Chapter Text
Will was sick with the flu. He'd been home from school three days and Mike was starting to feel pretty lonely without him. He did have friends besides Will. Lucas and Dustin were his other best friends. Mike had been friends with Lucas only about a year less than he'd been friends with Will, thanks to living only a few houses away from each other. About a month ago he became friends with Dustin. The other boy had just moved to Hawkins and knew no one. Will befriended him first, with Lucas and Mike begrudgingly following. Despite his initial reluctance to let Dustin into the group, Mike was soon glad he did. Their little group finally felt whole. Mike didn't like picking favorites out of his friends. If he were to pick one though, it would probably be Will. This was well known to the entire group, even if Mike always refused to say who his favorite was.
All four of them were consistently picked on by other kids. Troy Walsh and James Dante being the two who bothered them the most. Of all four boys, Will and Lucas were bullied the worst. Lucas was bullied for being black. Will was bullied for being 'queer', something people tended just to assume about him. Mike didn't know much about what that meant. After Will came to school bruised one day in third grade he had told him that Lonnie had called him 'a queer' when he was hitting him. Something that Mike had heard Troy call Will a few days before. When he went home that day he asked his parents what it meant so that he could maybe help Will feel better. His parents basically deflected the question, the only information Mike got from that conversation was that it was disgusting and wrong. Despite the constant harassment by their classmates, girls seemed almost infatuated with Will, something Mike had recently noticed and immediately decided he disliked.
Recess was boring without Will. Lucas was playing basketball with a few other boys in their grade and Dustin was searching for this snake he found the other day. If Mike wasn't so busy with moping about Will being gone, he'd go and help Dustin. Instead, he was just boredly sitting on one of the swings on the playground thinking about Will and what they would all do whenever he was better.
Suddenly, a blonde girl, who he recognized to be one of the girls in the grade above him, starts making a bee-line from the slides to the swings. He assumes she's just coming to take over the swings and just waits for her to shove him off the swing.
Instead she stops in front of the swing he was sitting on and waves at him. "Hi," the girl says cheerfully, fiddling with something folded up in her right hand.
"Hi?" replies Mike awkwardly. "I can leave if you want the swings-"
"Oh, no, don't worry about that. I'm not staying over here, me and my girls are hanging out under the slides today." She reassures, motioning to the slide where a group of fifth grade girls were gathered.
Mike nods, still unsure about this. This girl just approached him out of nowhere and was talking to him. Girls never talked to him, and he was fine with that. He had Will, Lucas, and Dustin. That was all he needed.
"So, you and Will Byers are friends right? You seem pretty close," the girl says, nervously bouncing.
"Yeah. He's one of my best friends. Why?" replies Mike, looking at her suspiciously. What did she want?
"Okay cool! So do you know why he hasn't been at school? I've been trying to find him all week."
"He has the flu."
“Aw, that sucks. Must be pretty bad.”
Mike nods, but doesn’t elaborate on Will’s current sickness. He really didn’t want to talk to this girl. Especially given how his best friend was suffering through the flu right now.
The girl briefly looks around. “Can you give this to him, whenever you see him?” She asks. Mike was about to ask her what he was giving Will, when he noticed her holding out the folded up paper she'd been clutching. “Oh and tell him I said I hope he gets better soon.”
"Sure, I guess," Mike shrugs, taking it as she hands it over. The girl responded with a grin. "Thank you so much! I'll put in a good word for you with my friends!" She then runs off to the slides where her friends were waiting. Mike rolls his eyes, as if he'd ever want to hang out with some popular fifth grade girls. He then decides to abandon the swings to go see if Dustin had found his snake yet. As he was walking to where the field that housed the school playground met the woods, his curiosity got the better of him and he pulled the paper the girl had given out of his pocket. He debates for a second on if he should actually read it or not. On one hand if he did it would be a huge invasion of both Will's and this random girl's privacy. On the other, whatever was in this note could be potentially harmful to Will, and it was his duty as Will's best friend to protect him. So he decides to open it.
Inside was a message written in what Mike thinks is the neatest handwriting he's ever seen, and his sister's handwriting wasn't even remotely messy. He decides to read it.
