AN: I want to take the opportunity and thank everyone who has favourited, followed, or reviewed on this story. As mentioned, I started this story for very personal reasons, and it therefore is very special to me. Now that I see that others enjoy this little story with me, I feel extremely touched and can't fully express how much this means to me! So, thank you very much!
Back to the story, we saw Max make an appearance in the last chapter and she will continue to play a major part in this story. In a way she is the voice of reason when everyone else is going crazy. They are nonetheless still teenagers, so nothing happens without some little drama here and there. But until then, you can lay back and enjoy some Mileven fluff in today's chapter.
Have fun reading :)

Chapter 3

26. May 1985

It was one of the first summer days of the year. The sun was burning down on them, while they enjoyed the day at Lover's Lake that was located in the woods around Hawkins.
El lay face down on her towel, hair damp from her recent swim, headphones on and listening to the music coming from her Walkman.
She knew that she most likely should go out of the sun and seek protection in the shadows of the nearby trees, as her skin was still quite pale, not having that much contact to the sun that early in the year, yet. But in that moment, she couldn't care less. She felt utterly content, wishing to remain in that blissful moment with the sun burning down on her, while she tuned out her surroundings and got fully lost in the music.

It had been a brilliant idea by Dustin to go out for a swim and it took only a few calls via the Supercom to get all their friends on board.
They had packed their swimwear, towels, and snacks, and shortly after met up to bike to the lake.
As it was still quite early in the summer season, the lake site was not too crowded, and they had easily found a little private cove, where they had spread out their towels.

After spending a good amount of time in the water together, swimming, diving, and playing games, El had gotten a bit cold and had decided to rest on the towels and warm up in the glistening sun.
Her Walkman started a new track, and she began swinging her feet, that were up in the air, to the beat of 'Object Of My Desire'.

When I go to sleep at night
Visions of you here by my side
Fireworks explode deep inside of me
I pinch myself as you're lyin' there
We kiss each other, now I'm really scared
Too much to ask even for a fantasy

Turn on emotions so strong
Passion's fire burns on and on
My body screams, please make love to me

El was completely lost in the music, softly humming to the refrain, and not noticing the person sneaking up on her.
Suddenly she was taken out of her peaceful enjoyment by ice-cold water droplets that hit her bare back which was considerably heated up by the sun by now. Taken by surprise and through the chill of water, she screamed loudly and jumped up in the air.

"Oh my gosh", she screeched, taking her headphones of, and turning around to the cause of the interruption.

Standing in front of her, grinning widely, was the tall frame of Mike. His eyes sparkled mischievously and one of his hands was tangled up in his hair. He obviously had used it just seconds earlier to squeeze the water out of his thick and dark curls upon El's back.
From further away she heard the laughs of her other friends, that had still been playing in the low water, but who were now curling over from their fits of laughter caused by El's hysterical screams.

As the situation sank in, El stared murderously at the boy in front of her and hit his bare chest.

"Ouch, what was that for?", Mike complained, faking innocence.

"You know exactly what for.", El scolded, but she had to try hard not to lose her composure at the sight of his cute expression, as he gave her his best puppy dog eyes, and was pouting his lips.

For a moment they stared at each other, Mike faking innocence and El trying to stare at him in indignation before both cracked and burst out laughing frankly. Their laughter filled the air and Mike's contagious cackling spurred her on each time she slightly calmed downed.
When her stomach started to hurt, El couldn't take it any longer and she had to sit down. Next to her was Mike also slowly calming down and when he was able to stand upright again, he grabbed a spare towel and dried himself up. Afterwards he settled down on his towel next to El.

"Hey Mike, you're not joining us back in the water?", Lucas called over from the lake.

"No, I take a time out.", Mike shouted back. He made himself comfortable and lay down on his side, facing El. She mirrored his position, as she settled down back on the towel, too.

"So, what have you been up to all by yourself?", he questioned.

"You mean before I have been rudely interrupted by you?!", El teased.

