byler oneshots

87 - murray...

•mike pov•
•after the last episode except the upside down no longer exists•

It took a while, but everything is finally back to normal in Hawkins.

Well whatever the equivalent of "normal" is for Hawkins.

Max finally woke up, but it'll take her years to get all of her mobility back, and they don't know if she'll ever be able to see again. Lucas spends every day at the hospital with her reading and singing her favorite songs as she rests. As much as I always acted like I didn't like Max, it physically hurts me to see her suffering like this.

Hop and El moved to a small town in Oklahoma so that nobody would be able to locate her after all that happened in this past year. We broke up right before she left. It was mostly my decision because of how bad I felt for her. I feel like I wasn't there for her when she really needed me, and she agreed that it might be good to give each other some space.

While that seems like a lot, that isn't the most complicated thing that's been going on.

After everything, the Byers decided that they needed to be in Hawkins with the rest of their closest friends, but they had already sold their house, so my mom invited them to live with us until they found a better place to stay.

While that might sound like the dream : living with your best friend and their family, it isn't. It's become a nightmare, because every second I spend with Will makes me love him even more than I already do, and I know it's wrong.

Joyce stays in our spare bedroom, and Jonathan and Will stay in the basement, but Jonathan is almost always upstairs with Nancy, giving me and Will the basement to ourselves.

At first we would just talk and watch movies like we used to when we were kids, but lately it's felt different.

We talk about more serious things. We make eye contact during dinner and I get butterflies. I blush at every little touch, even if it's accidental.

~~~~~~~~~

I sit in my room and watch the autumn leaves fall off the trees outside my window, listening to the music coming from the kitchen that plays as my mom and a Joyce make dinner, the smell of tortilla soup floating upstairs.

Just as I'm walking down the stairs to see if it's ready, I hear the doorbell ring, which is odd because we never have visitors now that the Byers live with us.

"Mike! Get the door!" my mom yells from the kitchen. I groan and walk to the door, swinging it open to find Murray.

"Murray?!" I ask, stunned. He stands wearing long jeans, boots, and a big winter coat as if it's snowing.

"Michael! How are you?" he asks, walking past me into my house, slipping off his shoes. He always had a tendency to make himself comfortable around other people.

"Good! What are you doing here?!" I ask. Even though he's absolutely insane, Murray is such a cool guy. I mean without him, Nancy and Jonathan might not have ever gotten together in the first place.

"I'm here to visit my dear friends!" he says, walking into the kitchen nonchalantly.

"Murray!" Joyce says, her face immediately lighting up. This is the first real smile I've seen from her since Hop moved away, and it makes me happy to see her happy. I always kind of thought of her as my second mom because of how much time I spent at the Byers house as a kid.