Okay! Here is the one we've all been waiting for. All I'll say is this was difficult but a lot of fun to write. Enjoy!
Mike's POV
She looks so pretty.
This time when I told her, I didn't feel embarrassed by it.
"Thanks." She smiled. Even under the dim glow of her weak porch light, I could see her cheeks heating up. Under her unbuttoned coat, El wore a blue, knee-length dress that slightly flared out at the bottom. She had on a pair of short black boots that did not have a heel, which made sense since I didn't tell her what we would be doing tonight.
We walked down the steps in tune and in a comfortable silence. Being taller than her, I held a faster pace and opened the passenger door just before she reached it. She smiled and slid into the seat effortlessly. By the time I got to the driver's side, she already had her seatbelt on. I pulled out of El's driveway and about half a block later, she spoke.
"I was surprised to hear you do know how to drive. Sorry, I guess I had never considered it."
"It's okay," I replied. "I got my license a couple years ago but don't really get to drive much since we only have one car. My mom is usually home from work by 5:30 so it was no problem to ask her."
"Does she know what you're using it for?" There was a heightened sense of inquiry in her tone.
"No, she doesn't usually ask." I shook my head. "She probably thinks I'm out with the guys."
"Oh. Right, that makes sense."
We rounded the corner onto main street, where it was clearly a busy Friday night. Even with being focused on the road, I could tell every shop and restaurant was full of patrons. The roller rink was nearly at the edge of town so we would not be stopping in this area. El, based on how she looked out the window curiously, seemed to realize this.
"Not to put any pressure on you but I hope there's food involved tonight. I haven't eaten dinner."
"Yeah, there is. I'm getting hungry too."
"Cool. Are we going to eat first?"
"Umm, I guess we'll see when we get there. We can if you want." I glanced over at her and could tell she was disappointed.
"You're really not going to tell me where we're going?"
"Nope." I replied more confidently than I felt. She didn't say anything and sank into her seat. Just based on that, I knew it was probably time to tell her, especially since we'll be there in a few minutes. It hadn't occurred to me until now, but I wouldn't want us to arrive and she hates it enough that our whole night would be ruined thanks to me.
Before I could say anything though, she reached for the radio.
Her fingers were on the knobs for a few seconds before she quickly found the 'off' button and pressed it.
"How about I guess? Where we're going?"
"Uhh, okay. But we're almost there." She probably didn't hear that last part because a quick glance showed she was already deep in thought. She turned in her seat, seatbelt still on, and faced me.
"Umm, the bowling alley? Movies? Is it in town?"
"Ahh, yes." I replied, knowing it was only answering one of her questions. I grinned at her, hoping she would understand what I meant.
"Haha."
"Why do you want to know so badly?"
"I just... I want this to go well. I was really looking forward to tonight but I'm also a little nervous. If I know where we're going, I guess, it'll calm me down or something."
"Oh. Okay."
"My friends and I were trying to figure it out. Not much to go off on, but it can only be so many places. You already drove past downtown so..."
If she said anything else, I didn't catch it. I was once again thrown off by her mentioning her friends. Given the little I know about girls, and the fact that she admitted they were present when I called to ask her out, I came to the conclusion that she has in fact told her friends about us. At least, whatever 'us' means at the moment. And if they were even theorizing where we were going tonight, she must really be keeping them up to date. No doubt that whichever way tonight goes, she'll share it with them.
Maybe, depending on how it goes, I'll finally tell my friends too.
A couple more minutes passed and I turned onto the road where the rink is. There were a few other businesses on this street, also attracting a younger or family-oriented crowd. Being the largest building however, it was easy to spot.
The parking lot entrance now had a larger, brighter sign. People that didn't come here too often, like myself, could see it clearly. I used my turn signal, and El, noticing where I was pulling into, gasped.
"I love this place! I didn't know it opened back up." She exclaimed.
"Yeah, umm," I grinned proudly to myself. "I saw a commercial on TV that they reopened. Not sure exactly when. I've been here too, it's fun." It seemed they expanded their parking lot as well. But based on how full it was, we were lucky to have found a spot.
"It is! I would beg my dad to come here every weekend when I was a kid. We wouldn't, of course." She playfully rolled her eyes as she undid her seatbelt. I shut the engine off and we stepped out at the same time, El clearly too excited to wait for me to get to her door. We met at the front of the car and walked towards the building, El looking up at the large bright pink and blue sign above it and me looking at her.
"Have you had the pizza here? It's really good. Oh, I hope they didn't change the recipe or anything." She spoke as we walked through the front door and joined the line.
"Pizza it is then." I couldn't remember if I had had it here in the past or not. But if El likes it, it's good enough for me.
We moved up the line rather quickly, and it only got longer behind us as we progressed. Finally, we got to the front.
"Hi, welcome to Rink-O-Mania. How many?" The female cashier looked kind of familiar. She had on a wide but tired smile. She had probably been saying that phrase an exhausting amount of times tonight.
"Hi, just two." I spoke and handed her exactly the amount of cash for El and mine's admission. She nodded, putting the money into the register, and pushing some keys on the machine.
Suddenly, a second person jumped up next to her that seemed to be grabbing a box that was under the counter. It was quick enough that it startled me. El, on the other hand...
"Eddie!"
The guy with the shaggy mullet turned and faced us at hearing El's voice.
"Well, damn it. Look who it is! El Hopper."
"How are you?! It's been so long."
"Up to no good, as usual. It has been a while. What have you been up to? Still in school?"
"Uh, yeah, um." As if remembering I was there, she turned to look for me. "Eddie, this is Mike. He's been helping me do just that actually."
"Hey, good to meet you." He gave me a sincere nod before turning back to El. "The Chief doing good?"
"Yes, he's... very good." I noticed El smiled at that. "I'll tell him you asked about him."
"Please do."
"Eddie, it's getting busy over here." The cashier called out in our direction.
"Alright, Chrissy, calm the fuck down. Gotta go. Have a very good night." He looked at each one of us intently with each word he spoke. Just before turning back to Chrissy, he handed El our neon green admission wristbands. We walked a few steps to the next counter to exchange our shoes for skates while we helped each other put our wristbands on. Taking the opportunity that I wasn't looking directly at her, I decided to ask what I had on my mind.
"So... you know that guy?"
"Who, Eddie? Yeah, he's an old friend. I'm sure you know of him. He went to our school."
"Oh, I... didn't recognize him." I lied. I don't remember ever seeing him. But since El didn't say when he went to our school, it's plausible that I don't know who he is.
She stuck the two ends of my wristband together just tightly enough and looked up at me.
"Yeah, he kind of disappeared for a while after he graduated. Some family stuff. Didn't expect to see him here of all places. I haven't seen him in forever." My face must not have looked as neutral as I thought it was, based on what she said next. "Mike, come on now. Don't tell me you're jealous."
"Uhh, no no. It's just... getting to know each other means getting to know the people you know too. Still adjusting to that I guess." After picking up our skates, we moved to the adjoining bench to put them on.
"True. Well, you've already met my dad. I promise it won't get much worse than th-."
She paused abruptly. I managed to put on one of my skates before turning to look at her. Her expression, which could probably have been best described as joyous, was no more. Instead she had a scowl on and looked like she was thinking about a bad memory.
"Hey. You okay?"
"Yeah." I'd never seen someone tie up laces so aggressively.
"You sure?"
"Yes. I just... saw someone I don't like."
"It sounds like you know a lot of people here tonight." I joked, trying to cheer her up and maybe tell me what was wrong. She sighed before looking over at the snack bar.
"See that blonde girl over there? Standing with those two guys and that girl with the big, curly hair?"
"Yeah?"
"Her name is Angela. She's... someone I used to know. Last time I was here, before the renovation, I was with Kali and Max. I don't even remember how it happened but all of us got into some argument. It wasn't even that big of a deal, but then out of nowhere Angela called Kali a racial slur."
"That's horrible. So what happened?"
"Max punched her in the face." My jaw dropped slightly before realizing that despite how little I know of Max, it does seem to be the kind of reaction she would have. Not that I disagree. "Pretty sure she broke her nose. Someone she was with went to find the manager and another went to first aid so we used that chance to get the hell out of here."
"She didn't press charges or anything?"
"If you're asking if there was any trouble with my dad..." She knows me well. "Remember I didn't do anything." And that answered that. "I don't want to talk about it anymore. Just one of those bad memories in a good place, you know?"
"Yeah, I get it. Come on then." I got up, carefully, and extended my hands out towards her. She smiled and reached for them, standing up as well.
"Hey, you're pretty good at this." She spoke a couple moments later once we were out onto the rink floor.
"Thanks. You're not so bad either." I raised my voice, trying to be louder than the music. Despite that it had been years since I came here, I was surprised at how quickly I adapted. Another reason I was hesitant to come here was because I was concerned about embarrassing myself in front of El. But it looks like I didn't really need to worry about it.
We were about to complete a full rotation around the rink as a song I recognized from The Bangles started playing. El was saying something, but as I leaned in closer to hear her, something -or rather someone- caught my eye.
Oh, no.
I could have ignored them, if they hadn't seen me too.
"I-I'll be right back," I interrupted El, still not even sure what she was saying.
"Where are you going?"
"Umm, I'm going to... order the pizza. It looks pretty busy so we should order it now. I'll be quick, I promise." I explained while rolling away from El, hoping to be as quick as I meant to be.
Luckily, the people I was trying to catch stayed where they were while I caught up to them. In the few seconds it took, I tried to come up with a convincing enough story as to why I was here.
