Elijah Brooks's life is turned upside down when his best friend Will Byers goes missing one night. Teaming up with an unlikely group of friends, Eli finds himself transforming from a quiet bookworm to a courageous adventurer willing to do anything f...
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"YOU'RE DOING IT AGAIN, MIKE," El pointed out thoroughly, earning a distasteful groan from the raven-haired boy.
"I'm not," he protested weakly, squirming uncomfortably in his cross-legged spot on the carpet next to her.
"Doing what?" Dustin glanced up from his duffel bag of gadgets.
"Moping about Eli," El answered confidently, making the taller boy cave in a mixture of embarrassment and frustration.
"I am not!"
"Wow," Dustin chuckled, joining his friends in the circle on the floor with another machine cradled in his hands. There was an excited grin dancing on his face, a face that belonged to someone who luckily hadn't changed much at camp. Mike was relieved for that at least. "So Lucas wasn't lying. He's really back?."
"Yeah," Mike grumbled, a flustered hand rummaging through his unkempt hair. "Only he's a completely different person. He drives a motor bike! Illegally!"
"Awesome," Dustin cooed.
"Not, not awesome," Mike scolded, making the airy grin on the Henderson's face dissipate. "He was being a complete dickhead last night. He's practically insane, he's out of his mind!"
"Mike, relax," El slid a hand over the boy's shoulder in attempts to quell his nerves. Her brown eyes shone affectionately as he shrunk against her touch, feeling sheepish for his outburst.
"Yeah man," Rene inputted, tossing him a wary glance from her spot on Dustin's duvet. "He's just going through something. I don't know what, but it's bothering him a lot."
"You know, maybe I was a bit of an asshole too," Mike admitted with a repressed sigh. "But that doesn't mean he should skip out on your welcome party," he added sourly, tossing another glance at the distracted curly-haired boy.
"Dude, like I said, it's fine," Dustin shook his head, opal blue eyes glued to the tool he fiddled with. "It doesn't bother me. His dad's missing and he just got back from probably the worst school in the country. And I have you guys!"
The Wheeler sucked on the skin of his bottom lip, finding this unsatisfactory. "He's being a bad friend. He's not himself."
"Do you think there's something wrong?" Will spoke up meekly, wary concern hovering in his earth-colored eyes.
Mike caught the Byers's gaze, and his stomach dropped with apprehension at the boy's suggestion. "No. Maybe. I don't think so. I saw him last night. He's just being a dick."
