Chapter Text
Will Byers didn’t ask for much.
He was always far too polite to even ask his mother for a few dollars. On the occasions that he did, he’d promise her over and over that he would pay her back; despite her reminding him that it was perfectly okay. Will didn’t like to ask for things, but eventually, he realised that he didn’t have something that he deserved.
At this point, Will realised that waiting for certain things to happen could feel like a lifetime. Even if he didn’t think about it all the time, it was always in the back of his head; like a constant flicker of a flame. Eventually, it would either burn out and go cold, or it would be ignited and transformed into a great fire… a great, burning fire that he’d waited so long for. He’d never want that to go out. Especially if that fire was finding the person that meant a lot to him, like more than anyone had ever meant to him in his entire life. But as everyone knew, with fire, came smoke; sometimes a black, thick smoke. So you can never really see the truth, not until you’re told.
For Will, his fire started to grow in the September of 1988, when Mike Wheeler got transferred to Hawkins High School.
But boy, did he bring a lot of smoke.
“Will! You still coming to the arcade later?” Max asked, a fiery girl with ginger hair who was Will’s closest friend, falling into step with him as he walked down the long school hallway. People stood at their lockers, grabbing various books that they needed and replacing them with the ones that they didn’t. Will could just tell they all wished to be anywhere but there, and he understood that, but couldn’t relate. Will always had an urge to learn, and he even liked to teach others if he could. It made him feel good about himself.
Will pulled at his backpack strap, turning to look at Max who was now walking beside him. She carried her skateboard under her arm like she always did. She’d even attempted to teach Will multiple times, but it would never go well. “Yeah, as always.”
Will’s confirmation made the biggest smile appear on Max’s face, even though she knew he was going to say yes anyway. They hung out at the arcade all the time, that was where most of their money was spent. Sometimes Dustin, Lucas and El would join them. The five of them were considered a group, after all; but it had always been Will and Max. They knew pretty much everything about each other, and they trusted each other more than anyone. They always had, even the others knew that despite them all being pretty close friends.
“Good, because I’ve been working on Space Invaders and I think I’ve got it down. I’m so gonna beat your ass-” Max started rambling excitedly, and Will scrunched his eyebrows together in thought.
“Okay, one… you’ve been secretly practising without me? And two… why Space Invaders? Why not any of the new ones they literally installed last week?” Will questioned. He and Max had agreed to never practise without each other because otherwise that wouldn’t be fair, obviously Max had gone against that. Come to think of it, she was the most competitive person Will had ever met.
Max groaned and then walked in front of Will, stopping by her locker. Will was forced to stop too since she literally stood in front of him and plus, he was going to wait for her anyway. Like he always did. “Come on, Will. I had nothing to do, and you were busy.” She opened her locker and plucked out a moderately thick textbook. “Plus, I wanted a change, who cares if it’s one of the older ones? It’s great because there’s literally no one on it, I had it to myself for hours .”
Max didn’t notice the raised eyebrow and the look Will was giving her until she had finished her sentence. “Hours, huh?”
“Stop looking at me like that, Will!”
“What? I’m not looking at you like anything.” Will shrugged as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
“You are.” Max playfully rolled her eyes, slamming her locker shut. “Anyway, you better not abandon me now that summer is over. I know school is important and everything but it’s not that important.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Will nodded, somewhat dismissively.
Anything that Max said after that was drowned out. Will knew she was talking to him but he didn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about, it went straight over his head; because he saw someone he didn’t recognise across the hall. He scrunched his eyebrows as he tried to get a better look at them, and obviously Max hadn’t noticed Will’s mind had drifted far away from the arcade at this point, so she just kept talking as Will moved his head every time someone would step in the way of his view.
It was a boy, and he was facing his open locker so Will could only see the back of him. He noticed his lanky build, the oversized sweater that he was wearing and he had extremely dark hair that was a mess of curls. He caught Will’s eye because he’d never seen him before, and Will had always thought that even if he didn’t know everyone in the school personally, he’d recognise them in the hallways. This boy he didn’t recognise, so he assumed he must be new. He was intrigued to say the least.
He saw a hand wave in front of his face, disrupting his view. “Will? Are you listening?”
“What?” He said subconsciously, not even bothering to turn his attention to Max. It was like he was in some sort of daze, and he hadn’t even seen this person’s face yet.
