Chapter Text
Tinny music sounded over the loudspeakers, filling the mall with Cindi Laupers’ Girls Just Wanna Have Fun for the seventh time that day. Chatter and laughter echoed off the ice cream parlor’s sticky strawberry floor while Mike Wheeler tugged on his curls in frustration, complaining to a begrudging Max nearby.
“ And then, they said I couldn’t mope around in the basement all day anymore, I either had to help Nana out around the house or get a summer job. I mean, can you believe it?! I’m barely sixteen and they’re already practically kicking me out the house! It’s like-“
“Mike, HAUL ASS over here and start serving, the line is out the door, the scoops broken again, and frankly, I’ll call Nana right now to come pick your sorry ass up.” hissed Max, whipping her head around, auburn hair plastered to her forehead in an effort to keep up with the stores Saturday high.
“Jeez”, Mike muttered, hopping off the freezer, his lanky frame awkwardly visible from the front of the store. He could hear Max struggling to keep up with the orders, a chorus of strained : “Welcome to Scoops Ahoy!” and clamors to try every last sample ringing through the packed store, and Mike could sense Max was reaching the end of her tether.
As expected, not even twenty seconds later Max screamed at the top of her lungs, “ MIKE. BRING. ME. THE FUCKING. SCOOP!”.
A hush fell over the ice cream store as affronted mothers sent nasty glares, hastily ushering their kids towards the exit, deaf to the children’s clamors of protest.
“Nice going, asswipe. If they write me up I’m telling them it’s all your fault.”
Mike peeked his head through the back window, sailors hat perched precariously atop his raven curls as he was met with an empty store, the silence lingering.
Well, at least they still had Cindi Lauper.
“Soo are we done for the day?”, Mike yelled with a puzzled frown, as Max flung her hat off and sat on the floor in defeat. Mike plopped down beside her. No matter how many times Mike had resignedly mopped the store using gallons of detergent, the floor still smelled like bubblegum ice cream and felt like kids’ sticky fingertips.
Suddenly, the bell rung out, signaling the entrance of a customer. A babble of voices rang through the store as Dustin, Lucas and Will walked in, Dustin and Lucas fighting over something as usual.
“But The Goonies is SO much better, plus, we’ve already seen Back To The Future like a metric ton of times!“, Dustin argued, sneakers squeaking on the tiled floor.
“Just say loads like a normal person, JEEZ. And I still refuse to waste my money on that movie. Wait.
ANYONE IN HERE?!
MIKE?
MAX?!”
Mike groaned from under his hat, not wanting to deal with his friends’ bickering for the next few hours. He slid further under the counter, pale legs splayed in front of him as he put a finger to his lips, signaling Max to stay quiet. Max nodded in agreement, i hate my bf final boss.
“Whatever guys, let’s just go start the campaign.” Will’s voice rang through the store, tired from the effort of dealing with the two plus a double shift at Surferboy Pizza. He’d just spent the last 40 minutes scraping dried cheese off the underside of tables ( how does that even get there? ) while listening to Dustin rant about the cultural significance of One eyed Willy’s engineering skills in manufacturing booby traps. He was more than ready to go home.
As soon as Mike heard Will’s voice he sprung up from behind the counter, hurriedly fixing his curls and adjusting his hat, a blush creeping up his neck as he licked his lips anxiously.
“HEY.” he yelled, eyes trained on Will.
Lucas started, surprised. “ Hey dude, I thought you guys left. Is Max down there too?”
“Guilty as charged!” Mike twittered brightly, Max letting out a frustrated grunt as she hauled herself to her feet, arms crossed.
“Hey nerds. Will, I thought you were working till later?”
“ Yeah, but I was beat, I asked Jane to cover for me today. It was already a double, god knows what weed Argyle was on while making that shift chart.” Will said lightly, rubbing the tip of his ear, head cocked slightly in confusion.
“ Wait, why’s it so empty in here?”
“ Max started screaming her head off like a lunatic in front of everyone, and I somehow doubt they’ll be back.”
Mike spoke confidently, eyes darting around the room, landing anywhere but Will. His blush intensified as he felt a squeeze in his chest, that familiar sense of butterflies engulfing him as he awaited a reaction, chasing a laugh.
These feelings had started a while back. Close to the end of spring, Mike had started feeling something. A tug in his stomach when his eyes caught Will’s, a slight flutter of the heart when their hands brushed together, legs intertwined on the sofa as movies blared, background noise to Mike. He was too focused on Will’s quiet breathing to understand anything, the rise and fall of his chest as his breath hitched.
At first, he tried to convince himself it was normal, just friendly. He was still in shock from the Mindflayer’s attack, it’s invasion of Will’s mind and body. He thought he’d lost him forever. So it was normal, that after that, Mike slept on Will’s bedroom floor for a month, not letting him out of sight. It was normal that when it got too cold, Mike crawled into Will’s bed to warm him up because he was afraid of being a vessel again.
What was not normal though, was the rush of blood to Mike’s groin whenever Will bent down to pick the D&D board, shorts straining as Mike bit his cheeks, avoiding looking at all costs. These moments usually ended with a pillow over his lap, or in extreme cases ( such as when Will fell on top on him after Lucas tripped him ) a quick, painfully awkward trip to the bathroom where Mike would relieve himself, images of Will’s flushed face flashing in his mind as his hand worked.
Yup. That was definitely not normal.
So, in the end, Mike had come to terms with it. He had feelings for Will. But not like small, innocent feelings. These were like, full wreck when Will was in within 5 feet of him, unable to hold eye contact for more than 30 seconds unless you wanna have a sticky situation type feelings.
And seeing as William was his best friend, Mike had unfortunately found himself in quite a lot of sticky situations.
Will laughed, a twinkling noise that was music to Mike’s ears. Mike grinned, standing up straighter as he walked out from behind the counter. “ Should we go help El close up?” Mike asked Will, already abandoning his scoop on the counter and taking a few hesitant steps toward the door.
“Yeah sure, she could use some help.” Will chirped, smiling, looking gratefull.
He turned toward Lucas and Dustin. “We’ll meet you guys at the bikes in 20”, he said, already backing out the door.
Max made a noise of disbelief, “ Wow Mike, thank you SO much for your consideration, YES, I would love help closing up, you know, the store where we both work at and you get paid to do this? Yeah, that would be great! You know -“ Max turned, ready to rip Mike a new one.
Yup, they were gone.