sparks | henry creel

035

I was watching from afar. Far from where she couldn't notice me, but far enough to where other people might. Which is why I couldn't stay long. She was enjoying herself. She looked happy.

"Natalie! What are you doing?" Lucas's feminime friend comes up to Natalie, and then looks over to me. "Oh." He looks back over to her. Lucas comes out. "Natalie!" He says, running over to me. "I wanted to teach Heather how to live. She looked bored sitting alone, thank you very much, Josh." She spits at him. Ew. "Yeah, that's fine." He sighs. "H, why don't you come out now?" Lucas pulls his arm out of his pocket, and I sigh. "I liked the water," I groan. I grab his hand and he pulls me out. "Jesus you're strong," I wince in pain once I'm sitting on the ground. "Here, I'll go get you guys a towel," Josh runs back into the house. Lucas takes a sip of his beer. "See, Goodwill? Your friend knows how to party." Natalie smirks. I sigh. "If she doesn't want to drink that's fine," Lucas defends me. He knows why I don't drink. Josh comes back out with two beach towels. He hands me one and I dry myself off. "Your clothes are soaked," Lucas laughs. "No shit."

Around thirty minutes later I'm sitting in the kitchen at the island, watching everyone party. I'm also watching everyone come up and grab solo cups and fill it to the brim with alcohol. Two people asked me if they could get me a drink, and I said "no thanks." One person even was persistent about it, and Mike came over and asked him to fuck off.

"Hey," he sits down next to me. "Hi," I give him a small smile. "So, I need to ask you something." I sit up in my seat, hoping I wouldn't make him uncomfortable. "Yeah?" He asks, with a eager look on his face. "Are you and Eleven having... Difficulties?" I ask, immediately regretting it. "Sorry, I know we're not in the exact perfect setting for a question like that."

"No, it's okay," he sighs, fixing his posture. "We are. I thought Lucas would've caught on to it earlier in the forest, but I guess I was mistaken. Well, it's not really our relationship having difficulties, it's more like... Someone else is involved." He mentions. "Who?" I ask, although I have a tad bit of confidence in who I think it is.

A few days before the Byers and El moved to California, Will showed up at my window, crying. He could hardly climb up the ladder to get inside my window. It took a little pressuring, but eventually he told me he's in love with Mike. I can't recall everything, besides the fact he fell asleep in my lap crying. The only other person I know who is gay is Robin, and unfortunately God forbid if news got out she'd have a panic attack, not a shocker.
I then remember I'm in the middle of a conversation, and snap back to reality.

"You know who, don't you?" Mike says. I slowly nod. "Well, he told me. He told me he's been in love with me since before we even found El, so around three years." He sighs. "And how do you feel about that?" I ask. "I... I don't know. I mean, I always knew something was... Different with him, I just didn't know what." He shrugs, obviously uncomfortable with talking about this right now.

"We don't have to talk about anything you don't want to talk about. But I can speak for both Will and any other gay person out there, they don't like to be called different." I give him a tap on his shoulder, and he looks down, as if questioning everything that exists.

"So you're really not going to drink?" He asks, changing the subject.
I groan. "No."
"Okay. I am," he grabs a solo cup and takes beer from a bottle and pours it into the cup.

Deep inside of me, my conscious tells me I should atleast try it. But I also know that my dad had the same thought before he got addicted.
"Hey, I don't mean to come off as weird, you don't have to do anything you don't want to d-"

I then grab the cup, and pour the beer down my throat. It's disgusting, of course. "Woah, woah! Pace yourself!" Mike grabs my arm, taking away the beer. "What, isn't this what you guys want? For me to relax?" I ask, and he sighs. Lucas comes up to us. "What the hell, Mike!" Lucas comes up to us. "Damnit," Mike sighs. "You know damn well she's never drank before. We told Max we'd keep her safe!" Lucas yells at Lucas. "I want another one."