Season Three Inspired Oneshots~

~30~

in which mike witnesses something that changes his thoughts, only to go back on suspicions on christmas day.

                                                                                   Last Christmas.

"Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away. This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special."

To say Michael Wheeler had grown since the vanishing of one of his best friends, Will Byers, was an understatement.

The boy had grown rapidly, growing to nearly six feet tall. But his height isn't what we're talking about. We're talking about mentally, psychologically.

He grew to accept his fate. To accept that life wasn't about Dungeons and Dragons, and Star Wars. He learnt what it meant to love someone unconditionally. Through breakups, and through near death experiences.

At all the times he could've fallen in love, he fell at the most vulnerable age. Emotions running rampant. Continuously, he acted completely on impulse, and nothing else. And it was because, love makes you crazy.

When you fall in love with someone, it's as if the world around you stops spinning for a moment, and all you see is them. Any issues, any problems, everything is solved by their existence.

And that is how Michael Wheeler felt for El Hopper. Continuous, unconditional love. No matter her looks, it was always who she was inside. He fell in love with her soul.

So to most, it was no surprise that Mike would do anything for her, and that emotions could force him to act irrationally. And that snowy day was no exception.

Thanksgiving had just passed, and for a few days in December, Mike and Nancy went to Chicago as an attempt to find out what their significant other would appreciate during Christmas.

Their weekend leading up to Christmas were entirely booked, so after some convincing, Karen allowed them to miss the first three days of the school week to go to Chicago.

On the Monday, they woke up at the crack of dawn, arriving in Chicago at 8:00, right as school was beginning.

In a state of exhaustion they left their belongings in their hotel rooms, and per Will's advice, went to the school to meet him, Jonathan, and El.

If the pure fright on Will's face as he saw Mike arrive wasn't a dead giveaway, today wasn't the best day. Or the best week, or even month.

Aaron Richards, captain of the football team, and a total high school cliche, had taken interest in El. In fact, he was planning to ask her on a date, that day.

And El knew this of course, she knew through every girl at the school, who seemed jealous of her. So she went to the only other girl her age who had experience with boys. Max, of course.

"Max, I don't know what to do. If I say yes to him, I'll hurt Mike, but if I say no-"

"You're not saying no. This guy, he's popular, he's cute. So why would you pass up a chance with him, and for Mike? If it doesn't work out then that's okay, but try it out. And Mike doesn't have to know!"

"But, isn't that wrong? If I date Mike, and Aaron? That's not right."

"You're not technically dating Aaron, you're going on one date with him."

So El took the advice. Naive, so dangerously naive. She believed Max, that nothing would happen with Mike. But Mike witnessed the whole thing as it happened.