Mike Wheeler was nervous. He had every right to be nervous. He was about to ask arguably the most important question a guy could ever ask the love of his life.
He cautiously walked across the room, turned, dropped to one knee, pulled the box out of his pocket, opened it for her to see, and said the words:
"Will you marry me?"
Max threw on the fakest, goofiest smile she could muster.
"Oh my god, Mike, yes, a thousand times yes!"
This got laughs from Hopper and Nancy on the other side of the cabin's living room, but none from Mike.
"Come on, this is serious!"
"Mike, we've been here for two hours rehearsing this. I think you've got it." Max said rubbing her eyes.
"She's right, kid." Hopper said in an attempting-to-be-comforting tone, "This might be just right."
"You think so?"
"Yes, you walk across the stage, take the diploma, shake the principal's hand, move your tassel, stop, turn in front of El, drop to one knee, take out the ring, ask the question, and wait for her to say yes, it's as simple as that" Nancy rattled off going through every step that Mike had been stressing out over every conceivable detail of all day.
"Should I use her name?"
This got groans from everyone in the room.
"I just mean, should I just say "Will you marry me?" should I say El? El Hopper? Jane? Jane Hopper-"
"Why are the three of us the only ones who know about this again?" Max asked, cutting off Mike's latest tangent.
Mike groaned, "For the third time, Max, you know because you're El's best friend and you would know how to make this perfect."
"And because she's a girl" Nancy added.
"That's part of it, too, and why you're here as well."
Hopper was a little confused, "If you wanted a woman's opinion, why didn't you ask Joyce?"
"Too risky. Your wife is great and everything, but, she can be very emotional, and she lives with you and El, can't risk her accidentally letting it slip."
Max glanced at Hopper, "He's got a point, Chief."
Hopper didn't say anything, secretly knowing they were right.
Nancy was thinking something over "I'm gonna go ahead and guess you didn't ask mom because you knew she would blurt it out to everyone?"
"You know our mom too well." Mike said getting a knowing smirk from Nancy.
Mike continued "And I think you know why you're here, Hopper."
Max realized she must have missed that part, "Why is he here?"
Mike was too embarrassed to answer before looking at the Chief and saying "Just...just tell her."
Hopper couldn't help but smile at this, "He wanted my permission to propose in the first place."
"Wait, seriously?" cried both Nancy and Max in happy surprise.
"That is very cool of you, Mike." Nancy said very proud of what a mature move that was for her brother.
"You were okay with this though, Hop?" Max asked.
Hopper got up from his chair, looked at the girls and then at Mike with a surprising smile on his face.
"Normally, no, a proposal fresh out of high school? Give me a break. But, the fact that he thought to ask showed how serious he is about Eleven, besides, I knew he loved her this much and more so a long time ago."
Mike couldn't help but smile back at Hop for his unique approval, "Thanks, Chief" before turning back to the others and continuing on like earlier, "Now, I don't want any chance of this getting back to El, so none of you can tell anyone, not Joyce, not Will, not Jon, not Dustin or Lucas, nobody, got it?"
"Yes" came a trio of annoyed groans.
"Good, now, just one more time from the top."
This got another set of annoyed groans.
The graduating class of 1989 at Hawkins High was in the gym waiting to be led out. Mike and his friends were sitting together talking about the colleges they were going to, what was gonna go on the rest of the day(due to how close the group was and the size of the house, the various families were all going to Mike's house to celebrate), and other such things. Mike had gotten up and went to a corner claiming he needed air, when really, he was too petrified to think straight, the velvet box with the ring in it burning a hole in his pocket, him still thinking over every step like clockwork, when El came over to see to her boyfriend.
"Hey, you all right?"
Mike turned around; "Yeah, I'm fine" he croaked out, trying hide how pale he was and how sick he felt from his shot nerves.
El saw right through it, smiled sweetly, and wrapped her hands in his, "You're really nervous, aren't you?"
