"I was a sad kid." - Post Malone
... (Mike's POV)
What the hell is happening?
First I find myself falling for a girl who I just met, asking her to hang out and then basically buying her dinner, and now you're waking up early, 6:30 in the morning for the first time in who knows how long.
But here I was brushing my teeth, just... staring. Staring at the clock on the wall looking at it like a ghost. 'What the hell am I doing.' I thought, why am I even bothering to go for this girl, once she found out that me and my friends were the geek squad of the school there's no way she would even bother talking to me at all, I knew what I had to do.
I had to distance myself from her, before I got too attached and get myself hurt more than I'd already been before.
I walked down, had breakfast, and left without a second thought, my own parents weren't even awake when I left, something that I don't think has ever happened before.
"Why am I even walking to school right now?" I asked out loud to myself, awaiting an answer that would never actually come.
But without even giving it anymore thought I found myself to keep walking in the direction of Hawkins High. The sun had begun to rise now and things were starting to brighten up a bit, I won't lie that when that sun hit my face, I honestly felt a bit better, the same feeling arising when I saw Jane smile.
Fucking stop it Mike, this is how you're going to get yourself hurt.
It was back in the eighth grade, I had asked a girl to the snowball, Janet Trae, she was beautiful, one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen, we'd talked and hung out a few times and talked a lot, and when I had asked she had said yes, I was on such a high that day, the happiest I'd been in a long time.
And then she crushed it under her foot.
I get there and I see her kissing and dancing with none other than Troy. I went and talked to her and she flat out said she wanted to go with Troy more, she said she didn't even really want to be friends anymore.
I looked around at the few people around us, a few people laughing, a few people were smirking, but everyone had the same thought.
"Wheeler just got his heart crushed."
I walked out, I didn't even want to be there anymore. That's about the time when all this started, my heart freezing over, going into an ice age that was going to last a while, the only people able to break through the layer of ice being my few friends.
But now Jane Ives was breaking her way through the layers and once she reached the bottom of the hole and hit my heart, she'd just stab her shovel straight through it, a repeat of what had happened in the past and if you don't learn from your mistakes, you're bound to make them again.
I reached the school and climbed the steps to the front doors.
Locked.
"Of fucking course." I said out loud as I began walking around the back of the school but the sides were blocked off by fencing with a big sign on the front.
-Dear Hawkins High Students-
We regret to inform that the school is under emergency construction after a gas leak was found, School will be back in session in two days once the problem is solved.
Sincerely, Principle Sylvia White.
As if the day couldn't get better than it already was and by the looks of it, everybody except me had known that school was out for today, even the early birds who are usually here are gone without a sound.
I reached inside my pants pocket, feeling my wallet in my hands.
'A day in town wouldn't hurt, coffee at Benny's wouldn't hurt either.' I thought as I began walking down the road to the heart of Hawkins.
...
"Would ya look at what the cat dragged in!" Benny said as he approached the table I was sitting at.
"Mike Wheeler, here, in the morning I might add? What's the special occasion?" He said in a joking voice, but it wasn't mocking, it's the way you would joke around with your friends, or the way a dad would joke with his son, I quickly thought about my dad after thinking this. What a useless sack of shit, never did anything with me and I knew he hated me.
"Schools closed for a few days, so while I was down here I though I'd get some coffee." I said leaning back in the booth I sat at, it was kinda rude to take up an entire booth yourself but with how my day has gone so far, I didn't really care.
"Well it's good to see you out and about, you want your usual double double?" Benny said pulling out his notepad.
"Yes please." I said giving him a warm smile, just like the ones me and my friends gave him when we stopped by.
"I'll be right back." He said as he rushed off to the back of the kitchen and grabbed a mug and a fresh pot of coffee, pouring it in at the same time as the cream and then poured the sugar in last.
"Here you go Mike." He said as he handed me the cup of steaming coffee.
"Thank you." I said, he didn't say anything back but he didn't need to, there was always a silent affirmation between us.
I set down the cup of coffee, 'Way too hot to drink.' I thought as I looked into the brown and white mixture.
I don't know when it happened but I ended up putting my head into my hands and I think I fell asleep. The whole situation with Jane kept me up quite a bit and the fact that I woke up early didn't help with my dreariness. I'm not quite sure how long I was like that, maybe five minutes? But what I do know was that I was woke up by the ringing of the bell when somebody entered Benny's diner.
Then she walked in.
'What are the fucking chances?" I thought as I leaned back in my chair and took a sip of my coffee, before putting my hands on my face again.
"Mike?"
I jolted upright making Jane jump back a bit.
"Oh, I'm sorry." She said apologetically.
"It's alright, just jolted me up a bit." I said as I took a sip of my coffee, really hoping that caffeine kicked in quick.
"Do you mind if I sit?" Jane asked.
"Go ahead." I said, now sitting up, I appreciated her outfit, a blue T-Shirt and some shorts that cutoff at about halfway down her thigh.
'Snap out of if Mike.'
"So what are you doing here?" I asked.
"I walked to the school and saw that it was closed for the next few days, and I didn't want to go home quite yet so I came to the only other place I knew in Hawkins... Here." She said giving the diner a look over before returning her eyes to me.
"So when I walked in here and saw you I though I might come over here and sit and talk for a bit."
"Yeah... I'm not sure you want to do that." I said now looking down, my hair covering my freckled face.
"What?" Jane said looking confused.
"Look... you don't want to talk to me or my friends, everyone will label you a nerd, just like the rest of us."
"Mike..." Jane said, looking genuinely hurt.
"I should go, I'm not going to let something like this happen again." I said as I got up and slammed down a five dollar bill on the counter.
"Keep the change Benny!" I yelled as I ran out the door of the diner, My hardly drank coffee still sitting at the table.
I walked into an alley that led to one of the side streets of Hawkins.
"Not again. Not again." I said as I walked down the alley, tears forming in my eyes.
"Not again..."
