23. Different kind of pretty (Mileven)

A/N: Hi, kiddos! So, I wanted to think outside the box and do something different for this prompt. The 'jealous!Mike over a high school boy who's beautiful and kind' is a bit overused, so I put my own twist into this. I was rewatching Mob Wives, so that's where Gravano comes from lol. Also, lmao I just had to use the word shook in this. This is for wordsfromthefeatherquill. I hope you guys like this, and I just wanted to take a little moment to tell you how much I appreciate you and love you. I really didn't think this would have such a big audience, and I love you guys so much for being here since day one. You make me keep writing, and Stranger Things Prompts has become my favorite story because of your enthusiastic comments. I LOVE ALL OF YOU!

PROMPT: Jealous Mike.

Sophia Gravano was one of the meanest girls in school. She was tall, thin, dark haired, and had the greenest eyes ever seen, ones that seemed to pierce through your head and into your brain. She had a wicked sharp tongue that made everyone pity the poor soul who found themselves on its other end. The fact that she was very pretty and came from a very wealthy family (the old money kind) helped to boost her ego, and she surrounded herself with people she decided were worth her time.

That's why it perplexed Mike to no end when she began talking to El in class.

The whole Party shared at max 3 classes weekly, and History was one of them. Mrs. Amalia had separated them from their usual seats, and made each member sit at different places of the classroom. Lucas, because he had been unsurprisingly bickering with Dustin, was sent to the right back corner of the room, next to the world map (which he was glad for, it would come in handy in exams, he was sure); Dustin had been sent to the first place in the first row, next to the classroom's door, in plain view of Mrs. Amalia's watchful gaze; Max had been sent to the opposite row, in the first seat next to the window, away from her friends and next to Bruce Rowland (who wouldn't stop flirting with her, even though she had threatened to break his nose in multiple occasions); Mike had been sent to the other back corner, opposite of Lucas, and it was the perfect seat to watch El and Will as they sat in the middle of the classroom.

While Mrs. Amalia blabbered about World War 2, Mike frowned as he watched Sophia chat quietly with El, Will taking notes next to the brunette. He found it weird, because just that morning, Sophia had shoulder-shoved Dustin out of her way while they had been walking in the hallway. El had glared and Sophia had only tossed her long, shiny hair behind her shoulders as she kept on walking with her head held high. His freckled nose scrunched up as El's shoulders began to shake in silent laughter, and he threw a cautious look in their teacher's direction, not wanting his girlfriend to get in trouble again, and especially not because of Sophia Gravano.

He watched as the raven haired girl leaned over and muttered something in El's ear, making the brunette snicker loudly; loud enough, Mike noticed with a grimace, for Mrs. Amalia to stop her lecture.

"Ms. Hopper," the teacher scolded, and every head turned to the middle seat where El's face began turning an impressive shade of red because of the attention. "It seems like you find new friends in every seat I assign you. Do I need to sign a detention pass for you?"

"No!" El yelped. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Amalia, please continue."

The blonde teacher nodded with warning in her eyes and then resumed to list the countries that had formed the Axis.

That was the first interaction that Mike had caught between the two girls.

The weeks that followed, Sophia continued talking to El in History class (and in other classes he didn't share with her, according to Max and Will, who shared all of their classes with the brunette), in the hallway, and even at lunch.

Needless to say, their group was under the eyes of the other students once Sophia had approached their table to chat with El for a few minutes before she went to her own, much to Dustin's awe.

"She's a complete bitch, you idiot." Max had rolled her eyes.

"But she's gorgeous." The curly haired boy had sighed as the girl walked away.

The heaviest gaze came from Mike, though. He knew El was pretty friendly once you shattered that first-time-shyness wall, but El didn't like bullies, and Sophia could get pretty nasty with her words, so the sudden friendship his girlfriend had acquired baffled Mike. When he had inquired El about it, the girl had shrugged and revealed that Sophia wasn't so bad once she wasn't in the constant pressure the high school hierarchy put upon her.

"She's pretty funny," El told him over a mouthful of popcorn as they watched a movie in his basement. "Reminds me of Hopper's sarcasm." And that had been it.

The mutters that had reached his ears from some of the Hawkins High students had confused him, and he hadn't given them much thought, like that time Kurt Smith had snickered when he overheard El and Sophia's plans for a girl's day in Sophia's house.

"You should go with them, Wheeler," the stupid shaggy haired boy neared him as he patiently waited for El, who was talking to Sophia by the dark haired girl's locker. "That'd be one hell of a show." Kurt practically drooled as he threw a lusty look in the girls' direction; Mike had only pushed the annoying kid away with a glare and a threat of frying his balls if he ever looked in his girlfriend's direction like that again.

Stacey had dared to insult the girl in front of the whole Biology class, and Mike had been too astonished by Sophia's venom-dripping retort (which landed her in detention, and resulted in Stacey living what was surely the worst year of school for anyone) to pay much attention to the slur that had caused the whole argument.

Now, Mike tried to pick his jaw from the floor and to reintegrate his brain cells from the mush they turned into as El fidgeted with the grass in front of him.

