstairs.

Mike’s mom had probably warned the other three Wheelers because none of them seemed surprised at Will’s unexpected presence, although Holly was very clearly excited.

“Hi, Will!”

“Morning Will,” smiled Nancy.

Will greeted both sisters and Mike’s dad too, even though the man had barely even nodded at the boy.

“Looks great, Karen.”

Mike internally chuckled at Will’s awkwardness with his mom’s insistence of being called her first name.

“It’s nice to feel appreciated for once, maybe we should swap you for Mike,” she joked.

“We should!”

“Wooow, thank you so much, Holly,” he said sarcastically.

The girl shrugged and kept eating.

“You know that Will would become your brother, then.”

She frowned and blushed, “No! Then you can stay.”

“You were right mom, feels great to be appreciated.”

They all (and by all that means everyone except for Ted) quietly laughed at that.

“So, Will, how’s sophomore year going?”

“Really, Nancy?” Mike rolled his eyes.

“What? It’s a normal question to ask.”

“Mike, it’s fine. She just asked about school, not my social security number.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“It’s going well? Not much to say, really. Uh, I joined track? There’s that. And, of course, the art club but that one’s not really a surprise, is it?”

“That’s great,” she replied kindly, “and it’ll definitely look good on a college application.”

“Yeah, I hope,” he nodded.

The college part apparently woke Ted up from his own little world and he said, “You know Mike, your friend and Nancy have a point.”

“Huh?”

“Now, I don’t know about art club,” he all but scoffed, “though I suppose any club’s better than nothing, especially compared to that dropout one you were in last year, but colleges really do love a good ol’ sports club.”

Not even looking up from his newspaper, “Dedicated athletes are still better off but even just being on the bench on whatever team or sport you pick is better than nothing and will give you an advantage. You should really consider it.”

“Are you serious? Dad, have you ever actually seen me run? At all?”

“No one’s saying you have to run, Michael,” he sighed.

“It’s track, dad. Track. That’s literally all it is. Running.”

“I just told you. The sport doesn’t matter. Go for something else, basketball, wrestling, doesn’t matter. Hell, if you’re so allergic to running, simply ask to stay on the bench as a reserve for the basketball team.”

“Right, yeah, that definitely won’t be a waste of my time.”

“Won’t be when colleges will pick you over someone not in a sports club.”

Mike was about to keep debating his father when Nancy stepped in, “I never did a sport in high school. Besides p.e, of course. Which… I was also not that great at.”

“Thank you!”

“Yes but you were running your school’s newspaper.”

“Yes, wel-”

“And you’re a girl.” He sipped some coffee and put down his mug again, “Not many people expect a girl to be doing a sport. I suppose maybe cheerleading but it’s not really the future college girls who do that.”

“That’s no-”

This time Nancy was interrupted by her mom, who was clearly trying to put on an appearance for Will but Mike could tell that she was also pissed.

“Speaking of sports, have you done any races yet?” She looked at Will.

“Oh, uh, yeah. A few.”

Mike nudged him, “He usually gets in the top five. One time he actually got first place! And a few times third but overall always in the top five.”

Will rubbed the back of his neck, “If we don’t count the first one.”

“No, yeah, that one doesn’t count. You were too nervous and you’d never done it before. And still, you didn’t get last place by quite a bit, so, still good.”

The other boy shrugged, “I guess.”

The woman smiled sweetly, “Well, how lovely! Good for you, Will. Joyce must be proud.”

“Me too!”

Will laughed, “Thanks, Holly.”

“Biased, you’ve never even seen him play.”

His sister stuck out her tongue at him and he replied with the same gesture.

“Real mature, Mike,” smiled his friend.

“What can I say?” He grinned.

Their conversation got cut off by the phone ringing.

Mike’s mom got up.

"Oh, Will, I forgot to tell you. I already called your family to let them know you were here and I told them you’d call them when you were done with breakfast but it’s probably Joyce. Honestly, I don’t blame the poor woman. She must’ve gotten quite the scare this morning.”

