Chapter Text
Last November was the worst November of Mike Wheeler’s life. Well, maybe it was tied for first with the November before that one. Along with watching his best friend get taken over by a dust monster from another dimension, that’s when he started getting involved...
Marcus Colby.
Mike hated Marcus.
He only tried to tolerate him because Will liked him. Which only made Mike despise Marcus even more.
Max Mayfeild already disrupted the party enough by replacing El last fall, Mike didn’t need another person to mess up the dynamics.
And Marcus was different, a bad different, maybe even worse than Max was, because he was replacing Mike.
Not with the whole party. Not with Lucas, not with Dustin, and not with Eleven after she was allowed to be out in public with them again.
But with Will. And that’s what really bugged him.
_____________________________________
Currently, Mike, Max, Lucas, Will, Marcus, and Evelen were hiding in Dustin’s home to surprise him after he came home from camp.
They had their backs pressed against the stone wall between Dustin’s dining room and living room. Mike was standing with Will on his right and Eleven on his left, who was using her powers to cause Dustin’s toy robots and other figurines on wheels to lead a path for him to his living room.
“Now.” Mike whispered, signaling to his girlfriend to stop the toys from moving.
The sounds of quiet train whistles and fake space blasters came to an abrupt stop. Mike took Eleven’s hand as they silently make their way out from behind the wall and into the living room.
They approach in a clump behind Dustin’s turned back, Lucas in the center holding a sign that reads ‘WELCOME Home DUSTiN!’ writen in big red and blue block letters on the front.
Max holds up her fingers, silently mouthing, “1, 2, 3.”
They all blew into their noise makers, the sound shocking Dustin more than anticipated. He immediately whipped around, screaming, and defensively pressed down on the top of his Farrah Fawcett spray... directly into Lucas’s eyes.
The two boys scream in harmony for a few seconds before Dustin realizes what’s going on and stops pressing down on the top of the bottle, Max ripping it out of his hand and setting it down on the coffee table.
“What the hell!” Lucas shrieks as he tries to wipe the hairspray from his eyes, which only causes it to sting more.
“Holy shit!” Dustin yells at the same time. “I’m sorry! Oh my god, I thought you guys forgot about me!”
“Stop touching it.” Max forcefully rips Lucas’s hands from his face and drags him off to the kitchen to wash out his eyes.
Mike, Eleven, Will, and Marcus continue to stand there, all of them still looking shocked and unsure what to do now.
“...Welcome home.” Marcus spoke up a little too loudly, smiling at Dustin as the other three hesitantly did the same.
Dustin smiled back. “Thanks for being here you guys, I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Mike nodded. Eleven, who was clinging onto him from all the commotion that just happened, loosened her hold on his arm
“How was camp?” Will asked encouragingly.
Dustin’s eyes lit up in excitement at the question. “I’m glad you asked.” He led the four of them to his bedroom. Mike and El walked behind Dustin with Marcus and Will following them.
Marcus’s arm brushed Will’s as they walked down the hallway side by side. Will looked up from the floor to Marcus, smiling shyly. Marcus was a few inches taller than Will, only about a centimeter or two shorter than Mike was. His family moved to Hawkins last summer from Massachusetts to be closer to Marcus’s grandma after his grandfather passed away. He was assigned to be partners with Mike and Will in an English project the beginning of the school year which lead to Marcus and Will getting close, which lead to Marcus sitting with them at lunch, which lead to him getting to know Lucas and Dustin and it all spiraled out of Mike’s control from there.
Mike could hear the two giggling quietly behind them about something, and it bugged him more than he’d like to admit. Mike had a feeling that something was going on between Marcus and Will. Marcus seemed to be Will’s new best friend. They were always so giggly and soft with each other, and it pissed Mike off. Mike knew Will way better than this guy who just showed up out of nowhere a few months ago. How did Marcus and Will get so close all of a sudden?
They got into Dustin’s room, standing in a line side by side as they watched Dustin take out a few devises he made at camp.
