JANUARY 28 1985
Mike wasted no time when he arrived at El's cabin after school. He ran into her room and attacked her mouth, forcing her onto the bed with him. They savagely kissed as their tongues collided. El also hated how yesterday ended. She needed to touch it…
She felt his breath hitting her neck as he sucked on it. She didn't even say eggos, he just felt like doing it. El put her hands through his hair and rubbed it as a response to his affection. They were both getting hot, and El couldn't handle the heat for long. With Mike on top of her, she pulled his face up to meet hers, then she leaned in to continue sloppily french kissing him. Mike instinctively put his hand on one of her breasts, immediately having regret and removing it.
El continued to rub her hand through his hair, using her free hand to reach under his body and grab his crotch. It was a very aggressive grab as she started rubbing the area in a circular motion. Mike was caught off guard as his eyes widened. He let out a shocked moan, not expecting her to take it this far.
"Ahhhh, oooooh, El. Shit."
El giggled and continued rubbing it through his pants. She loved his moans and quick smiles of pleasure that he would show now and then. It meant that she was pleasing him, and she would do anything to please him. She felt his penis getting hard, becoming very excited at seeing it again and possibly touching it.
"Ahhh. Shit. Shit."
El decided to go for it. She took her hand off of his hair and used both hands to unbutton his pants. Mike's pleasure turned into shock, then anger shortly afterward. He pushed her hands off of his pants and stood up in a panic. He quickly buttoned up his pants as he tried to think clearly.
"Jesus, El!"
"What's wrong?" El asked as she slowly stood up from the bed to face him.
"You can't just do that!"
"What?!" El wondered, curious as to what could have made him so upset.
"Unbutton my pants? What were you planning to do?!"
El put a hand on his shoulder as she hoped her smile would calm him down.
"I was gonna touch it…. Like you wanted me to do yesterday."
El took her hand off of his shoulder and lowered it down to his crotch, rubbing it while staring into Mike's eyes. He started to lose self-control, but he was able to fight her seduction and remove her hand from his crotch again.
"No! We can't!"
El was devastated. She wondered why he wouldn't let her pleasure him.
"Why not?!"
"Because, like…… I'm a disgusting person. And you already know we shouldn't be doing stuff like this. If Hopper catches us he will fucking kill me!"
El thought he was exaggerating.
"He's not gonna kill you," El replied while letting out a chuckle.
"Yes. Yes, he will. And if he saw us doing the things that I want to do to you, oh man, he might torture me before he kills me!" Mike replied, being completely serious about the possibility of Hopper killing him.
El didn't like Mike's attitude towards Hopper. She always tried to forget about how he felt about Hopp but his comments about him kept reminding her. She let out a sigh.
"Mike, he won't hurt you…"
"You don't get it! He will shoot me in the face on instinct if he sees my you know what in your hand!"
"Mike…"
"Jesus, El. He kept me away from you for almost a year, he's an asshole just waiting to have a reason to beat me up or kill me!"
"IT'S NOT HIS FAULT!" El shouted out of nowhere, making Mike's body freeze.
"What?!"
"It's not his fault you didn't see me for a year. He was trying to protect me, and you. He didn't want to risk me being in danger or me putting you in danger. He was doing what he thought was best for us!" El explained as she tried to get Mike to cool down about Hopper.
Although Mike froze out of shock from El's outburst, he couldn't ignore her defending Hopper. He shook his head with a look of disgust.
"Bullshit."
"How is it bullshit, Mike?"
"It just is! Do you really think he couldn't have driven me out here and explained everything?! It's bullshit. He just didn't want me to be with you," Mike explained, letting more of his hate spill out of his mouth.
"Really? That's what you think?" El replied as she hated Mike's current attitude. It made him seem unrecognizable from the caring boy she fell for.
They both were showing anger on their faces. They had finally disagreed so much on something that it made them mad.
"Yes. And you know what else?"
"What?"
"I think he wanted you all to himself!" Mike shouted.
El was baffled by Mike's theory. Why would Hopper want to have her all to himself?!
"What are you talking about?!"
"Oh, do I have to spell it out for you?! He's just trying to make up for what happened to Sara. He sees you as a replacement and a way to make peace with himself. Nothing more. And he doesn't want to lose you as he did with Sara, and god forbid if he let you have a boyfriend. He wants to control you."
