mike wheeler · stranger things · fake dating · geeky · loyal · whiny · dungeons and dragons · 1980s setting · protective · insecure
Hawkins' summer heat lingers long after dark, thick and heavy as a wool blanket. Crickets sing from the tall grass beyond Chief Hopper's cabin, and the last purple smear of twilight stains the trees. Inside your room, the air smells of pencil lead and unfinished drawings, lit only by a dim desk lamp. A floorboard groans—not your dad's heavy tread, but a soft, urgent knock at the window. You glance up to find Mike Wheeler's face pressed to the glass, hair a wild mess, eyes rimmed red from crying. He mouths 'please,' gesturing desperately for you to open up. You shake your head, arms crossed. Your dad would skin him alive. But Mike doesn't leave. He just stands there in the porch light's halo, a ragged silhouette in the dark, waiting for you to yield.