Chapter Text
College feels exactly how Mike Wheeler had imagined when he was younger.
Campus felt big. Not overwhelming — more like a comforting type of big, an expanse that seemed to make everything important. The lecture halls were huge, voices seemed to warp together into a choir of noise as teenagers just like him pretended they knew what was going on in their lives.
Everyone seemed to move with a purpose, although realistically, they were all in the same boat, and to summarise their situation in 1 word? Clueless.
They seemed to form into friend groups, and ended up swarming the site like little infestations.
Mike felt independent in a way he had never felt before. No one told him when to go to bed, or what to study, or where to sit. Not like when he was a child. Fire alarms would go off at 2 in the morning, and Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and El would sprint downstairs in their pyjamas and stand on the lawn while the principal shouted orders at them through his crackly megaphone, only to find out someone had burnt their toast.
Their apartment was rarely ever tidy, mostly thanks to Dustin — shoes lay scattered across the floor, dishes remained unwashed in the sink until someone complained and scrubbed away at them before sticking them, soapy and dripping, back into the cupboard.
It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot. But it was theirs, and somehow, that was good enough for Mike. He knew most of his friends, especially El and Will, had grown up with very little freedom, or luxury in their lives, and he learnt to appreciate the smaller things in life that he wouldn’t have even batted an eyelid at before.
Tonight was their usual film night — and it was Mike’s night to choose a movie. Great. He never seemed to be able to pick the right one, someone would always complain. Or perhaps it was the lack of complaining, and conversation, during the movie that actually made it more awkward. He’d probably just let Dustin decide this time.
Swinging the white door open, banging it against their fridge, which for some strange reason, had been placed right by the entrance, Mike dumped his rucksack on the floor, not bothering to pick it up, it would get to his room eventually.
Dustin and Lucas were already there, Mike didn’t pay much attention to what they were doing— they could have been wrestling each other for all he knew.
El and Will had taken an art class together, they found it was a way they could express themselves without words. For both Will and El, this was massive for them, you know, with them not being the biggest fan of overly long conversations. Or conversations in general. Mike glanced over to the wall, noticing their class would be finishing in 5 minutes, so they wouldn’t have long to wait before they could all relax for the weekend.
Almost out of instinct, Mike ripped open a packet of cheap, microwavable popcorn, and practically flung it into the machine, which began to whirl around. Well, more like it rattled every so often in a feeble attempt to heat up the contents inside.
“Hey Mike, what film are we watching?” Dustin mumbled from the sofa, not even bothering to turn to face Mike.
He murmured back, matching Dustin’s attitude, and at the joy of finding out he could pick another film that night, he leapt up, and pounded on the stack of DVDs next to their TV.
Later that night, they all somehow made their way to the sofa, El and Dustin cuddling together, Lucas and Will sat opposite them, Lucas glancing at Will every few seconds to make sure he wasn’t getting stressed out by the loud noises on screen. Mike sat in a single arm chair, hoarding all of the popcorn, and shooing Lucas away when he tried to move near him to steal a handful, insisting he had to go get his own.
They all sat in relative silence, whether too engrossed by the movie, or having their mind set on all their overdue homework that they knew would probably never end up getting completed, until Mike sprung up from his chair, and strolled casually over to their drinks cupboard, pulling out a carton of beers, and handing one to Lucas, Dustin, El, and Will, only 2 of which ended up taking the drink.
El and Will had never been interested in drinking, or smoking, or anything adult like really. What with them both having, albeit very different situations, abusive fathers who both assumedly had issues with anything that lowered their inhibitions.
Indeed, Mike would often find himself comforting Will during his time at college, whether that was comforting him during a nightmare, or helping him through a particularly non-verbal spell where he flat out refused to talk to anyone but Mike. He always took great pride in the fact no one else could get Will to talk to him, even on a good day, and he often used Mike as a messenger when he wanted to say something.
Mike had gotten used to ordering food for Will in the canteen, and telling the professor, “He’s here.” when he had been addressed in the daily name call, to the point he found it comforting just sitting in silence with Will from time to time. They seemed to be able to telepathically know what the other was feeling and found comfort in each other's presence.
Once Mike had downed his beer, he came and separated Will and El, forcing them to sit beside him instead, neither of whom seemed to mind. El too seemed to seek comfort in Mike, but in a very different way to Will— it was more that Mike was the only person that had ever shown her any form of kindness and now she had chosen to rely on him, but recently she’d been warming up to Will too. Even Dustin would get her smiling every so often with one of his cringy jokes. Lucas however, she still hadn’t opened up to, I mean who could blame her, he was never particularly nice to her when they met. But Mike still thought that, after almost 8 years, she might have begun to change, maybe he just didn’t notice the small improvements as the days passed by.
Mike seemed to be lost in thought, and only snapped out of it when Lucas had repeated his name for the third time, getting increasingly frustrated, and resorting to snapping his fingers at him.
“Huh?”
“Finally, you’re awake.”
“I wasn’t sleeping!”
“Oh yeah sure, I saw your eyes flickering.” he retorted, pointing a finger at Mike from across the room.
“So what did you want?”
Lucas rolled his eyes, and glanced towards Dustin, who gave him a sneaky grin before staring back at Mike.
“Me and Dustin were thinking— Not that you’d know since you were too zoned out, this movie sucks ass, we should do something else.”
Mike stared at Dustin incredulously for a moment, before retorting.
“So whenever I choose a movie it’s my fault if it’s rubbish, but when it’s Dustin he gets to do whatever he wants if it sucks?”
Will nudged him in the ribs slightly, and he glanced down to see him grinning. Cheeky git.
“Well.. what do you wanna do then?” Mike asked, once more returning to look at Dustin and Lucas.
“How about something fun for once.”
Mike knew what Dustin’s kind of fun was. Eating. And Mike was already full on the pizza he ate earlier. And Lucas? Lucas never did anything fun. They were surprisingly boring in college, they didn’t seem to have their hearts in it, as if they’d left their personalities back in 1983.
“Well, how about we play a game? Take your pick.”
Dustin escorted Mike to a pile of games stacked hastily next to the stack of DVDs, and Mike took a closer look, not wanting to tell Dustin he just wasn’t in the mood.
Will appeared behind Mike, tugging on the hem of his jumper, evidently wanting to tell him something. So he leant down to match Will’s height, and allowed Will to whisper into his ear.
“Charades.”
“Charades? Yeah sure. Guys let’s play charades.”
Charades was one of the only games Will could actually play and still be able to feel involved, but it was worth it for the huge grin that would form on his face when Mike guessed his charade correctly. Heck, Mike didn’t even care if it was just him and Will that played it.
And so they began, and first up was of course, Lucas.