Will remembered that feeling, the feeling where there was nothing else in the world but him, where everything stopped and he could breath. He smiled lightly at the deer. He felt on some level the deer smiled back.
That was until a bullet impaled the creatures skull.
Will's peace ended and his breath caught in his throat, blood splattered the does once tranquil face and it collapsed to the earth, like a tonne of bricks. Now will could remember the sound it made, when it's lifeless body hit the floor, followed by the echoes of his father's yells of glee and victory, his brothers forced ones following. He bit back bile as he turned from the horrific sight, flinching when Lonny patted his shoulder as he approached his kill. Will cringed at the memory even now.
Will pictured himself as the doe, as it represented what little hope he had left. And the rest of his mind his father, mercilessly pulling the trigger to end that spark, and banish it to a place beyond revival. A place he had once longed to visit.
He shuddered.
The bike Will owned was nothing to gloat about- a simple rusting red bike with sliver handle bars, and a flaky leather seat. He pulled the bike from its dormant position in the shed and wheeled it outside. There he pushed off the ground and began his way to school, definitely not dreading the fact that he'd come across a particular freckled boy at some point within the next dozen hours.
•••
"Will! Will, wait up!" A voice yelled from somewhere stop the hill he had just rode down. He turned to see Dustin panting and flailing his non-occupied arm around in the air in hopes to capture Will's attention. Lucas rode beside him, silently rolling his eyes. The other member of the trio absent.
Will smiled.
"He can't see you, dumbass, he hasn't got eyes in the back of his head." Lucas droned.
"Well, true, but that would be pretty cool if he did. 360 vision you know? Like the beholder!"
"Did you just compare me to a floating ball of slime?" Will asked, mocking offence.
"Well, that's not what I meant-"
"Sure." Lucas said, grinning.
Dustin sighed in response, seeing no hope in continuing his efforts to converse.
The three of them continued their journey to school, Will riding a few feet ahead, sometimes engaging in the chatter that echoed behind him. Will decided he couldn't ignore the elephant in the room any longer.
"Hey, uh, where's Mike?"
He was answered with abrupt silence as the two hesitated. Will could feel them share glances.
"He, well um," Lucas began.
"His bike is broken." Dustin finished, poorly hiding the obvious lie. Lucas snorted behind him, before feigning a cough instead. Wills fingers tightened around the handlebars.
"Oh." He uttered instead.
The three pulled up to the bike stops, where Mikes bike blatantly stood, solitary. Will could two pairs of eyes watching for his reaction, though none was received. Will just turned and asked the two boys what they had first, "Art" was his one worded reply. The three locked their bikes and walked towards the school entrance, silence following them the whole way.
•••
The universe was strange, Will had decided, for today was going surprisingly well. He didn't know what about today was good, he just... knew something was going right. Maybe his life had turned and decided not to be a pain in the ass any longer. Or maybe he was wrong, and he was actually dead from throwing himself off the nearest bridge like he had done in many previous dreams, and he was in heaven. He maybe never realised he was dead.
The rain thrummed softly on the windows as the art teacher announced their work. Self portrait. Fun.
"You have thirty minutes, anything not completed now, will be completed in detention. No exceptions. Now begin."
Will decided he didn't like this teacher.
They had only had an art lesson once before, which a short woman named Tabitha covered for their current teacher, Ms Grogan. The supply wore extrovert clothing, brightly coloured and smelling of sage and patchouli. Dustin cracked jokes about her the whole lesson. Will had an odd feeling he wouldn't be making joke about this teacher. Ms Grogan smelt strongly of cigarettes, a smell familiar to Will, and wore a lengthy worn duffel coat, despite of the indoor heating. Her face was taut, and Will heals his breath when she caught him staring, deciding best not to cross this woman, and quickly looked back to his work.
Beside him Lucas huffed.
"This is dumb," He said under his breath, "not everyone can draw."
"Hey, it's not that hard once you get into it." Dustin said, brow furrowed in concentration as he drew what Will presumed was an eye, though it held closer resemblance to a potato (not that he would ever mention that aloud).
"Yeah, because you're such the aspiring artist." Lucas snorted, words dripping with sarcasm.
"Hey, I'm sorry that you've little to no artistic flare inside of you, some of us are just lucky." Dustin replied smugly, tracing the outline of a nose.
"Careful there, airhead, you're beginning to sound like an aspiring queer." Lucas shot back, before leaning over the desk to see Dustin's portrait. He caught a glimpse and let out a wheeze, "Now that is the most butt ugly picture I've ever seen. Actually, maybe you really are an artist, the resemblance is shocking."
Dustin glared.
"Well at least I've actually done something. Look at your paper- it's blank." Dustin pointed out.
Lucas crossed his arms over his chest defensively, "Yeah, well piss off." he bit out.
"Mouth breather."
Lucas threw a rubber in Dustin's direction in return.
Will inwardly sighed.
The three worked in silence from that point on, the hum of whispered chatter filled the room.
Fifteen minutes to the end, the classroom door flung open, revealing a very flustered looking Mike Wheeler, who blushed as 30 heads snapped towards him. He sauntered towards Ms Grogan's desk, who looked at him expectancy. Her mean expression faltered as he gave what Will presumed was his excuse to his lateness in a hushed voice, that no one heard. The rest of the class continued their work except for Will, Lucas and Dustin, who waited for their friend to come join them.
But Mike avoided looking at the three of them entirely, and sat on a desk at the very front of the classroom by himself. Dustin made a strangled noise of disbelief at this. And Lucas raised his eyebrows, then continued his work. Will felt his own chest constrict.
That's your fault. He's alone because of you.
An unwelcome voice in the back of his head spoke to him.
Will clutched his pencil tighter, and continued his portrait. Feeling a gaze on him though, he looked up, to meet two brown eyes staring at him. They burnt into his own with something Will couldn't place, but it made his stomach twist. Mike continued to state for a few moments longer, before abruptly breaking his gaze, and turning back around to his work.
Will sighed, and looked back down to find he led snapped his pencil lead, also promptly ripped a hole through the centre of the page.
The good day had quickly turned bad.
But at least Mike looked at you.
A very, very long day.
•••
So this is unedited and quite crap, which is rather disappointing for a post 6 month hiatus. So yes I'm back, I'll try to update but no promises can be made. Thank you SO MUCH for all the lovely comments and votes. Hoped you liked this chapter. And like holy shizers it almost Christmas whew time flies when your stressed and depressed. I did write a huge paragraph saying my hiatus was over on my messages notice board thingy majig but I don't know how that works and it kind of self destructed on me and I couldn't bring myself to write another one, so here's this rubbish one instead. Bye my luvers see you next chapter.
Also wish me good health because at the moment I have a pending throat infection (from my presumptions) and I have a two hour choir rehearsal tomorrow night which won't be fun so yes, need all the good health I can get.