"Well, you practically invited me.", Mike grinned. "You cannot ask me to let you just be, if you provide me the perfect opportunity on a silver platter."

"If I had known that it is this dangerous to innocently listen to some music, I would have watched out a lot more. But now I'm warned for the next time."

Mike grinned at her impishly and raised his eyebrows in challenge. "We'll see…"

As El looked at him widely grinning, she observed some droplets of water falling from his wet hair onto the ground. Usually, his hair was all voluminous and wavy, but now it was hanging down appearing even longer and darker and falling temptingly into his face. She felt a fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach that lately appeared more and more often when she was in Mike's presence, fighting down the urge to reach out and brush the strand of hair out of his face.
El hastily averted her eyes, the embarrassment about her strange impulses rising and colouring her cheeks.

Mike seemed to sense her discomfort. "What's up?", he questioned her.

"N-Nothing…", El stuttered, confused about the sudden and rapid beating of her heart.

"Okay… don't tell me.", he laughed, not believing her one second. He settled back, lying down on his towel. One arm moved under his head functioning as a cushion and he closed his eyes, face turned upwards towards the sun.

As Mike relaxed, his breathing slowing and steadying, El's eyes wandered back towards him on their own account. She took in his whole appearance eagerly, suddenly becoming very aware of his nudity. Mike was wearing swim shorts that were wet from the prior swim and clung to his upper thighs, but otherwise his body was exposed to her. Even though she had seen him like this countless times before, she suddenly felt goosebumps erupt all over her skin. Her heartbeat quickened again, while her head felt dizzy, and her face was burning red.
But still she let her eyes wander further upwards, taking in his broad shoulders. Mike had always been quite lanky, but lately he had grown a lot and his shoulders had become more defined, leaving his childish appearance behind. El couldn't help but wonder how it must feel to lay her head on his chest. Would it feel hard or soft to have his skin pressed against her cheeks?
Her eyes travelled further upwards to his face, landing on his high cheekbones, the long eyelashes of his closed eyes touching his small freckles that were now more prominent than usually, due to the sun shining on them.
El was completely mesmerized by them. They drew her in like nothing ever had before. Her heart was beating even quicker in her chest, and she suddenly felt the desire to touch them, to caress his cheeks with her hand.
As on autopilot her hand moved slowly forward. She couldn't fight it, her eyes still taking in the beauty in front of her. Her mind was blank, not able to form a single thought. She suddenly registered her lips were moving, without her ado and she quietly breathed, "Pretty."

Apparently, it was enough to draw Mikes attention, as his eyes shot open, directly staring into hers. And it hit her like a lightning going through her body.
She was lying on her side facing Mike and she had slightly moved forward in his direction, her left hand hanging awkwardly in mid-air, but all she saw were his intense, dark eyes that looked straight into hers. Those eyes she had looked at a million times, but for the first time it was like they looked straight through her, touching her heart. Her mouth went dry as she lost all remaining ability to think or speak.

El couldn't tell how long she starred into them, it felt like eternity but most likely it only had been a few seconds.
When Mike blinked multiple times feeling confused by her staring, she was taken out of her daze and hastily pulled her hand back. A wave of shock washed over her, and she slowly registered what she had been doing. The embarrassment and dread crawled up in her, and she felt like she had to throw up any second. Not knowing what else to do, El lowered herself on her towel, trying to act normal and steady her breathing. She didn't dare to look at Mike and quickly closed her eyes, hoping she could shut out the prior moment and the erratic beating of her heart.
But El knew at this exact moment that it didn't make any sense to deny it. She was in deep trouble.

25. September 1987

A few days had passed since her call with Max, but El still had no idea how to progress. She wished whole heartedly that her friend was right about her theory and when Max had explained the strategy to her, it had sounded so easy. But now that El considered to indeed follow her advice, the task at hand seemed to be impossible. Whenever she just thought about saying or doing something in that direction, she became very aware of her every move and didn't seem to be able to act normal around Mike anymore.
For the past two days, she had therefore tried to stay away from him, hoping to come up with a clear plan and building up the necessary courage to proceed with it. But now it was Friday and she had made no progress since Tuesday night. Further, she had to face Mike soon, as she couldn't keep hiding from him any longer without a sincere reason.

