Chapter Text
It was the fall of 1985, and Mike Wheeler was scooping ice cream for an especially sassy ten year old (he would be reminded once more of the fact that she was eleven) and wondered quietly when the shift would be over. He didn’t even really mind his job, it was just that he got no sleep, and hadn’t since the start of school year.
Mike had no real reason as to why he didn’t get sleep, he had no real urgency to do so.
Max Mayfield was sitting behind the window that looked into the break room and listened contentedly to Erica ridiculing Mike.
Max had begrudgingly taken the same job as Mike to avoid (she wouldn’t say hide from, but it fit) Lucas, who she had recently broken up with.
Max hadn’t explained to anyone truthfully why she had broken up with Lucas, other than Lucas himself, but she hadn’t even told Lucas the full reason why she broke up with him.
Max loved Lucas. She never lied about that. And she had fallen in love with him when they were twelve and were staring starry-eyed at each other at the Snowball. She just couldn’t pretend she didn’t have someone else on her mind as of recently.
“Hey Ringwald, can you grab me my extra scooper?” Mike yelled, starting Max from her eavesdropping.
“Get it yourself, Wheels.” Max retorted. She would have grabbed it on usual circumstances, but hated the hilarious (to Mike, at least) new joke, comparing Max to Molly Ringwald.
“You are so unfunny, you know that?” He grumbled, walking into the break room.
Max snorted. “Because you know so much about being funny.”
”Actually, the last joke I told Will while calling him made him laugh for ten seconds, so your claim is null and void.” Mike said matter-of-factly.
Max had a world of jabs she could have used, but didn’t think any would be funny in the moment. She knew how special Will was to Mike.
“Got me there.” Max mumbled.
”Ah HA!” Mike bent his knee up onto the chair in front of Max, putting his hands on his hips and smiling, triumphantly.
Mike grabbed his scooper from the sink and left, sticking his tongue out at Max.
”Well, at least no one can question your maturity.”
Mike flipped her off and closed the door.
Despite the fact that neither of them would admit it, Max and Mike didn’t mind the routine too much. As much as they ‘hated’ each other, they really had been through too much to truly hate each other. Max did find Mike to be extremely obnoxious, no doubt about that, but she loved him as much as she loved Dustin, or Lucas. Or El.
Maybe not El. She didn’t love anyone as much as El.
Working with Mike, to Max, was honestly a nice break from what had happened during the end of the school year. Max would have thought anything was a nice break from what happened.
Max tried, desperately, not to think or process what had happened.
Max’s stepbrother had died. Less than one hundred feet from where she sat now.
The Starcourt Mall would never not haunt Max. She didn’t anticipate it would ever stop haunting her.
She hated even being in the mall, but wouldn’t chance having to really tell Lucas why she broke up with him. She truly couldn’t.
Mike found it to be a nice break from their usual saving-the-world situations they found themselves in. Peace was restored, everyone was safe, there was no longer constant danger of being brutally mauled.
But he couldn’t help but think that everything felt wrong.
Mike was losing the two people he loved most to distance, and trying not to think about that was a tough battle - of which, he was losing.
Right before summer, El and Will were stolen away from him Hawkins to California, stupid, hot, overrated California. Lenora, to be exact. And Mike’s brain would never let him think of anything else.
Most of his thoughts were filled with Will them. He couldn’t help but be angry with Joyce for taking them there. He knew he could never, not in a million years blame her for wanting to get out of this godforsaken town, that would forever be a reminder of the pain, loss that Hawkins seemed to radiate, but Mike couldn’t stand being away from his best friend in the entire world. And his girlfriend, of course.
She was the only one who filled his thoughts as of late, was what he told himself.
It wasn’t that he didn’t miss her, because he truly did, but he hated, despised even how he left things with Will. Will claimed to forgive him, and has forgiven him, but Mike wouldn’t ever stop regretting the words that always seemed to seep out, no matter how hard he tried not letting them.
It wasn’t his fault Will didn’t like girls.
God, what worse could he have said?
Mike didn’t mean it, not even in the slightest, at least, not towards Will. He had a bad habit of projecting.
”Am I ever getting this ice cream, or am I gonna have to call over the only competent worker here?” Erica had to practically shout at Mike to snap him out of his thoughts. He remembered why he would never let Lucas bring Erica over to play D&D with the Party.
”Jesus Christ, what flavor did you want again?”
“Flavors, actually. I wanted a scoop of mint, chocolate, and birthday cake.”
Mike wished he got more sleep.
