A/N: Welcome to chapter 16! I hope you all enjoy this, and please remember to leave me a review when you finish reading!

Betazoid4: You're right. There is a huge trust issue between them, and El needs to do her fair share to make things right. I hope you like this chapter.

Shrike176: Yeah, I thought having Kayla, an objective third party, talk to Mike may be a good idea. I'm glad you liked it. I agree, Eric's lack of motive was unsatisfying, but sometimes there are just those frustrating people out there. I'm glad you enjoyed Dustin and Suzie getting involved, and I hope you like where it goes in this chapter.

Darkstrife77: Thank you. Glad to hear you read and enjoyed TTWAS! I can promise you, I have no intention of putting that kind of heartbreak and drama into this story.

Longislandgirl88: Yes they do! Glad you felt a bit relieved, and I hope you can feel more relief after this chapter.

Liya: I'm glad the last chapter was less sad! I hope this one is too! And of course Dustin and Suzie are Mileven shippers. Aren't we all?

Ejbeckmann: You can thank Shrike176 for being the first to bring up that suggestion lol. We're not quite there yet, but when we get there, I hope I can come through with the fluff for you.

NoDownSide: Glad you enjoyed Kayla and Mike's interaction. And Eric sucks, unfortunately there are crappy people. Hope you like this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Stranger Things or any of its characters.

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Later Wednesday night, Mike was in the male counselors' cabin talking to Dustin about what Kayla had said. Kayla's theory had been on Mike's mind for the rest of the day, and he wanted Dustin's input.

"She told me that I may have subconsciously been looking for something to go wrong so I could be proven right about the relationship going too well," Mike recapped.

Dustin nodded along, remaining quiet while Mike filled him in on the conversation he and Kayla had had earlier. Mike was finally talking about he and El's situation willingly, so Dustin was not going to interrupt.

"You know I told you how many times that I thought things were too easy and that things were going too smoothly," Mike reminded him. "Could I really have been looking for something to go wrong? Is that even a thing people do?"

Mike paused, waiting for Dustin to answer. Dustin was not prepared and was suddenly trying to figure out how to politely answer the question.

"Well, yeah, it is something people do," he said. "You know, like, self-sabotaging… And I don't know if that is what you did, but… it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that you may have been looking for something."

"I wasn't looking for her to kiss someone else," Mike said.

"She said she didn't do that," Dustin reminded him.

"Yeah, after she was caught in a lie," Mike retorted. "And, fine, even if her story is true and she didn't kiss him, she still lied to me. That's not something I'm making up."

"I mean, she technically withheld information," Dustin agreed. "But what can you really do, Mike? Expect her to tell you every detail about every interaction she has with a guy?"

"Well, no, but I asked her outright if something happened with Eric, and she said no," Mike said. "She admitted that she said no because she didn't want to tell me the truth and worry me."

"Her heart was in the right place," Dustin said.

"Maybe it was, but how can I know that she won't lie to me – or withhold information – in the future just to protect my feelings?" Mike asked.

"I think this whole breakup – El seeing how seriously you take being honest with each other – will really make her see that she can't do that and expect to be with you," Dustin replied. "I guarantee if you and El get back together, she would never do anything to get back into a situation like this again."

"For what it's worth, I agree," Tom said from his bunk across the cabin.

Mike and Dustin turned toward him as Tom started walking over to where they were talking. It was just the three of them in the cabin at the moment, as Eric had not come in yet. They assumed he was somewhere messing around with Nikki, as they saw Eric and Nikki eating dinner together and leaving the cafeteria together.

"I've worked with El all week, and she is miserable," Tom said. "She tries to hide it for the students, but she is not the same person she has been all summer."

It still pained Mike to hear that El was hurting.

"I'm miserable without her, too, but… It just wouldn't work," Mike said, though he sounded less certain.

"Why not?" Dustin asked.

"The long distance, the never knowing if other guys are hitting on her… It would drive me crazy every day. The distance would make it too hard," Mike repeated. "It's better to end things now before we get too attached."

"Mike, you can keep trying to convince yourself that the distance is what's keeping you away from her, but we both know that's not the case," Dustin said. "You love her. When you love someone, distance doesn't make you throw in the towel. You try harder to make it work because you don't want to feel the way you are feeling right now."