Hi Will,
I know you don’t really know me (especially since I'm in the grade above you), but I think you’re super cool and cute and sweet and funny and smart. And I think it would be really cool for us to hang out sometime. Maybe as friends maybe in the girlfriend-boyfriend type of way. (You still don’t think girls have cooties do you? We don’t I promise :) ) Also!!! My birthday is soon and you should totally come to my party! meet me at lunch or recess and I'll give you the details. Also!!!! We should go trick or treating together on Halloween!! My friends would LOVE you.
-Sarah M.
P.S. I’m going as Wonder Woman for halloween you should totally get a superman or batman costume then a winky smiley face, A GODDAMN WINKY FACE at the bottom next to a HEART!? GROSS. Mike scrunches his nose in disgust. As if Will would want anything to do with that. They’d already planned their Halloween costumes months ago , anyways, and they were Star Wars themed.
“Hey Mike!” Lucas calls. Mike whips around, stuffing the note into his pocket. He sees Dustin and Lucas both looking at him now. Turns out Dustin was no longer looking for the snake.
"Did you ever find the snake?" Mike asks Dustin, not wanting to talk at all about the girl who left a note for Will.
"No, I didn't, and Mrs. Barber told me to get out of the woods," Dustin says, kicking the dirt disappointed and probably resentful about having to stop his search, then he perks up as if remembering what he was originally planning on talking about. "That's not important though! You got a fifth grade girl to talk to you!?”
Dustin had this weird obsession with girls. Mike didn't really understand it. Most of the girls at their school were boring or annoying. Mike couldn't care less if they paid attention to him. Dustin on the other hand actively tried to impress them, although most got grossed out when he showed them a lizard or showed them what he could do because of his lack of collar bones. Mike thought the lizards were cool and the collar bone thing was pretty awesome. Lucas and Will did as well, being supportive of their friend. Everyone else just thought Dustin was a weirdo.
“She just wanted me to pass a message on to Will.” Mike shrugs, fiddling with the paper sitting in his jacket pocket. He wasn’t sure if he’d give it to Will or not, sure it was the responsible thing, but he wasn’t sure Will would even care, or maybe Mike was afraid Will would see it, and being the sweet and kind person he is (which Mike loves about him), agree to go to her stupid party or dress up with her theme for Halloween. His best friend abandoning him and all their other friends was something he didn’t want to happen. The thought of this girl being all over him made Mike feel sick in his stomach. At that moment, he decided that he wouldn’t give Will the note. Plus what if it was a trap just to make fun of him? He couldn’t let that happen. He had looked at the letter so he could protect Will and that's what he was doing.
“What kind of message?” Dustin asks, attempting to reach into Mike’s pocket.
“Just something stupid.” Mike replies snappily before turning away and pushing Dustin’s hand away from him.
“C’mon man, just tell us what she said.” Lucas pushes. “It wasn’t important! She just wanted me to give some dumb note to Will. That’s it.”
“Now we gotta know, come on what does the note say?” Dustin pushes.
“Nothing! It was stupid like I said!” Mike protests. Why couldn’t Dustin and Lucas just back off? Why were they so curious about what some stupid girl had to say to Will? Will didn’t even like being around girls that much.
“If it’s stupid why won’t you just tell us?” Lucas asks.
“Because it’s for Will!”
Before the three could argue over it any more, their teacher shouted at them to get with the class, recess was over.
The boys quickly ran back over to the class, the note and girl easily forgotten. Sarah mouthed something like ‘thanks for giving it to him’ or something, it was hard to tell from across the field. Mike awkwardly gives her a thumbs up. He’d take it but if it mysteriously got lost on its way to Will, that wasn’t Mike’s fault! He was a nine year old boy being trusted with a delivery he didn’t want to deliver!
Lucas and Dustin didn’t mention what happened at recess the rest of that day, other than Dustin whining about Will being the only one of the group to get attention from girls, and Mike by proxy because he was Will’s ‘non-threatening best friend’. Which Mike thought was definitely wrong because he was not non-threatening. He could be threatening, he’s literally gotten into fights with mouthbreathers like Troy and James defending his friends before. He was not non-threatening.
“Mom, can I go over to Will’s?” Mike asks as he gets in the car. His mom sighs, pulling out of the school parking lot, “I don’t know, honey. Isn’t he still home sick with the flu?”
