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Words w/out AN: 6156
Pairing(s): Mileven, Lumax
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the social system: chapter three
Mike was convinced his friends were idiots.
He couldn't believe they had barged into the cafeteria and scolded him like they were his mother in front of El… And Max.
It was embarrassing.
Although it was mainly Dustin, but, ahhhhh, don't even get Mike started on Dustin.
Dustin was practically praising El and Max for being so cool earlier. But then he goes and does some super uncool stuff in front of them, treating them as if they were public enemy number one.
Mike was so rattled, he couldn't think of a better word to describe it. It was just so...uncool.
Mike thought he would be able to spend one lunch period without his friends, but apparently, he was wrong.
Luckily El and Max didn't seem to mind his friends too much. They were actually pretty cool people.
And after a rocky start with Max, it had definitely lightened up closer to the end of the lunch period. They were all able to joke around without too many problems.
They were having such a good time that Mike forgot the whole reason he was in the cafeteria was to set up a schedule to help tutor El.
Which was something El decided to come tumbling into him to remind Mike of.
Don't even ask Mike what kind of moment happened between him and El as he was leaving, though. Because he would not be able to put it into words.
She had tripped, and somehow he managed to catch her, instead of them both toppling over. Mike noticed how their faces were really close, and their bodies were really close, and they were just really close, in general.
He remembered his breath hitching and a blush on El's face before she said. "We didn't schedule a time for you to help me study."
"I guess we'll have to meet up and figure it out later then." He had brazenly said, somehow avoiding stuttering like a moron before stepping away to yell at his idiot best friends.
Mike heard his footsteps echoing through the halls as he stomped towards the AV room. His face must've been intimidating or something because some of the younger students walking through the hall immediately got out of his way.
He made it to the AV room and opened the door. The guys were crowded around the table in the centre of the room. Although calling it a room was generous. If anything it was a storage closet. Shelves were filled all around the walls with boxes filled to the brim with old electronics and wires.
Dustin, Lucas and Will were animatedly arguing, arms were waving all over the place. When they noticed Mike had entered, their conversation stopped.
All three of them stared at Mike as he sat in his usual seat.
"Well?" Dustin said, breaking the silence.
"Well, what?" Mike asked. "Just yesterday you were saying that El is so cool. I spend one lunch with her and all of a sudden she's the devil?"
"I specifically remember mentioning you bringing us with you when you become popular." Dustin said. "Not ditch us for your cool new friends."
"It was one lunch, not even. It was like, half a lunch." Mike countered. "I didn't become cool or anything like that. I just had to set up a time and place for me and El to meet up. I'm tutoring her."
"You're tutoring her?" Will asked.
"Yeah. Mrs. Sanders asked me to at the end of class last period."
The group was silent. No one said anything. Mike felt pretty strongly that Dustin was in the wrong, but he could understand where he was coming from.
"I'm not ditching you guys." Mike said, watching as Dustin's hard face softened. "I'd never leave the party."
Dustin sighed. "I'm sorry, okay? I overreacted."
"In our defense," Lucas cut in. "We told him not to do anything stupid."
Will nodded in agreement. "He told us he just wanted to talk."
"Jeez, thanks, guys." Dustin said. "No need to expose me like that."
"It's whatever. No need to think about stuff that already happened." Mike said. "Tell me about this project we have?"
Mike looked at Dustin. They locked eyes and Mike nodded, just a bit. Enough for Dustin to know that he was forgiven.
Mike knew his friends made mistakes and overreacted sometimes. But they've been through thick and thin. And nothing could ever split them up.
"Screw the project." Dustin said. "Tell us about El and Max."
Lucas' head whipped in their direction when he heard the word Max. "Yes, Mike. Tell us about...them."
"You mean tell me about Max." Will muttered.
"Yeah, you weren't subtle during our staring contest at the start of bio." Dustin said. "And again when we went to the cafeteria."
"Shut up." Lucas said. "I don't have a crush."
"Well, technically, we didn't say anything about a crush." Mike pointed out.
Lucas groaned.
"They were actually pretty cool, though." Mike said. "They're really funny and they joke a lot."
Dustin nodded, motioning for him to continue.
"Max, for example, insults you."
"That sounds terrible."
