you are not alone → stranger things

xiv. you told?

Monday night
Mike's POV

I crumpled up another piece of paper in frustration. It all sounded so stupid. Did she even know what love is? Did I need to explain before I could write this? Besides, I hadn't even done my homework yet, and it was almost six. I wanted to do this, but it was impossible.

I was trying to write El a love letter. I figured it was better than talking to her in person, since I knew I'd stutter and look like a total idiot.

"Mike?" Nancy came in my room, and I quickly slid all the crumpled paper off my desk. Her expression was grim. "Mom wants to talk to you. I- I'm sorry, I just..." She buried her face in her hands. "I thought it would be better if we told Mom about El this time."

I was standing in a flash. "You told?" Before she could say anything, I ran out of my room into the living room. But I stopped in my tracks.

"Okay, honey, it's okay," Mom soothed, rubbing El's back.

El was sitting beside her on the sofa, crying. "Don't want... bad men..."

"No one will hurt you here," Mom said softly, still rubbing her back.

"Tell?" El looked at her tearily.

"No, no, I won't tell," she said, sounding slightly uncertain. "You could live with the Chief if you want protection from something."

"No!" I burst into the room, and they both looked up at me. "She can't leave here."

Mom looked at me, but she didn't look angry, like I had expected. "Mike, is this the girl you were depressed over?"

I nodded. "But she's here now, Mom. Do you want me to do that again?" I felt bad for guilt-tripping her, but I couldn't lose El again.

"Mike..." El spoke up unexpectedly, and we both looked at her. She tried to smile at me through her tears, and suddenly I couldn't stand it anymore.

I raced to her side and took both her hands in mine, ignoring Mom's look of disapproval. "I'm okay, El. Don't worry about me, okay?"

"What is on your wrist, Michael?" Mom's voice was sharp. I glanced down and realized that, though the cuts were healing, they were still obvious.

I let go of El for a moment and pulled my sleeves over them. "Nothing," I mumbled. She let it slide, still looking bothered. I turned back to El. "Everything's okay. We can still go to the Snow Ball, and you can stay here if you'd like."

"Not necessarily," Mom said. We looked at her, my panic rising again. "Like I said, Chief Hopper would protect her better than we would. Besides, after what happened to his daughter..." She trailed off, looking sad, then continued. "I'm sure he would be delighted to have someone else at home with him."

I swallowed, then looked at El. She looked back at me uncertainly.

"I'll call right now," she said, standing up. Neither of us protested, surprisingly.

I took Mom's spot on the sofa and, putting my arm around El, pulled her close to me. "It'll be okay," I murmured in her growing hair. She had a bit of a pixie cut going. I wondered fleetingly how it had grown so fast. El sniffled and snuggled into my chest. My heart sped up, and I swallowed. "El?"

"Yes?" Her voice was slightly muffled by my shirt.

"Do you know what love is?"

She looked up at me. "Love?" She said it slowly, tasting the word.

"It's like... when you like someone as more than a friend. When you would go across the world twice just to see them for a second. You would take a bullet for them. And they're the one thing keeping you from going out of your mind when things are awful... and when you just want to end it all, you think of them and know you have to be there for them and you can't just abandon them for the world to bully and hurt."

She flinched at the word bullet, but had listened attentively. "Protect them?"

"Yes." I smiled at her, and my pulse quickened. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, "That's how I feel about you. I love you, El."

She smiled back at me, then slowly craned her head up to my level and pressed her lips to mine. Her hand settled on my chest. After a few moments, or possibly several sunlit days, she pulled away. "I love you too, Mike."

Nancy cleared her throat, and we quickly pulled away from each other. I wondered how long she had been there, and a fiery blush spread over my face. "You guys are adorable," she said, grinning at me deviously, then walked away.

As I looked back at El, I realized this is the happiest I'd felt in a long time. But what I didn't realize is such bliss wouldn't last long.

I am such Mileven trash. I wanted to cry as I wrote this lol