The cool autumn breeze caused El to tug her jacket closer to her chest while she anxiously sat with the rest of the party at an outside table in their school's courtyard.
It was early enough that the sun just now made its appearance, masking the sky in a haze of orange and pink. The school was still practically empty and if it weren't for the few students meeting for early morning clubs, their group of five would've been the only ones there.
"So now will you tell me what happened?" El asked impatiently, confusion and concern mixing in her voice.
It was like she had missed one day and suddenly things had turned upside down (no pun intended..)
Yesterday, she had battled a head cold that left her at home all day in bed. Hop told her it would be best for her to sleep it off, and that she did. However, it was kind of weird when Mike hadn't shown up at her house that afternoon, especially since he said he'd stop by to check on her. But she didn't really give it much thought, having practically slept most of the day anyway.
She woke up this morning to a few strange voicemails on her answering machine. One being Max who sounded kind of panicked, telling El to call her back as soon as possible. The other being Dustin who issued a code red, saying that it was urgent. The last one seeming to be Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Will all nervously rambling over themselves, begging her to meet up with them before school started.
And now here she was and it felt like she had been gone for a week or something.
"You know Bryce? That meathead jock who's good at football, but pretty stupid otherwise?"
"Yes..?"
"So get this! Apparently yesterday during gym he kept bullying this poor freshman kid and Mike couldn't take it anymore and decided to do something about it. He then throws the first punch and before you know it, they get into a full on brawl!"
El's mouth fell, completely baffled as she paused just to take that information in. "You saw this?" her face scrunched together, as though she was trying to piece the scenario together.
She just couldn't wrap her mind around the fight at all. Maybe it was simply because Michael Wheeler was never one to get into a fight. Never. The most "fights" (if you classify them as that) he had been in were during middle school. One of them being with Lucas in the junkyard and the other one that time he pushed Troy during the assembly for Will, but even those really didn't classify as fights per-say.
And for him to just throw himself into a fight like that, even if he had good reasons.. just didn't make much sense to her. Don't get her wrong, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Mike was beyond loyal and he stood up for his friends no matter what. (It was definitely one of her favorite things about him.) but to stand up like that for someone he didn't know well and who wasn't even a part of the party.. Well, just wasn't quite adding up.
"Uh, well no." Lucas mumbled, his eagerness deflating.
"But…" Dustin cut in, grabbing his friend's shoulder. "We have reliable witnesses."
"Yeah, if you can count the 6th period gym class as reliable.." Max rolled her eyes. She then turned her attention to the girl sitting across from her. "None of us saw the fight that went down between Mike and Bryce and those who did see it all have some different shitty story, so who knows what to believe."
Will nodded in agreement. "She's right, because I completely heard something else."
"What?" they chorused.
"I heard that Bryce threw the first punch because he accused Mike for trying to hit on Shelby during their tutoring session."
Mike was always ahead of the game when it came to preparing for his future. He was only a sophomore but yet still wanted some other extracurriculars a part from A.V. club. that he could put on his future college applications. After the principal had suggested tutoring (to El's dismay) he started to incorporate that into his weekends. The only reason she didn't particularly like it was because it cut away time from their usual weekend hangouts, but regardless she understood and he always made it up to her anyways.
But El recalled him briefly telling her about tutoring Shelby.
Shelby was Bryce's girlfriend and they definitely had the typical on and off again jock and cheerleader relationship. Mike had mentioned to El earlier that he thought Shelby was an arrogant airhead and he had no idea how she was gonna pass math class let alone tenth grade.
This whole scenario didn't seem as far fetched. She knew that Mike would do his best to defend himself especially if someone like Bryce tried to fight him based off of false accusations. But for some reason this still didn't settle with her. There just had to be more to the story.
"Even if that was what happened, don't read too much into it." Max flippantly waved off, reassuring her friend. "Bryce is the type of douche bag to make up a reason to fight just for the hell of it." she then looked over at her El and smirked. "But last I saw him, couldn't help but notice that he sure does have a nice shiner. Hmm, guess Wheeler isn't as wimpy as we thought." she teasingly elbowed her in the side.
"No way!" Dustin butted in, a toothy smile stretching across his face. "Mike actually got a punch in?"
