✓ | 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 (BYLER)

𝒙𝒊𝒊𝒊. UP TO US

━━━━ 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 !
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

Mike, Will, and Jonathan woke up at the crack of dawn despite hardly receiving an ounce of sleep the night before. They resembled a trio of zombies who didn't have enough vitality to participate in the apocalypse. Will felt like the infamous Zombie Boy title finally suited him.

In all fairness, it was virtually impossible for the teenagers to drift off to sleep when they didn't know where Eleven had ended up. They longed to sneak out of the house and embark on a hunt for her, but the government agents lounging in the living room made it quite challenging to do so.

Although he ached to crawl back under the cozy duvet comforter on his twin-sized bed, Will knew he needed to get himself dressed and ready for the adventure awaiting him.

After changing his clothes and taking care of his hygienic needs, Will found himself pacing around Jonathan's bedroom in distress. Meanwhile, Mike had perched his lanky figure on the edge of the bed. The typical scent of marijuana lingering in the small space had almost entirely vanished and the room itself was abnormally tidy.

Will stole a ball of rubber bands from the top of his brother's dresser and fidgeted with it while rambling to an inattentive Mike Wheeler, whose focus was on the note El had written for him. He studied the words over and over again until they began to look and sound like gibberish.

"I mean, I just don't think they've actually thought this through," Will prattled, flinging the ball into the air with one hand and catching it with the other. "If this goes on for a month, or months, and people can't get a hold of us, they're totally going to freak out."

Mike remained silent, his lips tightly pursed together. He continued to gaze at the crinkled sheet of paper in his hands even though he was tired of reading the same sentence repeatedly.

"Meanwhile, my mom's probably having a panic attack already," The Byers boy carried on. "And what about Hawkins? That lady's just supposed to keep it 'contained.' Like you can contain any of this without El!"

"Yeah," Mike whispered, his chocolate-colored eyes still fixated on the note.

Will heaved out a dramatic sigh after realizing he had essentially been speaking to the wall for five minutes straight.

"If you keep staring at that, it's not gonna change. You know?"

Mike glanced up at him, his dark eyes glistening in the California daylight. Will momentarily broke eye contact with the boy, but he peered back in time to catch him nodding in agreement.

"Yeah," He responded with a halfhearted grin. "Yeah, you're right."

With one swift motion, he crumpled the note into a ball and launched it into the trash can as if it had come from his worst enemy. This unexpected action shocked Will to his core. Why would Mike toss out a paper given to him by the girl he cared about more than anything else?

The brunette let another sigh escape his lips before plopping down next to his friend on the edge of Jonathan's bed. Their elbows brushed together ever so slightly, causing Will's breath to hitch. An explosion of butterflies filled his stomach, all because of a subtle touch.

"Before the cops came, me and El . . . we had a bad fight," Mike confessed. "We never fight. I mean, we've fought before, but they were just silly fights. Stupid fights."