Later that night, after El and Mike got off work, they took Holly out to eat and then to see a movie, and were now back at their house. It was a cute little house, not really little, considering it's two stories, has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a basement, and a half bathroom in the basement. They both made pretty good money at the station, so they could easily afford it.

"I'm surprised she's already asleep." El said, snuggling into Mike's side on their couch.

"I know, usually she's still awake. It's only ten."

"I guess with everything that's gone on today's made her tired." She said. He'd told her about the clown incident, not in too much detail, and left the beep beep Richie part out. He nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it was creepy as hell. And the way he disappeared...it just isn't normal." He shivered, just thinking about it. She put an arm around his stomach, putting her head on his chest.

"Well, hopefully it won't happen again, and if it does, you can just arrest him." She said. He chuckled and nodded, kissing the top of her head. "You excited for everyone to come home tomorrow?" She asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, it feels like forever since we've seen them. It's been forever since we were all together." He said, playing with a strand of her long, wavy hair.

"It has been. Almost a year."

"Damn, it's gone by so fast."

"I know."

"I wonder if Dustin's finally cut his hair."

"I doubt it." She giggled. "He loves it too much. He said it's his best feature, other than his pearls as he calls them." Mike snorted but nodded.

"Yeah, he wouldn't look like Dustin without the curly hair. And that damn hat." He shook his head and she laughed.

"Hey, I'm surprised he hasn't lost the damn thing yet."

"True."

"You know, you wouldn't look like you without all that curly hair." She reached up and ran her hands through it. "Just be glad it's not as curly as his."

"No kidding. It'd be even more of a pain in the ass." She giggled. They stayed up for another hour or so before retreating to their bedroom, where they continued talking until El fell asleep, Mike's arms wrapped around her comfortingly. It took him a while to go to sleep, as he tried racking his brain, trying to remember where he heard beep beep Richie, from, but he still couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Saturday, May 19, 1992

"Babe, wake up." Mike felt El lightly shaking his shoulder. One eye popped open and he looked at her. She giggled.

"What?" He mumbled.

"We've got to go to the grocery store. We basically have no food right now." He groaned and pushed his face into the pillow. She laughed. She lightly tugged on a curl. "In all seriousness though, we do need to go to the store. I'm making dinner for everyone tonight, remember." he groaned again but sat up on his arms.

"Why must you always want to cook big meals?" He asked dramatically. She rolled her eyes.

"Because I love cooking just as much as you love shooting stuff and cursing." He tilted his head slightly and nodded.

"Fair point." He rolled over and sat up, scratching his head. He looked at the clock and saw that it's 9 AM. "Is Holly up?" He asked, grabbing his shirt off the floor and putting it on. She nodded.

"She's watching TV. We're both ready to go so when you're ready, we're gonna go get breakfast then to the grocery store." He nodded and pecked her on the lips. She grinned at him. She went downstairs while he got up. He brushed his teeth and attempted to do something with his hair, to no avail, and then got dressed. He put on a black and white striped t-shirt and shorts. He grabbed his wallet, put his shoes on, and joined his girlfriend and little sister downstairs.

"Ready?" El asked. He nodded. As they got in the car, he locked the door and then joined them.

"Is Bev working today?" Holly asked.

"Uh, I don't know. She usually works on Saturday, right?" Mike asked El, who nodded.

"She's probably there." Holly nodded, a smile on her face as she looked down at one of Mike's old comics. Mike turned the radio up some and he and El embarrassed themselves by dancing wildly at a stop light. Holly just rolled her eyes at them. They got breakfast, obviously getting waffles, and after, they went to the store, where they saw Bev talking on her phone, on her break.

"It's only, "Mike looked at his watch, "10:30, why are you on a break already?" He joked she rolled her eyes.

"I've been here since 5 so, yeah."

"Who are you talking to?" Holly asked innocently, already knowing who she was talking to.

"Bill." She answered, putting it against her shoulder so he wouldn't hear. El wiggled her eyebrows and Bev laughed. "I'm almost done, I'll come find you guys then." The three nodded and went on their way.

"What are you cooking?" Mike asked.

"Spaghetti." She said, hardly paying attention as she looked down each aisle.

"Awesome." He high fived Holly and El smiled to herself.

"Why don't you two go and get another cart and get all of the stuff on this list." She handed Mike the list. He raised an eyebrow, wondering why she had two lists. "What? Mike, we have no food or drinks. I want to stock up because it's annoying when I wake up in the middle of the night, starving and there's no food." He chuckled and nodded, saluting her before walking off with Holly to get another cart. Bev jogged up to her and grinned widely, for no apparent reason.

"What are you all smiley about?" El asked, looking at her.

"I may have just convinced Bill to come here for the summer." She said happily.

"Really? Awesome!"

"Yeah! I haven't seen any of them face to face in five years now. He's going to try and convince the others to come as well. My aunt said she'd pay for them all too." Her aunt was pretty wealthy, probably more so than anyone else in Hawkins.

"Awesome! I'd love to meet them all."

"You'd love them. They're just as insane together as Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin are." El chuckled.

"I believe it. Are you and Elizabeth coming over tonight?"

"Oh hell yeah. If you're making spaghetti, I'm all for it."

"Great! I need to have a little girl time tonight. I love Holly, but I can't talk about certain things with her, you know?" Bev laughed and nodded. Then her eyes widened.

"Are you pregnant?" She whispered.

"No! I'm not pregnant!" She exclaimed, almost too loudly. Bev snorted.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. But just imagine how cute you and Mike's kids will be!" El rolled her eyes.

"We're not even married yet, Bev."

"Then hurry the hell up and get married! You've been together six years. I wonder if he's ever gonna get the balls to propose to you." El rolled her eyes again.

"If he doesn't soon, I'll be the one to ask him." Bev giggled.

"Please do, I will pay to see that."

"I would do it too.

"I believe it. Okay well, I better get back to work and let you go on your quest for buying groceries. I'll see you up front." El laughed and nodded.