Lucas shared a similar expression while he turned and eyed Max expectantly. "Whoa! really?"
"Yeah, I saw Bryce sitting outside Principal Craig's office and lo and behold he had a huge purple bruiser. Crazy right?"
"Who knew Mike.. our dorky, lanky, no hand eye coordination paladin even had it in him.." Dustin chuckled, wiping a pretend tear from his eye. "They just grow up so fast."
While El tried to still wrap her mind on the whole thing the others continued to talk amongst themselves, sharing their surprised disbelief that maybe Mike hadn't totally got his ass handed to him (well at least not going down without a fight) while also doing their best to sort through the rumors and get to the truth of what really happened.
But honestly she couldn't care less about what happened or why. All she was really worried about at this moment was one thing.
"What about Mike, is he okay? She suddenly blurted, causing the others to stop talking. "Where is he?"
The party glanced between each other, hoping that the other person would have the answers.
Will broke the silence, looking at El sincerely. "We actually haven't seen Mike since lunch yesterday but that was before the whole fight even happened. We even went to his house after school, but his mom answered the door and told us that he needed to rest and sent us on our way."
"But we can tell you for a fact that he won't be at school today. He sure as hell probably got suspended or something." Lucas shrugged.
After hearing those last words, El immediately swung her back pack over her shoulder but before she could get up from the table Max stopped her.
"I know what you're trying to do. But El, there's no way you can miss class. We have our history final today!"
"It doesn't matter."
Max looked her in the eye. "Look I know you're all in overly protective psycho girlfriend mode or whatever. But think about it, okay. Really think about it. This final is worth 30 percent of our grade in that class and you and I both know you can't afford to fail this. So all I'm saying, is sure you can go see Mike now but will it really be worth it when you can't see him come graduation?"
She hated that Max had such a good point. It wasn't like she had the best grade in that class anyways. She was honestly still struggling to catch up with the others and history for some reason had been kicking her ass. She had to pass that class though if she hoped to make it to junior year. Ugh… but Mike. She just had to see him. No, she needed to. She needed to know if he was okay. The idea of him being hurt in any way, just made her feel sick to her stomach.
She hesitated momentarily, thinking of all her possible options and it wasn't long before an old familiar word came to mind..
Compromise.
"Fine. I'll go, but after history, I'm going to see him."
Max huffed under her breath, but didn't protest. Instead grabbing her things as the warning bell sounded, a reminder that they had ten minutes to get to their first class. "Come on then."
.
.
As El walked into Hawkins High, she suddenly felt everyone's eyes on her. This was even worse than the very first day she walked in here as the new girl (and you better believe that being the new adopted kid with the mysterious past nobody knew about was tough.) It was as if almost everyone, regardless of social status (cheerleaders, geeks, druggies, etc) were looking at her and whispering among themselves as she walked by. The unusual amount of attention made her really uneasy and Max must've noticed because aside from flipping them off, she reached out to still El's shaking arm.
"Ignore them." The redhead whispered. "Apparently the fight is still big news and they're probably just throwing you into their stupid rumor mill."
It was like everything was overwhelming her, the fight, the whispers, the stares. Mike wasn't even here to help her through it, in fact, he was probably in pain at the moment and there was nothing she could do about it.
And suddenly El couldn't breathe. So she did the only thing she could do right then and darted ahead of Max straight into the girl's restroom.
There she found an empty stall and just sat on the toilet seat cover doing her best to gain her composure. Her face fell in her hands as she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath for the first time that day.
This wasn't the first time this had happened. Even after escaping the lab a few years back, El still battled with anxiety. It wasn't as bad as it used to be, especially now that Mike was helping her through it. But still some days she felt that wave crash over her again and she just needed to escape. But when you're in a school filled with tons of other people sadly, there's only so many places you can go.
Her eyes shot open as soon as she heard the bathroom door swing wide. At first she thought it might be Max but was proven wrong upon hearing a bunch of high-pitched chattery voices. She then peeked through the tiny sliver in the bathroom stall.
"So get this, I heard that the Wheeler kid's girlfriend broke up with him for Bryce and that's really why they got into it yesterday."
