"Good morning, my love." I spoke casually as I draped my body across Will's doorframe, my arms behind my back.
Will glanced at me and began to snigger, "You're such a dork."
"Oh, am I? I guess that means you won't want these then, you know, if they're from a dork." I muttered as I dramatically revealed the bunch of flowers I'd bought for my new boyfriend that I'd kept well hidden until that moment.
The early morning sun seemed to shine even brighter as an ecstatic smile lit up the face of the person I loved most and his engaging eyes glittered with a profound joy, setting my heart racing. "Mikey, oh my god, you shouldn't have!" He gasped as I handed the flowers to Will. My Will. "They're beautiful."
"I did some research," I announced proudly, pointing out the flowers, "I know you like carnations so I found out that this pale red colour here symbolises admiration and the darker red symbolises a deep love, such as the love I feel for you."
"You're amazing, baby. I love you so much." Will raised the hand not clutching tightly onto his flowers and wound his fingers into my hair as he stood on his tip-toes and gave be a long-lasting, romantic kiss.
Regretfully pulling away, I clapped my hands together and took charge, "Come on, Will. Take those inside and then we can get going to school."
When Will had returned from putting my gift in a vase, the two of us clambered onto our bikes and headed towards the school. I couldn't help but stare at the smiling boy riding beside me despite the fact that I was supposed to be watching where I was going and not him. However, I discovered that the the wind whipping through Will's long hair and blowing it in every direction and his furrowed brow in concentration happened to be some of the most mesmerising sights I'd ever had the pleasure of witnessing and, as a result, I was unable to force myself to look away.
"Eyes on the road, dork." The subject of all my concentration voiced, attempting to sound stern but I could hear the underlying giggle laced within his words.
"That my new name, huh? You're gonna call me "dork" all the time?"
"Yep!" Will spoke happily and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Anyway, it's because of you I can't focus on the road! It's not my fault I have the most beautiful boyfriend in existence." I shot back playfully, expecting Will to respond with his own witty remark however he fell silent. "Will?" I asked, constantly worried about him.
The boy looked lost in his thoughts for a moment before finally responding, calming my now erratic heartbeat as he did so, "I'm just wondering if we should tell them. Our party, I mean. Should we tell them about us?"
"It's up to you, darling. Do you think you're ready?"
"Yeah, I do. I want to tell everyone!" Will announced and my eyes returned to him to witness a bright, excited grin written plainly across his face and in that moment, he looked so beautiful that I completely forgot what I was supposed to be doing and very nearly crashed my bike.
My boyfriend's loud laughter reached my ears and I began to blush yet again at my own awkwardness. "See!" Will exclaimed triumphantly, "Eyes on the road...dork."
Saying goodbye to Will after Homeroom was always tough - constantly glancing around the corridors to look for him and being terrified he'd run into more of the people who wanted to make his life hell - and today was no different.
After every lesson, I hoped to see him, even just for a moment, before I had to head to my next class however I had no such luck. The next time my eyes were able to admire the beauty of my boyfriend was after I had sped out of my History classroom and shot up the stairs, just in time to wait for Will who was leaving Geography.
"Hi!" He called merrily as he spotted me outside if his classroom and I wanted more than anything to hold him, for the long separation of our bodies to finally be over, but I was aware of the dozens of pairs of eyes available to witness the scene in the form of Will's classmates still spilling out of his Geography room and therefore I resisted the desire to touch him.
"You ready for this?" I asked anxiously. "You ready to tell our friends?"
"Not really but fuck it, let's do it."
"Are you sure? If you're not ready, we can always wait."
Will looked at me intently and huffed: "Michael, I love you but please stop doing that."
"St-stop what?" I asked, utterly confused.
"Always telling me I don't have to do things. I'm a big boy, baby, I can look after myself." Will said and I could see it was half in jest yet half totally serious and I suddenly felt guilty.
"I know, of course I know that. Byers you're the strongest person I've ever met, I know you can look after yourself just fine. I guess you're right, though. I'm sorry, I can be a bit overbearing when it comes to that. I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable at all."
"You have nothing to be sorry for, don't you worry about it. To be honest, I think it's kinda sweet that you're always worrying about me."
"But I should maybe tone it down a little?"
"If you don't mind."
"Of course not, you know I'd do anything for you." I whispered, brushing a strand Will's hair out of his eyes as the urge to have at least some form of physical contact finally became too strong to ignore.
The boy who completely owned my heart gazed at me with large, round eyes that glistened with love as we as entered the cafeteria. "How did I get so fucking luck-" Will began but was soon interrupted by a flash of crimson hair as his sister threw herself into his unwitting arms.
"Will!" Max squealed, "I didn't see you after you came home from Mike's last night and you were gone before I woke up this morning! Don't tell me you're avoiding me now?"
