5 Lies and a truth | Madwheeler

1. "Because you're annoying."

"Why do you hate me so much?" It was a simple question put forward by the girl, yet Michael Wheeler could not find it in himself to search for an answer, or at least search for the real one. He knew that if he did, he would end up reaching too deep, unearthing something, something that was better hidden.

"I don't hate you." A simple answer to her simple question, yet he still felt the need to explain himself further, to lie further. "How can I hate you? I don't even know you." And he didn't. He didn't want to know her. He was too scared to know her.

Yet he knew her enough to notice how uneasy she would become around the end of the school day, her pale fingers strumming on the desk behind him. He knew her enough to see the way she would rush out of the classroom in order to make it to the Hawkins' High school building. He knew her enough to feel the tension stringing alongside her as she stalked the halls, her stupid red curls bouncing off her shoulders after her. But most of all he knew her eyes. "Eyes are the gateway to one's soul" his mother would say. He knew Max's eyes. The fire in them. But unfortunately above all that, he knew himself. Enough to know that a fire like that, a girl like that, would be far too dangerous to tangle himself with. Besides his loyalties lay with another girl, a girl he could never dream of giving up on and two friends who were about as enamoured with Max as Mike was himself.

And so he lied again. "But you don't want me in your party?" The girl called after him. "Correct" he spat back. "Why not?" Jesus, the girl would just not give up and it made him hate her all the more. It made him hate himself all the more, for finding her persistence admiring. And so he quashed any trace of positive feeling and span on his heels sharply, turning to face her. "Because you're annoying!" He yelled. Another lie. She wasn't. Michael Wheeler was. His interest in her was. His lack of loyalty was. His bloody life was.

And yet he couldn't stop the warmth spreading in him, when he saw the girl smile as she circled around him. He couldn't stop himself from returning the smile, letting go of any annoyance he had towards her, towards himself. And just for once he forgot. He forgot himself, forgot Dart, forgot about everything. Because that's what a moment with Max Mayfield does to him.

But he can't have a moment with Max Mayfield. He has other problems, other promises, other loyalties. And so the universe reminds him. It reminds him as the girl in front of him is flung off her skateboard by a magnetic pull. It reminds him as Lucas and Dustin shuffle closer towards Max during Will's episode. And it reminds him when one day, during the quieter moments of his noisy life, he realises that he has grown accustomed to lying.