“What are you looking at?” She asked, trying to follow Will’s gaze. Eventually she was looking at this boy too, and the look on her face suggested that she knew something that Will didn’t. Not that Will even saw her expression anyway.
As Will continued to look, he realised how nosy he may have appeared to be. He was just curious like he always was, new people always intrigued him for some reason. If someone were to catch him staring in some sort of daze like this though, they’d probably find it extremely weird. Will saw this boy turn to the side and look down the hallway as he rearranged his locker, and it was the first time he caught sight of his face. He looked mildly anxious and on edge as he clumsily fumbled around in the small locker space, continuously checking if people were watching him. He didn’t look in Will’s direction though, and thank god too; both he and Max were staring now.
Max sighed. “You know, I don’t get it.”
“What do you mean? Don’t get what?” Will asked, confused by Max’s statement. He turned to look at her quickly, and then back at the boy who looked like he just wanted to climb into his open locker and never come out.
“Apparently he was transferred from his last school in another state because of an incident that happened there, but no one knows what it is and it’s weirdly confidential. I don’t know, man. It seems shady to me.” Max explained, and suddenly all sorts of questions were flooding into Will’s brain. That was always the problem with being too curious, he’d end up unintentionally prying into people’s minds, wondering about them. Why they did this, why they did that.
Will shifted on his feet so he could lean against the locker behind him. “An incident? Where’d you hear that?”
“Dustin told us yesterday, weren’t you listening?” Max asked.
“I probably spaced out.”
“Like you did just then,” Max pointed out. “Anyway, don’t go telling anyone else. If I were him I’d probably want everyone to ignore me.”
“How did Dustin find out, then?” Will pushed.
“He was waiting in the main office for something, and that was when the guy first arrived, Dustin overheard some stuff, and that’s what he got from it.” Max explained, she then popped a piece of gum in her mouth and started chewing on it; not offering Will one because she knew he hated it.
Will wasn’t really sure what to do with this information, not that it was important to do anything with it at all, obviously; he just felt as if he ought to. It would be one of those things that would sit in the back of his head, and he’d think about it every time he saw the boy now, but he’d never ask because Will knew that it wouldn’t be the polite thing to do. He couldn’t help but wonder what the incident was, and why it was so bad that his family literally had to move states. Will had always been fascinated by mysteries, and it was like a human mystery had appeared right in front of him and he had the urge to figure it out.
Will shook his head to get rid of his thoughts, he shouldn’t care about it. It wasn’t important, and it was none of his business. There was just something though, that told him he should know him. He wasn’t with anyone, so maybe he hadn’t made any friends yet. Will thought that maybe he should try and approach him, but he quickly decided against it. He probably wouldn’t want that.
“Do you know his name?” Will asked, just out of genuine curiosity. He assumed that Dustin would’ve most likely heard a name if he overheard anything else.
Max looked at Will with some sort of strange expression, but then answered. “Why do you care?”
“What? I don’t.” Will said defensively.
It was true, he didn’t care. Well, not yet anyway.
“Sure.” Max said, in a tone that let Will know that she did not believe him one bit. “And no, Dustin didn’t catch his name.”
Will wanted to look away but it was like he couldn’t bring himself to, he just kept looking and wondering. They didn’t have a class to get to anyway, they were going to meet up with the others and have lunch at their usual table like they always did, obviously rather late by this point because the halls seemed to be clearing up. The boy still stood by his locker, and Will assumed he was trying to get it all organised since he’d only just arrived there. Will looked, perhaps for too long, because the boy looked over his shoulder and caught Will’s eye. He had his eyebrows scrunched together as if he was asking Will why he was staring at him, and Will quickly tore his eyes away and looked at Max.
“Well now he thinks you’re a freak.” Max pointed out, and Will playfully punched her in the arm.
Will scoffed. “Shut up.” When he turned to look again, he saw that the boy had closed his locker and was making his way down the hall rather quickly, further and further away from Will and Max.
“You literally scared him off with your creepy staring.” Max argued, and then she changed the subject, which Will thanked her for in his mind. “Come on, I’m starving.”
Despite what a lot of people may have thought, Will Byers wasn’t afraid to talk to people that he didn’t know. A lot of people seemed to assume that he wouldn’t be the best at communicating with others, but he could manage it. He liked to think he had a good relationship with a lot of people, even his teachers, the librarian… Others would find it strange, but Will really didn’t, he liked people. Perhaps that explained why he was suddenly so captivated by this new kid, something about him told Will that he was different, but kind of like himself at the same time.
