Chapter Text
“And how could you be no one
When you’re everything to me”
-Gigi Perez
“Holy shit! Finally!” Mike exclaimed, downing the last drops of his beer.
Max scoffed, “Wow, your support is overwhelming.”
“Oh sorry. Can I try again?”
Max paused and put her hand on her chin, as if considering this, “Yes you may.” She nodded.
“Oh my beloved Maxine and handsomest Lucas, I am so happy that the both of you finally used your brains and came to the mutual decision to finally get fucking MARRIED!” Mike yelled the last word out to the bar, where bystanders looked on with a little annoyance.
“Oh, you’re so drunk.” Max laughed.
The rest of the party sat crammed around the booth in the corner of the bar, watching bemusedly as Mike and Max bantered back and forth. Lucas and Max had gathered them all together for a small reunion. It wasn't hard when Mike, Lucas and Max all lived in the same state, but Dustin and El had to make a bit more of a trek. Max enticed them with the promise of a big ‘announcement’, the announcement being the shiny new rock on her finger.
In Mike’s defense, he was just speaking the thoughts that everyone had on their mind. It did take a ridiculously long time for Lucas to finally pop the question. Their reasoning initially made sense, as they were both at college in completely different states, but even after they graduated the party heard nothing of a wedding for at least four more years, this exact moment.
Lucas spoke up from where he was sitting, a comfortable arm around Max, “Yeah, took us a while didn’t it?”
Max smiled and nestled her head into his arm and Mike had to admit how blissfully happy she looked as she laced her fingers through his. “I guess we just never thought it was a huge deal. We knew we were together and we loved each other, what difference does a ring make?”
Mike was going to puke.
Lucas smiled down at her, “We figured we might as well make it legal though, and it might be kind of fun to have a big party.”
Max dove in again to speak, as if they had rehearsed this, “Speaking of party… we thought it would be fun if we had the party all come up maybe like a week before the wedding! I know that’s a lot of time to ask you guys to give up but we thought it would be a good opportunity to reconnect as a group. We thought we could rent a condo at the beach maybe..”
Max continued to speak, but Mike zoned out a little at the mention of the party.
He looked around the booth. Mike sat at the edge of the booth, fiddling with his rings. Dustin sat beside him, tearing his napkin into clean pieces and laying them down in a checkerboard pattern as he listened attentively to Max. The happy couple sat to the side of him, and to the side of them, directly across from Mike in the booth sat El, sipping blissfully on a hot pink beverage.
Her hair was long and braided intricately. El hadn’t cut her hair since the final battle with Vecna, and she seemed to have learned every complicated hairstyle in the book. She caught Mike looking at her and gave him a little smile. Mike smiled back.
Of course, someone was missing from the table. A big empty spot on an otherwise intricate painting.
Max read Mike’s mind.
“And we do want all the party to be there!” Max, “We’re going to call Will later today.”
“Well, I’m in!” Dustin smiled.
“Me too,” El added.
Mike was going to say something, but his brain seemed stuck. Stuck on one person.
Will.
They were going to invite Will
His Will.
No, not his Will. Hasn’t been his Will for a long time.
But he would see Will again. The thought made his chest squeeze.
“Mike?”
Mike looked up at Max’s words to see the rest of the party staring expectantly at him.
“Um, yeah. Sounds like fun.”
He raised his beer, attempting to calm down his breathing. Attempting to remove that face from his mind, “To Max and Lucas!”
Mike felt Max frowning at him, as if reading his mind, but said nothing, raising her glass along with the others.
Mike cracked jokes and laughed along with the others the rest of the night, all while secretly dying inside.