Thank for your patience guys! Hope you're enjoying what I've got so far. Here's chapter five!
Mike's POV
I don't know why I'm even surprised that it's nearly four o'clock and she's not here.
To avoid looking like an even bigger loser, I returned all my supplies to my backpack instead of leaving them ready at our table. Now it looked like I was just meeting someone for coffee instead of preparing for a last-minute study session.
Looking up at the clock on the wall, I watched the seconds tick by, slowly signaling the end of the three o'clock hour. My coffee wasn't only just halfway empty but mostly cold now too. I knew that if I went up to refill it, I would instead just leave altogether.
After what felt like several minutes of tapping my foot impatiently, El walked through the door, immediately sticking out like a sore thumb.
The Upside Down is large enough that she would have had to look around to find me if I wasn't already sitting in plain sight of the main entrance. She sauntered over to the table and nodded once she saw me.
"Hey." She spoke as she got closer. The smell of smoke around her was intense and I figured it must have added to why she was late.
"Hey. Did you find the place okay?" It was the nicest way I could point out her tardiness without sounding like a jerk about it.
"Oh, uhh, yeah. Sorry I'm late. I couldn't find a parking spot." I decided it would be best not to point out what a complete lie that was.
She slid into the seat next to me and dropped her backpack on the table. I noticed that it, thankfully, appeared not to be empty. I started unloading my supplies once again, including my highlighters and colored pens.
It was hard not to notice the smirk on her face.
Once we got through putting two weeks' worth of lessons on the study guide, we decided that we should take a break.
I used the time to use the restroom while El went to get a cappuccino and made it back to our table before she did. It was clear that this really was her first time here since she was waiting for her coffee at the counter rather than just waiting for it to be brought to her at the table.
She leaned against it, the tightness of her jeans making it easier to see that she had her legs bent. Although I couldn't see it, she likely had on a bored expression. A few seconds later, she ran her fingers through her hair and tossed some of it back, letting the color shimmer through the air.
It took longer than it should have for me to notice the barista carefully handing her the mug filled with her hot beverage. I quickly tore my gaze away from her out of fear that she would turn back and catch me staring.
She brought the coffee back to our table without spilling a drop and I took the opportunity of her return and our study break to ask her something I'd been curious about at the time and, admittingly, all weekend.
"Do- do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure," she shrugged, probably not suspecting I was about to pry into her personal life.
"Umm, is your- is the uhh, the kid okay?" Although I struggled getting the words out, I knew based on the look on her face that I ended up saying the wrong thing anyway.
"What?"
"On Friday, your friend uh, said you had to go s-see the… Babysitter." Then, as if she just remembered what happened last week, she laughed and the melodic chime of it rang loud enough for only the two of us to hear.
"The Babysitter, oh." She kept laughing and this time I got a sense that it was directed at me. "I don't know why Max was being so weird about it. It's not like it's some big secret." She moved slightly closer to me. "You probably know him. He's a few years older than us. It's Steve Harrington." I definitely know him.
He's Nancy's ex-boyfriend.
"He just- well, you know…." She trailed off like I was supposed to finish her sentence for her.
My silence likely told her that I didn't know what I was supposed to say.
"He," she leaned in even closer to me and I could feel her breath against my skin, "he sells us weed." She didn't say it in a way like she was admitting a secret, which she just said it isn't. But it was done cautiously, since she surely didn't plan on having to say it out loud.
"O-oh. Cool." Yeah, that was totally the right thing to say.
"Yeah, so we already made plans to meet him and all…. It just wasn't something we could flake out on or it'd make us look bad, you know? He takes care of people like that. I guess that's why they call him the Babysitter." She ended with a light laugh, like she just now realized the cleverness of the nickname.
"Uhh, yeah. I get it."
But what I didn't get was why it bothered me so much.
Apart from the fact that her leaving on Friday was plain rude, especially since she has an ongoing commitment at the tutoring program, it was irresponsible of her not to work on the study guide ahead of time, leaving us now to do it last minute. For someone that wants to improve her grades, one piece of evidence being that this meeting was her idea, she doesn't appear to be too interested in putting in any effort.
Deciding not to comment on any of that though, I unzipped the smaller pocket of my backpack and pulled out the Ziploc of Eggos I packed this morning since I was running too late to eat them for breakfast.
At seeing the bag, El's eyes instantly lit up in an almost uncharacteristic way.
"Are those Eggos?"
"Uhh, yeah. Do you want one?" Her smile faltered a bit.
"Umm, sure. If you don't mind." I grabbed a napkin from the holder to clutch onto one of the waffle and hand it to her.