He’d wonder what the incident was, and why it was so confidential. Did he get into trouble? Did he do something bad? Did someone die? Will realised that he had only briefly seen this guy from afar for a matter of minutes before he hastily rushed down the hall, and that it was ridiculous of him to be asking so many questions in his mind. Maybe it was the part of Will that sensed some sort of similarity between them, and he wanted to latch onto it. Will personally thought he was a good judge of character, and it didn’t usually take him long to figure people out. What he didn’t know, however, was that this boy in particular had a hard time trusting people in the first place. So it wasn’t even like Will would be able to get close.
Not that I’d want to, I don’t even know the guy.
Will tried not to think too much into it as the day continued, because really, it wasn’t important. He had other things to worry about, like the three pieces of homework he had due for the next day, or the test he had to study for. He even had multiple drawings planned that he’d been thinking about for so long, but he never got the motivation to sit down and get those ideas down onto paper. Maybe he would if he didn’t want to do his homework enough, then he’d do that instead. He always loved drawing, captivated by how you could just think of something and make it visual with just a few tools, but at the moment; he’d lost his inspiration.
He didn’t know if it was school getting harder by the day, or because he was home alone a lot; but it was like he’d just lost something inside of him that used to push him to create art. Recently, he’d just picture wonderful ideas in his head rather than actually creating them. He knew he could do it, but he just felt like he didn’t have the motivation. It was easy when he was a kid, all the make believe and fantasy stories… but now, when he brought the pencil down to the paper, he couldn’t make his hand move no matter how hard he tried. He needed inspiration, or perhaps… a muse.
Will then realised that he must’ve sounded pathetic. A muse? What was he thinking? His life wasn’t some movie, and it wasn’t going to turn out that way, so he’d just have to suffer with his mental block like everyone else did. He knew he wasn’t anything special, sometimes feeling like he was just passing through life with no purpose whatsoever, or maybe he just hadn’t found it yet. Will was one of those people who liked to question a lot of things, sometimes he’d just look in the mirror and wonder why he was there. Not that he didn’t want to be, he just wanted to know why. Having a mind like that was frustrating though, often he wished he could just think like a normal person.
“We’ve gotta plan a sleepover, you guys. It’s been too long.” Dustin declared, turning to his side and nudging Lucas. “Don’t you think?”
The five of them sat at their usual table in the cafeteria, a low buzz of their fellow students’ voices was heard. Will had been friends with Dustin and Lucas for the longest, since they were little kids. Will met Max some years later and introduced her to the others, and despite knowing her for a shorter time, Will quickly became close friends with her. Then there was El, who only moved into the area two years beforehand, Dustin had asked her if she wanted to sit with them one day, and she’d been there ever since. Will liked her, but he wasn’t the closest with her. She’d hang out with him and Max quite frequently though, she didn’t really understand the arcade games but she’d try her best.
“Don’t you think, we’re a bit too old for that?” Lucas retorted, and Dustin immediately placed a hand on his chest in mock offence. Will picked at his food, he’d somehow lost his appetite and he wasn’t quite sure why. Out of all of them, Dustin and Lucas were the ones who did the most bickering; almost everything they argued over was stupid, in Will’s opinion anyway.
“I can’t believe you just said that.” Dustin shook his head, brushing some of the curls out of his eyes dramatically.
“Okay! Sorry, sorry.” Lucas quickly apologised. “All I’m saying is-”
“You’re not saying anything , Sinclair. We’re having a sleepover and you’re coming whether you like it or not.” Dustin said as a final statement, and Lucas couldn’t really argue there, even if he tried.
Will looked up from his food, suddenly having effort to join in the conversation. “I don’t think we’re too old.”
Maybe it was just because Will was in denial about growing up, but he really did like the sleepovers that they had. They’d have them quite often, alternating who would host it. In a way, it kept Will connected to the childhood that he wasn’t quite ready to lose. They were all going to turn eighteen within the next year, it was inevitable. They were probably going to go separate ways, to different colleges in different states. Will wanted to cling on to whatever he had now for as long as possible; he had to.
“See, Will gets it.” Dustin gestured to Will opposite him, and then looked at Lucas again. Lucas didn’t look like he was in the mood for a petty argument with Dustin at that moment, so he just sighed and shook his head. Will knew that Lucas liked the sleepovers too, anyway. He just didn’t want to admit it.