On Wednesday it had been easy to avoid Mike because it was the one day her mum had the afternoons off and El spent it at home with her anyway. At school El had made sure that she was always with one of her other friends, successfully managing to not be alone with Mike. But Thursday afternoon had been a bigger issue, as she was supposed to spend it at the Wheeler's house.
When they had turned into their street, her mind went in overdrive and she had panicked, quickly telling him she felt sick. Mike had immediately offered to come over to her place to make sure she was not alone by herself and that she had someone to look after her. In response El had hastily interrupted him with a harsh "No." and had afterwards mumbled embarrassedly something about wanting to rest and not feeling good enough to have any company, before half running home.

She was fully aware that she couldn't hide forever. At some point she would have to face Mike and could no longer make any excuses.
Further, she knew she was acting very weird; starting the week in a brilliant mood, followed by days of retreating inside of herself, and finally resulted in El lying to Mike in panic yesterday. If he wasn't suspicious already, he would be soon for sure.

So that's why she decided on Friday to stop her weird acting and try to be her usual self again.
She still hadn't come up with any plan on how to approach Mike and make him realize his potential feelings for her. But as long as she didn't even know if there were such feelings existing, she did not want to be too obvious. There was still the very high possibility that Max had misread any signs or imagined it all, which would lead to rejection for El or even worse would ruin her friendship with Mike permanently. But still she couldn't get Max's words out of her mind and in a way, she was also curious what would result from the plan, no matter how minimal the chances of a happy ending were.
In her last lesson for the week, she finally decided to let it be and try to act on the moment, if any would arise.
She was not hundred percent convinced by this approach, but it was the best she had come up with until now. So, when the bell rang signalling the start of the weekend, she went out to the parked bikes to meet her friends, feeling a bit more liberated.

The ride home passed by uneventfully and soon Mike and El were the last ones left, silently biking the remaining way home. When they reached Mike's house, El felt the nervousness rise back up again. As they parked their bikes, she took multiple deep breath to calm her nerves and steady the rapid beating of her heart.
Nonetheless, El was very happy to see Karen when they walked through the front door, knowing she would not be alone with him. All her thoughts and constant what ifs that went through her mind the past few days stood in her way of talking to Mike. She somehow didn't know how to start a normal conversation with him anymore. So, the sight of Karen was a relief to El, as she was sure Mike's mum would light the mood.

When Karen saw them, she immediately called over to them. "There you two are. You can drop your stuff and go straight ahead and wash your hands. Lunch will be ready in a minute."

El and Mike followed her instructions and sat down at the dining table afterwards, where Karen was about to serve a vegetable casserole.

"El darling, hand me your plate.", she addressed her and El did as she was told.
While Karen also served Holly and Mike, she talked to El again. "Do you feel better by now? Mike said you didn't feel well yesterday. I planned to go over and bring you something to eat, but Mike told me you didn't want any company."

El's eyes widened as she was addressed about her fib, but not having any other option she lied once more, "Thank you, Karen, I'm a lot better today. I don't know what happened, but I had a bad stomach-ache. Maybe I ate something bad."
El felt extremely guilty for lying at Karen, who always treated her so kindly, so she was eager to change the topic quickly. "The casserole is very good by the way.", she complimented Mike's mum.

"At least you like it, El." Karen said grateful and smiled sadly at her two younger kids, that moved the vegetables unenthusiastically around on their plates.

"Mom, you know I don't like broccoli and zucchini.", Mike whined.

"Michael, if it was up to you, I would only serve burgers and pizza every day.", Karen scolded him exasperated.

"Yeah, because I know what actually tastes good. In contrast to El, who would eat Eggos all day if you would let her.", he retorted.

"Hey, that's not true. I eat other stuff, too.", El interrupted him aghast.

