Healing ||mileven||

The dance

A/N sorry, this chapter is really long, but I couldn't find a good place to split it...it'll be worth it, promise

El felt self-conscious in her dress, she didn't know why she'd let Nancy talk her into wearing a strappy, backless one. Oh well, she didn't really have a choice now. She took one last look at herself in her full-length mirror, at least admiring the hair and make-up job Nancy had dedicated the last hour to.

Mike made it his job to ask El to every school event, but the dance was always special, fulfilling the promise he'd made her over 4 years ago. This year was different though, for the first time she'd been asked to go by other boys too, now she was well known for being the school track star, and, frankly, she'd filled out in all the right places, which guys found hard to ignore. However, she couldn't ever imagine going with anyone other than Mike and had said no without giving them another thought, something that he was eternally grateful for. She was nervous about seeing him, her stomach seemingly tied in knots and full of butterflies simultaneously. She always felt this way and didn't know what to do to make it go away, and not really sure whether she wanted it to.

She and Will were meeting the rest of the gang at the school, with Jonathan giving them a lift. Normally, she'd have gotten changed at the Wheeler's and gone with Mike, but this year they had a lot of family visiting and there just wasn't the space.

"El! You ready?" called Jonathan, "we've gotta go!"

She walked out to find Joyce and the boys waiting for her, "wow" said Jonathan.

"Oh my goodness, you look beautiful" said Joyce, tears forming in her eyes, reminded of how far El had come.

"You look great, El" added Will, jeez, Mike's gonna spend the night drooling he thought.

It was raining slightly, so Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Max had gone inside to grab a good table. They were talking about the science project they'd been assigned, excited about what they were going to do. "Hey Lucas, you gonna dance later?" asked Max.

"Are you kidding? you can't contain this" he replied, gesturing to himself and busting some moves, "it wouldn't be fair to the world!" They all laughed, all except Mike who looked completely dumbstruck.

"Look", whispered Max, elbowing Dustin in the ribs gently then pointing at Mike. They all followed Mike's gaze to the entrance and it became immediately obvious what, or rather who, he was staring at. El had walked in arm in arm with Will. Mike had no idea what happened. Seemingly not in control of his body, before he knew it he had crossed the dance floor, walked right up to her and given her a massive hug, literally lifting her off her feet and twirling her round. El was momentarily breathless, giddy from the hug, and for a few seconds they stood gazing into each other's eyes, until the spell was broken by the rest of the gang hollering welcomes, and admiring El's dress and Will's sharp suit.

"Y...yeah, El, your dress looks amazing", Mike finally managed, El blushed profusely, still taken aback by his original greeting.

"Thanks, you look pretty good too, Mike" she replied with a smile, the one reserved just for him.

They all made the way back to the table, the dance hadn't really kicked off yet, with just some boring records playing in the background before the DJ let loose with the good stuff. It always took time before the first brave people would start dancing, and until then people were generally milling about on the floor, chatting, admiring each other's outfits, and people without dates, and some with dates, flirting with each other.

El and Mike sat next to each other at the table. Max silently made eye contact with the rest of the boys, giving them a signal to leave them alone for some time. "Well" said Dustin, "time for punch and food before all the good stuff gets eaten, and not by me! Who's coming?"