youth - byler

chapter 4

a/n : im gonna start putting lyrics at the start of every chapter from a song that correlates with the chapter. most of them r in the playlist, some are not. i swear to god these chapters are so shit help

                                         - ⛅️ -

saint i'm a sinner, prize i'm a winner and it's you
what did i do to deserve that ?
sure thing - miguel

mike deeply breathed in the fresh air as he stepped out of the plane. he genuinely felt like he was gonna throw up all over the place. fun.

he stood awkwardly as the security did a check on him. walking through the airport, the air was very humid and stuffy. he was already dreading california. he hoped he had packed enough t-shirts.

he glanced around the waiting room, looking for the byers brown hair. he heard his name be shouted loudly.

'MIKE!'

he turned to see el waving excitedly at him, grinning brightly and will smiling beside her. he widened his eyes when he saw the girl. her was now just above her waist, and she had a fringe. she looked beautiful. he laughed, waving back, 'hey!'

el ran forward, throwing herself at him and engulfing him in a hug, she pulled back and kissed him on the lips, tilting her head. he felt a bit awkward as people passed by, staring at them. he didn't respond immediately but soon pushed his lips against hers and wrapped his arms around her waist. he pulled back as she came closer, feeling a little uncomfortable.

'hey— you're crushing your present.' he handed out the flowers along with the teddy bear. the flowers looked wilted and slightly crushed.

'okay so i hand picked these for you in hawkins.' el gave him a adoring smile, her eyes bright. 'there's a lot of yellow because originally i was picking those because they looked nice, but then i remembered you liked purple but then i thought maybe that was a bit too much colour so i got some white as well, but now im thinking maybe that's way too much yellow..' he trailed off sheepishly. he saw el glance at the teddy bear. her smile faded a little when she saw it, and he felt confused. it wasn't too babyish was it?

'yes. thank you. it's lovely.' she gave him another quick kiss before heading back towards jonathan and.. some hippy dude?

he turned to see a brunette boy in front of him, and he felt a lump appear in his throat. was he scared? anxious? why would he be anxious to see will byers?

'oh! hi.'

'hey.' will offered him a small smile, going in for a hug. mike felt a small ball of panic in his stomach and awkwardly patted will's shoulder. he noticed the boy holding a rolled up parchment and squinted at it.

'what's that?' he said, gesturing to the roll of paper.

'um. nothing. just a painting— i've been working on, aha.' he gestured with his hand, for some reason. mike nodded.

'cool.'

will didn't reply, looking up at him before turning his gaze to the floor. why was he being so.. wary?

mike coughed a little, before turning back to eleven who had been watching the conversation with close sight. she fell into step with him, holding onto his arm.

'what do you think of california so far then?' she asked, after they had been walking for a small while outside the airport, going towards a car.