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Michael James Wheeler had a good life. Sure his childhood was filled with trauma and horrific monsters but who's wasn't? He had a loving wife, three beautiful children and a stable 9-5 job, so for the life of him Mike Wheeler could not figure out why he felt so unhappy.
He loves his children and they're amazing. His wife Judy is wonderful and she loves him, his job is good and he has nice friends (but they'll never compare to the Party), so why does he hate his life?
His wife, Judy had just finished cooking dinner and is now calling their children down to eat. His youngest Andy, short for Andrew, came strutting down the stairs holding a new drawing he'd done, handing it to Michael.
"Good job Andrew" Mike praises, barely looking up from the newspaper he was reading, hoping that would be enough for the 5 year old standing in front of him with wide eyes. Apparently it was not as the light in his son's eyes slowly deflated and he looked like a wet dog. Judy, who had come up behind him, flicked him with the rag.
"It's beautiful darling, why don't you give it to me and I'll put it on the fridge hmm?" She cooed, quick to praise her son.
His oldest Tyler came down, his black hair messy looking like he just woke up, quickly followed by his daughter Emily, who looked like an exact copy of his blonde haired wife, except her eyes which were the same dark colour as Mike's own, ran past him taking the seat near her mother. Judy stuck her hands out.
"Who wishes to say grace?" she softly asked. Mike wasn't really religious, how could he be after what happened but Judy was so he never said anything about it, after all marriage is about sacrifice right?
"I will Mum" Emily quickly replied, eager to please her mum.
"Suck up" Tyler muttered between very obvious fake coughs. Emily rolled her eyes sticking out her tongue at her brother.
"This is why Andy is my favourite" she remarked. Andy who wasn't paying attention, poking his food, perked up at the mention of his name.
"Hey, be nice to each other" Michael quickly scolded, speaking for the first time since they all sat down.
"Yes Dad"All three of his children chorused at the same time.
Mike sat eating his dinner in silence for the rest of the meal. Judy made some sort of chicken thing but he couldn't taste it, he never could, maybe he was getting sick. Yeah that's why he's been so empty, he's sick.He just needs some rest, then he'll be over it, right?
"Judy, honey I'm not feeling so good I'm just going to lay down for a bit" He called out, Judy was quickly at his side, moving from the bench she was cleaning.
"You do look a bit pale dear, rest will help, I'll bring you some tea in a bit yeah?" She phrased the last bit as a question but Mike knew it wasn't up for debate.
Mike was slowly dragging his feet up the stairs muttering a quick thank you to his wife and was now laying in his bed.
As he stared at the ceiling laying on his back he couldn't help but think about how he felt all those years ago back in his old basement, playing D&D with his friends, with the Party, with...Will.
Will. It had been so long since he thought of him. He convinced himself that he simply no longer had time to think of him, that he was busy, but that wasn't true, in fact he had too much time to think about him. And every time he did think of him, of his laugh or the way he would say things when he thought no one was listening but Mike was always listening to Will, the more it hurt. The more Mike wished he could go back in time and sit there with Will talking for hours about comic books or Dustin's latest theory on why time travel was real. The more Mike realised he needed Will.
Without thinking Mike's feet had unwillingly taken him to his basement, where they kept boxes of old stuff. He started to look through the boxes, he had no clue what he was looking for but he knew he needed to find it. His eyes got caught on a spot of purple buried deep in a dusty old box of stuff from when he was little. He had completely forgotten it was there. Mike reached down into the box pulling out a folder, he recognised it immediately, it was an old folder he used to hold Will's art.
Why had he got down here? This was a mistake, he should have stayed in bed. He had a loving wife and three kids. Why did he need to figure out what was wrong with him? Why did he still think about Will? Shaking himself from his thoughts he threw the folder like it burned him back into the box and ran upstairs. Mike did not feel any better.
The next morning Mike sat at breakfast with his family trying to forget the night before when the god he didn't believe in decided it hated him. His youngest son came bouncing up from the basement holding the very thing he was trying to forget, the folder.
"What you got there Andy?" Emily curiously questioned her younger brother. He simply shrugged his shoulders at the question. Emily slowly reached out, taking it from him.
"Hey!" He screamed jumping up and down trying to get it back. She opened it up and began to look through it.
"Woah this is really good stuff" she said flicking through the pages of the book Mike so desperately wanted to leave him alone. Tyler's interest peaked and he stood behind his sister looking over her shoulder.
"Wow you're right, it is good" He agreed which meant the situation was getting worse for Mike, they never agreed on anything. Mike didn't know why he was so upset at his children holding the folder but it felt like they were interrupting something sacred. He needed to stop this.
Mike quickly stood up, ripping the folder out of his children's hands.
Emily let out a startled yelp, while Tyler turned to look at him.
"What the hell Dad, we were just looking" Emily angrily yelled at her dad.
"That's none of your business" Mike said with a stern look, effectively cutting off anything else his daughter was going to say.
Mike turned to head to the basement when he heard Tyler call out "Who's Will Byers?". Mike froze mid step like he'd been caught in a crime. It was such a simple question yet Mike felt tears in his eyes threatening to spill. Who was Will to Mike? A friend did not begin to describe what he meant to him, he couldn't find the words to describe Will, he never could, but they never needed to before because what they had was different. Would Will still think of him like that? Like they were something special? Or would he simply think of Mike as a blip? Someone he used to know from high school? That thought sent Mike over the edge, so without answering his son's question he grabbed his keys and left.
That night as Mike laid next to his wife in the bed they shared he thought of Will Byers and his stupid hair and stupid god damn smile that made Mike’s heart do this weird thing and he thought of him every other night after. He finally figured out why he was so unhappy, why he hated his life, it was because he hated himself. He hated himself for never loving El, even when she needed him to, he hated himself because he didn't love his wife and because he never could. Most of all he hated himself because he was in love with Will Byers and he always would be. But he had lost his chance and that would haunt him for the rest of his life.