A/N: Hey guys :)
So, Billy is not Max's brother in this story, Steve is, as I could not picture Billy as Dewy, being caring, scared, and supportive, but I could picture Steve in this role so easily, so the part went to him lol.
Hope you guys enjoy :)
Chapter Four: Killer On The Loose
Hawkins, Indiana
Hawkins High School
October 26th, 1988
7:40am
Pulling into the student parking lot of Hawkins High School in Will's mom's car they had borrowed to take to school that morning and were going to be using for the next couple of weeks, El and Will exited the parked car, El with an open mouth and wide blown eyes. The lush green grass, the sidewalk, and the street to the school were flooded with yellow caution tape, orange and white Police blockades, Policemen, News Channel vans, and various reporters and journalists.
The reporters and journalists were spread around the school yard, some talking to students (interviewing them), some talking directly into cameras, some writing down notes and taking pictures, and some talking to the Police that surrounded the area. Walking on the sidewalk leading up to the school with El by his side, Will could hear multiple voices overlapping each other, everyone talking at once, filling his hears with chatter he didn't particularly care for.
"I heard she was found hanging from a tree."
"There's blood found. All right."
"…he went over there for a scary movie night; you know how much she likes Halloween."
"Chief Hopper is reportedly unable to be contacted, having left the state last night for a vacation with his wife, Joyce Hopper, his deputy Steve Harrington…"
"…are doing drugs, that they are high in the classrooms, and that they are involved in the occult."
"Occult? Oh my god."
"I had Algebra with him."
El moved closer to his side, tucking her arm through his, head moving back and forth, unable to concentrate with so many people buzzing around. Passing by a familiar News van, Will stopped El from walking forward, when she gave him a curious look he pointed to an area of green grass, on it were Nancy and Jonathan, his brother and Mike's sister. Jonathan was behind his camera, filming Nancy who stood in front of the camera with a microphone in her hand, the High School in view behind her.
From the corner of his eye, Will could see the anger in El's eyes when she seen who Will pointed at, there was always a moment, a split second of time where El looked at Nancy and couldn't control her face from showing her true emotions for the other girl. A split second where someone could catch the irritation and anger El held inside of herself for Mike's sister, a face that disappeared as fast as it came, with a blink from Will's eyes El's features were schooled back into a neutral expression, acting as if she hadn't just sent a death stare to Nancy. As always Will ignored El's look, choosing to let her believe he didn't catch her expression to his best friend's sister and his brother's girlfriend.
Earlier that morning Will hadn't seen his brother before leaving for school, Jonathan had already left for work by the time Will left his room to shower. Him and Nancy worked for a local News Station as their reporter and camera man, Jonathan often drove around the News Stations van for both work and personal related things. Will watched as his brother steadied the camera he was holding on his shoulder, giving Nancy a thumbs up to indicate she could talk. Him and El stood off to the side, almost directly behind Jonathan, looking at Nancy as she fixed her poofy hair for the final time before starting to talk at the camera with a serious frown pulled across her lips, a frown that made her appear older than she was.
"The town of Hawkins, Indiana was devastated last night when two young teenagers were found brutally murdered. Authorities have yet to issue a statement, but our sources tell us that no arrest has been made and the murderer could strike again…" Will tuned the rest of what Nancy was saying out, he looked around the school yard, everyone looked like busy bugs, bouncing from one area to the next with fluttering motions that made them look like they didn't know the first thing to do with themselves, it was amusing to watch them.
Will stood on his tip toes, glancing over faces in a hurry to spot a familiar head of raven curls, next to him El had her hand covering her mouth in horror, her wide eyes stared at Nancy unblinking, actually listening to Nancy's words unlike Will, "That is awful." She told Will through the hand across her mouth, Will didn't answer her back, choosing instead to keep looking for Mike.
"Can you guys believe this shit?" Someone grumbled from behind him and El, forcing themselves in between the pair.
"Max!" El happily shouted into the redheads' ear as she hugged her, Jonathan gave them an annoyed glance from his place still behind the camera, pointedly gesturing his head to his camera to give them the heavy hint that they needed to leave for him and Nancy could do their jobs. Nancy was just starting to wrap up whatever she was saying, giving them a similar look to Jonathan's when she fumbled through the last of her speech. They both took their jobs a little too seriously in Will's opinion, but he still gave both of them a silent apology, adding a quick smile to his brother before placing his hands on both Max's and El's shoulders to push them forward, making them begin a slow pace to the front entrance of the High School.
"We just got here, what in the world is going on?" El's concern leaked from her voice, she kept Max close to her, replacing Will's arm with the other girls, "Nancy just said something about two students being killed?" Will crossed his arms, stiffly holding them in front of his chest, walking a little behind the girls, keeping them within hearing distance.
"Yeah, I can't believe you guys don't know," Max said to them, she glanced over her shoulder back at Nancy and Jonathan who were now reviewing the footage they just shot, before continuing, "I mean I would have figured both of you would be one of the first people to know considering your brother works for the News and your dad is the Police Chief."
"Dad is not here right now; he left the state last night with Joyce to go to Alaska for Joyce's work." El told her at the same time that Will said, "Jonathan leaves really early for work, plus he never tells us anything if we don't ask."
"I didn't know that was last night, I thought it was in a couple more days," Max answered back to El, "Steve was called last night, he was really nervous when he left the house in the middle of the night, but I didn't get the story from him until this morning. Apparently, Chrissy Cunningham and Jason Carver were killed last night at Chrissy's house." Max told them both, keeping her voice low, Steve was Max's stepbrother and Hopper's deputy.
Steve was a bit of an airhead, but everyone around said he had a good heart, Will wondered how he was taking all of this, to Steve, Hopper wasn't even gone a day and already two murders happen leaving Steve as the head cop to investigate, he wondered if Steve was looking at this as an opportunity to further his career or as a burden he wished wasn't his to take on.
