Mileven - Drunk Confessions
In their junior year of high school Mike and El are going to a house party, but things end up taking an unexpected turn - hope you’ll enjoy this one!
“You sure you wanna do this?” Mike asked, while looking skeptically at Stacey Olsen’s house where cars were parked far down the street and teenagers were flocking towards the front door. He was sitting behind the wheel of the battered Ford Mustang his parents had gotten him for his sixteenth birthday and El was sitting beside him in the passenger seat.
“Yeah, Mike, I’m sure; I wanna try going to a party in high school at least once.” El gave him a certain look and he immediately understood. El hadn’t had many normal experiences growing up, so he really couldn’t blame her for grabbing every chance to feel like a normal teenager.
“I understand,” Mike said softly, “I guess Stacey would be really disappointed, too, if you didn’t show up.” He couldn’t keep himself from adding an eyeroll to that last bit and El noticed it.
“Hey, come on,” she said a little defensively, “I know you don’t like Stacey, but she’s always really nice to me, you know.”
Mike knew. Stacey Olsen had been a popular girl since kindergarten and had therefore always been mean to Mike and his fellow nerds – that is, right until she learned that he had a girlfriend; that seemed to give him a newfound respect in Stacey’s book; especially since his girlfriend was the gorgeous El Hopper. Mike had, of course, always found El beautiful, but entering their junior year she had particularly blossomed which had not escaped Stacey Olsen, and even though El’s beauty was cause for envy it also, for some backwards reason, give Stacey an intense desire to befriend her. Stacey had therefore personally invited El to her party and when El had hesitated she had told her that she was “totally welcome to bring her cute friends”, so, alas, here they were.
“I know, I know,” Mike said apologetically, “I promise I won’t complain.”
“Thank you,” El reached over and put her hand on his, “I’m glad you’re here; this means a lot to me.”
She looked into Mike’s eyes and gave his hand a squeeze. He smiled at her softly and returned the squeeze. They left Mike’s car and started walking with the stream of teenagers towards the front door. El took Mike’s hand as they walked which, as always, made him swell with pride. When they entered Stacey’s house they found themselves in a sea of people bustling about, some shouting, some singing along to the music, some dancing and some sucking face in the corners; most of them were from their own year, but there were some seniors around as well which only attested to Stacey’s popularity. Mike and El just stood awkwardly in the middle of everything for a while not really knowing what to do with themselves.
“You wanna try and find the others?” Mike shouted over the music. El nodded. They were heading towards the kitchen when suddenly they were stopped by a voice behind them:
“Oh my gosh, El, you made it!” Stacey Olsen said excitedly. El and Mike turned to face her, and Stacey immediately gave El an overly friendly hug which Mike thought seemed insincere.
“Oh, hey, Mike,” Stacey said with a smile that seemed a little strained, “you don’t mind if I borrow your girlfriend for a little while, do you?”
“Oh, uh, I, uh,” Mike didn’t really know what to say, but Stacey didn’t seem to care much about his answer, anyway.
“Cool! I promise I’ll give her back real soon – there’s punch in the kitchen and a keg out in the backyard, so just help yourself; okay, later!” And with those words Stacey started dragging El away in the crowd of people and El looked over her shoulder at Mike with apologetic eyes.
“I’m sorry.” She mouthed to him.
“It’s okay.” He mouthed back with a reassuring smile. His eyes tried following where she was being dragged to, but she was soon lost from his gaze which made him feel a sting of worry, but he tried to push the feeling aside. Then he just stood there shuffling his feet awkwardly for a bit before deciding to proceed to the kitchen to look for his friends and something to drink without alcohol in it. The kitchen was just as crammed with people, but he couldn’t seem to spot any of his friends, so he went to the kitchen table which had a couple of large punch bowls on it.
“Is there alcohol in both of these?” Mike asked a kid he recognized from his calculus class.
“Not that one.” The kid said, and Mike ladled some of the red liquid into a plastic cup. He took a sip of the punch and started craning his neck to see if he could maybe spot El and Stacey and it got him so absorbed that he didn’t register his friends coming up behind him.
“Hey, Mike.” Max said as she and the others reached him, and when he didn’t respond she started snapping her fingers rapidly in front of his face.
“Mike, Hello!” She taunted, “earth to Mike, are you there?”
