Happier With You
Author's Note: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the amazing reviews! You guys make me want to get the chapters out even quicker :-)
I hope you enjoy this more relaxed chapter before the angst of the next one! Let me know what you think :-)
Chapter 6 – The Boyfriend Trials
Summer 1990.
El sat on the bottom step of the porch and looked out towards the woods, her mind replaying Mike storming off the day before.
She frowned in frustration. She didn't know why he had left so abruptly but she had wanted to talk to him. She had wanted to discuss their relationship.
"You're up early," came a cheerful voice.
El turned to see Hunter had slipped out the front door and was holding two cups of coffee.
She smiled slightly and thanked him when he handed her one of the cups and sat down next to her on the step.
Hunter had slept on the couch, so El wondered if she had woken him up when she passed through the living room.
"Sorry if I woke you."
"No, it's okay. I couldn't get much sleep anyway. I'm a bit nervous about today."
El smiled at him, "it's going to be fine. Dr Owens is a really nice man and I'm sure dad will do all the talking."
Hunter turned to her, his eyes sweeping across her face until they fell onto her hazel eyes. He swallowed, "can we…can we talk about what happened between us?"
His words came out in almost a whisper but El knew exactly what he was talking about. It was the kiss.
El nodded anxiously. "Yes, I think we need too."
Hunter sighed, "okay well…I know it was spur of the moment and everything, but I kissed you because I like you. I've liked you for a long time."
His eyes didn't leave hers and El felt immediately uncomfortable under the stare. What on earth could she say to that?
"Hunter…I'm just really confused right now about my feelings." El admitted looking at him sadly.
He frowned, "you still love him don't you? I could see it written all over your face yesterday."
El bit her lip and averted her eyes. "I do love him. But I'm so…I'm so mad at him for what he did and equally I honestly don't know if he even feels the same way about me anymore."
There was silence between the pair for the moment as they both pondered their own thoughts and sipped at their coffee.
"Well the only way you're going to know is by asking him Jane. And if he does reciprocate your feelings then I'll back off. But…if he doesn't feel the same way…I want you to know that I really care about you and once I've got my identity I can literally live anywhere. Maybe even here in Hawkins."
Hunter's words resounded through El's body like an echo. He really was so sweet and so caring and she did like him. Perhaps one day it would turn into love. But he just wasn't Mike.
God she needed some female advice.
El looked down at her watch and saw it had just gone 7.30am. "I'm gonna go and get changed. I'll speak to you later okay?"
Hunter nodded silently and watched her stand up and go into the house.
Mike walked into Benny's feeling oddly hungover even though he hadn't drank a sip of alcohol the day before.
He felt sick, clammy and had a banging head ache.
"Hey Mike, over here!" He heard Will shout and he focused on the group in the corner. Next to Will was Dustin and then opposite was Max and Lucas.
They had all been home from college for only a few days and this was meant to have been their big reunion breakfast but after the events of yesterday, Mike hadn't even barely thought about.
"Hey guys," Mike mumbled as he took the seat next to Dustin. He stared in front of him to the spare seat, the seat that had always been taken up by El, El who would usually be stroking his leg with her foot under the table.
"Dude you look like shit." Lucas commented.
Mike scowled, "thanks. That's exactly what I want to hear."
At that moment the waitress wandered over and took all their orders. "Can I get a jug of water as well please?" Mike asked through his dry throat.
Once the waitress had gone, Max who had been staring at him with a glare and crossed arms spoke, "are you hungover or something Wheeler?"
"No Max I'm just…I don't know I don't feel very good."
Dustin patted him on the back sympathetically, "that's what seeing the love of your life in the arms of another does to you bud."
Max rolled her eyes and bit her tongue, Lucas and Dustin gave Mike looks of compassion and Will just looked damn right confused.
"Who are we talking about here?" Will asked looking at them all.
"El's boyfriend of course!" Dustin said stating the obvious.
"Her stupid, muscular, pretty boy, blonde boyfriend." Mike added coldly, his body raging with jealousy.