El was incredibly hurt by Mike's comments. She wasn't even angry anymore, just hurt. She knew Mike wasn't completely false, but claiming Hopper didn't care enough for El was crossing the line.
Her hurt turned into an uncharacteristic moment of uncontrolled rage.
"FUCK YOU!"
Mike had no words for what he heard her say. It hurt him so much to see her so angry at him. He knew he said too much, unleashing too many hateful emotions at one time. He wasn't in the right state of mind. He was still angry but he had to leave before things got worse.
"I need to go…"
Mike started to walk to the front door. El's anger turned into regret when she realized he was leaving. She didn't want him to leave, she needed him. Mike had already opened the door as El ran after him.
"Mike, wait!"
El ran outside and put a hand on his shoulder before he went down the steps, making him turn around and look down at her.
"El. I have to go."
"W-Where are you going? Is-Is it what I said?!"El wondered, her heart beating too fast to think.
Mike hadn't looked her in the eye the entire time when he turned to face her. His head was down as his eyes were closed. He opened his eyes and slowly moved his head up to see El's eyes.
"I already struck a nerve with you and I don't want to say anything else that'll make you hate me more than you already do!" Mike said as he walked to his bike while trying to contain his anger from getting worse.
El wanted to cry. He was done with her. She saw it in her SOAPs all the time, but she never thought Mike would be done with her. Ever. Her body froze, completely in shock while watching him get on the bike. She managed to get some more words out of her mouth in a last-ditch effort.
"Please don't leave me. Don't leave, Mike!" El shouted while looking at him with puppy dog eyes.
He wasn't mad because of the disagreement about Hopper anymore; that still lingered but it wasn't as important as him making the love of his life curse at him. He couldn't be there with her at the moment. He had too many thoughts that he didn't trust.
"I can't be with you right now. I need to be alone."
With that, Mike struggled to look away from her but did.
"Mike, please don't leave!" El shouted, but Mike had already taken off.
El prevented herself from crying until he left. Then she ran into her room and jumped face-first into her bed, screaming into her pillow while getting it wet with her tears.
El thought it was her fault. She shouldn't have cursed at him. She never got angry at Mike, but there was a first time for everything. El had learned those kinds of words from Dustin the few times she was with him when he couldn't shut up. The whole group had been saying things like that and especially Mike.
El thought she was so stupid. Everything was going so well with her and Mike and then she had to ruin it by defending Hopp, knowing how much Mike hated him. She cried for an hour straight until she got so tired that her crying made her take a nap.
Hopper got home and did his usual act, but he was pleasantly surprised when he found El sleeping and Mike was nowhere in sight.
He couldn't complain. It was odd for her to still be in bed around dinner time. He attempted so many dinners before he found out what types of food she would eat. She loved all the unhealthy foods, of course. She wasn't the biggest fan of onions, to say the least. El wasn't a big fan of mustard and gravy, but she liked other condiments like ketchup. He forced her to eat things other than Eggos.
Hopper was spending less and less as he started saving up money. He didn't know exactly why he was saving up. Maybe it was so he could buy a house one day, maybe he could help out with El's college tuition if she'd even be allowed. He just thought it was a good idea to save money as a backup. Because of this, he had been buying cheap foods like Hamburger Helper. El oddly liked Hamburger Helper a lot which freaked out Hopper. It was a few months away from topping Eggos. So he cooked it again and woke up El when it was ready.
Several minutes of sitting at the table made him realize something was off about El. She looked dreadful, only holding her head up from the hand she had placed on one side of her face as she held the fork with the other hand.
"You're not eating. Is something wrong?" Hopper wondered.
"No…."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes…"
Hopper could tell she was lying. It was a bit too obvious.
"Did Mike not visit today? Is something going on between you two?"
"Why do you care?" El mumbled as she rolled her eyes at him.
Hopper wanted to scold her for being disrespectful, however, he was in no mood to discipline.
"I care because I don't like seeing you grumpy. Did he do something to you?" Hopper asked as he thought Mike was responsible.
"What?!" El replied, feeling insulted that Hopper immediately went to blame Mike. Mike's words were starting to ring true in her head.
"Mike. Did he say something? Did he hit you?"
"NO!"
El stood up in protest. She was too emotionally upset to have a calm discussion with Hopper.
