JANUARY 16 1985
For the next thirty minutes, Eleven told Mike about her visit to her Mom's house and also about her adventures in Chicago. He didn't interrupt, he didn't ask questions during the story; he just let her talk and explain herself.
Mike forgot he was in El's room, too enthralled with her long story. He knew she never talked so much before, so he had to listen to every word.
El almost choked up a few times while talking about certain things, but Mike had this aura of calmness that resonated with her, so she was able to get through the story without breaking down in tears.
She was almost done. El just needed to say a few more things to close out the story.
"And then I realized… that life in Chicago meant nothing. There was no hope there with Kali and her crew. I remembered how happy I was in Hawkins with you……….. With Hopper……. With our friends."
El sighed as she shook her head, trying to stop herself from crying.
"You were all in trouble. You were screaming to get through. I was so scared, so hurt, so lost. I was trying to find out who I am, where I fit in all of this. I realized that I was being stupid and selfish. I left the only people who ever cared about me, who helped me… and you all almost died because of it. I belong with you and Hopp in Hawkins. This is my home. And…. I think that's everything I have to say..…"
Mike didn't take his eyes off of hers. He couldn't respond right away, how could anyone? She just spilled her heart and soul out to him and he didn't know what to say, not even knowing where to start.
He looked around her room, sighing while shaking his head. He scratched the itch off of his face while reflecting about everything she had just told him. A minute of silence had gone by when he finally said something.
"El…………….. I…………….. This is………………….. Why……….. Why didn't………. Why didn't you tell me this earlier?!" Mike asked.
"I didn't think you'd want to know…"
"OF COURSE I do! I don't want you hiding important stuff from me like that. You can tell me anything, El. Anything," Mike said, having a smile.
"Yes. I know. But I wanted to move on from those memories. But… I couldn't hold it from you any longer. I'm sorry, Mike," El was truly sorry for not telling him sooner.
"It's alright. I totally understand. We all have dark memories that we don't want to share. But I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to tell me these things. It really means a lot to me, El."
El rubbed her hand through his hair and softly smiled at him. He was always so understanding and polite to her at all the right moments.
"You mean a lot to me," El replied as both of them blushed.
Mike had thought of something to ask her about.
"Your mom? She's still alive, but she's like… uh, what's the right word? Vegetative state? She just kept on remembering the moment that she saw you and when the badmen did all that stuff?"
El nodded her head yes.
"That's sad. I wish she could see how great you turned out… well she can see you, but you know what I mean," Mike said, carefully thinking about his words.
"I mean it, El. She would be so happy to see you here… safe... "
Mike held her hand to comfort her.
Eleven's heart loved hearing Mike say that with his memorable smile. El had to restrain herself from jumping on top of Mike for a make-out session.
Mike had a look of anger slowly creep onto his face. He thought about her mother some more and what happened to her. He was visibly upset and disgusted.
"El. If I ever……. If I ever see that grey-haired fuck again, I'm gonna kill him myself and spare you the pain of even looking at that son of a bitch"
El could see his angry eyes and by the tone of his voice, she knew he wasn't bluffing. He would kill Brenner for her.
"If… he's alive," El added in.
"Yeah. Well, like you said, the guy that worked for Brenner said he's alive. How convincing did he sound?" Mike asked.
"Con-vin-cing?" El confusingly replied, not being that familiar with the word.
"Like…. Believable? Did you believe him when he said that Brenner is alive?"
El took her time to answer, thinking about the feelings she had at that particular moment.
"No. I didn't believe him at first. I… I swear that he died in the school. The Demogorgon killed him, I thought. But the more the man went on about him……... he said he could take me to him. I don't know why he would lie about that. He sounded… very con-vin-cing," El explained as she nodded her head yes.
"Then I guess he has to be. Somehow, someway, he made it out of that school alive. Who the fuck knows where he is, what he's thinking, what he's planning. Fuck. This isn't good!"
Mike nervously rubbed his hair, afraid that something bad could happen to Eleven again. Eleven hated seeing him so worried, so concerned.
The terrible PTSD flashbacks appeared in his mind. It would happen every so often when Eleven would cry or be in a bad mood, he would think back to that day in the classroom. Two words he never wanted to hear again: "Goodbye Mike."
El saw that Mike's nervousness was beginning to turn into a full blown panic attack. She put both hands on his face which automatically stopped his fast breathing and directed his eyes to hers.
"Mike. We're fine now. We can be together now. And… even if he does come for me, even if the monsters somehow come back… I can kill them. All of them. I've done it twice now."
Mike's voice kept breaking and he felt like he was gonna break down trying to get this paragraph out of his mouth.
