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C H A P T E R F I V E :
" THE BABYSITTER'S CLUB "
･ ｡ﾟ ⋆✩⋆ ･ ｡ﾟ
･ ｡ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ
| D E C E M B E R 23th, 1986 |
H a w k i n s , I n d i a n a
IT WAS a bustling evening in the Wheeler household as they prepared for the Byers' arrival in the following morning —fixing up the bathrooms and cleaning up the living room and such.
Mike was of little help, having not been himself at all for the past few months of separation of the party.
He missed Y/N dearly, and his only motivation to get out of bed every morning was the note from her that sat on his nightstand.
Lucas, Dustin, and Max would come over at times to hang out, and Mike would engage, but his smile wasn't true.
His smile wasn't as bright as it could've been if Y/N were there with him..
He was still grieving—mourning. However, he was still in the denial stage.
There was a small, small speck of hope still left deep inside him which wouldn't and couldn't let him believe that Y/N was dead.
Although his mother wouldn't like to admit it, but he was, in most aspects, depressed.
He's been going to therapy for his anxiety, PTSD, and depression that was all due to the events of Starcourt a few months prior.
This last encounter with the Mind Flayer was the worst out of the other times because this time, he lost.
Mike took all the events harder than the some of the party for the simple fact that he lost a person he cared deeply for.
He lost.
' You never realize how much you love someone until you lose them' , he would often think to himself.
"Mike ! The basement needs to be cleaned up already because the Byers are going to be here first thing in the morning !"
Karen shouted down the basements steps as her booming voice carried down to Mike who was sitting down on the couch, staring at the table in which him, Y/N, Will, Dustin, and Lucas used to all play D&D together years ago.
Every time Mike comes down to the
basement—which is rarely now—it never gets easier to see what used to be the base of their childhood.
He wished he could go back to the simpler times.
But life waits for no one.
"Alright !"
Mike shouted back, sighed as he huffed up from his position on the couch to fix up the basement to make it look decent.
He was excited to see Will and Eleven, no doubt, but he was just going through a hard time.
And sometimes, when he needed to clear his head and just breathe, he would go on a bike ride.
And that's exactly what he needed.
When he was finished tidying up the living room, he rushed to up the stairs to put on some shoes by the front door, ignoring his mother's shouts for him to stop.
Mike rushed out to his bike propped up against the garage, flicking off the rest stand as he hopped on to eagerly pedal through the cool evening air.
With the fresh breeze, his hair was blown over his eyes as he pedaled with the sun's setting light gently kissing his cheeks.
He didn't know where he was going, nor where he wanted to go.
He just.. pedaled.
He pedaled as far as down the street, as far as downtown, and towards the back roads.
Towards the cabin he's made it a point to stay at a least once a week.
As Mike trucked through the forest, hauling his bike along the path that had been indented from the wheels of Hopper's car, he approached the front of the still cabin.
He propped his bike against the steps leading up to the door, hearing the wood creak with every press of weight against them.
As always, he would knock first, as if someone would answer. But of course, he was met with silence.
He entered the cabin, slowly closing the door behind him as he sighed at the sight of all the furniture gathering dust.
Working quickly, Mike dusted everything off, making the cabin look presentable as if Y/N would be returning anytime soon.
He did this every week.
That's why he always came to the cabin.
He always returned to the cabin because of the dust. The dust meant that memories were fading, and Mike couldn't bare to accept that.
He always made the cabin look nicely—just in case there was even the smallest chance that
Y/N would return. And she would be met with a clean cabin.
Home.
It was almost like a form of therapy for Mike, easing his anxiety and PTSD as he found himself cleaning her room.
With the sunset beams peaking through the curtain of Y/N's window, Mike dusted her room with determination.
With a clean cabin, Mike beamed at his work, the cabin looked like nobody ever left.
Satisfied yet tired, Mike didn't have the energy to ride his bike home, so he made his way to Y/N's bed—which still had the same exact sheets in the same exact place as she left them.
He gently laid down, leaving a space next to him as if Y/N were sleeping next to him.
He felt her.
He could've sworn he felt some sort of presence of her like she had been here recently.
Outsiders would have thought he was crazy, when really, he was just a heartbroken soul.
He missed her. He loved her. More than Y/N would ever know.
And with that final thought—the thought
of Y/N—he drifted off to sleep with his jean jacket acting as a blanket over him.
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N e x t D a y ..
"Hey dingus, that's not where the horror movies go. They go in aisle 3."
Robin shouted to her best friend, Steve, in which they both worked together at the Family Video store.
"Yeah, yeah."
Steve retorted back, huffing as he picked up the box and made his way to aisle 3, dropping the box of horror movies to begin filing them into the shelves.
The store phone rang throughout the quiet small complex, getting Steve's attention as he shot up at the chance to do anything but work.
At the same moment, there was a heavy knock at the store's back door, in which Robin was alerted for.
"That's the disk delivery. You get the phone, I'll get the boxes."
Robin declared as she was already making her towards the back door in which she was met with a delivery man wearing his uniform.
"3 boxes of disk packages? For Family Video, ordered by Keith?"
The man asked, reading off a clipboard as he began to extend his arm to signal Robin to sign the paper.
"Some weather we've been having, huh?"
Robin nodded with her head down focusing on the paper, accepting the pen he offered as she scribbled her signature—studying the delivery man's voice.
It sounded oddly familiar as she finished signing, looking up at the man's face to discover how strangely familiar he looked.
She had seen him before, she knew it.
"Thanks.."
She accepted the boxes with an uneasy smile, clearly uncomfortable but the man didn't seem to notice.
Shrugging her thoughts off, Robin closed the back door, walking past Steve on the phone by the front desk to drop the boxes on the floor behind him with a huff.
