Chapter Text
Mike was hot. Correction, he was boiling. Scoops was especially hot this time of day, when the sun peeks through the mall roof and decides to hate Mike Wheeler.
It shines right into Scoops Ahoy, only during his shift. Multiple times he has begged Max to take the shift and they could just switch but she won’t budge.
And with the afternoon rush stumbling into the store at the same time, blinded by the sun and sweating from the great lack of air conditioning outside.
Across the way, Surfer Boy Pizza was facing another issue.
“I don’t get it! They can’t just close!” Will said.
“I don’t know, it has to be a crime against humanity.”
They were discussing the news that they had gotten from the morning paper that their favorite store was closing. The store was another mall store, where Max had taken El in the summer of ‘85.
They loved that store, for it to just close had to be waging some sort of war on both Will and El.
Surfer Boy never got that many costumers this early in the day. They had a dinner rush, and that was it. Not many people in the mood for pizza on a hot summer day.
Will looks across the food court to Scoops ahoy, where Els girlfriend and Mike worked together.
When they rebuilt Starcourt, both Scoops and Surfer Boy had two people applying for jobs and one person each putting in a good word for them.
And thank god, too. Doing nothing all summer would have driven the party to madness.
Mike and Max were fighting, as per usual, and Will and El were talking about pretty girls and boys they saw walk by.
“Ooh, Will, look he’s kind of cute, don’t you think?” She said, tugging on his sleeve.
He laughed. “Yeah El he is.”
If Will was being honest, he never had any interest in the boys El pointed out to him in the mall. And ever since Mike and El broke up after El realized she liked Max and Mike realized that he never liked her, Will had been dreaming of ways to maybe one day ask Mike out.
It was stupid, but let him dream.
Will was abruptly snapped out of his thoughts when the store bell rang. He looked up to find Dustin, Steve and Robin waltzing into the store like they owned the place.
“Hey, mini-Byers, you seen Wheeler over there? He’s having a full on temper tantrum that I think you’ll want to see.” Will looked toward El who nodded and gestured out.
Inside Scoops Ahoy, Mike was working the register and scooping, letting Max take a break in back.
He was trying very hard to keep his cool with a costumer. She was maybe his age or something and looked like she stepped out of a magazine, perfect hair perfect nails. She came in and sweetly ordered vanilla. Mike passed it to her in a cone, since she didn’t ever specify. She wrinkled her nose.
“Ew, not in a cone.” He sighed and started to transfer the ice cream to a cup.
“Not in a cone either!”
He looked up and she looked mad at him. What did he do?
“Ma’am what do you want it in?” He asked, praying to anything that would listen that she wouldn’t say anything weird.
Her eyes flew around the stool and then landed on something. She pointed to the spoons. The ones they used for samples. “That. I’m trying to watch my calories, you know?”
Mike breathed slowly, in through his nose, out through his mouth. “You could have just asked for a sample.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t, did I?”
God Mike was not going to do well this summer. And if he had payed more attention, he would’ve seen Dustin, Steve and Robing come in, see his flaring temper and then run across the food court to Will.
He just passed the spoon to the girl and she happily left before coming right back in and sitting down at a booth.
“Nice hat by the way!” She called out to him sarcastically. He hates the hat, he had to wear it as part of his uniform in case anybody can by to ‘enforce company policy’ or whatever. It messed up his curls he perfectly styled every morning.
Mike went to the back and asked Max to mind the store. She agreed with a scary amount of compliance. He sat back in a chair and dragged his sticky hands over his face. And then he took off his hat and threw it on the ground.
Fuck company policy. Screw their boss. If anybody companies about this they would face and angry Mike Wheeler.
Will, Dustin, Steve and Robin walked in on a strange scene.
Mike was standing in the middle of the break room yelling at his uniform hat, which was crumpled on the floor.
“Fuck company policy!” He said to the hat.
“Not today, hat. You will not get the best of me today.” It was actually kind of funny.
They all started laughing, and Mike looked up, going red in the face when he saw Will.
“Um, hi guys.”
“Hiii Mikeeee,”
Was the wheezy answer he received.
“Oh, shit I’m so telling Nance about this, she’s gonna cry laughing.” Robin said. Robin and Nancy has been together since they beat Vecna, and they had barely spent a minute apart since.
Will looked at Mike, tears of laughter streaming down his face. “Mike, you want a slice?” He asked, almost sheepishly.
Mike nodded instantly, because, apparently he couldn’t say not to Will Byers. He loved Will too much to say no to him.
So together, leaving the others behind, they walked over to get some pizza.