"It was, at first, but once you realize it's just a joke and she doesn't actually mean it, it's better. You can insult her back and she'll understand it's just a joke and nothing more."
"What about El?"
"Uhh," Mike stuttered. How would he describe El?
Funny, kind, pretty...pretty?
Yes. Pretty.
Lucas' frowned at him and Will's eyes were wide. Dustin was just shaking his head and smiling.
Mike's jaw dropped. "Umm, did I just…?"
"Yes." They replied.
"Umm, okay then." Mike said. "She's also really funny and kind." He offered weakly.
"Yeah." Dustin nodded sarcastically. "I'm sure she is."
"So when are you tutoring her?" Lucas asked, putting emphasis on the tutoring part.
"It doesn't interfere with AV Club, right?" Will piped in.
"We actually haven't set a time yet." Mike admitted.
"What so you had lunch with them and didn't even get any work done?"
"Well, I tried." Mike defended. "But we got interrupted. I'll have to meet up with her again to figure it out."
"Oh, I'm sure you'd like that."
"Yeah, maybe the next time they meet up, they'll get too busy lost in each other's eyes or something, so they'll have to meet up again."
"Shut up." Mike crossed his arms. "Let's just work on this project or whatever."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
It turned out the project was really interesting.
Mike, Dustin and Lucas talked about it in hushed tones during their functions class.
Apparently, the club was tasked with making a video project for the school that showcased all of the staff and faculty members. The video was going to be used as a sort of introduction. Students could watch the video to learn about all the teachers and stuff.
Okay so the video wasn't that interesting, most of the footage was already filmed and anything else they needed was going to be provided, but they promised Mr. Clarke that they would do it, so they were determined to do a good job on it.
Once their teacher realized they weren't talking about math-related stuff, he quickly put an end to their chatter. Which kind of put a damper on their progress, but no matter. They'd be able to talk more about it during AV Club after school today.
Class wasn't too memorable when the thoughts of the video project were filling Mike's head. Although Mike remembered their teacher going over the review packages that were handed out yesterday. Mike got perfect on it because of Will.
"Alright class." Their teacher called out. "We've still got review to look over for the next couple days or so. So the plan for the next few days is pretty much going to be the same as what we did yesterday. I'll hand out a review package, which needs to be completed for the next day. Then we'll go over the previous day's work and I can answer any questions you have. But once next week starts, I'll be teaching you completely new stuff. So the days might start to look different."
Mike was excited at the idea of learning new material. The review they were going over now was fairly simple. He wanted something that would challenge him.
Their teacher handed out today's review and he instantly got to work, trying to compete with Dustin and Lucas to see who could finish it the fastest.
Mike knew they probably weren't going to be able to finish the package by the end of this period, but they still tried.
"We're meeting up after AV Club at my house to finish this, right?" Mike asked.
"I think Will said we could go to his house after school. His mom was going to order a pizza or something."
"Nice."
"So, Michael…" Dustin casually said.
Mike looked over to Dustin, eyes wide. "Whatever you're about to say next. Don't say it. I don't like the way your voice sounds."
"Well, thanks Mike." Dustin complained. "That's just the way my voice is. I don't like the way your face looks."
"I'm just saying you sound like you're up to something."
"Well, I'm up to nothing." Dustin pointedly said. "Also, are you dating El?"
Mike blanched and Lucas whipped his head towards Dustin. Luckily no one else seemed to hear, but Mike didn't want word to get around or anything. If he was drinking something, Mike probably would have spit it out everywhere.
"Say that any louder, why don't you?"
"Well? Are you?" Dustin questioned.
"No! Obviously not." Mike exclaimed. "We've talked like four times, total."
"Okay." Dustin held his arms up in surrender. "Relax."
"Wow." Mike shook his head.
By the end of class Mike was surprised how far he made it through the review package. Even with Dustin's perplexing outburst.
The bell rang and Mike packed up his stuff. "Alright, see you guys after school."
They nodded and they all made their way to their next class. Mike was pretty sure they were headed to Chemistry, while he headed to English.
Mike walked into class and looked to his seat. He was surprised to see El in class on time. She wasn't sitting specifically in his seat, but the seat next to his.
