Chapter Text
He aimlessly dragged his foot against the ground while clutching the handles of a swing. His eyes were glued onto the ground, not a focus on his surroundings. He initially swung back and forth at a steady speed, but his attention diverted back to the daily torrent of bullying he would receive at the hands of his classmates – so, he just stopped swinging. All he could think about was the ruthless name calling he endured and the loneliness he felt.
It was two months into kindergarten and nothing had changed for Will Byers. Every day during recess, he would go to the swing set and swing alone. He was usually he only one there, save for a couple of other kids who would use the swing set occasionally. The loneliness the timid boy felt almost killed him inside on the worst of days. It got so bad he’d often come home crying to his mom. He had no friends, no one to talk to.
But all of that changed when another kid approached him.
“Hey!”
Will tilted his head up, seeing a boy his age standing in front of him. Will wanted to believe that this was yet another kid who would tease and make fun of him, but his voice wasn’t the slightest bit condescending or mocking. Instead it sounded friendly; he looked friendly. He had dark, wavy hair and very fair skin. Freckles lined his upper cheeks and nose bridge. The boy had an amicable smile which added to his approachable demeanor.
It wasn’t something Will was used to, but he went ahead and said something back.
“Hi?” Will said, in a quieter voice, his “Hi” accidentally coming across as a question.
There was a short silence between the two, the other kid seemingly trying to conjure up his next words. Will’s heartbeat kicked up a notch, hoping that the friendly attitude wasn’t a façade that the boy put up. He had hoped this wasn’t some sort of inside joke that other classmates often planned behind his back.
“Is this swing taken?” He asked, pointing to the empty one beside Will.
Will blinked before shaking his head. That was when the boy took a seat. Will clutched the metal bars of his swing when he could feel the other’s stare on him. Much to his own chagrin, his shy nature often got the best of him.
“Are you usually by yourself?” The boy asked.
Will nodded.
“Oh…” The other said, an upset tone to his voice, “Doesn’t that get a bit boring sometimes? I mean, there’s stuff to do alone at recess, but it’s really fun when you have other people to play with. We make up all sorts of games and it all goes by so fast because of that. I wish recess could be like five hours long.”
“I don’t have anyone to play with,” Will shrugged, trying his hardest to muster up a nonchalant façade. Instead, he looked visibly uncomfortable even saying that.
“We can play together, whatever you want,” The other quickly said, a grin on his face, “…If you have any ideas. If you don’t, I can come up with anything. I’m really great at hide-n-seek. The other day, I came up with my own version of it and all the other kids loved it. I’m pretty sure you would too! Just don’t let any of the teachers catch us, someone got into huge trouble for hiding in the back of Mr. Connor’s truck. I felt bad cause his mom yelled at him so loud when she came to pick him up.”
Will felt the side of his lips tug into a smile. This boy could go on and on forever. He hadn’t met anyone as talkative as him before.
“I’ll play hide-n-seek with you then,” Will spoke up.
“I think you’d be great at it, since you’re small for your age,” He said, feet slightly dangling from the swing.
“But what if the other kids tease me?”
“I won’t let them,” He replied, looking at Will, “I don’t let people bother my friends–”
Will raised his eyebrows at the boy’s abrupt stop. Will was quick to assume he did something wrong, but his self-doubting thoughts were quickly whisked away when the boy said what he was about to say.
“Do you want to be my friend?”
Will’s breath almost stopped.
He had never been asked that question, especially in such a bold manner by someone he hadn’t met before. To have someone walk up to him and say those six words was uncharted and unfamiliar territory for the boy, but that was something he wanted to hear for such a long time. He wasn’t able to utter a single word out of shock. Instead, he nodded his head, a small smile forming on his face.
“Okay,” Will finally said, his voice soft.
The boy smiled back from Will’s naturally contagious one.
“What’s your name?” The boy asked.
“Will,” He replied, his uneasiness quickly subsiding. He couldn’t describe it in words, but there was something so welcoming and comforting about the other boy’s presence.
“I’m Michael, but everyone calls me Mike.”
“…Mike,” Will repeated to himself, smiling again.
From then on, Will and Mike immediately became best friends. Although Mike was more outspoken compared to the quieter Will, they had a lot in common. Both of them endured bullying at the hands of their classmates, and they both had an awkwardness to them – at least compared to the other five year olds in their class – in which they could relate to each other with. Mike was able to bring out a side of Will that the shy boy was unaware he had. The normally reserved Will could open up and talk to Mike about anything on moments notice, for hours on end – whether it be at school, at each other’s houses, or on the phone.
