🚲Behind That Fake Smile💔ZodiacTheSpringer

Eleven

El's POV

I was standing behind Will as he stood over Mike.
Will had just punched him hard in the nose and I was completely astonished by his actions.
I had never known Will Byers to ever do that to somebody before let alone his childhood friend.
But I was still proud of him for standing up to Mike. Mike deserved it!

"That's what you get for treating him like a worthless pile of junk!" I yelled in amusement into Mike's face.

He started back at me in shock whilst he was pinching onto his nose to stop the bleeding.

"You support this?!" He sounded astonished yet funny from the effect of having his nose blocked.

"Of course I do!" I shouted back.

Mike looked from one of us to the other, lost for words.
He slowly got to his feet and used his free hand to hold the tree for balance.
He still looked at us in fear. His legs were shuddering as though he thought Will was going to strike at him again.

Mike tripped over his own feet as he turned to run. He quickly stood back up and shook off the leaves that stuck to him before rushing back the way he came.

I stood tall and optimistic while Will instead slouched with his fingers crawling over each other.

"I... hurt him." He whispered.

I put my hands around him and hugged him tightly. "You did what was right!" I said positively. "You showed him who not to mess with.".

I pulled away with my hands still firmly on his shoulders. A small smile had formed on his face but a spark of uncertainty was still flickering through his eyes.

"Don't think of him." I told him after a few seconds of silence. "We will head back to your place and I could stay over the night! How 'bout that?" I grinned at him.

Will nodded as a response and we strolled the bike back onto the road.

We rode home the same way we had come: Will at the front, controlling the bike's movements, and me: on the back, holding onto his shoulders.

Once we got to Will's place: I asked Joyce to call my Dad (Jim Hopper), to see if I could stay over.
He wasn't quick to agree on it but after a bit of convincing he had finally aloud me to stay the night if Joyce kept a good eye on me.

Joyce had cooked us a nice meal and we were now sitting on the couch watching TV with the food on our laps.
We were rapped in blankets with pillows scattered here and there across the floor.

We were both fighting over the remote to try and change the channel since we both had a show on that we wanted to watch.
We were laughing and yelling at each other, entertained with what we were doing.

Will stole the remote off of me and quickly flicked to his channel before slipping the remote under the couch where I couldn't reach it.

"Will!" I half laughed half shouted at him.

He giggled back at me with his hands covering his mouth to attempt to hide it.

We both eventually calmed down and ate our special dinner while watching the movie Will had forced me to watch.

"Will.." Joyce poked her head around the corner to call for Will.

Even though she hadn't called my name; I looked over at her interested in what she was going to say.

"Karen says you punched Mike in the nose.." Joyce sounded upset and confused.

Will wasn't sure of what to say back to her but I gave him a little nudge to signal to him to tell her the truth.

He glanced back at me then to his Mom.

"Y-yeah. I did." Will began. "But only because he was bugging me. He had lied to me! He was constantly invading my alone time to keep on apologising!".

"That is no reason to brake somebody's nose, Will." She told him sternly. "Tomorrow your going to walk over to his house to apologise to him.".

Will stared after her as she unentered the room.

He stabbed his fork onto the plate making a large screeching sound to release his anger. Not even blocking my ears could quiet down the ear splitting sound.
But after that he continued to watch the movie and eat with an in raged face as if he was going to punch another person in the face.
It was a bit uncomfortable to sit next to Will who was acting quite strange, but he calmed down when we went into his room.

Will had a new bed leant against the yellow wallpaper on his wall. It wasn't the newest bed and must've come from a second hand store from town.
It was a double bed though, so we could sleep together. The mattress was comfy as well and sank slowly when you hopped onto it.

We both sat cross legged on the bed with our cokes sitting on the beside table.

We were having another long conversation but instead of the usual stuff: we instead talked about our crushes. I didn't have one and wasn't too interested in dating somebody again after Mike.
Will slowly drifted off from his part of the conversation where he would tell me his crush. He looked to his lap where the palm of his hands faced back at him.

"El.." he started.

"Yeah?".

"I like Mike.".

"Even after he lied? I thought you would for sure hate him as a friend.".

"No. I'm not saying I like him as a friend, El. I mean: I love him.".

I was a bit shocked about what Will had said for a moment. I had barely processed what he had said before he started talking again.

"I like Mike how a boy would love a girl. But the girl is replaced with another boy. Technically; in other words: I'm gay and i want to make-out with Mike.".

I knew what being gay was. My Dad had taught me about gay people when it had come up in the news one time.
But I had never really thought of Will to be one of them.
Sure, I noticed something had been off about him in the past year but I thought it was a girl he liked at school in California.
Not Mike...