"I was June and you were my Johnny Cash."
Mike sat at the dinner table just playing with his food. He didn't want to eat. He felt like he didn't need to eat.
"Mike, why are you playing with your food?" Karen asked.
"I'm not hungry." Mike answered.
Karen sighed and looked to Ted who just shrugged.
"Why isn't Nancy down here?" Mike asked.
"She's upstairs with Jonathan. He's having a really hard time with Will." Karen answered.
Mike rolled his eyes. So Jonathan gets special treatment because Will died, but he doesn't.
"So is everyone else." Mike muttered.
"That's his little brother, Michael. How do you think Nancy would feel if you died in a mall fire?" Karen asked.
"Happy." Mike answered, seriously.
He genuinely felt that way. He didn't want Nancy to be upset anyway, the only person he would want to mourn him is Will. That's the only person he wanted and needed. The only one.
"Michael, do not say that! That is not true!" Karen exclaimed.
Mike rolled his eyes at her again.
"Ted, are you going to step in or just sit there?" Karen asked her husband with a cocked eyebrow.
Ted looked up from his plate
"Enough, Michael." He said.
He then looked back down at his plate.
"Oh, thanks, Ted. That helped so much. Why don't you back me up instead of looking down at your plate like nothing is going on!" Karen shouted.
Mike put his napkin on his plate and pushed his chair in.
"What did I do?" Ted asked.
"Ugh!" Karen groaned.
While his parents were bickering, Mike snuck upstairs.
He walked past Nancy's room and saw that the door was open halfway.
Jonathan had his head in Nancy's neck and was shaking. He was sobbing.
"It's going to be okay, Jonathan, I promise. You're going to get through it. Right now, you need to be there for your mother, okay?"
Mike rolled his eyes. Jonathan wasn't as close to Will as he was, why was he so sad? It's not fair. Mike didn't get that affection and comfort that everyone else did and he was the closest to Will.
He stomped to his room and slammed the door shut.
He sat down on his bed and looked around at the messy room. Clothes were all over the place, his sheets were in a corner in his room, food wrappers littered the floor, his closet door was open and stuff was on the floor of the closet, and the pictures on his bedside table were all knocked over or had fallen onto the floor along with most of the stuff.
He looked over at his closet and something caught his eye.
He rose from his bed and walked over to his closet.
He bent down and plucked up the piece of clothing that caught his eye.
His Halloween costume.
Let's jump back a little bit to the Halloween of '84.
"Come out, Mike!" Will called.
Mike stepped out in his costume.
He was Maverick from Top Gun and Will was Goose.
"Why am I Maverick? We should've just stuck with the Ghostbusters with Lucas and Dustin." Mike whined.
"I feel bad for completely changing our costumes on them, but we're the ultimate best friend duo and I think Maverick and Goose suites us very well. It's the greatest best friend duo of all time." Will replied.
"You're such a movie nerd." Mike shook his head with a smile.
"I know. Tom Cruise is just a really good actor. I really like his movies." Will half-smiled.
Will never knew why, but he secretly loved Tom Cruise. He had a Tom Cruise poster under his bed that looked at here and there.
"He's alright, I guess." Mike shrugged.
"He's not just alright." Will rolled his eyes. "He's great. Now come on, Lucas, Dustin and Max are probably waiting for us outside."
"Max?" Mike furrowed his eyebrows.
"Yeah, Lucas and Dustin invited her." Will replied.
"What? Why? She's not even part of the party and she's so annoying." Mike complained.
"I don't know, Mike, I really like her and I know Lucas and Dustin do too. Maybe we could make her apart of the party." Will suggested with a shrug.
"I don't want her to be apart of the party. She'd ruin it." Mike said in an annoyed tone.
Will didn't say anything. He knew that Mike felt this way because he didn't want another girl around who wasn't Eleven. Will wanted to roll his eyes. Why did he like El so much? Why couldn't Mike like him better than Eleven.
"Come on, let's go downstairs."
Mike followed Will downstairs and Will smiled when he saw his friends.
"Byers!" Dustin exclaimed.
"Henderson!" Will exclaimed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why aren't you guys dressed like Ghostbusters?" Lucas asked.
Mike and Will looked at each other, then back at Lucas.
"It was Will's idea!" Mike said and pointed to Will.
"You agreed to it!" Will argued.
"Well—I—."
"See! He agreed to it!" Will exclaimed.
Dustin shook his head and muttered, "I can't believe this."
"Please, you guys are being so dramatic." Max rolled her eyes. "Can we go now so we can get the good candy from the rich neighborhoods."
"How do you even know if the rich neighborhoods have good candy? You just moved here." Mike reminded with an attitude.
"Mike." Will whispered and rubbed his arm.
Mike looked down and sighed.
"Come on, let's go. Mom, we're leaving!" Mike called.
"Ooh, let me get my camera!" Karen exclaimed.
"Go. Go, go, go, go, go!"
The kids rushed out of the door and down the street so Karen wouldn't be able to take a picture. They just wanted to trick or treat, not have to take pictures all night.
Will and Mike mostly stayed by each other's sides while Dustin, Lucas, and Max were ahead of them.
"I can't believe they're ignoring us." Mike whispered to will.
"I mean, we're kinda ignoring them too." Will whispered back.
"It's not the same."
Will sighed. "Do you wanna go back to your house then?"
Mike stopped walking. "You want to?"
Will looked inside of his white, trick or treat bag, then back up at Mike.
"I mean, I think I have enough candy. It's mostly nougat too." Will replied.
Mike chuckled. "Okay, let's go."
"Should we tell the others?" Will asked.
"They'll notice we're gone sooner or later." Mike replied.
Will shrugged. "Okay."
Mike turned around and Will followed him back to his house.
The walk was mostly silent, but when Mike noticed that Will was shivering because of the chilly fall wind, he wrapped an arm around him.
Will looked up at him, confused. He felt weird when Mike had his arm around him, but he snuggled himself into Mike's embrace.
When the boys got back to Mike's house they went to the basement and sat on the couch then dumped all of their candy down on the table in front of them.
They silently ate their candy which caused Will to start thinking.
Why did he feel so weird when Mike was touching him and holding him? It was a different kind of feeling that he's never experienced before. Was he going crazy.
"Mike." Will spoke up.
Will turned his head towards the smaller boy.
"Do you ever feel like you're going crazy?" Will asked.
"What do you mean?" Mike questioned.
"Like...Have you ever felt like you're out of your mind for feeling some type of way?" Will said.
Mike crumpled up a wrapper and placed it down on the table in front of them, then looked back at Will.
"Sometimes, yeah. I feel like I'm out of my mind at certain times."
"Me too. Sometimes I just feel like...I'm going crazy because of some thoughts I have."
"Yeah, me too."
Will nodded and looked down."
"Hey."
Will looked up at Will.
"If we're both going crazy, we'll go crazy together, right?"
"Yeah. Crazy together."
The boys smiled at each other, then went back to eating their candy. They ate in silence and just enjoyed each other's company.
Mike threw down the costume and went back to his bed.
He put his face in his hands, then ran them through his hair.
Mike still felt like he was going crazy, but he felt like he was doing it without Will.
My fav Byler moment is the crazy together quote.