Chapter Text
Chapter 11: WILL
[October 27th, 1990]
“No…no…no…”
Will flung various shirts and flannels over his shoulder as he went through his closet. Packing had never come easily to him, but this was becoming increasingly harder and harder.
He groaned, flopping down on the mountain of clothing he had created.
Adrianna peeks through the doorframe, looking down at Will curiously.
“You okay down there?” She asked lightheartedly, plopping down next to him.
Will sighed, forcing himself to sit back up.
“Why is packing so hard?”
Adrianna smirks, turning to look at him.
“I think it has to do with a certain someone who recently sent you a letter and called you twice in the same day.”
Will rolls his eyes, but he smirks shyly.
“Technically I was the one to call him.”
“But he suggested it. You still haven’t given him your number!”
Will sighed. She was right, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up.
“I just don’t want to mess this up. What if I- I wear the wrong thing? Or say something dumb? What if he realizes that there’s a reason that we stopped talking and-”
“He won’t.”
Will blinks as Adrianna interrupts him. Adrianna laughs a little.
“You really think that man doesn’t want to talk to you? He invited you to go to a Halloween party in a town 2 hours away! He wouldn’t be driving for 4 hours if he didn’t want to talk to you.”
Will nodded. He was still conflicted, but he supposed it made sense. Mike had been the one to initiate the calls. Mike had been the one to invite him to where he lived, and he suggested that they meet up in the first place.
“I guess.”
Adrianna lays her hand on his bicep, a kind gesture to calm him down.
“Look. You’re so focused on what Mike said, what? Three years ago?” she asks, earning a nod from Will.
“Yeah.”
“Well then that’s all it is. A dumb thing he said 3 years ago on a radio tower. You don’t know how Mike feels now. Maybe he realized that he fumbled the best guy he could ever get,” she joked, elbowing Will’s side. Will laughs for a bit until he replies,
“If he even wants a guy.”
Adrianna sighed, scooting closer to Will.
“No straight man signs his letters with love to his male best friend.”
Will laughs again, but shakes his head.
“We’ve always done that.”
“Exactly.”
There’s silence. Will refuses to say anything. Instead, he focuses on the wall in front of him, covered in photos and short stories and the two letters Mike had written him.
Love, Mike
He knew there was something weird about Mike writing the word on Will’s letters and not Jane’s. But for Will to assume that– that he felt the same— it felt selfish. Selfish to Jane. Selfish to Carlton. Selfish to Mike.
Will sighed, looking back up at Adrianna.
“You really think so?”
Adrianna smiles, nudging him slightly.
“I really do. Trust me, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”
Will gives her an unassured look as he picks up a sweatshirt, groans, and throws it down.
“And I think… he’ll be happy to see you no matter what you choose to wear. No matter what Carlton made you think you should be.”
Will blinks, looking at her wide eyed.
“What, you thought I didn’t know how miserable you were in that relationship?”
Will sputters.
“Wha- I- what?!”
Adrianna laughs slightly before continuing.
“Please, Will. You hated going on dates with that man. I would feel awful for setting you two up when you came home drunk as a skunk and have an awful hangover the day after.”
Will blinks.
“Why didn’t you say anything?!” Will scolds, to which Adrianna holds her hands up in defense.
“Chill! Chill…” She says, lowering her hands.
“I just wanted you to figure it out by yourself. That you didn’t like him— or that you were still in love with Mike.”
Will’s face melted to understanding before he slumped down.
“It worked as far as I can tell. You just need to stop tiptoeing around him. From what I’ve heard, he’s awful at taking hints, especially on that radio tower.”
Will nods slightly.
“But I can also tell that he loves Will, not William.”
Will’s eyes widen, but the words comfort him a lot more than he anticipated they would. He picks up the blue sweater he wore yesterday, when he and Mike had called twice, when Carlton had broken up with him.
“You’re absolutely sure?”
Adrianna nods
“Positive.”
Will turns to his duffel bag, taking the sweater and folding it neatly. He puts it into his bag.
“So, what are you two going to be dressed up as?” Adrianna peers over his shoulder curiously, and Will scrunches his nose slightly at the sight of an old t-shirt Carlton gave him, throwing it to the side.
“Well, we haven’t really… talked about that.”
Now it’s turn for Adrianna to scrunch her nose. She properly looks at Will and he can see how her soft face now looked extremely confused.
“It’s a Halloween party, Will. You two need to dress up as something! Especially if you’re his date!”
Will laughs, the sound short and unsure.
“I’m not his date, Adrianna.”
“He said he wanted you to be his plus one.”
“So?”
“Plus ones are almost always dates.”
Will’s face reddened. Had Mike thought of it that way? Or was it one of his oblivious quirks that made Mike, Mike? Will didn’t know for sure. The variation of mixed signals that had been injected into his brain over the last few years now created a mess of signs that proved that Mike both reciprocated and didn’t reciprocate Will’s feelings. It was torture. And confusing, to say the least.
“You guys should go as those nerdy characters in your game that you both play!” Adrianna says suddenly, and Will’s neck reddens.
