*Wills pov*
I got out of moms car then next morning anxiously. I knew my away somewhat around the school. It was the same school I used to go to before dad came.
"Have a good day alright Will?" Jonathan calls from the back of moms seat. I laugh and nod. He returns a smile and they drive off.
"Will!" Someone calls my name from behind me. I turn around to find Mike waving to me from the school steps.
I smile and run over to him. I run up the steps and sit down next to him. He smiles as I look around the school yard.
"How are you feeling about being back?" He asks.
"Fine. I mean I'm excited but I'm nervous." I admit. "Do you want to go with me now to get my schedule?" I ask him. He nods and we walk to the office while making small conversation.
He holds the office door open for me and we walk inside.
"May I help you boys?" The lady at the front desk asks.
"Um I'm Will Byers. Today is my first day?" I half ask. I looked to Mike who just smiled encouragingly.
"Right, hold on I have you're scheduled around here somewhere." She says and digs around her desk. "Mr. Clark heard you're back. He put in request for your classes. Although I'm not entirely sure what the requests were. You should swing by his classroom he's missed you." She says and pulls a piece of paper out from a folder. "Here you go. Michael will you should him around to his classes? I'll give you a late pass."
"Yeah that's fine." Mike says with a slight shrug. The lady writes something quickly on a piece of paper and hands it to Mike. Then she hands me my schedule.
"Thank you ma'am." I say politely. She smiles and Mike and I leave the office. I unfold my schedule and read through it. Mike leans over my shoulder while reading it.
"We have all the same classes." He says dumbfounded.
"Do you think that's the request Mr. Clark put in?" I ask him.
"Probably." He answers. "Come on I'll show you you're locker." He says and grabs my arm.
He leads me to a short hallway in the back of the school. He then grabs my schedule and looks at the locker number. Then he leads me to a locker in the middle of the hallway.
"This is you're locker. Mine is right around the corner." He says as he gives me back my schedule.
"Thanks." I say with a small smile.
"No problem. The bells gonna go off in seven minutes so we can get you set up and then we can stop at my locker and I'll put my stuff inside." He plans. I nod and open my locker. He shows me what I'll need for my first four classes. I organize my locker and backpack and then we go to Mikes locker.
"Does any of the party know you're back?" He asks me while he opens his locker.
"No I don't think so." I reply, suddenly feeling guilty.
"It'll be so funny to see their reactions at lunch." He laughs. I smile. He puts his stuff in his locker.
"Alright. To algebra I guess." He sighs and I laugh. We start walking down the hallway.
"Algebra isn't that hard." I laugh.
"Maybe not to you. But to me it is! I mean how do you know what to do for each problem." He sighs as we approach the door.
"It's just easy to me." I smile and he pushes open the door.
"Ah you must be Will Byers. Nice to meet you I'm Miss. Ross." The teacher says with a friendly smile and puts out her hand.
"Oh um hi!" I say and shake her hand. She pulls away after a few seconds.
"So you're friends with Michael? Well we have an open seat next to him. Why don't you take that seat?" She asks.
"Oh. Thank you!" I say with a smile. Mike shows me my desk and then sits down next to me.
"You're gonna get so sick of me this year." He laughs as people walk into the classroom.
"I doubt it." I laugh. He shows me what notebook to take out and he explains to me what they've been doing in class.
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A/N:
I just realized I made a big mistake. In a few chapters before this I said that Mike had art for first class and he had it with the party. I'm really sorry I wrote this terribly I definitely should have planned it out better. So just pretend that Mike has Art last class last. Again I'm so sorry about this!
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*Wills pov*
Mike and I walked to his locker quickly before lunch. I fidget around anxiously. I was nervous to see the party again.
"Relax Will." Mike smiles as he closes my locker.
"Sorry. I'm nervous." I smile back and we walk to the cafeteria.
We got to the cafeteria and everyone was already there. My heart starts pounding faster as we approach the table.
"Will?!" Dustin gets up from his seat quickly and hugs me. I laugh and hug him back. Everyone else gets up and hugs me together. It was weird to me but for the first time in two years I felt like people actually care about me.
"Where did you go?!" Max asks after everyone pulled away.
"Yeah what happened?!" Lucas asks.
"Aright everyone calm down. Sit down." Mike instructs. Everyone does what he says. He smiles and gestures towards the seat next to him for me to sit down.
"So explanation?" Jane asks as I take my seat.
I don't think I've ever really told the whole group about my dad. I mean sure they've probably guessed it by now but still.