Mike knew he couldn't keep anything from her, God, she's so amazing, he thought. "Yeah, you could say that."
"Don't worry, I'm really nervous too, about college, about the real world, all of it. But, and I'm gonna give you part of my speech now" this got a chuckle out of Mike, "As long as we have the people we love by our side, how bad can it be?" El said, lifting up Mike's right hand and lightly kissing it.
And with that, it felt like a great weight had been lifted off of Mike's shoulders, he knew what he was doing and it was gonna be perfect. Feeling the color returning to his cheeks, he leaned in, wrapped his arms around her and gently kissed her.
"I love you so much, El, like, more than words can describe."
"Well, that's good, cause I think I love you even more, Mike."
"Not possible."
"We'll see."
They smiled and laughed at each other until El spoke up.
"I gotta go, valedictorian's gotta get up there early, big speech to give, see you after." she said looking from Mike to the rest of the group.
"See you after" Mike repeated before smiling and giving a small thumbs-up to Max.
El's speech was fantastic, and then the principal started calling everyone's names.
"William Byers..."
With each name, it felt like a clock ticking down further and further, and yet, for the first time, Mike was totally at ease.
"Dustin Henderson..."
Mike glanced around, he saw each set of parents had brought their own camera to film the ceremony, even Steve was there filming, "won't have to worry about getting a tape of this, it really is gonna be perfect" Mike thought to himself.
"Maxine Mayfield..."
Mike appreciated being near the end of the alphabet, he hoped the two guys after him, Joe Wilkening and Caleb Young, wouldn't mind being held up a bit.
"Lucas Sinclair..."
"Not too much longer," Mike thought, "not too much longer."
"Michael Wheeler..."
"This is it, no turning back"
Mike stood up, walked up to the podium, took his diploma, shook the principal's hand, moved his tassel all perfectly as he rehearsed it and walked over to where El was standing.
"Joseph Wi-" the principal started to say before realizing Mike wasn't sitting in his on-stage chair with the rest of the class. There were quiet murmurs among the crowd.
"What are you doing?" El asked quietly.
And with that, Mike dropped to one knee, turning the murmurs from the crowd and El into gasps, he pulled the velvet box out of his pocket and opened it, showing the ring to El, her face going into a shocked expression.
"El, will you marry me?"
El started to smile, fight back tears, and just try to find something resembling words to say to Mike.
"Oh...Oh my God!"
This technically wasn't an answer.
"So?"
"Yes! Yes, of course I will!" El shrieked, overjoyed.
Mike quickly put the ring on her finger, got up and pulled her into a tight embrace, kissing her with all his might.
The response from the crowd was surprising, his family and his friend's families all started cheering for them, and this caused a few cheers from the other families before he awkwardly looked at the principal.
"Sorry to interrupt" he also pointed at Joe and Caleb, "Sorry, fellas" thankfully, all three of them just gave bemused smiles, clearly not minding before the principal quickly called the last two names as Mike took El to sit down.
"I can't believe you did this" El said overflowing with happiness.
"I can't believe none of us found out about it" Dustin said turning around.
Mike had to admit it a little "Well, a couple of people knew."
Will leaned over, "Well, now we know Jonathan won the pool."
This surprised Mike, "There was a pool?"
It was Lucas' turn to lean into the conversation "Oh yeah, even all the parents knew you were gonna ask her eventually, Jon picked Graduation and I had you pegged closer to Christmas. Thanks for nothing by the way" Lucas said, half-jokingly
The principal wrapped up his speech and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, the graduating class of 1989! Graduates!"
With that, everyone stood up and threw their hats into the air with a cheer, the melee allowing Mike and El to embrace and kiss each other again.
"You knew exactly what you were doing today, didn't you, Mike?" El asked her now-fiancee lovingly.
Mike couldn't help but smile back, "Oh, yeah, it was a piece of cake."
Mike knew Max was listening, and he had to give her credit, she didn't take the opportunity to point out how full of shit Mike was.