wouldn't it be nice // the beach boys
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mike & el
El mindlessly twirled the cord connected to the phone on her bedside table, her elbows keeping her body propped up on the bed, as she listened to her favorite person tell her all about his day.
Now that they were far too many miles away from each other, all Mike and El had to look forward to everyday was their nightly phone call.
Of course, it wasn't as great as seeing each other in person, but it was all they had and they would gladly accept it.
Today, Mike had aced an Algebra quiz, snagged the last chocolate milk left at lunch and somehow managed to not get pelted to death in dodgeball.
He did, however, get elbowed in the eye during the process of avoiding getting eliminated from the game, which didn't feel too great.
He had to make a visit to the nurse's office, where he ended up spending the remainder of his gym class. He wasn't too upset about that, though. Anything that got him out of that tortuous class was a blessing.
El, of course, had immediately expressed her concern over his injury, but Mike insisted that he was fine. Due to the paleness of his skin though, he may or may not have a very evident bruise pretty soon, but he'd live.
In hopes to take her mind off worrying over his eye, he changed the subject before she could get another word in about it.
Now, he was talking about something funny that had happened to Dustin during lunch and she was still listening as intently as always, but at this point, El had something else slowly creeping onto her mind.
Something she had been meaning to ask him ever since the thought popped in her head earlier, when she was watching one of her shows on television.
"Mike?" She softly spoke, once he had brought his story to an end.
"Yeah?"
"What will it be like for us when we're older?" She questioned, while rolling over to lay on her back, stretching the cord a little more than it already was.
"How old?"
"Adult old?" She answered questionably, hoping that was the right word for what she meant.
"Well, it'll be like now, except we can be together all the time and we can do whatever we want, no parents to stop us."
El sighed longingly into the phone, the thought of being with Mike as much as she pleased sounding like the most perfect dream. "I wish we were older."
"Me too. I mean, wouldn't it be nice? We wouldn't have to wait so long to see each other like we do now, because we'd be married and would live together."
"When we're married we can live together?"
"Yeah! Anywhere we want!" He happily told her, with so much enthusiasm that El found herself growing even more excited over everything that being older would entail.
"Not here." She said, in a rather disgusted tone. "It rains too much."
The deep sound of Mike's laughter instantly came through the phone, sounding like music to her ears.
"Not in Hawkins either, it gets invaded by inter-dimensional monsters and Russians too much."
This time El was the one giggling, the girlish noise taking over the brief moment of silence between them.
"Somewhere happy and safe."
"Yeah! Happy and safe."
El smiled to herself one last time, before her smile went away. Her mood had shifted so quickly, now she wanted nothing more than to cry over the fact that she couldn't see Mike's pretty face light up when he spoke to her.
"I miss you so much, Mike."
"I miss you more."
"I wish I could kiss you right now." El's soft voice muttered, much quieter now, so there was less of a chance that someone else might hear her. "It's been 16 days since we last kissed... If we were older, we'd never have to wait that long."
"No, we definitely wouldn't." He eagerly agreed and El just knew he was grinning from ear to ear right then."Our kisses could be never ending."
The two fell into another round of harmonized laughter, until it died down, the both of them unable to avoid the fact that even if one day they can have it all, they can't have it now...
Now, they're separated, again, and their only way of communicating is through a telephone.
"Did you finish reading any of the books Nancy gave you?" Mike suddenly spoke up, in attempt to lighten the mood.
"Oh yes! All three of them! I had to ask Will for help with some of the words, but most I could get by myself!" She proudly said, feeling pretty pleased with herself and all the progress that she's made.
"That's good, El! You're smart, so that doesn't surprise me. You'll be reading at a higher level than me pretty soon!" Mike thoughtfully teased, making her heart warm. She really loved how much he believed in her.
"El!" Joyce's voice suddenly called out from where she stood at the bottom of the steps, instantly ruining El's mood. "Time for bed, honey!"
"Okay!" El hollered back, a disappointed sigh falling from her lips as she brought the phone back up to rest against her cheek. "I have to go..."
Mike sighed, sounding equally as unhappy as El had, neither of them wanting their phone call to come to an end.
"Just think, someday we'll be able to stay up and talk as long as we want. Then when it's time for bed, we can say goodnight and still be together, all night long."
"Someday." El repeated softly, desperately wishing that someday was today. "I can't wait for that day."
"I can't either. It'll just be the two of us, wherever we end up."
El's grip on the telephone tightened just a bit, while her eyes slowly shut, beginning to imagine what that would be like.
"Goodnight, El. Sleep tight. I love you."
"I love you, too. Night, Mike."
El hung up the phone with the biggest smile on her face. She rested her head back down on her pillow, and soon drifted off to sleep, where she found herself in a beautiful dream of the life she would someday have with Mike.
