Chapter Text
She’d picked up, hoping it wasn’t about what she thought it might be about. Dustin had, for the last few years, occasionally brought up the idea of a high school reunion. It was now March 11th, coming up on the tenth anniversary of their graduation at the beginning of July and he was mentioning it more and more now in their (mostly) weekly calls. He ended the last one by mentioning making a guest list, and Willow dreaded what was coming next. The invite.
“Hey Will!” he chirped. Fuck, he was way too excited already.
“Hey bud.” she dragged out the last word, already a little bit annoyed.
“So, I’ve been going over my plans for the reunion, I’ve got a venue I’m seeing later this week, but I just wanted to run some stuff by you-” she groaned. Loudly.
“Dustin, why would you need to run stuff by me, since when am I the authority on your high school reunion?” she tried to walk away, as if Dustin was standing right in front of her, forgetting the phone was plugged into the Wall, almost tripping over herself when she felt the tug of it pulling her back closer. “Besides, I’m sorry to tell you this but I don’t think that many people are gonna be as excited as you are to relive the worst years of their lives.” Like her, for example.
“Well. Last time I checked it was all of our high school reunion, so jot that down.” her head hit the wall with a thud. What happened to this man in childhood that made him so goddamn persistent. “Also, Will, just think about it, it’s 1999, the end of a century, the start of a new millennium. People are gonna be so nostalgic right now.”
“... If you think so.” she paused. “So... what do you want?”
“Well, it was kinda two things, but they are related,” he fussed about for a second, muttering quietly before saying “Is El there by the way?”
Willow had been staying at her parents’ for a while now. She was pretty happy in California all things considered, she had a nice girlfriend, Meredith, who’d she’d been with for two years before it all went to shit, and she had a nice job, working at a fancy private school teaching rich kids how to make art, whatever that meant to those people, until she got fired. Something about a public-facing teacher being seen at some pride parade nonsense didn’t matter now. So, she had come crawling back to her mommy with her tail between her legs, begging to spend the summer with her, and figure out which schools she would try to apply for next semester.
Willow honestly expected more fanfare surrounding her return, being the momma’s girl she always was, but her mother had somewhat changed her ways in that department. She had El, who stayed behind, who chatted with her about cute men in movies, who painted her nails with her, and who cooked with her. And maybe she didn’t need Will as much as she once did. Or maybe she’s just an adult now and doesn’t need to be cooed over like a child. She was overreacting, most likely.
“Uh. No, I think she went out with Ron earlier. Why?” Ron was El’s new boyfriend. He was honestly pretty nice, all things considered. He seemed to be the kind of self-respecting liberal who thought all the gay stuff was pretty weird, but hey, they weren’t hurting anybody. He and Will never interact much.
“I always get freaked out that she's gonna be listening to our calls. Do you get that too? Like she just knows.”
She rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time during this conversation. “No, Dustin, I don’t. Just say what you want to say please, I’ll do anything.”
“So, I was wondering whether you think I should rent a place for like 50 people, or more for like 100 people?” he breathed in hard and then, along with his breath, pushed out “AlsowhatdoyouthinkweshoulddoaboutMike?”
“What?” she rushed out.
“What should we do about Mike?” Her mind went blank. Mike was always a bit of a sore spot for Willow. It wasn’t romantic sorrow, it wasn’t, she once thought it was, when she was too young to realize what she truly was, and Mike was too small and cute to seem like a man. Then, she loved him in a pure way, they weren’t a boy and a girl there, just children, it never seemed like they were man and woman, just amorphous forms floating through life together. Until puberty hit and he became a little devil.
Their friendship prevailed, though. Mike was always different around Willow, he spoke about his feelings, his fears, and thoughts, stuff he was always too afraid to mention to Dustin or Lucas, lest he get made fun of. She guessed that was the biggest pro to being the only girl he knew that well, he could be himself and maybe say things that to other people were too girly and lame to say out loud.
When he left, she took it the hardest. He never did want to talk to her about college, he spoke vaguely of entrance exams and personal essays but he refused to divulge. Maybe he didn’t know either. His relationship with his parents was getting worse as the years went on, and God knows Ted Wheeler would not fund an English degree out of his pocket. All Willow knows is that one day Mike showed up at her doorstep, bags in hand, tears streaming down his face, muttering something about how he was moving into his college dorm the next day, and he wanted to say goodbye before he left. He hugged her too long, he cried too much for it all to seem that simple, she knew then she might never see him again.
It had lasted until Mr. Wheeler started angrily honking his horn on Willow’s driveway, making Mike jump out of her embrace, promising to call when he got settled in. She’d tried to ask him if he was alright, if he was worried about living far away, if he was scared to lose them, but he rushed through it all, constantly glancing back to the car as he spoke.
He’d looked right at her, his big brown eyes surrounded by redness and more tears still threatening to fall, and said:
“Don’t worry, I’m just tired. I’ll call you right as I get settled in Chicago” topping it off with an awkwardly long hug, one that seemed to infuriate Mr. Wheeler, who made sure to honk twice, shortly, making them both jump away.
He did call Will the next day, a short call, just saying he made it there ok, and then he hung up. He called all of them that day, having also driven by all of their houses beforehand, leaving Will for last, to see him in that state. He called maybe two times after that. They tried to call but were either ignored or told, by Mike’s extremely angry roommate PLEASE STOP FUCKING CALLING ALL THE TIME.
So, they quit.
“What about Mike?” she replied, already out of breath from the knot in her throat.
“I mean, we have to try, Will, I’m not having my high school reunion without Mike here.” His voice was small, “I can’t not try.”
