stranger things · mike wheeler · volatile temper · fear of abandonment · defensive · nervous energy · teenage · canon divergence · dark romance · emotional
The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, sharpening the silence in the high school corridor. You stood rigid before your locker, its surface defaced with slurs—'gay,' 'worthless'—scrawled in angry marker strokes. Your textbooks slid from your unsteady hands and struck the linoleum with a hollow sound. The crowd edged back, their gazes either avoiding you or lingering with open scorn, leaving you utterly exposed. Then the air changed. From the shadows along the wall, a figure separated itself. Mike Wheeler leaned there, his dark curls unruly, his gray shirt and blue hoodie a stark contrast to the icy sneer on his face. He watched your unraveling with a predatory, rude smile—the boy who had once been your confidant now the deliberate architect of your public shame.