strangers. mileven au.

thirty one.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE:
AS LONG AS YOU TRULY KNOW YOU DO.

the brunette leaned her head against the car window, her braided ponytail laying carelessly resting on her shoulders as she watched multiple snow covered dark green trees continuously disappear and reappear in her view.

it was early, truthfully way too early for her liking but nontheless... that was not what was on her mind at the moment.

in about thirty minutes, she would be reuniting with her boyfriend, her best friend and the rest of the party. it had only been a few weeks since she had seen mike but truthfully after what had happened on friday... it felt like months.

even though her favorite raven haired boy comforted her the best he could about the whole jason situation, she still had an uneasy suspicion that sat directly in the bottom of her stomach. she had no idea why but she had a feeling that jason wasn't gonna let what happened on friday go.

no, it wasn't a feeling... she knew he wasn't gonna let it go and that terrified her.

"you okay over there sweetheart, you look like you're tryna shove your head through that poor window." the small girl heard her step mother's sweet voice chuckle from beside her.

"oh sorry..." she stuttered, lifting her head off the glass before quickly checking the backseat to see will completely passed out against the leather. "i just... really can't wait to be there already..."

"you miss him?" the women's soothing voice spoke again. immediately eleanor knew she could only speaking about mike, which made her nod before shyly admitting to her mother. "all the time..."

"you really love him, huh." joyce stated as she calmly kept her eyes on the road, making eleanor immediately blush a deep shade of red.

"wha - i never said that. i just said i - miss him a lot. besides it's too early to be saying that kinda stuff... way too early." the brunette mumbled, casually looking down to play with small strands of her short golden ponytail.

"whatever you say sweetheart. i hope you know our house isn't sound proof... i can hear you giggling on the phone with him every night." her mother smiled as turned her head slightly to look at her now very embarrassed daughter. "just know that it's never too early to tell someone you love them as long as you truly know you do."

"oh god... now that's all ima think about when i'm with him now." eleanor complained, letting her head fall into the palms her hands. although, joyce found this sight to be very amusing.

"good, maybe it'll make you finally admit it him." her mother sarcastically responded before carefully letting go of one hand on the wheel to teasingly poke her still hunched over daughter, earning a grumble from the girl. "we're about five minutes away from will's grandparents. then you and will can go over to mike's."

eleanor lifted her head slowly from her palms, her cheeks still flushed from being embarrassed by her mother's comments before returning to her original position against the window to watch the various different buildings pass by her. hawkins was actually very different than what she expected. of course, she knew it was just a small town pretty much in the middle of no where. however, she didn't expect it to be so... cozy.

it didn't take much longer until the family had finally pulled up to the small cottage, making both eleanor and a very sleepy will jump out of the car to quickly say hello and drop their belongings off before making their way towards mike's.

surprisingly, well at least to eleanor, mike didn't live too far off from will's grandparents... which made the car ride a lot more bearable for her to handle considering she felt like her heart was going to beat straight outta her chest from excitement.

"please don't kiss him in front of me. i know you two are dating and i'm very happy for you, but i still don't wanna see it." will chucked as they pulled into the driveway of the large home, earning a very distinct eye roll from eleanor.

"you and brandon suck face every single day. you don't get to tell me that i can't suck face with my own boyfriend." the brunette crossed her arms dramatically, trying not to giggle at the pretend shocked look that slowly started to take over will's features.

before her brother could even get a chance to think of another obnoxious response, the front door to the wheeler household flung open and out came running a very overwhelming fiery red head followed by a very annoyed looking mike. max quickly made her way around to the passengers side of the vehicle, barley giving eleanor time to get out of the car before she pulled her into a suffocating hug.

"oh, how i missed you SO SO much!" max practically squealed, rocking eleanor back forth within the embrace.

"i missed you too maxie." the small girl relaxed in her best friend's arms, stealing a look over at her boyfriend who was currently reuniting with his own best friend.

"your boyfriend hates me by the way. i mean, we all already knew that but he's being especially mean today." the red head admitted, pulling away from the tight hug and carefully pushing some of eleanor's hair out of her face.

"ACTUALLY, i'm not being mean. you literally showed up my house twenty minutes ago saying you "had a feeling they were close." it's not my fault you're just fucking annoying." mike interrupted, softening his features a bit as he made eye contact with eleanor.

"but was i wrong?" max immediately snapped back, smirking a bit before adding. "exactly, i didn't think so."

mike didn't bother to respond to the red head. he only simply nudged her away from eleanor, smiling as he grabbed the small brunette face and connected his lips with hers. there was an audible gag beside them followed by a "gross" from where will was standing.

however, eleanor nor mike didn't seem to care at all. the freckled face boy was the first one to pull away, placing his forehead against hers gently and taking a deep sigh.

"long day, love?" eleanor giggled, blushing a bit at the nickname before trailing her hands up his chest and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"very, but you're here so it's a lot better now." he admitted, bumping his nose with hers and carefully pulling away to grab her hand. "dustin and lucas are on their way now. apparently max didn't tell them to come whenever she decided to just invite herself into my home."

"i mean it's pretty impressive that she had a feeling i was close." eleanor bumped their connected hands against his hip. "that's soulmate quality right there mikey."

"bullshit. if she's your soulmate why don't you just go make out with her right now? i bet her kisses aren't as good as mine." the raven haired boy scrunched his nose at her, leaning down a bit so that they were eye level.

"no one's kisses are better than yours." eleanor innocently smiled before stealing a kiss and running off towards the house.

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a/n: thank y'all so much for 20k!! sending love.