Chapter Text
Mike feels the rocks under his sneakers as he walks, the feeling of the spring sun radiating off his pale skin, he looks down at the pavement, Dustin and Lucas are arguing about some stupid show again, “Bro! Asuka is obviously the best character! Rei barely even talks!” Dustin yells out looking at Lucas baffled “Rei is much better in my opinion, Asuka is too obnoxious for me.” Lucas says sighing and rolling his eyes, “Obnoxious!?” Dustin looks at him with wide eyes, as if Lucas made fun of his dead grandma.
Mike just sighs as he unfocuses his attention, thinking about how spring break is coming up, about how he’ll be going straight on a flight to California tomorrow morning to see Jane, and… Will.
Shit.
Mike hasn’t even written letters to him in months, he doesn’t even remember what they wrote about…
Mike shakes his head trying to get that out of his head, it won’t matter, he and Will are friends, it’ll be like no time has passed at all, that’s just how he and Will are.
Then Mike gets popped out of his little bubble.
“Bro, how are you feeling about your flight to your girlfriend in California? That must be crazy, I mean… you’ve never been out of our state dude.” Lucas asks curious, “Eh, I’m kinda excited, just not excited for her dad Hopper to keep an eye on us 24/7 through the whole 13 days.” Mike shrugged.
“Hm, I wonder how Will is doing though.” Dustin says thinking “Imagine if he gets a glow-up and he’s like some Cali surfer dude.” Dustin says with a laugh, Mike looks at him confused “Yeah, No. Will’s not like that.” Mike says imagining Will with bleached blonde hair and a tan, he lets out a little laugh thinking about it.
Mike continues to walk with Dustin and Lucas, he starts to wonder… what if Will did change a lot? California is a very different place…
What if it's like Will isn’t his best friend anymore? What if they don’t piece together like before?
They were best friends, but are they still now?
Mike arrives home and sighs as he opens the door, he walks in and tosses his bag to the side, and walks to the kitchen to grab a poptart.
“Welcome home Micheal! Are you excited about tomorrow?” Mike’s mother Karen asks as she is lathering some butter on some toast, probably for Holly.
“Yeah.” Mike says as he tosses his strawberry poptart in the toaster, “I’m pretty excited to see Jane and Will, Jane said in her letter that we’ll be going to some retro 80’s Roller rink there, which is pretty cool I guess.”, Karen’s eyes light up “Roller skating? Did you know I was a professional skater? I used to be so good I was even in the newspaper.” she exclaimed proudly, reminiscing in her youth times, “Yep Mum, I know, you’ve told me 5 times before.” Mike says rolling his eyes.
“Have you packed your bags yet?” Karen asks putting the toast on a plate and handing it to little Holly, “No, Not yet.” Mike responds as he takes a bite from his poptart, “Well make sure to pack tons of outfits! Oh and make sure to take tons of pictures for me to post on my Facebook!” She says with a wide smile, Mike groans “Ugh mum, I told you I don’t want you to post anything about me! I’m already getting bullied because you posted my baby pictures.”
Mike then finishes his poptart (which was a bit burnt) and runs up to his room to pack his bags for his early flight in the morning.
He packs some of his clothes, his classic My Chemical Romance Band t-shirt he loves, and then some ripped jeans.
He then notices the time on the clock, 4:24 PM, he notices it’s almost dinner time–
“Micheal! Come down for dinner!” Mike hears his mother yell, and the smell of burnt meatloaf is very strong.
Mike groans as he runs down the stairs to the dinner table, sitting down and seeing the usual burnt meatloaf that his mother always cooked, Mike then notices Nancy is gone, again. for the third time this week.
“Wheres Nancy?” Mike asks confused, looking around the dinner table, “Oh! She’s at Chris’s again, such a sweet boy, he always brings her flowers.” Karen responds with a caring look on her face.
Mike rolls his eyes, he hates Chris, he’s always trying to be nice to Mike by ‘bonding’ with him by bringing him to fish, Mike doesn’t even like fishing, “Oh… Okay.” Mike mutters and starts eating his meatloaf in small bites, his mind zoning out for a moment as he goes on autopilot for a minute.
