Note: If you want, start listening to the seven-minute `Arrival of the Birds' when Mike walks to El's apartment. For some reason the song worked quite well with the story.
11
Mike woke in a haze of exhaustion.
It took a while for him to untangle his dreams and reality.
The moment he remembered that he had in fact kissed El Hopper, Mike fist punched the air, still lying on his bed. He began grinning like an idiot.
There was a knock on the door, and then half a second later Mrs Wheeler walked in without waiting.
`Mom!' Yelped Mike, yanking his duvet up to his chin.
`Mike!' She mimicked in the same tone. `Get up. It's almost midday.'
What? Mike checked the watch on his bedside table. Jeez, he'd got to sleep at one in the morning, so that meant… eleven hours. `New record,' he mumbled, clipping his watch onto his wrist.
`Never mind if it's a new record, I want you showered and down for breakfast in ten. Or as we normal people call it, lunch.' Mrs Wheeler began to walk out of the room, then turned round. `By the way, your girlfriend called by earlier.'
What was the point in denying it now? `What did she say?'
`I don't know, to be honest. She was making barely any sense, but she seemed to want to see you quite urgently.'
`When was this?'
Mrs Wheeler shrugged. `A couple of hours ago. Go and see her if you want to know what she meant.'
Once she'd gone, Mike started to get dressed, wondering what could possibly be so urgent that El needed to come at nine a.m. Nine a.m, after the night they'd had!
Mike remembered El's hands resting on his shoulders and her warm breath, and how her mouth tasted of the frosting on the cupcakes.
Wow.
A hot-chocolate-type feeling settled in Mike's stomach, and stayed there all the way to El's apartment. He dawdled along the street, smiling to himself. There wasn't any need to hurry; it was the first day of vacation. Him and El had an entire summer together.
Bikes whizzed along the uneven sidewalk, tires bouncing as their riders shouted rapid-fire slang to each other. That was something he could do with El- they had weeks to do whatever they wanted. A bike ride around Chicago was definitely on his wishlist. What else?
Maybe they could go back to the diner, just the two of them. Twist and Shout certainly held a new significance for both of them.
Plans and ideas whirled about his head. Ice cream- the beach- just lying next to each other in the park-
Mike was so completely lost in his thoughts, the next time he looked up, he saw he'd arrived at El's street.
A large, white moving van was parked in front of her apartment block. It's engine hummed. Whoever was using it was almost ready to go. Mike dodged around the furniture cluttering the sidewalk, not looking at any of it properly, and entered the building. No Earl in the stairwell, but there were cardboard boxes stacked up everywhere. Mike shrugged, then started up the concrete stairs.
Mike wasn't focusing as he walked along the third-floor corridor. His eyes drifted along the scraggy carpet. There was a small mouse hole in the skirting board. Maybe he could bring round traps-
`Oof!'
Mike fell backwards, arms flailing, and landed with a thump on his backside. Objects bounced around him like hail.
`I'm sorry, I didn't see you- Mike!'
Mike snapped out of the daze and saw El, collapsed on the carpet, same as him. The debris from the cardboard box she carried surrounded them. Mike trained his eyes on the top of the cardboard box. Someone had scribbled in messy marker pen El Hopper. This way up.
A look passed between them. Sudden, cold realisation hit Mike, and it was like someone had yanked his heart straight out of his chest.
`You're moving,' he said quietly. It wasn't a question.
El blinked too quickly. `I'm sorry, I- I should have told you.' There were a few seconds where Mike was just squeezing his eyes shut. He breathed deeply, and that seemed to dissolve the stone in his throat.
`Why are you moving?'
`It was because of the gang stuff.'
It was pathetic, but Mike seized onto the hope that maybe El and Hopper were unloading their belongings from the moving van, because they couldn't seriously be moving just days after Troy and Dallas ended their war…
`Dad couldn't back out of the agreement. He checked the contract before the dance, and- and told me this morning.' A glassy look seeped over El's normally bright eyes. One tear overspilled her eye, and fell down her cheek. It left a silvery trail behind. `It was all paid for and everything.' Mike knew that she wanted to say more, but couldn't.
`Don't cry,' he said, getting up and sitting down next to her. `We can phone, and write.' Luckily El couldn't see him without looking up, so Mike took the opportunity to give his eyes a quick wipe. `What's the address?'
`I can't remember the first bit, but it's a cabin in this place called Hawkins. It's in Indiana.'
`Sounds horrific.'
El gave a weak laugh, and rested her head on Mike's shoulder. He put an arm around her.
