10 years

Epilogue

27 YEARS LATER

2017

'Why are we even going anyway?' Charlotte moaned in the back of the car. Will turned round and smiled at her 'Because your grandmothers live together now and your homophobic dick head of a grandfather died in June so he's not there anymore to be horrible to me and your farther'. Charlotte rolled her eyes 'But why are we going'. Will turned to Mike 'Help me please'. Mike turned to face Will for a second 'No she's right. Why are we even going?' before turning to face the road. Will rolled his eyes 'Because they're family and you and your sister will get to see Lucy'. Then Mike and Wills other daughter, Shaili chimed in 'We see Lucy all the time!'. Charlotte pointed at her little sister 'See, she gets it!'. Will turned to face the girls and said 'We're going' he then turned to his husband 'End of. Got it Byers!'. Then the girls and Mike all said 'Fine'. Then Will turned to Mike and said 'Remember, no drinking'. Mike gave him a sarcastic smile then the girls looked at each other then Charlotte asked 'Why what did Dad do?'. Then Shaili said 'Yeah Dad, what did Dad do?'. Mike gave Will a look and Will said 'We'll tell you when you're older'.

When they got to the house they stood outside for ages. Charlotte whispered into Shaili's ear 'Are we going in or we just gonna stand here?'. Mike overheard and said 'Just give us a minute'. Will turned to Mike and said 'Is it weird that our Mom's live together now'. Mike didn't even have to think before answering 'Yep'. Will nodded 'Ok good'. Then Nancy and Jonathan were behind them, and Jonathan's said 'Is it weird that our Moms live together now?'. Mike and Will turned around to face Jonathan and Nancy then at each other and said 'Definitely'. Charlotte rolled her eyes 'Who cares? Can we just go in I'm cold!'. Nancy laughed then looked at Mike 'Teenagers'. Mike turned to Will 'See she gets it' then high fived his sister. Suddenly, Lucy came running over 'Hey gays- sorry I meant guys' she then looked at Mike and Will and continued 'Well technically I wasn't wrong'. Mike smiled 'You're definitely you're mother's daughter'. The girl laughed 'Which one?'. Mike laughed too 'The one you didn't get your hair from'. Lucy thought for a second 'I shaved my head last month'. Mike smiled 'Exactly' then turned to talk to El and Max who had just arrived 'Hey gays'. Max gave Mike the most sarcastic smile imaginable and said 'Why haven't we gone in yet?'. El turned to her 'Because Joyce and Karen have started living together since Ted died and it's weird'. Mike looked at her 'What happened to you calling her Mom?'. El had a confused expression on her face 'I've never called Karen Mom...'. Mikes facial expression dropped 'No I meant Joy- you know what never mind. We have bigger things to deal with' he turned to Nancy 'Like where are your children? Also where is Holly?'. Max rubbed El's back because she still looked confused and Nancy thought 'Charlie is coming with his boyfriend Thomas, Amy is spending Christmas with her boyfriend's family, Sam is hiding on the car because he hates people so I'm gonna text him when it's safe to come out and Jacob threw up on Holly but she's on her way'. Mike nodded but got distracted by the door bell being rung, he turned round and Charlotte said 'No one else was gonna do it'.

Once everyone had arrived, Joyce and Karen decided it was best to serve dinner. Everything was ok, the kids where talking, Charlie officially introduced Thomas to everyone, Sam actually spoke to people (which was rare for him, he really took after Jonathan) and Holly finally arrived with Jacob, who was still a baby. So like I said every was ok, until Max just had to be Max and said 'So Charlie is gay now, who's next Joyce and Karen?'. Karen laughed nervously and took Joyce's hand 'Actually'. Max looked at her plate 'Oh God, why's everyone in this family gay?'. Mike looked at Karen 'How long?'. Karen looked at Joyce then down at her plate 'About 3 years'. Nancy joined in 'So since before Dad died'. Karen looked back up 'I never loved your father. And I thought it was best that he didn't know, he was basically dead anyway'. Mike laughed 'She has a point. I'm just finding it hard to believe that I'm basically married to my step brother'. Suddenly everyone (apart from Charlotte, Shaili, Lucy, El and Max) looked at Mike and Will and said 'You two got married?!'. Will then turned to Mike 'It's always you'. Mike turned to Will 'Yeah I know I'm sorry' then to the kids 'Why don't you kids go downstairs you too Charlie and Thomas'. They all stood up and started going downstairs, Charlie whispered into Thomas's ear 'We're 27 and we get banished with the kids'. Mike then turned to Joyce and Karen, Joyce asked 'When did you get married?'. Will took Mikes hand and replied 'Last year, it was just small, us and the kids'. Karen asked 'Who else knew?'. Max replied 'Me El and Lucy'. Joyce smiled a sad smile at the boys 'Who's name did you take?'. Will smiled 'Byers'. Nancy smiled 'So we have the same last name again'. Mike nodded, then Karen finally asked 'Why didn't you tell us?'. Mike turned to her again 'We didn't want Dad to know'.

All the kids were in the basement, looking around. Charlotte found the binder full of the old drawings that Will made Mike, and she was looking through them with Shaili. Then Charlie found an old game 'Hey guys who wants to play this?'. Lucy stood up and ran up to him 'What the fuck is dungeons and dragons?'. He shrugged 'Idk but it looks cool'.
'You know you're Dad wouldn't have said anything to you if he found out' Karen said to Mike. He laughed 'You know he sent me a letter every few months for 20 years begging me to break up with Will so I could fix myself. He finally took me not replying as me telling him to fuck off about 7 years ago when in his letter he told me I wasn't his son anymore. So I don't think he would have taken the news very well'. Karen looked back down at her plate 'I didn't know, I'm sorry'. Mike smiled 'It's ok, I just wish we would have spoken more'. Karen smiled back 'Me too'. After that everything that had happened was forgotten, it was almost like they were back in the 80's just minus Ted and Hopper. They all talked for about an hour before Will said 'Should we go and get the kids?'. Mike looked at him 'Oh shit yeah, let's go and check on them'. So the two got up and went down to the basement to find everyone playing D&D. When Charlotte saw Mike she said 'Hey frog face' holding up one of the old pictures Will drew, causing Will to burst out laughing. Mike just ignored them and said 'I see you found D&D'. Shaili replied 'Yeah and guess what?'. Mike and Will looked at her and said 'What?'. The girl sat up proudly and said 'The demogorgon got me'.

30th December 2020
1253 words