"Hey Lucas. Hey Erica."
"I thought that was you... What are you doing here?" Lucas questioned. By the looks of it, he didn't notice who I was with.
"Umm..."
"Let's go! We're already late." Erica, never being one for patience, said to Lucas.
"Just a second Erica." Lucas said through gritted teeth before turning to face me again.
"I'm just here with a cousin. I have family in from out of town. For the holidays." I thought quickly, impressing myself. Apart from the fact that I wasn't ready to tell him the truth, though I know I should and wanted to, it would be too much to say at once. I had El waiting and it also seemed like him and Erica were in a rush.
"Huh, okay. You never mentioned anything."
"Yeah, it was last minute. My mom didn't tell me until last night. What are you guys doing here?"
Erica spoke before Lucas could.
"Mindy Novak's fourteenth birthday, hello!" She said it like I'm supposed to know who that is.
"Erica's friend is having a party here. I'm just dropping her off." Lucas explained. Great, that meant he wasn't planning on staying.
"Cool. You guys should get going." I nodded along nervously.
"Thanks for your permission." She replied before facing her brother. "I got it from here." She pointed to her left and when I turned around, there were pink and purple balloons along with a birthday banner visible from the window of one of the designated party rooms.
"Fine, go." He said, also seeing it. "Remember mom will pick you up in a couple hours."
"Yeah, yeah." Erica confirmed and stepped in that direction. "Oh, and uh, don't trip." Erica looked back, giving me a once-over. I could tell Lucas shook his head.
"I gotta head back home. Have fun with your cousin."
"Okay. Yeah, thanks."
"You and Will are still coming to my house on the 26th? We'll get Dustin on the phone. His mom is going with his grandparents to the Christmas party at their senior center at four so he can use the phone after that."
"Great, sounds good. I'll see you." And for the first time in our brief conversation, he looked at me suspiciously.
"Alright, bye. Have a good Christmas."
"Yeah, you too."
It felt like it took forever to see him walk out the door.
As fast as I could, making sure to follow Erica's advice to not trip, I made my way back to El. Luckily, I found her quickly and swiftly got into place to skate beside her.
"Hey, everything okay? Do you put our order in?"
"Umm, actually they were falling a little behind so they told me to come back and order in a few minutes."
"Oh, okay." El believed my lie, especially so when she glanced over to the snack counter and saw a crowd. "That works out. We can decide what toppings we want!"
"Yeah that's true. I'm pretty basic about it. I'm fine with just pepperoni. What about you?"
"Well," She paused and rapidly turned around, facing me and now skating backwards. "I like pepperoni too. But... have you ever had it with pineapple?"
"Pizza with pineapple?!"
"Pineapple on pizza." She clarified, like it made much of a difference. "Based on your face, I'll take that as a no."
"I haven't. That's... insane. That's blasphemous." El smiled as if this was a familiar argument but also a challenge she was willing to face again.
"Try before you deny. That's all I'm going to say."
"No. There's no way it tastes good."
"It does! It's... unique, but good. You have to-."
Suddenly, a group of kids zoomed past El and made her lose her balance. Quickly, she grabbed onto my arm which caused me to fumble as well. We struggled, trying to recuperate. Within seconds and with a loud thud, we hit the edge of the rink. El's back was on the barrier and I ended up pressed against her with one arm around her waist.
She looked up at me, and it hit me just how close we were. Despite having kissed twice, this moment really felt like the closest we have ever been. My hair fell into my eyes and I swallowed, not sure if I should say anything or what it would even be.
"We, umm." El blinked, her eyes shining in the colorful surrounding lights. "Maybe we should go order that pizza." She barely let out.
"Yeah," My face broke into a smile, thinking that this night could not get any better. "Let's go."
Twenty minutes later, we had placed our order for a pepperoni and pineapple pizza and managed to find a booth. We had our drinks and empty disposable plates in front of us and were talking, focused on each other like there was no one else in the building. It's hard to imagine that just a few hours ago, I was a complete nervous wreck.
"So, hey, what are you doing for Christmas?" She asked. "Crazy it's here already. I can't believe how quick the year has gone."
"We're just going to be at home. Nancy is arriving tomorrow afternoon. She had difficulty getting a ride back and had finals scheduled until the last day of classes. We're all really looking forward to seeing her."
"Cool. Yeah, I bet she's happy to be done with the semester." I nodded. Bringing up Nancy, though prompted by me, brings up a lot of other things I wanted to ask El about, apart from her own holiday plans. Now that she and I are, I guess, dating, it was acceptable to ask about her personal life. But seeing how it's the holiday season, it might be easy for that to come up on its own anyway.
"What are you and the Chief doing?" El smirked, probably at how I had no issue addressing her dad like that or my lack of hesitation in asking.
