American Heroes: A Stranger Things 3 Fic

Different

The three boys are sitting on the floor beside Will's bed, Will explaining what he's been doing the past couple days with Dustin, Steve, and Robin.

"So you're telling me, for the past two days, you, Dustin, Steve, and the girl who works at Scoops Ahoy have all been translating some secret Russian code, and now you think the Russians are hiding something in the mall?" Lucas asks.

Will nods. "Pretty much."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Mike asks.

Will gives him a look that makes Mike's cheeks go pink. "I tried to."

"Oh, right." Mike glances away. "Well, what can we do to help?"

"Apologize to Dustin."

Mike and Lucas furrow their eyebrows. "What'd we do to Dustin?" Mike asks.

"You ditched him the day he came back from camp."

Lucas puts his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, I didn't ditch him! I helped with Cerebro and stayed for awhile. It started to get boring though, so don't blame me for leaving."

"Yeah, fine, Lucas. Whatever." Will turns towards Mike. "But you need to apologize."

Mike frowns. "Okay, but when am I supposed to do that?"

"Tomorrow morning. I'm meeting Dustin at the mall at nine. You can do it then."

Lucas yawns, stretching as he gets to his feet. "Fine by me. Are we sleeping over?"

"If you want. I've got blankets you can sleep on and pajamas you can borrow."

"Alright, cool. But is it alright if I shower? I got mud all over myself today."

Will shrugs, getting up to go through his closet. "Yeah, go ahead."

Mike chuckles as Lucas leaves for the bathroom. "More like he face-planted in a ditch."

"Really?" Will laughs, grabbing some pajamas and tossing them on his bed.

"Yeah, he tripped on his bike and fell in a ditch on the side of the road. It was hilarious."

"Wow."

"I wish you had been there."

Will stops laughing and looks at Mike whose eyes are fixed on him. "Yeah, me too." He looks back to his closet for extra blankets.

"Will, I really am sorry."

He can feel Mike's eyes on him as he sifts through his closet. "It's fine, Mike. You don't have to keep apologizing."

"I know, but..." Mike lets out a loud sigh. "I just feel really bad about it. Not being able to talk to you... it sucked."

"Yeah, you too."

"It's just that... what I said, at the mall, it was... it was really shitty."

Will finds a pile of clean blankets in the corner of his closet and takes them out, plopping them down on the floor as he faces Mike. "Mike, I said it's fine. We don't have to talk about it."

Mike jumps to his feet. "But I want to."

"Mike, really, it's fine."

"No, Will. It's not. I said some awful things to you, and you're... you're right about me ruining the party."

Will shakes his head. "I didn't mean that. You're not ruining anything."

"Yes, I am. I ruined my relationship with you, and El, and Dustin's annoyed with me, and Max doesn't like me either."