JANUARY 2 1985

It was early in the morning. As soon as Mike woke up, he fixed himself some cereal and ate it in a hurry. He then took a two minute shower. After that, he brushed his teeth and got dressed in a sweater and black pants. He thought about putting perfume on but refused this time, knowing El likes him 'natural.'

He looked in the mirror of his bathroom and fixed his hair before going downstairs. His mom woke up and followed him downstairs. Halfway down the stairs, she rubbed her eyes and saw Mike all dressed up so early. She couldn't believe it initially.

"Mike? Why are you up so early?" Karen asked.

"I gotta make the most of this vacation time, Mom."

"It's just that the arcade isn't open for another hour or so. It's 6:30 in the morning, son," Karen reminded him, thinking he had to be confused.

"You're always telling me that I should be getting out more instead of playing my Atari but when I actually wanna get out and explore, you wanna question me?"

Mike always knew how to talk his way out of everything.

Karen sighed and rubbed her eyes before yawning.

"It's not that, I just- you know what? Forget it. Have a good day, Michael. I love you. I'm going back to bed," Karen walked back up the stairs.

"Love you too!" Mike shouted before leaving the house and getting on his bike.

He peddled quickly to the cabin and was there in about five minutes.

He absolutely knew Hopper and El were both still sleeping, but he didn't care. He wanted to see El. He slowly opened the door to the cabin, trying his best to avoid making it creak too loud. Mike tip-toed his way to El's room before slowly opening the door. El was sleeping on her side.

El had a pillow that she rested her head on, and a pillow next to her where she had her walkie talkie. She was always prepared for Mike to call her. Luckily, Mike brought his walkie with him. He got down on the floor in front of the bed where she couldn't see him. Mike felt like pranking her for some reason. Maybe he had the morning giddiness and wanted to do something different.

He did a countdown in his head on when he was gonna talk into the walkie.

3…...2…...1……

"El! El! I'm in trouble. Please, you gotta help me!!" Mike said through the walkie, sounding like he was about to die.

"MIKE!" El screamed and immediately jumped to her feet.

She grabbed the walkie from her pillow and started talking back.

"Mike, where are you? What's happening?!" El asked, very worried about her boyfriend.

She started walking to the door when she turned her head and saw a shocked Mike on the floor.

He saw tears already dripping from her eyes. That's when he knew he fucked up. He stood up immediately and hugged her. El dropped her walkie talkie on the floor, too emotionally upset at what was happening.

"Mike?! Why are you… What are you doing?! Why did you say you were in trouble?!" El said during the hug, sounding broken.

"I… I thought it would be a funny prank. I didn't think you'd cry…"

"NO. Losing you isn't funny, Mike. I don't know if I'll be able to live without you," El said while slowly regaining her composure from hugging Mike.

"I'm sorry, El. I'll make it up to you," Mike said, looking devastated at what he had done to her.

They broke away from the hug. El grabbed both of his cheeks and smiled.

"You've already made it up to me by being here," El replied.

"No. I was being immature… and a mouth breather. You don't deserve that, El. I promise, I'll make it up to you," Mike swore to her while brushing her hair back.

"OK, if you say so. But since you're here, you wanna get under the covers with me? It's a little chilly," El said, having a mischievous grin on her face.

"Funny, for some reason, I just got chills while looking at your beautiful smile," Mike replied and jumped in her bed.

El laughed out loud before joining in beside him under the covers. They held each other's hands which were under the covers. They both felt warm, safe, content, and complete. Nothing in the world could stop them when they were together. Not even The Mind Flayer.

"God, you're so pretty, El," Mike said as he blushed just by looking at her.

El didn't look what she considers her best. She had red and white striped pajamas on, messy hair, and just got done crying. She just realized that Mike was seeing her like this.

"Oh, no. I'm not pretty right now. I'm so ugly, Mike. I don't want you to see me like this. Please, don't look at me!" El said as she grabbed one of her pillows and attempted to hide her face.

