Tw - MICHAEL MFING WHEELER
Yeah, actually. I am. 'Cause I don't wanna hang out with assholes like you and Lucas.
We aren't assholes!
MAX PLACED ONE LAST yellow paper card onto a red board.
They had spin the bottle set up but instead of kissing whoever it lands on they would spy on whoever it lands on. "Ready?" Max asked. "Ready." Eleven said before spinning the bottle.
Viola sat up against the wall on Eleven's bed, still shaken up about the whole panic attack thing. She thought it was embarrassing. She wanted to actually dig a whole and die.
The brunette everted her eyes to the bottle that was spinning and spinning, her eyes watched as it slowly came to a stop on Mr. Wheeler. "Mr. Wheeler." Both girls read, unimpressed. "Ugh. Boring." Max sighed. Eleven chuckled. "Yeah. Boring."
"Spin again." Max motioned to the bottle, Eleven grabbed it, going to spin it but stopped. "Against the rules?" Max asked looking up at Max.
Viola smiled a little, already knowing what Max was gonna reply with, as she had said it to her once before. "We make our own rules."
We make our own rules
That's what Max said to Viola after Susanna told them to not go into the creek.
They did.
And because of that the creek became their spot. They went there everyday after school just because of Max's single sentence. Of course Viola forgot all about that sentence when she got home. Where all her own rules were shut down
But she always had Max.
"Viola? You okay?" Max asked making the girl jump out of thought. "Oh, yeah." She smiled looking down at the board seeing the bottle on Billy's name.
Max got up, grabbing the blindfold and the radio. "Okay, look, I should just warn you, if he's with a girl or doing something gross, just get out of there right away before you're scarred for life." She chuckled.
"Max—"
"No, I'm just saying, I'm serious. He's really gross." Max cut Eleven off. "Max!" Eleven yelled. "Okay, shutting up now." Max said, tuning the radio so static came through.
Max moved the red board onto the floor, sitting next to Viola and putting out her hand, silently asking if she could play with Viola's hand again. Viola obliged and rested her right hand in Max's this time instead of her left.
They silently watched as Eleven focused. In Eleven's sight he saw Billy's car, the head lights on and bright, window shield cracked and shattered. She walked towards the broken car and towards the trunk which was open.
Then a girls whining was heard making her turn to see Billy's figure crouched down. Facing away from her. "I found him." Eleven whispered. "What's he doing?" Max asked, curious. Viola had a bad feeling about this. "I don't know." Eleven whispered as blood began to fall from her nose.
"Don't be afraid." Eleven heard Billy's voice.
"He's... on the floor..."
"It'll be over soon."
"talking to someone." Eleven finished her sentence.
In the void Eleven walked closer towards Billy. "Just stay very still." Once Eleven was right behind him he stood up, turning around and looking Eleven straight in the eyes, as if he could see her. Eleven heard the girl screaming Billy's name, like it was life or death.
Eleven pulled off the blindfold, hyperventilating. Viola acted quickly and grabbed El's hands. "El, what is it?" She asked looking Eleven straight in the eyes. "What happened?" Max added. Eleven didn't answer as she looked at the girls with wide eyes, her breathing calming down. "El, what happened in there?"
•••
OUTSIDE THE WIND WAS strong and rain started to poor, the boys where still in the basement, finally playing DnD.
Oliver for one was excited, much unlike the two other boys who were sleeping on the couch and the floor. Will pressed down on a recorder, medieval music playing making the boys jump up out of their sleep.
Will was dressed up in a wizards costume which Oliver found both funny and cute. "Yes!" Will smiled. "What are you doing?" Lucas yelled over the music. "Yeah, Will, can you turn down the music?" Mike asked.
Will stood there with a straight face on. "Please address me by my full name." Will asked.
"What?"
"My full name!" The bowl-cut boy slammed his fake staff down, hitting the basement floor. "Oh, my God. Okay, Will the Wise," Mike finally said, rubbing his eyes. "can you please turn down the music."
Oliver watched the scene with a smile. "That is not music. That.. is the sound of destiny!" Will said with a passionate voice. "I have seen into the future, and I've seen that today is a new day, a day.. free of girls!" He said happily.
The other two boys were still half asleep while watching Will. "What is happening right now?" Lucas asked confused. "Will, come on." Mike complained.
Will crouched down over the DnD board, waving a hand over it for dramatic affect. "A tribe of villagers are under threat from an evil force from the swamps of Kuzatan." He began the game. "Will, it's so early." Mike tried to get him to stop. "Is it? Is it early, Michael? Tell that to the villagers crying for your help, the children so frightened, they cannot sleep." Will walked past the chair Oliver sat in and towards the boys. "Are you truly going go let them perish? Or are you going to come to their rescue and become heroes you were always meant to be?"
