Warning: Homophobic slurs and mentions of previous sexual assault.
Will's POV:
I had just grabbed my bag and was heading for the door when Jonathan caught up to me.
"Where are you going? We don't have to set off for another twenty minutes, do you need to get to school early today?" My brother asked, clearly flustered as he stood before me only half-dressed, his toothbrush clutched between his teeth, dangling from his mouth and obviously not ready to leave the house.
I shook my head and gave the other a reassuring smile. "Nope, I just don't want to be late and I'm going on my bike today so it will take longer. I don't need you to drive me."
Jonathan furrowed his eyebrows as he looked back at me. I could see it in his eyes that he was weighing up whether or not to trust me and I couldn't really blame him for being sceptical about my actions considering the amount of times I'd sneaked off recently. "I'm not sure if that's such a good idea, Will. You know Mom hasn't let you go out on your bike alone ever since...well, you know when since. And anyway, I need to make sure you do actually turn up at school. Give me five minutes to put a shirt on and we can get going if you'd like."
"Honestly, I'm okay." I pleaded. "I'm actually meeting up with Mike and we're going together." A blush began to creep up onto my cheeks and I prayed Jonathan wouldn't notice as I felt a twinge of embarrassment for still allowing Mike to affect me in this way.
"Okay, now I know you're lying." My brother folded his arms in front of his chest and looked at me sternly. "I know the two of you aren't speaking so tell me the truth: where are you going and who the hell are you meeting?"
I almost rolled my eyes at Jonathan's obvious distrust in me but I forced myself to remain calm and not allow the exasperation to show in my voice, "When you were working late last night, Mike came over and we had a very, very long talk. We've decided we want to give being friends again a shot and, well, it just felt right spending time with him again. He asked if I wanted to cycle to school with him today and I said yes so that's what I'm doing. I promise I'm telling you the truth."
Jonathan stared at me with wide eyes. "You and Mike? You're friends again?"
"Yep." I smiled, popping the p from joy.
"Well then, I'm not going to stop you. I'm really happy for you guys. By all means then, dear brother, get going and be on your way to Mike. There's no time to lose!" My brother exclaimed as he grabbed my shoulders and practically steered me the rest of the way to the door.
"Can you stop being so happy about this?" I whined, "We're just friends, it's not a big deal."
"William, this is a huge deal. Now stop being such a buzzkill and go get your ass on your bike and let me celebrate. Have a good day at school, little bro."
"Oh, I'm sure I will." I replied sarcastically before stepping out, a slight gust of wind whipping my hair into my face and sending a shiver up my spine. The chill slithered its sure way through my bloodstream and the little hairs covering my body stood to attention as goosebumps erupted on my skin and I found myself grinning - the cold settling into the core of my body made me feel alive for what felt like the first time in months.
My hands settled on the handlebars of the bike I'd come to neglect over the recent years since that November night cycling home alone from Mike's when I was taken into the Upside Down and I took a deep breath.
"Byers!" A voice so beautiful I wouldn't have been surprised if it came from the angels themselves called to me and I swivelled my head to see Mike, my best friend once more, cycling down the path towards my house looking slightly worn out but breathtaking nonetheless.
Feeling the familiar heat tint my cheeks rosy again, I responded: "Hey, Mike." as he pulled up in front of me. For a moment, the two of us gazed into each other's eyes and I felt my heartbeat quicken as I noticed his pupils dilate and lips slightly part as he looked back at me. Mike made a steady but seemingly deliberate move towards me as if he wanted to embrace me but the fear I had of being close to him put my nerves on edge and I felt frightened at the thought of his touch so I subtly drew back, saying: "Should we get going, then?"
Mike looked rattled and slightly embarrassed, a similar blush to my own on his face. "Erm..yeah. Yeah, let's do that." He stammered as the two of us set off.
"Are we meeting Dustin and Lucas somewhere?" I enquired of my friend pedalling beside me.
"Erm, no. I thought it would be...you know...cool if it was just us." Mike began. "But if you don't want to I'm sure we could find the others. I'm sorry, I didn't think it would be a problem - I should have ask-"
"Mike, you're babbling. I'm fine with it being just us." I giggled before lowering my voice ever so slightly. "More than fine."
My gaze left the road for a brief moment and found Mike who was watching me, wide-eyed. "Yeah?" He asked.
"Yeah." I replied, smiling.
Mike chuckled. "Well, I'm very glad you said that because Lucas and Max are going to the skatepark before school and Hopper is picking up Dustin and taking him and El to school so we would have had no one else anyway."