"Chrissy?' El gasped, she looked back at Will allowing him to see that her eyes got impossibly wider, and her eyebrows had rose up to her hairline, Will could also see tears prickling at her eyes, "She's so sweet though, who would want to kill her?" That was true, most everyone considered Chrissy as Hawkins very own sweetheart, the strawberry blonde always had a full smile to give everyone in her line of sight, adorably displaying her crooked teeth, she always had a compliment ready for anyone who looked sad and a hug for anyone who wanted one, she was also their High Schools cheer captain, dating the captain of the basketball team.
"Jason was an asshole, who wouldn't want to kill him?" Will offhandedly asked, well Chrissy was an angel in disguise, Jason was a demon, an asshole who loved using his captain title as a shield to bully and harass other students he didn't think deserved his respect. His favorite person to harass being Mike's friend, Eddie Munson, a metal head Will's talk to a few times that Jason dubbed "The Freak" of the school.
"They weren't just killed you guys," Max stopped them at the steps leading up to the schools' front entrance, she turned around to face Will, turning El with her, leaning forward she brought their little trio into a small secret circle, "It wasn't like a fast thing that was over within a couple of minutes. They were splatter-movie killed, Jason's stomach was ripped open from one end to the other and Chrissy was stabbed in her heart before she was choked and strung up a tree, her parents are the ones who found her."
"I cannot believe that," El's already light completion paled, her hands started shaking, a terrified look was in her gaze, she gazed at the people around them with twitchy eyes, "Chrissy sits next to me in English class, she is the reason I get through that class without falling asleep."
"Not anymore." Will mumbled, mostly to himself, but El and Max still heard him, giving him a look of disbelief, Will shrugged back at them, not entirely sure what they wanted him to say, it was a fact, Chrissy would not be sitting next to El in English class anymore.
"Will!" El gasped in disbelief at him, "She just died." Max nodded in agreement, El gave Will a look that resembled his mom's when she was disappointed with him.
Will put his hands up in a surrender pose, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're right El, that was insensitive of me," he said, trying his best to keep the sarcastic tone out of his voice.
"Do they know who killed them?" He asked hoping to pull the attention of the two girls away from him.
"The police are fucking clueless," Max shook her head, rolling her blue eyes to the sky, "Steve was saying they don't have any leads, that the crime scene didn't look like it would give them much evidence either, it was just a gory mess for the most part."
"Now we have reporters swarming the school like piranhas fighting to get a nibble," Max fumed, pissed at all the people around them trying to catch a good headline, "Steve also said to be prepared to be interviewed, their interrogating the entire school to try and get a lead." She warned them.
"Everyone?" Will questioned, adjusting his backpack on his shoulder, he looked around again for Mike but still couldn't spot him, he wondered what was holding him up, by now Mike was normally attached to his hip.
"Yup," Max nodded, "Teachers, students, lunch ladies, janitors, you name it, the Police are going to be talking to them."
"Did Steve mention if they think it is school related? Does he think someone in this school could be the killer?" El hesitantly asked, watching the people around them with careful eyes, taking double glances of suspicion at anyone who she thought looked shifty.
"They don't know, that's why their talking to everyone." Max let them out of their secret circle, continuing on to the school like she wasn't just giving them the rundown of the murders that just happened.
"It's a shame that Hopper isn't here right now, the town could really use his help. Steve was telling me this is the worst crime to happen in Hawkins in years, even worse than…" Max trailed off, leaving her sentence unfinished, avoiding looking into El's eyes.
"Let's just say it's bad." She said after a beat of silence went by, a silence verging on awkward that Will didn't want to be a part of. Fortunately, the school bell rang, giving students their first warning to get to class.
Striding ahead of the girls, Will looked back long enough to give El and Max a wave, calling out, "I'll see you guys later!" He didn't give either girl a chance to wave or say anything back, just continued his way to his classroom, pushing through students blocking his path, his gaze focused on the ground, he still hadn't seen Mike, he was starting to wonder if the other boy even came to school or not.
El sat in her English class, trying to keep her attention on her teacher who stood at the front of the classroom going over the reading assignment everyone had, telling them they should have read their assigned book by then as they were getting handed multiple worksheets to fill out discussing their individual books (El knew her luck in this class was crappy so it did not shock her that her teacher was discussing the book she did not finish the night before).
Trying was the operative word as El's gaze once again moved from her teacher to the empty seat next to her, the seat Chrissy normally occupied but was now vacated. Seeing Chrissy's empty desk chair was bringing an unpleasant swirling to El's stomach, making her feel nauseous and lightheaded. It did not feel right to know that the reason why the chair did not have the bubbly girl in it today was because she was brutally murdered, it was not as if El could chalk up her disappearance to being absent, staying home sick or skipping in the girl's bathroom, the harsh truth was in her face, making it impossible to pretend otherwise.
It might have been El's imagination, but the class also felt suffocating, she could tell she was not the only student eyeing the empty seat. The classroom felt like a restraint around her, keeping her seated and acting as if everything was okay, as if everything was normal, as if two students did not just die horrifying deaths while everyone else in town was asleep.
The sound of the door opening pulled El away from her depressing thoughts, one of the schools' front desk ladies was handing her teacher a note, that same lady had been filtering in and out of the classroom for the last forty minutes, coming in periodically with notes to the teacher, shortly after a student was told it was their turn to talk to the Police. El waited to hear what unlucky student had been chosen to go next.
