Chapter Text
“Micheal, come here!” Karen yells down the basement stairs, making sure to get his attention.
“Coming!” He yells back, kicking off the couch, with a groan. He makes it up the stairs and turns the corner into the kitchen, resting his arms on the counter in front of his mother. “What?” He questions
“Will you take these cookies to the Byers house for me?” His mother asks, plopping more cookies into a box.
“What, Why?” He questions frantically, the last thing he wants is to go and give someone cookies on his mother’s behalf, let alone his Ex girlfriend’s house.
“Because, Joyce’s sons are back from their dads and they're going to be here awhile, so I thought it’d be nice to bring some cookies over.” She sighs, dropping her shoulders, her eyes piercing his “Also your going to be going to school with her youngest son, you might know him from Jane or something he went to school with you for a little, and he's in your grade, so maybe you could show him around, be nice to him at school, he's had a hard life I’m sure he could use a friend like you.” She smiles at him, closing the lid to the box, handing it to him
“But mo-“
“No, no buts, you’re going to go over there, and be nice to them, and I don’t care that you used to date Jane.” She states, “Now go change.” She points at the stairs with her spatula
“Fine.” He throws his hands up, walking away, turning the corner trudging up the stairs.
From what Mike can remember of the two boys, or what he’s heard from Jane, Jonathan is kind of weird, two years older than her and loves photography, and has close to the same style as Jane, she doesn't talk much about him, she says that there's a lot to him, but she can't explain him all at the same time, Mike never really saw him in school, even if he's only a grade above him. But she talked about Will a lot, and Mike remembers a little bit from when they were in school together, he’s a year older than her, so same age as Mike, completely different style than her, and music taste, He also loves to draw and paint, which is something he remembers from elementary, he was always drawing, or doing something with art.
Mike pulls into the Byers driveway and parks behind an unfamiliar car, must be one of theirs, he thinks to himself, he looks in the review mirror fixing his hair and takes a breath, a little nervous, praying that anyone but Jane opens the door. He steps out the car and walks up to the front door, he takes one final deep breath, and knocked on the door, a few moments later he hears rustling behind the door, and a few voices. The door swings open and there stands a boy looking vaguely familiar
“Will, can you get the door?” Mike hears someone deep in the house yell, a female voice he guesses to be Mrs. Byers.
“Already did!” The boy, who Mike presumes to be Will yells behind him, “Yes?” he turns back towards Mike, voice and face unamused. Will looks exactly like how Jane described him, and how a few pictures he's seen of him, he has Dark brown hair, that's a little messy, but in a good way, he has big hazel eyes, that almost reminds him of deer, if it wasn't for the smudged eyeliner around them, he has an oversized black knitted sweater, and oversized darkwashed jeans on, tons of silver jewelry littered over his neck, wrists, and fingers, and chipped black nail polish on every finger, desperately in need of a repaint.
“H-Hi! Uhm, I’m Mike Wheeler, i’m not sure if you reme-”
“Wait as in the Mike that dated Jane?” The boy interjects, voice amused.
“Y-Yeah! You’re her brother right, Will?” Will nods at the question, as he leans against the doorframe and folds his arms across his chest “We were also in Mrs. Carol's class together in second grade, but I don’t know if you remember me, it was a while ago.” Mike tries to make sense of his words, and not stutter like crazy, he wasn't expecting Jane to be brought up right away.
“I remember you,” He smirks a little, “You used to always fight with our teacher.” He teases.
“I-I yeah I did a lot, we didn't really like each other I guess,” Mike laughs awkwardly, what is his deal? He questions himself. “But anyway, my mom wanted me to bring you guys some cookies to welcome you back to Hawkins,” He holds out the box to will, “Also I wanted to say if you need any help getting used to the school again, or anything I’m happy to help!” Mike says to him, smiling a little.
“Thanks, but I’m sure I’ll be fine on my own.” He takes the box from Mike's hands. “Have a nice day.” He says while slamming the door in Mike's face, what the hell was that. Mike stands there for a second longer, trying to comprehend whatever that interaction was. He forces himself to move, getting back into his car.
“Who was that?” Jane asks, walking out of her room, sitting on the couch next to Will.
“Mike Wheeler,” Will says as he takes a bite of a cookie, “He brought a ‘Welcome back to hawkins gift’ or some shit like that.” He points at the box of cookies in front of them on the coffee table, Jane grabs one and turns faces towards him, folding her legs against her self.