Mike walked over to his desk. "Don't you sit over there?" He pointed over to the group of desks they sat in yesterday.
"I did." She nodded. "Now I'm sitting here."
"You are?" Mike asked, his voice squeaked a bit. "Doesn't Mr. uh, Mr. Jacobs have assigned seats?"
"You remembered his name!" El sarcastically clapped. "Congrats."
"And yes. He does." She continued on. "But what other option do we have?" El smiled and waved their book around.
"Alright then." Mike nodded. "Cool cool cool."
Mike took a seat beside El, nervously drumming his fingers on the desk.
"Soooo…" He started. "Are you gonna be sitting here for, like…" He trailed off, unsure of what to say.
"I will be sitting here." She nodded like that was the answer to his question. "We are friends, right? I figured you wouldn't mind."
"Friends? Yeah, we're friends." Mike nodded. "Friends. That's us." He babbled on.
They were friends, now. Officially friends. Mike looked around, a couple of people had noticed El's new seat, but since they were at the back of the class not that many people knew of what was occurring.
"Assuming nothing weird happens between us, like you killing my cat or something, then I was thinking I could just sit here for the rest of the semester." El casually said.
Mike laughed. "I'll try to avoid your cat, then."
El laughed too, before getting more serious. "And it's not like I had many friends sitting over there." She nodded her head towards her old seat.
"Well, Will was pretty close to your old desk. He's pretty cool."
"Yeah, but I feel like I know you more." She countered.
Mike nodded in agreement, feeling like El knew him better than she knew Will.
"Wait. Didn't someone else sit there?" He motioned to the desk she was sitting in.
"Yeah, but I asked them to move, politely of course."
The way she said politely gave Mike the impression that she threatened them. Although El doesn't give him the impression of a threatening person.
"Did you threaten their cats?" Mike jokingly asked. "I feel like that would work."
El laughed and Mike found himself savouring the moment.
In a totally non-creepy, casual way, of course.
But the sound of her laugh was so contagious. He instinctively smiled when he heard her laugh. It made Mike want to make her smile as much as possible.
"I, uh, I like your smile." He quietly blurted out, unsure if that would be one of those weird things that would make her want to swap desks. "It's nice."
El slowly looked at him, a grin spread across her face. Mike noticed the hints of a blush rising up her neck.
"Thank you." She said. "You keep making funny jokes and I guess it'll make me smile more."
They both looked forward, ready to start the class.
Mike glanced over and blushed.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"Are you done reading the page yet?" El asked, presumably bored out of her mind.
Mike and El decided to try and make actual progress in their book.
It turned out having two people read one book was a terrible way to read books. One person would inevitably be the fast reader, meaning they would have to wait for the slow reader to catch up.
And as it turned out, Mike, was the slow reader.
He groaned and slammed his head onto the desk. "This is impossible." He said, face squished against the desk.
El slapped his shoulder. "It's not impossible, it's just reading."
"How are you already done reading the entire page, while I'm still on like, the first paragraph."
"Well, I thought the book would be pretty boring, but it's actually getting really interesting."
Mike groaned again.
"I'm sorry. I'm going to need you all to stop reading for a moment." Mr. Jacobs called out. "I just want to do a quick homework check. Just put your homework on your desk and while you're reading I'll come by and check it out."
El placed the book down and grabbed the sheet Mike made her from her bag.
"Wow, did you really do the homework?" He incredulously asked while grabbing his own copy.
"Why yes. I did. I did all of the homework all on my own." El sarcastically said.
"Wow. You must be such a hardworking student."
"I am. I really am." She nodded in agreement.
Mike placed his copy of the homework beside El's on her desk. He saw her look down at his handwriting, comparing it between the two copies. They were pretty similar, but Mike figured they were different enough that they wouldn't be called out for cheating.
Mike took his time to straighten the pieces of paper beside each other when El rested her hand on top of his. He froze, gazing at their hands, wondering why she spontaneously wanted to hold hands.
She gave his hand a quick squeeze.
His gaze flitted up to her eyes.
"Thank you," She whispered. "For the extra copy."
Now Mike could feel a blush rising on his neck, hoping it wouldn't make its way to his cheeks. "Yeah. Anytime."
Mr. Jacobs walked by and examined their papers. "Good work you two."