"Elanor," El's teacher spoke in a softer tone then she was used to hearing come from her gruff English teacher, who normally spoke with hard edged words and a sneer on her face, it took El a minute to register that the entirety of the classroom was looking at her, she was not used to hearing her full name, just her nickname, "It's your turn honey." El had to physically stop herself from cringing, never in her history of attending this teachers' classes has she ever called El "honey", it was not a term of endearment or an act of comfort that her teacher wanted it to be.
Avoiding looking into anyone's eyes, El got up from her seat, picking up her backpack that laid on the floor next to her, she took one last look at Chrissy's empty seat before she walked out of the classroom and made her way to the principal's office where all the students were being questioned. She wondered if any of her friends or boyfriend had already been interrogated or if she was the first one out of their group of friends.
Just outside the principal's office she heard voices filtering out, all ones she recognized.
"Who is up next?" That was Officer Callahan, one of her dad's co-workers, an officer that liked to steal her dad's lunches and refused to admit it is him anytime he is confronted, at least according to her dad. Officer Callahan sounded bored from what El could hear, like questioning students was beneath him.
"Elanor Hopper." Both Principal Coleman and Steve Harrington said together, they both sounded apprehensive, like they were hesitant to say her name, which she thinks they are. Steve, she noted held more affection in his voice when he said her name then what her principal did.
"Chief Hopper's daughter?" Officer Callahan questioned them, "I'm not sure he's going to be happy that we're questioning his daughter without him present."
"It's okay, I know Hopper and El," Steve told them, "He's still not going to be happy, but he'll feel better once he knows I was here with her." Which was true, her dad trusted Steve, if he could not be present with her for questions, she knows he would appreciate Steve or Jonathan taking his place, "Plus, none of us have been able to get in contact with him or Joyce so it's better to just move this along as fast as we can, he'll understand." Steve assured the other two men.
"Isn't El Hopper also the daughter of uhh…" Principal Coleman started asking the two officers, El choose that moment to walk into the room, Steve loudly cleared his throat, glaring over at her principal, making him trail off his sentence, giving El a regretful expression that bordered on sympathetic, a look that she was quite used to getting.
Principal Coleman put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently, "El, how are you this morning sweetheart?" Hearing the term of endearment from her principal did not giving her as much of a visceral reaction as she had hearing it from her teachers' mouth, it sounded more genuine from him then it had coming from her teacher.
She shrugged her shoulders at him, taking the seat he led her over to, uttering a quick and quiet, "I am okay." To the men in the room.
"Hello El." Officer Callahan told her, giving her a small smile and a head nod.
"Officer Callahan," El nodded back to him, giving him her own small fake smile, she looked at Steve next, "Steve." El let a warm smile come to her face, replacing her artificial one, Steve hated it when any of them called him by his first name when he was "on duty", he always made a point to stress to her and her friends the level of respect they had to show him when he put on the uniform and badge, it was quite cute to El how serious he got when telling them this, it was also hilarious because they loved testing him all the more for it.
"Elllll," Steve hissed at her, dragging out the "L" in her name, practically whining, which he caught himself doing judging by his sudden straight posture, "I'm in uniform right now, it's Officer or Deputy Harrington."
"Right, right." El suppressed a giggle that wanted to burst from her throat at Steve's face, it was just too easy to get to him, "Deputy Harrington."
"How is everything El? Are you okay?" Officer Callahan spoke, turning El's attention to him, she was not sure if he was asking out of genuine interest or just as a standard that he has asked all the students that were questioned before her, but she answered him all the same.
"Good. I am good." She was not about to mention to them the nauseous feeling she has had all morning; they did not need to know that.
"And Chief Hopper? How was he last night? Did he have any trouble packing or catching his flight?" He continued, again she was not sure if it was out of sincere concern or if it was just a standard to ask considering her dad was head-honcho at the Police Station and Officer Callahan did not want his bad manners to come back to bite him in the ass later on when her dad returned to Hawkins.
"Um yeah he was good, packed everything on time, gave me and Will a lecture, and then had Jonathan drive him and Joyce to the airport." She rattled off, "Thanks for asking." She added on in afterthought, she also did not want her own bad manners to come back to bite her in the ass.
"Have you heard from Hopper or Joyce at all since they left?" Steve was the one to ask her this time, a concerned expression pulled his eyebrows together and tightened the corners of his lips, this time El knew it was genuine concern being expressed, Steve did not like that he could not get in contact with her dad, she understood that feeling.
"No, I have not," El told them shaking her head, "They told me, and Will they would call us when they landed but they only just left last night, I am not sure if they have even landed yet."
"If you hear back from them El, you or Will, make sure you guys let me know." El nodded her head to Steve, some of the worry left his eyes when she agreed to contact him.
"Right," Principal Coleman clapped his hands together, "Well for right now the Police are going to be asking you some questions El, nothing major, just a standard interview they're going through with all the students and staff, it shouldn't take long at all, they've been doing their best to try to make things as brief as possible." El nervously nodded her understanding, she kept her gaze on Steve, she felt more comfortable looking at him then the other two men in the room with her, Steve felt safe, Steve was safe, he would not let the questioning get to a point that it made El uncomfortable.
Seeing that El was closely looking at him for guidance and comfortability, Steve moved closer to her, pushing a chair her way he sat down in front of the seat she had taken.
"Have you heard about what happened?" Steve started softly questioning her, his voice was low, almost too low for El to hear, she shifted closer to Steve, their knees knocked together from their new positions.
"Yeah, Max filled me and Will in when we got to school this morning and seen all the reporters and Police outside," El told him, in the corner of her eye she could see Officer Callahan writing something down in a notepad she had not noticed was in his lap, she pondered what he was writing down, it was not like what she just said was important to anything, "She said Chrissy and Jason were killed last night."