"Oh yeah?", Mike challenging raised an eyebrow at her. "And what was about that one day where you spent all your pocket money on Eggos, as Terry had not bought any to punish you for sneaking out that one night for the horror movie marathon at Max's place? Your arms were stuffed with Eggo cartons, and I had to hide them in the basement for you, so that your mum would not find out."

"That was a short moment of weakness.", she countered huffing. "But shall I remind you about the big pizza massacre of '84? If you forgot it, you, and the guys…"

"No, no, I surrender.", Mike interrupted her hastily, not wanting his mum to find out about the day of the pizza eating contest with the other boys, that had ended up with them all throwing up.
Karen thought till that day that her tuna sandwiches she had served hours earlier were the cause of it, which she felt very guilty for at the time.

While Mike had panicked and Karen looked confused from one to the other, El just grinned widely at him, suddenly realizing that she was back to her easy banter with her best friend, all nervousness forgotten. "Sometimes a vegetable casserole was all you needed to light the mood.", she thought to herself happily.

They continued chatting throughout lunch and El helped Karen with the dishes afterwards. Meanwhile, Mike took their schoolbags downstairs, which they had dropped in the hallway earlier, and grabbed the orange juice from the fridge. After El was done, she followed him down to the basement.

As she reached the last steps, she saw that Mike was busy retrieving books from his backpack. El felt a little disappointed, as she had hoped they could skip the homework for today, knowing they had still the entire weekend to catch up on it. She would have much more preferred to watch a film or something in that regard before the others would come over to join them for the weekly D&D game.

Hearing her approach, Mike turned around to her, smiling broadly. "So, I was thinking we could use the time for your first maths lesson.", he started.
Upon seeing El's confused look, he continued hastily. "You know, I have promised to help you with it and tutor you. I've got it all planned out and spent the past two days preparing a learning schedule that should cover everything you need to know to pass this year. I know that sounds not as much fun for a Friday afternoon, but I really do not want you to fail it and thought it's better to get started on it immediately.", he rambled on.
As El remained silent, his smile fell, and he looked discouraged. "But you do not have to if you don't want to. I mean, you can also get a professional tutor if you prefer this. Most likely a real teacher will explain it a lot better. I cannot say that I know how to teach someone. I just thought as you seemed okay with the idea the other day, that it…"

"No, it's great.", El stepped in when she was taken out of her stunned silence. She had thought he had forgotten about his offer from Sunday evening by now and she felt touched by the effort he had made by planning the whole thing the past two days, she had spent hiding from him. "I think it's actually quite sweet of you."

"You do?", Mike asked hopefully.

"I mean, you obviously put a lot of thought into it,", she smiled shily at him.

"Yeah, maybe… well, I thought it's best to start with some basic equations to see with what you struggle exactly and work from there.", he eagerly continued, while El took a seat next to him at the little table. "As we have not been in the same maths class for some time, I'm not sure, where we need to start with this. So, I have put together these basic tasks, but maybe I set the level too low, and I have also some others prepared already for the next levels."

El nodded and they started with the work. She did her best to work out the "basic" equations, but it became obvious very soon that there was a lot she had to catch up on. She tried her hardest to not come off as stupid and tried to remember any rules that her teacher had lectured about, but as always, the different mathematical rules were a hazy blur in her head, and she mixed them all up constantly. If Mike got disheartened by her stupidity, he didn't let himself show it.
Rather the contrary, he remained patient the entire time, explaining mathematic rules to her or encouraged her when she tried to solve a problem.

After one and a half hours El's head felt like it would explode from all the concentration. She couldn't say if she made any progress, but Mike kept cheering her on. "It's normal that you do not learn it overnight, but we made some progress already."

El wasn't so sure about that but smiled thankfully at him. "Thank you so much. For explaining all of that to me and for taking the time. I mean, you could probably think of better things to do than to help me with this."
Before second guessing herself, she quickly reached forward and placed one hand over his. An electric shock went through her from where she touched him. She held her breath, being afraid he would pull his hand back, but he didn't move. El couldn't tell if her actions had put him in shock, but suddenly he gasped, as if he had been holding his breath, too. His eyes shot down to her hand and back up.