Will looked sheepish as the woman answered the phone.

“Hello? Joyce! Yeah, sorry, they took their time getting up. You know, teenage boys. Yeah, no, you’re good. After everything that happened… I completely understand. Absolutely. Here,” she gestured for him, “I’ll pass him the phone. You too, dear.”

Mike kept eating his breakfast as his friend quietly talked to his mom, who was undoubtedly giving him an earful, but he ended up being thankful because it meant that Will probably couldn’t hear what Mike’s dad was saying.

“It’s good he’s at least trying now and he certainly looks better but doing sports and building up a frame won’t help him if he still does that art stuff.”

The man lifted his gaze and judgmentally looked the boy up and down, though thankfully Will had his back turned to them.

“And don’t get me started on sharing a bed with another boy at your age. Honestly, Michael, I know you’ve been friends for a long time but even kindness and patience have to end at some point.”

The man scoffed and continued, “You’re almost 18, which means you’re almost men. You can still sort of justify it now but once you turn 18? Then that’s no longer two kids sharing a bed, it’s two men. You need to start acting according to that.”

His gaze now ran over Mike.

“Though, art aside, he’s got the physical advantage. He doesn’t really look the part, not anymore. So if I were you, I’d be careful because if, heaven forbid, a rumor were to start… at first glance someone might assume you were the problem, the instigator.”

He focused back on his newspaper, “Another reason to join a sport.”

They were all too stunned to speak, minus for Holly who looked utterly confused and tried to ask her mom what he was talking about but the woman seemed at a loss for words too.

It wasn’t even that Mike didn’t know what to say. There were a million things he wanted to say. He was simply too petrified to voice any of them.

He somehow felt worst than we had tried to jump off that cliff to save Dustin from Troy and James.

Except El couldn’t save him nor Will from this.

Not that Will was like Mike, that much was clear, what with his new female fan club at school and how kind he was to them (even if most of them didn’t deserve it); but being accused of… that could still very much put him in danger, especially considering Will’s previous history with bullying in those regards.

Will was in constant danger, it seemed.

For some unknown reason, he appeared to have a target on his back for all of that weird supernatural shit. He didn’t need Mike to make matters worst by leading people to assume…

“Seriously, Ted?!”

His mom thankfully managed to gather herself.

“What?”

She scoffed, “We’re having a talk later.” She got up again and took away his father’s mug and plate, throwing away their contents and setting them aside.

“I wasn’t finished,” grumbled the man.

“Now you are.”

The man sighed and left for the living room since it was Saturday so he didn’t have work.

Will was still caught up talking to his mom on the phone and the rest of them kept eating.

Soon enough, the boy finished and rejoined them. They finished eating their breakfast in silence, ignoring Will’s clear confusion at the awkward silence and the lack of Mike’s father.

Mike’s mom started washing the dishes while Nancy brushed Holly’s hair and Will said goodbye to them both, then headed outside with Mike.

“I’m sorry, you just left your bike like that?” He gestured to the bike carelessly thrown on the floor.

“In my defence, it was past midnight and I thought I’d leave in like… twenty minutes tops, I figured no one would really steal it at almost one a.m and if I was only gone for like twenty minutes.”

He went to pick it up, “Then I completely forgot about it. I guess I am lucky it didn’t get stolen or anything.”

He got on the bike, “Hey, so, about… you know…”

“Yeah?”

“I changed my mind. You can tell Dustin if you want and then you can both pass by my house and I’ll show you the drawings, just don’t tell Lucas. Not yet. I wanna be more… sure. Before we tell him anything.”

“Sure? What do you mean? Like, sure that they’re not just nightmares?”

He shook his head, “I know they’re not just nightmares, I’m just- I just need some time to, I don’t know, figure some stuff out. Just… promise me you won’t tell Lucas, not yet. It’s for his own good.”

“I promise.”

“Actually, let’s just say only tell Dustin as of right now. No El or Nancy or Jonathan or Steve and Robin, no one. Let’s just start with Dustin for now. I think he might be able to figure out something.”

