M. 1

"LOOK WHO IT is!" A voice called, waking Mike up abruptly.

He looked up, still groggy with sleep. It was Dustin and Lucas, smiling at him mischievously. The first thing he did was look to where Will had slept, but the brunette was gone. The class was filling up with tired students.

"How was your weekend, Wheeler?" Lucas asked.

"What the hell, you assholes?" Mike called. The two boys looked at each other and laughed loudly.

"What's so funny about locking me in school with basically no food for a weekend?" Mike called, pissed. They were basically cry laughing now.

"Come on, lighten up man! it was a joke!" Dustin said in between laughs, punching Mike's shoulder playfully. He put Mike's backpack, the one Mike had left outside on Friday, on the floor besides him.

"Whatever you say," Mike rolled his eyes. "Here, we brought you a gift."Dustin said. He put his backpack on the table next to Mike, and pulled out a pack of Doritos and a can of coke and pushed it towards him. "I think you earned it.""Keep your fucking snacks to yourself," Mike pushed them back.

"Wow, dude! you're really stiff! It. was. a . joke!" Lucas exclaimed."Yeah? you try being light after sleeping on a desk for three nights and eating nothing but old fucking bread."

"Nice scarf, Wheeler!" A cheerleader (Mike was pretty sure her name was Kayla)  said as she passed him by, winking. 

Mike saw he was still wrapped in the ocean-blue scarf, and hurried to tare it off and stick it in his bag."Why would you do that?" Mike asked again, looking straight into their eyes. 

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed," Dustin said. GOD, they were annoying him. Why couldn't they take anything seriously for a minute?

"Hey babe," It was Jane. She came through the door, beautiful as ever in a short yellow dress and a matching hair tie. She smiled at him, but he didn't return the smile.She came to his side and leaned in to hug him. When she did, he whispered in her ear, so low he was sure no one but her could hear it:

"I know about you and Max." he felt her back stiffen up, "It's okay. I won't tell anyone, not before you're ready. But you should've told me." 

"I'm really sorry, Mike." She whispered back, and he could feel the sincerity in her voice. He squeezed her tighter.

"Oh my god!" Lucas said, "You guys haven't seen each other for three days and you're all over each other! there are people here!" 

They pulled away, and Jane jumped on the desk to sit in between Dustin and Lucas. She nudged Lucas' foot in her little flirty manner."Jealous much?" She said, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find someone soon."Dustin laughed.

"Shut up, Hopper." Lucas said, and nudged her back. It was the small, everyday flirting they exchanged. It was the normal, everyday way their days went.

It was obnoxiously normal. Mike kind of wanted to scream. How could he act normal when nothing, nothing! was normal anymore? how could he participate in the casual banter when all he thought about was how he'd find Will after school...

"Anyway, how do you even know we haven't seen each other all weekend?" Jane said.

"Because we locked Mike in school," Dustin said plainly, totally deadpan. Jane turned her full attention to him.

"WHAT?!" she asked, and he nodded. "What do you mean, you locked him in school?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Lucas interjected. He hated being left with no attention."Mike, is this true?" she asked, and he nodded, still mad.

"That's- that's-" she said, and he saw the edges of her mouth tremble, "that's hilarious!" she burst out laughing, and Dustin and Lucas joined her. Mike literally had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

How were they still talking about this? How could they talk about the same exact thing for like, 10 minutes? why couldn't they ever talk about anything that's actually interesting? Will would-

Wow. He really found a way to turn everything back to Will. Mike wondered where his brunette boyfriend was this minute, if he was talking to Max or sitting alone, he wondered what class he had now... He wondered what it would be like to find him and kiss him on the lockers, like he had done to Jane so many times...

He wondered how amazing it's gonna be, Will behind the bleachers cheering for him in the football games. Study sessions at Will's. He would have a boyfriend, but even more importantly- he would have his best friend back.

So who cares if he'd lose a few of these morons in the progress?  

"Someone's daydreaming," Jane said, waving her hand in front of his face. He hurried to blink, and realized he had a huge dopey grin across his face. He had completely forgotten about his bad mood.

Jane was sitting next to him in her assigned seat, and to Mike's surprise he saw the class had already started, both Lucas and Dustin were in their seat and the teacher was going on endlessly about something. 

He looked to Jane, who was still staring at him as if waiting for an explanation, but he didn't provide one. He just smiled wider and put his head on the table, already daydreaming again.

When the bell finally rang, he sprinted out of that classroom. 

He could finally find Will.