What's Left of Us

The Motel

Mike approached the front desk with a swagger he wasn't sure where he had learned. Will had taken Jonathan Byer's license and hopefully with enough luck Mike would be able to pass as him, if he even would.

"How can I help you...sir?" The lady at the front desk asked, a little hesitant at first.

"3 rooms please" Mike said, hoping his faux confidence would make him appear like this was ordinary.

"Are you old enough to be renting a room, sir?" the lady responded, "ID please".

Mike handed her the ID, his hands slightly trembling. Her name tag read Doris, and Mike decided it was time to try and lay on the charm.

"Here you go Doris, I think you'll find I'm plenty of age" he said as he winked at her

Who am I? Mike thought to himself as he tried to maintain eye contact with her, "How much do I owe you?" he said, trying desperately to move the process along as quickly as he could so she would stop eyeing him then eyeing his "ID".

"That'll be $45 even" she said, seeming satisfied enough with the license, truthfully she could probably care less as long as they had the money and didn't have a dead body with them. As she handed Mike the keys to the rooms, she sized him up one more time, and then wished him and his friends well and told them how to check out.

As Mike walked back to the group, he felt a sense of pride. He had just pulled that off, and to be honest hadn't really believed he could do it. As they walked out towards the rooms, it became obvious to most of them how this was going to go down.

"Uhh...okay, so I guess three rooms means two people in each, so I-I guess it should be—" Mike stammered, blushing already from the thought of spending a night with El alone to himself.

"We get it Mike." Will interrupted, obviously annoyed. He wasn't so much annoyed that it was happening, just that Mike didn't have the guts to come right out and say it. Dustin and Lucas looked at each other, half in shock that Will was so forthright in saying that and half containing laughter from watching Mike's face get even more red.

"Okay, well u-uh here you go Lucas" Mike said, handing him one set of keys for him and Max, "and here Will" he said, handing the other set to Will for him and Dustin. Mike turned around to look at El who was smiling at him. She hadn't picked up on the fact that they were sharing a room together but the realization was slowly donning on her. She blushed a little, but was really excited to have Mike all to herself for a night. They had never spent the night in a room just the two of them with nothing to do the next morning and no parent or guardian to be there.

The group was exhausted and it was already a couple hours into the night. As they settled into their rooms, Dustin and Will set their belongings on their bed, and slowly began taking off their shoes. Dustin found himself playing with his Ham Radio, tinkering with it and not understanding why it was acting haywire.

"Kind of a shitty motel" Will broke the silence. He was already tired, but the bed felt like a rock and he didn't think he could get comfortable if he tried.

"Yeah, no surprise there, my mom told me she once stayed at a motel that had rats in the room" Dustin replied, kind of chuckling. Him and Will decided that they would explore around the area instead of getting some rest, because quite frankly they were the only two not in rooms with their girlfriends.

As they walked outside the smell of fresh air met them, they began conversing about everything from D&D to Suzy, and everything in between. Dustin and Will had never been the closest of the group, but they seemed to be getting along just fine. They walked over to Lucas and Max's room where they knocked first, and found the two laying on the bed opposite to each other, just talking about random topics.