"Uh.. Can I at least take a shower first?" Lucas asked.
•••
THUNDER RUMBLED ABOVE THE girls as they walked towards Max's house. El had convinced them that they had to go.
"It'd gonna start pouring soon." Max complained. "We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something." Viola sighed fidgeting with the t-shirt Max had lended her. "Or we could play in the rain." She shrugged.
"You guys don't believe me?" El asked looking over at the two. "I believe you saw some super weird stuff, totally, but you said Mike has sensed you in there before, right?" Max asked. Eleven nodded in response. "So maybe it was just like that. Maybe Billy just... sensed you somehow." The red-head theorized.
"But the screams." Eleven muttered. Viola held back laugh. "Yeah, I know, but here's the thing." Max began to explain, thinking about what words she was about to say. "When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like, really crazy noises." Eleven furrowed her eyebrows. "They scream?" She asked, Viola let out a low chuckle. "Yeah, but, like... happy screams." Max tried to keep her life PG. "Happy screams? What is happy screams?" Eleven's curiosity was getting the best of her.
"It's like... I'm just gonna lend you my mom's Cosmo." Max decided. Eleven nodded, turning towards Max's house. "His cars not here." Max pointed out. Viola nervously tugged on the shirt, it wasn't something she was used to, it was tighter. Maybe that's why she was panicking. Or maybe it was this whole situation.
Or maybe it was the voice in the back of her head telling her something bad was going to happen.
"You really wanna do this?" Max asked, turning to El. Eleven nodded.
Max unlocked her door, walking into the house and making a bee-line straight for Billy's room. "Why do I feel like we are gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?" Max whispered as the door creaked open. "'Cause it's Billy." Viola muttered, still lightly tugging on the shirt she wore.
Music blasted from Billy's stereo. The room reeked of cigarette smoke and BO. Max walked in to the room, opening Billy's drawer seeing a bunch of dirty magazines. "Ugh, gag me with a spoon." She slammed the drawer shut again.
Eleven wandered out of the room and towards the bathroom, turning on the light as she walked in. "Max? Vee?" Eleven called making them both walk over.
In the tub were empty bags labeled "Ice" in all capitals. Max bent down grabbing one of the bags. "Ice. It's just ice." She said, dropping the bag back into the water. "Probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac."
Eleven's eyes then averted to the bathroom cabinets that were under the sink, a bit off blood staining the white wood.
Viola's eyes widened as she looked at the red liquid. Eleven reached down and opened the cabinet, pulling out a trash can. Viola walked up behind her, looking into the bin. She expected to see some kind of disgusting used condom or something but instead she saw something that freaked her out more.
"What is it?" Max asked. El slowly removed the item from the bin. It was a red lifeguard fanny pack. Eleven passed Viola the bin. Viola looking inside it to see if anything else was in there. There was.
The brunette pulled out a life guard whistle. It was yellow and stained with blood. She turned towards Max, showing her the item. Her shirt felt like it got tighter as she looked at the whistle. "Can I go borrow one of your shirts, Max? This one's a little too tight. I kinda feel like I'm suffocating." She said in a rushed tone, placing the bin down.
Max nodded, not even thinking about the answer no. Viola rushed out of the bathroom and towards Max's room, opening the closet door and grabbing a loose fitting button up collared shirt. It had multi-color squares on it.
Viola chuckled a little bit while looking at the shirt realizing it was hers.
Once she quickly changed she walked back out towards the other teen girls who were wearing rain coats, El had a blue one, Max had a yellow one and held a red one in her hand. "Put this on, we're going to the pool."
•••
RAIN WAS POURING AS Will continued to narrate the campaign. Oliver listening intently while the others half-listened.
"Do you guys hear that? It sounds like... thunder." Will began, music playing in the background as he did so which set the mood. "But, no, wait. That's not thunder. It's.... a horde of juju zombies!" Will exclaimed, slamming figurines onto the DnD game board. "Sir Mike, your action." He looked at Mike. "What should I do?" He looked over to Lucas. Lucas shrugged. "Attack?" He answered.
Mike nodded. "Okay, I attack with my flail." He rolled his dice. "Whoosh! You miss. Your flail clanks the stone, the zombie horde lumbers towards you, and..." Will rolled a dice behind his folder. "the juju bites your arm. Flash tears! Ahh! Seven points of damage."
Oliver winced and looked over to Mike, expecting to see some kind of reaction but there was none. "Oh, no, my arm. Lucas, look, my arm." Mike said sarcastically while holding his arm. Lucas laughed at Mike, thinking it was funny. Oliver noticed Will's mood falter but he quickly switched and turned towards Lucas. "Sir Lucas, the zombie horde roars! Do you fight back or do you run?" Will asked.
