One: Letters
Dear Max:
I know it has been a while since we talked, so I wanted to say I miss you and I hope you are doing well. Joyce has been working really hard at her new job and she says that means hopefully we can come back to visit Hawkins this summer. I am excited to see your new home. I know you do not like it as much as the old one but maybe it will get better when you make more good memories in it.
In Mike's last letter he said that you and Lucas have broken up probably for good. If you ever want to talk about that or about anything else I will listen.
Mike is coming to visit soon and I am excited but also nervous. California is okay but it is hard making friends, and school is hard too. And everything is much harder without my powers. I have not told Mike about this because that is hard too. But Will is a good friend, and Joyce has been helping me with my schoolwork when she can. Jonathan helps a lot too unless he is with his friend Argyle. I think you will like Argyle - he is very funny. Jonathan is funny too when he and Argyle smoke plants together. Jonathan says that it's safe because the plants are from the earth, but that Will and I cannot do it and also we cannot tell Joyce. I do not think he has told Nancy either so maybe do not say anything to her. I hope that Nancy and Jonathan can go to college together next year. Jonathan has seemed sad lately and I think it is because he misses her.
Will has been acting strange lately too. I wonder if he is also excited but nervous about Mike visiting. Will has not made a lot of friends here either, and Mike always talks in his letters about his new D and D Club and how much fun it has been. Will has not played D and D since we moved, so maybe Mike's letters make him sad.
If you want to talk soon let me know. It is hard to talk on the phone here sometimes because Joyce is on the phone a lot for her new job. But if you want to write a letter I will write back quickly.
Please tell everyone I say hello and that I miss you all.
Your friend,
El
As she finished reading the letter again, Max Mayfield's gaze drifted back to the envelope that it had come in. She could just make out the postmark in the flickering light from the street lamp outside: LENORA, CA.
Funny how, just two years ago, Max had been the one in California, and El had been here in Hawkins, and neither of them had known the other existed.
The muffled voice of a sports announcer floated up from the radio on her bedside table. Max didn't have the energy to change the station.
Funny how you could miss someone so much it physically hurt, and yet not be able to bring yourself to pick up a pen. Or the phone. Or…
Max sighed, setting the letter down next to the radio. The light filtering through her crooked blinds and the sounds of a basketball game two towns over washed over her as she leaned back onto her pillow, staring up at the cracks in the ceiling.
•
In another part of Hawkins, where the streetlights didn't flicker and ceilings didn't crack, Mike Wheeler had just finished reading another letter. His eyes snagged on a few phrases as he scanned it again: I have made lots of new friends… finally adjusted… Will has been painting a lot… maybe it is for a girl… excited to see you… love, El.
Mike let out a sigh, crumpling the letter up and tossing it in the general direction of the trash can as he flopped back onto his bed. Not for the first time lately, there was a gnawing… something in his stomach. A vague, undefinable sense of unease that - he was forced to admit - kept appearing whenever he thought about his upcoming trip to California. Which was ridiculous. He was excited to go see his friends. El, his girlfriend. And Will, his best friend.
Then why…
The box springs creaked as Mike catapulted out of bed and began tossing clothes into the open suitcase on the floor. It had been sitting there empty for ages, waiting for him to start packing.
He was just being ridiculous.