Steve hummed in understanding and confirmation, "Yes, they were, and we're doing our best to find the killer." El did not say anything to that, knowing Steve was attempting to soothe her, probably noticing how fidgety and nervous she was. Not because she knew anything helpful to their investigation, she knew nothing about who killed Chrissy and Jason or why they were killed, but because she felt like extra attention was on her since that morning, attention she did not like, it made her anxious. El was already a nervous, untrusting person, suspicious of those around her, really only trusting her own friend group and the older people close to them like Steve and Jonathan (Not Nancy…Not for El), and this unknown killer in their town that could strike again was not helping her wary nature.
"Were you friends with Chrissy Cunningham and/or Jason Carver?" Steve knew the answer to this question already, El knew he knew she was only friends with five other people in the school, one of which was her brother, another one which was Steve's own sister, and another one her boyfriend but she answered the question all the same.
"I was not friends with either of them. I do sit next to Chrissy in English class though and sometimes we talk but outside of that class we do not interact." El only caught the present tense in her speech after, she would have to start saying she used to sit next to Chrissy in English class, and they did not interact outside of that classroom.
"Okay," Steve said unsurprisingly, "A lot of students seem to know that Chrissy and Jason were planning a Halloween movie night last night. Did you also know this information?" She was not sure of the purpose of this question, what would knowing what Chrissy and Jason were up to the night before prove to their investigation of who the killer was?
"I did not know they were going to have a Halloween movie night until I heard about it this morning, but it is not surprising, Chrissy has always been very vocal about her love for Halloween, everyone in this school knows it is her favorite Holiday." Lots of students were celebrating the Holiday with scary movies, it was not shocking that Chrissy and Jason were a part of the mass in that regard.
"It's your guy's favorite Holiday too, right?' Steve asked nodding his head, he seemed more relaxed as he went on asking her questions and getting answers, El wonders if he thought she would say something unusual or weird, she still did not know why Officer Callahan was still writing in his notepad though, it made her feel like she was saying something that did not fit.
Steve was wrong, Halloween was not her groups favorite Holiday, or at least not her favorite Holiday. Her favorite was New Years, she liked the thought of being able to start anew every year, to be given another chance to get things right, she liked the thought of things in the past staying in the past and moving forward. Though Max and Lucas enjoyed Halloween, El knew it was not their favorite either. Halloween was Mike's, Will's, and Dustin's favorite though.
"Some of ours, yeah." She quietly muttered out, not bothering to fully correct him.
"Okay, last couple of questions El and then you can get back to class," Steve teasingly knocked his knees against hers, giving her a dim but sincere smile, one she tried to mirror back, "Where were you last night between the hours of 10:00pm and Midnight? What were you doing? Who were you with?"
This seemed more like the questions that someone would expect to be asked in a Police investigation, El wanted to be able to say she was asleep like a normal teenager, but she did not want to lie, at least not all the way, she was not doing anything bad exactly, but she did not want the fact that Mike snuck over to her house to get back to her dad. Steve and her dad were close, Steve also knew Mike was not allowed over, El was sure the information would get back to Hopper and she would be grounded if she told the full truth.
"I was reading a book for my English class last night," she started, she shifted uncomfortably in her chair, hoping Steve would not pick up the lie if she added mostly truth to it, "I was with Will, my dad, and Joyce for the last part of my night, Will was keeping me company while I read my book and then we said goodbye to our parents. I fell asleep around 12:40am."
El felt like she was sweating, it was the truth what she said but the lie was blaringly obvious, at least she thought so, luckily no one else in the room seemed to pick up on it. She felt relieved that no one was picking up on her lies, Steve stood up from his chair, pushing it back, making it make a horrid screeching sound on the floor as it was forced away. Officer Callahan was also closing his little notepad, placing it back on his lap and his pen back in his shirt pocket.
"Alright El you're all done; you can get back to class now." Steve pulled her up from her chair, lightly pushing her to the office door, flashing one last smile to the room, El walked out. She kept her head down as she walked, she hoped Will would not contradict her words and mention Mike coming over when Steve questioned him.
Hawkins High School
October 26th, 1988
12:10 pm
Hearing the school bell ring throughout the classroom was one of the best things that Will feels he's ever heard; he was bored out of his mind and ready for lunch, he was hoping to see Mike at the usual lunch spot. Gathering his things back into his backpack he left the classroom, he met up with Lucas outside in the schools' courtyard.
All around them students were rushing to get places around the green fields of the school, placing their lunches down before plopping next to their friends for their lunch hour, happily talking to one another as if the today was just a normal Monday.
"Hey," Lucas bumped his shoulder when Will got to him, "Did you get lunch?" He eyed Will's empty hands with eyebrows raised, in his own hands he carried a standard lunch tray, one that had a milk carton, a bowl of tomato soup, a grilled cheese sandwich, an apple, and a cookie.
"I brought a couple oranges from home to eat." Will gestured to his backpack, he didn't like eating the school lunches, so he always brought something to snack on to fill him up just enough to last throughout the second half of the school day.
Him and Lucas were quiet after that, quickly making their way to their normal hangout area during lunch period where all their friends were sure to be gathered like any other school day.
Sure enough, Will spotted El, Mike, Dustin, and Max sitting on the edge of a large cement water fountain that was surrounded by flowerpots, the school had the water fountain put in as decoration in an attempt to make the High School more appealing on the outside. Will did have to admit, it was nice looking, plus it didn't hurt that the flat surface of the water fountain was comfortable enough to sit on, lay back on, and relax on.
Lucas left his side when they got to their friends, immediately going to Max's side, tugging her to himself to press several kisses to her glossed lips.
