Hopeless (byler)

Ch 6: Mike

Mike had just gotten home from Wills house, about to head out to the arcade, when the phone started to ring. No one else was home at the time, so Mike had to take it. He picked up the phone and said hi, and then heard "Mike, is that you? It's El," said El. Mike didn't know what she was calling him about, "yeah, what's up?" he said to her, "Me, Max and Will talked about hanging out at the pool tomorrow, do you want to go? Tell the others as well." Mike thought this was a great idea since tomorrow was supposed to be pretty warm, "yeah sure! I'll tell Dustin and Lucas." he said, El then said "great... see you then! Love you!", the phone went silent for just a moment, but the call was still going on, "Yup, see you then!" Mike said quickly and hung up the phone. Mike wanted to say that he loved her back, but he just couldn't.

As soon as he hung up the phone, he sighed and felt a wave of relief. He grabbed the drawing that Will gave to him and started looking for thumbtacks in the basement. After looking for a few minutes, Mike found a container of thumbtacks and started to put Wills drawings up on the walls of the basement beside the many others that he has from when they were younger, when times were simpler. Mike looked at some of these for a second, then went back upstairs and started on his way to the arcade to numb his mind.

When he got to the arcade, he saw Max's red bike there as well. He went inside and was headed for the dig dug machine, and Mike wasn't too surprised to see that the machine was already being occupied by no other than Mad Max.

He watched her play the game for a few seconds, Max didn't seem to notice Mike standing over her shoulder. When she finally died in the game she turned around and saw Mike, and jumped at the sight of him laughing at her. "Shut up, Mike," she said to him, annoyed, "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Playing games, like everyone else," he replied. Mike started to play the game for a while, after he too died, he played about 5 more games before he wanted to stop wasting quarters and decided to leave.

As he was making his way to the door, Max grabbed his arm and pulled him aside. Mike was surprised at this "wha-" he barely said before Max interjected, "Has El talked to you recently about you?" Mike was really confused by this, "ummm, no, she hasn't. Why, did she say something to you about me?" Mike asked her. Max then replied by saying "Yeah, she did. She thinks that you've been acting weird around her. Like you're not as involved with her lately.", Mike was perplexed by this, he thought everything has been normal, on his end anyway.

Mike thought about what to say to this, and then said "Well, what do you want me to do?" Max seemed a slight bit frustrated with this question, as if it was obvious, "You could start by, I don't know, maybe talking with her about it, for starters?" she said. Mike thought about this for a moment, then said "ok, will do. Bye, see you tomorrow at the pool." as he left the arcade, with Max's glare still stuck on him.

When Mike got home, he changed into shorts and a tee shirt before going to sleep. After getting ready for bed, he was ready to go to sleep. Mike was lying there, wide awake, thinking about what Max had said to him that day. He was genuinely confused by this, what did he do wrong? Has he not been a good boyfriend to El? Well, he thought, I guess I'll have to talk with her tomorrow.

Mike spent the next few hours staring at his ceiling, with different thoughts phasing in and out of his head, but one recurring one was Will, and Max's talk about El. Finally, at 2 AM, Mike fell asleep.