"El has a boyfriend?" Will asked in bewilderment.
"Yes! You told me yesterday on the supercom remember?" Dustin stated, his voice becoming slightly irritated.
Will huffed, "no. I just said she had some guy with her!"
Mike's heart dared to jump with apprehension.
Dustin stared at Will, "but…but you said boyfriend! I swear you did!"
"No I didn't! I said some guy and then you asked if I said friend and I said yes and that it was a boy." Will shouted exasperatedly.
"Oh." Was all Dustin could say. His cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
"So is he her boyfriend or not?!" Mike asked tensely looking between Dustin and Will like his life depended on their answer.
Dustin shrugged and Will looked guilty. "I honestly don't know man. He's still at our house though. He slept on the couch."
"I know someone who'd know…" Lucas muttered quietly averting his eyes to his girlfriend.
Mike and the rest of the party immediately looked at Max. She was still glaring at him like he was shit on her shoe.
There was silence as they all looked at the red head expectantly. Finally she blew a fuse and shouted, "oh for gods sake you douche bags! No! Hunter's not her boyfriend okay?!"
Mike felt the biggest grin jump onto his face as a weight fell off his chest. "So they're not dating?" he asked in relief.
Max rolled her eyes, "no. They just kissed."
The grin fell immediately off Mike's face and the weight was suddenly back on his chest, only now it was ten times bigger.
"What?! I can't believe this!" he shouted in a jealous rage. He didn't care if he was scrawny, he wanted to rip this Hunter limb by limb.
Max glowered at him, "it's not like you can talk Wheeler! You hypocrite."
Mike immediately felt all the air leave his lungs as the colour disappeared from his face.
"W-what…what are you talking about?" He swallowed anxiously.
"Oh I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. Does Danny Robertson's party ring a bell?"
Mike completely froze in shock at the fact that Max knew his deepest and darkest secret.
The boys stared avidly between them both.
"What the hell is going on?" Lucas asked confused.
"Yeah, what happened at Danny Robertson's party?!" Dustin added eagerly.
The waitress was back with their food and placed a steaming plate of pancakes in front of Mike, but he felt too nauseous to speak.
He hoped the arrival of the food would draw the attention away from him, but when he slowly glanced up, it was to find them all staring at him, Max shooting him daggers.
"Mike you can tell us." Will said calmly.
Mike gulped and closed his eyes. "I was really, really drunk and crying over El on the couch because a stupid song came on and made me think of her. J-Jen was comforting me." The words were much harder to get out then he had ever feared.
"Jennifer Hayes?" Will asked.
Mike nodded and continued. "I can't remember everything but she asked if I wanted to go somewhere quiet to talk because I was like crying in front of everyone. I don't know why we ended up in a bedroom…but we did." His voice laced with guilt.
"Oh." Lucas said solemnly, clearly already coming to his own conclusion.
Mike took a deep breath and looked down at his plate. "We…we ended up having sex."
The silence between the party was unlike anything Mike had ever experienced, but he definitely heard everyone but Max take in a sharp breath at the news.
"Dude…" Dustin said weakly, at a loss for words for once.
Mike hid his face in his hands feeling incredibly ashamed. "It's the worst thing I've ever done. I wish I could take it back." He groaned.
He felt a hand on his shoulder again and could only assume it was Dustin who was sat next to him.
"We all make mistakes Mike." Will said quietly. "We shouldn't have left you alone that night knowing how drunk you were."
"Oh so you're just excusing his actions?" Max scoffed coldly.
"No he's not saying that Max! But…we did all kind of help him get that drunk and we already knew he was in a dark place." Lucas said cautiously.
"And he's not completely to blame anyway. There was two of them." Dustin reasoned.
Mike slowly put down his hands, completely overwhelmed by the love still pouring from his friends. Their bond still unbroken despite the worst thing he had ever done.
He hesitantly looked up at Max who was still scolding him with her eyes.
"Look I'm sorry Max. You have no idea how sorry I am. Do you think it's what I wanted? I wanted to be enjoying the last year of school with my girlfriend. We had plans…we were going to go to Massachusetts together when I started college."
