𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

vi. I DUMP YOUR ASS

At Mike's the next day, Charles watched Will set up the D&D board, excitedly. Charles smiled softly then looked away, over at Mike and Lucas. "She knows I'm lying. She knows I'm lying." Mike said, basically freaking out about this El thing.

Charles sighed and came to sit onto the couch. "I don't even understand. Why lie?" Lucas said and Charles rolls his eyes. "Hopper. He threatened me." He says and Charles looks at him.

"Did he say he'd kill you?" He asked and Mike looks at him. "What? No." He says and Charles squints his eyes at him. "So then, what's the big deal?" Lucas asked, leaning back into his seat. "The big deal is if I don't do what he says, then he'll stop me from seeing El." Mike tells him.

"Like, permanently."

"Who cares?" Charles says and Mike looks at him. "You don't understand. He's crazy." He says as Lucas sighed. "He's lost his mind." He added as he pointed to his own head. "Hey, guys, I'm almost set up here." Will said and Charles smiles.

"I had no choice, guys. I really had no choice." He says and Charles sighs, looking at him. "I just wish you'd consulted us, because the way you handled this, you're in deep shit." Lucas smiles.

Charles nods, agreeing. Mike sits down next to Charles, groaning as he covers his head. "I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna be bad." Lucas tells him and Mike just groans loudly again.

"But... you can fix this." Charles said with a smile as he turns to look at Mike who looked back at him. "Yeah.." Lucas said and stood up. "It's just one little mistake. I've made hundreds, thousands," Lucas said as he gestured to himself. "Max has dumped me five times." He held up his hand.

"But what have I done? Huh? Have I despaired? No. I've marched back into battle, and I've won her back every single freaking time." He said and Charles chuckles, looking at Mike.

"How?" Mike asked and Lucas looked at Charles then back at Mike, shrugging. "We'll show you." He says and Charles nodded his head. "Come on." Lucas said and headed up the stairs, Mike following and Charles was going to too but Will looked up from the board. "Wait, guys! I'm still here!" He exclaimed and Charles stops halfway up the stairs.

He turns back around and ran down the stairs. "Come on.. we'll play your campaign after, promise." He says as he grabs Will's hand gently. Will sighed but complied anyway, following him.

      At the mall, the boys went into a jewelry store with the intention of Mike finding something to buy for El. He kneels down in front of the display, staring at a silver teddy bear. He peers up at the worker, "excuse me, sir." He said to him.

     "Hmm?" The man looked up and Mike points. "How much for this little teddy bear right here?" He asked, smiling. The man leaned over and looked at the teddy bear and then looked at Mike with a look that Charles can tell from that it meant the price was high, too high for a teenage boy.

     "Three hundred?" Lucas said in disbelief as they exit the store after the man told them the price. He and Mike walked side by side with Will and Charles right behind them. "Three hundred." Lucas repeated. "I should've shoved that little teddy bear right up his—" "Mike!" Charles cut him off.

     They walk up to another girly looking store but come to complete stops when they realize what kind of store it was. Lingerie. Bras, panties and stockings. Charles' eyes widen as they went to the right side of the store then to the left.

    "L-Let's go.." He stammered and they all rushed off. The boys now stood at a counter where they had multiple perfumes, and if Charles was being honest, he kind of liked all of them.

    "Look, smell this one," he raised the perfume up to Will. "Mm.." Will hummed and looked at the label curiously. Charles looks at Lucas who sprays one of the perfumes, leaning forward and sniffing to see what the smell was.

    He squints his eyes when Lucas pats Mike, "Hey, Mike." He says and Mike looks directly at him. Lucas sprays the perfume right at Mike's face, the boy flinching and covering his eyes. "Uh! Ahh!" Mike exclaimed as he kept his eyes closed.

      The boys now sit near the foodcourt, on a bench. Will, Charles, Mike and Lucas, like they were at a lost. Mike had his face in his hands, Lucas was leaning back and Will was getting bored.

     "Can we please play D&D now?"

     "No!" Mike and Lucas both say.

      Outside the mall, the boys all grab their bikes and get ready to leave. Mike, Charles and Lucas were talking about how Mike can afford a gift for El. "What if we split it?" Mike asked them.

    "Split it with what? Does that even make sense?" Lucas asked. "Isn't this a nice surprise." The boys look up to see Max and El walking towards them. Charles looked at Mike who saw them and dropped his bicyle to raise his hand to point at El.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, sounding a bit too strict and overprotective. "Shopping." El simply said and Charles glanced at her and Max. "This is her new style." Max said.

"I like it." Charles said with a smile to lighten up the mood but it doesn't work. "What do you think, Mike?" Max said, looking directly at the boy in the striped shirt who looked at her.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked. "You know she's not allowed to be here." He says as he glanced at El then back at Max. "What is she, your little pet?" Max asked and Charles sighs.

"Yeah. Am I your pet?" El asked. "What? No!" Mike exclaimed. "Then why do you treat me like garbage?" El asked him. "What?" Mike asked, confused where this was all even coming from.

"You said Nana was sick."

"She is. She is sick." Mike said right away then looked at Lucas and Charles for help. "Yeah, sick, she's sick." Lucas said and Charles just rolled his eyes. "She's sick." Mike added after.

"She's super sick. That's why we're here, actually." Lucas continued to help. "Yeah, we're shopping. Not for us, but for her, for Nana." Mike continued and Charles was just standing there, in disbelief how he could just continue to lie straight to El's face even after getting caught.

"Also, we're here to get a gift for you. Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you and I only have, like, $3.50, so it's hard." Mike explained and Lucas continues to help, "super hard. It's expensive." El kept looking at Mike. "You lie."

Charles frowns, looking at Will who glanced back at him before they look back at the couple. "Why do you lie?" El asked her, clearly upset seeing how Mike was the one who taught her that saying, friends don't lie. But this was different.

Mike's her boyfriend and boyfriends definitely lie. Charles lied to Jennifer about being straight. Mike was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say and then El looked behind her, at the bus that stopped and then she turned back to Mike.

She takes a couple of steps forward, standing right in front of him and Charles watched in anticipation, sort of hoping Mike will get the cone of ice cream smashed onto him or something.

"I dump your ass." Is all El said and Max's mouth gaped open as Charles' eyebrows raised in surprise. El turned away and walked off as Charles looked at Will who also looked surprised.

They watch as the bus drove off, "now can we play D&D?" Will asked as he looked at Charles, Lucas and Mike on the other side of him. "No." Lucas said, it was clearly not perfect timing.

authors note LMAO poor mike
+ hi the power goes off soon for an hour so i decided to update this now before it does