"Again? Seriously?"
Steve scoffed at whoever he was talking to into the phone as Robin shuffled to open the boxes behind him.
With a rub of his eyes, Steve nodded.
"Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'll..figure something out. Okay. Bye."
"Who was that?"
Robin asked as she stood up from opening the boxes, seeing Steve run a hand through his hair.
"Mrs. Wheeler. She said Mike didn't come home last night, and she wants me to go look for him—make sure he's okay."
Steve was sort of now dubbed the official head 'party babysitter' by all the kids' moms.
He didn't really mind at times, but naturally, the kids were always messing around everywhere.
"What? That's not fair shitbird, I've taken your shift twice this week already !"
Robin was always his back-up plan when it came to watching out for the kids, but today she didn't feel like working double shifts.
Before Steve had the chance to answer, the entrance bell of the front door of the store rang, signaling that a customer entered.
And in the doors came the ex-flayed guy himself, along with two girls practically drooling over him.
Both Steve and Robin straightened their uniforms at the sight of the girls, hoping to clean up their appearance before they saw the guy they were with.
With a roll of his eyes, Steve scoffed, "Oh. It's you."
"Yeah, yeah."
Billy waved him off while his boots thumped along the floor as he walked towards the desk where Robin and Steve stood with tired faces.
"Got a new batch of girls, or are these ones just temporary?"
Steve crosses his arms at Billy as he peered over his shoulders to see the two girls wandering and browsing .
Billy chuckled as he leaned an arm over the counter, his eyes suddenly becoming serious.
"They've been following me around all damn day. I came here to get away thinking they would leave, but I guess chicks are into nerdy shit now."
Billy whispered loudly towards Steve as he peered over his own shoulder to make sure the girls couldn't hear him.
Steve rolled his eyes, looking back at Robin to see her enjoying the situation playing out in front of her.
"Wow, Billy Hargrove getting tired of attention? That's a first."
"Shut up."
Billy snapped, his fists clenching and unclenching while Steve sparked an idea.
"Hey, I just got a call from Karen. She needs someone to go find Mike and check on him. If I know him at all, he'd be at the chief's cabin. Why don't you go, and I'll stay here and work my charm to entertain the ladies?"
Steve smirked, watching as Billy lightened up for a moment, "I'll go check it out, I guess."
Billy pat Steve's shoulder before shooting a wink at Robin who rolled her eyes as Billy left the video store.
Although they would never admit it, Steve, Robin, and Billy all joined Nancy and Jonathan in now being personal babysitters for the
party—the club—whether they knew it or not.
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Mike stirred awake at the sound of a car's loud humming coming from outside the cabin, making him uneasy as to who knew he was there.
He sat up on Y/N's bed, and out of pure hope, he turned to look at the empty side of the
bed—as if Y/N had returned home in the middle of the night.
She didn't.
With a defeated heart, Mike slugged out of her bed, glancing out of Y/N's window to see a blue camaro parking and stopping right outside the cabin, following the slam of a car door.
"Wheeler !"
Billy shouted into the small cabin as he entered through the front door, a rush of painful memories flooding back to his mind with a shutter.
Mike wasn't the only one who developed PTSD.
"Goddammit."
Mike mumbled to himself as he heard the voice , reluctantly walking out of Y/N's room to see Hargrove standing expectantly at the front door.
"How did you know where to find me?"
Billy scoffed, shrugging his shoulders as he looked around the cabin.
"Good sense of direction, I guess."
"What're you doing here?"
Mike asked with an annoyed etch of his eyebrows, shoving his hands in his jean jacket pockets.
"Your mom's looking for you, so I need to bring you back home before the whole damn town starts a search party for you."
If this had been the old Billy before he was flayed, he never would've done something like this.
But Billy changed.
Billy learned—the hard way—that he was indeed, breakable. He was vulnerable. He was human.
But to hide his vulnerabilities, he tried to continue his facade of the high school douche.
It was the only way that made him feel in control of himself since the mind flayer took over his a couple months back.
The party all changed.
You tend to do that when you've been exposed to traumatic events.
Mike rolled his eyes, not seeming to want to return home yet. However, he soon remembered that the Byers would be arriving at his house soon.
"Keep rolling your eyes, maybe you'll find some common sense in that brain of yours, Wheeler. Let's go."
Billy ordered, gesturing for Mike to follow him out the front door.
Without much compliance, Mike walked out of the cabin, making sure to close and lock the front door behind him as he followed Billy to his car.
"Already loaded your bike into my trunk."
He watched as Billy took out a cigarette from his jacket pocket, who was not looking where he was going as his golden permed curls fell over his eyes while he fiddled to light his cigarette between his lips.
Out of pure spite, Mike snorted, "Pretty sure you just stepped in deer crap."
Billy shot his head to look at Mike, then to lift up either of his brand new boots to check their souls for any feces, but found none.
With a glare, he returned his death stare at Mike who was smirking triumphantly as he rounded Billy's camaro to the passenger side of the car.
"You little shit."
Billy spat, flipping Mike off as he slid into the driver's seat beside him.
It was playful bickering, a friendship formed from sass and insults.
Mike was then on his way back home, where Lucas, Dustin, and Max would wait with him until the Byers would arrive.
Where he would then reunite the entire party with Eleven and Will.
But no Y/N..
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WOW. what a long chapter without but action but some angst..
i'm actually kinda digging this Babysitter Billy thing.
this chapter was mainly to express how everyone was affected with the
past events—especially Mike..
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to everything in this chapter—mostly with the first half.
it's important..
NEXT CHAPTER : will be an eventful one, so stay TUNED
.
what do you think so far ??
any theories so far? any predictions?
thanks for reading.. stay tuned !!
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2440 words
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