Mike took a breath trying to ease his emotions. "But she left. She physically held me back from coming with her. I would have dropped everything in a heartbeat for her Max. I loved her…I still love her."
Max rolled her eyes and sighed, "well then you should be saying this to her Wheeler before it's too late."
She checked her watch and then turned to Lucas, kissing him on the cheek. "I've gotta go. I said I'd meet El at 10."
Lucas nodded and Mike's eyes widened. "You're seeing El?!"
Max got up and gave him a pitiful look. "Yes Wheeler, we're going clothes shopping. Anyway, see you losers later."
The boys hesitantly carried on eating their breakfast whilst Mike stared at the door from where Max had just left.
She was right, he needed to talk to El before it was too late. Before her and that man with the annoyingly cool name became a couple.
Mike stood up abruptly, almost panting from how tight his chest felt. "I need to go and talk to El." He said suddenly.
Lucas sighed, "sit down man." He said tiredly.
"Yeah are you really going to confess your undying love in a clothes store?" Dustin scoffed before biting into his bacon.
"If I have to tell her I love her in a clothes store then I will!" Mike said defensively.
"Mike just sit down. Let's discuss this first." Will said in his relaxed voice. Mike hesitantly sat back down.
"So what do you want to say to her?" Lucas asked calmly.
"I…want to tell her I love her, that I never stopped loving her and that I want to be with her." Mike said shaking from adrenaline.
Dustin smirked, "are you gonna like bring up the whole Jen Hayes thing?"
Mike glared at him, "do you actually think that would help the situation?!"
Will shrugged, "I think you'd never forgive yourself if you weren't completely honest with her." Mike sighed, Will had him there.
"Okay…well I need to tell her that me and her need to talk. I need to tell her about Jen and I need to know if she has any feelings for Hunter."
Dustin grinned, "Hunter…what a cool name huh."
"Don't…" Mike warned feeling cranky at the mention of the other man. He thought about Hunter and felt immediately self-conscious.
"He's like really muscular and has that whole pretty boy thing going on. And he's blonde for Christ sake. Do you…do you reckon I should dye my hair blonde or start working out or something?" Mike mumbled to his friends.
There was silence for 3 seconds before Lucas, Dustin and Will burst out laughing.
"Why on earth are you laughing?!" Mike asked them incredulously.
"Oh my god…Mike the blonde bombshell!" Dustin chuckled as he wiped at his wet eyes.
"Dude you don't need to become a Hunter clone!" Lucas said still amused.
Mike glared at them all in annoyance. "Well if she kissed him she must like him."
"You don't know what the circumstances were Mike. But anyway, you don't need to be Hunter. Just be you. She fell in love with you the first time as yourself right?" Will said reasonably.
Mike's face softened slightly as he thought about innocent and beautiful 12 year old El. Her bambi eyes filled with fear the first time he ever saw her in the forest. His undying urge to protect and care for her. Nothing had changed in that regard.
"I just want her back." Mike confessed, his voice a lot more vulnerable than he had expected.
"And you'll get her back!" Lucas smiled with encouragement.
"So let's start planning this then. We can call it…the boyfriend trials!" Dustin said eagerly.
Mike rolled his eyes in amusement as Dustin put on a fake deep movie voice. "The boyfriend trials…staring El Hooper, Mike Wheeler and Hunter…er Hunter?"
"I don't think he has a surname." Will said smiling slightly.
"So what do we do first?" Lucas asked eagerly.
Dustin smirked, "well Max said they were going clothes shopping. Mission number one begins…"
"So Hunter is wanting to be with you and willing to move to this shit town if Wheeler doesn't want you?" Max asked amazed as they walked into the air conditioned clothes shop.
"Yep." El said stunned as she looked around at the store she hadn't been in for over two years. It looked exactly the same that it made her smile.
"Wow…no pressure Wheeler." Max muttered under her breath.
"What?" El asked her not quite catching what she'd said.