"It's fine… I… I-I'm always happy to help.", he stuttered.

El slowly pulled her hand back and smiled shily at him but feeling proud of herself to have gone through with her first approach.
Before being able to say anything else, Mike's mum called from upstairs. "Mike, the others are here."

Both startled, they jumped up, as they had completely lost track of time. El saw that Mike looked flustered, his cheeks slightly pink. He quickly excused himself and hurried upstairs to greet the others and to gather some snacks, while El packed up their books and utensils.

"Hi El.", Dustin called out to her, when he came running down the stairs, closely followed by Will, Lucas, Max, and lastly by Mike, his arms full of crisps and sweets. El smiled at her approaching friends and waved in reply, before storing the last books in her bag. Dustin, who observed this, exclaimed, "Have you really been doing homework on a Friday afternoon, you nerds?!".

"You're one to talk.", El laughed at her dorky friend. "But no, Mike has offered to tutor me in Maths, and we did our first lesson."

"Ahhh, tuuuuutoring you say.", Dustin replied, while wiggling his eyebrows, and putting overly much emphasis on the word tutoring. El just laughed about her friend's mocking, but Mike's ears turned a deep shade of pink and he hastily busied himself with putting the snacks on the coffee table, nearly hitting the bowl of crisps over in the process, which caused the boys to laugh even harder. Max raised an eyebrow at El and smirked, but she ignored it.

Soon, after everyone calmed down, the boys started to set up the game, while Max and El made themselves comfortable on the little couch. The snacks and sweets were spread before them on the table and the next half hour was spent with easy chatting and eating, whereas the boys got more taken in by their game. They screamed in excitement or in frustration, depending on the luck of the dice, and heatedly debated on their next moves or which spell should be casted.

At some point, after they had spent a good amount of time talking and laughing about the newest gossip at their school, Max jumped up and walked over to the stairs where she had dropped her bag earlier. She retrieved multiple items and carried them back to the couch.
"So, I got the usual nail polish, face masks and makeup.", Max exclaimed, dropping the stuff between them on the sofa. It had become kind of a routine for them to use the Friday nights for beauty sessions. "But I also have my mum's flat iron with me today.", she smiled broadly, "And I would love to try it out on your hair, El.".

"Okay, if I can crimp your hair in return.", El replied excitedly.

They started with their nails, followed by applying face masks. The boys didn't comment on it anymore. In the beginning they had made a lot of fun of them, pointing out how ridiculous they looked with the masks plastered on their faces. But by now, it almost happened weekly and was not interesting enough anymore to make them look up from their game.

Right now, they were battling a group of trolls and while Max was occupied with looking something up in a magazine, El observed Mike for a moment. She loved how he got lost in the game completely and how much effort he put into the storytelling. His voice rose dramatically at just the right paragraphs, and he put emphasis on some words to build up the suspense. He was so passionate about it and El let herself immerse in the daydream of being on the receiving end of his passion. He was always so intense about the things he loved, and she could only imagine how it must be to feel his breath on her neck, while he cherished her skin with hot kisses, his hands roaming over her body, his soft hair tickling her bare shoulders…

"Hey, careful, not that you start drooling…." Max had leaned over to her and hissed the words into her ear, so that the boys wouldn't hear it. El blushed furiously, which was luckily covered by the face mask on her skin.

"Stop it.", she brushed her friend off.

"I was just helping out, as you seemed to have no control over yourself.", Max laughed, while El embarrassedly stared at the table, not wanting to look at the knowing expression on her friend's face. Luckily, Max let her down easily and continued nonchalantly, "Shall we get started on our hair?"

El complied happily, thankful for the distraction and began with crimping Max long red hair. She loved her best friend's soft strands that were just so different to her own curly and dry hair. She would give anything to have such long hair, like Max or Trish, or if she had to live with curls, she would at least wish for such a voluminous mane as Nancy had. But some wishes were not meant to come true.
After twenty minutes El was done, and the two girls regarded the result in a hand mirror. El thought Max looked like a rockstar with the crimped hair and told her so.