“Will, how long have you been using the phone?”
Will could hear his older brother’s voice come from the kitchen. He covered the speaker end of the device.
“…30 minutes?”
“No way, I could have sworn you answered it at 5:00!” His brother, Jonathan, said, “It’s 7:25 right now.”
2 hours and 25 minutes – that’s how long Will had been talking to Mike this time. Jonathan had pestered Will before, telling his younger brother he needed to make an important call at the time; he clearly didn’t appreciate Will hogging the phone for so long. Will, on the other hand, was too immersed in his phone call to cave into Jonathan’s demands and hang up. Their conversation shifted from topics like the harsh disciplining of the teachers at their school to the brand new Atari Video Computer System was too interesting to put off for another time.
“Hold on, I’ll be done soon!” Will said.
“You said that an hour ago.”
Will sighed.
“Can’t I just bike to Mike’s house?”
“You know Mom won’t allow you to do that,” Jonathan said. He was right; the protective Joyce would never allow a five year old bike that much of a distance, especially when it was dark.
“But Mike’s parents don’t care when he does it.”
“Then why don’t you ask Mike to come here?”
“Because his mom and dad won’t let him, he’s grounded for a whole week. He’s not even allowed to call me right now.”
Will looked in the direction of the kitchen, waiting for Jonathan to say something.
“…Fine,” The eldest said, “I’ll give you 30 minutes. But I really need to use it by then!”
A large grin suddenly formed on Will’s face. A burst of happiness surged through the boy.
“Okay! Thanks, Jonathan!”
“Yeah, yeah – whatever, Will.”
------
One year later…
From the kitchen, Will could hear a few knocks come from the front door of his house.
“He’s here!” The six year old boy almost screeched.
Before Joyce could answer it, Will jumped up from his seat and bounded towards the front door. He almost tripped from the high speed he was running at, earning a shake of the head from Joyce. Will quickly reached up and pulled open the door. His face lit up when he saw Mrs. Wheeler and Mike himself, the two standing side by side. His warm brown eyes brightened up when he saw the excitement on Will’s face.
“Hey, Will!” Mike grinned.
“Mike!” Will squeaked, immediately bringing Mike into a hug, the taller boy eagerly returned it.
It was November and Mike had gone out of the state to visit his cousin during Thanksgiving break. It was the longest time they were separate since they met each other. It felt like the longest week for Will...and Mike, them not being able to talk to each other in person for so long almost made it unbearable. He was overjoyed the other day once he was told Mike and his family would be returning.
“You have to tell me everything that happened!” Will said, pulling Mike in the direction of the kitchen.
“Nothing much, it was pretty boring,” Mike shrugged, his smile returning, “I’m glad I’m back. I thought I was gonna die over there.”
“What about Richie?”
“He was annoying as usual, he never shuts up!”
Mike always expressed his frustration about his lookalike cousin.
“Hey, sometimes you never shut up either!” Will retorted.
“Sometimes!” Mike emphasized, “Richie goes on and on and on. He talked non-stop for an hour while everyone else was mostly quiet when we were driving to the theater. He also kept talking to me when I was trying to focus on the movie, the people sitting behind us weren’t happy at all…”
“That sucks, he seems interesting though,” Will said, trying to focus on the positive. He had never met Richie in person before but he was itching to because of all the funny stories Mike would tell that involved him.
“Even someone as nice as you would get annoyed by him,” Mike said, he quickly changed the subject, “What about you? How was your Thanksgiving?”
“It was okay, it would have been better if we spent it with your family like we did last year…”
From the living room, two mothers were in the middle of a conversation.
“…Just make sure Nancy has Will in bed by 9:00,” Joyce said.
“We’ll have no problem with that, I promise you Nancy has these boys taken care of,” Mrs. Wheeler said, “It won’t be like last time. She’ll check in on them to make sure the lights are off.”
The last time Joyce dropped Will off at Mike’s house, the two boys were too busy chatting it up in Mike’s basement to notice that it was hours past their bed time, 1:00 A.M., to be exact.
“Thank you so much, Karen. I really owe you one,” Mrs. Byers said, straightening her work uniform. Since Jonathan was out at a friend’s house and Joyce had a late night shift the day the Wheelers came back from their vacation, she did what she usually did and dropped Will off at the Wheeler’s household. It was a win-win for everyone: Joyce had someone to babysit her son and Will was able to spend the entire night with Mike.