Mike crossed his arms boredly as he watched Dustin pick his first invention, Eleven wrapping her arms around one of his as she rested her cheek against his shoulder. Mike could feel Will’s presence next to him but Mike didn’t look over. Mike didn’t know what was wrong with him. Ever sense the eighth grade Snowball dance last December he could barely look at Will anymore without feeling... weird.
“I call it... the Forever Clock.” Said Dustin as he presented his invention. “All right? Powered by wind. Very useful in the apocalypse.”
Everyone’s eyes followed as he handed the device to Will, who let himself smile slightly as he held it. Mike’s eyes lingered a little longer, flicking from the ‘Forever Clock’ to Will. His eyebrows raised a little and he forced himself to look away, involuntarily doing a double take to Will’s awed face. And on top of that he ever so happened to catch Marcus looking down at the devise in Will’s hands. From the quick look Mike couldn’t tell if Marcus was smiling at Will or the clock, and he also couldn’t tell if he wanted to smack himself in the face or Marcus for how close he was to Will.
“Then, I give you...” Dustin picked up his second invention off his bed; a hammer attached to machinery that made it rapidly shake back and forth. “the Slammer.” Dustin’s smile widened as he held out the device towards Mike and El, chuckling as he pulled it back. “Pretty neat, huh? But this...” Dustin turned back to his bed and set down the Slammer, picking up his duffle bag.
Mike shifted impatiently. He wasn’t expecting to be at Dustin’s so long and the longer he was at Dustin’s the longer he was around Will and the longer he was around Will, the longer he was around Marcus.
And he did not want to be around Marcus.
Even worse, he was forced to be around Marcus and Will together, which was a whole other internal conflict Mike was tired of dealing with.
“... this is my masterpiece.” Dustin set the duffle bag down on the carpet, the five of them kneeling down to the ground with it. “I would like you to meet...” Dustin unzipped the bag and pulled the fabric back, revealing a clump of machinery and wires. “Cerebro.”
The four stared at the bag in confusion.
Mike looks at Dustin. “What exactly are we looking at here?” His tone bordered on rude, but he asked the same question the other three were thinking.
“An unassembled one-of-a-kind battery-powered radio tower!” Dustin announced gleefully.
Will shortly glanced up at Dustin and back down to the duffle bag. “So, it’s a...”
“...a ham radio?” Marcus finished, tilting his head to the side slightly as he looked at Dustin.
“The Cadillac of ham radios.” Clarified Dustin, obviously more excited about Cerebro than they were, but Marcus tried to nod and smile and support Dustin in his excitement. “This baby carried a crystal-clear connection over vast distances. I’m talking North Pole to South. I can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose.”
Will whipped his head towards Marcus’s at the word girlfriend, all four of their jaws dropping slightly as their eyes returned to Dustin.
“Girlfriend?” They exclaimed in unison.
Dustin grinned and nodded. “Yep, her name is Suzie. I had the honor of meeting her at camp this summer and with this bad boy you guys can meet her as well.” Dustin started taking out the parts for the unassembled radio, each of them grabbing a few sections as they stood up and made their way out of Dustin’s room.
“Wait, so her name is Suzie?” Mike asked as the group once again followed Dustin to his front door.
“Suzie with a ‘z’. She’s from Utah.”
“Girls go to science camp?” Asked Will.
“Suzie does. She’s a genius.”
“Is she cute?” Asked Marcus from the back of the line.
“Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter.”
“What’s going on?” Max called over from the kitchen, Lucas’s head under the running faucet next to her.
“Going to talk to Dustin’s girlfriend.” Will answered happily.
Lucas’s head flew up from the sink, not bothering to wipe his eyes which were still faintly burning from Dustin’s attack.
“Girlfriend?” Him and Max exclaimed together, matching tone of disbelief the others did.
The two shared a look of surprise, (Max being able to actually see Lucas unlike his blurry vision) before they ran out the door after their friends.
_____________
The more they walked up the hill the more Marcus felt like vomiting.
He was walking besides will, Max and Lucas in front of them as well as Dustin who continued to lead the group higher and higher. Mike and Eleven dragged behind them, seemingly uninvested.
