Will runs to his mom and engulfs her in a hug which Jonathan joins a second later. "We thought you were in Illinois," he says once they pull apart. "El saw you and Hopper going there."
"Oh, yes – yes. We were. There was something we had to find out. " Joyce squeezes his shoulders before her eyes narrow. "Sweetie, what happened to your neck?"
"Oh." His hand moves to cover his bruises. "Nothing. I'm fine. I'll explain later."
"Who did that to you?"
"No one, Mom. I said I'm fine. We can talk about it later."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Mom."
Behind them, Hopper helps El to her feet, and Mike takes her arm to steady her. Hopper looks around at the dead Russian guards and then at all the kids. "What happened here?"
Lucas huffs. "It's a long story."
"We'd like to hear it."
As Hopper and Mike help El to the fountain in the center of the food court, Will and Jonathan follow behind everyone else, sticking to their mom's side. "Who is that guy?" Jonathan gestures to the bearded man who arrived with Joyce and Hopper.
"That's Murray. He helped us figure out how to close the gate."
Will raises his eyebrows. "The gate? You know about the gate?"
"Yes, and how to get to it." Everyone gathers in a circle beside the fountain, Will staying as far away from Mike as possible.
"What do you mean you know how to close the gate?" Jonathan asks.
"The gate is underneath the mall," Joyce explains, "and if we can get there, we can close it."
"I'm getting the maps," Murray says, turning around and marching out of the food court.
"So," Nancy says, "does that mean Eleven doesn't have to close it herself? We can do it without her?"
"Yes," Hopper says, "but not 'we.' You kids need to get as far away from this as possible right now."
"Where are we supposed to go?" Max asks. "The Mind Flayer could be anywhere."
Joyce's eyebrows shoot up. "I'm sorry, the Mind Flayer?" She grabs Will's hands. "It came back?"
Will looks to the others before meeting his mom's eyes. "Yes, but it's different than last time. It created a monster."
"And that monster's still out there," Mike jumps in. "That's why we came here. To escape it and close the gate."
"Do you know why it came here?" Hopper asks.
"The Mind Flayer," Mike explains, "it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world."
"And it almost did," Nancy says. "That was just one tiny piece of it."
"How big is this thing?" Hopper asks.
"It's big," Jonathan says. "Thirty feet at least."
"Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin." Lucas makes a face. "Sorry."
"Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?" Joyce asks.
"El beat the shit out of it," Max says, "but, yeah, it's still alive."
"But if we close the gate again-" Will says.
"We cut the brain off from the body."
"And kill it," Lucas says. "Theoretically."
"Yoo-hoo!" Murray makes his way towards them, waving a handful of papers in the air. "Yoo-hoo!"
While Murray slams the papers down on a table and explains his plan, someone nudges Will's elbow. "Hey," Mike says in a low voice, "can we talk?"
All Will can think of as he looks at Mike is their argument in the cabin and all the cruel words they flung at each other. Is Mike about to apologize to him? Finally? Glancing at the others who are listening to whatever Murray is rambling on about, Will nods and lets Mike drag him away from them and into one of the shops. "What is it?"
Mike faces him. "About what you heard in the store..."
He waits for Mike to continue, but Mike only stands there with his mouth opening and shutting. Rolling his eyes, Will snaps his fingers at Mike's face. "The store? What about it? Are you talking about what you said to El?"
"Yeah..." Mike shuffles his feet. "I think we should clear things up."
"Clear things up?"
"We need to forget about what happened at the cabin. And what happened the night you destroyed Castle Byers. Pretend it never happened."
A groan escapes Will's throat. Now he understands where this is going. "Can we just go back to the others and focus on the plan?"
"We need to talk about this."
"Why? You've made yourself pretty clear." He turns to leave, but Mike grabs his shoulder.
"Will..."
He scrunches his nose. "What, Mike?"
"Can't things just go back to the way they were before?"
"And how were things before? You with El, and me miserable? No offense, but I'd prefer if we accepted that things have changed and nothing's going back to the way it was before." Again, he turns to leave, but Mike catches his arm, pulling him back.
"Knock it off!" Will snaps, yanking his arm away. The lights burn bright above their heads. Stunned, Mike staggers back with wide eyes. Will shakes his head. "Everything you're doing... you're driving me crazy. I don't know what to expect anymore. I don't know how you feel about anything."
Mike meets Will's eyes. "You know how I feel about you."
He throws his arms up. "Do I?"
"I don't want to hurt you."
"It's too late, Mike."
Mike frowns. "It's not too late. I'm sorry, I really am. Will, I didn't-"
"You already hurt me, don't you get that?" Will cries. "We keep fighting and then making up, but it's like you forget it all a second later. I'm sick of this back-and-forth bullshit. You act like you care about me one minute, but then you treat me like garbage the next."
"What, are you taking pointers from Max now?"
The lights flicker above them, Will's body tense. "Are you even listening to me right now? Stop blaming Max for what you've done. This isn't about her, and this isn't about El. This is about you."
"Why are you being this way?"
"Because I'm sick of your bullshit, Mike! I thought you understood before, but obviously I was wrong. You keep saying you don't want to hurt me, yet that's all you've been doing."
"I can't help how I feel about El."
"That's not the point!" Will throws his arms up, spinning around so he can take a deep breath. "I get that you love her, and I know I can't do anything about that. I'm happy if she's happy and if you are. I could have moved past it. I could have accepted it and moved on. But then you acted like you felt the same way about me. How am I supposed to feel about that? Why would you even do that in the first place?"
"Will, I-"
"I can't be your friend if all you're going to do is play games with me."
"I won't, I swear," Mike pleads.
"You already have." Shaking his head, Will turns to leave yet again, but Mike grabs him by the arm and spins him back around.
"Will, we're best friends. We can't just not be best friends anymore."
"Nothing lasts forever, Mike."
"No, that's not true. We can work things out. We always do." Mike moves to take Will's hand. "Will, we can still be friends."
Will jerks away, glaring. "Why won't you listen to me? I don't want to be friends with you anymore!"
Mike's face drops. "That's not true."
The lights buzz. Will crosses his arms.
"Come on, Will. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."
Will scoffs. "Don't be stupid. I'm not going to fall for this again. If I was the best thing that's happened to you, you wouldn't have done this in the first place." He starts to leave again, but this time he turns without Mike's influence. "You know what? You were right. I did keep getting angry at you, and I was jealous about you and El being together. So, I am sorry about that. I'm sorry about everything I did to hurt you. I know I was being stupid and jealous, and I was angry about things I knew I could never change. I was selfish and didn't take your feelings into account. That's on me; I understand that." He shakes his head, scrunching up his nose. "But everything else? The uncertainty of all this? Those things you said that you know hurt me? Acting like I'm the only one who's a freak even though you know that's not true? That's on you." He leaves without another word.