“Will gets a lot of things,” Max’s voice was heard from behind Will, who turned around and looked at her holding her lunch tray, El standing beside her. She placed her tray down on the table rather heavily, and then practically threw herself into her seat. “But obviously not the fact that I’m allowed to go to the arcade alone.”
El sat down next to Max, somewhat more calmly. Will had noticed that they’d been spending a lot more time together than usual, but he didn’t think too much into it. They always had been good friends, Will knew that, but it was like Max always seemed to be telling him that she was going to meet up with El before class, lunch or after school a lot more than normal. At the moment, it was Dustin and Lucas, Max and El, and just Will. He considered himself the closest with Max, but this kind of bond was different.
He felt like he didn’t have that with anyone. He and Max just talked about a lot of things, had a lot of the same interests and just genuinely got on really well. They told each other a lot of things, and it was great, but it was like there was a big gap in their friendship and that was stopping them from being even closer than they already were. Will had thought for a long time, that he and Max were as close as they were ever going to get. Will didn’t have that kind of person yet, and he was convinced he was never going to find them, whoever they were.
Will rolled his eyes. “I never said you couldn’t, you just broke our rule.”
“Well, it’s not such a bad thing. Sometimes you’ve gotta bend the rules a little to-”
“To ‘beat my ass’?” Will cut her off.
Max nudged Will’s shoulder and then nodded. “Yeah, you get it now.”
“Sure.” Will scoffed and shook his head.
“You can beat her ass on another game, Will.” El added, and Will smiled to himself. She was right, Space Invaders wasn’t the only game they were allowed to play, so he had plenty of opportunities to show Max that her practising was a waste of time.
Will nodded in El’s direction, leaning forwards so he could see past Max who was sat in between them. “Thanks, El.”
El simply shrugged with a smile and then continued to eat whatever food she had on her plate. The group of them sat without speaking for a few moments, but then Max suddenly perked up as if she remembered something. She quickly swallowed her food, and then leaned towards the middle of the table as if she was going to have to whisper, so everyone followed suit.
“Hey, Dustin. We saw that boy you were talking about..” Max whispered, tucking a strand of hair away that had fallen out of place.
Dustin scrunched his eyebrows together. “Who? The new kid?”
Max nodded, and Will hoped that she wouldn’t tell the others about their weird encounter. Well, it wasn’t really an encounter. Either way, Will felt a slight embarrassment layered with annoyance when Max went against Will’s internal wishes and decided to tell them all. He didn’t know why he felt embarrassed, he just decided that he tended to feel that way easily. Sometimes you just feel embarrassed when you don’t really have a reason to.
“He just seems really weird, you know? Will kept looking at him and asking me questions as if I knew the guy personally-”
Will cut Max off quickly. “I did not!”
“Sure,” Max said dismissively, and Will sighed, placing his chin on the palm of his hand, where his elbow rested against the table. “Anyways, he looked all secretive and shit. When he saw us looking, he practically bolted.”
“Why do you think he moved here? I mean, from what Dustin told us, the reason he had to move is a huge ass secret.” Lucas said, gesturing to Dustin when he was mentioned.
Dustin widened his eyes and turned to Lucas. “I’ve got it. What if he’s going undercover for the FBI and he’s just spying on us all, you know? Like maybe there’s someone they’re after around here and sending an adult would be too risky. So they hired this kid, he’s got an ear piece and everything, probably a taser-”
“Dustin, your imagination sure is wonderful but I think that’s a bit of a reach.” Max cut him off, before his made up story could become too detailed.
Will knew that Dustin always liked to think of the extreme, and he wasn’t afraid to explain things with insane amounts of detail. He found it cool usually, but his time though, it was bothering Will. They were all talking about this guy and it was none of their business, and Will was sure that it was the last thing someone would need when they moved to a new school. Will was certain he wouldn't want that, so he shouldn’t be letting the others do it.
“Maybe he accidentally killed someone.” Max suggested, and Will was about to draw the line there but El beat him to it.
“He probably just had to move because his dad got a job around here or something, chill out guys.” She said, and Will silently thanked her.
Lucas adjusted his position on his seat. “But what about the incident Dustin was talking about?”
Even though Will couldn’t deny he was curious too, he wouldn’t talk about it. It might not have been true anyway, so he’d treat it as something that was none of his business and ignore the whole thing. That was the best way to go about it.