Mike nodded.

“I’d tell him myself but mom kinda grounded me.”

“Yikes,” he hissed.

“I know. She literally never does that. I guess I really scared her,” he looked away sheepishly.

“It wasn’t on purpose, it was just a mistake.”

“Still,” he shook his head and sighed, “anyway, I should definitely get going.”

“See you later.”

“Yeah, see ya,” he biked away.

He headed back inside to say goodbye to his family and warn them that he was going to Dustin’s, then he took his bike from the garage and left.

It was probably a bit early to visit somebody on a Saturday but it was an emergency and Dustin’s mom was really kind so he hoped she wouldn’t mind too much.

It didn’t take long for him to get there and he was glad because he had forgotten to grab a jacket and it was pretty windy in the morning.

A few moments after ringing the doorbell, the door swung open and he was greeted by Dustin himself.

“Mike? Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey! Sorry, I know this is a bit random and sudden but can we talk?”

“Uh, sure, come in.”

“Thanks,” he smiled.

Dustin led them to his room, “Mom’s out on a walk right now, helps her calm down. She’s been pretty nervous lately with all this anniversary shit going on.”

“No, yeah, makes sense.”

They sat on his bed, “So, what did you wanna talk about?”

“Well, uh, this is kinda- it’s kinda hard I guess, so I’ll just rip the band-aid off and then give you the details and you can like, ask questions and stuff.”

Dustin nodded, “Alright. But, just so you know, I support you. No matter what, okay?”

“I- what?”

“Nothing, nothing, go ahead.”

“Right… uh, so… Will had a vision. Or, I guess maybe visions plural? It’s technically the same one but he’s had it multiple times.”

“I’m sorry, what? A vision? Like a… vision vision?”

“I don’t know what to call it,” he shrugged.

"He just saw some weird shit. The first time it happened he was awake but apparently all the other times were while he was sleeping, so kinda like nightmares but they’re more than nightmares. Oh and the other day by the woods too, while he was awake. Two exceptions.”

“Shit…”

“Yeah, shit…”

“So, what were they like? What did he see? Was it Vecna/Henry/One? We should probably pick just one, doesn’t matter, not the point.”

“He made some drawings about it that he hasn’t shown me yet so I didn’t fully understand but he said they… they’re about Max.”

“Wait, Max? Is that why he didn’t come to the hospital?”

He nodded, “It’s hard to explain, honestly it’s probably best if you just wait to see the drawings but the gist of it is: Max was, like, yelling? His name. Probably ours too but he wasn’t sure.”

“And? What else?”

He shrugged, “And… that’s it.”

“But was she like… somewhere? Or was it more like El’s thing and it’s all pitch black except for the person you’re focusing on?”

“I- no, I don’t know. He said it was all really confusing and I assure you it sounded confusing as fuck too, although he did say it was all… uh foggy? Uh, no, not foggy, glass! Yeah, he said it’s like she was behind glass or like she was inside the movie screen?”

“What?”

“Look just,” he sighed, “just wait for Will to explain it better and show you all that stuff. What matters is that you know it’s about Max and she’s yelling for him and probably for us too.”

“Shit, shit, okay. Max is yelling, Max is yelling,” he kept repeating, mostly to himself.

He nodded but Dustin was already looking away before getting up and starting to pace up and down.

“It’s almost the anniversary of… well, everything. And Will, Will, of all people, starts to get daily, or I guess nightly, visions of Max. Of a Max who’s behind some glass and screaming?”

The boy paused and looked directly at Mike.

"Whatever the fuck’s happening is either a warning from Vecna, meaning he’s just toying with us, or an accidental one that slipped past him but either way, we need to keep our guard up, regroup, tell everyone and- and somehow come up with at least a semblance of a plan.”

“That’s the thing, Will said to tell you. Just you, for now. He plans on telling everyone eventually of course and obviously sooner than later but he wants to figure out what to do about Lucas. And El too but mainly Lucas.”