El recognized this voice. It was none other than Kelly Avery. The popular preppy girl with the beautifully long blonde feathered hair who invested way more time into the gossip at this school than anything else. Max literally hated her guts, especially after that one rumor she spread about her being a lesbian but that eventually fizzled out last year when Lucas and Max officially became a couple.
But what was she talking about? Breaking up was not even a phrase in El and Mike's vocabulary. It was something she never even thought of especially knowing that her and Mike were gonna always be together, so where on earth did Kelly even get that from?
"Wait who's his girlfriend? Or ex I guess I should say." Tonya asked, checking her makeup in the mirror. She was Kelly's right hand, and you hardly ever saw the two a part. Their mission, aside from gathering the dirt on everyone at their school was to also win every student government and homecoming election possible.
"You know the chief's adopted daughter. I think her name is Jane or something." Kelly shrugged uncertain while she turned to the mirror and fluffed her hair. "She's a little weird, kinda quiet, and always hangs out with those nerds along with Mayfield."
"Oh her." Tonya replied rather unimpressed.
"Who knew those two would ever have trouble in paradise? I thought for sure they'd be that couple to run off and get hitched." Laurie added, as she filed her nails. She recently joined Kelly and Tonya, making the previous duo now a trio. She was a wannabe though and you could tell by the way she acted and dressed that she was their mini-me.
"Well guess little Janey finally decided she wants more than lame comic books and science fair ribbons." Kelly snickered. "Who could honestly blame her though?"
El felt her body tense up as anger flashed through her. She stilled herself though, gritting her teeth as she sat there, not wanting to make any rash decisions while also desperately reminding herself over and over that she couldn't use her powers in school, no matter how much she wanted to bust open the sink pipes right now and drench Kelly and her minions in water.
"True, but you have to admit that Michael is actually kinda attractive, like for a nerd I mean.."
Kelly looked over at Tonya in disgust. "Please, as if!"
"I actually agree with T on this." Laurie spoke in defense. "All I'm saying is that, if he exchanged those stupid sweaters for leather jackets, had cooler friends, and like played sports. I'm not gonna lie and say I wouldn't ride the Wheeler Wagon." she playfully winked at the others.
"You both are clearly deranged." Kelly rolled her eyes, shuddering. "But if you two are finally done discussing your little nerd fantasies then let's go, we have bigger fish to fry." and with one final glance at the mirror she turned on her heel and headed out, the other girls scrambling out the door behind her.
Aside from being further reminded that these girls were clearly a bunch of mouth breathers. (Of course her boyfriend is super attractive and it's no surprise that others think the same way but these "fantasies" as Kelly had put it, better be all they were because if they weren't her powers might not be as easy to restrain, just saying and for the record Laurie, she thinks his sweaters look super adorable, thank you very much.)
However, El could without a doubt dismiss this rumor as being far from the truth. They hadn't broken up and weren't even considering it. If anything, things had actually been amazing between her and Mike. She thought back to what Max had said earlier about everyone having a different story and now she could see that was definitely the case, but were any of them actually true?
Was anything anyone said about each other in high school.. true?
.
.
After ringing the doorbell, she stood on the porch trying to catch her breath. What would've been a simple ten minute bike ride to Mike's house turned into a thirty minute jog. (Yeah, she definitely needed a bike of her own.) However, she could tell by the empty driveway that Mike's parents weren't home. (She figured his dad was still at work and his mom off with Holly somewhere)
The door creaked open slowly. "El?" raised an all too familiar deep voice. Mike then opened the door fully, his face contorted in confusion. "Um, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?" he asked while leading her inside and closing the door behind them.
It was here in the light of the Wheeler's living room that she could examine him clearly. He had a few band aids on his face, one above his right brow and another on his chin. She could also see a new scab forming on his bottom lip along with a yellow bruise on his cheekbone. But aside from that, what she noticed the most was how tired he looked, almost like he hadn't slept all night.
"I was, but I came to see you." she replied, instinctively reaching out her hand to gently caress his face.
"Guess you heard." Mike embarrassedly turned his face away. "I'm fine though El. You really should've stayed in school. Don't you have a final today?" he asked, making his way towards the couch.
"I left after I finished it." El dismissed, seating herself beside him. "But what happened?" she inquired, concern lingering in her tone.
Her boyfriend leaned back against the couch, avoiding her gaze. "It was nothing okay? just a stupid fight."
