THE DANCE
'So do you prefer "El" or "Jane"?' Mike asked gently as they sat outside in the cool evening air, taking a breather from the dance raging on inside. The boys looked to be having a good time before they had snuck out to have some time alone.
'You did that thing again,' El replied, with a serious look on her face.
'I kissed you.' Mike stated, matter-of-factly. 'D-did you like it?' he stammered, shortly after.
'Kissed.' She rolled the word around in her mouth for a second. 'I liked it,' she decided with a small smile, 'and "El". It's what I heard. For the 353 days.'
El spoke more - Mike noticed - but she preferred the safety of short sentences, and he adored that.
'I missed you so much, when you were gone. I thought I'd lost you forever,' he said, his voice breaking on the words. It had been almost a year and he had tried to talk to her every day - never accepting that she was truly gone, and she wasn't. His heart was filled with happiness.
'Missed. Is that what it's called? It hurt. Is that missed?'
'The root word is "miss", but the feeling happened in the past, so it becomes "missed". I don't miss you anymore, because you're right here,' he answered, lacing his fingers between hers.
'I missed you too. Like mama. I saw you. I called your name. You couldn't hear me. It hurt. I like this now,' she smiled shyly and rested her head in the crook of Mike's neck. She remembered when Hopper had broken the TV - how broken she felt at the thought of not being able to see Mike, but she could see him now.
Just then, the emergency exit door next to them flung open and Dustin came bounding out of the gym.
'Hey lovebirds, we need to cut this short, Will is a planeswalker, he can see the upside-down, it doesn't look good,' he gasped.
Eleven slowly lifted her head and looked at a panting Dustin.
'That's okay, let's go,' she said, pulling Mike up with her, 'the food is bad here. They don't have Eggo'.