“Shit! Lucas and El, right,” he cursed, “they’ll wanna rush in immediately and at this very precocious stage we’re at, it’s just too dangerous.”

“Yeah and you’re like the brains of the operation, you know? So he wanted to give you a heads up and maybe while he figures out what to do with Lucas… you can figure out a semblance of a plan… or anything, really.”

“Great, so, no pressure,” he replied sarcastically.

“Look, I’ll- I’m gonna try. I’m gonna try to think of something this weekend and then immediately head to the library as soon as it opens on Monday, hopefully we’ll find something there. If the earthquake didn’t destroy the important sections. But you need to tell Will that we don’t have that much time.”

“He knows. And I will.”

“Good.” He sat on the bed again, “Well, this shit fucking sucks.”

Mike snorted, “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Dustin bumped his leg, “Guess I owe you a sorry, though.”

He frowned, “What for?”

“Will. Not believing there was something wrong with him at first.”

“Oh-uh, ye, no, don’t worry about it.”

“Makes sense you’re the one to figure it out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, just, you know… you’ve always, uh, cared.”

“About Will? Of course I care and I know you do too, why are you being so weird?”

“Sorry, no, that’s not- forget it.”

“Besides, I didn’t figure anything out. I mean, I knew he was being weird and off but I didn’t know the cause and I didn’t go all detective about it, he just ended up telling me… probably because of how much I bugged him,” he chuckled.

“Yeah,” Dustin chuckled too, “that’s true. Still. He told you. Not me. Or Lucas or El or Jonathan or anyone else and okay, Lucas and El ‘cause of the Max thing and Jonathan because he can get a bit-”

“Overprotective?”

“Yep. But that leaves me. And Robin or Steve or even your sister. And okay, maybe he’s not as close to them as he is to the og Party but… I repeat, that leaves me.”

Mike scoffed, “What are you? Jealous?”

“Wha- Mike! No, what I’m saying is: he picked you. And I think… I think it makes sense but also, I think you’re happy you’re the first one he went to. Aren’t you?”

He fidgeted awkwardly, “I mean, yeah, like, I appreciate that he knows I’m there for him and that I can be a good friend even if I haven’t always been.”

“Right and you also appreciate being picked first by Will,” he carefully added.

“Dustin! Get to the point. What do you wanna say? Just spit it.”

“Alright, look. The last thing I wanna do is pressure you, and I wanna make that crystal clear, but shit’s about to go down. For real this time. All that previous stuff?"

He waved dismissively, "Consider it child’s play, it sucks, it does. It’s all shit but the truth is… whatever’s about to come, it’s going to be a lot worst than anything we’ve ever faced. We all know that.”

“I- yeah, I- I know.”

“Good. Which means you know time’s precious.”

“Of course,” he nodded.

“Then don’t waste it, Mike.”

He just stared at Dustin, waiting for him to continue.

“If you-” he took a deep breath and stared at Mike.

"If the way you care for Will is similar to the way I feel for Suzie or the way Lucas feels for Max… then, I think that’s pretty cool, actually. And you might wanna do something about it before Hawkins turns into a real life D&D battle.”

Dustin placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t miss out on something great because you were too busy wallowing in self-pity and hate. You’ve fucked up in the past when it comes to Will but you’ve always cared and you try to make up for that past shit and Will knows and he’s never held it against you, even though he could.”

He squeezed Mike’s shoulder, “It’s just always been Mike and Will, I get it now.”

He dropped his hand.

"I always thought Lucas was your main best friend when we were kids, I mean, you live close to each other and you’ve known each other for longer than I have and you acted more bro-y with him compared to Will. So, in my mind, that meant he was your number one friend, you know?”

He didn’t wait for Mike to reply.

“And I know you denied that but I didn’t believe you until I realised, it’s not that you liked Lucas more than the rest of us."

He shrugged, "You just have your own thing with each of us, same way that my friendship with Lucas is different than my friendship with you. It’s normal, we’re all different people and that doesn’t mean you like one of us more.”