Will stopped in front of his friends, looking at all of them he wondered where the best place to sit was. To the far left was Mike, who Will hadn't seen all day until that moment even though he had paid attention in the hallways between classes for him. Mike was lying down with his backpack under his head acting as an improvised pillow, his eyes were closed, face turned towards the beaming sun soaking in its yellow rays. Will thought Mike looked good in the sunlight, his fingers longed to grab his sketch book, wanting to keep the image of this sunlit Mike immortalized on paper. In front of Mike, in between his legs and leaning back into his chest was El, she too had her head turned towards the sun, eyes closed, relaxing back into Mike like the makeshift perfect couple they were.
Moving his eyes away from the picture Mike and El made together before he got too upset over it, Will looked further down the fountain, at the other end, at the far right side was Dustin by himself, stuffing his cheeks full of twinkies, there was empty wrappers gathered around him, he was talking to Lucas who had moved himself and Max into a similar position as Mike and El except they were sitting down instead of lying down.
In the back of Will's mind he registered that the school's intercom was on and Principal Coleman was talking through it, he listened more closely, "Remember students as your principal I love all of you as my students, and I want all of you to be as safe as you can be," Will heavily rolled his eyes at that, "All students are being encouraged to return to their homes immediately after school is over. Please avoid strangers, walk in groups of 2 or more, and report any unusual sightings to the Hawkins Police Station. That will be all for these announcements. Please stay safe and have a wonderful day. Thank you." Will resisted rolling his eyes again, like anyone was going to listen to Principal Coleman, teenagers were stupid, Will had already overheard a few students talking about going out to Chrissy's house to see if they could see the left-over blood from the bodies.
"Will?" Snapping out of his thoughts, Will looked at the fountain to see who called his name, Mike was sitting up, El no longer pressed to his chest, instead she was sitting upright with her arms pressed firmly to her sides, an unhappy look on her face. Mike was waving his hand to the empty space next to him, without a second thought Will sat down, he dropped his backpack to the floor before he pulled his legs up under him, sitting crisscross he turned his whole body to face Mike.
Without falter Mike picked up Will's backpack and dug through it, pulling out the two oranges he had stashed in it before letting his backpack drop back to the ground. After throwing one of the oranges to Will, Mike shifted his body to lay down again, this time with his head in between the open space made by the crossed legs of Will's lap, Will grinned down at the other boy, not saying anything Will began peeling his orange, watching as Mike did the same.
He ignored the eyes he could feel on him, El was no doubt watching them as she always did, it was obvious she didn't like how close Mike and Will got a lot of the time, but strangely enough she's never mentioned her dislike of it to either of them. She instead kept quiet and tried not to show the distaste for their closeness on her face, like with Nancy though, he was able to detect it before El gained control over her expression again. Will sometimes wished El wouldn't hold her tongue, he wished she would say something, if only just to see how Mike reacted to her words and how he would behave with Will afterwards.
"It's been okay," Will whispered to him, glancing at the others he could tell the only one really paying attention to them was El, who appeared to be engaged with their friends but was side eying them, a discreet grimace slowly making its way to her face, "Where have you been all morning? I was looking for you." Will pulled his hand away from Mike's to finish peeling his orange, breaking it apart he started eating the wedges, trying to act like he didn't care where Mike was that morning but failing.
"Here and there." Mike shrugged, he split apart his own orange to start eating, taking an aggressive bike from his first slice Will watched as some of the juice from the orange sprayed from the wedge and dripped from the corner of Mike's mouth, he licked his lips as he watched it trail down the side of Mike's cheek, he wanted to lick it up but knew he couldn't.
When Mike didn't elaborate what "here and there" meant to him, Will dropped the question, not really wanting to but not wanting to piss Mike off by bugging him even more.
"So, what kinds of questions did Steve ask you guys?" Max's voice drew Will's attention, she was giggling and playfully hitting Lucas's arm as he tried to force feed her a slice of his apple.
"He asked me if I was friends with Chrissy or Jason." Dustin answered back, hurriedly drinking some water he had next to him when he choked around the twinkies in his mouth, trying to talk around them, Will wrinkled his nose when a piece of twinkie fell out of Dustin's mouth splattering on the ground beneath him.
"Same." Max, Lucas, and El said together, Mike and him were quiet, silently watching the others and listening to them.
Finishing his orange, Will couldn't stop himself from running his fingers through Mike's hair, purposely pulling the strands rougher than necessary, making Mike give him a cheeky smirk.
"He asked me if I knew Chrissy and Jason were going to watch scary movies, and I was like well duh, everyone fucking knew that because Chrissy is a Halloween freak and couldn't shut up all week about wanting to have Jason over," Max ranted, "What does knowing they were going to watch scary movies even prove? Like what does that information even provide when it's basically common knowledge?"
"I thought the same thing," El quietly admitted, "Steve asked what I was doing last night between the hours of 10pm and Midnight, he asked me who I was with too," El snapped her head up like she just had a sudden thought she couldn't wait to share, turning to look at Will and Mike, she said, "Which reminds me, I do not know if you guys talked to them yet but I did not mention Mike coming over. I just said that Will kept me company well I read my English book and that I went to bed after I said goodbye to my dad and Joyce."
"So, you lied?" Dustin snickered to himself, "Wow El, I didn't know you had it in you, I'm proud of you, truly proud." He had his hand pressed to chest, giving El a mock bow, Will chuckled under his breath when he caught sight of El's annoyed expression.
"Shut up!" She screeched back to Dustin, trying to reach over the space between them to hit him, settling on throwing one of Mike's orange peels at him when she realized she couldn't reach over.
"Wait…Mike went over last night?" Lucas mischievously smiled at El, suggestively moving his eyebrows up and down, "Care to tell the class what you guys did?"
"Shut the fuck up Lucas," Max landed another less playful hit to Lucas's arm, one that Will winced at, it sounded like it hurt, "El isn't going to kiss and tell, she's a lady, she has class." Max declared with a firm head nod, El shook her head in embarrassment.
