AN: Mileven is always my endgame. For every story. No need for anyone to panic. :)
"After this coffee, I need to have a shower. You were lying beside a stinky girl last night."
"Actually I was sitting up with Max sleeping on my shoulder last night."
"Max? Oh sorry, I didn't know." Mike couldn't possibly have known who Max was.
"What? No, I mean, Max as in Maxine."
"But nobody calls her that." They both said at the same time smiling at each other.
Mike looked down, "Max is my girlfriend, or she was where I come from, The Land of No Cell Phones. What's does the cell part even mean anyway?"
She shrugged. It was her turn to look down. He has a girlfriend. Wait! No, Max is going out with Lucas.
"I think we need to sit down and gather our thoughts, figure out what we know."
"I have the sneaking suspicious that what we know is a short list."
El frowned, "You may be right."
XXXXX
The only plusses El could think of with having hair this short was that it took no time to dry, and she saved on expensive hair appointments.
She pressed her lips together. The downside is no boyfriend at twenty years old. El you've never kissed a boy. Mike here is probably taken. Maybe not by Max, but by somebody. Nobody who looks like that is single for very long.
That thought hurt her the most. She was obviously not pretty enough to be anybody's girlfriend.
"Shit."
"You ok?" She heard Mike calling from the kitchen, his voice getting louder as he rushed into the room.
El barely had time to cover herself with the bathrobe. Enough of herself anyway.
Mike clamped his hand over his eyes looked up and turned around.
"Sorry, El. I thought you were in trouble."
El positively glowed at his concern. She didn't know how much of her he had seen. Maybe enough to be interested?
XXXXX
Mike had found a pad and pencil, and was creating three columns for he and El to work though.
He heard "Shit" from the bedroom and got up quickly saying. "You ok?"
Two things struck him right away, one, that she had barely enough time to cover herself when he'd rushed into the room.
And two, the curves she didn't cover were nice. Her body was lithe, toned, and sexy as all get out. He slapped his hand over his eyes and turned around.
He apologized. Felt a full body flush and walked out of the room.
XXXXX
Mike was sitting at the breakfast nook when El came out. Plaid shirt, jumper, wool socks. Very sexy El. It's no wonder you had to turn down all the boys. She grimaced to herself.
"So I made three columns on this pad." Mike showed her. "One for What El Knows, one for What Mike Knows and one for What is fact. In my column I put my name, Mike Wheeler. In your column I only put El. I don't know your last name."
"Hopper." El told him.
"As in chief Hopper's daughter? Uh, I only know about Sara, she used to hang out with us. Dustin kind of liked her, but the Chief didn't like that at all."
"I am adopted. Mike, Sara died when she was seven years old."
She watched as Mike hung his head. "Shit. I'm in so much trouble."
"Let's start off small Mike. We can handle the big things later. Let's look around the apartment. I think we both live here, it's... " El took a deep breath. "It's only one bedroom, so we were sharing that bed."
"I figured that out El. I just don't know why."
El did not even want to speculate to herself. "I'll search the bedroom, and bathroom, you search the living room and kitchen.
El got up from the table and went back into the bedroom. What is going on here? I wonder if this is Upside Down related? It doesn't feel like that place. To be honest, I think Mike is probably an incredibly nice guy, I'm desperate, but I know I wouldn't just shack up with anybody. Makes me wonder what our other selves? What they were doing together.
She rummaged around her nightstand, the one that had the cell phone on it. She opened the drawer. She saw a pink diary. It didn't look familiar to her but she recognized it for what it was.
The key was in it. She unlocked it and opened to the first page. It was her own handwriting.
She read the first line and had to stop,: " I'm so lonely."
She pressed her lips together. This El must have been twelve or thirteen when she wrote this. Out of curiosity, El went over to Mike's side of the bed. She smiled to herself again when she thought of sharing the bed with him. She checked the drawer of his nightstand. There was a leather journal in it. She took a quick peak at the first page.