“He did that himself? He practically runs away if he sees me in the halls.” She laughs, taking a bite of her own cookie “Did he say anything about me?” The girl questions.
“No, his mom made him bring them or something,” Will shrugs, “but I did ask if he's the same Mike that dated you and he got like super nervous and could barely speak,” Will laughs, and Jane giggles around her bite, “why’d you break up with him anyway, is he like gay or something?” He asks.
“Uh, no- or maybe, I don’t fully know if he is or not, but mostly he just didn’t seem as interested as I did, and I didn't want to waste time on someone who didn’t feel the same.” She shrugs, face falling slightly. “But it's fine, I’m way happier without him!” She says, smiling bright as ever.
“Wait, is he actually gay?” Will straightens, His father always taught him that if your gay, your not a man, because ‘only girls like dick, and if you do, your practically a girl.’ He would tell will over and over again, until it stuck. It did - well not fully, Will’s not gay but he doesn’t necessarily have a problem if someone is, he just doesn't understand.
“Well, he never said anything to me, but I think he had a crush on this one guy Eddie Munson, he’s a grade above you guys, and he like obsessed over him, like completely idolized him, and not in like a ‘cool older friend’ type of way either.” She said leaning closer to Will, whispering like anyone else could hear them, or care.
“Huh.” Will said leaning back onto the arm rest of the couch facing towards Jane on the opposite side of the couch.
“Enough about Mike though, how are you settling back in? It's been awhile since you've been here, let alone live here full time.” She questions nudging his foot with hers, tilting her head slightly.
“It’s been weird, I still kind of wish we didn't have to move back though.” He shrugs, toying with his bracelets, not making eye contact with his sister.
“You know it’s for the best, it may take awhile to get used to, but you'll pull through you always do.” Her voice soft and careful, she nudges his foot again, getting his attention, “Also we get to go to school together!” she exclaims, smiling at him again. Will’s happy that they’re going to school together. He had friends at his last school, and it was fun for the most part, but nothing would be better than going with Jane, who was ultimately his best friend, along with their older brother.
“Yeah I’m excited for that.” He smiles at her, “I mean it's okay here, I just really wish mom didn’t take my weed.” He groans, rolling his eyes. Their father never really cared about what him and Jonathan did, so Will always had weed in his room, or on him, and when we got there and the first thing his mother, and step-dad did was take it, he was not happy about it.
“Well I’m sure you’ll find a way to get some whether she likes it or not,” she smirks, “and let me know if you do.” she finishes, hopping off the couch, bouncing into her room.
“What?! Jane since wh-” She closes her door, cutting him off. He huffs out a breath of confusion, ever since she found out he smoked she was the number one advocate for him to stop, now she's okay with it? Clearly things have changed.
He gets up off the couch with a sigh, heading into his room. The door closes a little harder than needed behind him as he flops down on to his bed, he pulls out his phone from his back pocket, opening up myspace, heading straight to the search bar, searching ‘Mike Wheeler’ something’s nagging Will to look more into him, to know who he is.
One account pops up, and the profile picture is unmistakably him, dark frizzy curls sit atop his head, covering his eyes slightly, he has a plain black t-shirt on and he staring almost straight into the camera, his hand is in hair and there seems to be some type of filter on the photo, making it look cooler toned. (ifyk what photo I’m referencing) Will clicks onto the account and dozens on photos come up, there’s one of him and three other people around their age on a stage, Mike stands in the center microphone in front of him, and an electric guitar slung across him. To the left of him there’s another guy, slightly taller than Mike, he has out of control curly hair thats cut into a mullet, he also has an electric guitar in his hand. Almost directly behind Mike is a girl at the drums and she has fiery red curly hair, she has light makeup on, just some eyeliner, and mascara. To the right theres another girl at the keyboard, she has short wavy hair, and shes sporting the same makeup as the other girl. They all seem to be wearing similar clothes, all dark with specks of red, and silver thrown around.
Will never expected for Jane to date someone in a band, from her celebrity crushes, or the guys she spoke about never gave that vibe, they all seemed like football players, or all american boys, not Mike Wheeler who so happened to be in a band, and from the comments and photos posted on his page, they seemed fairly popular - or as popular as a group of highschoolers in a small town could be. Pinned to the top of his page in big, bold letters read
!GUITARIST NEEDED!
The words practically screamed at him through the screen, he twists his body, staring at the electric guitar hung on the wall, untouched since he got here. He thinks for a moment, maybe he should message him? But he’s Janes ex, so he decides against it, probably for the better.