"You're sweet. But now it's your turn.", Max replied with a wink.

El's hair took a lot longer to straighten, but after nearly an hour, Max stated she was done. El was about to grab the small mirror laying on the coffee table, but Max stopped her. "No wait, come over to the bathroom to have a proper look."

Without waiting for any reply, she grabbed El's hand and dragged her hastily over to the little bathroom that was down in the basement and slammed the door behind them.
The boys were surprised by their sudden run for the bathroom and by the loud noise the door made, when Max closed it harshly.

"Is everything okay?", they heard Mike call a bit worriedly.

"Yeah, no worries, Wheeler. Just continue your game", Max shouted through the closed door.

"Max, what are you doing…?", El started.

"Take a look.", Max just said and pulled her in front of the bath mirror.

First thing she saw was her own confused expression looking back at her. Then her gaze widened, and she started to take in her whole appearance. El was speechless by her own reflection in the mirror. Her usually disarranged hair was soft and shiny, falling straight down on her shoulders. She raised a hand and stroked gingerly over her hair as if she needed to feel it to truly believe it, but at the same time afraid it could fall back into its usual mess if she touched it.

"Wow.", was all El could say, while swiping over her hair, not believing that she was truly looking at herself.

"See and now we just gonna add a little bit of makeup and maybe some lip-gloss.", Max said while searching for the necessary utensils in a little bag, that she bought with her to the bathroom.

"Thanks Max, but that won't be necessary.", El replied fully satisfied with today's beauty routine and not feeling the necessity for any makeup. It was not like, they planned to go anywhere else later, and even though they sometimes just did it for fun or to try out something new, she felt like a full styling was not needed today.

"Ah, you see, until now Wheeler was completely focused on the game and because he sat with his back to us, he didn't see your transformation. But he is facing the bathroom, so he will totally see you when you step out. When we ran in, he most likely saw only a glimpse of you and just from behind. So, you will completely stun him into silence when you will step out looking like that. And the makeup will only be to highlight your beautiful eyes and cute lips. But don't worry, I will keep it natural. Just enough for Wheeler to lose his mind.", Max finished mischievously.

"You're crazy." El shook her head at the matchmaking attempts of her friend. She didn't think that just a bit of hair and makeup would be enough to turn the boy's attention from the game towards them, but she knew it was pointless to fight Max and it was not like she hated the idea of getting styled. She just thought it would lead nowhere, but she kept silent and let Max get to work.

As soon as Max was done, El couldn't deny that it made her look even more stunning. Her eyes were highlighted by black mascara and eyeliner, but still looking natural and not overdone. To her lips Max had applied a rose-coloured lip-gloss to give her a sweet contrast to her straight hair.

"Max, you really surpassed yourself.", El complimented her work.

Her friend brushed back El's hair over her shoulders and smiled encouragingly at her in the mirror reflection. "You're welcome. Now go out there and make Wheeler forget any other girl ever existed.", she added grinning widely.

El felt suddenly very nervous and her hands became sweaty. But it was pointless to dwell on any what ifs, as the only way out was through that door in front of her. And what could be the worst to happen? Most likely, the boys would not even recognize anything had changed about her.
So, she took a deep breath and slowly opened the door to peek out. Mike sat opposite of her current position hidden behind the bathroom door, and his voice was filling the room.

