Chapter Text
It had been a few years after their high school graduation when Mike started to have a rather hard time getting Will to answer the phone. This, of course, scared Mike.
He’d told himself that Will—as well as everyone else—deserved to move on from everything that was Hawkins. Move on from their childhood. Move on from him.
But now that it was actually happening? Now that Lucas and Max were expecting a child and Dustin was moving in with his girlfriend.. now that Will had stopped taking his calls… all the while Mike was still living with his parents, his days spent writing novels that he didn’t really care for—all except for one that he couldn’t bring himself to publish, nor tell. He couldn’t take it. None of it.
The feeling of slowly losing all of his friends. Losing Will. It was unbearable. Mike had told himself he didn’t deserve happiness, he’d taken Hopper’s ‘option one.’
He’d fully embraced this mundane life of his. Living in this made up fantasy. His stories of make believe where El was still alive. A life where Lucas and Max had zero relationship problems and Dustin was thriving at his college.. and then eventually his job. A life where Will would meet a man who’d understand him completely and love him the way he deserved to be loved. And he’d deserve Will too, because he was just that good. Unlike Mike. He’d never hurt Will like Mike had.
But that acceptance had all come to a sudden halt when Mike came to a painful realization.
It was a late November night, the year 1996.
It’d been seven years since their last D&D campaign, one year since most of the party had last seen each other, and two years since Mike had last seen Will. Of course they’d talked on the phone a bit, but that had even died down with time spent apart. And it wasn’t Mike who’d been the one pulling away, but instead it was Will.
Mike told himself he deserved it at first, but with time he grew more and more in need of an answer as to ‘why’ Will had pulled away.
He figured it was just the distance disintegrating whatever friendship they had left, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that that wasn’t their only problem. There were other things that had built up to this outcome, weren’t there?
Like all of the cruel things Mike had said in the past—some of which had been laced with an underlying homophobic rhetoric, unknowingly to his gay best friend.
The summer of 1985—
“You’re ruining everything, and for what?! So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?!”
“El’s not stupid, it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”
—The spring of 1986—
“And us?”
”We’re friends! We’re friends!”
”Well, we used to be best friends!”
—
Of course Will didn’t want to talk to him anymore! Mike was surprised that Will had even let him drag it on for this long.
But those specific memories aren’t what made Mike spring up from his bed.
His eyes darted around the room for something in particular but it was too dark to see, even with the moonlight shining through his windows.
He quickly got up and ran over to the switch, turning his light on. And there on the wall was the painting that El had commissioned for him. Then suddenly, that’s when everything clicked.
The spring of 1986—
“These past few months she's been so lost without you. It's just, she's so different from other people. And when you're.. when you're — different — sometimes... you feel like a mistake. But you make her feel like she's not a mistake at all! Like she's better for being different. And that gives her the courage to fight on.
If she was mean to you or—, or if she seemed like she was pushing you away it's probably just because she's scared of losing you! Just like you're scared of losing her! And—.., and if she was going to lose you I—, I think she'd rather just.. get it over with quick, like—, like ripping off a bandaid.
So, yeah. El needs you Mike, and she always will.”
”Yeah?”
”Yeah.”
—The winter of 1987—
“I am different.”
”I don’t like girls.”
—
And with the overwhelming realization setting in, Mike dashes for the phone, running down the stairs.
He quickly dials Will’s number in hopes of him answering. And surprisingly—considering the time—he does.
”Hello..?” His favorite voice greets, although groggily.
”Will! Hey, it’s Mike!”
“Mike? It’s like four a.m., why are you calling me?”
”I.. wow, you really answered..”, Mike mumbles still in disbelief with what he’d just pieced together.
”Uh, yeah. You called like four times in a row. I was kind of hoping you’d stop so I could… you know.. sleep? ‘Cause that’s kind of what people do at night.” Will’s attitude only makes Mike nervously laugh.
”I’m sorry, really sorry… I just—, I really wanna see you. We haven’t seen each other in so long, you know?” There’s a long pause. Then Mike adds a small, “I miss you.” And he can hear Will’s breathing as he shifts on the other side of the phone.
”I.. miss you, too. But I’ve.. I’m busy with work.”
”I.. I know… you keep saying that.” Mike jabs, without meaning to.
”I keep saying that because I am. I work. It’s what grown ups do, Mike.” And the way he says it makes it sound like—
”We’re not kids anymore.”—and Mike swallows hard before opening his mouth again.
”I.. I…”, he pauses squeezing his eyes shut a moment. He doesn’t even know what he can say, his own words having come back to bite him in the ass once again. He wish he knew when to stop talking. But if Mike Wheeler knew anything, it wasn’t that.
”Mike..”, Will’s voice is filled with pity. “Fine. I’ll… I can drive down tomorrow? I mean—, I’ll get in the car in like thirty? I’m up anyway.” And Mike can’t help but to smile ear-to-ear.
A small, ”Really?” Escapes from his mouth I surprise. And then another, “Really?” ‘Indiana is around a ten hour drive from New York.’ Mike can’t help but grip the phone tighter.
A breathless laugh erupts from the other end, “Yes, Mike. Really.” Mike can hear the way Will breaths in and it makes him feel warm, despite how cold the house is. “Where do you wanna meet? Should I just come to your house?”
“No, no.. my parents are… unbearable. Probably on the brink of a divorce.” He pauses in thought. “We should go the a bar. There’s a small one in the plaza where the ‘Palace Arcade’ used to be.”
“Aw, what? They took that place down just to replace it with some stupid bar?”
”Oh.. yeah, they did.” Mike had always imagined Will going to bars, but him calling them stupid makes him think otherwise now.
He feels a wave of embarrassment wash over him as he realizes he’s been stereotyping his friend, figuring he’d be going to gay bars just because he’s gay.
”That sucks.. anyway, see you soon then?”
”Yup!”
”Cool.” Will puts out there, almost like a feeler of some sort. At least that’s what Mike thinks.
And so Mike gives it back, “Cool.” And then he hangs up.