“This seems high enough.” Marcus panted, wiping a bit of sweat off the base of his neck. He usually didn’t mind walks, and he wouldn’t have minded this one if they weren’t walking up a giant hill when it was eighty something degrees out and he felt like his skin was frying.
“Cerebro works best at a hundred meters.” Explained Dustin, who somehow never stopped walking sense they left his house.
“You know, I’m pretty sure people in Utah have telephones.” Max replied, adjusting her hold on the bag she was carrying sense it was making her arm sore.
“Yeah, but Suzie’s Mormon.”
Lucas’s eyes widened at the discovery, “Oh, shit. She doesn’t have electricity?”
“Oh, that’s Amish.” Max lightly hit Lucas’s arm.
“What are Mormons?” Asked will, walking besides Marcus. Marcus had taken the parts of Cerebro Will was holding from him sense Will’s arms were getting tired. Marcus could have sworn he felt eyes drilling into the back of his head but concluded he was being paranoid and kept on walking.
“Super religious white people.” Dustin called back. “They have electricity and cars and stuff but... since I’m not Mormon her parents would never approve.” There was a beat of silence filled with the sounds of uncomfortable breathing and the brushing of uncut grass against their shins as they walked and walked and walked... “It’s all a bit... Shakespearean.”
“Shakespearean?” Max chuckled teasingly.
“Yeah!” Dustin continued, his thought too full of Suzie to realize she was making fun of him. “Like Romeo and Juliet.”
“Right.” Max nodded, growing a little irritated the more they walked.
“Star-crossed lovers.”
“We got it.” Marcus cut in quickly.
“Hey, guys!” Mike yelled from a few feet behind them, causing them all to stop walking and turn around. “This is fun and all, but, uh...”
“I have to go home.” Announced El politely and Mike exaggerated tapping on his watch.
Dustin’s expression dropped to annoyance. “We’re almost there.”
“Sorry, man. Curfew.” He was clearly not sorry as he murmured something to El and took her hand, pulling her down the hill with him.
Eleven smiled and called, “Good luck!” Before jogging down the hill with Mike.
Dustin looked at his watch. “Curfew at 4:00?”
“They’re lying.” Lucas complained.
“It’s been like this all summer.” Will agreed in frustration.
Max shrugged, not seeing the big deal if the two wanted to leave to be alone together. “It’s romantic.”
Marcus shook his head. “It’s stupid.”
“It’s gross.” Will added, watching as Eleven reached over to Mike with her free hand and gently squeezed his arm in the distance, neither of them letting go of each other.
“It’s bullshit. I just got home.” Dustin sounded more hurt than irritated at this point.
With one last glance at Mike and El, Dustin’s positive mood returned as he thought of his friends getting to meet Suzie. “Well, their loss, right? Onwards and Upwards! Suzie awaits!”
Max and Marcus groaned collectively, Lucas throwing his head back and sighing.
The group turned to keep walking up the hill, Will remaining where he was.
When Marcus realized Will wasn’t next to him anymore, he turned around, seeing Will facing away from him and staring down the hill.
“Hey, Will.” Marcus walked back over to him, placing a gentle hand on his back so he’d turn around. “C’mon, Mike and El will start actually hanging out with us one day.”
Will nodded and let Marcus walk with him the rest of the way up the hill, unable to shake the cold tingling slowly fading in the back of his neck.
They finally made their way up 100 meters and began to assemble Cerebro.
By the time they finished the sun had started to set and the weather got a little cooler, letting them finally take a break.
“Pretty impressive, right?” Dustin grinned as he stepped back to admire his work.
“Yup.” Marcus sighed, the hint of exhaustion from climbing up the hill never really left him. “Pretty impressive.”
“Now, you ready to meet my love?”
They all agreed and huddled around Dustin as he sat in the grass, switching the radio on and holding the microphone up to his face.
“Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over.”
Static.
Dustin looked up at the four staring down at him and held up his index finger. “One sec. She’s probably... she’s still there.” He clicked back on the mic. “Suzie...”
Static.
“...this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over.”