“And, well, if we were to put our friendships on a spectrum, Lucas and you would probably be at the far end of the brotherly side, right? Just like Steve and I. But Will, he would be on the opposite end, wouldn’t he?”

He ran a hand through his hair.

“I hope I didn’t say anything offensive or rude but… Will’s great and he’s never not gonna be your friend. Especially not over this. And I think there’s a really good chance something amazing could happen if you gave yourself the chance. I think it’s worth the risk.”

The boy forced a chuckle to decrease the tension, “Well, that’s it for the speech I had.” He scratched his head, “Not that I had that ready, I didn’t even know you were coming over, but you know what I mean.”

Mike hadn’t even noticed he was tearing up until the quiet settled in.

“Shit! Sorry, I-” Dustin got cut off by a hug.

The two boys hugged in silence for a while, Mike slightly shaking and Dustin rubbing his back.

They slowly broke apart.

Mike wiped away his tears, "Thanks."

"It's okay."

Dustin spoke with such care that Mike had to bite his lower lip to keep from crying again.

"How long have you..." he didn't have the energy to finish voicing the question because admitting it out loud somehow made things more real and scary.

"Known? Oof, uh-hard to say."

"Try?"

"Um, I mean. Like, I said, you've always just acted a bit differently with Will and I thought... I don't know, really. But then over time... I guess it got more intense, lik-"

"Obvious?" He frowned.

Dustin quickly replied, "No, no! Not obvious. Don't worry, if you're worried, I mean. I'm sure I'm the only one who connected the dots." A brief pause. "I think- I think Max might've noticed too, if she hadn't..."

"Yeah."

He shook his head, "Anyway, when it got more intense it also got more confusing. And you know I always think a lot about basically everything, my anxiety's got anxiety at this point."

Mike cracked a smile, "Right. Fair though."

Dustin smiled back, "Yeah, so, I started thinking about you and Will... especially you though. You just stopped making sense to me."

"What do you mean?"

"You changed. Not once. Change happens, that's life. But the thing about you is that you changed back and forth. First it was all ew girls! And then you're all over El even when Lucas thought it was annoying."

He does the motion of a wave with his hand, “Then El's gone and Will's back and you're all over him but El comes back too and suddenly it's El time again and now Will and I are the annoyed ones 'cause she's all you care about."

Mike's about to interrupt but Dustin holds up his hand.

"A fight, about I don't know what, happens and you're back to being all about Will. I wasn't there for the first part but Lucas told me you biked in the rain to apologise and when the Byers were leaving you were kinda glued to Will in the period leading up to that."

He holds up two fingers, "You even hugged him twice on the actual day they left and I know you hugged El too but... you looked weird with her after your talk inside."

He shrugged, "By the way, not prying. Just saying. Anyway, fast forward to the start of high school and you fully stop calling and writing to Will? But you keep doing all of that for El and even complain about the long distance and Joyce's job keeping the phone busy."

He sighed, "It was just... weird. You kept doing a uno reverse.”

"Huh, guess I did."

"Then the final change happened. Things between you and El were tense and uncomfortable."

"To say the least," Mike mumbled.

"You break up, you mope for a while and so does she, rightfully, but boom! You're friends again and things aren't awkward anymore and the Party's energy is back to normal! Not back back to normal because..."

He nods, "Max."

"Yeah, but it's better than those first few months. And slowly, you start being all over Will again, except... this time- this time it feels different, stronger. And one day it just... hit."

"That I..."

"Like Will, yeah."

Mike nods again.

"Which, you know, I get".

Mike frowns, "What?"

"What?"

"You just said-"

"Yeah, I know what I said."

"I don't know what you said."

"I meeean, Will's a catch, so I get it."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm straight but a guy's allowed to have eyes, Mike. And that's without mentioning that Will's one of the nicest people I've ever met. He's snarky when he wants to be, making him funny too, but he's also such a nice person. Sooo, I get it."

Mike laughs, "I'm so confused."

Dustin crosses his arms and smirks, "What? Can't a guy appreciate one of his best friends in a platonic but objective way? Mike we're in the good year of 1987, not the fifties."

