Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE
October 23rd, 1997
Mike Wheeler’s year hadn’t been great, not even good.
For starters, his third novel had absolutely nosedived after the ending flopped. I mean, literally nobody liked the ending, not even his friends.
Then, Will had the “audacity” (as Mike liked to call it) to move to Chicago for some fancy-schmancy “School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago.” Psssh. Whatever that is.
The point is, Will had been the only one besides Mike left in Hawkins after the rest of the party either moved on or moved away. Will was all he had left. Well…not anymore. Not after he moved away to stupid Chicago for stupid college and got stupid engaged! And now everyone was gone.
Not just everyone, but everything too. The money, the bestselling author title, and the reputation.
Currently, Will had been gone for about 2 years now, and they’d barely talked. Yeah, a few calls here and there, but they always ended in Mike being upset.
But this night was different.
It was two in the morning by now, and Mike had been in quite a funk today. He wanted- no. Needed to hear Wills voice. He needed to talk.
It had took about two rings before Will picked up, clearly awake from studying for midterms tomorrow.
“Hello…? Will sleepily mumbled into his phone, not knowing who was calling at this hour.
“Will!”
Mike practically yelled into his phone, way too excited that Will actually picked up at this time of night.
Will pulled the phone away from his ear as Mike’s voice crackled into the speaker.
“Mike? What do you need…? It’s pretty late…?”
Mike sighed before talking into his phone again.
“Will. Please come back to Hawkins.”
Mike spoke out of seemingly nowhere while Will stood baffled on the other side of the line, as this wasn’t this first time hearing this.
Actually, this has happened multiple times.
Mike had been calling Will every now and then, just to try to convince him to come back for some reason.
But Will did not like this.
Just saying, Mike knew that Will had grown to resent almost everything in that godforsaken town, and he never wanted to go back. Not after the memories. He didn’t want to go back to a town that nothing but traumatize him. Not after Vecna, not after the Mind Flayer, not after all the Demos, not after being a spy. Especially not with college and Carlton, his life was finally going his way.
But Mike just had to go ahead and make him feel bad about that. Well…Thats what Mike did best anyways, wasn’t it?
“Mike, what the hell?”
Will asked, dumbfounded by the pure idiocracy Mike had just spewed.
Mike tried to elaborate, knowing how it sounded.
“Will, I-“
But Will cut him off before Mike could do that to him. Will was done with this. Done with how needy Mike has been every single time he called.
“No, Mike. Don’t do that. Don’t try to do this. I know you’re in a shitty place, but I’m done with that, done with you trying to drag me back to the place I spent my life longing to leave! I left Hawkins for a reason. Nobody in that town was accepting enough or even just kind enough for people like me to stay.”
Mike had to take a minute for that to process before speaking again.
“But Will!”
Will cut him off again.
“Stop! Just stop, Mike! I have a life now! And I told you last time that I am never going back there! I have a fiancé, a scholarship, a nice apartment, I have a fucking good thing going for me! Stop trying to make me go back to that godawful town!”
And instead of a second to let Mike talk, or even to allot him an apology, Will hung up.
And now Mike was more alone than ever.