He grabbed a cone, rolled his eyes and begrudgingly scooped the ice cream.
He handed over the cone and exhaled theatrically as she left.
Erica was the last customer in the store, in the whole mall, as it seemed to him and walked over to the security shutter and locked up the store.
”Max, help me clean up, please? Some dickheads left virtually everything they bought on table three.” Mike hollered into the room Max sat in.
”M’kay, I’ll help.” Max said, as she walked through the swinging door.
”Hey, uh, you doing okay Ringwald?” Mike asked.
Max almost stopped in her tracks, because why did Mike fucking Wheeler care in any way about how she was doing. The last time he showed any care or interest in how she was she was literally slammed into a wall by her flayed brother.
”Uhm… yeah? Why d’you ask?” Max looked perplexed at Mike.
”Oh, just ‘cuz you broke up with Lucas. Really unexpectedly. He’s been really upset in the past few weeks, and was wondering how you were.” Mike replied casually, picking up an abandoned, half-eaten cone
He seemed sincere, she thought.
”Well, considering the fact that I broke up with him, I’m okay in that sense.”
Mike looked to his left at Max, checking if she was telling the truth, or just hiding it to uphold her tough persona. He couldn’t tell but felt it was the latter.
”And… in any other sense?”
Max didn’t know how to answer that question. My brother is dead, my best friend lives in another state, my mother is falling apart, and I’m in love with someone I cannot be in love with, were all the possibilities her brain came up with.
”Yep. It’s just… hard to adjust. Without, you know.” Max said, already feeling her nose start to burn, a telltale sign that she was at risk of crying.
Mike looked at her sympathetically.
”Yeah, yeah I can imagine. I’ve felt like shit about losing him to distance, I can’t even imagine knowing I’d never see him again.”
Max stopped cleaning.
”Him?”
Mike froze.
”Will. An-and El. Obviously.” Mike looked away, sheepishly, trying to hide the blush that would always appear when it was the least convenient for him.
Max let it go, noticed how red he was at the mention of Will.
”I mean, you did go through the… losing someone too. When Will got taken- from what people have told me, you did not take it well.”
“But, I got him back. Until he and El moved away from m- Hawkins. When he got taken by… whatever took him, it was like the whole world shattered. No one could convince me he really was,” he paused slightly, almost bracing himself, “dead, until they pulled his body out of the quarry. Eventually they found him in the Upside Down, and the body they found was fake, but I’ll never forget how hard it was to force myself to go on after that. It sounds corny, albeit, but it felt like the light was taken out of my life. And it felt like I’d never get it back.”
Max started at him for a beat, and realized how much she underestimated his love for Will. And how deeply they both understood loss and grief.
“I- I can’t imagine going through that. I mean, I can, but… it was different. I loved Billy, I really did, and I miss him in spite of how he was when he was here, but I can’t imagine losing a friend that meant that much to me.” Max said, looking deeply at Mike, plainly, understanding him.
“I really hope it won’t have to happen again. I don’t think I’ll be strong enough, or know as little about the world as I did then to survive losing him again. O-or anyone.” Mike blushed again, even through the serious look on his face. He hoped Max wouldn’t notice.
She did.
”And you won’t. He’s, as is everyone else, perfectly safe. You won’t lose him again.” She said, smiling sadly as she wiped down the table they were still at.
”Thanks.” Mike said, returning the smile.
”No problem.” Her eyes went to his side of the table.
”Uh, Mike? Havin’ a little trouble wiping a table?”
”What? No, I just… uh.” Mike stuttered, helplessly.
”Don’t worry! We all learn how to use a washcloth eventually.” She said, smiling patronizingly.
“I obviously know how to use a fucking washcloth, you just, just distracted me.” He said back, furiously washing the right side of the table.
”Mmm. Sure, wheels, sure.”
Mike thinking of a comeback, - and failing -when Max noticed Mike closed the security gate before they left Scoops Ahoy.
”Mike?! Did you close the fence before we left again?” Max asked in a particularly aggravated voice.
”Shit. Sorry, I keep doing that. I’ll remember next time.” Mike answered, embarrassed.
”You are so lucky Justin forgot the keys to it. Next time, we’ll just be locked inside the store.” Max said while unlocking the shutter.
”I know, I know, I’ll remember next time.” Mike said with annoyance clear in his voice.
”You better.” Max replied as they walked out of the mall to their respective bikes, and went opposite ways to their houses.
”See ya’ Wheels.” Max yelled over her shoulder.
”Later Ringwald.” Mike yelled back.