The boy laughs again and Dustin shakes his head in fake disapproval, "Not cool man. Not cool. This is why I only have man crushes on Will and Lucas but not you."

Mike laughs so hard he lays down on the bed and Dustin cracks up too.

"You're crazy tall and you've got the whole emo writer slash guitarist thing going on, though I've only seen you play like two times, but you gotta work on the personality man."

Mike covers his face with his hands, "You're the worst."

"Ducking you more points for that," teased the other boy.

"Duck them all," said Mike, straightening up again.

"Your loss."

They both chuckled.

"Hey, uh," Mike cleared his throat, "thanks, again. For... well," he gestured between the two of them, "this."

"What are friends for?"

“Can I ask you something?”

"Sure, what is it?"

"What you said before... you think Will..."

Dustin leaned forward, "Likes you back? Yeah, I think he does. Obviously I can't know for certain, I'm no wizard, but... I think your odds are pretty good."

Mike snorted, "So I should risk it all on some odds?"

"Yeah, I mean, isn't that just life?"

Mike huffed.

"You don't know if you'll go to college or which one you'll go to if you do go, you don't know which job you'll have and you'll never know if that other option, be it a different college or a different job, would have been better than the one you picked."

He clapped his hands, "That's just life."

"You just kinda take a guess based on odds and some information and then you hope for the best. You'll never know which is the correct option, there isn't a correct option. But I think your mind would be a lot more at peace if you..."

"Confessed?"

"Yeah. Nothing wrong with not doing that and I get why you're afraid but it's Will and I think there's a good chance this could end really well for you but you won't know unless you try."

"Right," he sighed.

"I'll be here for you either way, buddy."

The sweet moment was abruptly interrupted by the doorbell ringing.

"Again?" Dustin got up, "Maybe mom forgot her keys."

"I should probably leave anyway, I said I'd head over to Will's after I updated you on the situation. Oh, uh, you should come too actually, if you can."

"Right, yeah."

They walked to the door, which Dustin opened, and were surprised to find Lucas.

"Hey, guys!"

"Uh, hey," the two boys looked at each other and then back to their friend, "what are you doing here?"

Lucas frowned, "Same as Mike. My parents and Erica went to this thing at my aunt's and Mike's mom told me you two were hanging out and I thought I'd join. Is Will here too?"

Mike blushed, "Will? No, he's uh, he's grounded."

"Shit, really? That's... rare. For him. But it checks out with his behaviour this week."

"Yeah, it's uh- it's a long story."

Dustin stepped back, "Well, come in."

"So, what were you guys doing?"

"Mom's not here right now and we, um," he spared a quick glance to Mike, "we were playing with my atari. That's all really."

"Thanks for the invite," teased Lucas.

"Yeah, actually, that's not true. Dustin's just covering for me. But I figure, you should know too. Or well, not should but rather, I want you to know too."

Dustin looked surprised while Lucas asked, "Know what? Is it about Will?"

"Well, yes and no."

"Okay?"

Mike nervously glanced to the door, "We should go to Dustin's room first."

"Sure."

The three boys walked over there, then Mike shut the door and took a deep breath.

"I like Will."

In reality the feelings were definitely stronger than that but one step at a time.

"Okay? Uh, same, we're all friends here. Besides, kinda hard to not like Will, he's super nice."

"No, I mean- I like like Will. So..."

"What does tha- oh."

"Yeah, oh."

"Not what I expected but that's- that's cool man! And, well, it does explain a few things."

Mike eased up, "Really?"

"Yeah, come here," Lucas wrapped him in a hug which made Mike stumble a bit because Lucas was the strongest of the group and often forgot the fact.

"Thanks for telling me, man."

They separated, "I should be the one thanking you."

"Nah," he waved his hand dismissively, "so, what's the plan?"

"Plan? What plan?"

Lucas looked back and forth between his two friends, "The plan."

"Repeating it doesn't explain it," replied Mike.

Dustin pointed to Mike, "Do you mean his plan to woo him?"