El could tell it was more than nothing. She hadn't seen him this way since those times she had visited him in the void back before he even knew she was still alive. It was like his light diminished, instead replaced by a dark cloud. "Mike." she remarked definitively. "The truth."
"Where do I begin?" He hesitantly sat back up and instead of looking her in the eyes, he stared down at his folded hands, anxiously twiddling his thumbs. "Well, earlier this week my parents told me they were getting a divorce and I know I should've saw it coming and I kinda did.. But them telling me just made it that much more real, you know? and I'm sorry, I didn't tell you earlier but I was still trying to process it myself and I just didn't really wanna bother you with it."
El knew Mike's parents had a rocky marriage and an even rockier relationship with their children. Divorce was a term that was still new to her but after hearing it on one of her soaps, Hopper had been the one to explain it to her. He told her it happened when those who were married fell out of love.
She tried to imagine Mike's parents actually being in love in the first place. From what she had heard, it seemed like they decided to get married more out of convenience than out of love.
El still recalled the time Joyce let her look through her old Hawkins High yearbook. (She mainly just wanted to find and make fun of Hopper.) but she also saw Mike's mom as well. (Wow, Nancy looked just like her.) Then Joyce proceeded to tell her the story of how a fresh out of high school Karen met the twenty three year old white collared Ted Wheeler, who had a well paying office job and was already investing into buying his first house. Karen's parents were beyond delighted and encouraged their daughter to get married so her future could be set.
She wondered how two people could fall out of love, if maybe the real problem was that they weren't even in love in the first place?
"You wouldn't have bothered me." El calmly reassured him, holding his hand.
Mike gave her a small thankful smile, looking in her direction. He paused for a moment, and then his face fell. "So a few nights ago after the news of their divorce they got into this huge fight, and I wanted to talk to you about it the next day but you were home sick so I didn't even see you.. and I don't know, I was just really upset and angry and when I overhead Bryce talking shit about you I just couldn't control myself and it was like I let all my rage out on him." he rambled as his face tightened with tension at the memory.
At first El was very confused on why Bryce would say anything about her in the first place but then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
A few weeks back he had tried to ask her out. El didn't know why either especially when she clearly was dating Mike and even if she wasn't (which wouldn't be the case) She still would never go out with a guy like Bryce. Gross.
She assumed he had asked her out because he wanted to look good in front of his friends or "he just wanted to get in her pants" as Max had often told her.
Either way, she flat out rejected him in front of the whole football team and she knew that had pissed him off, especially since she made him look bad in front of all of his friends. But honestly she didn't care, even when he hurled a slew of insults at her and dared to chase after her in which she may or may not have made him trip and face plant right into the mud.
So, now the fight finally made sense.
Bryce was holding onto a grudge and Mike had just been pushed to his limit.
Geez, everyone at school was so wrong.
El turned to look into his deep dark eyes. She could see the pain and anger he was trying so hard to hide behind them and she felt like a rock plummeted into her gut. He didn't deserve this, any of this. He was the greatest person she had ever known and it tore her apart knowing he had felt this way. "I'm sorry Mike."
"Don't be, it's not your fault"
"No. I'm sorry." She repeated again, not once breaking eye contact. "I'm sorry that you have to go through this. It's not fair. You deserve to be happy."
Mike blinked back the tears that lined his eyes before they could fall. "But El, you make me happy." he softly smiled, lacing his fingers between hers.
El brought her free hand up to his face, and gently rubbed her thumb over his busted lip. She needed him to know that things were gonna be okay and that they would get through this together just like they always did and it was right then and there looking into those beautiful eyes that she knew their story would never end up like his parent's.
"I love you."
Mike was taken aback, gaping at the words he hadn't heard from her before. He stared at her for a second as though he was unsure of this was real. A warm smile then bloomed over his face, replacing his previous worries. "I love you too.. so much." he breathed, as he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
She laid her head on his shoulder while he held her, and there they sat together in the stillness of his living room.
She didn't know what was to come the day when the divorce with his parents would be finalized. She didn't know how things would be like for Mike when he returned and whether or not their issues with Bryce were actually over. She also didn't know what the rest of high school would entail for them.
But one thing El did know,
She would never fall out of love with Michael Wheeler.