As promised, here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it, I really enjoyed writing this one.
"And victory is yours!" shouted Will, and the rest of the party cheered. Mike threw his arms up and hugged El, Max high-fived Lucas, and Dustin fist-bumped Will.
"King Tristan, thankful for your services once again, grants you all a gift of golden coins, and new weapons. And you all leave the castle, and ride out on your horses, toward the sunset."
"That was a sick campaign, Will," Mike complimented.
Lucas nodded his head. "Yeah, it was."
Dustin gave a hearty thumbs-up, his mouth currently full of M&M's. Even El and Max looked like they had a good time.
They all sat back, content with the evening that they had just spent together, populating the couches and chairs.
"Wait," Lucas suddenly said. "Dustin, aren't you grounded right now?"
Dustin laughed. "Yeah, I was, but I wore my Mom down. I managed to convince her not to ground me. It was hard, but I am an experienced veteran."
All of them chuckled at that. They sat in silence for a few moments, bathing in the warm ceiling lights of the basement. It was eleven o'clock, and Mike was wondering where his parents were. He then remembered that his Dad was on a business trip and his Mom was at a party with some friends. He assumed Holly must have been having a sleepover with a friend or something. It occurred to him that he could host a sleepover with all of his friends.
As if reading his mind, Will asked a question. "Where are your parents, Mike?"
"Not here," Mike replied with a smile. "You guys wanna crash here for the night?"
"Hell, yeah," Dustin exclaimed, completely on board with the idea of having a sleepover with all of his friends. His enthusiastic remark was met with agreement among the rest of the Party.
"Alright, let me just get some sleeping gear for you guys, I'll be right back," Mike announced.
"I'll help you," El replied, following her boyfriend up the stairs.
'Don't take too long up there, you two," Max teased, and the rest of them snickered. El smiled back at them.
They reached the top of the stairs, and El looked expectantly at Mike, who seemed to be frozen in place, staring at her. What was he thinking?
"Mike?" she asked, furrowing her brow in confusion."What's wrong?"
He shook his head, snapping out of his trance. "Sorry, I was just, umm…"
Mike was thinking about the lie he had told a few hours ago. When he told El that they were planning for a D and D campaign when in actuality they were all planning to lie to her. And it was his idea. He did not like doing it, but he knew it was the best thing that they could do collectively as a group to help her get better. But now he found himself second-guessing his decision, wondering if he had made the right call. If she was to ever find out about this lie, the lie he told when she walked in, about them not talking about Hopper possibly being alive… If she found out about that, it would probably hurt the relationship a lot...but maybe not. Maybe she would understand his dilemma. He decided that this was a bridge that he would cross if it came to it.
"I was just thinking about something," he said. He wasn't lying, he was thinking about something. He just didn't say what.
"Is something wrong?" El asked, looking concerned.
"No, it's fine. Don't worry, it's nothing," he said, trying to just dodge the truth rather than lying. But El caught on.
"Friends don't lie," she said reciting the rule that Mike had given her all that time ago.
"I don't want to talk about it right now," Mike snapped. El startled and looked slightly hurt. He immediately felt terrible. So he quickly thought of something to say that was believable.
"Sorry, El," he apologized, pulling her in for a hug. "All this stuff is just getting to me a little bit."
"What do you mean?"
Mike chewed the inside of his lip, and thought of a cover-up on the spot. "Everything that's happened the last few days, I guess it's just...starting to sink in more. I can't stop thinking about the Mindflayer, or Billy choking you, or…"
What had started out as a lie had turned into an actual problem, because now he felt a lump forming in the back of his throat, and he was having a hard time swallowing it. It was true that he was having a hard time coping with what had happened. The image of Billy strangling the girl he loved was too much for him to handle. He squeezed El tighter in his arms, and a tear ran down his cheek and fell on her shoulder.
"It's okay," El soothed. "I'm okay, you're okay, and it's over. He's gone."
Mike sniffled and smiled. He let go of El and looked into her deep, brown eyes. She pecked him on the lips. Their moment was shattered when an annoyed Dustin hollered up the stairs. "Where's the sleeping gear?"
"One second," Mike called back. "We're getting them now, we were just talking about something."
Mike led El to the storeroom, a place he rarely went into. "They're somewhere in here. Help me find the light switch."
"Okay."