Will rolled his eyes and gave a look to Marcus who shrugged and looked down at the ground, lightly kicking the grass as more static came through the other end of Dustin’s super radio.
“I’m sure she’s there...” Dustin reassured the group indifferently. “It’s just... you know, maybe she’s, like, busy or... it’s around dinner time...”
“Yeah”
“Mmm”
“For sure.”
“...Here.” Dustin finished.
Thirty more minutes went by with no sign of Suzie.
Marcus was laying down on the grass next to Will, the sun was set completely now, leaving scattered stars visible around the shining moon.
Dustin was somehow still trying to get Suzie to respond.
“You think he’s gonna stop any time soon?” Will murmured to Marcus, turning his head towards the other boy laying next to him.
Marcus looked at his watch. “Given the fact he’s been doing this for over thirty minutes now?” He laid his hand back down on his stomach, glancing over at Dustin who was now standing up as he repeated, ‘Suzie, do you copy?’ over and over again. “No. I think he’s just lost it.”
Will let out a soft chuckle, turning his head back to the sky. “Yeah, that’s probably true.”
“Suzie this is your Dustin, do you copy? Over... Suzie--”
“Dustin, come on!” Max interrupted, also laying on the ground next to Lucas. “She’s not there.”
“She’s there, all right? She’ll pick up.”
“Maybe Cerebro doesn’t work.” Said Will as he pushed himself up to lean back on his elbows.
“Or maybe Suzie doesn’t exist.” Corrected Lucas.
“She exists!” Dustin’s voice pitched up defensively.
“She’s a genius and she’s hotter than Pheobe Cates? No girl is that perfect.”
Max sat up. “Is that so?”
Lucas sat up after her, clearly terrified that he just said something that would make his girlfriend break up with him for the sixth time. “I mean... you’re perfect. I mean, like, per—perfect in your own way. In your special-- your own special way.”
Max slowly let a smirk slip onto her lips before she let out a small laugh. “Relax, I was teasing. I’m obviously perfect and Dustin’s obviously lying.” Max stood up, extending her hand to Lucas. “Come on, Don Juan.”
“Where are you going?” Dustin called after them.
“Home.” Max replied simply as she and Lucas skipped down the hill together.
“Well... guess it’s just us three now.”
Will and Marcus stood up from their spot on the ground, casting a small, knowing glace at each other.
"Y’know, it’s getting late.” Marcus checked the time on his watch; it was 9:54 P.M.
“Sorry.” Will added softly. “Maybe tomorrow we can play D&D. Or something fun. Like we used to?”
Dustin nodded, looking defeated. “Yeah, sure.”
“Welcome home, Dustin.” Marcus waved goodbye to his friend.
“Welcome home.” Will smiled slightly at Dustin, before him and Marcus started their descent down the hill.
“I can walk you home today, if you don’t mind.” Marcus spoke up as they got almost halfway down, he could see the figures of Max and Lucas walking off at the base of the hill.
Will shook his head. “No, I don’t mind. I think my mom would have a heart attack if she realized I came home by mysel--”
Will was cut off when he accidently stepped in a small hole hidden by the grass, causing him to trip forwards.
“Oh,” Marcus quickly grabbed him to keep him from hitting the ground and rolling down the hill, Will grabbing at Marcas’s arms to stabilize himself. “Jesus, Will.” Marcus laughed despite himself. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Will laughed with him, his heart still beating fast because of the fall. “I’m okay.” He soon realized how hard he was gripping Marcus’s arms and let go with an embarrassed chuckle. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Marcus smiled reassuringly and Will felt a weight in his chest starting to lift a little. “C’mon, we can go slower this time.”
They made the rest of the way down the hill in comfortable silence, although Will’s mind was going a mile a minute.
He couldn’t place it for sure what the feeling he had for Marcus was. It wasn’t a crush, but Will had a feeling whatever it was wasn’t going to stay semi-platonic for long. Will knew he liked boys; he’s known that he does. Something felt different about Marcus. Something about this didn’t feel so wrong. It made him feel almost hopeful.
If only there wasn’t another boy he was already hung up on.