“I don’t know, Audrie,” Will starts, “What if Mike thinks that’s stupid? We’re 19 now, we don’t exactly… play DnD anymore.”
Adrianna scoffs.
“Isn’t he writing that novel that’s literally about Dungeons and Dragons?” She asks, unconvinced, and Will sighs.
“I guess. That doesn’t mean–”
“It means that your future boyfriend is still a nerd, and still reminiscing about the game that you and him gained an interest in together.”
Will swallows. “Still—”
“No buts, Will. You said yourself that your characters are connected together, why not go as them?”
“But what if he’s embarrassed? He has friends there, Audrie. He might not want to let it be known that he still plays a nerdy game like that.”
Adrianna rolls her eyes again, and Will wonders if that’s her new way to express that Will was overthinking things.
“I promise you, Will. If anyone is enamored with you and not embarrassed of you, it’s Mike. I’ve seen the photos of you two together, the short stories he wrote for you.”
Will bites his lip, and Adrianna sighs, squatting in front of him to remain at eye level.
“Look, Will. You’re going to go to that party. And you’re going to have fun. Lots of it. And you’re going to dance with your best friend-slash-lover boy, and you realize what I’m talking about. And Mike is going to love having you back in his life, especially in person. He’s your heart, right? Then you should be excited to see him, not whatever this spiraling is.”
Will sighs this time, the tension relaxing in his shoulders.
He turns to the mountain of clothes, taking some of his favorite sweaters and flannels, folding them, and neatly putting them in the bag, looking to Adrianna for confirmation. Adrianna smiles.
“You’re enough for him. Whether you’re neat or messy. I can tell.”
Will smiles slightly as he packs, folding each piece of clothing and organizing them neatly into his duffel bag to ensure there’s enough space.
“Adrianna?”
Adrianna looks at Will, smiling curiously.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
Adrianna’s smile melts into something softer, and Will hugs her.
“Of course Will. You deserve love.”
“So do you.”
Adrianna laughs slightly, pulling away from the hug and looking at Will.
“It’s gonna be okay, Will. Promise.”
Will smiles softly, looking at the ground. He hoped that was true.
In hindsight, he shouldn’t really be worried. It was Mike, after all. The same guy that stayed with him when he was possessed and didn’t want to be alone. The same guy that brought him home on Halloween because he had had an episode. The same guy that he knew biked all the way across town in the rain to apologize for something that Will knew he didn’t mean.
Will’s Mike. Will’s heart.
When Adrianna left the room, Will zipped up the bag, setting it on his bed before turning to the remaining mound of clothing, taking each piece and folding it neatly, putting it in his dresser, and hanging his sweaters back up in his little closet.
Once he was done and his floor was blank, he pulled the art easel that Jonathan bought him last Christmas, setting it in the middle of the room, continuing his painting project. The colors that he had mindlessly painted onto the canvas the day prior had now resembled Mike and Will’s DnD characters in the middle of a field, holding hands.
Will’s cheeks burned at the painting, his hands shaking slightly as he dipped the end of his paintbrush into green paint, starting to paint grass around them. The strokes of the brush were sharp and quick, mimicking the blades of tallgrass onto the canvas. Will hummed as his brush sparked the scene of the canvas alive, making sure to add just the right amount of detail into the painting, seeming to add a lot of yellowish tones to bathe the scene in sunlight.
As he began to expand the color of the paint to the sky, drawing attention to painting a couple birds flying above the two characters. Will sneaks a glance at them, their hands clasped over each other’s. His breath hitches, even though he knew it was there.
Will still wasn’t sure if Mike felt the same way that he did. Maybe if Mike ever saw this painting, he’d laugh. Call it childish, like the old drawings that Will would make of them and eventually throw away.
But maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d light up, like he did when Will gave him that painting. The one that he had told Mike was a gift from Jane despite Jane knowing nothing about DnD. Will hadn’t ever found those old drawings that he threw away, they’d always vanish from the waste bin he’d discard them in.
The only common denominator when that happened… was Mike.
It was just a thought. A useless hope.
“No straight man signs his letters with love to his male best friend.”
But maybe. Just maybe— none of it was. Mike had answered him, after all, even when Will was convinced he wouldn’t. Mike had suggested that they meet up again, and Mike had always been… different with Will. Will had learned to ignore it over the years, to push all of the overwhelming evidence aside and deem it as a ‘coincidence’. A thoughtless hope, a fantasy.
But ever since he’d sent the letter, it was feeling less and less of a daydream. It felt real. It had felt like Mike really did reciprocate.
Will smiled as he continued adding detail to the sky, making sure to add swirls of blue and yellow throughout the canvas to give it a fantastical feel to it.
He will see Mike tomorrow. He would be in a car with Micheal Wheeler himself, alone, for two hours. Two hours for Will to see how Mike acted, if any of this was in his head.
Will decided he would test some things. He would just need to wait for Mike’s car to roll into the parking lot of his apartment complex.
(Mike has no idea what’s about to happen lmaooooo)