[February 9th, 1985]
After dinner, Mike and his family decided to watch a movie. It was Nancy's night to pick, so she picked a movie called Splash. In this movie, a man runs into a mermaid who saved him from drowning as a child and falls in love with her, without knowing her secret. Ted, of course, fell asleep halfway through the movie, but Mike, on the other hand, found it intriguing. Normally, he would prefer watching a sci-fi movie over a romantic one, but with El on his mind and Valentine's Day just around the corner, he didn't mind it so much.
After saying goodnight to his parents, he went to his room and fell asleep. He then woke up from a dream at 7:30 in the morning. The dream made him look at El in a whole new way and caused him to wrestle with the idea of love. He tossed and turned, with a thought that just wouldn't go away. The more he thought about it, the more it was true. He woke up and he just knew, he just knew that he was in love.
Before El came along, Mike couldn't ever shake the feeling that something was missing from his life. He had an amazing group of friends, loving parents, two sisters, good grades-What more could he ask for? He came to find that she was what he had been missing all along. She was his reason for getting up in the morning. She was always his first thought of the day and his last thought at night. He thought about her twinkling brown eyes, her sprouting curly hair, the way she said his name, her bitchin' powers, the way it felt when her warm hands held his, the way it felt to kiss her soft, sweet lips-He was completely in love with her.
His parents weren't the perfect example of true love by any means and because of that, he always had a hard time understanding how you knew for sure. Love made sense now though, he thought. He had never felt such intensely warm feelings about anyone. He felt this for her all along, but he just didn't know what to do or make of it. He thought about her all the time, but never like this. No, today was different. Today, she was more than just a thought, feeling, or image. She was love.
He felt weird about the whole thing, as most middle schoolers would, and began to obsess over the details. How should I tell her? When should I tell her? Where should I tell her? he asked himself. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, making sure that he was fully awake. Then, he tossed the sheets off his body, hopped out of bed, and headed toward the basement, passing by his mom.
"You're sure up early!" she said.
"What? Oh yeah, I uh woke up from a dream early..."
"Aww, I'm sorry, sweetie! Well, why don't you sit down and I'll make you some breakfast. How does that sound?"
"Um...sure, I just gotta do something real quick."
"Are you alright?"
*runs past*
"Michael?"
"MICHAEL!" she shouted once again.
He sighed and ran back around the corner.
"Sorry, Mom. Can't talk right now."
"*grasps shoulder* But sweetie, breakfast is almost ready."
"I'll be up in a minute, I swear. I've just gotta do this one-"
"Don't swear. Alright, but I'm timing you," she said, letting go of his shirt.
He shrugged, making his way down the stairs. He didn't really know why he felt the need to go down to the basement in the first place. All he knew was that it was where El had lived, where he came to know her. It was also the place he often came to think and gather his thoughts. He sat down, his eyes traveling to the fort. Then, it came to him! He knew exactly how he would break the news to her. So, he got up out of the chair he was sitting in and climbed inside. This will do, he said to himself, patting the wrinkles out of the sheets.
He then ran upstairs to eat breakfast. Grabbing the eggos out of the toaster, and asked:
"Can I have El over after school on Monday?"
"Of course, sweetie! You know she's always welcome."
"Thanks, Mom. *hugs*"
He then started to walk away, until Mrs. Wheeler stopped him, saying:
"Where are you going?"
"To call El..." he said matter-of-factly.
"Oh. Well, tell her I said hi."
"Will do," he said, walking away.
He picked up the phone and began calling her.
*rings*
"Hello?"
"Hey..."
"Mike! Hi!" she said, excitedly.
"How's it going?"
"Good, you?"
"Great actually! *pauses* Um, actually, I-I was wondering if um...you were free on Monday?"
"I'm always free, silly!"
"I know, I just meant, well, you know what I meant."
"Yes, I do. *laughs* I'll ask Hopper and call you back in a couple of minutes."
"Okay, talk to you then."
*hangs up*
Five minutes later, El called him back, saying:
"I'm back. He said I could come!"
"Great!"
"Can't wait! What time?" she asked as she fiddled with the phone cord.
"How 'bout 3:15?"
"Sounds pretty...good."
*laughs*
*long pause*
Suddenly, El's voice came seeping from the speaker, asking:
"Mike?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"You seem a little...nervous. Is everything alright?"
"It will be...soon. When I see you."
"*smiles* It's only a couple of days away, but it feels so far from now..." she whined.
"It'll be time before you know it."
"You always say that..."
"And I always mean it."
