Crazy Together

We Need To Go Back - Part One

Mike's POV

It's 3:40 pm. We're in Nevada now, somewhere named Carlin, only four hours away from the Black Rock Desert. Only four hours away from El.

Soon, we'll be taking her home. I'm not sure where, tho. Her house in California is swarming with military. Hawkins is just way too obvious to get back to. We could try to hide her, maybe. In my basement, like we used to. That's funny, isn't it? How we thought everything would just fix itself once we found Will. I know we were just kids, but that was extremely naïve.

We needed to stop at a gas station, so I got out to get some air, maybe try to forget about... That thing. It's hard to do that when Will is being just perfect right by my side. He didn't try to force anything out of me, he just comforted me.

He tried to distract me with silly questions, talked about his drawings, even tried to teach me to draw a dog, that ended up looking more like a cow, but it's okay, because we just laughed it off. It really helped me feel better.

Outside of the van, I had forgotten how the cool air felt like on my skin. The window on my side somehow got jammed, so the only one we could open was at the front. I walked inside the convenience store, putting my hands in my pockets to see if I had forgotten to take out any money. I found 10 bucks, nice.

I looked around, trying to find something that appealed to me, but nothing. That was, until Will came in.

- Hey, Mike? We're leaving in ten minutes, hurry up.

- I'm still trying to find something to buy.

- Do you really need to buy something?

- This is the last stop, Will, after here it's another three hours without food or water, so yeah, I need to buy something. - Did I make that sound mean? I didn't mean to be mean. I guess not, since Will gave me a smile and walked towards me.

- You're right. What if you bought us icees? I mean, you kind of owe me from last time.

- I owe you shit! - I said, jokingly - You were the one that interrupted me with all the crying, I was gonna buy you a cherry one!

- Well, you didn't, tho. And, fyi, I asked for blue raspberry. - He answered while we walked over to the machine, trying to contain our laughter.

I gave in, letting out a giggle. - They didn't have any!

After paying for both icees, we sat outside, our laughter fit dying down.

Will - I missed this. Laughing so much that my stomach hurts. I'm really glad we're best friends again.

Mike - Yeah, well.... Yeah. Me too. - I said, a little bit disappointed. I may or may not have realized that I subconsciously pushed Will away because of my feelings for him. It was hard enough having to pretend to be in love with El (even though I really thought I was), but seeing him only made it feel more wrong. None of them deserved this. None of us did.

We finished our icees, and Will took the last chance to go to the bathroom before the last of our mission. He bumped into Jonathan on his way, and even though I wasn't looking, I could hear them speak.

Will - Hi Jonathan.

Jon - HI Will. Hey, what's this on your arm?

Will - Oh, uh...

Oh shit, the cut. Will is terrible at lying, Jonathan is gonna find out! Oh God, Will is gonna freak ou-

Will - That's actually a funny story, the curtain rod feel when I was taking a shower. I may have hit it while singing. But it's okay, I cleaned it well before putting the band-aid. It's not hurting that much - he says, with a light tone and a smile on his face. I am genuinely surprised. Who the hell was that? How was Will able to come up with this lie so quickly and smoothly?