Happier With You
Author's Note: I just want to say thank you for the amazing reviews of the story so far! :-) It's been a rough ride of emotions writing the story, but we are getting close to the battle against the lab, so buckle up and enjoy!
Chapter 3 – Move On
Fall 1989
Mike sweated as he heaved the final sealed box into his new dorm room and placed it on top of two others.
He wiped his brow and looked around the room with a smile. This was going to be his fresh start.
Mike picked up his bottle of water and took a swig, now frowning at the prospect of unpacking. Who actually enjoyed unpacking? Or packing in general?
His dark eyes fell on Dustin's empty area of the dorm room for a moment with an amused smile. His best friend had decided that locating the nearest coffee shops and dinners was much more important than moving his stuff in.
Mike shook his head and got to work unpacking, noticing with a grimace that his mum had packed his old teddy bear Jim. It had been a present off her and Hopper had thought it would be hilarious to name the damn thing Jim so that Mike knew he was always watching him.
Mike sighed and chucked the bear back into the box and just stared at it as a thousand memories rushed through his mind. Her voice, her laugh, her smile, her moans when she was underneath him.
Just to taunt him his mind began replaying the sounds Jen had made and he winched as guilt washed over him once again.
He wished more than anything that the night with Jen had never happened.
He hadn't told a soul about it and had begrudgingly gone to a sexual health clinic just to make sure he was clean after being unprotected.
He was clean of course and then he felt more guilt towards Jen as if he was somehow insinuating that she was dirty. He was the one who felt dirty.
Mike took a gulp of water, really wishing that he didn't have to think about all this crap today. It was his first day of college for god's sake.
As if on cue, Dustin burst into the room with an ecstatic grin on his face. Mike noticed that he still hadn't brought one box up.
"Mike you're not going to believe what I've just done!" he said gleefully.
Mike watched him amused from the floor, sat in front of his boxes. "What?"
"Well I've just managed to score us a date with two incredibly hot girls!"
Mike's smile immediately faltered. "Why…why would you do that?" He asked irritated as he carried on rifling through his box.
"Well it started because Daisy said she couldn't go on a date with me unless we got a date for her friend Lexie. So I thought it'd kill two birds with one stone. I get a date and you get a date!" Dustin spoke as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
Mike sighed and shook his head, "I'm sorry dude but I don't want to go on a date."
Dustin groaned and walked closer to Mike. "Is this because of El?"
Mike felt like a million shards of ice hit his chest at the mention of her name. "N-No…" he choked out.
His friend heaved a sigh and then collapsed onto the floor next to him. "Mike…you need to get over her. I know she was the love of your life and everything but this isn't healthy!"
Mike glared at Dustin, "I have got over her…" He lied.
Dustin snorted and reached into the box, "oh really?" His hands grasped around a load of photos and he pulled them up into sight. "Then what is all of this?"
Mike's dark eyes roamed over the photos painfully. He knew exactly what they were. They were some of the happiest moments he had shared with her. Their faces happy and so in love in every photo.
"They're just…memories." He gasped out, desperate to say anything to ease the awkwardness.
Dustin shrugged and placed the photos back in the box. "This is your new start Mike. Time to make new memories and actually enjoy yourself for once." He said kindly with a supportive smile.
Mike couldn't look at him but nodded his head slowly. If he was going to try and get over her anywhere, it may as well be at MIT, far from Hawkins and the ghosts of his past.
"Do you think Kali is mad at me?" El asked Hunter as she nursed her coffee mug. They were sat on the steps outside of the large trailer they were occupying in Georgia.
Hunter grinned slowly, "no she's not mad at you. I think she's just frustrated. I think we all thought we would have killed that son of a bitch by now." He said contemplatively before sipping at his coffee.
El frowned and looked out towards the morning sun rising. Finding Brenner and the lab hadn't been as easy as she would have assumed.
Knowing that El could track them, the lab had put up a defence shield against her mind and she was struggling to break it down.
"Why is he killing us off instead of trying to use our powers?" El couldn't help but ask the question that had been intriguing her for some time now.
Hunter looked at her and half smiled, "it's because bits of information about what he's been up to all these years are starting to leak slowly and he's facing life imprisonment. He is trying to destroy any piece of evidence from his past…which includes us."