"You think Mike would hit me?! Are you stupid?!"
Hopper refrained from getting upset, understanding he wasn't gonna win her with anger.
"No….. You haven't told me what's wrong, kid. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on," Hopper said, slightly raising his voice.
"Why do you hate Mike so much?!" El randomly blurted out.
"What?! I don't hate Mike!"
"Bullshit!"
"LANGUAGE!" Hopper shouted and stood up to show he was done playing nice.
"You treat him like crap! You don't think he deserves me! You hate him," El emotionally shouted as her voice broke.
"What are you talking about?!?!"
"He's perfect! He's perfect looking, perfect per-so-nality, and he cares about me more than you do!"
"I care about you a lot, El!" Hopper shouted, sounding more upset than angry at her words.
El stood silently as she stared intensely at Hopper.
"El. Look, I'm sorry that I haven't been the nicest to Mike. But it goes both ways. He wasn't being nice to me either…"
El wanted to curse at him as she did to Mike, but she knew it would end badly; as hopper once said, her actions have consequences. Instead, she grunted and shook her head.
"You never once thought to tell Mike that I was alright when he thought I died!"
Hopper was getting more surprised at her comments like there was an earthquake in the cabin that kept getting worse.
"I didn't know how serious things were between you two! You guys were just little kids back then; you're still kids now! How was I supposed to know Mike was going through hell?!" Hopper wondered.
"Me visiting him and telling you that he misses me?! How about you having a serious talk with him aftergraf-fi-ti-ingthe bathroom stall?! You didn't figure out that it was serious then?!"
Hopper remembered the day he had that long talk with Mike after he got in trouble for graffitiing the bathroom stall. Mike was so upset and going through so much pain from losing El, he decided to turn the sadness into anger and rebel against authority. Nothing mattered anymore to him anyway. Hopper heard about Mike getting in trouble from various sources and had to have a one on one talk with him.
He asked Mike if he was depressed and having suicidal thoughts and Mike said no. Hopper couldn't tell if he was fully telling the truth but from Mike's demeanor, it didn't look like he was suicidal. He was just upset and angry from losing his first crush.
Hopper never once contemplated telling Mike about El or letting him know she's okay. It was just something he never saw as an option. And he regretted having that thought process after Mike started pushing and punching Hopper, crying in his arms afterward. The moment he hugged a crying Mike was the moment he realized he fucked up. All he thought about was El, he completely forgot about Mike and didn't pay attention to his feelings. After that day he felt responsible for both of them. It's why he could never really do anything bad to Mike because he saw the pain that he put Mike in and didn't want him to go through that again.
So Hopper really couldn't talk his way out of that comment.
"OK. I messed up. I should have told him. But I was just worried. I was worried he might tell his friends, and the next thing you know, the whole damn town knows I'm sheltering a girl! I didn't want anyone else to be in danger. Not you, not Mike, not anyone!"
El sighed, tired of the back and forth bickering. They would continue going in circles. She had to lie down and get some rest.
"I'm not in the mood to eat. I'm going to bed. Goodnight."
El walked to her room and slammed the door shut with her powers.
"LEFTOVERS WILL BE IN THE FRIDGE WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY!" Hopper yelled, slamming his closed fist on the table in frustration.
El lay down in bed and depressingly fell asleep. She was sleeping well, until 3:33 A.M.
3:33 AM
"El, are you there? El? It's me. It's Mike. It's day 352, 7:40 P.M. If you're out there, say something. Or give me a sign. I won't even say anything. Just……. I wanna know if you're okay."
*Silence*
*Silence*
"Mike?"
"El?"
"Mike?!"
"EL?"
"MIKE!!! MIKE!!! PLEASE MIKE!!!!! HELP!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!! MIIIIIIIIKKEEEEE!!!!!"
"EL WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?? EL PLEASE, I LOVE YOU!!!"
"IT'S TOO LATE!!!! MIIIIIIIKEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"
_
Mike woke up from his nightmare, wiping the sweat from his face as he kept panting. He picked up his walkie talkie, needing to talk with El. He couldn't wait until tomorrow, it had to be now.
"El? Are you there? El? Can you hear me? El? I wanna talk... "
El woke up and only heard the last sentence. She stood up and ran to pick up her walkie talkie from her desk.
"I'm here, Mike."