"I'm all alone. "
El was beginning to think that that Mike and El belonged together.
She did some more searching in a closet.
And then she found it.
"El, can you come out here?"
He was holding two framed photos, he passed one to El and said, "Do you recognize anybody in that photo."
El took a look, "That's the Party."
"Yeah, everyone is in it." Mike was looking down.
"What's wrong Mike."
"Max is holding Lucas's hand. Oh, and by the way we are still in Hawkins."
"How do you know?"
"Look out the window."
El did so and saw the Starcourt Mall easily within walking distance. "There's a Hawkins phonebook by the phone. We can look up who might still be here.
Mike looked up. "Max is not my girlfriend."
Well, boo hoo Mike. I never had a boyfriend so screw you. She immediately felt ashamed of herself. She knew what the problem was.
"And then there's this." Mike showed her the other framed photo.
It was the two of them. "We look happy… and…"
"In love." They both said at the same time. They both turned red and avoided each other's eyes.
El handed him a gilded folder. "Look at it, Mike."
Mike took it from her, kept his eyes on it. He opened it up.
"Can't say I'm surprised. The evidence is all over this apartment." He looked at the marriage certificate.
"I'm Mrs. El Wheeler." She held up her hand, the one with the wedding band on it. "You have one too Mike."
Mike nodded slowly, looking at his left hand.
XXXXX
Well, shit. Mike thought. I'm friggin' married. Not only that but it's to a girl I don't even know.
"So, Mike. You won't be sleeping in the same bed as I am tonight. I-"
"Obviously. We don't know each other. I know everything here tells a different story, but we know we don't love each other." Mike watched her face fall a bit, then she looked like she was pissed off.
"What I was going to say, is that it's my time of the month. I don't feel like sharing the bed with someone I don't know. Or love." Asshole.
"I get it El. I'll take the couch until I can find a new place."
She walked away.
XXXXX
It stung more than El thought possible when Mike said they didn't love each other.
She had to turn away.
When she got to the bedroom, she threw herself on the bed and cried. Just like a twelve year old girl would have. But now, you know what El? You're twenty something here, and you have no one. You are still lonely and that doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon. I need to see my dad.
XXXXX
El came back out after a few minutes. Her eyes looked a little puffy, like she'd been crying. Hormones. He thought. She did say it was her time of the month.
"I'm going to see my dad. I, don't drive. I saw car keys in a bowl by the door. Can you drive me? Oh, before we go. I see we have an Encyc-encyc-"
Mike couldn't figure out why she was having a hard time pronouncing it but he finished for her. "Encyclopedia Britannica."
"Yes, I'm going to look up the moon landing."
She grabbed the volume she was looking for from the bottom of a big bookshelf. He looked at the other books.
He froze when he saw a row of dictionaries. Ok, that's weird.
"Ah, ha!" He heard the vindication in her voice. Then right after, "Oh…" it trailed off.
" Ah ha as in you found an entry for a," he airquoted, " moon landing. What's the oh for?"
"For someone who didn't know what a cell phone was… be careful Mike. I'm bitchy today." She gave him what could have been a sweet smile, or a deadly one. He didn't know which. He wasn't going to try and find out either.
"This can't be right, it's says 1975. The moon landing was 1969."
"So we were both wrong?"
"Mike?" Her voice sounded so small, he wanted to rush over and give her a hug. "What's going on?"
XXXXX
El felt herself spiraling into despair.
"We aren't where we are supposed to be Mike." He almost looks like he wants to hug me.
"You can look at it this way…" he said, trying to sound hopeful, "maybe we are exactly where we are supposed to be?"
But I don't want to be alone. Not here.
XXXXX
"Ok, let me drive you to the police station, I'll go see if I can find Dustin. If anybody would understand what's happening to us… or at least offer us a theory, it would be Dustin. Do you agree?"
El nodded her head.
"Let's go."