𝗙𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗲 ❦ | 𝗕𝘆𝗹𝗲𝗿

♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

PAIN RUSHED through his head as he fluttered his eyes open, awaking him from his sleeping state. A headache was a "great" start to Will's morning, already setting the tone for the rest of the day. He sighed, sitting up in his bed and stretching out his limbs. Reluctantly, he got up out of his bed and stretched some more. As he did so, he saw Mike, still sleeping on the floor.

"Mike," He called out to him, attempting to wake him up. "Wake up." No response. He let out an exhale and decided to just leave him be because he was way too tired, and had an excruciating headache, so he wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with this at the moment.

Heading into the kitchen was a lot harder than he wanted it to be, but he couldn't do much about the head pain induced dizziness that overwhelmed his vision. Slowly, and agonizingly, he eventually made his way into the room and immediately plopped down into the nearest chair. "Good morning, sweetheart." He faintly heard his mother say as she made, what he assumed was breakfast.

"Morning..." He yawned a bit before sitting his head in his hands. "Hey, mom, do we have any pain medication or anything like that?" Will asked, closing his eyes to block out the brightness of the sun peeking through the space between his fingers.

"We should have some Tylenol... Why? Is something wrong?" His mother answered. Her quickened panic was picked up by Will right away, and he wanted to quickly deescalate the situation.

"Oh, no, it's nothing," He dismissed her worries, shaking his head slightly, but not too harsh in order to save himself from more pain. "Just a headache..."

"If you say so..." Joyce mumbled to herself, stopping what she was doing and sitting in a chair next to Will. She comfortingly put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile that he couldn't see. "I'll look for some and bring it to you, okay?" Will lifted his head up to look at her, and gave her a faint smile as he nodded. She got up and walked in the direction of the bathroom before coming back a few moments later, medicine in hand.

"Thank you, mom." He thanked her as she poured him a glass of water to help wash down the pill. She handed him the pill bottle and he opened it, popping the medicine into his mouth before taking a long sip. His mother walked back over to where she was earlier, continuing to cook breakfast. Will sat in silence, just staring at his glass of water.

"I didn't know that Mike came over," She broke the silence as Will removed his gaze from the glass. He didn't say anything and just shrugged, hoping that was good enough of a response. "I saw you two earlier when I went to check on you. It reminded me of when you guys were younger and had sleepovers all the time." Joyce trailed off, Will slightly nodding along.

"Yeah, I guess so." He mumbled a bit, more to himself, but his mother still heard it. Silence filled the room once again, Joyce still cooking while Will bit some of the skin off of his lips out of boredom. A few minutes passed by when he noticed the sound of someone walking into the kitchen. He turned to be greeted with a still half-asleep Mike Wheeler who was rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Good morning..." He yawned out, sitting next to Will, his attention immediately being drawn to the pill bottle still sitting on the table. "What's that for?" He questioned, fixing his gaze towards Will. Will wasn't 100% sure, but he thought he saw Mike glance down at his lips for a slight moment.

"Oh, it's nothing. I had a headache so I took some Tylenol." He explained, the two boys making eye contact for a minute.

"Alright, then." Mike responded plainly, looking away from Will. Before this awkward silence could go on any longer, Joyce had finished up breakfast and started sitting it on the table, which was just some simple pancakes. Everyone started eating their food almost as soon as it was sat down.

"Where's Jonathan at?" Will asked, still eating his pancake. Joyce sat for a moment thinking back to earlier that morning.

"He told me earlier that he was going to see Nancy, and that he'd have breakfast over there." She answered. Will smiled slightly at the thought that his brother was taking his advice. He really hoped things between Nancy and Johnathan could be fixed. Nonetheless, he just simply nodded as silence washed over the room once more. Without him even realizing it, Will had finished his breakfast along with everyone else.

"So, Will," Mike said, drawing Will's attention onto him. It was just the two of them in Will's room since after they finished eating, they both made their way back there for no reason in particular. "Have you worked on any paintings since you guys got settled here?" The raven haired boy asked.

"No, all of my painting stuff is still back in Lenora and I haven't really had the time to get any for here." The brunette answered, awkwardly fidgeting with his hands.

"Oh." Was all that Mike said as he gave a strained nod. The air was very tense since they had discussed something quite serious last night, but didn't really know what to say now. Especially with the awkwardly silent breakfast they shared. "Well, that's a shame. I really liked the one you showed me. The one El commissioned."

Will felt a lump form in his throat. He felt like hiding away under the covers of his bed for the rest of his life. He was so embarrassed by that painting and the fact that his whole monologue flew right over Mike's head. He regretted ever making that stupid painting for a stupid boy that he's in love with. Every time he remembered the amount of time he spent working on it, or when he actually gave it to the other boy, he felt an intense pain in his heart that made him want to cry until he physically couldn't anymore.

Will was so naïve to think that Mike might feel the same way, and he was stupid to try to express how he felt through a painting that he ended up lying about anyways. "Oh, yeah, right. That one." After he had responded, you could hear nothing but the unpleasantness of the deafening quiet.