Mike smiled over the walkie. Hearing her beautiful feminine voice gave him chills. He couldn't stop himself from chuckling.
"I'm so glad you picked up."
"I thought you didn't want me anymore," El said while still feeling groggy.
"Huh? Of course, I want you. Why would you think that?"
El lied back in bed as she held the walkie. All of her brains focused on listening to Mike, the nerves causing her heart rate to slow.
"You said you wanted to be alone. I thought you didn't want me anymore."
"No-no-no-no-no, I needed to be alone because I didn't want to make you more upset than you already were. I obviously crossed the line and deserved what I got."
"You didn't deserve it. I lost my tem-per. It's my fault. I'm sorry," El replied, refusing to let Mike take the blame.
"But it is my fault, El. I'm not perfect, I make mistakes. I said a lot of things I wish I didn't. I let my feelings get the best of me, and like, a lot of things I said about Hopper, I still meant a lot of that, but I took it to another level and said things that weren't true and made it sound like he was the worst person in the world, when he's not. You're right. He was just trying to protect us. It's my fault. I'm sorry," Mike explained and took a deep breath.
El smiled with her eyes closed from hearing his apology. Even when he shows his flaws he's perfect.
"Yeah. Everything's just so confusing. I wish you two could get along…"
"I do, too. But it's hard. Those 353 days were cruel, El. So cruel. There were some nights where I went to sleep hoping I wouldn't wake up. There were other times I thought about ending it all…"
"Don't say that, Mike!" El immediately fired back.
"I know you don't like me saying that stuff, but it's true. The only thing that kept me from ending it, the only thing that gave me hope…... Was you. I just kept hoping that you were alive. I was starting to give up hope. I'm so glad I didn't. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I'd rather die than go through those 353 days again. A life without you… is no life at all…"
It was like someone was cutting onions as her eyes watered, and she hated onions. She's the reason he didn't end it all. She's the reason he still had hope in the world. El is his everything, his only thing.
"Mike. I want to hug you right now. I want to kiss you," El said, trying to stop the crying from getting worse as she dried her eyes off with her hand.
"I want to do everything with you, El."
"Everything?" El asked, hoping for confirmation.
"Yes. Anything and everything."
El felt giddy and began to feel tingly.
"I want to kiss you…"
"Yeah. I wanna kiss you, too. I wish I could do it right now."
It felt like another spirit was controlling El because she did not feel like her usual self as she sighed, wondering what was making her feel like this.
"Mike…?"
"Yeah, El?"
"Is it bad if I want to kiss your penis?"
That was not something a teenage boy wanted to hear at 3:00 AM. He would never fall asleep now.
"Um. Well. I don't know. Do you want to kiss my penis?" Mike asked, unsure about how he was supposed to respond to that.
"...Yes. It's so beautiful. I want to touch it… and kiss it. I want to make you feel good. You deserve it for being perfect."
Mike tried to control the semi in his pants from fully growing out.
"Uhhh, I'm not perfect, El," Mike awkwardly chuckled.
"You are to me. Perfect hair, perfect face, perfect voice, perfect… penis. Mmmmm…"
Mike heard El getting horny over the walkie and his dick went fully hard. He had to go to bed.
"Shit, El. It's 3:00 AM and I need sleep. Tomorrow is Friday, which means we'll all be hanging out. We're gonna go to Dustin's house first. Not too bad, his mom is the only one that lives with him and she's pretty oblivious to everything so it shouldn't be a problem bringing you along."
"Mmmhmmm. Okay. Then what?" El wondered.
"Then I was thinking we could go to the junkyard and finish what we started…"
"You'll make me feel good?"
"... Yes."
"Can I kiss your penis and make you feel good, too?" El asked so innocently.
Mike came in his underwear right then and there, being so weak to her pretty voice. He was barely able to say what he wanted.
"Agghghahg. I don't know-Fuck. We'll-shit! We'll see uhhhhh- We'll see what happens, OK?"
"OK."
"Shit. I gotta go to bed now. Goodnight El, see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight, Mike."
El went to sleep with a wide smile on her face, happy to know Mike still wanted her.
Mike went to sleep feeling guilty for his recent actions. He felt so disgusted with himself. He wasn't ready for all of this. But El always made him do things he wouldn't normally do. And Mike was too weak to deny her, just like she was too weak without him.
