"Rise and shine!" Mikes eyes slowly opened, his sight coming to terms with Nancy hovering over him.
"It's summer?" He groaned and pulled the blanket over his head.
"It's March," Nancy replied, pulling Mike out of bed by his foot. "Nancy!" He yelled, kicking out of her grip. "You're already late. Let's go! Will's been waiting for fifteen minutes already!" He stopped. "Will?" Nancy nodded and threw some clothes at Mike. "We're offering him a ride to school. Now let's go!"
Mike jumped out of bed, still a bit drowsy.
Nancy got them some chocolate flavored Pop Tarts to eat in the car while waiting for Mike.
"How much longer is he going to take?!" Nancy mumbled to herself while taking a bite of the sweet snack.
"Is he usually this late?" She asked. Will shook his head, following Nancy to the car.
"Yeah. Ever since this year started he hasn't been able to get out of bed which is getting kind of annoying." Nancy grumbled and shouted Mikes name once more.
Right when Will was about to get in the car, Mike bumped into him from the other side.
"Oh! Sorry," Will said, while Mike gave him a quick glance and looked away. 'He keeps doing this', Will thought to himself. He just won't talk to him outside of school. He finds it weird. 'Did I do something wrong?' he thought. He shrugged it off and just looked the opposite way.
-
After school, Mike tried to avoid Will as much as possible. He didn't want to see him at all anymore, let alone at school. Ever since Will moved back to Hawkins, Mike had felt something that he couldn't quite put into words. He didn't even know what it was. But he knew that Will had something to do with it.
'It's my fault,' Mike thinks.
Completely lost, Mike doesn't realize he's stumbling right towards Max.
"Hey!" She shouts, ripping her headphones off.
"Watch it!" He shouts back, running out the building, tears forming in his eyes. 'Why am I crying?' Mike shrugs it off and walks home.
-
"Hey, Will! How was school?" Jonathan asks as Will walks in. "Good," Will lies, walking straight to his room.
As soon as he's in his room, he just starts crying. Full on sobbing and hiding his face in his pillows to deafen his cries from his family. 'I hate this. What did I do to him? Did I say something? Did I do something?' Will turns over just to see a drawing Mike gave him back in 1984. That was the day of the Snow ball.
He remembers Mike showing him how to properly dance that night. Lucas and Dustin were cheering him on, Will was laughing and Mike was smiling, looking right at Will. He remembers locking eyes with him for a split second and never getting over it. Knowing that Mike will only ever see him as a friend just hurts him more and more from within. Even if Will just ends uo marrying someone random from college, he will never forget Mike.
-
Mike is in his room, reading some X-Men comic. But he can't focus on anything other than Will. He doesn't know why, but not a single thought crosses his mind that isn't in some way related to Will. Not even El. He throws the comic away angrily and shoves his face into his hands. 'What's wrong with me? Why can't I function properly ever since he moved? I was fine when he was in California! Why wasn't I fine when I visited him and El in California? Why am I like this now? He's my best friend!'
Suddenly, it clicks. All his thoughts suddenly connect all at once. He realizes he's felt this way before. Way before he met El. He remembers what it was like for him whenever someone talked about him marrying a woman and having kids, for him it never felt right, but he also reminds himself that he has a girlfriend. He can't let himself be like this, he can't let himself constantly have the mindset of being a let-down to his family. He can't let himself be in love with his best friend that he's known since he was 5 years old. It would completely destroy their friendship, Will would hate him and so would the rest of his family and friends, especially El.
"No," he says. "I'm not like this. Stop. Stop it. I'm like my father. I am going to have a normal family with El and am in a normal relationship with her. I am normal."
