At first Sight

Everyone thought as president of Hawkins AV Club, Mike would naturally end up in a media communications program in college. If not that, at least some kind of technology program, computers, electronics, something.

But Mike read a lot, and Mr. Clarke told him that the way the brain works he would naturally start writing better. True enough, his English grades improved significantly. He spent a long time designing and his D&D campaigns, and they got very intricate and he let Mr. Clarke read a few of them. He told Mike he should consider submitting them for actual publication. Of course Will was a shoo in to do the illustrations and the diagrams. And along with Dustin and Lucas, the playtesting was already done.

So college a literature program appealed to him. His career in writing took off. And he moved to get out of Hawkins. Not too far because he knew he'd want to visit a fair bit but he wanted to be in a "Literary city"

Mike was tired. He was taking the last of his boxes of books up to his loft so he decided to push himself a little despite his waning strength. The top of the boxes he was carrying went a was a little higher than his head, so with some difficulty he grabbed his keys, and let the top box lean against his right ear and he carried them to the buildings main door.

"I will open the door for you" a young woman's almost staccato voice said beyond his vision.

"You are an angel" Mike said, and could hear her soft giggle.

His arms were screaming, but this was his last load, and even though he rarely drank, he figured a cold beer would be his reward when he was finished.

He had no idea where he was in the hallway on his floor when he heard "Not stalking you but it seems we live on the same floor. I can open your door for you" It was the same voice he'd heard earlier.

"You are my guardian angel then, cause I'm about to pass out with the effort. I don't have a lot of upper body strength…accidentally revealing he was a 90 pound weakling" he said and he heard that musical giggle again. "Grab my keys, in my left hand. It's…um, number 1253, on the left"

"Can't be. You must be in 1254" the voice said.

"Ok, um, I guess you could be psychic" Mike said.

"I'm 1253, she said accidentally giving away her apartment number" she mimicked his thinking aloud narration.

"Have you seen the huge muscles in my arms?" Mike said.

"No". She'd only seen really seen his knees and feet behind the boxes he was carrying.

"Yeah, because I don't have any. What I do have are screaming in pain, I have to put these down."

And then right afterward "Sorry If I sounded rude, I really am at my limit. I'm gonna crash tonight. Even though I haven't even put together the bed I just bought. Probably going to have to make a temporary blanket fort…once I find the blankets, and the sofa cushions . And plans to make a blanket fort . And the pillows. Am I missing anything? Uh, sorry for running off at the mouth, I do that when I'm tired, nervous, excited, uh…, I do that a lot."

"You have no energy left because it's all going to your mouth" she said laughing.

"Yeah, sorry. So now you know when I come over your apartment at number 1253 that I just secretly learned the location of to borrow a cup of sugar, it'll take me 2 minutes just to ask for it. ". He heard another giggle his loft door slide open, and the young woman walking ahead of him.

"Oh…nice view" she said, "Sorry I had to go in to get out of your way"

"That's ok, I would have invited you in anyway. just let me know if I'm about to trip over the stuff I've already brought up"

"Stop. You can put them where you are standing".

Mike put the boxes down, feeling a little dizzy from the strain, "Sorry.. give me a sec". He took a couple of deep breaths. " I was never what you'd call the athletic type. I mean, I would always go bike riding with my friends so it wasn't like we were total nerds living in our mom's basement and didn't have any physical activity-well we were total nerds but we-. "

While still talking, he turned around and saw her for the first time. And then he stopped mid sentence.

Her eyes were big, round, and just…stunning.

She looked a little surprised and out of breath.

He got really weak in the knees and he sat down abruptly to avoid falling over backwards.

She hesitated, then rushed over with those eyes widening in concern and knelt down to his level her hand on his arm. "Are you ok?"

Mike nods, but doesn't say anything.

"Are you sure? You went from non-stop talking to…nothing"

Mike's cheeks are getting pink and he's looking down that floor in front of him avoiding her eyes. He finally looks at her. He tries to clear his through but his voice weak and a bit hoarse he says the only think he can think of.

"You're so pretty I can hardly speak"

He looked back down again, and he knows his cheeks are a bright red now.

When he looks back up, she is looking into his eyes as if searching for something.

She looked away, and then got up quickly and walked out the door.