"You don't understand, El. I know that you'll fight them, I know that you'll kick their ass, I know that you'll risk your life for me, for our friends. But… But… when you left me at the cabin to close the gate, I had the most sickening feeling in my stomach, like I wasn't gonna be with you, like that would be my last time speaking to you, looking at you. That's my biggest fear… ever. I can't lose you. I don't want to have that feeling again. I need you here in my arms. I need you to be safe with me…"
Her eyes watered on instinct after hearing him explain his biggest fear to her. El's tears were more of the happy kind, knowing how much she meant to him. He didn't just look at her as a pretty girl with superpowers; he actually cared about her.
"That's my biggest fear too. But I know that if I didn't stop that Demogorgon in that classroom, you would die. If I didn't leave you and close the gate, you would die… and so would everyone else. I get that sickening feeling too, Mike. When I woke up in the upside down after stopping that Demogorgon, I had that feeling. I screamed your name for five minutes straight, hoping you could hear me, but you couldn't. The entire drive to the lab to close the gate… I couldn't stop thinking about you. You were the one keeping me going, Mike. Without you, I don't think I could of had enough strength to close the gate. So… I understand."
Mike had a single tear drop from both eyes as they began to turn red. He sighed, trying to get his emotions under control as he cleared his voice.
"I hope it doesn't come to that again," Mike said.
"Me too," El replied.
They both were slightly crying. Nothing major, but the topic was too personal for them not to get emotional.
"El…"
"Yeah?"
"I just wanna say, I've been acting like a huge mouth breather lately. First, the morning prank I did, and now, I'm like, just randomly yelling at you for bullshit reasons. I haven't been a very good boyfriend. And… like, this is hard. I'm getting all these crazy new feelings I've never had, and they're all combining together and making me go crazy."
"It's okay, Mike," El replied, thinking he was going too overboard about this.
"No. It's not. It's really not. I know you're still learning things… and I just want you to know that I'm not perfect. Some of the things I've done haven't been good. And I'm really sorry," Mike explained, feeling guilty about all the times he made her cry.
El could understand where he was coming from. She always liked how thoughtful Mike was and how he didn't want to make it seem like he was filling her brain with his opinion of right and wrong.
"I understand, Mike. You were not good at times. That's okay. You're okay," El simply responded, shutting up Mike for a while.
"The only thing that matters is… we're together. We are here… together. Let's just be happy with that, okay?" El said, trying to get the PTSD out of Mike's head.
Her soothing voice calmed him down. All the negative thoughts slowly drifted out of his mind. He was too tired to make out with her, so he got under the covers instead. El giggled and followed suit.
"El. I have to admit, after everything that's happened today, I need a nap."
"I think I need one too," El replied, staring at him with heart eyes.
She rolled over on her side with her back to Mike. Mike rolled over on his side and put his arm around her so his hand was touching her arm. He had his face buried in her short hair. He softly kissed the back of El's head, and although he couldn't see it, she smiled widely from the contact his lips made.
El closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, taking a deep breath from her nose. She opened them moments later and glanced at the completely closed door. She rolled her eyes and sighed. She turned the doorknob with her powers and slowly creaked the door open just the right amount of space. She turned her head around a little bit to where she could see Mike. Her hair wasn't completely buried in his face anymore so he opened his eyes and saw El staring at him.
"You okay?" Mike asked.
That question, for some reason, made her think hard. She thought back to where she would be Papa's lab experiment. Every time she would fail at something Papa wanted, he would get mad and treat her bad, putting her back in her small room. She remembered crying for Papa, thinking she was a horrible person for not living up to his standards. Then she had the guts to escape from that place. She remembered Benny, who was just being a good human being and doing his job. He died because of her. She would think of him every now and then, about how sad his family must've been, to think their son committed suicide. El did not want Mike to end up like Benny; she didn't want ANYONE to end up dead because of her. It only made her feel like more of a monster.
And then she ran away again. El had the greatest possible thing happen to her; she met Mike. Mike, a boy who wasn't selfish, ignorant, and careless. He cared for El from the very beginning when the two locked eyes in the rain. He gave her the iconic nickname 'El' and she basically felt like she was just an extension of him after that.
And he had just got done listening to El pouring her heart out to him for thirty minutes, not interrupting once. He was so thoughtful and considerate of others but especially for El.
"I said are you okay?" Mike asked again.
El snapped out of her deep thoughts, knowing now was not the time to think. Now was the time for sleep.
She nodded her head and giggled at him.
"Definitely."
El turned over real quick to kiss Mike's forehead which was almost entirely covered by his beautiful hair. Mike blushed hard.
"Then go to sleep," Mike teased El, making her laugh as she slapped his arm.
She got back into her sleeping position and the two teenagers drifted off into sleep.
10:22 PM
Mike and Eleven were sound asleep for about three hours now. They really did forget about Hopper. After everything that went on today, the two teens had their heads spinning about many other things than to care about Hopper. But he arrived.
Hopper walked into the cabin, noticing that it was more silent than usual. He walked by her room and noticed the door was open three inches. He lightly pushed it all the way open and saw the two teens in peace, their minds resting beside one another.
Hopper let out a deep sigh, not enjoying the sight in front of him. But he realized it could've been worse; they could of been sleeping naked under the covers, but they were clothed, much to Hopp's relief.