"Dustin and El, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess they've become pretty good friends recently. I've been so caught up in...everything that's gone on I didn't even realise how close they'd gotten."
"Wow, me neither. I've always had a sneaky feeling that he may have a crush on her, though."
"No way! You think that too? I asked Lucas if he thought so and he said I was crazy."
"Great minds think alike, my friend."
"Yes, yes they do...friend."
Mike and I remained in a comfortable silence for a little while, both caught up in our thoughts and I couldn't help but be grateful for his presence by my side - where he belonged. Though I knew I was still damaged within, every second spent with him felt like a time of healing and I smiled at the thought. Over the previous months, I'd told myself what I needed was more and more distance between us but I'd been wrong. I needed him, I realised. I'd always need him.
The two of us pulled up at school and found Dustin and Eleven idly chatting, waiting for us at the bike racks: our usual meeting spot. "Hey, dudes." Dustin smiled a toothy grin (one he'd have been very proud of) and Eleven waved.
"Max and Lucas not here yet?" I asked, looking around for my sister. Today was the day she'd been moving in with us and I was so excited for her to finally join her real family and escape the terror of the Hargroves.
"Oh sure," Dustin rolled his eyes as he answered. "They got here before we did but they've been sucking face behind that big tree and haven't even noticed anyone else is here."
"Gross, what the fuck?" I squirmed on the spot and heard Mike chuckle at my curse, the noise sent shivers of pleasure up my spine and I struggled to regain control of myself as my heart began to pound and I suddenly felt woozy. I grimaced when I remembered what had caused me to curse in the first place. It's not like I hadn't seen Lucas and Max kissing before but they'd always been wary to keep it PG in company and the last thing I wanted was to see my sister with her tongue down someone's throat.
Dustin put his hands to his mouth and called out to Max and Lucas, "Yo, shitheads. We got company so put your clothes back on and get your asses over here!"
Max came face-to-face with us and I saw her cheeks were as red as her hair. "We had our clothes on, thank you very much." She said haughtily to Dustin, trying to retain her dignity but it was hard for her to do so when Mike kept cracking up laughing causing me to do the same. My sister looked at me in shock, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging slightly open as she watched me laughing with Mike. She raised one fiery eyebrow at me, silently asking what was happening and I mouthed "Later" to her.
Lucas threw his arm around Max's shoulders with a pleased look on his face, almost as if he hoped they would get found out and looked right at Dustin, unambiguously showing off. It was common knowledge that Dustin had feelings for Max when she first moved to Hawkins but they were since long gone so Lucas wasn't throwing it in his face that he got Max as Dustin wouldn't have cared about that anymore, he was just showing off about the fact that he had a girlfriend and Dustin didn't. Their rivalry was as strong as the day they met back in the fourth grade and I doubted it would be going anywhere any time soon as I watched Dustin fold his arms across his chest in defiance and glare right back.
"Get over yourselves, idiots. Bunch of mouthbreathers." Eleven muttered as she tugged on Dustin's shoulder and dragged him inside, the rest of us following suit and I'm pretty sure I heard Max giving Lucas a stern telling off for teasing Dustin.
Mike and I were still giggling as we made our way to our Homeroom and I already had a feeling that today was going to be a good day.
Of course, it turned out that I was wrong. I should have known.
Eleven, Dustin and I were leaving our final class of the day which had been Bio. and I'd spent the whole lesson in almost silence feeling much too like a third-wheel as Dustin threw paper planes across my seat whilst I tried to work to Eleven who, in turn, would playfully tell him to stop which only caused him to do it more. I didn't mind, though, I'd always been one to value time alone in my own head even if my thoughts sometimes turned a little dark.
Exiting the classroom, my heart sank to see that Mike wasn't waiting by the door. We hadn't planned to meet there but there was a glimmer of hope inside me that perhaps he'd think to and I was wrong. I huffed and was about to follow Dustin and Eleven who hadn't stopped to look around the way I had down the long corridor when a voice got my attention. "Hey, Fag!"
My blood turned to ice as I span on the spot to see Alex and a couple of his dickhead friends making their way towards me. This time, I wanted to stand my ground against the boy who'd made my life such a misery and I vowed to not let him get the better of me. "And just what do you want, asshole?" I spat with as much venom as I could muster and was rewarded by the look of bewilderment that spread across Alex's face. He probably thought I'd just break down and cry but not this time.