Sophia tried to kiss El.

Sophia tried to kiss his girlfriend.

"Mike!" El frowned. "Are you listening?"

"Uh, yeah," His tongue untangled. "What the fuck?!"

"It was so weird. We were laughing in the bathroom and then she just leaned in and went muah," El pursed her lips in a kiss demonstration, while Mike continued to frown. "And I tried to reject her as best as I could, because I didn't want to hurt her feelings."

"What did you tell her?" He asked her as he pulled on a grass blade, sitting cross-legged on his backyard.

"That I had a boyfriend and that I wasn't into girls." El explained calmly.

"And what did she say?"

"That she understands. And to please keep her secret. She isn't out," El eyed him as he continued to frown down at the ground while cutting the grass blade into a million pieces. "So I'm telling you now because I trust you, and I know you won't tell anyone. Right?"

"Right." She tried to kiss his girlfriend.

Anger flowed in his veins and he huffed a little as he realized why Sophia had a sudden interest in El.

She liked her.

Sophia had been trying to steal his girl right under his large nose and Mike had been too stupid to realize it. All the whispers in class, and the looks, and the friendly touches… Mike nodded to himself as he remembered his apprehensive feelings from the start, now understanding that he had been right.

"Mike?" El asked him warily as she looked at him with curious eyes, noticing his mind seemed to be miles away. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," He muttered gloomily. "I'm fine."

"Are you angry?" She asked tentatively as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"No, is just—", he cut himself off with a sigh.

He couldn't describe it. They had been dating for nearly three years, and yes, there had been a few boys that took interest in her, but he never really cared because she never gave them a second look. But, Sophia? Sophia had her attention almost every day; they spent time together both in school and outside of it, they shared similar interests, both watched the same 7 PM soap, and they even borrowed each other's things sometimes. Also, it didn't help that Sophia was stunning. Even Max had said so, and his redheaded friend hated Sophia.

He didn't know how to describe it, but he felt intimidated by her closeness with his girlfriend. He knew El didn't swing that way because of their relationship, but to be honest, she hadn't really experienced or even thought of being with a girl, so maybe Sophia would be the one to ignite that little flame in El. Would El break up with him and leave him for Sophia Gravano? He felt threatened, he felt shook, he felt—

"Wait," El sat up straighter and took his hand away from the abused grass blades he was tearing apart. "Are you jealous?"

Yes.

"What? No," Mike scoffed. "I'm not jealous."

"You're totally jealous." El grinned as she realized why he was acting so weird.

Yes, he was totally jealous. He reluctantly nodded and dared a look in her direction to see if she was still looking at him, and his heart thumped in his chest when she gave him a soft smile.

"Why are you jealous?"

"'Cause." He muttered ruefully.

"C'mon, tell me why you're jealous." She requested gently while squeezing his hand in reassurance.

"'Cause!" He repeated louder. "She's really pretty and you spend so much time with her."

"Mike," El scoffed. "We're just friends. And I already told you I'm not into girls."

"But that's because you have not given yourself an opportunity to really think about it."

"Well, I mean," El pondered for a minute. "Some girls are really pretty," she admitted with a cock of her head. "Sophia's really pretty."

There it is. She was leaving him now. Goodbye Mileven, like the whole Party called them.

"But she's not you." El giggled a little as she leaned in and caressed his cheek with a grass-smelling hand.

"She's way prettier than me, though." He shrugged, still a little down in his self-pity.

"Mmmm," El cocked her head again. "You're both a different kind of pretty."

"How so?" Mike frowned.

"Well, Sophia is…" she trailed off with a frown, struggling to find the right word.

He made a sound to help her out, knowing she still struggled with the language barrier even after all these years, but she moved her hand to his mouth to silence him.

"Gorgeous," She nodded after finding the word she was looking for. "She's the kind of pretty you notice at first sight. You are more of a clean pretty; with your sharp cheekbones," She traced his features with soft fingertips. "And your cute freckles. But you have to look closer to notice the gold shades in your eyes, and how this curl," She tugged on a stubborn piece of hair on his forehead. "Always stays here, no matter how many times you brush it back. You're a different kind of pretty than she is, but you're my kind of pretty."

His mouth curved upwards in an emotional smile as his heart sped up. How did he get so damn lucky? How did he, a nerd, end up with a girl as amazing and beautiful as El?

"And I love you. I don't care about anyone else but you. Understand?" She asked him with her big doe eyes wide and bright, and he couldn't help the little sigh that escaped his lips as he nodded, looking up at her with his whole heart shining in his eyes.

"I love you, too." He murmured with a smile as reached out to finger one of her loose curls.

"You're just so cute." El leaned in on her knees to kiss him, and she squealed as Mike held her waist and leaned back, throwing their weight on the grass as they fell backwards with a laugh.

"I love you, I love you, I love you." He told her with a smile as he smacked tons of kisses on her cheeks, jaw, chin, lips, forehead, and anywhere he could reach.

When he saw Sophia smiling at El in lunch, her green eyes crinkled in fondness, it only took El squeezing his hand in reassurance to calm his jealousy.

She loved him and everything was alright.