sunflower 🌻 [byler]

🌻; a reject

two

“mike!” karen called him for breakfast, it was the tenth time in a minute, “breakfast!”

mike groaned in frustration, he wasn't ready to go out of bed, even more so for breakfast. he covered himself with his blanket, with hopes of not hearing his mom call again, he just wanted more sleep. he slept late in the basement after all that happened last night.

he felt relieved when he didn't hear her mom's voice for another minute.

but after a while, he felt a hand touched him which immediately awakened him, he uncovered himself, “nancy.”

“hey,” she smiled at him, “eat your breakfast, it's the big day.”

“wait-”

“yes, it's already the eleventh, mike,” she nodded as mike quickly get up and ran out the basement. she chuckled.

karen saw as mike ate his pancakes, “finally!” -quickly, downing the milk straight, finishing all that is served for him in one minute, “what?!”

mike immediately opened the cabinets searching for- “what are you looking for mike, you're destroying the stuff there?!”

just in time, nancy went out the basement, and was able to hear all of it. she calmly opened one of the cabinets mike haven't opened yet, “found it.”

mike was about to grab it from nancy's hands but she quickly put it behind her, “no, mike, you can't just mess with the kitchen and leave it like that.”

“but nancy, you know i have no time!”

he quickly grabbed the box of eggos from nancy's back and ran out the house, he could hear footsteps trying to catch up to him.

as he rode his bike pedaling away, he heard nancy shouted, “she said she's about to leave!”

after mike disappeared from her sight, she chuckled, definitely just said that so he would hurry more.

after a lot of “no, no, no, no...”'s on his way, he calmly parked his bike, as he saw the she haven't left yet. he grabbed the box of eggos from the basket and walked towards her.

“hi mike,” she smiled as she saw mike, and smiled even bigger after she saw what mike was holding, she knew it was for her, “i thought i was seeing nancy, not you?”

mike loved her innocence, also the way she didn't questioned him being late, unlike his “best friends” made him appreciate her more.

“yes, about that,” he cleared his throat and smiled at her, “she can't see you today, she had to uhm- she had to do cleaning around our kitchen.”

“oh,” she instantly thought of mike's reason as the truth.

“yeah, it was a disaster out there,” they laughed in unison, “that's why im grateful i'm here with you.”

“and runaway from a responsibility?” she knitted her brows in curiosity.

“no- no, no!” he nervously laughed, “not like that.”

“so, like what?”

“like i enjoy being with you,” he smiled once again, only this time it was sweeter, “eleven, this is for you.”

he handed the box of eggos to her and she quickly received it and hugged mike right after, “thanks mike!”

“el,” she pulled away from the hug right after mike said her name, “can i ask you something?”

“what is it?” she then hugged her box of eggos as she raised her brows waiting for mike's question.

“earlier, i said i enjoy being with you, and,” they're both getting nervous, mike could tell, so she tried to get el's hands and caress it with his own, dropping the box to the ground, producing a sound that made him even more nervous.

“can-you-be-my-girlfriend?”

it was quick, but el picked up and pretended she didn't understand, “what?”

“can you be my girlfriend?”

“uh mike,” mike was getting sweaty, and el was even as nervous as him now, “you are like my brother?”

“yes- yes, yeah! i'm your brother, i'm sorry,” he was fighting the urge to cry, he can't cry in front of her, and in the process, he was also trying to accept that he was a brother to her.

so he just offered el a ride home.

once they arrived, hopper was already waiting outside, mike greeted him with a wave and raised his brows quickly two times.

“bye mike,” she smiled, he smiled back, and this time it was the sweetest, you could say he was great at fighting the tears, “good luck tomorrow.”

he couldn't reply, he rushed home, tears were finally out of their caves, as he quickly dropped his bike to the ground, nancy was outside waiting for him, he hugged her while pouring all the tears to her pink dress.

nancy knew what had happened, as he held him with her arms, “mike, i love you too,”

“even if you're gonna get harder to wake up the next days,” she added.