Chapter Text
“Mike, if you don’t get off your phone, I am going to lose my mind,” El shouted as she yanked his disintegrating white earbuds out.
He looked up from his phone to see the entire party staring at him, clad in tacky holiday sweaters and dollar store headbands.
“What?” He asked, scrunching his nose. He hadn’t even realized they’d all been there, though they’d come over almost every day of break. As far as he knew, today it was just him, Will, and El, all sprawled out on the floor, mindlessly sending each other cat videos and Anakin edits. Was he in trouble or something?
“Will has something to tell us, asshole,” Max spat, the bells on her felt antlers punctuating her sentence.
“Who are you calling an asshole? I’m not the one coming into random guys' houses uninvited.”
“You said she was always welcome, right, Mike?” Lucas said, trying to diffuse the incoming war.
“Hell no. I only let her in because she’s your girlfriend or something.”
“Not or something, she is my girlfriend. And your friend. And El’s and Will’s and Dustin’s. It’s a party, not a dictatorship.”
“Yet this is still my house,” Mike said, looking around obnoxiously to emphasize his point.
“It’s that son-of-a-bitch Ted’s actually, and as the son of that bitch I need you to stop talking.”
“That doesn’t even make grammatical sense, Dustin. Are you the son of the bitch that is my father? Shouldn’t it be me? Wouldn’t I be the son of the son of the bitch?”
“How about you suck a dictionary, you fucking dork–”
“GUYS,” Will spoke up. All attention immediately went to him. His flashbang bright reindeer sweater demanded it. Mike had been scared half to death when he came over with it on, thinking it’d set him on fire. Will picked at the carpet, looking like he was a split second away from total dissociation. “Sorry, I just really wanted to tell you guys something. Things have been so good between us this past year, and I don’t want to keep things from you.” He glanced around the room, eyes flicking to Mike before gazing up at the ceiling. “I’m gay.”
Everything but Mike’s brain went dead quiet. A pin could drop and everyone but him would hear it. If it weren’t for his own blank stare, he would’ve noticed Will’s worried face searching his for acceptance, or tolerance, at least.
“Oh. Cool, man, I had no idea,” Dustin said. El shot him a look he hadn’t yet learned to decipher.
“Thanks for telling us, Will.”
“Yes, we support you.”
Max and El both rushed to hug him while the rest of the party followed. Mike got up with them, though more in a daze than out of his own free will. They praised Will for his bravery and assured him of their unwavering support, but Mike heard none of it. He was running through a laundry list of his questions in his head. The kind you’re not supposed to ask. The kind he was about to ask now.
“So, you don’t have a crush on any of us, right?”
The party nearly jumped him on the spot.
“That’s your first thought?” Will laughed. “Why, did you want me to?”
Mike’s face went cranberry red as he tried to justify his response. “No, I was just asking, like I don’t understand how you’d know unless it was one of us or someone from school or–”
“I don’t know, Mike. Maybe it was someone from school, maybe it was the horde of Edward Scissorhands posts you sent me last Halloween, it’s anybody’s guess. I just kind of realized one day that I– I don’t like girls. Not like that, at least.”
Still, it didn’t make any sense. They knew everything about each other. Why hadn’t he told him before? Mike resumed his quiet pondering while the party conversed around him. Lucas soon adopted the same demeanor.
“Hey, since we’re all being honest, I have something to say too,” Lucas interjected.
“Don’t tell me you’re gay too, stalker. I won’t be mad, but I will be–”
“I’m not gay, Max,” He said, eyebrows knitted in worry. “I’m– I’m– I’m–”
“Oh, just spit it out, already, Jesus!” Dustin complained.
“I’M JOINING THE BASKETBALL TEAM!!!”
All previous empathy and patience had been sucked out of the room.
“I will not be friends with a jock,” Dustin said with disgust.
“Your best friend is Steve Harrington, dumbass.”
“Yeah, but that was already like, his thing. You can’t just spring this on us! It’s a choice, and you’re making the wrong one.”
“Yes, Lucas. This is very disappointing. What’s so wrong about reading or gaming?”
“Yeah, what she said. Maybe you just haven’t found the right book yet,” Mike agreed.
“You too, El?” Lucas said, ignoring Mike completely. “Look, guys, this is part of who I am, okay? Will, back me up here.”
“Well, I don’t understand it, and it feels unnatural, but if you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“Thank you, Will.”
“I just don’t want to see it,” Dustin asserted.
Will’s approval shook Mike in a way that brought him back to reality. “Hold on, guys, did Lucas really just hijack Will’s coming out to say he’s joining the football team?”
“THE BASKETBALL TEAM,” the party half-groaned, half-shouted in unison.
“Nobody cares that Will’s gay– no offence, Will,” Dustin said.
“None taken.”
“But Lucas joining the basketball team ruins our entire ecosystem. He’ll be upper class. He’ll start hanging out with the rest of them and start thinking he’s better than us.”
“So, let me get this straight, Dustin. You don’t want to join the basketball team because you don’t want me to make popular friends? What if Will got with like, the homecoming king or something, whoever that was?”
“Stop using Will as a human shield to hide your sins, Lucas,” Max scolded.
“Yeah, it's not my fault you don't like D&D.”
“Who said I didn't?” he sighed. “Listen, guys, nothing is going to change, okay? I'm still the same Lucas I've always been. I still like D&D, and getting lost in the woods, and bullying Mr. Wheeler. I just… I have other hobbies now, too.”
They sat in his statement, taking it all in.
“Well, no matter what… disagreeable decisions you make, Lucas, I'll be here for you. You'll never lose me.”
“Or me.”
“Or me.”
“Or me.”
“Me too.”
“Of course you had to be fucking different, Mike,” Dustin said, the rest of them interjecting in agreement.
The noise from their fight polluted the basement air in a familiar way that reminded them that the kids were gonna be alright.