Mike looked down at the floor. It wasn't like he could argue Dustin's point. After all, Dustin was in a successful long-distance relationship.

"And besides," Dustin continued in a gentler tone. "Weren't you two already pretty attached?"

Mike let out a long sigh but did not answer. He knew he had grown attached to El, accustomed to her being there nearly every free minute of his day. As much as he loved Dustin and Suzie, the best parts of Mike's day were always when he and El were able to sneak away and just be together, learn more about each other, and even lay silently together. Just her very existence made his world better.

"Which is why it's best that this happened early," Mike forced out. "We would've kept growing closer, and when the inevitable happened later, it would've hurt us both even more."

"What makes you think a breakup would be so inevitable?" Dustin asked.

"It would've happened eventually. We would only get to see each other maybe a few days each month if we were able to visit on weekends," Mike said. "Eventually, I would've done something to screw it up; I would've driven myself crazy thinking about other guys being around her, and one of us would've ended it. Or the distance would've gotten to her and she would've found a new guy in Chicago, which would be easier because she could see him any time… We're sixteen. She wouldn't want to feel tied down by someone four hours away."

"What about you?" Dustin asked.

"What do you mean?" Mike furrowed his brow.

"You said she would get sick of the distance, she would meet someone new, she wouldn't want to feel tied down," Dustin pointed out. "Wouldn't you be worried about those things happening to you, too?"

"Of course not," Mike replied quickly.

"Why not?" Dustin asked.

"Because I love her, and I couldn't be interested in another girl," Mike said without thinking.

"Exactly," Dustin said with a satisfied smile. "When are you going to let yourself accept that El feels the same way about you that you do about her? She doesn't want anyone else, just like you don't. Distance isn't going to change that."

"But what if-"

"What if it does? What if she meets someone else? I swear, talking with you really is like going in circles," Dustin chuckled. "You never know what could happen. You just have to trust her."

"And how can I trust her to be honest with me, knowing that she already lied to me once? And she lied to me when there was no distance between us and when things were good. It would be so much easier for her to hide things from me when we're both back home," Mike said.

"You have to talk to her about it, Mike," Dustin said gently. "I guarantee she regrets it."

"I'll think about it," Mike relented, nodding.

Even though Dustin made some good points, Mike couldn't just decide to trust her. El had made a big deal about honesty and then lied to him the next day when he asked about Eric. He had to figure out how to get past that before possibly talking to El about their relationship.

Dustin was about to encourage Mike even more to talk to El, when Eric suddenly came into the cabin. Mike ignored Eric, as he had been all week, and rolled onto his side facing the wall to go to sleep. Dustin and Tom both crawled into their beds to do the same.

The next day, El met Tom in their classroom and tried to begin the day with a smile on her face. She had hoped that focusing on the lessons each day would distract her from what had happened with Mike, but she found that even when she was talking to the campers about their projects for each class, her fight with Mike was still in the back of her mind. The second that the campers were occupied, El's mind wandered to the sound of Mike's voice saying that it was best to end things between them. Each time her mind replayed it, it was like she was living it all over again. She felt her veins turn to ice, her heart stop pounding, and her stomach drop to the floor every single time she relived it.

Today marked one full week since that day. One week since she had learned that Eric had let Mike believe that she was unfaithful to him. One week since she had walked in and her heart stopped at the sight of Mike and Dani kissing. A whole week since she had pleaded for Mike to believe her story that she had never done anything with Eric and that she had rejected him and chose not to tell Mike for fear of worrying him. And, of course, one whole week since Mike had told her that they were over.

That also means it had been a whole week since she had kissed him, touched him, or even spoken to him. El's mind drifted back to that morning one week ago, just hours before everything came crashing down. She could still taste his sweet, early morning kisses and feel his lips against hers. She could feel every touch as he made her feel so good, and she could feel his soft skin underneath her fingertips, his warm breath against her neck, and his quiet moans in her ear. El would never understand how things had gone from so good to so bad in such a short amount of time.