"I already got questioned, and no I didn't mention Mike coming over last night. Do you think I'm fucking stupid; Steve would have told Hopper when he got back, and I would have been grounded right along with you." Will told El wanting to get off the subject of what her and Mike did the previous night together, his voice was snappier than he intended it to be, when El frowned back at him Mike painfully pitched his inner thigh throwing him a hard look when Will glanced down at him, one Will scowled back at.
"Did they ask you guys if you liked to hunt? Cause Steve asked me that." Mike said to them, keeping his eyes locked with Will's, his glare seeming to get darker the longer Will stared back at him, unwilling to be the first to look away.
"Yeah, he asked me that too, like what the fuck does that even have to do with anything?" Lucas answered with a clueless look."Right! It was fucking weird!" Dustin pointed at Lucas, rapidly nodded his head in agreement.
"Steve did not ask me that." El and Max said together, both smiling at one another after. Steve had also asked Will if he liked to hunt but he kept his mouth closed, too busy having a silent standoff with Mike. Will couldn't believe that Mike was upset over a snappy tone to El, it didn't help Will's feelings of jealousy and insecurity, he didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of Mike's glares in defense for El, Will is meant to be the exception to this glare.
"Why would Steve ask you guys if you like to hunt but not us girls?" El curiously asked.
"I'm guessing it's because Jason's body was gutted," Dustin excitedly told them like he was talking about a new movie release or new invention he made, "Still a fucking weird thing to ask but it makes sense when you think about it."
"Thank you for that delightful visual Dustin, appreciate it." Will sarcastically replied without looking up, he narrowed his eyes at Mike, he wanted to ask Mike what his problem was but with present company all he could do was make facial expressions he hoped let Mike know he wasn't happy with him.
"I think he didn't ask you girls if you liked to hunt because they think a man killed Chrissy and Jason, the way they were murdered, gutted and gory they don't think a girl could have done that." Lucas announced to them, talking in a matter a fact tone that Will wanted to laugh at but refrained himself from doing so.
"Lucas! That's so fucking sexist," Lucas just barely missed the next hit Max aimed at him, jumping away from her with a laugh, wrapping his arms around her he held down her flying hands, keeping them locked to her chest, "A girl could have easily killed them. Just because it was gruesome doesn't just automatically mean it was a man, it's the eighties for fuck's sake, women can do whatever men can do and even do it better." Max finally got herself out of Lucas's hold, she reached over to smack Dustin's arm first, before she sneak-attacked Lucas on the second round, both boys let out fake wails of pain, snorting in laughter when Max glowered at them.
"It is the eighties." El nodded with too much seriousness in her voice, letting everyone know that she was not sarcastically replying back like most of them would do. Mike was the first to break the staring contest, he looked away from Will's eyes only to put them on El, fondly smiling at her, reaching her hand to him, Will flinched when Mike met her halfway and tangled their fingers together, sitting up from Will's lap he scooted closer to El, slinging his arm around her shoulder and kissing the side of her forehead.
"Jason was basically hollowed out," Mike clicked his tongue at them, his lips curled at the corners into a smirk, he was mainly speaking to the girls, he wanted to rile up Max again, seeing how offended she had got over Lucas saying the Police think only a man could do such a grotesque murder, "And Chrissy was stabbed, choked, and strung up a tree, the fact is that only a man would have the stomach to do something like that, only a man would be willing to get his hands dirty like that."
"Clearly you overestimate your gender and underestimate our gender," Max immediately argued, pointing to her and El at the end of her sentence, "Being a man doesn't automatically make you tougher or make you be able to "stomach" more things, being a man literally just means you have a dick between your legs, a dick half of you don't even know how to fucking use properly"
"Ohhhhh she just fucking went there!" Dustin shouted laughing so hard he almost fell back into the water fountain, catching himself last second before he tumbled over. Will started laughing too, in part at Dustin who almost fell into the fountain and was trying to appear nonchalant about it and part at Mike's scowl to Max, taking her comment personally, Mike quickly glanced his way, Will caught the unhappy almost betrayed look on his face before Mike had turned away from him again.
"Yeesh Max, clearly that hit a little too close to home for Mikey-Boy here so give some of his dignity back, he only has so much of it." Lucas joked giving a mock pitying look to Mike who glared at the couple harder than before. Dustin was trying to reign in his laughter, seeing that Mike wasn't looking pleased, but Will didn't try to hide his snickering, Mike deserved to be laughed at after how he glared at Will like he had done something wrong when he hadn't.
"How do you…gut someone?" El questioned, she was observing them with puzzled eyes, after her question the group got quiet, Will felt his lip turn up and his nose scrunch when Mike's hand started rubbing soothing circles to El's lower back, he was whispering something in her ear that Will couldn't hear but it was clear whatever Mike had said was comforting her, El's shoulders relaxed their tense posture and she leaned further into Mike's support.
Will opened his mouth to answer without fully realizing that's what he was doing until his words started filling the silence between them, all eyes snapped to look at him, including Mike's, his own eyes were focused on where Mike's hand was still pressed to El's back, "You take a knife, and you slit them from groin to sternum and watch as all their intestines fall to the ground. In theory, it's really not that hard to gut someone, messy, but not difficult." His voice had dropped to a low murmur, taking his eyes off of Mike's hand, he looked up just in time to see El's shudder and see Mike pull her even closer, which Will hadn't thought was possible, El was already practically in Mike's lap, how much closer did she really need to be to him.
"Shut the fuck up Will," Mike snarled at him, Will refused to let any emotion cross his face, he just blankly stared back, not giving away any of the hurt feeling he had inside from being told to "shut the fuck up" by Mike, "Why the fuck would you say that?"
