Chapter Text
The next morning consists of packing my things up and sneaking around the house with Will, making sure my parents don’t notice. Will helps me pack in my room, even though I don’t have that much stuff.
“Is that everything?” he asks me, after I’ve gone over all my stuff sitting in the suitcase.
“Yeah, I think so,” I respond, looking over my room one last time. I stand there for a while, taking in my childhood room, Will beside me, but not like a best friend anymore. Will, the person I would think about in this very room, not even aware of my reciprocated feelings, knowing I had something special for him in my heart.
“Should we go to the basement now?” Will snaps me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah,” I reply, grabbing his hand. Our fingers intertwined as we walk down the hallway. About halfway down the stairs, I hear the chatter from downstairs, and Will quickly releases my hand.
We slip down the basement stairs without anyone noticing. Will closes the door behind us, quietly enough not to alert my family. It’s moments like this that I’m glad my parents are so oblivious to the little things in my life.
Will moves to the couch and sinks into it, looking over the basement, still trashed from Carlton leaving in a hurry. His dulled eyes dart around the room to the things Carlton left behind. I can almost see his eyes start to swell, but he blinks it away.
I shuffle over to the couch and sit down beside him, just close enough so that our shoulders brush and our knees touch. He doesn’t acknowledge me, just stares blankly in front of him, so I reach for his hand, and I hold it in mine, gently.
“You okay?” I practically whisper. His hand grips mine just a little tighter.
“Yeah,” he mumbles, “it’s just hard to think about…you know.” his voice cuts off, and he stares at Carlton’s belongings scattered across the floor.
“I understand,” I whisper in response. “You don’t have to explain it.” Will nods his head slightly, still staring off.
Something feels tight in my chest, seeing Will truly heartbroken like this. I look around for anything that could cheer him up, and my eyes land on a small radio sitting on a shelf.
I get up quickly, startling Will, and I cross the room to grab the old, dust-coated radio from its place on the shelf.
“Mike, what are you doing?” Will chuckles lightly. The lopsided smile he gives me pushes away the tearful look in his eyes.
“I’m just putting on some music,” I grin at him. “For packing.”
Will lets out a small, sarcastic sigh as I struggle to work the old piece of junk.
After a couple of long and tedious minutes, I’m able to finally get some muffled sound out of the radio. I can’t tell which station it’s tuned to, but I’ve given up fidgeting with the channels, so I sit back beside Will, who seems to have relaxed slightly.
Just as I start getting comfortable on the couch, the intro to a song that sounds all too familiar comes on, causing Will’s shoulders to tense up again and his breathing speed up. It’s Just Like Heaven by The Cure. The only reason I know the name is because it’s been in the back of my head ever since the car ride from the airport. That day, I found out Will loved it, and I’ve been kicking myself for missing that little detail about my best friend ever since.
Will uncomfortably shifts in his seat, looking at me with a false sense of joy in his eyes, as if he’s trying to make me feel better.
“You okay? I thought you liked this song.” I turn fully to Will, who looks up at me, his cheeks flushed slightly.
“Yeah, I mean, yeah, I-I do, or I did,” he rambles. “The thing about this song is that…” Will almost looks embarrassed, trying to pick out the right words. He swallows before opening his mouth again and turns to face me. “This song…it always made me think of you.” There is a moment of silence, “This used to be our song, well in my head it was.” He’s chuckling awkwardly now and rubbing his hand on the back of his neck, his cheeks a brighter shade of red than before.
I was oblivious to Will’s feelings for years, and it never occurred to me that he associated a certain song with us, or what we could’ve been all those years ago.
I can’t find the right words, no matter how hard I search for them, so I cup Will’s face in my palm, caressing my thumb on his cheek. He leans his head against my hand slightly, melting into my touch. He’s beautiful like this. The way a smile tugs on the corners of his mouth, and his messy hair falls over his eyes. I pull his face closer to mine and let our foreheads fall together, the tip of our noses brushing. The song continues to play in the background. My gaze keeps falling to his lips, and eventually I put mine to his. At first, the kiss is gentle, like something so fragile it could be broken by the slightest touch, but Will presses deeper, filling the kiss with a passion and desire that’s burned for years.
The music feels so close yet so far, like the lyrics are a million worlds away but also within this very moment.
I move my hands to the back of his head and intertwine them with his silky hair, pulling him closer to me. He places his hands on my waist, directly at the spot where the hem of my t-shirt meets the top of my jeans, and pulls me closer to him.
The music drowns out the rest of the world, which is how we almost miss the sound of the basement door opening and the footsteps down the stairs. “Mike, are you down here-” Nancy’s voice startles me back to reality, and I instinctively pull back from Will, who does the same, trying to create as much space between us as possible in a split second.
Nancy stands in the middle of the stairs with a look of disbelief stretched across her face. She opens her mouth and closes it again.
Once she seems to process, she clears her throat, “We’re ordering pizza. What do you two want?” The initial shock has left her face, and she seems to be hiding a slight smile.
I glance at Will, whose cheeks are a bright red yet again. “I’m good with anything,” he smiles sheepishly, trying to hide how his voice is shaking.
“Okay,” she adds before turning around and heading for the stairs. We listen to her footsteps trail away before she mutters, “finally,” under her breath.
That small comment causes Will and me to burst into a fit of laughter. We laugh until my stomach aches, and Will is brushing tears out of his eyes.
“Was it that obvious?” Will chuckles after composing himself.
“I hope it wasn’t,” I snort, “Nancy’s just smart, I guess.”
This brings another giggle from Will. We’ve moved closer together again after Nancy left, our arms pressed up against each other.
The song has ended by now, followed by a song that I don’t recognize.
“Mike,” Will begins, and his tone has become serious, a quick turn around for the laughter that was just bubbling in his voice, “about how I said I wasn’t ready to be your boyfriend…” Will picks at his thumb and avoids my gaze. A look washes over his face, like he’s fighting with himself, but when he brings his gaze to mine, his face softens, and a smile threatens to tug at the corners of his lips. “I just- I have been in love with you my whole life, and I can’t, I won’t throw that all away.”
“So..” I begin, “Will you, William Jacob Byers, be my beautiful, beloved boyfriend?”
Why the hell did I ask like that? Ew.
“I mean, I absolutely hated how you said it, but yes, yes of course. How could I say no?”
He puts his hand on the top of mine, and I feel my cheeks flush. Before I can say anything else back, he pulls my lips to his for a brief yet passionate kiss. Once he pulls away, he keeps our foreheads touching and mutters to me, as if I am the only other person in the world, “I just feel so.. I don’t know. Free? I’ve waited so long for this moment, it’s like a dream, something I’ve never felt before. Like I’m going crazy but somehow in a good way?”
“Yeah. I think I feel the same way.”
“At least we feel it together.” He chuckles under his breath, pulling away from me completely and laying his head against the back of the couch, looking towards the ceiling. “My boyfriend. Wow. I just like to say it out loud, it finally feels so real.”
I keep my gaze on him, not wanting to look away for even a split second—my boyfriend. No, not my best friend, not anymore. Finally, after all the years of underlying feelings and not understanding who I truly was, I’m with him. With Will.