Mike felt along the wall but didn't find anything after a few seconds. He suddenly felt something warm and soft, and realized that he had met El's hand. They both froze, but he relaxed when he felt her fingers curl into his. He turned his body toward the open door to try to get some light in his eyes, but he saw El nudging it closed with her foot.
"Why did you do that?" he asked, but his inquiry was soon answered. Now that it was dark, he could barely see anything, but he felt the unmistakable tickle of El's quiet breath against his mouth. He slightly parted his lips, and felt a pair of soft, delicate hands wrap gingerly around the back of his neck, gently pulling it downward. And then, in an explosive moment of bliss the two of them connected.
El stood on her tiptoes to reach upward and captured Mike's lips with hers, and she tilted her head to the right and pressed into them passionately. Mike did the same as he took his right hand and submerged it into her flowing hair. He massaged the strands, sending sparks down El's body. In response, she moved closer to him, and gently nipped at his lower lip, a playful but intimate action that she had never tried before, but discovered that she liked it.
Mike sighed into her mouth in contentment, and gently pulled on her lip with his teeth as well, an action that she found terribly intoxicating. She opened her mouth wider to grant the beckoning tongue of Mike's access, and they met in the middle, meshing into a single essence. She felt a growing presence of his fingers running along her bare stomach. His touch made her wild and she craved more. She gave a slight nod without breaking contact, and she felt Mike smile slightly into the kiss. His hands grew more adventurous as they slowly made their way up her torso, underneath her clothing.
As if high on a drug, El's thoughts became hazy as she cupped Mike's face in her hands, while his continued to ride upward toward her bra. And when his hands finally met them through the fabric, it gave her chills that made her flinch back for a moment. But as quick as she had parted from him, she returned, going back for more.
Mike continued to fondle and caress her breasts through the fabric of the bra, but in that moment, he would have given anything to just rip it off. But he wasn't sure if El was at that point yet, and he did not want to cross any boundaries so soon after they had made up after being broken apart. So he decided on something else instead.
He broke away from this kiss and leaned down to the top of neck just below her ear and ran his tongue across the area in small strokes, punctuating the tongue movements with careful bites and kisses.
"Oh, Mike, that feels so good…" El breathed into his ear. "Go lower…"
He happily obliged, moving down her neck nearing her collarbone. He became acutely aware of the fact that he was drawing very close to the top of the breast. His arousal was intensifying by the second, and he was about to try to make the move when-
"What the hell are you guys-" Dustin flung open the door to the storage room, and Mike and El sprung away from one another like they were on fire. Dustin darted his eyes across the room, first at Mike, and then at El, who had a rather large bruise on the right side of her neck. The room was silent for a few moments.
"Okay," Dustin said, a humorous smile widening on his face while his eyebrows raised. "I got you guys."
"What?" Mike asked, and looked over at El who was yanking her shirt back on, refusing to meet Dustin's gaze.
"I know what was going on here," Dustin smiled, crossing his arms. "And I said, I got you covered."
Mike still was not sure what his friend meant. "What are you covering us for?"
Dustin rolled his eyes. "If those guys knew what you guys were doing up here, they would tease you for weeks. But, I know how important this shit is. I was doing the same shit with Suzie during camp."
"Oh...okay," Mike said, noticing that his friend did have a point about everyone else teasing them. Though, he was having a hard time picturing Dustin making out with a girl in a dark room. "Well, thanks, dude."
"No problem, but still. Try to tone it down, will you?" he joked. "I haven't forgotten that you guys ditched us that day when we went to set up the Cerebro."
Mike felt a pang of guilt and instantly realized that he had never formally apologized to Dustin for doing that. His face flushed in embarrassment. He had to make things right with his friend, especially now that he was doing him a favor.
"El, could you go downstairs? Me and Dustin will grab the stuff, I just want to talk to him for a minute."
"Okay," El complied, and exited the room back to the basement.
"What's up? Dustin asked, turning his attention to Mike after El left.
"It occurred to me that I never really apologized for ditching you on that day," Mike said, scratching the back of his neck as he did so. "But I just wanted to tell you that a whole bunch of stuff happened while you were gone in the...the Russain base."
Dustin laughed dryly, recalling the hellish experience. "Oh?"
"Yeah, um…" he muttered, trying to think of a way to summarize what had happened. "Max and El became, like, best friends or something. And Max gave El some advice about stuff, and she, um...kind of dumped me."
"What?!" Dustin exclaimed loudly.