"A 10! The guards at the gate fight relentlessly but are successfully defeated by you and the outer rampart of the castle is conquered.", he exclaimed dramatically in his storytelling voice, that he always used for their D&D campaigns, while El slowly exited the room. "All is silent, no one seems to be – ", he paused mid-sentence, as his gaze fell on El. He stared at her for a few seconds before blinking rapidly and he tried to go back to his story at hand. "…n-no-no one seems… uhm, is there… I mean, all is silent and…", he stuttered, but his eyes were drawn back across the room to where El stood.
He seemed to fight an inner battle and gulped heavily, but ultimately gave in and just stared outright at her. El herself had to fight to keep her composure. His intense stare caught her off guard and she couldn't move any further. He had never looked at her this way… so stunned? …enchanted? …desiring?
El couldn't define it properly, but it made her heart pound madly, her mind drew completely blank. She didn't see anything than those dark brown eyes and didn't know anymore where she was or what she was doing here in the first place.

As their Paladin didn't continue, the other boys turned over following Mike's gaze. All of them inhaled in surprise and Will addressed her first, "Wow, is that you, El? You look stunning."

Max who appeared behind El answered, "Yep, all my doing."

Lucas stood up and went over to her. "You don't look so bad yourself.", he said suggestively and kissed his girlfriend on the lips.

By Lucas' movement, El was slowly taken out of her stupor. She averted her eyes and stared at her feet, as she tried to process what had just happened and to still the frantic hammering of her heart. She heard Mike inhale sharply and knew he was getting back to his senses, too.

"You should have given us a warning, before stunning our Dungeon Master into silence.", Dustin laughed and El shily dared to look back up at the boys.
Mike, sitting next to Dustin, turned a deep shade of red and sank down behind his booklet, containing the story for the D&D campaign.

"Uhm, well… You look very good.", he mumbled from his hiding place behind the pages, no longer looking at El.

After an awkward pause, where Lucas returned to the table, Mike slowly started to pick up the story again. Max pulled the still slightly dazed El over to the couch, grinning widely at her love-struck friend, and wordlessly telling her, "I told you so!"

The rest of the evening went by in a blur for El. She couldn't forget about Mike's intense stare and the depths of his eyes. She was sure that in that very moment he had desired her. It was surely just caused by his teenage hormones, but El couldn't care less. Not when the heat of the moment was still fresh in her memory, her heart still beating loudly and her skin still tickling from the sensation. She wondered what might have happened if they were on their own and not in a crowded basement surrounded by their friends. Would he have said something else to her? Would he have kept staring? Would he have approached her or would he have come back to his senses before any of these scenarios would have happened?
El kept glancing over at Mike from time to time, who tried desperately to finish tonight's campaign, all those questions and hundred different scenarios kept running through her head.

When the game finally finished, the boys started to pack their things and Max gathered her stuff, too. One by one they said their goodbyes and walked towards the stairs.
El knew it was getting late and she should get going herself to get some sleep before she spent tomorrow with her dad. She slowly packed her own stuff, trying to delay her departure slightly. Mike was busying himself with cleaning up the mess that they had produced over the evening.

Finally, El knew she couldn't procrastinate it any longer, so she turned and faced Mike directly for the first time since the encounter earlier. "So, I will be going, too.", she began shily. "It was fun."

"Yes, sure.", Mike replied lamely, but added hastily. "Let me walk you out."

They silently went up the stairs and to the front door. From the living room they could hear Ted snoring, while the rest of the family seemed to have gone to bed already. They awkwardly stood by the door, daring the other one to speak up first. Ultimately, El stated, "So, thanks again. For the day… and for the tutoring earlier. I hope we can continue with it soon."

"Yes, of course. Remember I've prepared a schedule already.", he laughed lightly. "So, we will see each other on Sunday for another session?"

"Yes, Sunday sounds good."

"Okay.", Mike simply stated, followed by a short pause, where he reverted his gaze to the floor.

El had the feeling he wanted to say something more, but as the seconds dragged on and he didn't say a word, she spoke instead, "I look forward to it." She turned towards the door and opened it. "Goodbye Mike."

When she went out, she heard Mike speak again. "El…", he whispered and by hearing her name she turned around back to face him once more. "Uhm, you know… What I wanted to say is… You look pretty." He inhaled deeply. "Really pretty."
And with that he smiled at her softly and closed the door, leaving a shocked El back outside.

Lyrics:
But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts
She's Cheer Captain, and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time