He gave them a small nod before heading to the next person to check their homework.
"So…" El said. "Did you finish that page yet?"
Mike groaned.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"Are you done the page yet?" Mike asked smugly after finishing the page.
"Yes! I've been done for the past three minutes."
"Shit. I thought I finished before you." Mike muttered.
"I've been finishing every page before you for the past two chapters. Why would this be the page where you finish before me?"
"Wait, it's been two chapters?" Mike asked. "We couldn't even finish one page yesterday."
"I know, it's kind of weird how much progress we made."
"Hmm. I guess we make a good team then."
El smiled. "That gives me hope for our tutoring sessions, then."
"Yeah." Mike laughed. "We still need to figure when to do that."
"You have AV Club after school today, right?"
"Uh, yeah. I do. And after school I think I'm going to Will's."
She nodded. "I think I'm busy tonight, too, but maybe after school tomorrow, then?"
"That might work." Mike agreed. "We could meet in the library after school? Usually whenever me and my friends do stuff, it's at my house." Mike casually said.
"Oh," El gasped. Her eyes widened. "So… you're inviting me to your house?"
"Uhh...I mean. I was just saying...That's what my friends usually…" Mike stuttered out. "I wasn't trying to…"
Mike's face grew red. He was probably digging himself deeper in this hole. He didn't mean to invite her to his house or anything...scandalous like that. It was just something that came to his mind.
"Chill, dude. You're becoming redder with every word you say." El said. "I'm just going to assume you didn't mean it like that."
"Yes, good, good." Mike cleared his throat. "It's just, like I said earlier, usually my friends come over to my house to do work and hang out and stuff."
"Well, after all, we are such good friends." El agreed, nodding along. "But maybe for a tutoring session, we should stick with the library."
"Yeah." Mike nodded. "That's a great idea, too. So, library after school tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I guess I'll see you there."
Mike looked around and only realized class was over when Will walked over to him and El.
"So you guys had a productive class."
"Yeah, we, uh, finished two chapters of the book." Mike brandished their copy of King Lear.
"You're coming over to my house after AV Club, right?" Will asked, looking at Mike.
"Yeah, Lucas and Dustin told me about it."
"I thought all of Mike's friends usually went to Mike's house after school." El said, pointedly looking at Mike and hiding the hints of a teasing smile.
"Well, yeah, usually-" Will started.
"Ignore her." Mike cut in. "She's just trying to remind me of a time very long ago where I was unable to form coherent sentences."
El giggled and Will looked confused.
"Okay, then?" Will questioned. He turned to El. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
He weirdly looked at Mike and went back to his desk to grab his things.
"Alright then." Mike turned to look at El. "No need to make me look like even more of an idiot in front of my friends."
"But it makes me laugh." El pleaded. "And you do that well enough on your own."
"I don't find it very funny." Mike joked.
"C'mon it wasn't even that big of a deal. You just invited me over to your house after school to study." She shrugged.
Mike glanced around the room, looking to see if anyone was listening. It seemed like everyone else had already left. "I'll have you know that it was a totally regular...Wait a minute I didn't even invite you over, I merely stated the fact that all of my friends usually hang out at my house after school. That's it."
"Totally." El nodded. "I totally agree with you."
"Whatever." Mike laughed, shaking it off. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow in calculus."
"What's your first period?" El asked him.
"I have a spare. You?"
"Bio. Although if you wanted I could skip it and we could work out an actual schedule for the tutoring stuff." El suggested.
"Wait, uh, what? Just skip class?" Mike shockingly asked. "Won't you, like, get in trouble?"
El laughed and rolled her eyes. "I'm the chief of police's daughter. What, are they gonna do? Call him and say I skipped? All the school ever does is tell me not to do it again."
Mike blanched. "What about the stuff you miss in class?"
El held her hands up to her face, in a faux shocked expression. "Oh the horror!"
"Wow." Mike said. "I could never do that."
"Yeah, I figured that out. You don't strike me as a class-skipper, or rule-breaker."
Mike nodded.
"So, what, do you mind if I show up during your spare?"
"Oh, uh, not at all. If you want to. I'll just be in the library or something."
"Alright, then." El nodded. She got up and picked up her things.