`Ahem.' A figure loomed over them. El and Mike jumped apart like they'd been given electric shocks. Hopper looked down at them, and saw the pink tinge around Mike's eyes, and the single tear track on El's cheek.
`You told him.' El nodded. A rare, regretful expression came over Hopper's face as he caught Mike's eyes. `I'm sorry, kid.'
`There's no way you can stay?' Even though Mike didn't expect Hopper to say yes, he was still crushed when the man shook his head.
`I'll leave you two alone, but we need to go in five minutes.'
Just like that, six weeks was slated down to a few precious minutes.
`I can't think of what to say.'
`It doesn't matter if you can't think of anything,' El reminded him softly. `This isn't goodbye, remember? Like you said, we can phone and write. Although maybe censor your letters. I wouldn't put it beyond Dad to read your mail to make sure you aren't desecrating my innocence.'
That did it. Mike started cracking up, and so did El. `You're crazy.'
`I'll send you my number the second the phone is set up. I promise.' El squeezed his hand tightly.
`I definitely liked you first,' Mike told her.
`No way.'
`Yeah, I'm certain it was me.'
`Absolutely not.' El poked him in the ribs playfully. They ended up devolving into giggling messes, trying to tickle each other.
There was a loud honk from the street. El looked towards the stairs.
`I need to go.' She retrieved her cardboard box, and clasped it to her chest. They walked down together. El leaned into Hopper's car and whispered something to him. He rolled his eyes, but took the cardboard box and then put his hands over his eyes.
El stood in front of Mike, chin up, eyes blazing. She seized the front of his shirt and kissed him, once, hard, on the lips.
And then she climbed into the back seat, did her seatbelt, and looked at Mike out of the window.
`I'll visit,' he promised.
`And I'll write the minute we arrive, I swear.'
The ignition growled and coughed. The car revved to life.
Urgently, Mike grabbed El's hand through the open window. Both of them were crying kind of hysterically by then.
And then Hopper peeled away from the curb. Their fingers were pulled apart. El twisted around in her seat to see the rapidly shrinking figure of Mike, who had run out into the road.
She watched him until long after he was out of sight.
Finally, El slumped back round in her seat when they reached the freeway, chin on her chest.
Hopper's eyes met hers in the rear-view mirror. `You okay?'
`Yeah,' El nodded. She wiped her eyes, and swallowed. `I'll see him again.'
Three weeks later, Karen Wheeler left Ted Wheeler in a messy, screaming row. The end result was a divorce settlement, a broken window and one spilled green bean casserole.
Mrs Wheeler stood on the sidewalk, clutching two heavy suitcases in either hand, her teenage son and toddler daughter by her side.
With nowhere to go, no relatives to flee to, Mrs Wheeler was certain they'd end up in a hostel. Luckily, Mike had done some quick thinking and spent his pocket money on three night bus tickets.
Four hours later- the traffic was hell- the night bus stopped in Hawkins, Indiana. Mike half leapt down the steps, despite lugging a bulky suitcase.
Mrs Wheeler checked them all into the cheapest hotel she could find and began to plan what in God's name they should do next.
Mike knew what to do. He lay in bed feigning sleep until both Holly and Mrs Wheeler's breathing became steady and rhythmic. He left a note, and carefully unlocked the door and crept out into the night, a slip of paper clutched tight in his fist. On it was El's new address.
It took some wandering around, but eventually Mike found the cabin. It was easy enough to work out which room was El's. It was the only one with a lamp on in the window.
He gently tapped on the window and suddenly El was there, frantically unlocking the window and opening it, and pulling him inside, just like that night they were trapped in apartment 24B as the riot raged below them.
They tumbled back onto El's duvet, El falling backwards, Mike on top of her, hands framing her face. The light behind his damp hair caught every dark strand. El brushed his hair back from his face, almost unable to speak from the stone lodged in her throat.
`Stay with me,' El whispered, after a long, long while. `Please.'
A breeze fluttered the curtains back into the room. Mike smiled down at her, softly, so softly. `I'll stay with you.'
`Promise?' Tears were filling El's eyes- he was there, he was with her. She wasn't dreaming.
Neither of them knew it then, but Mike would stay the whole of that night and the next morning, and Mrs Wheeler would buy a house in Hawkins suburbia, and they'd both attend Hawkins High School until their graduation, and it would be the best summer either of them had ever had-
But for the moment, they were happy just to be together.
Mike brushed her hair back from her face, and nodded, and whispered, `Promise.'