Mike snatched the pillow from her face immediately and caught her off guard by pecking her on the lips. Mike's lips on hers calmed her down real quick.

Mike couldn't help but chuckle at El's face.

"You look… exquisite. You know what exquisite means?" Mike asked El, almost testing her.

El twirled with her hair.

"Um, I hope it's something good," El replied.

"It's another word for beautiful. I'm gonna teach you all the different synonyms for Beautiful because I want you to know every time when I call you one of those words, that means you're beautiful. Because you are."

"El was blushing so hard, her face turned red.

"Does.. synonym mean… like… two words meaning the same thing?" El said.

"Yeah! You're gonna be a natural in English!" Mike joked.

"I told you. I'm gonna be ready for school before you know it!" El said with pride.

"I never thought a girl getting educated would be so hot!" Mike said, making El giggle.

"I can't believe I made out with a nerd yesterday!" El joked, starting to pick up Mike's sense of humor.

"Hey!" Mike replied.

He took the covers off of her in protest.

"Mike! Give them back!" El said as she tugged on the covers, but Mike was naturally too strong.

El took the easy way out and used her powers to snatch the covers from his hands and back onto her.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Mike shouted.

He was lucky that Hopper is a heavy sleeper.

El stuck her tongue out at Mike, her nose slightly bleeding.

"Seriously, stop. I hate it when I see your nose bleeding."

El saw the serious expression on his face and stopped. He wiped the blood from her nose and wiped his hand on her covers.

"Mike!" El was annoyed but couldn't stay annoyed for long.

They started kissing each other. It's almost like electrical currents in their brain crossed with each other and they both responded at the same time. They held on to both of their hands while sitting with their legs crossed. Each kiss felt unique and it kept getting better as they lost track of time. Mike felt something poking in his pants, trying to get out.

He broke off the kiss and panicked.

"Oh shit-shit-shit-shit!" Mike got out of her bed and grabbed one of her pillows to hide his crotch area.

"What are you doing?" El asked, curious as to what's making him act strange.

"I-uh, nothing. Something happened that wasn't supposed to happen, that's all you gotta know," Mike said.

"What is it?" El asked, oblivious to what he could be talking about.

"Don't worry about it!" Mike immediately replied, wanting his erection to die down.

"Mike… friends don't keep secrets. Remember?"

Mike had to accept defeat this time. He's the one who gave her that rule. He couldn't break it now. Thankfully his erection was gone and he tossed the pillow back on the bed and lied down.

"I… had an erection…"

"What… is that?"

"Down there, I have this body part between my legs called a penis. All boys do. When a boy gets excited from a girl… such as yourself, the penis can get… hard…"

"Hard?" El was still confused.

"Like… physically hard. Jesus, help me out here," Mike said while looking up above, hoping some divine force would hear him and intervene.

"So boys have penises? What do girls have then."

"El. Can we just talk about this at another time. I'm really not in the mood to explain all this stuff this early."

El reluctantly nodded her head and cuddled up to Mike, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for asking too many questions, Mike," El said, sounding sincere.

"You're alright, El. It's just we're too young for that type of stuff anyway. And I came to spend time with you, not teach you… things…"

"OK. I understand. Let's talk about something else then."

The teenage couple went silent for a long minute, unable to think of something during that time frame.

"Do you know when Hopper goes to work?" Mike asked.

"Well its the weekend so he doesn't go until the afternoon."

"Perfect!"

"Why?" El replied.

"Well. I was hoping you could come to the arcade today. You don't have to stay long. Maybe just an hour. We can play air hockey and cheesy arcade games," Mike said, sounding happy.

"Mike…"

"And everyone misses you. They all want to see you. Dustin, Lucas, Will, even Max wants you to be with us!" Mike continued on.

"Mike!"

Mike sighed in defeat.

"I know…… You can't go. It's too risky!" Mike immediately got depressed.

El put a hand on his chest and started to rub it.