Mike stood up too, and looked around the class again. It was completely empty. Not even their teacher was there. He turned and saw Will exasperatedly waiting by the door for them.
"Right, then. I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then." Mike gave her a small nod, which she reciprocated.
"I'll see you in the library." El confirmed. "And let's not get distracted in there. We should probably actually figure out a schedule."
"What?" Mike said appalled. "Distracted? What do you think we'll be doing in there."
"Chill, nerd." El said. "It just seems like every time we try and figure out the schedule we spend too much time unfocused."
"What?" Mike muttered as he walked to Will, El following behind him. "I'm focused."
"Sure you are." She falsely agreed, patting him on the arm before leaving. "See ya later, Will."
"Goodbye!" He cheerily said.
Once she was gone, Will turned to Mike and started walking in the direction of the AV room. "So you two seem pretty friendly."
"What? Yeah, she's pretty cool."
"She better be." Will muttered. "I've been waiting after class for like, ten minutes."
"Wait? Class has been over for ten minutes?" Mike asked.
"Yeah...We're already late for AV Club."
"Wow. My bad, I guess. We just talked for longer than I thought we did."
"You two have been talking the entire class. Literally, everyone realized it."
"They did?" Mike asked, eyes wide. "Whatever. I don't care what they think."
Will hummed. "If that were true, we wouldn't be eating lunch in the AV room every day."
"We don't eat there because of what other people think. We do it to avoid Troy and his friends."
Will only hummed again. "C'mon, let's go to the AV room."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"You're doing it all wrong!" Lucas yelled over Dustin's shoulder.
"How can I be doing it wrong? There's only one way to splice footage." He retorted.
Mike sighed and rolled his eyes. Apparently, Will had the same idea. Mike saw him shaking his head with his hand covering his face.
This was not their first argument since they all met up at the end of school for AV Club. Lucas was too much of a control freak, Dustin wasn't gentle enough with the footage and Mike was getting fed up with all of their arguing.
Sure they bickered a lot, just in general. But when they started working on this project during AV Club, the amount they argued increased tenfold.
And it was always over small stuff. Like which teacher they should introduce first, or which teacher they were introducing last.
Will looked like he was going crazy, trying to defuse any and all arguments between the group. Mike figured it wouldn't be long before he cracked.
But just as quickly as this argument started, it ended. Apparently after a smidge of resistance Lucas folded. He didn't seem to have the energy to continue arguing, instead slumping back in his chair and groaning.
"Aaaaahhhhhhh." He groaned, sinking further and further into the chair.
Will just sighed of relief, since he wouldn't need to defuse another argument.
"Maybe we should take a break?" Mike suggested. "We made good progress today. We can work on it again on Thursday."
"I'm starving." Dustin mentioned.
"You're always hungry."
"We can get food at my place." Will said. "My mom can go out to get a pizza once we get there."
"Thank God." Muttered Dustin.
The boys packed up the video supplies and any other thing they used before heading out.
They each took their own vehicles to Will's house. It made his small driveway a bit too crowded, but that was alright.
They all piled through the front door, getting too crowded and impatient to wait one at a time.
"Would you hurry up?"
"I'm taking my shoes off."
"Well, you're crowding the way."
"We're trying to get through."
"Well, sorry." Dustin said, not sounding very apologetic. "Next time I'll just track my muddy shoes everywhere in Will's house."
"Thank you."
"Actually, I don't think my mom would like that." Will piped in.
The boys headed towards Will's living room and set up their homework.
"Mom, we're home!" Will called out to his mother.
"Hey kids." Joyce greeted them, walking out from the hallway. "How are you?"
There was a chorus of Good's and Fine's.
"I'll go and get the pizza, if you want?" Mrs. Byers asked the kids.
Will nodded. "Yeah, thanks."
Joyce grabbed her keys and opened the door, peering out of it. "Did you guys leave me room to get out of the driveway?"
"Uhh."
Their cars had perfectly trapped Will's mom's car, surrounding it on all sides.
A couple of sorrys were muttered.
"I can't get the pizza, then." Joyce stated. "One of you will need to go get it."
Mike looked outside. He knew his car was probably the closest to the road, since he had gotten to Will's house last. His was the easiest to back out of the Byers' driveway.