After a few minutes…
“So son, are you excited to see Jane?” Ted asks as he chews his meatloaf, “Yeah, I’m pretty excited I guess.” Mike responds coldly, Fuck you old man Mike thinks to himself, but holds in his urge to actually say it, Mike just keeps mindlessly playing with his food, taking small bites out of it.
After dinner gets done, Mike brushes his teeth and takes a shower then finishes packing his things in his room so he can be sure to be ready for the morning flight.
He makes his iPod with all his favorite songs, and then he packs some CDs because he already knows he and Will will listen to some music, and then he packs his Nokia phone.
He then puts his toothbrush, deodorant, and hairbrush in a bag and puts that in his bag as well.
Mike yawns as he gets done, he looks at the clock, 8:23 PM, “How did it even get that late?...” Mike asks himself with a grumble as he simply tosses himself in his messy bed.
Mike’s eyes slowly close as he falls asleep, going into a nice slumber…
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Mike smiles widely as he runs through the forest, feeling his curly hair in the nice breeze, he looks beside him at his wizard companion, Will, “Where shall we venture to now?” Will asks him as they run together, the scenery is as if it was popped straight out of a watercolor painting, “How about… we just keep exploring randomly?” Mike says as he holds Will’s hand.
Everything felt as if it was a fairy tale book.
Him and Will dance through the forest together, twigs snapping under their feet, Mike stares at Will’s hazel eyes, and Will stared into Mike’s own dark eyes.
He and Will were like floating feathers, going where the wind goes.
Mike held Will’s hands tightly as they danced, across the flower-filled field in the forest, Mike smiled widely feeling Alive, his hair was moving in the breeze as if it were mere fire.
The Paladin and The Wizard.
But before they can keep dancing, Will’s hands slowly move back from his, and he goes back, Mike looks at him confused, “Where are you going? don’t leave– please–” Mike says as he reaches out to Will’s hand as he slowly fades into the suddenly black void… he tries reaching again, Mike could feel the tears bottled up in his eyes, “Will!” He yells out to the completely black void, all the once colorful watercolor backdrop was suddenly black and there was no nostalgic and content feeling, just dread and strange hate.
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BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP–
Mike groans as he opens his eyes and sees the clock, 6:20 PM, “Wow… that was a… strange dream.” He mutters to himself, shaking his head to get the dream out of his thoughts, It doesn’t matter, it was just some stupid dream , He rubs his eyes as he rolls out of bed changing into a basic outfit, a black band-T, and some ripped jeans with pen doodles he did in class that never went away because he used a permanent Sharpie then some colorful bracelets around his wrists.
He goes downstairs for some breakfast.
“Micheal! Get ready! You have to get to the airport as soon as possible! Your flight is at 7:30!” Karen says looking at him nervously, she seemed completely ready to get in the car and go.
“Mom, calm down, it's a hour away, I’m gonna have some breakfast before I grab my bags.” He says as he grabs some waffles from the fridge and stuffs them in the toaster, then grabs some microwavable bacon and shoves it in the microwave.
As soon as he finishes his breakfast, his mom practically rushes him to get shoved in the car with his bags.
Mike watches as his mom puts the key in the car and starts it up and begins to drive out from the driveway.
He simply looks out the window to the very white suburban neighborhood he lives in, seeing the roads he and his friends would play and bike on.
As the car keeps driving, Mike just stares at everything thinking of all the memories, The arcade he, Lucas, Dustin, and Will would go and play at for hours on end, The mall where everyone bought stuff that's now shut down due to lots of criminal activity, The old trailer park where Max lives.
Mike takes in all the memories as he clutches his iPod, he puts on his earbuds, and turns it on his playlist, He closes his eyes as he zones out.
I thought I was a fool for no one
Oh baby, I’m a fool for you
You’re the queen of Superficial
And how long before you tell the truth? - Supermassive black hole.