Lucas was about to answer until the phone rang making both boys heads instantly turn towards it. "No! It's a distraction!" Will yelled. "A trap. Do not answer it." He demanded.
The boys got up anyways, running towards the phone. Mike picked it up and put it to his ear. "El? No. Sorry, not interested." He sighed before slamming the phone back on the receiver. "Telemarketers."
"Maybe we should just call them." Lucas suggested. Mike furrowed his eyebrows. "We can do that?" He asked. "I think so."
Oliver let out a frustrated groan as they went on. "We'll say nothing! The Khuisar tribe still needs your help." Will motioned towards the board. "All right then. I'll use my torch to set fire to the chambers, sacrificing ourselves, killing the jujus, and saving the Khuisar." Mike said. "We all live on as heroes in the memories of the Kalamar."
"Victory." Lucas said, high fiving Mike.
Disappointment was all over Will's face. "Okay. Fine." Will threw his staff down. Oliver finally stood up, getting worried. Will threw his hat off. "You guys win." He turned off the music. "Congratulations."
"Will, I was just messing around." Mike lied. Will didn't listened and removed his cape. "Hey, let's finish for real. How much longer is the campaign?" Mike asked trying to fix the mess he made. "Just forget it, Mike." Will said. "No, you want to keep playing, right?" Mike asked Lucas and Oliver. "Y-yeah, totally." Lucas said in the more unconvincing tone. "Not with you guys." Oliver muttered. "We'll just call the girls afterwards." Mike tried to reason.
"I said forget it, Mike, okay?" Will yelled at him. "I'm going home." Will grabbed his bag before walking out of the basement. Shoving past Lucas as he did so. Mike followed after him. Oliver turned to Lucas. "Are you happy? You've both been ignoring him since yesterday. And for what reason?." He asked in a frustrated tone, grabbing his own things. "Now you can call Max and El and whoever the hell you want." He told Lucas before following after the two.
He made it to the garage, stopping himself from exiting when hearing Mike trying to get Will to stay. "You can't leave. It's raining. Listen, I said I was sorry, all right?" Mike walked over to Will who was making sure he had everything in his backpack. "It's a cool campaign. It's really cool. We're just not in the mood right now."
"Yeah, Mike. That's the problem. You guys are never in the mood anymore. You're ruining our party." Will yelled at him. "That's not true." Mike countered. "Really? Where's Dustin right now?"
Mike didn't answer.
Will shook his head. "See? You don't know and you don't even care. And obviously he doesn't either and I don't blame him. You're destroying everything, and for what?" Will asked, on the verge of tears. "So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?"
"El's not stupid. It's not my fault you don't like girls." Will went quiet. Oliver's face scrunched up with disgust. "I'm not trying to be a jerk. Okay? But we're not kids anymore. I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends?" Mike asked. "That we were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?"
Will nodded. "Yeah." He sniffed, trying to keep his tears inside. His throat burning as he did so. "I guess I did. I really did." With that Will got on his bike and started off out of the Wheeler's garage, Mike calling after him.
Then Oliver walked out, Mike sighed. "Are you leaving too?" He asked in a annoyed tone. "Yeah, actually. I am. 'Cause I don't wanna hang out with assholes like you and Lucas." Oliver said, grabbing his bike. "We aren't assholes!" Mike yelled. "Really? You aren't? First you're an asshole to Jane, you lie about lying to her. Then when she breaks up with you, you say you did jack shit to her when you were an absolute dick!" He yelled at the boy.
"Now you're being an asshole to Will and not doing the one simple thing he's been asking for since summer began. And that comment was just fucked up in general cause you guys weren't even talking to anything remotely related to that!" Oliver barley cursed and he had cursed at least five times in the span of an minute. "So, yeah, Mike. Maybe Lucas isn't that much of an asshole, but you have been a huge asshole for the past two days and Will has every right to be mad at you. And so do I."
Oliver got onto his bike and biked out of the Wheeler's driveway, trying to catch up to Will.
Mike stood there in his garage watching Oliver. He knew deep down he fucked up, but he wouldn't admit it.
He was Michael Wheeler.
Of course he wouldn't admit it.
A/N
in love with the title of this chapter tbh
also oliver knows abt el but still calls her jane just cause that's what he's used to and el allows it
also do u like that im writing about where each lockeheart sibling is or, like, should I not??!!? I kinda like it only cause it makes the chapters longer but I'm not the one reading it, yall are.
also Oliver said what we all wanted to say durning that scene. or at least what I wanted to say.
i also pulled an all nighter writing this chapter and the one before it. funnnn!!!!
theres a-lot of also's my baddd