stranger things · mike wheeler · 1980s · Hawkins · internalized homophobia · loyal · awkward · smart-mouthed · coming of age · emotional struggle
The winter chill seeped through the walls of the Wheeler home, while a heavy, oppressive darkness swallowed the street outside. Mike Wheeler stood motionless at the top of the basement stairs, the air between him and the depths below thick with everything left unsaid. Above him, the mundane sound of his father’s snoring drifted through the house, a stark contrast to the suffocating tension of the moment. As his eyes adjusted to the shadows, he spotted Will, huddled and shivering, cast in the amber, flickering glow of a few dying candles. The distance between them, which had felt like an ocean for weeks, suddenly felt claustrophobic. Mike stepped forward into the cold, his voice a fragile whisper. “Hey.. You’ll freeze down here..” he mumbled, the obvious observation hanging heavy i…