Chapter Text
It’s a warm sunny day in Boston. The air is thick and hot, unlike the sweltering heat of his hometown. Boston was different. It was more windy and noisy. The weather was definitely nicer than it would be in Hawkins this time of year. People and cars flooded the streets, rushing to get to their destinations. The city was always so full of life. It was usually really annoying at night when Mike was trying to sleep, but he doesn’t really mind it that much. Boston was charming in that way. Even though there were a lot of things that bothered him about Boston, there were also a lot of things that he loved about it. Mike took in the cityscape, paying attention to each detail around him. He was completely entranced by the city until he saw a familiar house; it was his sister’s. The one she moved into with Jonathan a few years ago.
Mike goes up to the house, knocking on the door. As he waits for someone to answer, he starts to think about why Nancy had asked him to come over. She made it sound urgent, so he came over as soon as he could. Before he could think any further, the door swung open, and his sister, Nancy, was on the other side.
She smiled as soon as she saw him. She invited him in and let him make himself comfortable in her living room.
“Do you want coffee?” Nancy asks, trying to be a good host.
“Yeah, I would love some,” Mike says as he looks around, studying his sister’s home.
The walls were a nice neutral color with pictures and things on them. The house made Nancy look so grown up, and she kind of was. Compared to Mike, at least. His walls were pretty much empty, the only thing in his living room was furniture, while in his room, he had posters of things he’d liked in his youth. He felt like it gave the house ‘character’ or whatever people called it.
Nancy walks out of the kitchen, handing him a mug. Mike politely takes it and thanks her. Nancy signals for Mike to follow her to her room, so he does. After entering the room, he places the mug onto Nancy’s desk, trying not to ruin any of the papers on it.
He plops onto the bed and silently watches Nancy pack her bag to go somewhere that Mike doesn’t remember. Mike sees Nancy go into her closet and pull out two garment bags. Nancy turns to Mike and asks him which one she should wear. He shoots her a quizzical look.
“Mike, just answer the question. The yellow one or the blue one?” Nancy asks, annoyed by her brother's lack of response.
“The yellow one, you look great in that dress,” Mike says, still wearing a face of confusion.
“What?” Nancy asks.
“Where are you going again? And why are you getting all dressed up? You and Jon going on a romantic getaway or something?” Mike says, trying to be funny, but his attempt at humor falls flat as Nancy raises her eyebrows at him.
“Mike, you know I'm going to New York,” Nancy says in an annoyed tone, already tired of her brother's antics.
“Huh? New York? What for?” Mike says, looking at Nancy, expecting her to answer, but instead, she just rolls her eyes. “I swear you guys never tell me anything,” Mike mumbles, slightly annoyed at his sister for not answering his question.
“Are you serious?” Nancy says, scanning his face, thinking it must be some stupid joke, but as she sees the serious expression on Mike's face, her expression turns from annoyed to horrified. “Oh, so you really don’t know why I'm going to New York and why I called you here?” Nancy asks with wide eyes.
“No, Nance, I don’t have a clue,” Mike says, irritated at his sister for not believing him when he expressed this the first time.
Nancy has an unreadable expression on her face. Maybe it wasn’t unreadable, but it didn’t make sense to him in this context. Unless something serious had happened. He had to ask. Because if this were a serious situation and he hadn’t noticed, he would be really embarrassed.
“Did something bad happen?” Mike asks with a serious tone.
“No. No. Nothing bad happened. It’s just…” Nancy starts to trail off, not knowing how to relay this information to Mike or if she even should.
“Someone we know is getting married,” Nancy pauses, choosing her next words carefully. “And we’re going to New York to celebrate before we actually start putting things together.” Nancy finally gets out.
“Oh my god! Who?” Mike says curiously, which makes the pained expression on Nancy’s face worse.
There’s silence for a few moments until Mike breaks it.
“C’mon, Nance, the suspense is killing me. Just tell me.”
Nancy's phone rings. She relaxes as she hears her ringtone. She’s glad that she can put off telling Mike who’s getting married. If he doesn’t know by now, then Will definitely didn’t want to tell him. Nancy asks Mike to give her a second as she picks up Robin's call. At first, Mike is not paying much attention to their conversation because he figures that’s the respectful thing to do until he hears them start talking about the wedding. He’s not trying to eavesdrop or anything, but his curiosity gets the best of him.
“When are you getting here, Nancy?” Robin asks before she starts to ramble worriedly about the party and the wedding that they’re helping with next week.
“Robin, breathe. And I should be there in a few hours. I just wanted to see Mike before I left.” Nancy says, looking at Mike at that last part.
“That’s good. Isn’t he coming with you?” Robin asks while clearly multitasking.
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe.” Nancy says, still looking at Mike.
“Well, I hope so, little Byers obviously wants him there,” Robin says, suddenly still.
Mike looks at Nancy in disbelief. Nancy would usually be annoyed at Mike for listening in on her conversations, but this time she gives him grace, considering the thing he just heard.
Robin continues to ramble over the phone, but Nancy can’t hear it. Robin’s voice suddenly sounds muffled as if she’s underwater. She mumbles to Robin, telling her she’ll call her back, slamming her phone shut and staring at Mike, who still looks shocked. Clearly, it was taking him a while to process this information. Nancy starts, trying to speak softly and slowly.
“I’m sorry, Mike, but I really thought you knew.” Mike’s face slowly goes from shock to bitterness.
“It’s whatever. It’s just. I can’t believe my best friend is getting married, and he couldn’t even have the decency to let me know.”
“Well, technically, he’s just engaged; he's not actually married yet.” Nancy tried, but to no avail; Mike was truly furious.
“It doesn’t matter, Nance. He should’ve called.” Mike said bitterly. “He just doesn’t want me to be there.” Mike looks down as the tears slowly start to form in his eyes and escape, slowly rolling down his cheeks. “He’s replacing me with this stupid guy.”
Nancy gets up and hugs him tightly while speaking softly into his ear and rubbing his back. “He’s not replacing you.” She says. “Just talk to him, Mike. I’m sure you two can work things out, you always have.”
Mike really wishes that were true. The last time he and Will had really spoken was a couple of years ago. He had told himself that they were just both growing apart due to their busy schedules, but something in Mike knew that wasn’t true. Mike’s silence was enough for Nancy to put the pieces together. She was a journalist after all.
“Wait, did something happen between you two?” Nancy says, furrowing her eyebrows in worry.
“No, we just don’t talk as much as we used to.” Mike sighs. “I didn’t think it was this bad, though. We always called to talk about important things that have happened in our lives.”
“Him getting married didn’t come up in conversation?” Nancy asks, clearly perplexed by the situation at hand.
“Well, we haven’t talked in a while,” Mike says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“How long is a while, Mike?”
“Probably like a year and a half. Why?”
“That’s around the time he got engaged,” Nancy mutters to herself absentmindedly.
“So let me get this straight,” Mike pauses to collect his thoughts. “Will has been engaged for like 18 months-”
“Approximately,” Nancy says, cutting him off mid-sentence.
“Wow, Nance, I didn’t know you were a fucking mathematician.”
Nancy raises her arms in surrender. “I’m just trying to keep the timeline straight, Mike.”
Mike looks down at his feet. “Sorry, I just can’t believe that in all that time he didn’t pick up the phone and say ‘hey man, I just got engaged’ or something like that.”
Mike looks back up at Nancy with teary eyes.
“I don’t even know who he’s marrying.”
“You’ve never met Carlton? They’ve been together for a while.”
Mike does a dramatic sigh.
“God, he’s marrying that ass. Will knows I hate him. I was hoping he was marrying someone else.”
Nancy chuckles. "You'd rather not know who he's marrying than have him marry a guy you don't like?"
"Yes, Nance, I literally despise him," Mike says, rolling his eyes and being extremely dramatic, at least, from Nancy's point of view.
“Why don’t you like Carlton?" Nancy asks with her very expressive eyebrows pinched together. "He treats Will well, and he’s a really nice guy. Every time we go over, he talks about indie films with Jon, and he talks to me about my columns. Oh! And sometimes he cooks us a really nice meal and-”
“Ew, Nancy, please spare me.”
Nancy starts making her investigator face, which means she’s going to ask Mike a question that he hates and probably isn’t going to give an honest answer to. But it doesn’t matter either way because she’ll know. Mike’s not exactly the best liar, and Nancy’s basically Sherlock Holmes, so there’s no hiding from this.
“Mike…”
Mike sighs, mentally preparing himself for whatever question Nancy is going to ask him. “Yes, Nance.”
“Do you hate Carlton because he’s a bad boyfriend to Will, or” She pauses. “Because you’re jealous of Carlton?”
“Why the hell would I be jealous of that dumb ass? I just don’t think he’s good enough for Will.”
“That sounds exactly like what someone jealous would say,” Nancy says, teasingly.
“I’m not, it's just…Carlton is so dull. And Will, I don’t think there are enough words in the world to describe how amazing Will is, while there are plenty of words I could use to describe Carlton, and all of them either share the synonym of boring or complete asshole.”
“Mike, when has Carlton ever been an asshole to you?” Nancy asks with her eyebrows raised. Clearly not believing her brother's claims of Carlton being a ‘total asshole’.
“Oh, all the time. But no one ever believes me because he saves his assholery only for me. It’s really annoying, like what have I ever done to him?”
“He’s probably just jealous.”
“What could he possibly be jealous about? He already has Will, what more could he want?”
Nancy sighs. “God Mike, you’re so oblivious sometimes. I always hoped you’d grow out of that.”
“Wait, I'm confused.”
“When aren’t you?” Nancy says sarcastically.
Mike rolls his eyes in response, and then there was a brief silence between them that was broken by Mike.
“Well, what do I do now? There’s no way I’m letting you leave without me, but I can’t just show up uninvited; that's rude.” Mike says, looking up at Nancy with sad eyes.
“Just call him, Mike.”
“And say what? ‘Oh, I know it’s been a while, but I know you’re getting married, and I was wondering if I could go to your party in New York and go to your wedding that you didn't invite me to.’ That sounds insane."
“Yes, say that exactly.”
Nancy senses Mike hesitate, and she speaks again.
"Call him, Mike.” She says, more firmly this time, to get Mike out of the spiral that was starting to form in his mind.
“Ok, fine, fine,” Mike says, whipping out his phone from his pocket and opening it.
“Maybe I should just text him?” Mike says, trying to get out of calling him, but to no avail; Nancy had made up her mind.
“Mike…”
“Ok. I’m clicking on his contact right now.”
Mike looks at Nancy and asks a question, clearly stalling. “But before I call, I just need to know if he changed his number or something.”
“No, Mike, he’s had the same number for like, forever. Now stop stalling and hurry up and call him because I told Robin I’m going to be there in a few hours, and if you make me late, so god help me I will-”
“Ok, ok, I get it, I'm pressing the call button right now,” Mike says, cutting Nancy off. The last thing he wanted was to get on her bad side.
Mike’s finger hovers over his contact, and he presses his number, letting it ring.