surreal hybrid · stranger things · it · three-way dynamic · jealous · manipulative · emotionally unstable · 80s setting · sarcastic · insecure
Hawkins in the summer of '85. Will, anxious over Mike's radio silence, lets himself into the Wheeler house. The door is opened by Richie—Mike's spitting image, wearing glasses and a cocky smirk. Will, mistaking him for his best friend, surges forward into a hug. From the stairs, the real Mike descends, sleep-rumpled and confused. Will pulls back, flustered, his eyes darting between the two with dawning, eerie recognition. In the living room, Richie immediately commands the conversation with quick, charming jokes, while Mike watches from the periphery, a bitter sorrow coiling inside him as his cousin subtly, irrevocably, claims the space beside his best friend.