The tall, older boy standing before me wiped the look of shock off his face, replacing it with a cooler and more neutral expression. "Ooh, someone's not feeling very friendly today, now are we?" A bunch of his stupid friends laughed and I wanted to hit every last one of them. "Well, I wanted to see how my mark was doing on that little head of yours and would you look at that...it's still there."
Alex forcefully grabbed my head with both of his large hands and held me tightly as he closely inspected my scar. Terror exploded within me at his touch as I hadn't let a single person besides my family lay a finger on me since my night with Mike back before Christmas. All of my senses screamed at me to get as far away from this man as possible and my heart was in my throat as I wrenched myself out of his grip and stumbled backwards onto the floor, where I hit my head and felt an agonising pain erupt from the area of collision.
"What's the matter, Queer? You didn't seem to hate the feeling of my hands on you that much a few months ago. As I recall you-" Alex began but was cut off.
"Leave him the fuck alone!" Mike's voice echoed through the hallway and, even over the ringing in my ears caused by my latest injury, I could never have mistaken that beautiful sound.
"Oh look, Byers. Your other boyfriend is here to save the day again."
"Don't call me that." I whimpered from the floor as I tried to push myself up. I wasn't done fighting and Alex had stepped over the line by using my last name, Mike's name for me.
The long body of my best friend, Mike Wheeler, shielded my view as I still struggled to get off the ground as he had placed himself between Alex and I so I had to watch the events through his legs. "What the fuck is wrong with you, Rodgers? He's done nothing to you and you're still trying to make his life a living hell."
"Done nothing to me? How about the time he begged me to fuc-"
"Oh, you mean the time you forced yourself on him? That time? You're lucky I don't call the cops and I only haven't done because Will doesn't want to see you go to jail. Not because he cares about you, because he has a heart of more than gold, a goddamn heart of diamonds and doesn't want to see anyone get hurt. But I'm not so nice so I'll give you one last chance, if you so much as think about talking to him again or even looking in his direction, I'll be on the phone without hesitation. I think I could get you sent down for a long, long time - I'm pretty tight with the Chief, you see."
From my position on the floor, I observed as the blood drained from Alex's face as he took in Mike's words and turned his back on us, everyone who had gathered around to watch hastily fled the scene and I let out a breath in sweet victory whilst finally sitting up. The boy with the curls that I dream about at night crouched down to my level and I observed the tears falling down his face. "I'm so sorry, Will. I planned to wait for you outside of your Bio. but my stupid Music teacher kept me behind because I hadn't handed in my homework. I should've been here."
"You are here." I whispered back. You're here and that's all I could ever ask for."
Those dark eyes burned deeply into mine and my heart seemed to be glowing in response.
Good god, I'm so in love with this boy.
*
Aloha!
'Tis I again. I know that, to you guys, it won't feel like I've been away at all because I probably only posted a chapter a couple of days ago but that's because I already have some of my chapters written so you won't have been able to tell that I've been absent because I am still posting, I just haven't been writing. I don't think I've written at all in about two weeks because my exams are coming up (and I'll have started them by the time I eventually post this chapter, holy shit).
In my short absence, GUYS I FUCKING HIT 1K WHAT THE HOLY FUCK WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT? And then I hit 1.1K. And then I hit 1.2K. Honestly, I'm so grateful considering I didn't expect to get any reads at all on this little book and then by some miracle I've got 1.2K. Thank you all, it means a lot to me.
I bloody love you.
Also...the whole Dustin and El thing I've put in purely for my own benefit so you don't have to take it too seriously. It's because since I stared ST, I've been trying to figure out whether I ship them as a BROTP or an actual ship. I can't decide because I love them both ways so this is me just trying to figure out what the hell I think about them. I'm therefore not going to be obvious with what's going on with them, there will be flirting and stuff but it's up to you to decide whether you think it's romantic or just friendly. I'm leaving it up to you as individuals to make your mind up so, yeah, maybe let me know your opinions? Or not. It's up to you.
And oof, all this Sadie and Noah stuff at the moment - I'm writing this note and chapter on the 10th May so the day after Noah posted those pics of him and Sadie - I AM SCREAMING, THEY ARE MY TWO FAVOURITE CAST MEMBERS AND CHARACTERS (I'm sure you can tell that from this book, lol) AND THEY ARE SO CUTE, I LOVE MY SON AND MY QUEEN!!!
This was so long, I hate me.
Late edition: And then I hit 1.3K and then 1.4k and then 1.5K and then 1.6K and then 1.7K and then 1.8K and then 1.9K WHAT?
- Niamh.