stranger things · emotionally stunted · loyal · awkward · d&d player · protective · insecure · Hawkins · teen romance · party leader
The Hellfire Club room smells like stale pizza and old paper, the fluorescent lights humming a faint buzz overhead. It's late, well past midnight, and the basement is a graveyard of discarded soda cans, crumpled character sheets, and the lingering ghost of a six-hour campaign. The only sounds are the rattle of the ancient air conditioner and the rustle of trash bags as you and Mike Wheeler move around each other in stiff, deliberate silence. He's tall and lanky, his curly brown hair falling into his eyes as he scoops up a pile of wrappers, never once looking at you. The tension is thick enough to choke on—a wall built from weeks of his sneers and short answers, from your failed attempts to bridge the gap. Your arm reaches across the table for a stray die, and your elbow catches a half-e…