DAYLIGHT | mileven

three

el always looked forward to visiting her dad during holidays, especially since they go through months without seeing each other with her living hours away from him.

but it was always slightly disappointing that he could rarely take his days off when she wanted to come over. the last time this happened, mike suggested that she could simply come with him to meet his family for the first time.

and while she loved being with the wheeler's and instantly feeling like a part of them, this time she declined mike's offer to come along with him.

it was so extremely thoughtful of him and she truly missed nancy, holly and karen but there's also only a handful of days where she gets to see her dad — so, she smiled and said she's okay with her dad not being able to take shifts off, at least they'd be able to catch some time together every now and then anyway.

mike quickly agreed that it would be the best for her this way since there's hardly any other time she'd be able to see her dad and promised that after a few days of seeing his own family, he'd come over to be with her and hopper for the rest of their holidays before they have to return to the campus.

she absolutely looked forward to spending her time with her two favorite people on earth — internally counting the days for him to arrive.

he promised her to be there on thursday, around seven pm when her dad was on a two days long night-shift.

now it's friday, twelve fucking pm and he still wasn't there.

he was supposed to come after a high school reunion that he said he didn't want to miss, he wanted to catch up with some old friends he hadn't seen in ages.

and that, of course, was fine by her. why should it not be? mike always talked fondly about his teenage years in hawkins and she knows that there were some friends he hadn't had the chance to see ever since everyone took off for college.

what turned everything sour was the latter.

she sat by the dining table for hours and excitedly waited for him to arrive but the more time passed, the colder the food got. her stomach growled in hunger but she couldn't give that any mind, the candles burned out and left droplets of hardened wax all over the table cloth. it was after nine pm when he texted her that he won't be able to make it and catch the first bus in the early morning instead.

two hours after he was supposed to be there.

after reading his message, she didn't bother replying to him because if she did, she'd probably say things she deep down doesn't mean in the heat of the moment.

mike noticed her lack of response pretty quickly and he called her instead but she didn't pick up.

to say that she's pissed off at him is an understatement, she's fuming — so fucking mad that she couldn't sleep for the entire night because of how irresponsible he was being.

so when there was a knock on the door, signaling that he arrived, the usual giddiness that would occupy her wasn't present; all she felt was fury and hurt by his actions.

she slowly strolled in the direction of the door, opening it only to find him standing there with a grin and a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

"oh, it's freezing here." he shivered before chuckling, looking down at the (at this point) half-dead flowers in his hands. "fuck, those weren't supposed to look like this."

he shook his head to himself before looking back at her, uttering a "hi, doll" out as he stretched his hand out to cup one of her cheeks but she took a step back and arms crossed over her chest while shaking her head at him. "i was waiting for you for hours."