“It’s probably nothing, Dustin could’ve misheard.” Will decided to jump in, feeling as if he had a duty to. “Also, it’s none of our business anyway.”
“That’s not what you thought half an hour ago.” Max turned to Will with a smirk on her face, and Will wished he could just slap it right off.
“Yeah, well…” Will started, picking at his food again whilst avoiding eye contact. “I’ve decided it’s none of my business, and it’s none of yours. So can we just drop it?”
No one replied to Will for a fair few moments, whilst he refused to look at the rest of them. By doing this, he wasn’t aware that the four of them were staring directly at him with thoughtful looks plastered across all of their faces.
“Is someone looking for a new boyfriend, perhaps?”
Will almost choked on his food. “What the hell? Why would you think that?”
“It’s been a year, Will… I wouldn’t blame you.” Max shrugged, pushing her lunch tray away.
It could be said that Will’s group of friends were very comfortable with one another, and they knew they’d all be totally accepting of each other. It did take a while to get to that stage though, for all of them, but it was Will who broke the ice. Things were hard, as expected. There were countless nights crying himself to sleep, wishing he could be normal. He always knew he was not like everyone else, it took him a while to figure things out and through a lot of self doubt and hatred… Will eventually felt happy to say that he liked boys, and only boys.
He remembered how he told everyone, it was his brother, Jonathan at first, and it went so much better than Will had expected. Then his mother, Will had always had some feeling that it wouldn’t change anything between them, and it didn’t; he still worried about telling her the most out of everyone, though. For the others, he just dropped it in their conversations at random times and he tried not to make a big deal out of it, and he trusted them to not tell anyone else. They’d kept that promise ever since, and they were extremely happy for their friend. It even made some of them share some of their secrets too, and now they were that small group who knew stuff about each other that no one else did.
Others had their suspicions though, especially about Will. They always had. Troy Harrington and his friends had been picking on Will since he could remember, especially for things like being gay. They didn’t know anyway, they just allocated those chosen insults to Will when really they had no idea that they were right the whole time. Well, not when the horrible things were said, although Will sometimes believed them. At the end of the day, Will was finally happy with who he was and he was incredibly thankful for all of the supportive people around him, who treated it like the most normal thing in the world.
“It’s been a year for a reason, okay?” Will sighed, thinking back to the last relationship he had. He’d only had one, and he didn’t like talking about it. He particularly didn’t like talking about its ending - it was a sensitive topic, to say the least.
Dustin finished up the last bit of his food before speaking. “Maybe that means it’s time. Before you know it, we’ll be off to college soon, and-”
“So why don’t I just wait until then?” Will suggested, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He loved his friends, but god, sometimes they got on his nerves with how much they cared.
“Yeah, I guess you meet a lot of new people in college.” Lucas added, and Will nodded along.
“Exactly. Thanks, Lucas.”
“So, no boys at all... for the whole of senior year?” El asked him, raising an eyebrow.
“Yep,” Will started, but then his eyes caught the boy from earlier; the new kid. He sat alone a few tables away and Will could see him from where he was sitting. He picked at his food, loose curls falling in front of his face as he kept his head down. The sleeves of his sweater were pulled down over his hands and he seemed to be clutching the fabric tightly to keep himself grounded. His leg bounced up and down slightly, and Will could tell it was a sign of nerves. His heart ached, but he wouldn’t admit that to anyone; not even himself. “No boys.”
He knew that the others had noticed who he was looking at since he paused for so long, but they didn’t say anything for once. Will had to admit that he was surprised they didn’t start coming up with some ridiculous theories about how Will liked this guy, because they would be so wrong. Will didn’t like him, he didn’t even know him. He hadn’t even heard him speak and he’d only seen him from a distance. That would be completely unrealistic, but Will did get some sort of urge to know him better though. As a friend.
Will was in his final lesson of the day when he really needed to use the bathroom, so from the back of his art class he raised his hand and asked Mrs Walker if he could be excused. She politely allowed him too, and as Will walked to the front of the class, James Dante (better known amongst the student body of Hawkins High as Troy Harrington’s sidekick ) stuck his foot out into the space where he was walking. Will noticed before something embarrassing could happen, so he simply stepped over the outstretched foot and continued walking. Will glanced back at him as if to say nice try.
