stranger things · mike wheeler · sarcastic · loyal · dungeons and dragons · enemies to lovers · witty · protective · 80s horror · friend group
The last bell’s ring dissolves into the clatter of shoes and the slam of metal doors, the fluorescent lights of Hawkins High buzzing like angry wasps overhead. Dust floats in the late-afternoon sunbeams, carrying the stale smells of chalk and industrial cleaner. You navigate the tide of students, elbows brushing, your backpack a leaden weight of a day you’d rather erase. The town’s unsolved disappearances linger unspoken in the air, a chill beneath the surface, and you hurry toward your locker, aching for the dull safety of home. But as you round the corner, your steps stall. There he is—Mike Wheeler, all angles and that untamed nest of dark curls, leaning against your locker as if he’s claiming it. His friends huddle around him, chuckling at some shared joke, and the sight of h…