Ao3 story (Why would you ever kiss me)

Part 13

Mike practically sprinted to the bus, throwing his bike down and forcing the narrow, cracked glass doors open. El waited with baited breath outside, almost allowing herself to be truly hopeful, but something in her already knew that Mike wouldn't find him.

Mike stepped out a moment later with a solemn look on his face.

"She's gone."

Dustin piped in. "Well, yeah, she's not dumb. She knew we'd come here to find her. And she clearly doesn't want to be found."

El tried to swallow down the growing lump in her throat. She would not cry again.

Mike let out a low growl of frustration and kicked one of the old bus tires. "How are we going to find her? She could be anywhere! She could—" Mike caught himself before he implied the worst, running a hand over his face and through his hair. "She's all alone." He kicked the tire again. "Shit!"

El refrained from shouting her own curses.

The headache in her skull was evidence enough of what was going to happen next. And if she didn't have Will by her side soon then they would all be doomed. She just needed to find him. She needed to.

"Okay, well let's just all calm down." Dustin said slowly, taking on the tone of a mediator. "She can't have gone far."

"It's going to get dark soon." El said with a note of dread. Bad things hid in the dark. And Will would be all alone.

"Well, I'm not going home until we find her." Mike said firmly.

Dustin wholeheartedly agreed, already pacing back and forth trying to think up their next plan of action.

"Is there any place that she could've gone?" Dustin asked.

Mike and El exchanged a look. Clearly, Mike didn't have a clue. But maybe El's original plan of going to the Byers' house wasn't such a bad idea.

"My house. Maybe she went there. That's where I was heading before—" El caught herself. She didn't want to think about what had happened earlier. It only filled her with crippling guilt.

"Alright, let's go there." Dustin said, getting back on his bike.

"C-can we avoid the roads?" El asked sheepishly. She didn't really know at first why she had asked to avoid them. But the thought of being back out there again. Exposed. Vulnerable. "What if they come back? Y-you know with reinforcements." What if it's not only me standing on the edge, but you guys too next time?

"Yeah. We can do that." Mike said, not even allowing Dustin the time to voice his objection. " Right , Dustin?"

Dustin, seemingly against his own wishes, agreed. El's mouth twitched up in a smile.

"Thanks guys."

Mike picked up his bike but didn't get on it. He just stared at her for no apparent reason. El raised an eyebrow. "What are you looking at, Mike?"

Mike shook his head. "Uh, what?" His voice cracked.

"You were zoning out, or something. Are we going or not?" Why was he looking at her? Was there something he wanted to say to her? Say to Will? That's what it seemed like. "Unless there's something you need to say."

"Oh, uh nothing. Nothing." Mike mounted his bike and looked away. "You just have blood on your shirt."

Mike hadn't glanced once at her shirt in the ten seconds that he'd been staring at her. But, looking down, she could see that he was right. There was blood on her shirt.

An excuse? Perhaps.

"Yeah...sometimes that happens." El hopped on the back of his bike once more and wrapped her arms around him. Something in her just wanted to see if it would make him uncomfortable. He stiffened slightly. What did that mean?