Summer of 85' Mike Wheeler x Reader

Chapter One

3rd person POV

Hawkins, Indiana. June 1985.

The Wheeler basement was cool, a great escape from the suffocating summer humidity outside. The party sat anxiously around the small wooden table, listening to Mike set the scene of their newest campaign.

"The second you guys step inside this massive black stone fortress, you can tell the air in here is toxic," Mike said, his voice dropping to a theatrical whisper. "It smells like sulfur, burnt batteries, and rotting blood. The walls are made of jagged black obsidian, and there are these huge, deep gouges everywhere from claws that are literally bigger than great swords. There are no torches or anything. Instead, the whole place has this creepy, pulsing red glow coming out of cracks in the floor, like you're walking right on top of a volcano."

He leaned over the Dungeon Master screen, eyes wide.

"You look up, but the ceiling is completely pitch black. The only problem? You can hear this heavy, super slow breathing echoing from the dark, sounding exactly like a war drum. Thump. Thump. Every time it breathes out, black ash drifts down from the ceiling and lands on your armor. Then you look down at the floor and see total nightmare fuel. There are melted, warped suits of armor from old knights completely fused into the stone, like they were literally turned to liquid while they were screaming. Suddenly, your boots start vibrating. It's not an earthquake. The entire mountain is shaking because the dragon just shifted its weight up there. It knows you're here."

Mike paused for dramatic effect, then threw his arms up. "The dragon looks right down at you guys from the dark, and its chest starts glowing bright orange. It breathes this massive wave of fire that completely fills the room! The heat is insane—it's burning your skin and melting your shields! QUICK!!! What do you do?!"

Mike slammed his hands down on the table, making the plastic miniatures jump.

"Oh god, not a boss fight!" Dustin cried from across the table. "Will! Cast Protection from Fire! Maybe you can try and block the flames so we can fight!"

"That's not gonna work, stupid! The dragon will just make more!" Lucas yelled, tapping his character sheet aggressively.

"Or maybe," Max interrupted from the couch, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "we could actually do something fun besides play Mike's lame campaign." She laughed, kicking her feet up. "We have all summer to play D&D. Let's play a real game."

This was the party's first big sleepover of the summer of '85. Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Will were all crowded around the basement table, totally absorbed in the game, while Max, Eleven, and Y/N were lounging on the couch looking quite bored. Chief Hopper had finally let El stay the night, and she definitely didn't want to spend her first night of freedom listening to Mike Wheeler voice-act a dragon.

"Hey! What do you mean you don't want to hear the campaign? It's one of my best yet!" Mike shot back at Max. He aggressively pushed in his chair and walked over to sit on the floor by the couch, looking defensive. "Y/N liked it!"

"It's true, it was pretty good," Y/N teased, offering Mike a small, sympathetic smile. "But when you've heard the opening speech five times while you were writing it? It can get a little boring."

Y/N and Mike had been best friends since they could talk. They had met at a park when they were toddlers, and the rest was history. They grew up together. When Mike lost his first tooth, Y/N was the first to know. When Y/N's parents got divorced, Mike sat on this exact basement floor with her while she cried. They were inseparable. But lately, things had felt... different. Mike had started looking at Y/N with an intensity that made her stomach do flips, and she couldn't help but wonder if he was feeling the same shift.

Max rolled her eyes at the unspoken tension between them and smirked. She knew exactly how Y/N felt about Mike, because Y/N had confessed the massive crush to her just last week. Max was tired of watching them tip-toe around each other. It was time to intervene.

"Alright, D&D is officially paused," Max announced, sliding off the couch and unrolling her bright red sleeping bag onto the center of the carpet. "Everyone on the floor. Unroll your sleeping bags into a circle, let's go."

Dustin eagerly dragged his heavy camouflage sleeping bag over, making sure to position it right next to El's patterned one. He caught her eye and offered a goofy, missing-tooth grin. El's cheeks turned a soft pink, and she quickly sat down on top of hers, her shoulder brushing against his as she fluffed her pillow. Lucas and Will unrolled theirs by the couch, while Mike spread his out right across from Y/N, sitting down cross-legged on the fabric.

"We're starting with Truth or Dare," Max said, her eyes flashing with mischief as they all settled onto their sleeping bags. "You guys know the rules. You either have to answer a completely honest, embarrassing question, or you have to do whatever stupid, dangerous thing the group tells you to do. No backing out."

The game was chaos. Lucas dared Dustin to swallow a spoonful of Ms. Wheeler's last weeks casserole from the fridge, which Dustin did very dramatically, making El giggle uncontrollably. When it was El's turn, she looked shyly at Dustin and asked, "Truth... or dare?" Dustin, trying to look tough, picked dare, and El softly requested, "Hold my hand for the rest of the game." Dustin's face turned as red as a tomato, but he immediately wrapped his fingers around hers, a triumphant smile on his face.

Max watched them with a smirk, but her main target was still sitting across from her. She waited until the bottle spun and landed directly on Y/N.

"Alright, Y/N, truth or dare?" Max asked, leaning forward on her knees.

Y/N caught the dangerous glint in Max's eye and immediately panicked. "Uh... truth."

Max grinned like she just won the lottery. "Is it true that you like someone in this room?"

The basement went completely dead silent. Mike froze, his eyes widening as he looked up from the carpet directly at Y/N, his breath hitching. Y/N felt her entire face turn completely hot. She glared at Max, who just gave a sweet, innocent shrug.

"I... I think I'm changing it to a dare," Y/N stammered, her heart hammering against her ribs.

"Oh, even better!" Max cheered, standing up and dusting off her jeans. She reached out and grabbed Y/N by the arm, pulling her up, while pointing her other hand directly at a stunned Mike. "Since you bitched out on the truth, your dare transitions us to the main event. We are playing Seven Minutes in Heaven."

"Seven minutes of what?" El asked, still holding Dustin's hand but looking up curiously.

"A game where two people have to go into a dark closet together for seven minutes," Max explained loudly, making sure the boys heard every word. "And whatever happens in there stays in there. Usually kissing. And since Y/N picked dare, and well it's Mike's house... you two are going first."

Mike's jaw practically dropped to the floor, his face flushing a deep, violent crimson. He looked at Y/N, then at Max, completely speechless.

"Get in the laundry closet, Wheeler," Max smirked, nudging Y/N forward. "Your seven minutes starts as soon as I shut the door!"

Author's note: Hi guys! This is chapter one of my Mike Wheeler x Reader book and i hoped you've enjoyed it! I'm publishing the first 7 chapters today so yeah! I'm not gonna do one of these for every chapter because Idk what to say 😅. Have a great day and happy reading :)

Original publish date June 16th 2026