[ lowercase intended ]
mike stood outside the party. it was his second month at university and so far he hated it.
but that's not really a justifiable statement, as mike wheeler hates most things.
his good friend max was trying to coax him to attend some fraternity party or whatever and he refused to succumb to such meaningless displays of masculinity.
but when el begged him to come to get his mind off the past few weeks, which had been terrible, he finally caved.
things had been going especially poorly in his life ever since he came out to his parents. yeah that shitshow had been real fun.
now he was trying to navigate college without that much familial support save it for nancy, his lifeline. she'd supported him through everything and she continued to do so even today.
now he was simply trying to figure out what to wear to this stupid party. el swung into the room, her carefree smile somewhat lifting mike's melancholy mood.
"what about this?" el held out a simple royal blue button down with white buttons. "it's nice."
mike raised a dubious eyebrow. "you don't think it's too formal?"
"not if you pair it with some black jeans and your converse no."
he grinned, she knew him well. he was honestly grateful their relationship had ended as well as it did. sure, it had been messy at first but they both came to the mutual agreement they had a lot to figure out about themselves.
"alright."
soon after he was sitting in the backseat of lucas's convertible, squished between dustin and suzie, peeling down the boulevard to one of the biggest parties of his life. lucas recently started dating some girl named katie. she was pretty nice. a blonde girl with green eyes and a big smile. she sat cozied up in the passenger seat, laughing at a joke lucas had made.
max and el were coming later with him.
mike wasn't sure how to feel about the fact that he was going to be there. they hadn't really talked properly since senior year, and honestly he had no idea what to say. who knows? maybe tonight he'd finally know what to say.
probably not.
he doubted he'd ever be able to figure it out.
at the very least he could try to forget about everything at this party.
