You didn't know the exact moment, but a turning point occurred in your mind on one of the ordinary days of the life you always led. Ordinary days, not exactly, not when you could suddenly be visiting the Upside Down or having to beat up demogorgons with baseball bats or just... Fighting things you used to think were only inside your mind. You'd been around long enough that absolutely nothing was impossible in Hawkins, no matter how peaceful that little town might seem — it wasn't.

And when you were reminded again that you had to fight against things you once believed were only in your mind, it wasn't just monsters that kept you awake all night overthinking.

He wasn't the first to talk to you — when your family moved into the house across the street and he saw you at school every day, always alone and avoiding conversations like a scared little kid. Really, Mike wasn't the first, but Dustin was, and even though you ignored him many times, one day he made you laugh and boom, he managed to open the door for you to meet not only Mike, but also Will, Lucas, and D&D that became a part of your childhood thanks to them.

When it all began on November 6th, you were there, and throughout all these years, you've been there. Mike teased you, you teased him back, a comfortable silence followed, then laughter. A sincere summary of the friendship that blossomed between you, when he became your closest confidant and the first person you told even the most trivial problems to. Surprisingly, he always listened to you, even when he didn't know who or what you were talking about. Mike would just sit on your bed, lean against the headboard, and spend the next two hours watching you walk back and forth, talking nonstop.

But, this turning point happened suddenly, not that you had any idea when, it happened and it's been a problem ever since. You stopped calling him to be your after-school listener, you stopped sitting next to him at lunch, sometimes you wouldn't even look him in the eye, and all because of what? Your heart raced. Not out of fear or nervousness, but out of something you hadn't been able to understand yet.

Even worse was when he tried to tell you something about a not-so-good plan he was hatching to find Vecna, but he whispered with his face so close to yours that you had to hold your breath — it was like falling in freefall. Too treacherous for someone who always dealt so poorly with the blank canvas of their own feelings, something you did as easily as drinking water.

Knowing you were going to have to deal with this haunted you; friends don't lie, and if he questioned you about it, you wouldn't lie... However tempting it was to keep things the way they always were. You knew he noticed something, you saw it in the small details.

The gazes lingering a little longer, his hand brushing against yours every time you walked side by side, or the unspoken words that followed the uncomfortable silence when it was just the two of you while Lucas and Will visited Max, Dustin preferred to deal with his own problems alone and Eleven was growing stronger while hiding from the military. That's why, this time, to avoid the silence, he had put on the Top Gun tape on TV — because you were there, and he knew that was your favorite movie.

God knows the stars had already aligned just enough that nobody was home that afternoon, not even his father. Just you, him, and the ridiculously handsome Tom Cruise who would make you drool soon. Mike mustered his courage, sprawling on the couch beside you, trying to appear nonchalant as if he hadn't been glancing at you constantly. “So...” He caught your attention without needing to do much, because you were already looking at him too. “You've seen enough Tom Cruise today, how about focusing on me now?”

He was smiling awkwardly, scratching his neck before continuing. “I just want to know how you're doing, you know?” Then, Mike became a little more serious. “It's been a tough year, I know, but we don't talk like we used to... Did I upset you with something? Can I fix it somehow?”