"So are you gonna come then?" Liv's voice sounded out from Will's phone, barely concealing the excitement and anticipation that she felt about Will's possible return home. It hadn't been that long since she'd last seen him - they did Skype each other every other week - but seeing him in the flesh, back at home, was a whole lot better than seeing him on a screen.
Will was silent as he thought it over, staring intently at the innocent little invitation which sat on the table in front of him, causing him more grief than it should've been. He really wasn't sure what he was feeling about it, if he wanted to go or not, if it was worth the time, money, and effort to fly all the way back home just for this?
It was only just a silly 10 year high school reunion, after all.
"I don't know, guys, I-" his protests began, only to die off as Will felt someone's hand come from behind him and cover his mouth to stop him from talking.
"Shhh, we're not gonna listen to your silliness," Kimi cut him off, only taking her hand away when Will began to lick it. "We're both going!" she announced to Liv on the phone, stating it as if Will had no say in the matter anymore, as she wiped her wet hand on Will's t-shirt.
Will began to grumble, cursing the day he thought it was a good idea to give Kimi a job out here in California.
It had been about 4 years after Will had left for LA and Kimi had come for a visit, mainly to get away from her overbearing family and the pressures back at home. She'd spent the four years after high school flip-flopping through courses at university, never really finding anything that fit her or what she wanted to do for a living. Her parents, tired of her indecision, gave her an ultimatum: finish the course she'd just started or get out and work out her life on her own. Unfortunately, Kimi had just started dentistry, only to learn about the gross things that can and would go wrong inside the human mouth that she would have to deal with.
Messing around in people's mouths each and every day was a life she just couldn't deal with, no matter how big the paycheck.
But with her parents' ultimatum, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
That was until Will talked to Dale about Kimi's problem. Being the mother hen he'd always been with this group of teens, Dale offered Kimi a job at his studio. He was looking for a new assistant to replace Will who had just been promoted to a role that was more exciting and less stressful that fetching the redhead his complicated Starbucks orders and making sense of the clutter and disorder that seemed to follow Dale everywhere.
Kimi, still well aware what Dale was like, was reluctant about taking the offer. But after considering what she had to return to, she decided that maybe working for Dale wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be.
Of course, it ended up being bad as she thought it would be, sometimes worse than she'd ever thought imaginable, but at least she didn't have her hands in someone else's mouth - well, except for that one time, but she'd blocked that out of her memory and she and Dale never spoke of it ever again.
And so, Will and Kimi had been living together for the last 6 years or so, neither really sure what they were doing with their life - even if they pretended that they were - as they stumbled through adulthood, only knowing that they were happier here than back at home.
"Oh yay!" Livi almost squealed in delight at Kimi's confirmation.
"Oh, settle down, Liv," Will grumbled, still not agreeing to even going. "What's even the point in going? Cash's wedding is like two months after this stupid reunion, it's not like you don't know when we're coming home next."
Kimi just rolled her eyes, as if what Will had just said was the most idiotic thing she'd ever heard. "Oh c'mon, Will, we talk about the reunion all the time!" she pointed out, reminding Will of all the times they'd discussed going back to see how everyone turned out after 10 years: who'd gotten fat, who was married (and divorced), who had kids, who was hot now. Sure, Facebook did a good job of doing that for them already, but there was a part of all of them that wanted to head back to their school's gymnasium and just drunkenly talk shit about the people they didn't like 10 years ago.
And as fun as that sounded - in a messed up way - Will still didn't want to go.
"Still not gonna go," he declined again, shaking his head and crossing his arms to prove his point like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Jesus Christ, Will, why don't you wanna go?" Kimi asked, shaking her head back at him as she started to prepare dinner. "It's gonna be heaps of fun and you know it. Since when have you ever said no to free booze?"
"Free booze? Where's the free booze?" Henry called out as he appeared from down the hall.
Henry, much like Kimi, had come to visit Will and get away from his overbearing family and the pressures back at home, not too long after Kimi had moved in. In Henry's case, his overbearing family was pushing him to find a nice girl, get married, and start a family. He'd had many girlfriends to appease them over the years, well aware that he was using them to cover his overwhelming gayness, but they still weren't happy, revealing that they'd arranged a wife for him, a nice girl from his church.
Henry, sick of keeping up the thinly-veiled charade, escaped to visit Will for a final taste of freedom before his wedding, well aware he had no other place to turn.
That was until Dale offered him a part-time job as his studio's accountant - only after some incessant nagging from Will, of course - and the rest was history. Henry moved out, came out, and didn't look back, never returning home once like the other two had, as he enjoyed his new life, new job, and his on-again, off-again relationship with his boyfriend, Barrett.
At this stage, they were off-again.
"The free booze is at the high school reunion that Will doesn't want to go to," Liv filled in from over phone, as she and Henry greeted each other.
"Free booze and Will said no?" Henry gasped melodramatically, as if he were in a soap opera. "Who are you and what have you done with my friend?"
Will just rolled his eyes, too used to his friend's melodrama. "I don't understand why this is such a problem for all of you. Me not going to this reunion isn't the end of the world."
Henry and Kimi both glanced at each other, coming to the same conclusion at the same time. Liv, as it seemed, had the same thought as she blurted out, "You don't wanna go 'cause you don't wanna risk seeing Oliver, is that it?"
Everyone went silent at the mention of the blonde's name. 10 years later and Oliver was still a topic that was glossed over and rarely ever discussed, even at Will's insistence that he was fine and over it all now. The few drunken nights Will had had in the last several years, however, told a very different story.
But they didn't talk about that.
"He doesn't even live around here anymore, Will, he moved away years ago," Liv explained, trying to backtrack and smooth over the blunder she'd just made. "I bet he's not even going to be there! You have nothing to worry about, I promise."
"But what if he is there?" Will retorted.
"And what if he's not and you're hiding away in LA for no reason?" Liv questioned back. "Stop being silly, Will, you're 27."
"Says the 28 year old who acts like a petty teenager and blames it on being a Scorpio," Will quipped back, starting to feel a bit defensive, even though he knew he was being ridiculous.
Not that he'd let Liv know that, though.
Liv, the girl who always had something to say, prepared to bite back, only to be stopped by Kimi, who stepped in to diffuse the situation. "Will, we understand why you'd be afraid, but you don't need to be," she tried to reason. "Even if Oliver is there, what happened between you two finished ten years ago. I'm sure he's as over it as you are. So c'mon, let's go to this reunion, get trashed, and just have some fun."
Will was silent as he processed her words, before standing up and storming off, yelling out one last defiant, "Not going!" as he closed this bedroom door and brooded on his bed, staring up at the ceiling above him.
But as he began to calm down from his childish tantrum, staring at the glow in the dark stars that Dale had put up on the ceiling above their bed, he begrudgingly admitted to himself that he was overreacting about all this.
Because Kimi was right.
It had been ten years.
And there was no doubt that Oliver had probably gotten over their relationship and how it had ended.
Ten years was a long time.
And Will was over it too.
Mostly.
Will sighed as he realised what that meant.
Time to go home...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A/N: So yeah, I decided to add in a time jump. Ten years, in case you didn't quite get that yet. I thought that the characters needed time, space, and some room to grow up and be more sure of who they were, if that makes sense. And a reunion, such a cliche, I know, but I've had it planned for yonks and I'm excited to close off Will's saga in this setting. Much more to come, so I hope you keep reading! It'll all make more sense later, I promise :)
If not, message me and I'll explain. x