things you said through your teeth (alternate)

It's just that I'm so afraid someone might steal you away, I'd lose my mind

"What's the matter with you?" Mike asks through gritted teeth, Indiana is in the middle of a severe heat and everybody is miserable.

Eleven is standing in front of him, wearing flip-flops, a modest one-piece and one of his old Hawaiian shirts. She frowns and holds her can of Coke to her neck, trying to cool off but it's as warm as the sunshine. "What are you talking about?"

"You were flirting with Jake Perretti!" Mike answers. "I saw you!"

"I tripped over a pool float," Eleven tells him. "He was just helping me up! What's the matter with you!?"

He rolls his eyes and runs his fingers through his hair. He doesn't believe it for a second. Jake has been trying to steal her all year. He looks like Michael Schoeffing and all the girls are crazy about him but for some reason he's only had his eyes on Eleven and Mike can't stand him.

It seems like Eleven has been oblivious to his flirting and passes. Until today. He is so jealous, he can barely see straight. The guys are huddled together a few feet away from them, avoiding eye contact and listening to their conversation.

"He wasn't just helping!" Mike insists, shooting a look in the football player's direction. His fan club has gathered around him, a herd of gorgeous girls in a rainbow array of bikinis and tanned skin.

Eleven sighs. "We're friends."

"Friends?" Mike repeats tightly, his stomach dropping all the way to his toes. "You spend time with him?"

"What is wrong with you!?" Eleven asks again. "I spend time with Dustin and Lucas and Will."

"That's different! Will is your brother! You can't not hang out with him!" Mike answers, growing hotter by the second and not just from the sun beating down on him. "Lucas and Dustin know how—"

Eleven lowers her soda and looks at him. "What are you talking about?"

Mike shrugs, his feelings for her are something he hasn't said aloud in all the days they've known each other and he's not about to tell her now. Not when they're in the middle of an argument, surrounded by their friends and classmates and little kids begging their parents to let them go into the water.

"Mike? What do Dustin and Lucas know?"

"Nothing," Mike lies. "Just. . . when have you found time to hang out with Jake Perretti?"

Eleven looks at him curiously. This is a side of him that she's never seen before. She searches her ever expanding vocabulary for a describing word and comes up with jealous. A few weeks ago, she had overheard Nancy telling Steve to quit being jealous of Jonathan.

"Mike, are you jealous?" She asks carefully.

Mike scoffs. "No!"

Eleven studies him. "I think you are."

"Am not!" Mike argues, sounding a lot like Holly when she argues with her friends at school.

"He doesn't like me," Eleven assures him, too mature to respond with yeah huh! She nods in the direction of where he was sitting. "Why would he?"

Mike rolls his eyes. "You're every bit as pretty as them. Maybe prettier. And you're really smart. All those girls are only interested in the latest Madonna music video. He'd be lucky to have you and I think he knows it."

"I don't see him outside of school," Eleven tells him. "Sometimes he'll walk me to my locker after class but that's all. I spend most of my time with you."

"He wants to date you, trust me."

Eleven beams. "You are jealous!"

"Am not!" Mike says again. "It's not like we're—"

He stops short and sighs. Eleven wonders what he was going to say next but decides not to ask because she knows from experience he won't answer her.

"Why are you jealous?" she asks instead.

"If I were jealous it would be because he looks like a movie star," Mike answers. "And how could I ever compete with that?"

Eleven takes Jake in and then studies Mike. "Well, he's kind of boring. All he talks about is sports and cars. And I don't think he pays attention in class. He always asks me if he can look at my notes."

"He has to get good grades or they'll kick him off the football team," Mike argues. "He probably only asks for your notes as an excuse to talk to you."

"Well, if he really knew me, he wouldn't like me," Eleven says like it will settle the whole argument. "He wouldn't get me, not in the way you do."

Mike knows he should stop fighting with her but he's not sure she gets it. He's not sure she sees how amazing she really is or how every guy she's ever met would be stupid for not turning their worlds upside down for her. To not understand her or try to love and fix her broken parts.

She could do so much better than him. A Dungeons & Dragons nerd who'd spent his summer at the library reading fantasy novels and working on a new campaign.

"Eleven—"

She shakes her head, signaling the end of the conversation. It's like she can read his thoughts, she reaches out for his hand and clasps it tightly in her's. "I like you Mike," she says.

Three letters, eight words is all it takes for his breath to catch in his throat. He doesn't know if she means if she likes him just as a friend or as something more. But it makes him feel important all the same, knowing she doesn't really like any other boy in any kind of way.

Yeah he knows she does like Lucas, Dustin, Will, Jonathan and Steve but they all treat her like a sister. It isn't the same thing and they both know it.

"I will have to talk to other boys," she tells him. "Sometimes. Try not to get too jealous!"

Mike flushes bright red. "I was not jealous!"

She smiles like she knows a secret. "Okay!"

"Are you two done arguing yet!?" Dustin asks loudly.

"We're being summoned," Mike says even though things aren't exactly resolved between them.

"We're good, right?" Eleven asks suddenly, anxiously.

"Yes!" Mike assures her. "Yes, of course!"

He can't seem to bring himself to apologize. If he does, he'll have to admit she was right and he's too cowardly to do that. He doesn't want her to know his weakness. He'll have to fight it. She is not like other girls. She won't be swayed by movie star good looks and an expensive car.

He thinks maybe he'll be stuck with her for life.

And he's okay with that.

TBC. . .

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Author's Note:

I actually have an alternate story to this story. If you're interested in reading it, let me know and I'll post it sometime this weekend, I promise. I know I already wrote a jealous Eleven story but one of my friends in the ST fandom asked me to write jealous Mike and I cannot resist filling requests for my friends.

The song is "the Jealous Kind" by Joe Cocker.

I hope you'll leave a review! I'll be back soon with more.

Lots of Love,

Holly, 10/22/2016