"He already captured and murdered Four and Six before we could get to them. And then we had a near miss and Seven or as we called him Sebastian, stayed behind to try and distract them…he got killed too."
El watched the sadness in Hunter's blue eyes for a moment before speaking. "Was Seven…was he your friend?"
The blonde man nodded his head and smiled sadly. "Yeah he was my friend. But him and Kali…well they were in love."
El gasped at this information. It explained so much about Kali's recent behaviour and how easy she closed up when El would ask about the others.
They stayed silent for a moment, both of them lost in thought. El couldn't begin to imagine how Kali must have felt. It was the exact reason why she knew Mike could never have come with them.
At the mere thought of his name, El felt her chest clench painfully. Despite what she had seen in the void, she still missed him terribly.
She had been trying to keep track of the days and she was almost sure he would be starting college right about now. The thought of all the dreams they had made together twisted like a knife in her stomach.
El could feel herself starting to quiver from the emotions eating at her heart and knew she had to try and distract herself from the pain.
"What about you? What is your story?" El asked turning back to Hunter who looked slightly surprised at the question.
"Well I got out of Hawkins lab during the second mass break out. I'm a year older than you, but I was only six, so Sam carried me on his shoulders and we fled."
"I ended up with Sam for about six years, we're like brothers in a way. But then we got separated when that bastard found our location." Hunter's voice became dangerous for a moment as El watched him with awe.
He sighed, "I was taken in by this farming family in West Virginia. I can honestly say I was happy there. I lived with them until I was 16."
El frowned, "why did you leave then?"
Hunter looked at her and she immediately saw the pain etched in his eyes. "They were murdered…all of them. Because of me."
She froze, feeling horrified at her question. El carefully placed her hand on top of Hunter's in what she hoped was a comforting act.
"Yeah I came back from town to find they had all been killed. The bastard had found out where I lived. I tried…I tried to heal them. I was there for hours trying to heal them…but they were already dead."
A single tear dared to fall from Hunter's blue eyes and El immediately pulled him into an embrace. Her head laying on his shoulder, his cheek against her hair.
"I'm so sorry…" she told him softly.
Hunter sniffed and nuzzled his head slightly into her curly locks.
"Okay break it up you two we have work to do." Came Emma's solemn voice.
El and Hunter immediately sprang apart, both of them feeling oddly guilty.
Emma was stood in the door way with her arms crossed staring at them. They both rushed to their feet and followed her into the trailer.
The first thought that entered El's mind when she entered the void was why was she doing this.
She turned and saw Mike sitting at a desk, a text book in front of him. El couldn't stop the immediate rush of love that filled her.
More of the room came to light and she looked around at his new dorm room with interest before walking closer to him.
"Are you ready yet?" Came Dustin's voice making El jump. She turned to see with happy surprise her old friend who had just finished buttoning up a shirt.
Mike turned to look at Dustin and El's stomach jumped with delight when she got to see his face. He looked very much the same, but taller, his cheek bones even more prominent. His face more angular.
"Yeah I've been ready for like an hour Dustin…" Mike said rolling his eyes before turning back to his text book.
"Sorry okay! So sue me if I want to look good for my date."
Mike scoffed, "so are you saying I don't look good for my date?"
El's heart stopped at his words and a heavy feeling set in her stomach. Mike was going on a date? She really didn't know why she was surprised after what she had last seen in the void.
Dustin laughed, "no you do look good man…you'd look even better if you wiped that bitch face off your pretty features!" he teased.
Mike frowned. "I'm sorry I'm just…nervous I guess."
El watched as her old friend walked closer to Mike and patted him on the shoulder. "This will be good for you Mike. You deserve to be happy, you deserve to live a good normal life."
She gulped as every word Dustin said hit home. He was so right that it pained her.
Mike deserved much more than she could offer him. She didn't know when and if she would ever be able to return to Hawkins. Why make him chase a ghost from his past?
El wiped at the tears and watched as Mike sighed and nodded. "I guess." He mumbled.
She couldn't see anymore. She knew in that moment she couldn't visit him in the void again.
El needed to move on too if she had any chance of destroying Brenner and the lab. She sobbed as she left the most important part of her life behind.