JANUARY 18 1985

It was morning as El got done with her daily Math and English lessons. Mike had promised to visit her after school. He had to talk to his Mom about how he would be at the arcade for a while after school; El hated that Mike lied to his mom. El was thinking that maybe he was too embarrassed to announce that he had her as a girlfriend to his parents.

But she knew deep down inside that he was just scared of letting everyone know about his relationship status because it could possibly give away El.

It would be another four hours before school was over. She couldn't wait that long. El had to see him now. She turned the TV into static and sat down next to it. She put a blindfold on and shortly transferred her mind to the void.

Everything loaded in. Mike first, then Lucas, Dustin, Will, and Max, and then the entire lunch table he was sitting at. Mike stopped bringing lunch boxes last year due to him thinking it was too childish for him now. He had a tray with tater tots and mashed potatoes with chocolate milk. El felt it was interesting to watch him eat each tater tot, wishing he could share his tray with her.

"So we're all going to the arcade after school, right?" Lucas said, wanting confirmation from the group.

"Of course, stalker. What else would I do?" Max said.

"Sure," Dustin answered immediately after Max.

"Yeah, I'm down," Will said.

Silence soon followed and they all turned their heads to Mike who was chugging his chocolate milk.

He awkwardly slammed the milk carton on the trey and saw all of their eyes on him as they waited for a response. Mike sighed.

"El wants me to visit her on weekdays now sooo…"

"Aw, bullshit! This is why I'm staying out of relationships. Too clingy!" Dustin said, actually feeling frustrated.

"Yeah, like you could get a girlfriend anyway," Lucas teased Dustin, making Max giggle and chime in with her own opinion.

"Yeah. And besides, it's cute. Let El be happy with her man, guys."

El felt confusing emotions when she heard Max sticking up for her. She still didn't fully trust Max, but she was starting to warm up to the redhead.

"I'm not saying they shouldn't be together. This is just my opinion… but I think she's a little too obsessed with you," Lucas said to Mike, causing Mike to shake his head.

"She's not obsessed, OK? If anything, I'm the obsessed one," Mike replied while eating his mashed potatoes.

Lucas didn't want to sound like he was mad at Mike and El for wanting to chill with each other, but he had to explain his unique thoughts about the situation.

"Listen, Mike. I love my girl, El."

Max turned her head to Lucas and raised one eyebrow at him.

"Your girl?" Max said, having a smirk on her face.

"You know what I mean. She's our girl, our bad ass friend, and I love her as a bad ass friend."

El smiled at Lucas who was inadvertently expressing his emotions to her.

"Even though she almost killed me, I mean, I was acting like a big jerk so I had it coming."

El laughed out loud, loving Lucas' honesty. Even though they made up after the incident, she couldn't forget that moment… that moment where she lost control of her powers because of Mike and almost killed Lucas. El had to make sure that would never happen again.

"That being said, and I mean this in the most respectful way possible. El is absolutely obsessed with you, Mikey." Lucas explained as he mocked Mike.

El was having a hard time disagreeing with Lucas. She was definitely obsessed with Mike and she didn't see it as a bad thing.

"Eh. Whatever," Mike replied, trying to brush off the topic.

"What about you, Will? You've been quiet," Lucas asked Will.

Will put his milk carton down after drinking out of it and decided to speak.

"Well. I don't know El that much. But……... Even I know she's obsessed with Mike," Will said, making everyone but Mike laugh at the table.

Mike rolled his eyes at basically everything in that moment.

"Yup. You guys are shit-heads. It's confirmed," Mike said, extremely annoyed at everyone poking fun at him.

El continued to watch him after lunch. He was in Math class, and unfortunately for Mike, the class had assigned seats so his friends couldn't sit with him. He was seated in the back of the class near one of the corners of the room. There was a girl sitting beside him. She had blonde hair, kind of like the wig that Eleven used to wear.

The girl had the pencil between her thumb and index finger while shaking it back and forth as if it were a seesaw. The pencil slipped out of her hand and onto the floor.

Mike heard the sound of the pencil dropping and looked down on the floor to see that the pencil was between them. He decided he was going to be nice as he leaned down. He was still sitting but he lowered the upper half of his body and was about to extend his arm out to grab the pencil. He didn't know the girl was also attempting to pick it up and they both hit heads.

"OW!" The girl and Mike said at the same time as they sat up and looked at one another.

"Sorry! I was trying to grab your pencil," Mike said, feeling extremely embarrassed about the situation.

The girl couldn't stop herself from giggling.

"I see that."

Mike went back to grabbing the pencil off the ground and handed it to the girl.

"There," Mike said, forcing an awkward smile on his face.

"Thanks," the girl replied as she eyed him up with a grin on her face.

"Your welcome!"

El didn't know how to react to that. It seemed like he was just being nice. He barely said a word to the girl, but El couldn't help but feel some sort of jealousy.

The bell rang and the students started to stand up. However, the girl had more things to say to Mike before he got up.

"Hey?" The girl said.

"Hi?" Mike confusingly replied while packing up.

"You're cute," the girl giggled after saying that.

"Uh, Thanks, I guess," Mike scratched his head as he tried not to make eye contact with her.

"My name's Trisha? Yours?"

"Uh, Mike…"

With a slip of paper in hand, she reached her arm out and tossed it on his desk.

"There's my number, Mike. Maybe you can… give me a call sometime?"

El's eyes widened as her face turned red with anger. Mike on the other hand, didn't quite know what was even happening at the moment. He couldn't think properly, and he obviously didn't know how to handle a situation like this.