He sighed. He had just gotten all of his math homework setup on the coffee table, squished amongst all of his friends' textbooks and binders.
"I can get the pizza." He reluctantly offered. "My car is the one that'll be the easiest to drive out."
"Thank you." Joyce said. She pulled some cash out of her purse. "Here, you get to keep the change."
"Uh, is it too late for me to also get the pizza?" Dustin said, after hearing the prospect of free money.
"You can ride with me." Mike offered, glad he wouldn't be going alone. "You aren't getting the change though."
Dustin stood up, making way for the door, and patted Mike's shoulder on the way there. "Ahh, Michael. We can negotiate on the way there."
"Don't call me Michael." Mike frowned, but followed Dustin to his car. "You guys want anything specific? Or…"
"Just get the regular."
Mike figured that's what he'd end up getting, but he always asked, in case one of their friends suddenly became vegan or something.
"You aren't getting the change." Mike said, closing the door of his car and putting his seatbelt on.
"Yeah, I figured." Dustin said. "I just wanted to go out. I finished my homework already and the guys don't talk much when they're in the zone working."
Mike nodded, understanding where Dustin was coming from. He pulled out of the Byers' driveway and made their way towards the pizza shop. "Well, we do talk. It's just about the homework we're doing."
"So, since you happen to not be doing any homework…" Dustin said. "When do you think you'll finish the next campaign?"
Mike laughed. "What do you mean? We just did one the weekend before school started. It's been like a week."
"Exactly! I'm dying over here." Dustin nodded. "We gotta figure out our plans for this weekend."
"Well, the campaign should be finished by this weekend." Mike had been working on it whenever he got a spare moment after finishing his homework. "If I'm able to finish my homework tonight then that'll give me some more time to work on it."
The next campaign the Party did was by far going to be the biggest, longest, coolest campaign that they've ever done.
Mike's been keeping it a secret, writing smaller campaigns to play in between the times he was working on this campaign. He doesn't want his friends to know the awesomeness that will be their next campaign. He just has to put some finishing touches on it, and figure out a cool name for it.
Before this, their longest campaign was just over ten hours long. They completed it during the summer. Mike had started on the new campaign as soon as the other one was finished. And after an entire summer passed, he's nearly finished it.
He was practically bouncing up and down in his seat from the prospects of this new campaign.
And his friends didn't even know about it yet!
"Dude, are you alright?" Dustin side-eyed him.
"What?" Mike said, letting his obvious grin fall into a neutral expression. "I'm fine."
They made it to the pizza shop and Mike and Dustin exited the car.
The front door of the shop was propped open and the aroma of cheesy pizza wafted towards them. Mike took a deep breath in, relieving in the heavenly scent.
"That smells amazing."
Dustin only nodded and walked forward.
Mike allowed his legs to carry him towards the source of the smell.
He was shaken out of his stupor, however, when he noticed two girls laughing in the window of the shop, eating some pizza.
He stopped in his tracks and squinted…
Is that…?
Dustin stopped and looked behind him when he realized Mike was no longer following him. "What are you doing?"
"Is that El and Max?" Mike pointed at the window of the pizza shop.
"Uh, yeah, looks like it." Dustin confirmed.
"Oh, cool, cool." Mike nonchalantly said, patting the wrinkles out of his shirt and brushing a hand through his hair.
Dustin rolled his eyes. "Are you ready to see your girlfriend, El, yet?"
Mike blanched. "She's not my girlfriend."
"Sure. And you two haven't been talking a lot during the past couple of days."
"What? We've only talked a couple of times… Not a lot?"
"I don't know man, from what I've heard, you two talk, a lot."
"What? Who are you talking about this stuff to?"
"Word gets around about how a cool person like El, has been seen talking to a nerd like you."
"People are seriously gossiping about us?"
"So you admit there's an us?"
"No. There is no us. We are just friends."
"Well, I wouldn't mind." Dustin said. "If you started dating El. It would make the rest of the party pretty cool."
"Well, I don't know how many times I can say it, but we are just friends...Wait. Are they looking at us?"
Mike stared at the two girls on the other side of the window. They were definitely looking back at the two of them.
Mike's eyes widened and he slowly looked at Dustin. "They are definitely looking at us."
