𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 • (byler)

prologue (00)

will byers and mike wheeler had been best friends since kindergarten. neither of them had many friends, so they decided to be each other's first and only best friend.

eventually, they met lucas sinclair and dustin henderson and they too joined the group, which they eventually made into a "party." they had always played D & D in mike's basement and had fun together.

on november 6th, 1983, will had gone missing. he had been taken to the upside down, by a monster called the demogorgan. the upside down is an alternate dimension of their world. the other three boys along with will's mother joyce and brother jonathan, mike's sister nancy, the chief police jim hopper, steve harrington, and eleven, a girl with telekinetic powers that they met in the woods, took it upon themselves to go find will byers and they did. eleven had joined the party, but soon disappeared.

the upside down left a mark on will. in 1984, he had been possessed and by the shadow monster (or the mind flayer). maxiene (max) mayfield had "joined the party" and all of our main characters from last season as well as max and bob newby, joyce's boyfriend, who eventually dies, all try to help put a stop to the shadow monster as well as the other creatures, the demodogs. we learn that eleven was found by hopper and starting living with him. eventually, she comes back from seeing her mother and sister, and closes the gate to the upside down with hopper. jonathan, joyce, and nancy burn the shadow monster out of will. max, mike, lucas, dustin, and steve go and destroy the tunnels the mind flayer has been using to spy. finally, it was time for the middle school winter dance, the snowball. lucas and max danced together and dustin danced with mike's sister nancy. eleven showed up to dance and danced mike because they'd liked each other since the day they met. will had decided to dance with a cute girl from his grade, but he didn't really enjoy it. he fake smiled the whole time and didn't look at the girl while he was dancing. he was watching mike and eleven dance together. when they kissed, it felt like his heart was being squeezed tightly. he thought he'd felt this way because he had a crush on eleven, but the truth was, he liked mike. he had always liked mike, but didn't realize it until just then. will had realized he liked boys, more specifically, mike, but mike would never look at him that way because will is a boy, and el is a girl.

now, here we are, the summer of 1985 and will was still crushing over mike, and maybe he always would be, but he knew deep down, mike would never be crushing over him, and it hurt.

word count: 478