“Yeah, but no one has been able to see him, so he’s got to be getting lonely and bored,” Mike attempts to explain with a pout.
“He’s at home, his mom, dad, and brother are all there with him. He’s probably not that lonely, Michael.”
“Yeah but his dad is the worst! He’s probably blaming Will for getting sick right now.”
His mom shakes her head. “I can call Will’s mom and ask, but don’t get upset if she says no. You also have to remember that Holly isn’t even a year old yet, she can get sick really easily.”
“I know,” Mike groans, shifting in the seat.
When they get back home, his mother does call Mrs. Byers. As his mom talks to Will’s mom over the phone Mike stands behind her watching trying to listen in. It was difficult.
“Alright, thank you so much, Joyce, talk to you later, buh-bye,” says his mom hanging up the phone. “She said you can come by, but only for a couple hours. Do you have any homework tonight?”
Mike shakes his head ‘no’. “I can just bike over there if you don’t feel like taking me. I know the way and if I have to leave early I don’t have to wait for you to pick me up,” he suggests. Mike had been trying to convince his mom to give him more independence. Nancy was in fifth grade when she was first allowed to bike over to Barb’s house. Mike might only be in fourth grade, but as the younger sibling (or middle sibling now) he figured she might feel more comfortable letting him do it since his older sister already had proven it safe. “I’d feel better if I drove you.”
“Finee.”
It’s half an hour later when he finally gets to see Will. Luckily Lonnie wasn’t home. Mike had a strong hatred for Will’s father, and for good reason. Lonnie also disliked Mike, a fact Mike had become very proud of.
When he arrives at the Byers’ house, his mom goes to the kitchen to chat with Mrs. Byers and Mike ran to the living room where Will was laying on the couch with a movie playing on the TV. There was a vomit bowl beside the couch but it looked pretty much unused.
“Hi, Mike.” Will yawned, before breaking out into a cough. “Hi! You feeling any better than you were Sunday?”
Will shrugs, “a little. Dad thinks I’m faking it for attention.”
“Fuck him.”
Will laughs, then breaks out into a cough.
From where the kitchen met the living room Mike saw his mother standing staring at him eyes wide. “Where did you learn that word?” she gasps. Oops, Mike forgot his parents’ severe distaste for swearing.
“Uh” Mike says intelligently. She gives Mike a look like, ‘I’m waiting.’
Then he blurts out, “Nancy” knowing damn well it wasn’t his sister who taught him that. He wasn’t sure Nancy had ever said a swear word in her life. He had actually heard Will’s older brother Jonathan say it a few times.
His mom lets out a sigh, before resuming her conversation with Mrs. Byers.
“Didn’t Jonathan teach you that word?” Will asks in a quiet voice, fighting back laughter.
“Yeah.” Mike shrugs. Then he remembers the whole incident with the fifth grade girl earlier. “Do you know any fifth graders?”
Will looks confused. “No? Why-”
“No reason. Just wondering because some fifth girl was asking about you today.”
“Oh…Why?”
Oh just so she could get all over you and drag you away from all of your friends, nothing really. Is what he wanted to say. Instead he settles for the half-lie of “I don’t know, she was just worried I guess.”
The two boys then switch their conversation topic to something less related to girls and secret notes from said girls. Will starts talking about the comic book he got to read while he was sick, talking about the plot lines and what he thought of the artstyle. Mike hung onto every word the other boy said.
An hour later Mike is forced to go home by his mom. If it were up to Mike he just wouldn’t leave the Byers’ house. But it was not up to him. He was lucky he was even allowed to visit today. Mike’s mom ranted to him about how he shouldn’t be using such ‘vulgar language’ while the entire time Mike was just thinking about Will and how he really hopes the other boy can come back to school soon.
They arrive at the house and his mother starts giving his sister a stern talking to about using ‘that kind of language’ around her little brother. The twelve year old protested, claiming she’s never even swore then gave Mike a death glare as he went up the stairs. He shot a smirk back at her. This is what she gets for snitching on him last week. Up in his bedroom he remembers the note that girl gave him for Will. He pulls it out of his pocket to find it all wrinkled and ripped at the edges. Mike balls it back up and tosses it in a box sitting in his closet, then closes the closet door.