“Hmm, what?” she finally got Mike’s attention and he wheeled around to look at all of them.
“Oh, hey guys!” he exclaimed as he saw them and felt relieved to finally have some friends around.
“Hey,” Will said, “where’s El?” He looked around to see if he could spot her.
“You guys haven’t seen her?” Mike felt worry starting to twitch in him again, “Stacey hijacked her, I guess I should go find her.”
“Oh, relax, Mike, she’s probably having a good time; I think you’ll survive not having eyes on your girlfriend for five minutes.” Max said, trying to tease him.
“Oh, shut up, Max,” Mike said, rolling his eyes at her, “who are you to talk, anyway; you and Lucas ogle at each other all the time.”
Max opened her mouth to protest, but Lucas cut her off:
“It’s true; this one can’t keep her eyes off me.” He said tauntingly.
“Ugh, put a cork in it, Sinclair.” Max snarked at him and nudged him hard in the side. Lucas responded by kissing her on the cheek while she tried to turn her head away and still act offended.
“Hey, Mike, do you think now that El’s in with Stacey she could maybe convince her to go out with me?” Dustin chimed in over Lucas and Max’s playful fighting.
“Really?” Mike said, slightly surprised, “you still like her?”
Dustin shrugged: “I just think maybe now the time could be right.”
“I just don’t get what you see in her, anyway.” Mike said skeptically.
“Oh, you’re just upset because you have to share your girlfriend with her.” Dustin taunted.
“Am not!” Mike objected.
“Oh, come on; you totally are.” Max chimed in.
“I just don’t trust her intentions, that’s all; why would she suddenly wanna be friends with El?”
“Don’t be so paranoid, Mike; not everyone is out to get her.” Lucas said, and gave Mike a knowing look. Mike sighed; it had been years since bad men had been after El, but the nagging fear that he would someday lose her again had never gone away.
“Anyway, you guys up for D&D Sunday?” Mike said to change the subject and they all just hung around in the kitchen and talked for a while, but Mike couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling from the back of his mind and when he checked his watch and saw that El had been gone for half an hour he couldn’t help himself anymore.
“That’s it; I’m going to find her.” He said to the others and he started searching the house asking random people if they had seen her.
After ten minutes of searching he still hadn’t found her and he started to panic. He went through every room shouting her name, but she was still nowhere to be seen. Eventually, his search led him to the backyard where he finally spotted her slumped in a pool chair and he ran to her in relief.
“El, there you are!” He exclaimed, “I’ve been looking all over for you, I… El?” suddenly all the anxiety was back in him - he knew something was completely wrong; El was looking at him, but her eyes were blurred like she wasn’t really seeing him.
“Mike, it’s you, you’re, you’re here,” she blurted out in a strange voice that didn’t seem like hers, “I just, I,I got a little tired, I’m, I got a little tired, so I just take, I’m, I’m taking a nap.”
Mike sat down next to her trying not to panic.
“El, are you okay? Wha-what happened to you? Are, are you drunk?” Mike spoke softly taking both of El’s hands in his and trying to maintain eye contact.
“Oh, hey, Mike,” Mike turned his head and saw Stacey standing behind him with a cup of beer in her hand, “Oh my gosh, El got so wasted, so she just wanted to lie down for a bit.”
Mike got up and looked at Stacey incredulously; anger was starting to boil inside him.
“Are you out of your damn mind?” He asked in outrage, “You got her drunk?!”
“Well, duh; it’s a party.” Stacey said, and her indifference angered Mike even more.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Stacey, can’t you see she’s not well?”
“Jesus, Wheeler, don’t be such a buzzkill.” Stacey said, completely brushing him off.
“I’m taking El home now,” Mike snarled, “and you better stay the hell away from her.”
“Ugh, whatever.” Stacey said rolling her eyes and then she walked off and started talking to a friend like she was not the least bothered, and Mike just stood there completely despising her. Then he turned back to El and got one of her arms around his neck while he got an arm around her waist and tried gently to get her on her feet; she was a bit wobbly, but with him supporting her she could stand.
“Mike, Mike I feel weird,” she said in her blurred, drunk voice, “I think I, I just wanna go home.”
“I know, I know, El, I’ll take you home now and you’ll be just fine, okay?” Mike said softly.
“You promise?”
“Yeah, of course; I promise.”
