A Letter To You

Dear Mike

No One's POV:

"Come on, Max. Dustin, Lucas, and Steve already got theirs. Let me read mine. I'm shocked you even made me one." Mike told her as he - like Dustin m- followed her around the Wheeler's kitchen.

"Why? You're shocked too, is there anything detrimental that you need to read this for?" Max questioned as she turned back around to look at him.

"Well, no, but if you even took the time out to make a separate letter not just adding o to someone else's, yeah Steve told me about Robin's mention in his, there's obviously must've been something you needed to say." Mike argued, explaining his point, quite diligently.

"I mean there is, but now it's embarrassing. I thought I was going to die, it was just a fail-safe. I don't have the letters anyway, Lucas has the rest of them." Max told him as she turned back towards his fridge.

"What? Why would Lucas have them?" Mike asked as he went to reach into the fridge as well.

"Fail-safe, Mike. If I died I wouldn't have been able to hand them out anyway, someone else needed to for me." Max rolled her eyes jokingly at the boy across from her, one who she used to despise. Now...not so much.

Max and Mike had gotten a lot closer after the Byers moved out. Before Max separated herself from everyone, the two found themselves hanging out together just because they wanted to. They would bike around town or would go to the park, just even sit in his basement and watch a movie or play a board game. Max even spent some afternoons coloring with Holly and playing with dolls with her.

Just like she had one become a familiar face in the Sinclair and Henderson household, she was now a familiar, welcomed face in the Wheeler's house as well. Ted and Karen even had Max babysit Holly for a few evenings when the two were gone for a few nights.

"Listen, I know we weren't always the best of friends, but we are now, and I'm glad you're still here, Zoomer." Mike told her as he gave Max a one-armed hug.

"Is this my official-official induction into the party?" Max teased as she gave a slight smile up to him.

"Max, come on, you were always a member of the party. Whether I wanted you to be at first or not, Dustin and Lucas already decided." Mike told her as he let Max go.

"Well now that we've made this conversation sappy, go ask Lucas for your letter. If he gives you any trouble tell him I gave you permission." Max smiled as the now giddy teenage boy rant down the basement stairs to go read her letter to him.

"Okay, Sinclair, hand it over." Mike told him as he walked over towards the mentioned teen.

"Hand what over?" Lucas asked, not sure exactly what Mike meant.

"The letter, Max said I could have it. She told me to come get it." Mike told him, putting his hand out.

"She just let you get it willingly?" Lucas questioned as he raised an eyebrow and Mike shrugged his shoulders, "yeah, okay, but if you're lying and she asks you stole it from and I didn't know."

"She told me to read it, I promise. Friends don't lie, man." Mike told him smirking as Max - who had just come downstairs - thanked Lucas for giving Mike the letter.

Mike's POV:

Ha, gotta love Max and her good timing. Her coming downstairs at that moment couldn't have been planned out any better.

Rather than staying in the basement with the rest of the goons, I went upstairs to my room for some secrecy while I'm reading, not that my closed door stops the boys from coming in.

I can't believe Max actually wrote me a separate letter, I wasn't exactly the nicest person when she came to Hawkins.

Dear Mike,

If you're reading this I'm guessing I'm probably dead. Which now would probably upset you; when I first moved to Hawkins....maybe not so much. As unfortunate as the events it took to get us to this point, I'm really grateful for our friends that we've been able to make since the Byers and El left. I know we were both heartbroken by them both leaving and somehow we were able to turn to each other for comfort. At Starcourt, when I woke up and saw you on the ground I thought you were gone. I was so afraid that another person in my life was suddenly gone, little did I know what the next two hours would bring, right?

After the Byers left you and I started to hang out, a lot and voluntarily too! Those nights at the lake and playing board games are some of my favorite memories. If you're reading this and I'm inevitably gone, give Holly a hug for me. Give her cute little pigtails a twist and she'll know it's from me.

That day in the gym when I pushed to be in your party will always be in my mind, and I'm forever grateful that you let me sort of weasel my way in.

You've easily become one of my best friends, and now I'm sorry that I spent all of that time arguing and hating you when in reality our personalities just click. I can't believe that you're in California and I may never get to say an official-official goodbye, but just know I'll miss you.

See ya on the other side,

Your Zoomer