broken | a byler story

chapter 1: long drive

MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

After hours of driving in silence, Mike finally spoke up,

"Are we almost there" he asked Argyle

"I dunno dude," Argyle said, his words slurring, "that Suzie person gave us a real weird address"

Mike sighed as he turned back to Will, who was with him in the backseat.

"Hey Will, can we... talk" asked Mike looking at Will hopefully

"Yeah," Will said sadly, before starting to sadly vent to him, " I was counting on you Mike"

"What?" Mike said obliviously

"I was counting on you!" He said almost angrily, but mostly hopelessly, "I was counting on you as a friend, your BEST friend, we used to be so close and now you never call. I've wanted to talk to you for a year, and it took El getting arrested and kidnapped for us to talk like this. I needed you and you never even tried to call"

Tears welled up in Mike's eyes, "You're right"

"Excuse me?" said Will, confused

"You're right, I was a shitty friend, and I should have talked with you more. I acted so nonchalant and dismissed you. You ARE my best friend and we can't let things get out of hand like this again. Our friendship is priceless, we can't just let it go." Mike said through tears

Will wrapped his arms around Mike, "It'll be alright, I forgive you, now we need to focus on getting El back"

Mike hugged him back, and for a couple of seconds, everything was good.

____________________________________________________________LATER

"THERE!" yelled Johnathan, "A door!"

In the middle of the Nevada desert, right as the address Suzie had given them said, was a door, a door to the NINA Project. A door to El.

Will shook Mike awake.

"Mike, we found her" Will said, "Let's go get your girlfriend"

"Will..." Mike said, "Thank you."

"For what?" asked Will

"For making me a better person" Mike said, "I was an asshole, I promise to be better"

"Let's go find El," Will said without knowing what else to say.

Will, Mike, and Johnathan got out of the Surfer Boy Pizza van,

"You guys can go," Argyle said, shaking, "I think I'm ok in the van."

"Sounds good to me" said Johnathan, who then whispered to Will and Mike, "Sounds like we dodged a bullet there"

"Let's hope we don't have to dodge any actual bullets" said Mike before they walked in.

____________________________________________________________NINA PROJECT HEADQUARTERS

"Be careful," said Will, "you have no clue what the people of Hawkins Lab can do."

"I think I do" Mike said scared, "That's what I'm afraid of"

They went down the elevator, and soon ran into some heavily armed security guards.

"Hey! What are you doing here," one of the guards asked, "This is a classified bunker!"