"I… Uh… well… I just… It's just that..."

Trisha stood up and walked out before he could say he had a girlfriend. He frustratingly put the slip of paper in his pocket while shaking his head. El took off her blindfold, extremely pissed at Mike but more at the girl trying to steal him from her.

Mike didn't break his promise as he arrived at Hopper's cabin after school. He adjusted El's door when he walked into her room and turned around, but it was not the sight he was accustomed to seeing.

El was in bed with her arms crossed and a pissed off look of epic proportions.

"Uh, Hi, El!" Mike said, thinking that maybe it was a weird face she was making in the moment.

Mike got in bed beside her and caressed one side of her face. He was smiling, comforting, and overall just being the usual good boyfriend. But El wasn't reacting, wasn't looking at him; It almost seemed like she was ignoring him. And that's when Mike knew something was wrong.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked her, however she remained silent.

"El, please! Are you mad at me?!" Mike was worried she got tired of him already.

"El, please talk to me!" Mike said, raising his voice out of desperation.

El heard the pain in his voice, and although it would be nice for her to make him suffer a bit longer, she couldn't bring herself to ignore him anymore. She turned her head to him, still having an angry look as she uncrossed her arms.

"You like her?!" El asked with crazy eyes.

"Huh?!" Mike confusingly replied, not knowing if he was in a dream or real life anymore.

"I Said do you like her?!?!?!" El raised her voice, looking like she was about to kill someone.

"I don't know who you're talking about!"

"Trisha! You like Trisha!" El shouted.

"Trisha?! How do you-"

Mike cut himself off and remembered that she had powers.

"El, OK, I know that it looked bad, but I don't like her."

"Then why didn't you tell her that?!" El asked, sounding like she was about to cry.

"Because we were in the middle of class with a bunch of people and I didn't want to sound rude and hurt her feelings!"

"WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT HER FEELINGS?!" El yelled.

"I- I mean I don't JUST care about her feelings. I care about everyone's feelings and I didn't want to be an asshole in front of everyone."

"You lie!" El replied with anger as she stood up out of bed. Mike stood up and put his hand on her shoulder to stop her from walking out of the room.

"I wouldn't lie to you, El! I don't like her!" Mike said, trying to win El back.

El turned around and huffed at him.

"You still have her number in your pocket?!" El asked.

Mike got an 'Oh shit' look on his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the slip of paper. El refrained from slapping him and turned around to walk out of the room. Mike stopped her with a hand on the shoulder again.

"El, please, let me explain!" Mike said, sounding weak.

El threw his hand off of her and turned back around to face him again.

"If you don't like her, why would you keep her number in your pocket?!" El asked.

She was getting ready to cry and release all the pain she felt, but for now she was still angry.

"Because, like, I didn't want to just leave it on my desk for the teacher to see and I didn't wanna seem rude and throw it in the trash. I put it in my pocket and I swear to you, I forgot it was even there until you mentioned it!"

El shook her head at his response, not wanting to believe it initially, already releasing too much anger to just admit she was wrong.

Mike stared at her with puppy dog eyes, trying to win her heart back. She tried to look like she was still mad, but she wasn't. She realized he was socially awkward. To stop herself from caving in, she looked up to the ceiling.

Mike started to lose hope that she would accept his explanation and got down on his knees. He buried his face into her stomach while putting his hands together like he was praying.

"Please, El, please. You have to believe me. I wouldn't ever cheat on you! You mean so much to me! PLEASE! PLEASE! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME" Mike's voice was muffled as he begged and begged into her stomach, so desperate to keep El from leaving him.

El felt guilty. She was being stupid and jealous and she ended up hurting Mike. She couldn't keep up the angry act any longer. She rubbed her hands through his dark brown hair and let out a sigh of defeat.

"I believe you, Mike…"

Mike looked up at her in surprise.

"You do?!"

"Yes."

Mike stood up on his feet and embraced El with a long hug.

"God, I know I was being stupid, El. I should of just said I had a girlfriend but I was being too weird. I'm sorry," Mike kissed El's neck.

"No. I'm sorry for getting mad at you. I should've believed you. You are always good to me, Mike," El said as her voice broke.

Mike had both hands on her face as he attacked her lips. She let him kiss her for however long he wanted because she felt she owed him for almost breaking his heart.

He broke off the kiss and they both were blushing.

"El. You have to trust me on things like this, or else it isn't much of a relationship."

"OK."

"We have to have a rule in place. It's not cool for you to spy on me, alright?"

El was confused.

"No spying? No looking at you while you're at school?!" El said, making it sound like it was some impossible task.

"Yes. No looking at me at all unless I'm actually with you!"

"But… but…"

"No buts! El, you have to understand that it's not normal to look at whatever someone's doing without their permission. That's spying and it's not cool," Mike passionately explained, trying his best to make El understand.

El shamefully nodded her head.

"I guess I understand…"

"OK, so we have a rule now. No spying on anyone with your powers! You understand?" Mike asked, not trying to belittle her.

"Yes. No spying on you… or anyone else with my powers…"

"Good girl," Mike teased her with a smile as he connected his lips with hers once more.

A little kissing turned into a make-out session. These two teenagers were a roller coaster. They went from being angry, upset, begging, happy, and now they were making out like their lives depended on it.

Mike was on top of her on the bed as she pushed him away from her lips momentarily.

"Give me the paper…… with phone number," El was in a hurry to get this over with so she could go back to making out with her Mikey.

Mike handed her the slip of paper and watched El rip it up, piece by piece. She had an evil smile on her face while looking into Mike's eyes as she did it.