"Oh um...it's a long story." I say quietly.
"You don't have to tell them if you don't want to Will." Mike says supportively.
"Yeah that's totally fine! But wait Mike you know?" Dustin asks confused.
"Of course I know." Mike says while rolling his eyes.
"Mike can tell you all later. Can we talk about something else?" I ask the group. They quickly change the subject to a project they have to do. I would probably be excused from it.
I listened to everyone talk. Mike would make me a part of the conversation a lot so I would have to talk. We laughed a lot. So much that Dustin spit out his water which made everyone laugh more. It was quiet for a minute as everyone ate their lunches.
"Lucy's staring at you again Mike." Max laughs. Mike rolls his eyes and hits his head down on the table. Everyone laughs but me. Dustin must have seen the confusion on my face.
"She likes Mike." He laughs.
"Mike doesn't like her back." Mike mumbled into the table.
"She's whispering to her friends while looking at you." Jane laughs in a whisper. Everyone else looks over to Lucy and laughs. Mike groaned and hit his head on the table again.
"Are you two still together?" Lucas gestures towards Mike and I. I wasn't sure how to respond.
"It's complicated." Mike sat up and looked at him.
"So that's a no?" Max asks. Mike rolls his eyes.
"Guys Lucy's coming over here." Lucas snickers. Everyone laughs and Mike shuts his lunchbox with an eye roll.
"Hey Mike!" The girl says as she gets to our table. I sank in my seat. The girl was so pretty. I got jealous. Why am I jealous? Mike and I aren't together. He can talk to whoever he wants to. I'm such a bad friend.
"Uh hi?" Mike half asks her as he looks around the group. Everyone looks close to laughing besides me.
"I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to go out sometime?" She asks while twirling her finger in her silky brown hair.
"Oh um I like someone else. Sorry." He shrugs and the girl turns ferociously and storms back to her table. Everyone, including me looks at Mike in shock.
"What?" He asks the group.
"You just turned down the most popular girl in school." Jane says in shock. Mike scoffs.
"So? I don't like her so I'm not gonna go out with her." Mike declares. Everyone still stares at him in shock.
"Then who do you like?!" Dustin asks, interested in the topic like everyone else.
"Is it not obvious?" Mike asks, clearly annoyed.
"Not really." Lucas shrugs.
"Yes it is." Max rolls her eyes.
"Thank you, exactly." Mike says defensively.
"So who is it?" Jane asks.
"It's Will, obviously." Max says with another eye roll. My heart stops as silence went around the table.
Me?
Mike has a crush on me?
I don't think I should be surprised but I am. He still likes me? After everything that happened.
"That makes a lot of sense." Dustin says after the long silence.
"Yeah it does." Jane agrees.
"Will you look like you just saw a ghost." Lucas laughs.
"I'm just thinking." I mutter.
I do like Mike. I love him even. But I'm scared. I don't want to leave again and it hurt more. I'll have to ask Jonathan what to do. He'll give me good advice. But until then I'm not sure what I'll do.
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*Mikes Pov*
The rest of the day went by quickly. Will and I had all of our classes together so we were able to hang out the whole day. Although there was definitely awkwardness there it was a lot of fun. We laughed at everything, he even hugged me after I told him that Troy and James would tell me he was dead almost everyday when he was gone.
Overall it was a great day. The party and I were on the lawn in front of the school. We were all just talking about random things when Wills mom pulled up to the parking lot. I didn't want him to go yet but I knew he had to.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow." He smiles and runs to his moms car. I watch him until his moms car pulls out of the parking lot.
"Your watching him like it was the first time you saw him." Dustin laughs. I smile at the memory of the first time I saw Will.
"Yeah well you can't blame me." I shrug and turn back to the group.
"Sorry for telling everyone you liked him." Max apologizes.
"You're fine. I thought everyone already knew." I laughed.
"It was obvious." Jane states and everyone else agrees.
"Do you think he likes me back?" I ask the group.
"Obviously." Max laughs.
"I hope." Was all I could reply with.
We watched Nancy pull into the school parking lot. I say my goodbyes to my friends and ran to her car. I open the door, throw my bag on the floor of the car and get in. I close the door behind me and buckle without saying anything.
"How was school?" She asks as we pull out of the parking lot.
"It was great. Will and I have every class together!" I say happily.
"Well that's good!" She says excitedly as we drive down the road. After that it was silent.
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*Wills Pov*
"Do you want to go with me downtown or do you want me to drop you off at home?" Jonathan asks as we drive down the long road.
Home.
