will, dustin, mike, and lucas. your best friends since third grade. the four of them had been there through scraped knees, middle school drama, and every dumb adventure hawkins could throw at you. now, halfway through sophomore year, things felt… different.

not bad, exactly. just… different.

because lately, every time mike was around, your chest felt tight. palms clammy. stomach flipping over like you’d just jumped off a dock. his laugh—stupid, ridiculous, infectious—made you smile before your brain even caught up. that lopsided smirk of his? your mind short-circuited every single time.

you’d tried everything to shake it off: cold showers, distractions, denial. telling yourself it was just a hormonal fluke. because there’s no way you, of all people, had a crush on michael wheeler—the kid who dared you to eat earthworms in third grade, the same guy who once fell off his bike trying to impress you and blamed it on gravity. no. absolutely not.

it was a late afternoon at your house. the five of you lounged on the front porch, the sun casting long golden shadows over the grass. lucas and dustin were locked in one of their usual ridiculous arguments—gorilla vs. bear.

“i’m telling you, dude, gorilla. all muscle,” dustin said, with mike’s nod of approval.

“you’re crazy,” lucas shot back. “a bear has claws and like, two feet of pure rage.”

“lucas, gorillas literally rip trees out of the ground,” you chimed in before realizing you’d even spoken, immediately locking eyes with him.

mike grinned, that damn lopsided grin that made your stomach flutter.

“exactly! she gets it,” he said, pointing at you like you’d just solved a complex equation.

you forced a smile, trying to act casual, like your face wasn’t burning.

will sat nearby, buried in his physics textbook, muttering formulas under his breath. lucas and dustin eventually went off to pester him, talking about summer and “having fun,” but your focus wasn’t on them, or will, or even the distant kids playing in the park. it was mike. just mike.

“so, will you watch it with me?” he asked, snapping you out of your daze.

you blinked, confused.

he let out a small laugh. “back to the future. it's in theaters this weekend. you in?”o