"Nothing. I just…I think you need to talk to Mike."
El sighed, "I will. That's why I wanted to come shopping. I wanna wear something nice when we talk…"
Max scoffed, "you're seriously trying to look pretty for him?!"
El felt her cheeks instantly blush and she distracted herself by looking through a rack of dresses. "N-no…I just wanna look nice!"
Her best friend rolled her eyes and joined her at the rack. "I can't even believe I'm saying this…but you know he'd think you looked beautiful in a sack right? I mean I had to witness him drool over you for 4 years."
She couldn't stop the grin on her face at Max's words, even though she was pretty sure they were a huge exaggeration.
El looked back at Max. "I just wanna look good." She said simply.
The red head shook her head in amazement but humoured El. "So…are we looking for something pretty or something sexy?"
The girls laughed and carried on having a good root through the dresses.
"I can't believe we're seriously doing this!" Mike whispered, feeling sweaty and agitated being this tightly squeezed next to Dustin, Will and Lucas.
The boys had snuck into the clothes store and were hiding behind a rack of coats near the back of the store, spying on El and Max who were currently looking at shoes. Their hands already wrapped around coat hangers with different clothes.
Mike watched El with longing. She looked so beautiful in a white tank top and denim shorts, laughing at whatever joke Max was telling her.
Her sexy toned legs were on display and Mike looked up her body with desire. Damn why was she so hot?!
"What was the plan again?" Lucas asked quietly, moaning from getting leg cramp from their squatted position.
"We see if we can overhear El saying anything about Mike or Hunter. And then Mike casually goes up to El and talks to her." Dustin said simply.
"How do I just casually walk up to her? What do I even say!" Mike frowned before being shushed by his friends.
"Geez I don't know! You literally used to suck her face off as a greeting!" Dustin said before taking another peep at the girls.
Mike glared at him, "well I obviously can't do that." He said through gritted teeth.
"You'll think of something okay?! Worst comes to worst talk about the weather…" Dustin whispered distractedly.
Mike popped his head up slowly and saw Max and El were now in the underwear section.
"Holy shit she's picking out sexy lingerie for Hunter!" He said in a panicked voice that made his friends shush him once more.
"Calm down, she's looking at one bra." Will said in amusement.
They all looked up again just as Max and El started to wander around again. The boys immediately crouched down again.
"Oh shit they're coming right this way!" Lucas said in a panic, looking out between the coats.
"Crap we need to move now!" Dustin said pushing all the boys forward.
Everything seemed to happen at once. Dustin pushed Will, who fell into Lucas, who fell into Mike, who tripped into a mannequin bringing it crashing down into the aisle with him attached to it.
"Fuck," Mike said rubbing his shoulder.
"Mike? Are you okay?!" Came the sweetest and most concerned voice that Mike really, really wished hadn't appeared at that moment in time.
Embarrassment flooded Mike's face as he slowly looked up and saw El stood there, her eyes wide in worry whilst Max was stood behind her with the most amused look on her face.
"Er…" Mike said looking around to where the boys had been, to only find they had disappeared. Of course they fucking had.
He hesitantly got himself up and away from the mannequin. "Yeah…I'm fine." Mike said nervously, daring to look into El's amazing eyes and feeling instantly drawn in by them.
He had completely forgotten they weren't alone until he heard Max laugh, "what the hell were you doing?!"
Mike's cheeks went even more red as he avoided both of the girls gaze. "I was just…I was…em. It's…it's nice weather today huh?"
He wanted to die right there on the spot.
El looked at him confused, "yeah it's nice weather."
Mike gulped and forced himself to look at her stunning face. "Do you wanna go for a walk?" he asked so quickly he worried she wouldn't catch the sentence and he'd have to repeat himself.
El's eyes widened, "oh…y-yeah. Yeah of course." She turned to Max who reluctantly took the shopping bags out of El's hands.
Nothing happened for a moment except the couple just stared at each other until finally El spoke, "so…should we go then?"
Mike laughed with embarrassment, "yeah sorry. Let's go."