"All right, we’ll have Will back at your house tomorrow evening!" Mrs. Wheeler said.
------
“Hey, hey, Will! Nancy’s on the phone!”
Ahead of him, Will could hear Mike run down the stairs, his loud footsteps indicating his movement back into the basement.
“She is?” Will raised his eyebrows, “…Does…does that mean we can…”
“Yup!” Mike grinned, “We have to be quiet when we close the door or she might hear us leave the house.”
Will got off the couch he initially sat in and straightened out a bunch of bedsheets that were overlaid on stacks of pillows to imitate their sleeping forms. Will and Mike had told…or rather lied to Nancy that they were going to sleep early because they inevitably had a quiz in school tomorrow. Instead, they were planning on sneaking out to the quarry close to Mike’s house. They knew Nancy wouldn’t have a care in the world to double-check on them sleeping since she was too busy phoning her friend.
“Are you ready?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, I was making sure the pillows actually look like us sleeping,” Will nodded.
“Okay, let’s go!” Mike said.
With that, they both went up the stairs.
------
Will dipped his foot into the body of the water. He jerked it out and shook his head.
“I changed my mind! I can’t!”
Mike was already swimming in the quarry lake. But Will had formed second-thoughts on actually joining him. He had never swam before and he was often afraid to try out new things. The large body of water in front of him was intimidating itself to look at.
Will watched Mike swim towards him and eventually out of the water.
“Come on, Will. It’s just a short jump,” Mike said, “See? Up there. It’s only like ten feet.”
He pointed to a ledge that made up the surroundings of the quarry. Mike had jumped off of it into the water with much ease. Will bit his bottom lip and shifted his foot on the rocky ground.
“It’s not scary. If I can do it, you can,” Mike continued, playfully tugging Will’s sleeve, “You have to try it with me, please Will? Pretty please?”
Will looked up at Mike, he saw the pleading expression radiate from his brown eyes. That was when he felt a sudden change of heart, he didn’t sneak out of the house for nothing. Standing there, only to watch Mike have all the fun, would slowly kill his mood. He had to try this…or else he’d feel regret the next day.
“Okay, okay, fine!” The shorter boy couldn’t say no to him, “You promise it’s not too scary?”
“I promise,” Mike replied. He brought up his hand and linked pinkies with Will’s, causing the shorter boy’s cheeks to flush. Will ignored that unfamiliar, momentary feeling.
Mike took Will’s hand and they both ran towards the ledge before climbing up on it. Will’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the height they were at, the body of water below them. When Mike was about to let go of Will’s hand to demonstrate how to jump off, Will kept his grip tight, not letting go.
“Can we jump off at the same time?” Will asked, his voice feeble.
“Yeah, of course!” Mike said. He looked at Will.
“Are you ready?”
Will nodded.
“Yeah.”
Mike squeezed Will’s hand to reassure the nervous boy.
“Okay, we have to take a few steps back,” Mike began.
They took a few large steps back, reaching the back end of the ledge.
“Then we run as fast as we can and make a huge jump,” Mike continued, this time looking at Will.
“T-that doesn’t seem too hard,” Will replied.
“We’re going to jump off in three…” Mike began, a smile forming on his features. Will’s lower lip trembled, his nervousness still present.
“…Two.”
Will took a deep breath.
“One!”
As they tightly held onto each other’s hands, they ran as fast as they could. When they reached the end of the ledge, they jumped high. Will’s eyes widened when they were in mid-air. He could quickly see themselves zooming towards the lake.
Will had no time to recollect his uneasy thoughts when they reached the water, the loud booming splash that came after took any attention away from that. All Will could see was blue; he thrashed his hands to bring himself back up to the surface.
He let out an airy gasp, taking in oxygen. He wiped his face to get residual water out of his eyes. He frantically waded through the lake, realizing he was no longer holding onto Mike’s hand. There was no sign of him either.
“Mike!” Will exclaimed, “Where are you?!”
He clattered his teeth, not yet used to the ice-cold temperature of the water.
Will shrieked when he felt a stream of water hit him from the back.
He immediately turned around and saw Mike. He could see the dark-haired boy break out into peals of laughter.
“Mike!” Will shouted, his voice annoyed, “That’s not funn- Mike! Mike! I’m going to drown!”
Will’s irritation changed into panic when felt himself sinking. Mike quickly swam towards Will and put an arm around his shoulder, making sure to keep the boy from drowning.