"I'll go with you." I say with a smile.
"Alright." He took a turn and drove down an empty road. He turned the radio up and we listened to music until we got downtown and parked.
We both got out of the park and walked along the sidewalk. There were a lot of people here but at the same time there wasn't.
"So how are you and Mike?" He asks, breaking the awkward silence.
"I think we're good. I mean we're not together but he likes me. It was this big thing at lunch. The popular girl asked him out and he said he liked someone else and then Max told everyone that Mike likes me. I mean obviously I like him back. But I'm scared to get back into a relationship with him. What if we have to leave again? I don't think I can handle that and I don't think he can either." I sigh as we turn the corner of a building and continue to walk down the sidewalk.
"Well what I personally think," He smiles at me as we continue waking, "sometimes you just have to go for it. I mean you guys got through two years without seeing each other and you still have feelings for one another. I think that no matter what happens you two will always love each other. So don't be afraid to do what makes you happy." He says. I nod. What he was saying made sense. A lot of sense.
"You're right." I admit. He laughs as he opens a building door for me. It was an antique shop.
"I know." Was all he replied before a lady said something.
"Hey boys. What can I do for you two today?" The older lady asks us.
"I was wondering if you guys were hiring?" Jonathan walks to the counter and asks her.
"Sure we are. Those papers I'm the front are the applications. You take take one home or fill it out here." She says with a smile.
"Thank you. I'll drop it off Friday." Jonathan says and goes to pick up a paper. The lady tells us to have a good day and we leave the store.
We continue this down the road of shops. Going into each one, picking up an application and leaving. We must have gone into seventeen different shops before Jonathan said that he had enough. We made our way back to the car and got in. Jonathan checked his watch as he started the car.
"Geez it's already six." He mumbles and pulls out of the parking space. We both hum along with the music as we drive home. It was about a fifteen minute ride.
We pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. We both walk inside to find mom and Bob cuddling on the couch watching a movie. They quickly move away from each other and Jonathan and I laugh.
"How was school?" Mom asks awkwardly as Jonathan and I sat down in the living room.
"It was really good! I saw all my friends again. Mr. Clark heard I was back and requested for me to be in all of Mikes classes." I explain.
We all talked about Jonathan's job applications, Bobs day at work, my day at school, and moms day trying to get everything back to normal. Mom and I made dinner after conversation died down. We made Lasagna and broccoli so it took around 2 hours to make. By the time we got the table set and everyone eating it was around 8:36. We all ate in a comfortable silence. Jonathan did the dishes afterwards and Bob cleaned up the rest of the kitchen. Mom cleaned the living room and I went to get ready for bed.
I decided to take a shower before getting my pajamas on. The warm water hit my body like a ton of bricks. Each ounce of water burning the cuts on my slim body. I quickly washed my hair, then rinsed out the soap. Then I quickly washed my body and rinsed myself off. I got out of the shower and got my pajamas on. I wore a blue t-shirt that revealed new and old cuts, scars, and bruises and black sweat pants. I washed my face, brushed my hair, and brushed my teeth before leaving the bathroom.
I said goodnight to everyone and walked into my room. I made my bed and shut off my light. I crawled under my blankets and started playing with my promise ring. I knew I love Mike. It was always Mike. It will always be Mike. Yes, I was scared. But like Jonathan said, I shouldn't be afraid of what will make me happy. My thoughts began to collide with one another and my head began to hurt.
I took my ring off and put it on my nightstand. I rolled over on my side and closed my eyes. I tried to clear my mind but my thoughts quickly retreated back to Mike. I do want to be with him. I want to be with him more than anything. I hope he knows how much I love him. I don't know how to tell him though. I'm a very introverted person. I don't know how to bring up that conversation! And even if I did how would I explain it? How would I start the conversation? Just a few days ago I said I needed time to think. Ugh.
I roll over on my other side and start thinking again. Surely if Mike likes me then he would bring up the conversation at one point or another. But what if he moves on before then? I don't think he would but it's definitely possible. I think I'll wait it out. Maybe. I sigh and roll onto my back.
I stare out my window into the darkness of the night. I take a step back and think about my dad. I don't know what to think about my dad. I mean obviously I hated him, there was nothing good about the guy. But the past two years he wasn't as abusive as when I was little. I mean I could actually talk at the dinner table without being slapped in the face. But that still doesn't mean he wasn't trying to give me beatings daily. I knew how to fight back now and Jonathan protected me a lot so did mom. I didn't know what to do. I felt so numb while thinking about it. Would I ever be fully happy?