𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 ~ 𝐦𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven
Don't Ask Again

"Where are you, fucker?" Scotty mumbled to himself, gently pushing open the door of a janitor's closet. "Ugh. Bust."

"Nada." Max sighed, shutting the door of an empty classroom.

"Fantastic!" Scotty's voice was dripping with sarcasm as he turned his back to her to walk away.
"Amazing day we're having, isn't it?"

"Okay," Max huffed, reaching forward and grabbing onto Scotty's sweatshirt, pulling him back to stand beside her. "Talk to me."

"Are we not talking?" Scotty questioned, crossing his arms and looking down at her.

"What was the fight about?"

"Oh, my god!" Scotty laughed in exasperation, shaking his head. "There was no fi-"

"Liar." Max cut him off, "You and Mike have been acting like complete assholes to each other. You both were all buddy buddy on Halloween, but now it's like you hate each other. Will you just tell me what's going on?"

"I coughed up a flower." Scotty shrugged, shoving his hands into his pocket.

Max blinked slowly. When she realized he was done, she rolled her eyes and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Okay, fine. Don't tell me. I'm gonna go look in the locker rooms, you finish up this hallway."

Scotty rolled his eyes, pressing the button as he lifted it to his mouth,  "Janitors closet and science classrooms are clear. Over."

"God, I wanna go home." He muttered to himself, watching as Max walked towards the gym.

~~

They'd lost Will. Well, they knew where he was.. But he wasn't there mentally. He was standing there, in the middle of the field. But Will wasn't there. His body was twitching and his eyes had rolled back in his head.

"Fuck., fuck, fuck, fuck!" Scotty paced back and forth as Mike tried to break Will from the trance.

"Will! Will!" Joyce's voice pulled Scotty's attention onto her, who was followed by Max, Dustin, and Lucas.

"I just found him like this!" Mike explained as Joyce came to a stop in front of her son, "I think he's having another episode."

"Will! Will! Will!" Joyce shouted, gently shaking her son. "Sweetie, Wake up, it's mom! Will, wake up."

Scotty's heart pounded against his chest, the ringing in his ears grew as he watched one of his best friends struggle.

"Will! Will, wake up. Can you hear me? Will, wake up. Will, please! Just wake up!" Joyce begged, tears pricking at her eyes. It's mom, it's me."

Seconds passed agonizingly slow before Will woke with a gasp. Scotty breathed a sigh of relief, dropping his head and resting his hands on his hips. "Oh, thank god."

~~

Scotty watched as Joyce led Will down the stairs, an air of tension looming over the remaining party.

"Okay.. that totally freaked me out." Max admitted, her grip tightening on the skateboard she held in her hands. "Did thay not freak you guys out?"

"Two episodes in two days." Lucas ignored her, "It's getting worse. You think it's True Sight?"

"It has to be." Scotty said, glancing over at Mike, who  felt his gaze immediately. Before he continued, he turned his eyes towards Lucas and Dustin. "No other explanation."

"What's True Sight?" Max questioned. When she got silence as a response, she repeated herself. "Hey, what's true sight?"

"It's-" Scotty started, earning a sharp look from Mike. "Like a D&D thing."

"Elaborate." Max rolled her hand forward, indicating him to go on.

"It's nothing." Lucas said quickly, "It's nothing."

~~

"I think I had an panic attack last night." Scotty sighed, shoving his hands deeper in his pockets. Silence overtook the chatter, the boys had stopped in their tracks. Scotty froze a few steps ahead, almost regretting the words as soon as they had been said. "Must've been a real bad one, pretty sure I started hallucinating too."

Dustin and Lucas paused, sharing a look with each other, having a mental conversation. Both knew exactly what it was about, rather who, it was about.

"Hallucinating?" Lucas pressed, "Hallucinating what?"

"You're gonna think I'm insane." Scotty laughed bitterly, "That uh- That I coughed up a flower. Not a whole one! Just a petal. Of a tiger lilly. Crazy, right?"

"Because of Mike?" Dustin asked tentatively, wincing  as he spoke Mike's name. Scotty tensed turning to face them, glancing in between both of them his stare hardened. "Why the hell would it be about him?"

Lucas huffed, crossing his arms. "You haven't exactly been civil with each other today."

Scotty spun on his heels, beginning the approach to his house again. They had been walking around on his property, looking for god knows what. Maybe another one of the things that Dustin found? Scotty wasn't sure, he hadn't been listening when it was explained to him. His mind was on Mike, who was sitting across the classroom.

Lucas and Dustin jogged to catch up to him, both having to increase their pace to keep up. "Scotty, come on. Was it about Mike?"

"Doesn't matter who it was about or what it was about! I lost all my fucking progress, over some bullshit that didn't even actually happen anyway! And especially won't happen again. So who gives a shit what, or according to you two goons. Who it was about?" Scotty refused to look either of them in the eyes, almost ashamed to admit anything to them. Let alone that Mike had been the cause of his slip up.

Dustin already knew the answer was yes. Scotty's reaction told him everything he needed to know. Of all the times they'd fought, and they'd fought before, though it was rare. Both boys were stubborn as hell, but Scotty and Mike always made up within the hour, two at most, if they fought. Now, they're approaching hour twelve. Something was wrong.

This one was different. Scotty didn't foresee Mike apologizing for acting how he is, and Scotty felt he was being a justified asshole. Meaning: Mike wouldn't be getting an apology from Scotty. No, Mike would have to pry an apology from Scotty's cold dead hands.

"Scotty." Lucas said sternly, "Just tell us what happened."

"I already did!" Scotty snapped, "My progress is over. I'm back at day one."

Scotty trusted his friends, of course he trusted his friends.. but he didn't like to admit that he needed help. Let alone that he wanted it, if he even did want help.. Which, for the record, he wasn't sure if he did or not. Needing help made him feel weak. Scotty didn't like a lot of things, and being weak was one of those things.

"Dude. Your progress isn't ruined, it used to be almost everyday. Right?" Lucas reached forward, grabbing ahold of Scotty's shoulder and forcing the boy to look at them.

At Scotty's silence, Dustin pressed on. "Right?"

Scotty sighed, focusing on the howling wind whirling through the woods. "I guess.."

Dustin pointed out, "Now, it's been eleven whole months, and that's awesome! One panic attack doesn't set back months of progress."

"Will you tell us what it was about?" Lucas asked again. "We could he-"

"No." Scotty was firm, his eye twitching as he started, again, towards his house, stepping over larger branches that had fallen from trees due to the recent storm. "And don't ask again."

~~

a/n; i'm not proud of this one a whole lot but uh