"Hey, shut up, calm the fuck down," Mike whispered aggressively, trying to keep their conversation as low-key as possible.
"Jeez, sorry, I just was not expecting to hear that on this Earth," Dustin smirked.
"Yeah, well, long story short, some feelings were exchanged, some stuff with Will and the rest of the party, and I can assure you that El and I will no longer be ditching you guys. I promise. And...I'm sorry for being such a dick. It was wrong of me and-"
"Mike," Dustin cut him off, seeing his characteristic nervous ramble starting to come out. "It's fine, your forgiven." He stuck his hand out. "Shake?"
Mike beamed, and took his hand.
They shook.
Ten minutes later, the entire party was lying in various spots around the basement, on couches, chairs, and air mattresses, cuddled up in blankets and pillows. The sound of them all breathing was the only thing breaking the silence.
"Are any of you guys sleeping?" Max asked.
"No," everyone replied at the same time.
"I can't sleep," she said.
"Why not?" Lucas asked. It was dark. Max was not able to tell if Lucas was even looking at her, but she sensed that he was.
"Just...thinking." She chuckled to herself, and she almost could not even figure out why.
"Thinking about what?" Dustin joined the conversation.
She inhaled, and fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt. "Normal teenagers spend their days at the mall, or the movies, or just stupid teenager shit," she said with a sad smile, invisible to those around her. "We battle monsters from a different dimension, perform exorcisms and fight Russians."
The sentiment was met with dry chuckles and snickers. "What's fucking next? Dinosaurs? Time-traveling? Jesus Christ…" Mike said, drawing out more light laughter from the group.
"I think the only time I ever felt normal was in those six months," El thought aloud, followed by a sniffle.
"Don't worry," Will said back to her. "I think it's over now, for good."
"Let's hope so," Lucas replied.
Another wave of silence cascaded over the party as they continued to lie in the darkness, staring at the dark ceiling above them.
"I'll tell you one thing, though," Mike said. "All the stuff we've done, all the stuff we've gone through, there aren't any fucking people in the world that I would have rather done them with."
"Me neither," Dustin agreed.
"Yeah," Will said along with Dustin.
"We're like one big, fucked up family," Max joked, and everyone murmured in agreement humorously.
"I'm happy to call you guys my friends," El said, her voice almost breaking. "Family."
"I love you guys," Lucas spoke, and everyone turned to look at him. "Not in a romantic sexual way, just...brotherly love. Sisterly love."
"Like a family," Mike clarified for Lucas.
"Yeah, like that."
"Me too."
"You know, when I moved to this town, I thought you guys were the weirdest dudes in town. With those Ghostbuster costumes and shit, you looked like idiots," Max teased them. "But now...I gotta admit; I love you guys too."
Mike realized that as much as him and Max had never really been able to find common ground, with everything about El, Mike realized that, even if it had not started out that way, Max was a part of the Party now. Maybe he was wrong about her… she did want the best for El, and he had recently come to realize that he had been entirely too possessive of her in the recent months. And she was the girlfriend of one of his best friends, the best friend of his girlfriend. Maybe he could start trying to build some kind of mutual friendship with her."Me too, Zoomer."
There was a lapse in the conversation for a millisecond, and then, "I can't even remember what class you are, but yeah, you too, Mike."
"Yeah," Will said. "Same goes for me."
"Yup," from Dustin.
"Me as well," El said.
In El's mind, she started to think. She thought about all the people who were with her, people who cared for her and loved each other, and would always be there for one another, no matter what. She thought of all they had endured and all they had accomplished, and how much they meant to her.
She stood up and walked to the middle of the room. Looking down, she was able to vaguely make out the silhouettes of her friends lying on the ground below her.
"If he comes back," she announced, her voice shaky. "If the Mindflayer comes back, promise...promise that we will all work together to stop him. Promise."
Mike stared at his girlfriend, standing above him, in the middle of the rest of the people in the room. He stood up and grabbed her hand firmly in his grasp. "I promise."
Max stood up immediately after and grabbed El's other hand. "I promise."
Lucas, seeing his girlfriend join them, stood up after her. He took her hand. "I promise."
Then Dustin. "I promise."
Then Will got up, and moved in between Mike and Dustin, and latched onto their hands
with both of his. And then he said the two words that meant so much to the party.
"I promise."
A little bit of "It" vibes, don't you think? Thanks for the support, remember to leave a review with your thoughts, suggestions and criticisms. :)
