her⁕mileven

16

Chapter 16: We still care

Will
I glanced up, sighing as once again there was an empty chair at the front. This wasn't like him. He would never miss one day at school, let alone two. By 'he' I mean, Mike. The only time he ever missed a day at school was when we found Eleven.

Despite drifting apart, I did still care about Mike, we all do, even Max. Max hasn't spoken to Mike, but she knows about him, and she keeps an eye on him along with us. We didn't tell her about Eleven, we just explained to her that we drifted apart because of some issues that we'd rather not explain. She understood, she's a completely understanding and caring person.

We haven't spoken to mike in a while, simply because we don't think he wants anything to do with us anymore. However, he can't stop us from looking out for him.

We do still care about him, so much. We can't just let go of him, he's been our best friend for years, and we still consider him one.

'Guys, he's not in again.' I said, turning round to look at Dustin, Lucas and Max. They all looked up and sighed.

'I think one of us should go to his house and check on him..' I nervously spoke.

Dustin and Lucas exchanged looks and slowly began to nod.

'Who's going to do it?' Dustin questioned.

I took a deep breath. 'I will.'

They nodded at me and we took our seat as the teacher entered the room.

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It was the end of the school day. I told the guys I would have my radio on me incase we needed to communicate.

I hopped on my bike and quickly pedalled to Mike's house. It took me a few minutes before I finally plucked up the courage to knock in his door.

I felt myself growing nervous. What if he hated me? What if he didn't want to see me? Would he be mad? Dozens of questions like this were floating around in my head.

I was pulled out of my thoughts as I heard the lath on the front door being unlocked and the door swung open, revealing a happy looking Mike.

I couldn't help but notice how much better he looked, his under eye bags had almost completely gone, his hair was tidy and he had a wide smile on his face something I hadn't seen in almost two years.

I gave him a weak smile and it wasn't long before he pulled me into a tight hug. I hugged back and we stayed like that for a while.

I pulled away, nothing that we both had tears forming in our eyes.

'Hey' I said, tears still in my eyes, I laughed and sniffed.

He carried on smiling at me.

'I missed you, and the other guys.' He said, the smile not leaving his face for a second.

'We missed you too, Mike.' I smiled, wiping my eyes. 'Are you...okay?' I questioned, remembering how bad he looked less than a week ago.

He slowly nodded, grinning. 'I am now.' He said, smiling to himself. 'Where are the other guys?'

'At home, I can bring them here if you want. We didn't all come because we just noticed you hadn't been in for a couple of days which isn't like you, so we agreed one of us would come to check on you. Are you okay? Where have you been?'