"She asked." He sneered back to Mike, "Why did she ask a question that she knew she wasn't going to like the fucking answer to?" Will could feel everyone's eyes shifting between him and Mike, the atmosphere around them got tense, the others not really knowing what to say to make things less strained.
"Hey Mike, didn't you used to date Chrissy a while back? Before El." Lucas blurted out, shifting awkwardly, he wanted to move along the conversation.
"Yeah, freshmen year, for like two seconds," Mike scoffed, easing the tension around them, "Worse two seconds ever too, Eddie had a crush on her and got on my ass for dating her, mind you we didn't even actually go on a date, I kissed her one time behind the fucking bleachers, and we never talked after that. I wouldn't exactly say we "dated"."
Will remembers that, it was a few months before Mike started dating El, Mike had told him he wanted to know what being with a girl felt like and so he went and asked out Chrissy, who had surprisingly said yes, doing this despite Will expressing he didn't want Mike being with anyone other than him. Mike hadn't got much further than a make out session with her behind the bleachers before his friend Eddie had told him about his crush, begging Mike to not date her, Mike being the good friend that he was ignored Chrissy after that, going back into Will's arms and bed like nothing happened. Like he wasn't planning to date Chrissy well still fooling around with Will, like he wasn't willing to string along Will well he got his rocks off with Chrissy. Fast forward a few months, Will's mom got remarried and moved in Hopper along with El into their home and Mike started dating El not long after, leaving Will in that same position he would have been in with Chrissy regardless, only Will thought it was worse because Chrissy at least wasn't his stepsister.
"Yeah, didn't she start dating Jason like right after that?" Dustin titled his head, trying to remember their freshmen year, Will nodded to him, answering his question, Chrissy had started dating Jason immediately after that, breaking poor Eddie Munson's heart at the time.
Turning away from the group Will ran his eyes over the other students, looking for the metal head. He spotted him by a tree with a girl Will thinks is named Robin, another peculiar student in the school, one he's heard likes to ramble on about random things. From what Will could see it looked like Eddie was zoned out, just staring off into nothing with a sad expression on his face, Will wondered if he still had that crush on Chrissy to this day and was sad that she had died, he would ask the other boy but him and Eddie weren't friends, at least not like Mike was friends with him.
"Are the Police aware that you dated the victim Michael?" Max raised her eyebrow at Mike, "Did you let my dear brother know that you had a personal connection to Chrissy Cunningham?" She smirked at Mike when he flipped her off, Will stopped looking at Eddie to throw Mike what he hoped was a sharp look that told him to not open his mouth, Mike tended to say stupid shit when he felt cornered.
"Your brother knows I dated her Max, he was there when all of you guys were pestering me about it in case you don't remember," Mike wouldn't meet Will's eyes, "Plus, what are you trying to say? That I killed her?" He shook his head at Max, clicking his tongue at her in irritation, Max shrugged in response, wearing a look of triumph, happy she was able to aggravate Mike, which wasn't exactly hard for her to do considering her existence irritated Mike on any given day.
"Mike was with me last night." El defended, her and Max had a silent conversation, one that ended with Max huffing and crossing her arms, Will wanted to point out that Mike was only with El for a small portion of the night, he was with Will before and after he was with El, he bit down on his bottom lip to prevent himself from saying that though.
"Exactly, I was with El last night." Mike taunted Max, sticking his tongue out at her.
"Was that before or after you sliced and diced?" Dustin spoke in Max's place, unafraid of El's nasty looks, like all of them with the exception of El he enjoyed getting on Mike's bad side, it was fun to watch.
"Where were you last night Dustin?" El asked trying to turn the questioning around, her arms crossed and chin up in the air, watching Dustin closely for cracks.
"I was working, thank you very much." Dustin said making faces at El. Will was ready for this conversation to be over; he was done talking about this, his legs itched to get up and walk away, he wouldn't be getting a private conversation with Mike like he wanted anytime soon anyways, he would probably attach himself to El's side like he has been since leaving Will's lap, making it impossible for Will to get him alone to talk.
"You were working?" Lucas questioned confused, he squinted his eyes at Dustin, "At the video store? I thought they fired your ass. Weren't you going on angry rants to people about their movie choices?"
"Yeah, they fired me, twice as a matter of fact, I got hired back on though," Dustin stated proudly to them, "And yes, how the fuck do so many people in this town have such shitty movie taste? How am I supposed to just let them walk away without knowing how shitty their movie taste is? I would be the bad guy in that situation." Dustin stood up, putting his hands on his hips, giving them an exasperated stare, he wasn't wrong Will thought, more than half the town did have shitty movie taste, it was honestly a little embarrassing for them as a town.
"I didn't kill anybody." Mike growled under his breath, glaring at all of them with anger, El rubbed his shoulder trying to soothe out his anger, giving multiple kisses to his lips when she got no response.
Irritated at the display, Will used his foot to roughly hit Mike's thigh, when Mike moved his eyes to him, Will coldly said, "Nobody said you did."
"Thank you, buddy." Mike told him smiling sarcastically back at him, Will's jaw tightened in frustration.
"Well you did say it takes a man to do something like those murders Mike," Max mocked Mike's words back at him, unable to resist getting Mike even more flustered with irritation, "Last I checked you're a man, one of the half that don't know how to use the dick that makes you a man, but a man nonetheless…unless you have something to tell us?" Max pointedly looked down to Mike's dick, giggling to herself when Mike covered his crotch.
"Keep it up Max and I'm going to gut your ass next." Mike threatened, Will rolled his eyes when all of them laughed, taking far too much joy in Mike's anger. The only one who didn't laugh besides him was El, she was looking between Mike and Max with a frown on her face.
"Tell us something Mike," Dustin continued the teasing, laughing in between his words, "Did you really put Jason's liver in Chrissy's mailbox? Because I heard that the Police found his liver in the mailbox next to his spleen and pancreas."