They continued conversing for another hour until Nancy interrupted them.
"*pushes door open* Mike! Who the hell are you talking to? You're holding up the line!"
"Hold on just a second, El," he whispered into the phone.
"Sorry, I lost track of time."
"Is that El?" asked Nancy.
"Ye-"
"Give me!" she said.
"No, I'm not fini-"
"Hi El," said Nancy.
"Nancy? Is that you?"
"Yes, it's me. How are you?" she said, slapping Mike's hand away.
"Good. How are you?"
"I'm doing just fine, just fine," she said, wrestling Mike for the phone.
*pause*
"Has my brother been bugging you? I'm sorry he tends to do that," she said, pinning Mike down.
"No, I love talking to him."
"Well, it's good that at least someone does." she joked.
*pause*
"Say, have I ever told you about the time that I caught Mike trying on my mom's clothes?"
"*giggles* No."
"IT WAS A PHASE!" he yelled in the background, fighting Nancy for the phone.
"Mouthbreather!" he said.
"Asshole!" said Nancy.
Mike pushed her away, getting ahold of the phone once again.
"Sorry, El. My sister was just being a brat."
"Haha, that's okay. *pauses* So...Is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"That you used to dress up in your mom's clothes?"
"Yeah...but I'm not proud of it."
"*laughs* It's not that big a deal...I mean, I used to wear my dad's clothes, but that's because I had to."
"Oh yeah. You looked so cute in those overalls you wore that one time, I mean, you always look cute, but still..."
"Not as cute as you!"
"Agree to disagree?"
"Halfway happy," she said with a smile.
"Well, I should probably let my sister use the phone now. I'll talk to you later, El."
"Okay. Bye Mike!" she said sweetly.
El hung up the phone and plopped onto the bed, holding the Snow Ball pictures close to her chest.
The next day, Mike snuck away to Nancy's room, stealing cash from her once again. He took his money and biked over to the market, where he bought several roses, and to Melvald's where he bought a box of festive lights.
"Got any lights?" he asked.
"Lights?" Donald repeated.
"Yeah, like Christmas lights."
"Well, we may have some in the back. Let me check..."
"Alright, thanks."
A few minutes passed by and Donald came back in no time with one box of lights.
"*sets box down* Last time I checked, it was February. You've been hanging out with Joyce Byers too much, haven't you?" asked Donald.
"*laughs, takes box* No, sir. They're just for a special occasion."
"And that would be...?"
"I'm telling my girlfriend that I love her."
"Ah, I see. Well, she's a very lucky girl!"
"I sure hope so..."
"*pats shoulder* Hang in there, son. You want any advice?"
"Sure, I could use it!"
*signals to come closer*
*leans ear toward*
"*whispers* Just be yourself. Speak from the heart, not the ass. That's what I always say!"
"*chuckles* Thank you, sir. That was refreshing!"
"Anytime. Go get her, boy!"
*smiles, walks away*
By the time Monday had come around, he scattered rose petals leading up to the fort. He then hung a string of lights across the rim of the fort's opening and along the borders of the inside.
He raced to her house, he felt a rush of adrenaline. He was pedaling to the beat of his own heart, knowing that that day, he would be vulnerable with El in a way that he had never been before.
He cut through the wooded area, braking in mid-ride, and throwing his bike onto the ground. He then paced himself, approaching each individual step at a time.
"*sighs* Here we go..." he whispered to himself.
He knocked on the door several times and waited for about 5-10 minutes until he finally decided just to use the key under the mat. When he opened the door, nobody was there. He tried not to the assume the worst, that somebody had found and kidnapped her. He knew that there had to be some reasonable explanation as to why she was gone.
He biked home only to find that El had left him a message on the answering machine nearly the minute he left to pick her up, saying that something came up and it turned out that she couldn't hang out with him that day.
Oddly, he was relieved! He now had time to plan out a less cliché date. And with that, he decided to take her to Lovers' Lake for Valentine's Day.
After listening to her message and making Valentine's Day plans, he invited Dustin and Steve over, his only desperately single friends. He let them eat the chocolates that he was originally going to give to El.
"Whoa! These chocolates are amazing..."
"Thanks for letting us crash your date, Wheeler," said Steve.
By the time they left, he sat down for dinner with his parents. His mom then got up to clear the table. As she scraped the leftover food into the garbage can, she noticed 11 petalless rose stems. She pulled them out of the trash can, asking:
"Where did these come from?"
Mike took a spit take once again, wiping the milk off of his knowing smile, as he chuckled to himself.