"I want to go. I want to be with you, with everyone. Tell them I miss them so much. But you know there's still people out there. And I don't want to risk everything by going to the arcade…"

"Yeah. I understand," Mike softly said, already feeling down.

"Cheer up! I'm gonna be able to do those kinds of things soon," El smiled at him.

He could never stay sad when looking at her smile.

"I just woke up really early, hoping, having so much positivity, just hoping… that you'd say yes. But I knew deep down inside that it would always be no. I'm sorry for even asking, El. Your safety is way more important."

"No, I'm sorry, Mike. You deserve better than me. You should… get a girl who can actually go out to places with you. I'm… useless," El said, wanting to cry.

"No! I'm not losing you…"

Mike kissed her forehead while putting his hand through her hair.

"Damn, El. Sometimes I feel like you're using your powers to trick me because the more I look at you, the prettier you get."

"What if I don't want to be pretty anymore? Maybe I want to be hot," El gave Mike a dirty smirk.

"OK, you keep on talking dirty like that, I'm gonna have to punish you!" Mike teased.

"Punishment from Mike Wheeler is a reward for me," El replied with a grin.

"Alright, seriously, El. Stop before I get that erection thing again."

"OH, sorry," El immediately broke her flirtatious character.

Mike and El started smooching again. During the smooching, El grabbed him by the neck, wanting to feel his Adams apple.

Mike realized she could kill him if she wanted to, and that made it even hotter.

The morning kept going on. Before they knew it, it was 8:00 AM. Mike looked at his watch and got up.

"Are you going already?" El asked, feeling disappointed.

"Yeah, promised the gang that I'd meet up with them around 8:00."

"Screw it, now I'm going," El said, making Mike's eyes light up with excitement.

"Really?!"

"No, silly."

"Then why did you say that? Why get my hopes up?" Mike said, feeling hurt.

"It was for what happened earlier this morning, remember?" El said.

"Yeah. I guess I deserved that. I'll see ya later, El. Bye-"

Mike started to walk out of her room but was frozen in place immediately. He could still move his head though. He turned back to look at El who was holding his walkie talkie.

"Forgetting something?" El said with a grin on her face.

She unfroze Mike, allowing him to walk back to her.

He grabbed the walkie from her and kissed her cheek.

"Get some sleep. Keep studying, okay? You're making really good progress!" Mike encouraged her.

"I know," El said, starting to get a little confidence from Mike.

Mike gave El one last kiss before leaving her be.

2 hours later

Mike was using the bathroom in the arcade. He got done and flushed the toilet. He went to the sink to wash his hands and dried them off afterwards. He decided now was the right time to pull his walkie talkie out and try to communicate with El real quick.

"El. I don't know if you can hear me. I wish you were here though. I'd imagine you kicking Max's butt in air hockey. I just imagine you playing all these games with me… with a big smile on your face. I… this is silly. I'm talking to myself…"

Mike put away the walkie and was about to leave the bathroom.

"Mike," he heard her on the channel and pulled out his walkie again.

"Yeah, El?"

"Do you… do you think I'll be able to meet your parents one day? Like, once all of this is over?"

Mike didn't answer immediately. He didn't know to be honest.

"I would like to think that day would come. Why do you ask?"

"Because…. When I meet them, I'm gonna tell them how alluring, appealing, charming, cute, dazzling, delightful, elegant, exquisite, good-looking, gorgeous, handsome, lovely, marvelous, and pretty their son is."

Mike started giggling and blushing.

"Dammit, El. I was supposed to tell you those things!" Mike teased her.

"Find your own synonyms, nerd!" El laughed after striking back.

"You already know I will. I'll talk to you later, K?"

"Alright. Talk to you later." El replied.

Why was Mike feeling so bubbly right now…

No other girl could make him feel this way. And all she did was say a bunch of synonyms of beautiful. It would seem stupid to some other person, but Mike felt his heart growing with each synonym.

He felt like the luckiest boy in the world. He couldn't wait till tomorrow to see her again.