"Ew man I'm still trying to eat here!" Lucas yelled, waving his half eaten grilled cheese in the air, ripping off a piece he threw it at Dustin, it bounced off his chest and landed on the ground next to Dustin's chewed up twinkie that had fallen out of his mouth earlier.
"That is not funny." El stated as she stood up, she pushed Mike away from her when he tried to pull her back to him, telling her they were just joking and it didn't mean anything, El ignored Mike, Will hid a smirk behind his hand as he watched El walk away in a huff, making little noises that drew the attention of the students she walked past. Mike didn't move to follow her like Will thought he would, he just stared after her with pursed lips.
"Aw shit. El! Come on El! I didn't mean it! I was just joking! I'm sorry!" Dustin called to El's retreating form, he hurried to collect the wrappers of the empty twinkies around him before he rushed to follow after El, letting a string of apologies out of his mouth as he went.
"I better go after her too." Max said with a regretful grimace, she jumped up from the water fountain, jogging to catch up to Dustin, without a word to Mike or Will Lucas collected the remainder of his lunch and ran after Max, trying his best to stuff the half uneaten grilled cheese into his mouth well balancing the tray in his hands.
Will didn't think him and Mike would be left alone so soon, he had thought that was what he wanted, but to his surprise he didn't really want to be around Mike at that moment who had scooted closer to him when everyone was running after El, their sides were now tightly pressed together, Mike lifted his hand to place on Will's knee, beginning to tap a random rhythm on it.
Not acknowledging Mike in the slightest, Will smacked his hand off his knee, gathering his orange peels to throw away, he leaned down to grab his backpack so he could find the nearest trash can.
"Are you mad at me again?" Mike demanded of him, not answering him Will walked away, not two seconds later he felt Mike at his heels following him. Ignoring his urge to turn around to smooth things over with Mike, Will forced his legs to go faster, only briefly stopping at a trash can to throw his orange peels away.
"Seriously Will, what the fuck is your problem?" From behind him Mike roughly pushed his hand in the middle of Will's back, making him trip forward, he didn't fall from the push but the fact that he could have fell angered him even more.
"Don't fucking touch me." Will stopped walking, turning to glare at Mike, they had already made their way back inside the school, they were standing in an empty hallway, facing each other with scowls.
"You're mine, I can fucking touch you whenever the fuck I want to." Mike was in his face hissing at him, normally the sounds of Mike letting out his possessive side would thrill Will to no end, normally he loved it, but at that moment he wanted nothing more than to rip out Mike's tongue, not wanting to hear the usual things he spills to Will to make him forgive him.
"I'm not El, I'm not your fucking girlfriend or whatever the hell else, so no I'm not yours to touch and push around as you please asshole." Will growled back, he took a subtle step back from Mike, he was angry, but a rational part of his head told him not to hurt the other boy, to breathe and get away from the situation before he did something he would regret, he would never hurt Mike, not on purpose at least.
"You're mine Will," Mike harshly repeated following Will's footsteps back with his own forward ones.
Suddenly the scowl on Mike's face all but disappeared as he tried to get closer to Will, his face softened, eyes looked back at Will like he was a precious diamond that needed to be kept safe, "I was being an asshole to you outside and I shouldn't have been." He said in a voice meant to sound apologetic.
"Then why were you?" Will asked in a whisper, stopping his steps back, this is what he had tried preventing, giving Mike the slight chance to explain himself, Will knew he was too weak to stay mad at him though, whatever his excuse, Will would forgive Mike and they would move on until the next problem came up and the cycle repeated.
He should have kept walking.
"Baby, you didn't have to answer El the way you did," Mike smirked when he noticed Will not backing away from him anymore, without wasting a second he closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around him, pulling him in, Will found his face in Mike's neck, a familiar place that relaxed his body despite himself, "She was clearly disturbed and I thought it would look weird if I didn't get defensive over someone upsetting her."
"I could give two fucks if I was upsetting her, you shouldn't care either, it's not like you're with her because you actually love her," Will spitefully mumbled into Mike's neck, lips grazing his throat, "You shouldn't have been an asshole to me regardless." He finished saying, Mike had started laying kisses on his cheeks, forehead, and bruised nose pulling Will's thoughts away from why he was upset. The thought that Mike hadn't apologized to Will, that he only came up with excuses for himself went through Will's mind, it wasn't long before the thought disappeared, a need to feel more of Mike's skin on his overwhelming his senses and thoughts.
"Mmmm," Mike hummed deep in his throat, finally giving Will's lips the attention they wanted, he pushed Will against the nearest wall, titling Will's head back Mike deepened their kiss.
"I love you." He mumbled against Will's lips, pulling away Mike looked up and down the hallway they were in, letting a relieved look come to his face when he noticed it was still empty, not a soul in sight, Will thinks he should have looked around before they kissed but he thought there was no reason to point that out now.
Seeing that they were still alone, Will stepped close to Mike, he laid his hand over his heart, smiling up at him, he could feel the rhythmic beats thump thump of Mike's heart against his palm, it made him irrationally happy, feeling Mike's heartbeat, for a moment he could pretend that Mike's heart was beating just for him, beating with the amount of love Mike felt for him, "I love you to."
Mike smiled back at him, giving him a quick kiss before stepping away from Will, just in time as a wave of students flooded into the hallway, El being one of those students, she was skipping up to them. When she got to them, she attached herself to Mike's side like a leech, as she often does, hugging him like she hadn't seen him in years, the sight made his heart painfully clench but the pain was lessened when he noticed Mike's gaze firmly on him still, not once sparing a glance down to El.
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed, feel free to follow, favorite, and/or drop a review :)