Chapter Text
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏 ── .✦
...𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘧6 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟐 ── .✦
...𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟑 ── .✦
...𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟒 ── .✦
...𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥&𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘴!...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟓 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟔 ── .✦
...𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘴' 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟕 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟖 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟗 ── .✦
...𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘻𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯...
Mike looked down at the text on his screen, hesitating. Why was he so awkward with Will these days? He’d been so excited at the idea of living in the same state as him again, let alone in the same city. And yet, now that he was here in Los Angeles, just a few miles (and hours of traffic) away from his so-called ‘best friend,’ the gap between them felt wider than ever.
When Will and the rest of the Byers-Hopper family left Hawkins, they also left a huge hole in Mike’s life. He’s known the Byers since he was five years old. Mike was there when Will’s parents got divorced, when Jonathan first started learning how to drive, and when Joyce Byers walked down the aisle towards Jim Hopper.
More importantly, Will was Mike’s very first friend. They did everything together: read comics, played video games, watched movies. Will was there long before they ever met the rest of the Party. Mike, for the longest time, couldn’t imagine a world where he and the Byers-Hopper family — no, where he and Will — were not in that same small town of Hawkins, Indiana.
So obviously that fantasy all fell apart when they moved to California a few years ago. They were the last of the Party to leave (before Mike, of course), following behind Lucas and Max who left after Lucas got his athletic scholarship, who in turn were second only to Dustin, who moved out to the west coast for university. One by one, his friends left him behind. Mike tried not to get too bitter about it; he knew that people moved on as they grew up, it was the normal progression of life. He just didn’t expect Will to move on, too.
In fact, he seemed more bothered about his best friend moving out than his own girlfriend. Mike and Jane always had a rocky relationship, dating on-and-off again all throughout high school. They were actually stable for a while throughout their college years, but then their relationship completely fell apart when they moved. Again, Mike knew that about long-distance relationships, that sometimes couples weren’t built for that kind of separation. But deep down, he hoped that wasn’t true for best friends.
In the end, however, Mike still lost contact with Will. Texting with Dustin and Lucas felt fine, normal even, but for some reason it was different with Will. It was so much easier to just talk to him, and yet Mike hesitated at every instance to call him. Maybe because it felt like calling him was an admittance that he was gone. Hearing his voice over the phone was much different than hearing it in-person, and Mike has gotten used to the softness of Will’s voice after nearly two decades as friends. It was a bad excuse, and Mike knew that. Like Jonathan said, he should’ve put more effort into talking to his friends.
Mike’s phone buzzed in his hands.
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟎 ── .✦
...𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟏 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟐 ── .✦
...𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟑 ── .✦
...𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘴 𝘫𝘢𝘯𝘦...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟒 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟓 ── .✦
...𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟔 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟕 ── .✦
...𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟖 ── .✦
...𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦...
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟏𝟗 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
⤷ 𝟐.𝟐𝟎 ── .✦
⛧°。 ⋆༺♱༻⋆。 °⛧
‧₊˚✧ 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒐 - 𝒆𝒏𝒅 ✧˚₊‧
⤷ 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘬𝘶𝘥𝘰𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵!