Letters to El

Chapter 16

The Goodbye

The rest of the weekend flew by quickly. The party had so much fun watching their favorite movies and playing their favorite games, time sped up and wouldn't stop until the Monday El and Hopper had to go back to Chicago.

El had promised the party that she would stop by Mike's house, where they would all meet up before school, to say goodbye. El also promised that she would be back when it was her winter break and she would stay longer than she did.

Still, knowing that, it didn't make the ride to Mike's house that much easier. As the trees passed by El tried everything in her power to enjoy the small town while she still could. Soon she would be back in a big city where she felt like an outcast.

A little too quickly, they arrived in front of Mike's house and everyone was already outside waiting for her to show up. She got out of the car and so did Hopper to speak with the adults about her visiting again. El walked up to the party who all had saddened expressions.

"Hi." El smiled softly at everyone.

"Hey." Mike responded for everyone.

There was a sad silence between the group, one that El couldn't take for long. She didn't want the silence right now. The quiet will be back in Chicago, she just wanted to talk to her friends right now.

"I'm really glad I came." El spoke truthfully.

"We're glad you came too." Max smiled bringing her in for a hug.

"I'll be back." El said leaving the hug. "In about a month. That's too far away."

"We'll write to you." Will smiled as everyone else nodded. The two hugged and so did El and Lucas.

"And hopefully when you come up, we will have fresh snow so we could all go sledding." Dustin said pulling away from his hug with El.

"That will be fun!" El giggled. She turned to Mike, the last person to give her a hug, and smiled as they embraced one another.

"I can't wait to see you again." Mike whispered not letting her go quite yet.

"Same. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Mike finally let her go.

"El." Hopper called from his side of the car. "We need to go."

El nodded and turned back to the party. She smiled slightly. "Bye."

"Bye." They said in unison.

El walked to the truck and got in, shutting the door. The party waved at her as the truck pulled out of the driveway and drove down the rode. One turn later, the party was out of her sight.

"Did you have fun?" Hopper asked after barely seeing her that weekend.

"Yeah." El smiled. "What did you do this weekend? I only saw you a few times this weekend."

"Well," Hopper thought for a second, "I walked around town, got to see what small town life looked like. I met some new people, like Benny and this one woman named Joyce."

"Will's mom?" El asked. El had met her for a few second over the weekend but she seemed nice.

"Yeah. I think so." Hopper nodded. "Anyway, I told her when I was buying food for the hotel that we were from out of town. She knew right away that we were the people visiting Mike. We talked a little bit after that, she seems nice."

"Yeah." El said getting distracted by the sign they were about to pass.

You are know leaving Hawkins. Thanks for visiting!

El sighed as they passed the sign. She didn't want to leave. Back in Chicago she didn't have any friends, all she had was Hopper. She was leaving all of her friends behind.

El was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Hopper unbuckle his seatbelt.

"What..what are you doing?" El asked mildly panicked.

"It's okay." Hopper soothed, trying to multitask. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. He held it out to El. "Here. Karen told me that the kids wanted you to read this after we left town. So, here you go."

El grabbed it from his hand and Hopper buckled his seatbelt again. She opened the paper up and saw that there was 5 different types of handwriting in one long letter addressed to her.

El,

Hey, it's Mike! I just wanted to be the first one to talk to you and to say thank you for coming for my birthday party. I can't wait for you to come back, and I was thinking...if Hopper doesn't want to drive up here during spring break, maybe I could go up to Chicago to visit. I've always wanted to visit a big city and my family doesn't leave the town much.

I had a lot of fun this weekend and I know you were a little nervous at first, you don't really hide your emotions well. But I'm happy I got to meet you in person. It really was a surprise, I thought we would have to wait longer to meet each other. But you were here, and you met my friends who also really like you and can't wait for you to visit again.

Okay, Max is really wanting to write to you now so I pass it over to her. Just one more thing before I do. We are all putting our phone numbers on the bottom so if you really need to talk to us and you can't wait for the mail, you can call us.

Hey, El! It's Max! Sorry you had to read so much from Mike, he took like fifteen minutes thinking over what to say. Anyways, when you come back this winter break, we have to go to the mall together! I could even yeah you how to skateboard...on second thought, we should probably wait for the snow to melt before you try that for the first time.

But we could still have a girls day, that would be a lot of fun! And you could even sleepover if my stepfather would allow it. If I talk about it to my mom first she will probably convince him to let you stay over. Anyways, I don't want to take up too much time of yours since three more people are wanting to write to you so I'll hand you over. Bye, I'll definitely be writing to you a lot. Beware.

Hey, it's Dustin. I'm gonna be quick because my mom is wanting me home soon. I just wanted to say thank you for surprising Mike, I know he loved having you here. He probably won't shut up about it for the next week, but that's okay I guess. The best about it is when we mention your name he blushes a little bit and Max starts to laugh at him. I can already see some sort of relationship happening in the future between you two. Don't tell Mike I said that because Lucas and I are placing bets on it and if he finds out, he will only delay the relationship to prove us wrong. I will NOT let that happen. NOT. EVER.

Sorry, we had to pull the pen away from Dustin. He was scribbling random words and almost tore a hole in the paper. Anyhow, hey, it's Lucas. I just wanted to say thank you for coming here. Mike was right, you are a cool person. Max has been talking my ear off about you since you arrived. She will definitely be happy when you come back. Can't wait to see you again.

Hey, it's Will. It was so great to meet you after only hearing about you all this time. Everyone was excited to meet you and we loved the trick you pulled on Mike with the plant in the driveway. We knew you had to in the party when you did that. We didn't even need to talk to you, you were in.

Also, think my mom met Hopper while you guys were here, because she talked about him for 20 minutes straight. That's all I have to say. Have a safe trip home, El!

Mike, Max, Dustin, Lucas, Will

P.S. Dustin I saw what you wrote!

No, you didn't.

El laughed at the letter. One thing was for sure.

She was going to miss her friends in Hawkins.

Author note
Wow. This chapter was longer than I thought it would be. But I like it, so pfff whatever!!

Thanks for reading guys!!

Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️