One Summer//Byler

Chapter 1; Memories While Packing

*June 20th 1986*

Will's POV;

We're going over back to Hawkins for the summer. I'm super excited to see Mike and the others, of course. However, El and Jonathan are pretty nervous, well Jonathan was until Argyle gave him his 'purple palm tree delight'....But,..El thinks Mike might have lost interest in her or forgotten about her since he hasn't called ever since he heard about our trip back to Hawkins 4 weeks ago....She says "Will, what if Mike hates me? What if he doesn't love me anymore?..." I then comfort her by saying, "El, trust me, it's going to be alright. Mike will always love you. He always has..." I felt so jealous of her. She has everything Mike likes... and by everything, I mean she's a girl. He will never love me the way he loves her. I hate it so much. I want to cry. Shouldn't she know that she's her everything? She is the one he will always love? His soulmate? What am I thinking?! She's my sister, and he is being a bit of a jerk for not calling for 4 weeks.

Apparently, I zoned out for so long that El had to snap me out of it. "Will? Are you okay?" She says. I respond "Sorry El. Of course he loves you, you've always been his everything. He said it himself that his life started when he found you in those woods." It hurt so much recalling that moment when they were arguing on the phone whether he loved her or not. I cried that night. It was last Christmas when it happened.

*Incoming flashbacks/memories*

Christmas, 1985 8:23pm

Right after dinner, mom, Jonathan, El, me, and Hopper, who came over for holidays, watched some Christmas movies together, and that's when Mike had called. I jumped up, hoping, praying even that Mike was calling for me. Not for El, but for me. It was such a stupid thing to think. I had picked up the phone so excited. "Hello?" I said, sounding like I, ironically enough, just woke up Christmas morning to see presents under the tree. "Hey Will, is uh El there?" Mike said. My heart sunk, and it must have shown on my face when I had said, "El, it's for you.." El looked at me with a confused expression on her face, probably wondering why I looked like I got socks for Christmas. El picked up the phone, and I started to head upstairs.

That's when I heard something I never expected. "What, you don't- you don't love me anymore? All you ever say is that you care." El said. I couldn't believe it. Thinking about it, I've only heard him say it to her once. I thought they just said it in private. Well, Mike just said it in private. It- My thoughts were then cut off by Mike, sounding pretty angry on the phone, almost as angry as when me and him got into the fight. He started to raise his voice, saying, "What- Who said that I didn't love you anymore!?" El started to tear up, almost started full-on crying. I felt so bad for her. He always loved her so much since I got back and would talk about her so much, and then he pulls this?!! I started to get mad. I think I was about to go down there and snatch the phone from her and yell at him myself when it started getting worse.

"You never say it!" El said. "I say it." Mike responded, obviously lowering his tone because he was getting fed up. "You can't even write it, Mike." El says back, lowering her voice. She storms up the stairs to her room. I was frozen thinking if I should go over to the phone that Mike is basically yelling in and shut him up by calling him out and hanging up. El then came out of her room with a box of letters. She runs over to the phone and starts reading off the ending of the letters. "From, Mike, from, Mike, from, Mike, from, from-" She started raising her voice again. In response to her yelling, he then yells, "Okay, okay, okay, Eleven, you're being ridiculous." El became livid because she knew that ridiculous meant stupid. "I am NOT stupid, Mike!" Before she hung up the phone by slamming it into the wall, Mike managed to slip out an "You're a superhero, El! You're not stupid-" She cut him off. "Not anymore..." She started sobbing after hanging up the phone, ending on that note.

Mom and Hopper ran over to her, comforting her, and I went up the stairs after that furious at Mike for doing that. "He's becoming just like Mr. Wheeler!" I said after running up to my room myself, on the verge of slamming the door shut. I quickly took it back after saying it. After growing up with the Wheelers since I was in kindergarten, I didn't like the comments he made towards Mike and me. Then, when Lucas and Dustin came around, he said rude things, too. Especially to Lucas.

Ever since we knew each other, we knew Lucas as, well, Lucas. One day, we went to Lucas's house for dinner the summer before middle school started. When we all got there, dinner was already finished being made. We felt like we were late. Lucas let us in and told us to get some food and sit down for dinner. Lucas's mom; Ms. Sinclair looked at her son and looked proud at him. Apparently, Mike noticed that too, and we both looked at each other confused.

We finally sat down to eat when Lucas said, "I want to tell you guys something..." We nodded, waiting for him to say it. He was struggling to get it out, then Mr. Sinclair said, "You invited them over to tell them Lucas, it's best to say it now, then leave them waiting." Lucas sighed heavily and then started to speak."I wanted to tell you guys....that.." He sighed again. Mike said, "Lucas, you can tell us anything." I nodded in agreement to Mike's statement. Lucas finally said it. "I wanted to tell you guys I'm not what you exactly think I am." He said it so quickly that we kind of needed a minute to comprehend what he was saying.

Erica was about to bud in, but Mrs. Sinclair gave her the mom look, and Erica slumped down in her chair, crossing her arms. Dustin was extra confused and finally spoke up, saying, "What do you mean, Lucas??" Lucas was visibly scared to say it, and his eyes started to become glassy. "I-...I wasn't born the same as you guys..." Dustin said."What? Were you born as a c-section??" Lucas quickly responded."No!" He didn't know how to say it and started getting frustrated with himself. Then, as it clicked in my head and I decided to speak up and every started staring at me. "I-I think Lucas is trying to say he was born....a girl.." I said hesitantly, not knowing if I was right, and I smiled nervously.

Lucas started to have tears streaming down his face. Mrs. Sinclair was about to get up, but me, Mike and Dustin got up before her and went over to him to comfort him. Mrs. Sinclair looked at us all proudly, with approval. We all started saying things to comfort him. "It's fine, Lucas. You're still our best friend!" Mike said. "Yeah!! We will always care about you regardless!" Dustin chimed in after Mike. "We accept you, and nothing would ever change that, Lucas!" I followed up with. I miss us being with each other like that.

Thankfully, we're going back tomorrow! We just started to pack up today. We're going to be staying at Hopper's old cabin as a family. Then mom yelled, "Kids, make sure to pack everything you guys need and some stuff you want!!" I then grabbed some of my favorite cassette tapes of songs I think Mike will really like and the painting I've been working on for so long now, I hope Mike likes it.

Hey, this is my first time writing a Byler fanfic and Wattpad fanfic. I hope you guys like this as much as I did writing it. I won't be posting the next chapter until my friend, Avennell, also known as The Wattpad God reads this first chapter and rates it 0-10, Next chapter soon. :)

Love, St_Bylerr.