Tank03, Stranger Records. . . thank you for your reviews on chapter 3. Also, a big thank you to adventuretimetbh, TorontoBatFan, SmoothFluffle, Ry0523, and Guest for their reviews on the first two chapters.

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Chapter 4

"We could lock them in a room together until they start to talk again."

Will shook his head. "Didn't that happen on a television episode once? Besides, you know El doesn't handle being confined very well."

Max opened her mouth like she was going to say something but Lucas shook his head. "You only get one more chance Max. Choose your idea carefully."

"I was just going to say, I don't think it's such a bad idea to lock them in a room together. El will panic and Mike won't be able to help himself, he'll comfort her. . . and I just realized how dumb I sound."

"Mike will also get mad at whoever's idea it was to lock them in the room in the first place," Dustin told her.

Kelley wrinkled her nose. "Wow. Mike and El. . . they really have an intense relationship, don't they?"

"You have no idea," Max said. "You're just lucky she hasn't decided to extract some sort of revenge on you. One time, she thought Mike had a crush on me and—"

"El's not going to come after you!" Dustin interrupted before Max could reveal one of the Party's well-guarded secret and manage to strike fear into Kelley all in one go.

"Mike and El just get each other in a way no one else gets them," Will pointed out gently. "I'm sure you have some kind of understanding about that or you wouldn't be here helping."

"If it'll save girls from going out on crummy dates with Mike Wheeler, I'm glad to help!" Kelley replied cheerfully.

"Mike has the capacity to be a good boyfriend!" Lucas defended his best friend. "He just saves it all for El."

"I was talking to Steve a few nights ago and he suggested we should set them up on a date with each other," Dustin interjected before a fight could break out.

"Mike's not going to go on another blind date," Kelley said. "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy you can fool twice. Besides how many girls are you going to put through dates with him?"

"No! We leave them notes from each other and make them think the other person wants to get dinner," Dustin explained like she was in kindergarten. "It's sort of an ambush. They'll both show up at the same place, at the same time and they'll have to talk."

"They could easily just go and ask if the other person sent them a note."

Will sighed. "I have a shift at the comic book store in 20 minutes and this is not going anywhere productive. Maybe we can adjourn the meeting for now and come back later with a more willingness to listen to other people's ideas?"

Everyone agreed. Satisfied, Will went to get ready for work.

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Alone Again (Naturally) was playing when Will got back to their house.

"Is El still wallowing? He asked sympathetically, glancing at Mike who was working on his homework and fidgeting with an unruly curl.

"El?" Mike repeated. "Oh, yeah. I guess so. . . I haven't seen her all morning."

Will looked slightly disappointed. "I thought you would talk to El and explain things."

Mike looked slightly guilty. "I would have. . . but I didn't see her at all, I swear Will."

Even though the truth was, they had been together the whole morning and El had fled when she heard the door open. Mostly because they didn't want anybody to find out they were trying to be friends again. It would lead to questions and El had told him that she wasn't ready for people to ask if they were getting back together just because they were talking again.

Will sighed. "It's okay. I can ask her to turn it down if you're having trouble concentrating."

"I'm fine! She's fine!" Mike hurried to assure him, suddenly very aware of his odd behavior. "Just leave her alone. . . let her deal with whatever she needs to deal with."

"Okay. . ." Will agreed. "Maybe talk to her when you get a chance though. Okay? Maybe you can handle another night of heart wrenching music. But the rest of us can't."

Mike nodded. "Don't worry about it, Will. I'll talk to her, I promise."

"Good. I'm sure if you don't fix it soon, Hop will come for a visit and make sure you do. I have to hurry or I'll be late for work."

Mike really hoped Will wasn't talking to his stepfather about the situation with El. But Will never made threats lightly or emptily. He considered for a second telling him that everything was okay but he didn't want to betray El's confidence that way.

He was going to let her have complete control going forward.

When Will had left, Mike went and knocked on El's door, signaling the coast was clear.

"I told Will I would talk to you about last night," Mike said. "So, maybe don't play every single sad song when everyone gets home tonight. I think you managed to annoy all our roommates."

El smiled sheepishly as she turned off her stereo. "Did I annoy you?"

"Not really. I kind of took it as penance."

"Michael Wheeler, you are probably the most ridiculous boy that I've ever met," El said affectionately.

Mike thought about saying 'yeah but you love me anyway' but couldn't bring himself to be that flirtatious. He felt like he was standing on shaky ground with her and that he had to tread carefully, or he'd be likely to mess everything up again and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

He sighed and fluttered his eyelashes. "I know."

"I've got to go now," El told him. "It's my turn to grocery shop. I'll stop by the comic book store and let Will know I'm fine and let him know I'll quit playing music so everyone can sleep."

Mike nodded. "Okay."

"See you soon," El said as she grabbed her denim jacket and the list Will had left for her.

Mike followed her to the door, he almost asked her if he could go with her. But he hesitated long enough for her to give him a side-hug and say goodbye before leaving the house with the quickest glance over her shoulder.

He sighed and reminded himself how stupid he was.

Again.

TBC. . .

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Author's Note:
I am sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I was with my sister and it's hard to edit and post from my Chrome Book. This is not as long as I would have liked it to be and I apologize for that. But I hope you liked what I was able to deliver and that you will stick around for the next one.

Until Next Time!

Love,
Holly