"Well, I don't know if Will told you-." I had zero time to speculate what she was going to say or process the little that she did, because our meal had arrived and was placed in front of us.
"I thought I saw a familiar face so I knew I had to bring this one out myself. How's it going El?" With an accompanying nod, the guy that brought over our pizza, spoke to El. He looked to be taller than me and had straight dark hair that went down to his waist. I hoped he wasn't the one who cooked the food too.
"Argyle, hey! I didn't know you worked here."
"Sure do. Started a couple weeks ago, when the place opened back up." He gave a satisfied grin at that. His eyelids looked heavy, like he was tired and I wondered how long he'd been here today.
"Cool. I'm doing good. This is, umm, Mike. We go to school together." She gestured towards me as she introduced me.
"School? I thought you graduated?"
"No, not yet. I'm a senior right now. So hopefully in the spring."
"Hopefully in the spring."
What does that mean?
"Ahh, right right." He nodded, confirming with his mental calendar. "It was nice talking to you." He looked towards both of us, despite that I hadn't said anything. "Gotta get back to work. Excellent choice for the 'za." Argyle pointed fingers guns toward the pizza, though he probably meant the pineapple chunks scattered around the pie. "Enjoy and come again."
"Thanks Argyle. See you around." He turned back towards the snack counter. "Okay, let's eat! I'm hungry."
She served herself a slice and bit into it before I spoke.
"So umm, another someone you know?"
"Yes, oh damn." She took a sip of her pop and held back a laugh. "Sorry, I didn't know so many of my old friends worked here. I hope you don't think badly of me." She spoke teasingly. I don't think negatively of her, of course. It's not her fault at all that people she knows work here and are greeting her. I don't even feel any insecurity that she has other friends that I hadn't known about and an extensive enough past that I may never know all of. This is only our first date and still, I've only known her, really known her since September.
"No, it's fine. Makes sense people our age work here." El nodded, already on her second bite, but looked like she wanted to say something else. "Okay, let's try this." I served myself a slice, genuinely looking forward to it but still hesitant.
I held it up and took a bite containing a piece of pineapple and pepperoni while El watched me intently. I chewed, letting the unusual mix of flavors take over my mouth. I nodded in content as I swallowed, already excited to continue.
"Good. That's really good."
"Really?!" She smiled widely.
"Yeah, it was much better than I expected." I replied before taking another bite.
"I'm so glad you like it! I don't think anyone else I know likes it except Kali, and I got her into it too. I can't wait to tell her."
This time I swallowed harshly and reached for my drink. I remembered where we left off on our conversation before the pizza was brought over.
"So what did you say you were doing for the holidays?"
"Right. Usually it's pretty quiet. Just my dad and I. But this year, actually, we're going over to the Byers'."
"Oh, wow." No, Will had not told me that.
Not that I ever gave him an opening to. "You don't mind?"
"I mean, no, not really. I like Joyce and Will and Jonathan. Cleary, she and my dad are getting serious and there's no stopping that. He should be happy. He's allowed to be. When he told me the Christmas plans a few days ago, I reacted completely differently than when he told me about Thanksgiving. Did I tell you we went to the Byers' for Thanksgiving?"
"No, you didn't. But uhh, Nancy did."
"Yeah, she was there too. Small world. Anyway, depending on if my dad needs to work, he'll probably stop by there for New Year's too. I'll likely go out with Kali and Max. We always... get up to something." She laughed. "So Will didn't tell you about Christmas?"
"Umm, no. He didn't mention anything." I reached for my pop, stalling.
"That's weird. I figured, since we all kind of have each other in common, he would have said something." I shrugged, thankful that us eating was also a distraction. El furrowed her eyebrows and looked at me curiously. "Did-? Have you not told him about me?"
Damn.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
She paused, and she seemed to be putting a lot of thoughts together in her head.
"Because yeah, he wouldn't bring it up if it doesn't have anything to do with you. Which from his perspective, it doesn't since you've never mentioned me to him. Apart from tutoring me, which you said all your friends know about, but that's it. To them, that's the only relationship you and I have. You-you haven't told any of your friends that you're out with me tonight. That you like me, or that we've..." Realization crossed her face and it looked like her eyes were welling up. "Are you embarrassed of me?"
"WHAT? No, no. El, that's not true!"
"You are. That's why you haven't said anything about me to your friends."
"That's not it. I know I should have talked to them. But it's... complicated."
"No, it's not. I told my friends about you."
"That's different. It's-."
"What does that mean?"
"El, I -you. Wait, where are you going?" She rapidly shuffled out of her side and stood up.
"You know, I really opened up to you. I don't do that easily. I was so unsure about this at first. But looks I was right because if you cannot even tell your friends about me, you obviously don't take me seriously."
She stormed off before I could fully process what she said or thought of how I could reply. I got up as well but couldn't find her in the swarm of roller rink customers.