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❝ PINK FLOWERS GROW FROM MY SKIN, PEPTO BISMOL VEINS AND I GRIN❞
❦
schizophrenia ( definition ): a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.
mike could hear and see things that weren't really there, in a straightforward way.
a not so common condition that he's lived with since he was twelve years old, and living in california.
karen wheeler had made the decision to move to hawkins as soon as mike got diagnosed with schizophrenia. she thought it'd be best to freshen up with a new start for his new journey. and with that, they left without turning back.
--
mike and el had been together for four years. two weeks after he turned thirteen.
during those times karen used to tell her son to go out, make some friends, and have some fun. but he'd tell her that in no way possible he'd go out there and make a complete fool out of himself by saying something like 'oh, hello there. my names mike. i moved here last year. i don't get out of the house much. i don't go to school either. too dangerous. let's be friends!' it seemed quite silly and out of ordinary, didn't it?
but eventually, the loneliness got unbearable. so he made himself a friend.
el was special. his el, he would like to say. his el was so perfect, he would sometimes silently wonder to himself how such a person could even be real. his el would help him through his severe panic attacks. his el would caress his body with her warm and gentle hands, when he felt like there was nothing left for him anymore. his el would calm his raging nerves the second his dark eyes would meet her glowing ones. his el would laugh at his ridiculous jokes, and vice versa. his el would bake delicious cookies with him (although they'd usually end up making a mess with most of the cookie batter on their bodies, from spilling it on each other). his el would lay down on the grass with him while watching the sunset and interpreting clouds. his el would grant him cuddles when he came to be missing her. his el would come over each day because she knew how much he hated going outside (obviously unless they were both going hand in hand, to their special place). his el would say heartwarming words to his ears that made him want to cry out of disbelief that she was actually his. his el would document their thousands and thousands of encounters with pictures, because she liked to say that with the more polaroids they took, the more they got to relive the moment.
and so, mike would take each of these thousands of polaroids and hang them one by one on his ceiling, so that if he has sleeping troubles (which he has quite often), he'd look up at el's beauty and it would instantly drag him to a long nights sleep.
even now, karen didn't necessarily know how mike had met el. especially since he was homeschooled, and never left the house. all she knew was that there was this one girl who suddenly showed up at her doorstep each day, and decided to take make her sons life so much better than she would ever know. el was his coping mechanism.
--
as karen quietly walked down the hall of the little cabin, the floorboards creaked at the pace her little feet were going. it was 10:57 at night. the sky and clouds looked like they came out of a ravishing painting. she silently cleared her voice and said, "mike, please put away your phone, we need to wake up early tomorrow for the hospi- oh..."
she stopped mid sentence as she saw mike breathlessly staring at his polaroid covered ceiling, wishing to fall asleep as soon as possible.
"i thought you'd be watching uh, netflix or something. like you always do." she said in a hushed whisper. "i'm trying to fall asleep earlier, to get all the energy i need for seeing el tomorrow morning, and going to the hospital together. don't forget to call her at exactly 7:00 am. she's very forgetful about things. especially when she's tired, mom." he answered her question that she didn't ask out loud, though the question she was thinking in her mind.
"oh- um, yes of course. i'll call el right up straight when i wake. goodnight honey. door open or closed?" she questioned yet again.
"open. just a little. night mom." his voice tired and raspy.
and with that, karen left the room, with the door left about three inches open.
mike had been just about the same for the past month or so. still taking his prescribed meds and drugs when he needed to. but something happened earlier on that same afternoon that hadn't happened in a while. mike didn't know when his knuckles had met the bathroom mirror, but they did; and when they did, the mirror crashed. flying bits of glass all over the locked bathroom. his hand stained a dark colour of red. all because he saw a shadow look at him through the large framed mirror.
karen heard this alarming noise and sped down the hall to the bathroom in the quickest speed she could possibly go. she knew she'd be having to take her son to the hospital for the first time in a while.
he unlocked the door for her in the most gentle way possible, slowly but surely, he sunk. falling to the ground with his back against the wall and his legs propped up into his chest. all he could say to his mother was 'get el'.
...
A/N: first chapter!! idk i'm not sure i really like it. i should probably make these longer. any feedback would be helpful. thanks for reading!!