“Okay.” El looked at Mike; her eyes were still blurred, but he saw in them that she trusted him, and they started walking back towards the car. She stumbled a bit, but she held on to him tightly and he held on to her, so they made it just fine. When they got to the car Mike got El carefully in on the passenger seat and got himself behind the wheel – he hadn’t been driving for more than a couple of minutes before El seemed like she was about to doze off.
“El? Are you okay there?” he asked gently, and she made a little jump and looked at him.
“Are you mad at me? Are we in trouble?” she asked, suddenly sounding more worried than drunk.
“No, no, of course not. Why would I be mad at you, it wasn’t your fault.” Mike said reassuringly.
“Jim will be mad! He, he’ll be so, he’ll be so mad when he finds out.” El blurted out.
Mike took one hand off the wheel and put it on El’s to calm her down.
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he said consolingly, “let me handle it, okay; you don’t have to worry.”
El went silent for a moment. Then she looked at Mike again.
“You take care of me; you always take care of me.” She said quietly.
Mike glanced sideways at her; the sporadic streetlights lit up the car and he saw that she was still looking at him intensely, thoughtfully. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from the alcohol.
“Of course, I do,” Mike said, “and you take care of me.”
He glanced sideways again; she was still looking at him. There was something about that particular way she looked at him just now that made him feel a little shy. He fixed his eyes on the road and felt color rise in his cheeks; for some reason he now felt like the timid twelve-year-old boy he had been when he first fell in love with her.
Mike pulled up at Chief Hopper’s place and blessed his lucky star that he was out of town for the night. He helped El out of the car and inside the house and at the foot of the stairs he gently picked her up and started carrying her upstairs while she had her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. Mike carried El to her room and put her down on the bed; he took her shoes off and put them on the floor next to the bed, then he went to the kitchen and poured a big glass of water which he brought back to El.
“Here, it’ll make you feel better.”
El gulped down the water and put the empty glass on the nightstand.
“Thanks, Mike.” She gave a little smile and already seemed more like herself. Mike leaned in and gently kissed her forehead.
“I’ll go sleep on the couch; just call me if you need anything, okay?”
Mike got up and made to leave El to sleep, but her voice stopped him:
“Mike,” she said softly from the bed, “could you maybe stay with me,” she looked at him with imploring eyes, “please.”
Mike hesitated. He wanted to stay of course, but he also knew that the Chief would likely have an aneurysm if he found out that he had slept in El’s bed; then again, he would probably have an aneurysm anyway when he found out that El had accidentally gotten drunk on his watch, so he might as well risk it.
“Yeah,” he finally said, “yeah, of course I’ll stay.”
Mike went back to the bed and suddenly felt shy again. He took his shoes off and laid down next to El, facing her. El inched closer to him; they looked each other in the eyes and he could feel her warm breath on his face.
“I don’t know what I would do without you,” she whispered, “I… I’m so sorry about… about the party.”
“Hey, don’t be sorry,” Mike said reassuringly, “It’s fine, really; it’s all fine.”
El was looking at him again with that intense gaze and for some reason he was trembling. She reached out and ran her fingers gently through his hair; then she traced a finger down his cheek and lightly touched his lips. She traced her finger down his chin and further down his neck and touched his collarbone. Mike’s heartbeat increased. El’s finger traced down his chest and she rested her hand on his heart. She looked at her hand on his chest for a moment. Quiet. Feeling his heartbeat. Mike was at once completely exhilarated and completely terrified – like he was on the edge of something new which was not quite there, but not far off.
“El, I,” he began to say something to break off the intensity of the moment, but El cut him off:
“Mike,” she whispered, and looked him in the eyes again, “I love you.”
Then she pressed her lips against his and he lightly touched her cheek and kissed her back. She had never said those words before, and neither had he. He had thought about saying it many times, but had always chickened out in the end, but now she had said it and the words echoed in his head, and he felt like he might actually float to the ceiling.
“I love you, too,” he blurted out as soon as they broke apart, “I love you so much; I always have.”
El smiled and kissed him again and the love between them was tangible; then she snuggled closer and was in his arms.
“You love me.” She breathed, right before dozing off. Mike still trembled a bit; he felt there was a new intimacy between them; something almost adult while at the same time so innocent. Soon he dozed off as well, and for the moment being they were still just two teenagers who loved each other and had fallen asleep in each other’s arms.
