Crush Culture [M.Wheeler]

[60] CHANGE

Three months later, the tragedies that occurred on that one horrible night were not forgotten, though everyone chose to block them out.

It was a heartbreaking three months, that's for sure. To make matters worse, the party would now have to part with Eleven and Will.

Even the town took notice of the strange occurrences on July fourth, which deemed Hawkins cursed, and Hell-ish.

Now, Nori stands back at Will's house, attempting to reach one of the teddy bears to place into a box, but struggles due to her height.

She could faintly hear Max and Lucas singing to Dustin, who sounded clearly annoyed by them. Not wanting to give up, she attempts to jump up, only hitting her hand on the shelf, causing her to groan and hold her wrist in between her legs.

"Are you okay over there?" Mike asks as he walks in, chuckling. "Ask me tomorrow?" She looks up at him, holding her wrist.

"Don't worry. You'll grow sometime." He jokes, reaching up with ease and pulling the teddy bear down. "Gee, thanks for your words, Mike." She playfully rolls her eyes as he hands it to her.

"You got a new walkie, right? How else will I be able to talk to you without Steve always listening on the other line." Mike checks, causing her to chuckle.

"Yeah, I have a new one." She smiles. "Did you talk to your mom?" She asks. "About Thanksgiving. So you can go visit El and Will?"

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I got the okay. I'll be there. You should ask your mom, too. I wouldn't wanna go without you." He nods.

"I was also thinking El and Will could come up here for Christmas, but I'll have to ask them about that." He adds. "Yeah, that sounds fun." Nori agrees.

"I was thinking if they could come on Christmas day then it would be super fun because we'd all have cool new presents to play with and, Uh..." he pauses, chuckling.

"Sorry, that made me sound like a seven-year-old." He sighs. "Hey, I like presents, too." She lightly laughs. "Don't worry, it's cute."

Mike blushes, looking down at the floor. "Yeah, cool. Yeah. I like— I like presents, too." He stammers. "Cool." Nori nods, unsure of what to say.

She slowly begins to walk off, but then comes to a stop, slowly turning around. "Mike?"

"Yeah?" He turns around to face her. "Remember that day... when you were trying to reach me on my walkie? You were talking about how you had a plan to see if Billy was flayed?" She asks.

"Um... i don't think I follow." Mike furrows his eyebrows. "You talked about your—your feelings, your heart. I just— I didn't answer. I was.. scared." She admits.

"Oh. Oh, yeah, that. Man, that was so long ago. Um... I don't know. That was really just heat of the moment stuff, and I was really worried and... I don't really remember... what did I say, exactly?" He inquires.

"Mike.." Nori slowly walks forward, placing a hand on his cheek. "I love you, too." She smiles, then leans in, pressing her lips against his.

Mike rests his hands on her waist, slowly kissing her back.

Nori pulls away, not being able to wipe her smile away. She looks up at Mike, then chuckles, bashfully grinning back down at the floor.

"Why didn't you answer? You just let me talk." Mike sighs. "I'm sorry. I told you, I was just— scared. I didn't know what to feel. But I do now." She explains.

"Me, too." Mike grins, pulling her in once more, their lips connecting for a second time.

***

Unfortunately, everything must come to an end, and it was time to say goodbye to their friends.

Nori makes her way to Will, pulling him into a long hug. "I'm gonna miss you so much, Will." She cries, holding him close. "I'll miss you, too, Tiny." He chuckles sadly.

While Mike goes to hug Will as well, Nori moves her way to El and Max, joining in on their hug, before Max lets the two have their own.

"Your powers will come back, El. I promise." She smiles, wrapping her arms around the girl. "Thank you." Eleven nods, sniffling.

"Just so you know, you're a real badass. Just making sure you're aware." She chuckles sadly as they pull out.

"Bitchin." Eleven nods. "Yeah, bitchin." Nori smiles.

When it came time to go, and El, Will, Johnathan, And Joyce got into their cars and drove off, it left everyone sad.

Nori leans her head onto Mike's shoulder, lacing their fingers together. They were really gone.

The heartbreak felt by the group was one of the worst feelings they could ever have, because even though they thought they had already left their childhood behind, now was the moment their childhood was completely gone.

It vanished. They're older now, and everything's still changing.

Nori stands there, tears flowing down while the rest of the party bikes off. Mike turns back to look at her, taking her hand.

"Come on. We'll still get to see them." He smiles sadly, pulling her into an embrace. She can't help it. She cries into his shoulder.

She hates change. She wished everything could just go back to the way it was.

But it couldn't.

authors note

I'm literally so empty inside
every time I watch the end of this show, I cry. And now I'm just sad that this book is ending already. I really have only been doing this for a little more than two weeks, which is insane. But it's actually over now :(

Thanks for all the support on this, I really appreciate all of you, and I promise I'll get to writing  more books super soon.