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Dustin yawned loudly and leaned back in his chair. They had been at Mikes place for hours now, playing a really short campaign of D&D and after that devouring, all kinds of Sweets, Mike’s mom had bought for them.
“I think I ate too much candy, I’m gonna be sick!” Lucas complained and made a face like he was going to puke. Dustin scoffed, repeating “…too much candy” under his breath.
Mike smiled and then looked apologetically at them, “Sorry the campaign was so short… I just didn’t have a lot of good ideas lately.”
Will looked up at him, they both sat on the same sofa, pretty close to each other. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it wasn’t exactly nice either. Will would have preferred sitting on one of the chairs Dustin and Lucas were occupying.
They hadn’t spoken about it. It had been a week and they hadn’t spoken about the kiss at all.
“Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we finally spent some quality time together,” Dustin said and shot Lucas a quick look “you know, as friends.”
Lucas made a face and held up one of his hands. “”As friends”. What other option is there? As lovers?” He laughed. Dustin rolled his eyes. Will turned cherry red.
Mike seemingly didn’t react at all.
But then he did. “Didn’t you say, that you wanted to meet up with Max later, Lucas?” he asked and stared at him.
Lucas looked at his watch, shrugged, then gave them a quick smile. “I mean if you don’t mind?”
Mike shook his head and so did Will. “You could have brought her, you know.” Dustin sounded a bit let down, but he quickly turned to Mike, adding, “And you could have brought Jane. This isn’t a Boys Only Club… anymore.”
Lucas just shrugged again, as he got up and picked up all his stuff.
“Jane is pretty occupied with school at the moment. Also, I think she’s in the process of making new friends.” Will tried to read Mike’s voice. Did he sound disappointed? Jealous? He couldn’t make out any emotions in his tone.
“You two having beef?” Dustin asked as he bit down on a 3 Musketeers bar.
“No.”
“Oh, someone’s jealous!”
“I’m not.”
“Or mad?”
“Why would I be mad?”
“Because you kissed her and all that! And now you don’t hang out anymore?”
“This isn’t… That doesn’t…” Mike sighed heavily in frustration and Will looked at him, curiously. He had been awkwardly staring at the ground during the whole exchange.
Mike shot him a quick glance, ran his fingers through his hair and then calmly said, “It’s not like that. I’m happy she’s making friends. I’m not mad.” He cleared his throat before he noticed Lucas was still standing in the room, his eyes had been wandering from Dustin to Mike during their conversation.
Now he held up his arms defensively. “You know what, maybe it’s the right time for me, to go.”
“I’ll come with you. To the door, I mean” Will had said it, before really thinking about it, but it felt right. He had to escape this whole atmosphere for a moment.
As he got up, he felt Mikes eyes on his back and it made him feel weird.
Or maybe this whole situation made him feel weird. Kind of out of place. It felt strange to hear them talk about Jane. Will wasn’t too sure how he felt about her if he was being honest. Sure, she had saved him, she was brave and kind and at times pretty hilarious. But, as Dustin had reminded him just yet, she was also the girl Mike had kissed.
Before he had kissed Will.
And now he apparently didn’t talk to her anymore.
Will felt uneasy.
“Okay so uh, thanks for bringing me to the door, I guess?” Lucas grinned at Will as he got his bike and Will tried to smile.
He couldn’t really, it would just end up looking strange.
“Are you okay?”
Will nodded quickly, trying to lean more casually on the door.
As Will watched Lucas drive off, he wondered how he would react, if Will told him about the kiss. About everything really, how he felt about boys in general and Mike in particular.
He furrowed his brows and shook his head.
Then he closed the front door.
It was eerily silent in the Wheeler house. The kitchen was empty and so was the Living Room. Were Mike’s parents even home? Had they been fighting again? Did they know their son kissed boys now?
Or maybe this had been a one-time thing Will thought bitterly as he walked down the hallway. He stopped at the bathroom and as he washed his hands, he heard footsteps outside of it.
“Dustin? Are you leaving?” Will said, as he stumbled out of the room and into his friend.
Dustin looked kind of bummed out. He adjusted his cap and then shrugged. “Yeah, I dunno, Mike is kind of in a weird mood. I think I might have overdone it a bit with the teasing.”
“Oh.” Was all Will could manage to say.
So, he and Mike would be alone now? He thought about leaving as well but dismissed the thought quickly.
Dustin gave Will a quick hug and then proceeded to leave the house as Will stared after him.
When he got downstairs to the basement, Mike sat awkwardly on the sofa, picking at his hands and looking uncomfortable.
“So… Dustin left?”
Mike jumped as he heard Will speak as if he had been too deep in thought to notice him entering. Then he sighed and bit his lip.
“Yeah, I mean, I didn’t make him leave. Or did I? I didn’t want to. But he was… I just… I wanted to talk to you. Alone.” Mike finally managed to say and Will realized, that he was still standing on top of the stairs.
He slowly made his way down but ended up standing motionless across the room, a few meters away from Mike.
There was an awkward silence between them. Will cleared his throat and his eyes were searching for something, anything he could focus on. He just didn’t want to look directly at Mike.
“So why didn’t you just invite me over then?” he mumbled.
“I thought, you might refuse.” He absent-mindedly wiped his hands on his jeans. So, Will wasn’t the only one with sweaty palms then.
“Okay. So, now we’re alone.”
Mike suddenly seemed to come alive. He walked a few steps towards Will, before stopping, grabbing the end of his Sweater, he stuttered, “I’m sorry. About, you know. I wanted to tell you all week, but then I didn’t know how to start… and also… I didn’t know how to…”. He helplessly looked at the ceiling. “I mean, I… I liked it.” Now his face was as red as a tomato and he was definitely breathing more heavily.
Will felt his stomach flip. It felt so unreal to hear Mike say all of this. He looked at his best friend, trying to find the right response.
“I told you before, Mike. You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” He fumbled with the new watch on his wrist, Jonathan had bought him a few weeks back.
“I liked it, too. I like you, Mike. A lot. More than just a friend.” Will could swear, one could hear his pounding heart in his voice.
Mike’s face lit up, he gave Will a radiant smile and closed the distance between them.
“What about Jane?” Will felt wrong for asking this, wrong for thinking about it. And yet he couldn’t let it go.
Mike furrowed his brows and looked down at Will, bewildered. “What about her?”, his voice was shaking a bit.
Will gave him an angry look. “What about her? You kissed her. And now me. Did you say the same thing to her as you did to me just now?” He took a deep breath, surprised at how bitter he sounded.
Mike looked completely dumbfounded, even a bit hurt.
“No, Will. It’s completely different with her. We’re just friends. I mean, sure I had a crush on her for a bit, but for her, it was always just friendship. She didn’t even know the concept of, like, being with someone.”
He looked straight into Wills' eyes now. “It’s different with you. It’s completely different.” His voice was low and reassuring.
Will felt the weight lifted off his shoulders, he didn’t even realize how much this had affected him. Now he slowly began to grasp the situation he was in.
He looked up at Mike, smiling. Mike leaned down quickly, trying to give Will a quick kiss but he missed.
They both burst out laughing, before Will cupped Mikes’ head, twirling his fingers on one of his locks, before he slowly leaned in.