unspoken words | mileven

nineteen

RIGGED GAMES

"who are you texting?" karen asks as she stirs on the pot on the stove.

mike looks up from his phone. he was sitting on a kitchen stool, "aurelia."

"a one year old is texting you?" she questions.

"she's 19 months." he corrects, "and no. el texts everything for her."

"let me see." she puts her spoon down as he turns the phone a bit to show her, "she sends you hearts?"

"el told me she wanted to send me pictures of puppy's but instead sends hearts and the dog emoji now." he explains as she chuckles quietly, "that's cute."

"it is. she sends me selfies too and they're normally frustrated faces of her because she looks like she doesn't know the photo has been taken." he snorts.

"is she going to come by?" she asks.

he shrugs, "probably not. it's saturday and i guess they'll probably go out together or something. anyways, i'm heading upstairs." he stands up as she nods, "alright."

he hums and heads out of the kitchen to head up to his room.

walking in, he jumps onto his bed, landing on his back as he stares up at the ceiling with a loud sigh.

his hand goes to open the cabinet of the nightstand and then he pulls out the stack of envelopes.

he sits up and picks through the stack before he opens one around the middle.

dear el...

hey. it's me again. i don't know where you went like i've said in my previous letters but when you come back, hopefully you'll see this.

the letters i sent you are all stacked up on your front porch. i see it every time i walk or drive by. it hurts, el.

even max doesn't know where you are.

anyways. we just graduated like i told you and i found a job. it's in hawkins post and i'm the photographer.

yeah.. i fucking did it. it probably wouldn't have happened without your support and honestly i was really hoping you'd suddenly show up and see it.

but i don't know where you are but i still wish you the best.

love mike.

he sighs at his shitty writing and places the letter perfectly back into the envelope. the letters aren't wrinkled in any way, he always made sure they were perfect.

smiling at the memory, he stacks up the envelopes once more and then a group call catches his attention.

seeing it was el calling the group, he quickly answered.

"HE IS HERE!" dustin's cheer occurs as he puts the phone on speaker, "what is happening?" he asks.

"el's crying." max states, "you're all caught up now."