“It’s okay, you have to relax!”
Will breathing was labored, panic still overtaking him when he saw the body of water completely envelope and surround them.
“Deep breaths, Will,” Mike added.
Will bit his lip and nodded, his hold on Mike was tight. He inhaled through his nose and then he exhaled through his lips. He repeatedly did this, using this as a mechanism to distract himself from the fear and panic that had swathed any rational thought.
Will absently tilted his head back, staring at the pink hued sky to distract himself – his eyes particularly focused on the oncoming sunset. From the bottom of the quarry, it was a pretty sight. He was so enthralled with it that he didn’t notice Mike let go of him.
“See? You’re floating!” Mike said, “I told you it wasn’t difficult.”
Will was brought back out of his trance, finally realizing that he was floating all on his own, without the assistance of Mike. He smiled back at Mike who had a proud expression. The two of them looking at each other in that way, in silence, felt like an eternity before Will spoke up.
“Mike, there’s something behind you!”
Mike’s eyes widened and he whipped his head back.
That was when Will brought his arms back and flung a stream of water towards his friend. Before Mike could react, Will did it a second time. The brown-haired boy broke into a fit of giggles, glad that he got his friend back.
“Serves you right for scaring me earlier!”
“Wow, is that how you treat someone who teaches you not to drown?”
Will’s giggles broke out into full on laughter. That immediately stopped when Mike flung more water at Will.
“Hey!”
Will flung even more water back, re-drenching Mike. Mike quickly waded over to Will and playfully wrapped his arm around his neck. He attempted to bring Will down in the water alongside him, but Will quickly broke himself out of Mike’s grip and resumed the water-fight that they had.
After what felt like an eternity, the boys exhausted themselves and came out of the water. They both shivered, noticing their sweaters on the ground where they first left them. Luckily, it wasn’t too cold but it wasn’t warm either.
“That was really fun,” Will spoke up, putting his sweater on, “Thanks, Mike.”
“Yeah, that was something we both needed,” The other boy replied.
“But your water-fighting skills are weak.”
“Take that back, Will,” Mike said, looking particularly offended by that sentence.
“Nope!” Will grinned, “I was only pretending to freak out to make you feel better! Mike-!”
Mike placed Will into a headlock, causing the other to playfully jab his elbow against his stomach. That was when Mike let go before he began to run.
“Last one to your house has to fold up the bedsheets tomorrow morning!” Mike shouted, easily bypassing Will.
“Not fair, Mike! You’re taller than me!”
------
“Shh! Not so loud,” Mike shushed Will. His footsteps were a little too rowdy for his liking when they returned to the Wheeler’s household.
“Sorry,” Will apologized; he was no able to stop smiling since their time at the quarry. He kept replaying that wonderful moment over and over again in his head. It was perfect after Mike’s week-long absence.
After drying themselves and changing into a new set of clothes, Mike’s old spares even being too big for the short-statured Will, the two boys tiptoed across the kitchen and eventually down the steps of the basement.
After a few hours of watching TV, playing on Mike’s Atari, they decided to call it day and go to sleep. Will let out an oncoming sneeze when they reached the makeshift bed Mike set up.
“Will, if you catch a cold, I’m going to get sick too,” Mike spoke up.
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Will said, wiping the edge of his nose with his arm.
“You sure?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Will replied, smiling at Mike.
After removing the pillows from under the bedsheets, they situated themselves beside each other on the bed. Will breathed in, the warmth of the bedsheets making him increasingly comfortable.
“Hey, Mike.”
“Yeah, Will?”
“I’m really glad you asked me to be your friend.”
“Me too,” Mike replied, “I think…it was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Will could feel his stomach flutter at those last eight words Mike said.
“Does that mean we’ll never leave each other?”
Will didn’t know why he’d ask such a question. But he did miss Mike immensely when he went out of the state for Thanksgiving. It was just a week, but it felt like such an eternity for Will as they saw each other in person every day and constantly hung out with each other, ever since they first met. A part of him felt…empty when Mike wasn’t around. No other kid his age had ever treated him as nicely as Mike had.
“Of course,” Mike replied, turning around to face Will, “I can’t imagine you not being around.”
“Promise?” Will said.
“I promise,” Mike replied, his voice genuine, “I’ll always be by your side. We’re best friends, right?”
“Y-yeah,” Will nodded his head. Will pulled the comforter closer to his chin, “Goodnight, Mike.”
“Goodnight, Will.”