"They're a little cold. It's been sitting in my bag all day."
With how fast she took a bite out of it, I could tell that she really didn't seem to care.
Noticing the look I gave her, she gave a shy smile in return.
"Sorry," she spoke as she put the waffle down. "I usually have a couple after school. They are kind of my favorite."
"Oh, really? Same. My mom is always on my case about not having a 'healthy' breakfast. But it's all I really have time for sometimes, you know?"
"Sure. I get that." I'm not entirely sure if she did or not, but I let myself believe it by the way she nodded and continued eating. "So thanks again for coming today and helping me."
"Yeah. It -it's no problem. I wouldn't really be a good tutor if I let you fail. And it's not like I had anything else planned so…."
"What do you think we'll be working on for Wednesday?" I could tell by her tone that she was genuinely curious.
"Well, I was thinking…. We haven't really been looking at any of your Spanish work. I managed to get a couple of worksheets from Mrs. Alvarez s-so we could do that. I-I was working on some flash cards for history and I was thinking of some ideas for your final paper for English-. "
"Okay, cool." She nodded, probably not wanting to hear me ramble anymore. "We can figure it out. I didn't realize you were working on all that for me."
"It's no big deal," I shrugged. "I thought it would just be calculus and then you kind of… sprung everything else on me. I mean, not that I mind or anything!"
"It's fine, Mike. I just-. It's a big workload so I-I thought the tutoring would help." The most surprising part about her announcement was how embarrassed she sounded. El looked down at the table and pursed her lips. I could tell that she was tapping her foot and it overall just appeared as if she was considering something.
I knew it would be best if I just kept quiet.
"The thing is," she started after what seemed like forever. "I'm in tutoring because-"
"More coffee?" The interruption came from a different barista than the one who served El her cappuccino. He held up the coffee pot with a small and naïve smile, asking if he could fill up my cup which has been empty since shortly after El arrived.
"No thanks," I spoke quickly, wishing my tone could convey how bad his timing was. With that, he walked away from our table while I turned back to El. "What were you saying?"
"Uhh, nothing," she waved it off, like what she was going to say was something she could send away. "We should get back to work, huh?" As she reached over to pull the papers and textbook closer to us, I looked at her intently, wishing that her confession, or whatever she was about to say, wasn't cut short.
It didn't take as long as I anticipated but we finally finished the study guide. With the promise that she actually would use it tonight to prepare for tomorrow's test, we decided to call it a day.
As we made our way out, I held the door open for her, which must have surprised her since she gave a small smile in return. Immediately, it was easy to notice how overcast the sky was and the chill in the air made it clear there was a storm quickly coming.
"Where did you park?" She asked, while looking around at the cars parked on the street.
"Oh, I uh," I pointed to the bike rack behind her, where my bike was the only one present.
"What?!" She exclaimed as she turned back around. "Oh, hop in. I'll give you a ride."
"Uhh, no, it's okay. It's not too far-."
"Mike, it's going to pour in a few minutes. Put your bike in the trunk and let's go." She walked around me, keys in hand, to unlock a black car located, as I figured, only a few feet away from The Upside Down.
"Really, El. It's fine."
"It's not a big deal. I'm not going to let you go home in the rain." Noting my expression, I knew she could tell I was still hesitant. "Come on. It's the least I could do."
By the time we pulled into my street it was already pouring out and I knew I would have regretted not accepting a ride home. The lights inside the house were on and my mom's car in the driveway confirmed that she was home.
"Yeah, so it's this one." I pointed to my house, giving her plenty of time to stop in front of it.
"Cute," she commented once she put the car in park. "I would totally expect your place to look like this."
I decided not to linger too much on her thinking what my house looked like and quickly answered.
"It's not exactly the palace you'd get for being the chief's daughter." Realizing I said that without thinking, I shot her an apologetic look. "I-I mean-."
"I wouldn't say my house is anything too fancy either. But hey, it's a roof over my head, Not too much more I can ask for."
"Hehe, yeah." It was quite for a moment and I figured she was waiting for me to leave even though she wasn't going to say anything herself. "So uhh, thanks for the ride," I spoke as I unbuckled my seatbelt.
"Yeah, of course," she spoke as she pulled the lever on her side to open the trunk. Bracing myself before heading out, I pulled open the door and hurried to the back. In a matter of seconds, I yanked my bike out and closed her trunk. Before I headed up towards my house, I bent down at her passenger window, tapped on it with my knuckles, and gave El and quick but surely awkward wave. She returned it in a much cooler way and faced the windshield again.
I could just barely hear the sound of her driving away as I headed up towards my house.
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