My boyfriend responded to his sister's tight embrace with an equal amount of gusto as he smiled fondly at her, "I'd never avoid you, MADMAX! I love you too much for that."
"I love you too!" The girl chirped, gently pinching the cheeks of her brother and I began to feel out of place. Coughing awkwardly, I hoped to get the attention of the boy I loved as I began to become anxious that he'd forgotten about our current mission entirely and I was unsure of how to remind him without giving the game away entirely to the jovial girl in our presence.
"And I love you as well, Mike." Will spoke, rolling his eyes, clearly thinking my intent had been to get him to express his love for me however that had not been the case and I began to splutter at the unexpected comment. The boy beside me spoke over my incoherent mumbles and gasps for air as he grasped his sister's hand and led her over to our table: "Come on, Maxie. Mike and I have something to tell you all."
By the time I'd finally regained control of my own body and my breathing, Will and Max were already seated with the rest of the party and laughing at some presumably stupid joke told by Dustin. I fumbled my flustered way over to join them, completely aware that my face was burning as my heart still raced from hearing Will say he loved me in front of Max.
Settling myself in the vacant seat next to Will, my whole body stiffened as my boyfriend absently placed his hand on my upper thigh. I silently glanced at the boy next to me in response and witnessed that he was still immersed in whatever conversation I'd walked in on and I couldn't help but admire how cool and relaxed he could remain in these kinds of situations when they turned me into an anxious, stuttering mess.
"So," Max started and I witnessed an evil smirk on her freckled face before she popped a grape into her mouth nonchalantly, "Will, you said you and Mike had something to tell us?"
Without further ado, my boyfriend released his gentle hold on my thigh and instead gripped my hand under the table. Will squeezed my hand reassuringly and I understood perfectly that this was a silent declaration of "don't worry, baby, I've got this" and I felt utterly relieved, sure that I wouldn't have been able to vocalise the situation if it was down to me to tell it.
"Yeah, we do actually." Will announced proudly, laying down the sandwich he'd retrieved from his bag only moments earlier, and my heart fluttered with adoration as I regarded the boy I loved and his courage. "I know that you're all aware, to at least some extent, about the fact that there has been something going on between Mike and I for...well...pretty much ever since you've known us. There was always something going on beneath the surface, something more than just friendship but we wouldn't acknowledge that for the truth that it was - the truth that it is now more then ever.
However, for the past few months, ever since Alex and I broke up, we've finally acknowledged it not only to ourselves but to each another as well. I don't know how much you all know of what's happened - Maxie, I know you know almost everything - but nothing about these last few months has been easy. Finally fucking telling each other that we had feelings for each other wasn't the end of it, there was no simple "I love you, I love you too, let's be together". We've struggled and we've fought and we've reconciled and we've fought again. There was a time when we weren't even speaking and we weren't friends for the first time since we met back in Kindergarten and, despite everything that's ever happened to me, that was the worst period of my life. We fought because we both knew we wanted each other but I wouldn't let myself and, as a result, I consistently pushed him away and told him I wanted nothing more to do with him but that was never truly what my heart wanted.
A few weeks ago, Mike came to me and told me that he didn't want us to fight anymore and the best way to do that would to be to go back to being just friends and to try and get over our feelings for each other. I thought it was a great idea because never, in all our years of being best friends, had we ever fought and these arguments had only come about once we'd tried to stretch the boundaries of our friendship into something more. To me, it made perfect sense that allowing those boundaries to fall back into their old places would mean we could pretend nothing had happened and go back to the way everything was before and therefore we became friends again, all the while trying to deny the feelings we'd once again pushed down and attempted to ignore how they simmered beneath the surface even more obviously than ever.
Of course, that didn't work. The fact that I am in love with Mike Wheeler won't just go away, I know that now, and the more time I spend with him, the less I want it to.
A couple of weeks ago, we spoke about how we had both massively failed at trying to deny each other and I said I didn't want to anymore so, as of these last few weeks, Mike and I have been finally taking our relationship into something real...something beautiful.
So...
Ladies and gents, I'd like you all to meet my wonderful, incredible, perfect and insanely beautiful boyfriend: Michael Wheeler."
*
AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! WILL BYERS DID THAT, I REPEAT WILL BYERS DID THAT! I love my gay son *sobs*.
Hehe, here we have some more of my favourite duo, cool as a cucumber Will and constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown Mike (hello, I'm Mike it's nice to meet you all).
This is another two parter so that means you'll be getting the next chapter either later today or tomorrow, it depends how nice I'm feeling whenever the hell I post it.
I'm feeling very nice at the moment because today is the 2nd July and I watched 'Call Me By Your Name' for the first time AND OH MY GOD, I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THAT FILM! ELIO AND OLIVER, OH MY GOD!
That is all.
- Nimah.
That's twice I've done that now, what is wrong with me?
- Nimah.
I can't cope.
- Niamh.
Thank fuck.