Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
*
a knock at el's door ripped her out of her thoughts, she jumped off of her bed and pulled the door open quickly. standing in her doorway was the curly haired boy who had a carton of ice cream tucked in his arm. she sighed if relief and held her hand out for him to hand the ice cream over. he silently put it in her hands and placed a spoon in her other hand. "i brought movies." he smiled, "your a life saver." she sniffled.
"i made my dad push the tv in here so we can watch hopefully sad movies and eat this glorious ice cream as i mope." el mumbled, dustin laughed and showed her the movies he had brought. 'terms of endearment' was the first movie she saw and plucked it out of his hands. "i was really hoping you wouldn't pick that one." he sighed, "well i'm sad." she said putting the movie inside the tv.
dustin kicked off his shoes and fell back onto her bed as he pulled out a spoon from his pocket.
"why do you have that in your pocket?" she asked in disgust, "emergencies." he shrugged, el fiddled with the tv a little longer until the movie began to play. she walked back to her bed and cuddled under the covers next to dustin. she grabbed her spoon and put it in the chocolate ice cream and then to her mouth.
"can i ask you something?" he asked, "yeagm," she mumbled with ice cream in her mouth.
"why are you so upset if you told mike to stay away?"
she sighed, "i-i don't know.. i guess i just miss him. there's never been a time in our lives where we've fought, i mean maybe over food but that was it. and i want to see him.. but i don't want to make things worse for the both of us. i feel things for him that i know i shouldn't, and i don't know if he feels the same-"
"el hopper, are you being serious right now?"
she furrowed her eyebrows at him, "el, mike wheeler has been head over heals in love with you since the day you met! i mean, he stares at you with those big heart eyes every time he sees you! how can you not see that?" el stared at him blankly, "you might not see it, but everyone else does," he mumbled.
el stayed quiet for the rest of the movie but she could barely pay attention to it. the thoughts that clouded her mind. of course she knew mike liked her, just not in that way. he couldn't be in love with her, right?
*
mike laid on his bed staring up at the ceiling. he was wishing that he was laying on el's bed staring up at the ceiling filled with stars that they had painted as kids. the memories they had made seemed like nothing right now, he felt as if he had thrown them all away just for another girl. another girl he didn't even like!
he just wanted everything to go back to normal, to go back to the way things used to be. but they couldn't just go back to that, not just like that.
the sad melody of a guitar echoed off of his walls, he had been listening to the same Ozzy Osbourne album for the past week he had been back at his house. everything back at the wheeler residence was so different, yet nothing had changed. and right now music seemed to be his only escape from reality. specifically Ozzy and mike's favorite track Goodbye to Romance. the song was so beautiful and at the same time so utterly sad. but mike felt connected to the track and that's why he had been playing it over and over again.
his door slowly creaked open and a short blond stood in the doorway. "mike?"
he looked to his little sister, "what's up, holls?"
"mom wants to talk to us." she mumbled playing with her fingers, "okay. i'm sure it's nothing to worry about, alright?" he said reassuringly, hollie nodded and held her hand out for her brother to take. mike quickly turned off his music and walked over to her. he took her small hand in his and squeezed it gently as they walked down the stairs. karen sat in the living room reading a magazine, she put it down when she saw her children walk down the stairs.
"hi kids."
"hey mom." they said in unison, the siblings sat down on the couch across from karen. they all sat there awkwardly waiting for someone to say something. karen cleared her throat.
"basically what i wanted to talk to you two is about.." she shook her head trying to find the right words, "because your father and i are splitting up, you two need to decide who you are going to stay with most of time. your father will have you on the weekends if you stay here and vise versa."
"where's dad?" hollie asked, "illinois."
"illinois?!" mike exclaimed, karen simply nodded. mike definitely couldn't stay with his father. the drunk old sleaze would just do something stupid, but if hollie wanted to go there he couldn't just let her go by herself. that meant if he was leaving hawkins that meant leaving el. and he could not leave her.
"hollie it's up to you, where you go i go." mike said, hoping she would choose to stay here. "i've never been to illinois.. but if we stayed here we could go see dad on the weekend, right?"
"right."
"all of my friends are here..and i can't leave them. i-i want to stay here," she sighed, "i want to stay here." she repeated, this time more confidently.
mike let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. thank you. he mentally thanked her.
after a little bit of talking mike went back up to his room and was once again holed up with this thoughts. and the first thought that came to mind was of course, el. oh how he wanted to see her. he wanted to see her so badly.
she wanted her distance. he had to respect that, and plus he remembered what happened last time. she just pushed him away, and she would continue to do that.
mike wondered if she was still going to prom. it was only a couple weeks away. if she did go, who would she go with? mike wondered if it was even worth it to go to prom. he had no one to go with, it would only make him feel even worse by seeing her there with someone else. the memory of seeing her in the pink dress entered his mind. her elegant figure looked so gorgeous in the dress, every part of her face seemed to be smiling. she was so happy in that dress, he had never seen her so happy and so confident in anything before. the dress simply seemed to be made for her. not meagan, not anyone else, just el. it fit around her curves as if it was specifically designed for her. it was something mike couldn't forget, not matter how hard he could try the smile that radiated off of her lips was something that was implanted in his brain. she was a vision mike could never forget.