"I wouldn't use the word woo but," he shrugged.

"Wow, hold on a minute, I haven't even decided if I'm gonna tell him. Let alone," he gestured wildly.

"Woo him?"

"Dustin, please stop saying that."

The boy held up his hands.

"Oh, I thought you were here to, like, scheme with Dustin."

"Doesn't scheme have a bad connotation?" Asked Mike.

Dustin hummed, "Not necessarily."

"Okay, whatever, no, I was here to..."

"Ask for advice!" Jumped in Dustin.

"Yep, I was... doing... that. Uh," he cleared his throat, "sorry I didn't go to you first but I thought, uh, well Dustin was giving me these weird looks and turns out he figured it out on his own so..."

"Hey, that's cool man, don't worry. But do you really not have a plan? What about you, Dustin?"

"I can't make a plan for Mike."

"Why not?"

"The whole point's for him to do it. I can give pointers at best."

"Fine, that then. I can help too."

"Guys!"

They turned to him.

"I told you, I don't even know if I'll actually do it. Right now it's in the maybe status."

"Right, no, totally get that but I still have a few ideas that I think would be really cool, if you were to do it."

"Hey, so do I, Lucas!"

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying! We should, like, make a list and then write pros and cons to each and vote them to rank them."

Lucas and Dustin started debating different options and Mike just stared at his friends for a bit, a smile decorating his face.

"Hey, guys?"

They stopped talking.

"I know I already said it but... thanks. A lot. For all of this. I didn't even know I was gonna- I still have a hard time dealing with... everything and I didn't think... I thought this would go differently, that's all, but I'm glad it didn't."

He cleared his throat and blushed again, "Though I guess you two were the easy part."

Lucas raised an eyebrow, "What does that mea- oh, shit. El"

Mike let out a breath, "Yeah, El."

"Damn," murmured Dustin, "hadn't even thought of that. I guess it is pretty uh, awkward?"

"Awkward? Yeah, Dustin, it's safe to say that telling my ex-girlfriend I have a thing for her brother's kinda gonna be an awkward topic."

Lucas added, "I don't think she even knows what homophobia is so I'm sure she's not gonna have a problem with that.”

“No, I know that. It’s not- it’s not that. It’s just… she’s gotten really close with Will, I think she might find it a bit… weird.”

Dustin snorted, “What will Hopper think?”

“Ugh, not helping.”

“Mike’s right, let's focus on one thing at a time.”

“Yeah, which brings us to the next problems.”

"Go on?" Said Dustin.

"I still don't have the easiest time with... words. Spoken words. Writing? I can do that. I've done some letters that I never sent or that I ripped out but saying all this stuff out loud?"

He started pacing up and down, "It's like I can finally voice the general topic, only with you two so far but still, but I still can't get myself to like... say the words? Which is so stupid!"

"Hey, dude," interrupted Lucas, "don't be like that. There's nothing wrong with having trouble talking about it. This shit can get pretty scary, we get that, it's okay."

"Ok fine, but, ideally, to confess to Will or tell El about this thing I should say the actual word you know? And that brings us to problem two."

He cleared his throat, “Um, so, I like a guy. Will. And uh, okay maybe I have a few posters of some cool dudes, whatever. Which makes me not uh, straight?"

"Right..."

"Okay?"

"Here's the thing though... I sort of also... I think I haven't fully-"

He started again, "I honestly don't even know what's wrong with me but it's like, my mom wouldn't let me keep these other posters I had with some cool girls and stuff but... I liked those too. Liked them, the girls, too."

"Oh."

"And let's look at the whole fiasco with El. Turns out, I think I really liked her at first because she reminded me of Will and I think I already liked Will but couldn't really put the pieces together and then El gets there and yeah..."

"Mm, they do share a lot of similarities," added Dustin.

Mike extended his arm, "Right! So a lot of it was like projection? But some of it... I think I did like her a bit, for her. I just happened to like Will a lot more and over time it turned into only liking Will and everything with El turned purely platonic."