"Well, act natural. You aren't going to get a girlfriend by being weird."
Mike rolled his eyes, but they continued forward, into the pizza shop. Mike could feel El's and Max's eyes on him as he walked in, while Dustin just enthusiastically smiled.
"Hello Michael!" El said, once they entered the shop. "What are you doing here?"
El stood up and walked over to them by the entrance. Max followed her.
"Hey nerd." She said with a smile.
Mike didn't mind the nerd comment coming from Max anymore, since he knew she was just joking.
"Hello ladies." Dustin said, piping up. "I am here, too."
"Hello, Dustin." El amended.
Max nodded her head at him.
"Ignore him." Mike said, shaking his head. "We were just getting a pizza."
"Well, that seems pretty obvious since you're at a pizza place." El teased.
Mike smiled and waved his arms around. "What do you mean? You're the one who asked what we were doing here."
Dustin sighed and grabbed the crumpled bill in Mike's hand. He walked up to the counter.
Mike darted his head to Dustin, confused.
"Hi, could I get a…" Dustin started to say, but Mike stopped listening, relaxing when Mike realized Joyce's money wasn't being robbed.
"So…" Mike asked. "What about you guys? What are you doing here?"
"We were just getting pizza." El mocked.
Mike rolled his eyes but laughed. El joined in, but Max crossed her arms and side-eyed El.
"So...are the rest of your friends here?" Max asked him, looking around.
Lucas, Mike reckoned. "No, it's just me and Dustin right now. We're getting the pizza for the rest of us. We're all at Will's right now."
Max nodded casually.
"Lucas, included."
"What, I-I didn't say anything…" Max glared instead of continuing to explain herself.
El busted out laughing and Mike smiled at her. Her eyes were filled with mirth. Even Max had hints of a smile peeking out from under her glare.
Dustin returned to them, stating the pizza would only take ten or eleven minutes. They all went to sit down. El and Max's previous seats weren't large enough for the four of them, so they opted to move to a corner booth.
Just by happenstance Mike and El sat beside each other, with Dustin and Max on either end.
They all joked around, talking and laughing. Dustin was more relaxed, unlike the last time he had seen the girls in the cafeteria.
Their pizza order was called, and Mike had to admit he was a bit disappointed that he had to leave. He glanced over at El. She was already looking at him. Sitting side by side in a restaurant booth was by far the closest he's been to her, yet. Closer than when they sat beside each other at lunch and closer than when they sit beside each other in English.
Mike examined her. El's brown hair was messy but it looked good, he thought. Her whiskey eyes were playful. He gave her a small, tentative smile as he prepared to leave.
"Are you guys actually staring into each other's eyes right now?" Dustin interrupted.
"What? N-no." Mike said convincingly.
Apparently, it wasn't convincing, though, since Max burst out laughing and Dustin was staring right at them.
Mike avoided looking at El. He didn't want to see her reaction to Dustin's accusations, but he quickly risked a side glance. A blush was creeping up her neck, although Mike's face was full-blown red at this point.
"Uh, anyway." Mike half-yelled. "We need to go now. It was nice seeing you, though?"
It seemed like more of a question as Mike scrambled out of his seat, his arm knocking against El's a couple of times, since they were so close together in the booth.
Max nodded, a knowing smirk on her face.
El was pointedly looking down at the ground now. But she slightly peeked up and smiled at him. "See ya tomorrow." She said.
"Yeah, see ya…" Mike said.
"Are you guys done? Can we go now?" Dustin asked, teasing Mike some more. "Nice seeing you." He shot to the girls.
Dustin all but dragged Mike back to the car. Mike caught glimpses of the girls through the windows, but the booth was too far away.
They entered Mike's car and sighed.
"That was interesting." Mike said, slightly embarrassed still.
"Yes. It was."
After a moment of silence, Mike piped up. "Can I have the change?"
alright so this is the third chapter. writing this is soooo much fun. although i've been staying up until like, 4 am just writing so my sleep schedule is permanently destroyed. thanks i guess, lol. not much to say for this AN since it's currently 4 am and i'm soooo tired. so like, favourite/follow if you want, review if you want. those would be super cool. All mistakes are mine and I hope you all enjoyed.