Jim walked up to her bed and tapped at El's arm as an attempt to wake her up. Her eyes got more clear the longer she was awake, and she realized who it was.
"Wake up Mike, it's really late and he needs to go home immediately," Hopper whispered to a sleepy El.
El nodded her head lightly slapped Mike's arm.
"Mgffgm, El," Mike said as he began to wake up.
"Mike," El softly replied, rubbing his hair with a heart warming smile on her face.
El thought it was so cute to see him so sleepy and innocent, like he was a baby.
Hopper rolled his eyes, not being in the mood for this.
"Alright, Alright, Mike. Get up. Come on," Hopper raised his voice.
Mike sat up out of nowhere like he just heard a gunshot. His eyes were still closed and he looked around the room, barely noticing where he was. El couldn't help but smirk at how silly Mike looked.
Mike's eyes opened and he could see Hopp staring him down.
"What, uh, what time is it?" Mike asked.
Hopper looked down at his watch, then back at Mike.
"10:27 PM."
"Shit," Mike mumbled, still too groggy to watch his mouth in front of Hopper.
"Shit is right. Your parents are probably worried sick about you. So please, can you go home?" Hopper said, pretending to be nice in the meantime.
Mike took a moment before responding as he stretched and yawned. He was still groggy, but not as much.
"Yeah. I should probably go."
Mike crawled over El, making sure not to hurt her while doing it. He stood up and stretched once more. Mike turned to El and smiled.
"I'll see you tomorrow, K?" Mike said to El.
"Yeah. See you tomorrow, Mike."
Mike walked out of the room, then out of the cabin. He was about to get on his bike but Hopper came out and stopped him.
"Mike," Hopper said, taking steps down the cabin steps to get a couple of feet from Mike.
"Yeah?"
"How was the tournament?"
Mike was dumbfounded to even think Hopper would ask him about that. Then Mike started to think that maybe Hopper found out El went to the arcade.
"Uh, how do you know I-"
"El's been blabbering to me about it the entire week, how could I not know," Hopper said.
Mike took a sigh of relief.
"It was good. I won."
Hopper raised his eyebrows in shock.
"What did you win exactly?" Hopper asked, somewhat interested in the conversation.
"$300," Mike replied, not trying to sound too excited about it.
"$300? That's a lot of money! What'cha gonna do with it?"
Mike didn't know. He never had that much money at one time. He went with his gut though.
"I don't know. I'll probably get some things for El. Valentine's day is just around the corner!" Mike awkwardly said, sounding too giddy.
Hopper slowly stepped closer to Mike, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Oh, you're definitely gonna get something for El. Because a happy El not only keeps you happy, it keeps me happy. We're both happy. Get it?" Hopper said, looking somewhat intimidating but not too much.
Mike nodded his head.
Hopper took his hand off of his shoulder and watched Mike get on his bike. Hopp had one more thing to say before Mike could take off.
"And Mike…"
Mike turned his head to Hopper, awaiting whatever he had to say.
"You've been treating El good. That's good. But you better not hurt her. She's been through enough."
"I know. I would never intentionally hurt her. I lo………….. I care about her too much," Mike said, just barely stopping himself from saying the L word.
Hopper was dumb, but he wasn't that dumb. He knew what Mike was about to say. Instead of calling him out on it, he simply nodded his head and grinned.
Mike could tell he knew, but it was better not to say anything. So he nodded his head back at Hopp and rode off.
As much as Mike pissed off Hopper at times and drove him insane, Hopper also realized that Mike was there for her first. He knew Mike cared about her just as much as he did. He knew overall that Mike was a good kid, and he knew that Mike was the best possible boy El could've fell in love with.
Hopper walked back inside the cabin and walked into El's room. El was still in bed.
"So I got us a movie!" Hopper said.
"Scary?" El wondered.
"I heard it's scary. I've never actually seen it."
He held up the VHS case and what El saw truly frightened her. The movie was none other than 'A Nightmare on Elm Street.'
"A Nightmare on Elm Street? What is it about?" El said in a questionable but shaky tone.
"Basically a guy who kills people in their dreams, and then they die in real life."
El's eyes widened in horror.
"I… I don't know. That sounds too scary."
Hopper knew about all the trauma she went through, but he was trying to break her out of that life.
"Look, kid, it's understandable if you don't wanna watch it. But I swear, I'll be right beside you, I'll be there for you if you ever get scared. If you don't wanna watch it, that's fine, but… I seriously think we should," Hopper said with a smirk.
El thought about it. She hadn't seen many movies, but she was willing to try new things. And having Hopper by her side warmed her up to the idea even more.
"Okay. Go get everything set up and I'll be ready in ten minutes," El softly replied, looking innocent as ever.
Hopper grinned, being so joyful.
"WOOO!! SCARY MOVIE TIME!!!" Hopper yelled in excitement, jump scaring El into laughter.
