Winter ➳ Byler ♡

January

"New years party at my house tonight" Eleven happily walked around the cafeteria table handing out inventions.

"Did you know she was doing this" Mike leaned toward Max who was busy trying to finish last minute bio homework.

"Honestly Mike, my girlfriend is always getting crazy new ideas that I never know about. One time she dared herself to skateboard through the Mall.....nothing she does surprises me anymore" The red head looked up from her note book for the first time all lunch period to watched El in pure amusement as she passed around inventions. "I let her do as she pleases because I just love seeing her happy" Max smiled then went back to her school work.

"Fair enough" Mike chuckled stealing one of Max's pretzels popping the salty snack into his mouth.

"I don't think I'm gonna attend this party" Will joined in on the conversation crumbling up the inventions then resuming back to eating his peanut butter and jelly.

"First of all, you've got jelly on your face" Mike softly laughed grabbing a tissue from his backpack, turning the boys face to scoop off the jam from the corner of his mouth. "And second, no party is fun without you. So you must attend or I'll be lonely" Mike says giving him a slightly disappointed frown.

"Come on Mike" Will put his lips into a thin line gathering his thoughts to limit any stuttering before speaking again "You know how I feel about parties. I don't mean to sound like a buzz kill but loud music, dancing, lots of people in a confined space. It just isn't for me" Will simply shrugged.

Will was right about him and parties not being a good mix. The last time Will actually went to a party was Dustin's fifteenth birthday party freshman year. The amount of teenagers dancing in a small apartment overwhelmed the poor boy leading to him hiding out in Dustin's bathroom tub accompanied with Mike himself and Dustin's cat.

"I'll be there though and so will Lucas, Dustin Max, it'll be totally safe. Plus I'll stand by you through the whole party, I promise"

Mike sounded really convincing and of course the thought of getting to be next to Mike for all those hours on New Years changed Wills mind in an instant.

"Pinky promise" Will sighed and looked up at him with those hazel puppy dog eyes that Mike could stare into for decades.

The raven haired boy beamed at his best friend wrapping his own pinky around Wills. "Pinky swear"

"Then it's settled I'll be there, but I remain at the snack table no matter what. Food will always be the only thing that puts me to comfort"

"Right behind you on that one Will" Dustin aimed finger guns at the brunette making the boy giggle.

"I don't know about you guys but from what Max has told me, rich girl has a game room, and that is where I'll be spending my night" Lucas smirks nodding his head at the thought.

"Rich girl has a name, it's Eleven don't get it twisted" Max sassed back while also throwing a pretzel right at Lucas's forehead.

Eleven soon came strolling back to her original lunch table stopping to sit by Max giving a quick sneaky kiss to her cheek making sure no one in the crowded cafeteria was staring "Aww, Max I love it when you defend me" The girl cooed at her now tomato red girlfriend.

Max's face turned rosy red and she of course tried to hide it. "El not in front of the guys" she lightly pinched the girls cheek.

Mike would be lying if he said he didn't feel the slightest bit of jealousy and sadness about the new arrangement of Max and Eleven dating and he had yet to get use to the kissing and affection. He didn't know why but left over feelings for the girl still remained in his heart. If it weren't for the boy that sat so innocently on the right of him that made his heart burst his stomach flutter with butterflies and his eyes grow wide with adoration then he wouldn't be able to forget all about Eleven. Will always made it so easy for Mike to diminish whatever pain he was going through because the pure soul just had that effect on people. Mike always thought it would be such a shame to loose someone like Will Byers. Someone so special.