“I mean Lucas got married without him here, so.” The last thing she needed was to get trapped thinking about Mike Wheeler again. It happened to her the first day after moving back in with her mom and Hopper, she saw Karen Wheeler at the supermarket on Main Street while trying to buy some tampons and it just so happened that Mrs. Wheeler and Holly were doing the same. After an awkward chat about Holly's boyfriend, tampons, and high school, she got a little brave and asked the question.
“So, how’s Mike doing?” she smiled brightly, hoping to trick the older woman into thinking she was casual about this topic, when in fact she was not.
“Um. Mike is doing well, sweetheart. He’s still in Chicago, working. Isn’t that crazy honey? How you’re all working adults now. Time just flies by!” She could tell by her expression that she really didn’t want to talk to Willow about Mike. Maybe Mike forbade her from doing it. She imagined Mike, old, much older than her for some reason, with a handlebar mustache wearing a fancy suit, telling his mother over the phone that she must not tell Willow Byers of his whereabouts! Mike’s image was so far away from her now that she’d made him into a slimy businessman from a cartoon.
Mrs. Wheeler then scurried away with some excuse about being in a rush to start on dinner at 2 pm, and Will let her. Maybe she was better off not knowing than being disappointed with the proof that Mike really didn’t need them at all.
After that, she spent a few hours holed up in her room like a moody teenager, like she used to when Mike would run off with El and forget all about her and their campaigns. She snapped out of it for a bit when her mom got home from work, getting up from her bed to annoy her with every detail of her very boring day. But the thought echoed in her mind for days, and Dustin brought it right back to the front. Mike really didn’t need them, didn’t want them.
“We tried then too! You remember, I called the Wheelers, and I begged Nancy. I gave up then, and I regret it now,so does Lucas. I wish he would have been there” he was very passionate about this, in a way only Dustin -and Mike, her annoying brain supplied- could truly be, and Willow understood him. But, at this point, all she felt was numb.
“There’s no harm in trying again Willow.”
“There might be.” he hushed “I saw Mrs. Wheeler the other day, and I might as well have asked her for his social security number with the way she reacted to me asking about him. I really don’t think he wants to be found… at all.”
“Will…. Come onnnnn. I know you want this as much as I do, I don’t understand why you’re pushing back so much. You’re being kinda mean…” she realized this, but he was really poking at her wounds here.
“I don’t know Dustin, I just don’t want you to get your hopes up and get disappointed.” I don't want to get my hopes up and get disappointed either.
“You should do it then.”
“What?” it came out as almost a shout.
“Yeah, if you’re so sure he’s just going to ignore us, what’s the big deal? Just send a couple of emails out into the void. How hard can it be?” he was scoffing at her, but she could hear him smile through the phone.
“Yeah? And how would I do that, I didn’t exactly get an email down for him in1989 and it’s not very likely he still lives in the residence halls.” she was smiling too now, she really shouldn’t let Dustin get to her like this.
His voice softened again, and she could just picture that sweet smile on his face. “Willow, please help me.”
She thought back to that Mike, the one she saw on her doorstep way too late at night, with no warning, nearly sobbing. It felt like goodbye forever, even then, when it was just meant to be a «see-you later». That Mike didn’t seem like someone who wanted to give up their friendship. He seemed like someone who was broken, who was afraid. No matter how much his actions seemed to deny it, how many times Karen Wheeler sped walked away from them in public, something within Willow told her that maybe, some part of Mike, or maybe all of him, still wanted them close.
She cleared her throat, putting on her best casual voice “Ok, I will.”
A loud cheer came through the line.
Willow giggled quietly, “Okay, okay… I feel kind of manipulated Dustin!”.
“Oh, you were, but don’t worry about it! Get to work Byers we only have a couple of weeks, maybe a month.” he hung up quickly after, probably afraid she would change her mind.
Letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, Willow sat in silence for a couple of minutes. Right, how could she go about this? None of their friends stayed in contact with Mike and they all lived pretty far away at the moment. Maybe she could get El to find him. That would be a nice shortcut, she could go into his mind and whisper high school reunionnnn and he’d surely come running.
Besides the ridiculousness of that plan, it probably wasn’t a great idea to invade someone’s head after not talking to them for ten years… it would probably scare him off. Also, it seemed more like something Dustin or Mike would come up with than her own idea. Plus, she could never get used to seeing her do those things after avoiding it for so long. She’d missed out on the whole explanation phase of learning about El’s powers while being in the Upside Down or possessed, so it was just weird to watch, reminded her of things she'd rather not talk about.
The only way left seemed to be the Wheelers. Nancy most certainly would know something, but she and Jonathan were pretty busy, kids and all, and the last thing Willow needed was for Jonathan to get all weird about it and try to intervene. And if anyone could keep a secret, it was Nancy Wheeler. Holly didn’t really know Will that well, and coming up to a nineteen-year-old and interrogating them about their brother seemed wrong. Ted probably didn’t remember he’d ever had a son to begin with. Her only chance was Mrs. Wheeler. She was clearly afraid to say too much to Willow, but maybe that meant she’d said too much before…
She lurched forwards, grabbing the phone and dialing the Wheelers’ house phone number just as fast as she used to do as a teenager. It rang a couple of times until someone finally picked up, making seconds feel like years.
“Hello! Wheeler residence.”
“Mrs. Wheeler! Hi! It’s Willow Byers. Um. I was baking some cookies, and I accidentally made too many. Would you maybe like some? They’re chocolate-chip!”
“Oh. Sure honey, that’s very sweet of you. Swing by whenever, I’ll be home all weekend!” the woman chuckled slightly, probably confused.
Great, now she needs to go to the bakery.