a real-life, honest to god sorcerer!

"I remember, growin' up, at night, my dad would sit in the kitchen with all the lights out, and he'd wait for me to come in. And he'd sit there and drink, and I'd stand in the driveway and I'd look in through the screen door and I could see the light of the cigarette, and then I'd rush up on the porch and try to get by him, and he'd always call me back. And it was like he was always... always angry. Always mad. He'd be sittin' there thinkin' about everything that he wasn't ever gonna have, until... until he'd get me thinkin' like that too. And I'd lay up in my bed, at night, I'd be starin' at the ceiling, and I'd feel like if somethin' didn't happen, if somethin' didn't happen soon, it felt like I was just gonna... like someday, like I was just gonna..."

will tries to play along and feel the buzz of excitement that’s radiating down the hallways because he doesn’t want to be a downer or ruin it for his friends and he really does wish he was feeling it. he’ll let his mom take pictures of him all dressed up and coo about how handsome he looks, and he’ll let hopper awkwardly tell him to be safe and remind him of his curfew and the 3 inches rule that used to drive mike and el crazy the summer they were 14 (… like there’s anyone he’d need that for, he thinks self-deprecatingly) and he’s so thankful he has the best, most supportive parents in the world but it just sucks. there’s no one for him to ask, and he knows no one (or at least no one he’d actually want to go with, plenty of girls in his art class would die to have him as their date) is going to ask him. and even if there was, he knows it wouldn’t be safe to go together, to show up in matching tuxes and hold hands in the high school gym. he hates it and he just wants to feel normal and have the same end of high school experience that he’ll look back on fondly in 30 years as everyone else and it’s just not fair.

mike, on the other hand, is just depressed. everyone assumes it’s because he knows el should be here. should be his date. that she would love going dress shopping with joyce and getting ready with max and using up all the film in jonathan’s polaroid camera that she’d borrow taking photos of everyone — and partially that is it. but it’s not all of it. but no one really wants to ask and set him off on a spiral where he goes completely distant and doesn’t show up to school for a week like he did in november, so they just don’t.

so it’s prom night. and mike and will are both just sitting there. just like they did at the snowball. miserable and sad and appreciating each other’s presence but not saying anything, they barely even look at each other, because then they’d have to acknowledge that something’s wrong.

max and lucas and dustin try to get them to get up, to dance, to have fun, but after a few failed attempts to raise their spirits they just stay like that. until the dj announces that this is the last slow song and tells them to find someone special and head to the dance floor.

and mike exhales so loudly that will can hear it over the music. he stands up and holds his hand out, face red and tense but trying to be mike the brave and he’s trying to be casual and nonchalant not act like he feels — like this is the most potentially life-altering thing he’ll ever do (it is) and he just asks. he asks will if he’ll dance with him.

will looks around all bashful and confused, like he genuinely expects there’s some girl standing behind him. and mike laughs a little and confirms that yeah, he means will.

and of course will says yes. it’s mike. his answer is always yes.

and so they dance. they dance to a stupid top 40 ballad that they both hate and it’s a little awkward, they don’t really know the steps or whose hands should go where and they don’t want to be too obvious or draw any attention and mike is so nervous and will just can’t believe this is happening. but mike pulls will close and whispers that he knows it was him. will’s crush. and he’s sorry that he wasted so much time. he’s sorry that it took him so long figure it out and he’s sorry that high school’s almost over but he hopes he’s not too late, that they can make the best of the next four months before will leaves for new york. and will almost kisses him right there, but he remembers where they are. in a smelly high school gym in hawkins, indiana, and andy and troy and all the rest of them are probably somewhere in this crowd of sweaty overdressed teenage bodies and he really doesn’t want his first kiss to end in him or mike getting punched in the face so he resolves to hold mike tighter, folding into each other so that his mike is leaned over and tucked into the crook of his neck and all will can smell is that head and shoulders shampoo karen buys that he knows so well because he used it himself for 18 months —sharing a bathroom with mike and letting himself fantasize in the shower about what it might like to be like to live together just the two of them. (if max and lucas notice and position themselves in such a way where they happen to obsecure mike and will from most of the gym’s view. well, that’s just a happy coincidence). and will tells mike that he’s not too late. that he’d wait forever if mike needed him to.