He sighed, "So, what the hell does that make me? What the hell does that mean? Am I trying to, like, gaslight myself into thinking I don't like Will even though I definitely like Will? Is my denial that bad?"

Dustin walked up to Mike and placed both hands on his shoulders, "Mike, it's okay. Let's slow down."

Mike nodded.

"First of all, what Lucas said. It's alright if you're not ready to say certain words, the mind's a tricky thing. You're already talking about it, that's a major step, you said at first you could only write about it."

"Yeah, dude, don't be so hard on yourself!" Added Lucas.

"Second of all, straight and gay aren't the only options. Sexuality's a spectrum. Do you know David Bowie?"

Mike frowned, "What kind of question is that? Of course I know David Bowie."

"Great, but do you know that he's bisexual?"

"What?"

"Yeah, bisexual. It means that you can like whoever. One day it could be El, a girl, and the next it could be Will, a boy.”

Dustin gave Mike some space and let the idea sink in.

"Yeah, I heard gender can be kinda unusual and fluid too, you know?" Said Lucas.

"What do you mean?"

"You ever heard of the Stonewall riots?"

"Uh, I think I heard my dad complain about it once 'cause of some stuff on tv but I don't know much about it. I mean, I know the gist of it."

"So you know a lot of the people at the core of those riots were trans. I'm just saying, gender and stuff can also be a bit different and fluid. It’s cool.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Lucas brings out a great point and one day we should totally go to the library and learn more about this but maybe we should do that with a library outside of Hawkins for safety reasons,” he shook his head, “we’ll think of the logistics later but for now let’s start slow and easy and just do that list Lucas was talking about.”

“Alright.”

They took out a pad and some pencils and started writing down every idea they got, then adding pros and cons to it and giving it a score.

The process was actually a lot faster than what Mike initially thought and most of the ideas were contributed by the other two, though the winning one was his.

Writing always came easier to him and he still felt like he had to make up for not sending Will any letters while he was away so he could write a new letter and read it to him or maybe he could just show him the old unsent letters he kept under his bed.

“Here,” Dustin ripped off the paper and handed it to Mike, “you keep it.”

“Thanks,” he put it in his pocket. “I don’t even know if I’ll actually act on it but it’s nice to have a whole bunch of options of how to do it.”

“No problemo.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

He stared at the sheet of paper, “I think I’m gonna tell El.”

“Really?”

He looked up, “Yeah, I think if I tell her it’ll be easier to convince myself to tell Will. Besides, you said it too, she’s not gonna be homophobic or, uh biphobic? Whatever, ye. Maybe confused? But that’s fine.”

“We’re proud of you, dude.”

“You got this!”

“Hey, speaking of El… I just realised something”

“What is it?” Asked Mike.

Dustin snickered, “That your type is incredibly specific.”

“That’s…”

He wanted to say something but he wasn’t sure what.

“This is so funny! Holy shit!”

Dustin and Lucas leaned on each other as they laughed.

“Wait, have you had a crush on Jonathan too by any chance?”

“What? Lucas! No, ew.”

“Why ew?”

“Because it’s weird and he was dating my sister.”

“Alright but you were dating Will’s sister and now wanna date him so…”

“Dustin! You’re… you two are so stupid.”

“I resent that.”

“That’s why you love us.”

“And I met Will first so that doesn’t even count.”

“Still counts,” they said in unison and laughed some more.

Mike rolled his eyes but chuckled, “Idiots.”

They kept talking for a while and once Dustin’s mom arrived, they changed topic in case she could over-hear them.

Mike would have never thought he’d have a conversation like that with his friends, or anyone for the matter.

His own father and all the people like him on tv had made him terrified of the thought of being himself.

There wasn’t a single scenario where he saw someone being so accepting and welcoming of him and his confusing and yet to fully figure out identity.

Although there was a shadow lingering over the entire conversation, one felt only by him and Dustin.

He could see it sometimes when looking at his friend.

They both felt guilty omitting the Max thing to Lucas but it was for his own good and precisely what Will had asked of them.