"Good morning," she greeted the campers with a smile when they had all taken their seats, doing her best to force her thoughts to the back of her mind. "It's your second-to-last day, so you'll be working on your projects for a lot of the day."

El and Tom helped the students get started with their balloon-powered cars, and when they were all working independently, El's mind began to stray again.

"How are you doing today, El?" came Tom's voice, and El had never been so thankful to start a conversation.

"I'm doing okay," she replied with a smile. "Can't believe our last day of having any campers is tomorrow already."

"I know. It flew by, didn't it?" Tom agreed.

El nodded, and her smile faded a bit. It had flown by because El had spent every possible minute that she could with Mike. It had flown by because it had been the happiest summer of her life. But now, each minute was dragging.

"It sure did," she managed.

"Well, look, I uh… I know that we don't know each other all that well," Tom began awkwardly.

El braced herself. She knew what topic he was about to bring up. It seemed like everyone wanted to talk to her about her relationship with Mike except for Mike himself.

"I can tell that you haven't fully been yourself this week," Tom continued. "And I just wanted to make sure you're handling everything okay."

"Thanks, Tom," El said through a forced smile. "I know you share a cabin with Mike, so I don't know what all you've heard… It has been rough, but I'll be okay."

Tom studied her face for a moment longer. He hardly knew her, but he could tell when people were faking, and he was certain that El was using all her strength to keep herself together.

"I don't know how much this helps, but just know that Mike seems to miss you just as much as you miss him," Tom said. "He is pretty miserable. He says he's worried about the long-distance, and I know I don't know him that well either, but it seems like there's more to it than that… Dustin seems to think so, too. But whatever it is, he is having a really hard time with this."

El smiled and looked down at the floor. She hated hearing that Mike was in pain, but somehow, it brought her a little bit of relief each time she heard that he was not over her yet… It made El think there was still hope for them, as selfish as that thought may be.

"Thanks, Tom. That does help," she said softly, and then she looked up at him. "Does he… does he ever seem like he's mad at me? Something happened between us, and… I just don't want him to hate me."

"I can assure you he doesn't hate you. Quite the opposite, actually…" Tom replied, having obviously heard Mike's admission of loving El, but knowing it was not his own place to tell her. "And he never seems mad, only hurt and confused."

"Thanks," El nodded.

As El started to think that there still may be hope for them, her mind drifted to fantasies about making up and spending their whole remaining weekend together. She was interrupted when it was time for the campers to start their pigeon dissection in lesson two, but the thought never fully left her mind.

In her cabin that night, El and Suzie were sitting on El's bottom bunk, their backs leaned against the wall as they talked in hushed tones. Kayla was laying in her own bed reading a book, Nikki was perched on her bed painting her toenails, and Dani was laying on her stomach on her bed scrolling through her phone. With all the girls being in, El did not want them all to hear what she and Suzie were discussing. She didn't mind if Kayla were to hear, but El couldn't help but still harbor anger toward Dani, and Nikki just had no business knowing anything about El and Mike.

"Tom told me today that Mike seems miserable," El said. "He said that Mike misses me."

"Mike does miss you," Suzie confirmed.

"Tom also said that Mike doesn't seem mad at me about anything that happened," El continued.

"I would agree with that," Suzie concurred. "Mad was never really the word I would've used to describe Mike's feelings about everything."

"So if he's not mad, and he misses me…" El trailed off, hoping Suzie would see where her thought was going. "I just don't see where the disconnect is. Why won't he talk to me?"

"Mike is really hurting right now. A lot of it is from the breakup because he does miss you so much," Suzie explained. "But… I think he's also still hurting because of the situation with you and Eric."

"I told him nothing happened," El insisted. "I didn't tell him all the details because I didn't want him to feel threatened. I didn't want him to worry about Eric hitting on me. I turned Eric down, and I thought that's all Mike would need to know."

"I know," Suzie said sympathetically. "But, according to Dustin, Mike is just really worried that since you weren't honest with him once, you might lie or hide things from him again in the future."

"But I won't," El said. "If I had known this would've happened, I wouldn't have even hidden anything from him in the first place."

"I know," Suzie repeated. "The problem is that Mike has been hurt badly once – not all that long ago – and I think he's just really scared that he'll keeping falling harder for you and you'll eventually do the same thing to him."

El sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"I wish there was a way to get him to understand that I'm sorry – for lying to him, for everything – and that he has nothing to be scared of," she said. "Honestly, it… it hurts to know that he feels like he can't trust me."

"Trust is everything, especially when you are about to start a long-distance relationship," Suzie said. "Mike needs to work through his trust issues, but maybe you could try talking to him. It has been a week. Maybe it would help to remind him that you're sorry and that you want to be with him."

"Well, there's more that I would want to talk to him about before getting back together," El muttered, glancing over at Dani.

Everyone had been focused on the fact that Mike and El broke up and the fact that El had lied to him, but it seemed like everyone had forgotten about the fact that El had walked in on Mike and Dani actually kissing. El missed Mike tremendously, and she felt horrible for hurting him, but she was hurt, too. She didn't want to seem selfish, but she would need to discuss what she saw between him and Dani, too.

Suzie followed El's gaze and then nodded her understanding.

"I want to fix what I did by lying to him, absolutely," El said. "But then we would have to talk about that… As much as it hurts that he doesn't feel like he can trust me, it hurts that I had to walk in to see… I literally can't get the image out of my brain."

El heard Dani shifting in her bed. She looked over to see Dani sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of her bed. El hoped that Dani was just getting up to use the restroom or something and that El had not been speaking too loudly. Though, when Dani looked over and met El's eyes, El knew that Dani had overheard.

"Look, I know what you're talking about," Dani said. "And I think you should cut him some slack about that."

El furrowed her brow and Dani stood and walked closer to El and Suzie.

"What he said – that I kissed him – that was true," Dani said.

"Why would you do that? You knew he and I were together," El asked, doing her best to keep a steady voice.

"I was really upset about Eric," Dani replied, glancing down at the floor and looking ashamed. "I was feeling sad and used… And I really did believe that I saw you and Eric making out. Mike was so sweet and was telling me that I didn't deserve to be treated that way… It was nice. He let me literally cry on his shoulder, and he told me that Eric was a shitty person and tried to make me feel better."

El felt her pulse quicken at the thought of Dani being so vulnerable with Mike, but she knew Mike probably initiated it by noticing Dani was upset.

"I leaned over and kissed him. He was completely surprised by it. It wasn't his fault at all; it was me," Dani concluded.

It immediately felt like a weight had been lifted from El's chest when she heard straight from Dani that Dani had been the one who kissed Mike and Mike was truly innocent in the whole thing.

"Seriously, Dani? I know you were upset, but at least have some standards," Nikki scoffed, not looking up from painting her toenails.

"You want to talk about having standards?" El blurted out, her eyes narrowing in anger. "You were openly sleeping with a guy who objectified every girl here – including you – and got sent home early for sexual harassment."

"I am not getting in to this again," Nikki said, rolling her eyes and still not looking up.

El took a deep breath to calm herself and looked back at Dani.

"Well, thanks for telling me," she said.

"I want you to know I'm sorry, too," Dani said. "I shouldn't have kissed him, and I feel like I had something to do with you guys breaking up… But how was I supposed to know Eric was lying and just letting me believe what I thought I saw?"

"Eric is clearly the villain here. He lied to you and didn't care what kind of a mess he was making," Suzie said. "But at least the truth is out there now."

"Yeah, but what good does that really do? It still doesn't fix that Mike doesn't trust me," El reminded her, circling back around.

"Talk to him," Suzie encouraged her. "He might not ever take that first step, and I don't want to see you both lose what you had together."

"Maybe… Maybe I can talk to him tomorrow afternoon when classes are over," El said.

She felt the butterflies swarming in her stomach at the thought of talking to Mike again after a whole week. El knew she may not be able to fix everything with a snap of her fingers, but she thought that Suzie might have raised some good points. She could not go back to Chicago wondering what could have happened between her and Mike if she had just made the first move to talk to him.

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A/N: I know this was a short one and it doesn't seem like much is happening, but I needed to lay some groundwork before the next chapter (which may or may not be a tad on the dramatic side in my head – we'll see how it turns out on paper). Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one. Please remember to leave me a review and let me know what you think!