He took the hall pass from Mrs Walker and left the room, wondering why on earth James, of all people, picked art as a subject; he knew for a fact the boy didn’t have a creative bone in his body. Will never took any shit in that classroom, because it was his place, it always had been. He wasn’t going to let some asshole ruin it, he was just thankful Troy wasn’t there to torment him, too; that surely would’ve sent him over the edge.
On his way to the bathroom, walking through the empty halls, Will realised that he hadn’t seen the new guy in any of his classes. He felt disappointed, in a way, but Will had only been in three lessons since he had supposedly arrived so there was a chance he would be in some of his other classes he hadn’t had yet. Not that he cared, he was just curious. It would be nice to have someone new in some of his classes for once.
The boys’ bathroom only had stalls, so Will went in one of them and proceeded to do his business. When he was done, he was about to leave to wash his hands when he heard the main door to the bathroom practically slam open which caused him to jump. He didn’t leave yet, and he listened to the harsh footsteps on the floor as he watched the shadows move around. Whoever it was locked themselves in the stall next to Will, who still felt like he should hold his breath in order to act like he wasn’t even there.
He heard some sniffling, and then a harsh noise like this guy had hit the bathroom stall door. He seemed to sigh deeply in frustration. “Pull yourself together, Mike.”
Mike.
Mike.
Will decided that this guy - Mike, if it was himself he was talking to - seemed to be crying, but he really didn’t want to. Well, people rarely want to cry, but this guy sounded like he hated himself with a passion for it. Will didn’t recognise the voice at all, so he assumed it was someone who he didn’t really know well. There was a sound like he had sat on top of the closed toilet lid, and then another sigh. Will didn’t really know what to do, or if he should do anything. If he left then he’d know someone was in there, but if he stayed then he’d miss too much of his class; and this guy would think he was a weirdo.
Will decided that the best thing was to just act completely normally, so he slid open the lock on the door of the stall and stepped out. The sniffling stopped abruptly, and Will realised he didn’t need to hold his breath anymore since he’d already made his presence known. He walked to the sink and started to wash his hands, quite slowly, just to see if the owner of the voice would appear.
Soon enough, he did. Will heard the lock open, and he knew he’d be able to see this person in the reflection of the mirror but he forced himself not to look. He didn’t want to seem that creepy. Or had he already blown it? Will just continued to leave the water running over his hands and then he turned the faucet off, a small squeak was heard. He eventually heard footsteps behind him, and the presence of someone leaning against the sink next to him, their eyes right on Will.
Will dried his hands on his jeans and then turned to look at this guy, and he was surprised he managed to remain standing up.
It was him. The new kid. Mike was his name. The one who caught Will staring at him earlier that day, the one who Will had spent most of the day wondering about. Seeing him up close was not at all a disappointment. He was taller than Will by quite a bit, Will was shorter than a lot of people but this guy was just tall. His knitted sweater seemed slightly big on him, slightly falling over his hands which were soon crossed over his chest. His hair was a curly dark mess, but it was more like an organised mess; like Will had described himself a fair few times.
His eyes were a hazel brown, slightly reddened for reasons Will would be far too polite to bring up. If he looked hard enough he would see the small golden flecks in them, not that he was trying at all. He didn’t look at the modest amount of freckles scattered across his cheeks, nor the purple tint under his eyes that were obviously a result of a lack of sleep. His gaze most certainly didn’t linger on the angles of his face, or his soft looking lips. No, not at all.
Because quite frankly, Will did not care, and he never would.
“Uh, are you alright?” was all Will managed to say, trying not to choke on his words. He usually didn’t have a problem with talking to new people, why was this happening now? The boy walked around Will towards the window, and he sat himself on the windowsill, crossing his arms again. Will’s gaze followed him, and he waited for him to respond.
He cleared his throat. “As it goes? Well, not really.”
It’s nice to hear his voice.
Will didn’t speak for a few moments, trying to find the right words. He couldn’t just leave, and even if he tried he didn’t think he could make himself. There was something about this guy’s look that made Will keep his feet firmly in place, and he didn’t really know what to do.
“You’re new, right?” Will asked, deciding it would be best if they could introduce themselves to each other properly.
He nodded. “Oh, yeah. First day.” He shrugged. “I’m Mike, by the way.”
So he was talking to himself.
“Cool.” Will said, and then he wanted to slap himself because it sounded weird. “I’m Will, well- William, but no one calls me that. Sorry- I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” Will laughed at himself, trying to make the situation less awkward than it already was. He saw Mike smile slightly, and he took that as a good sign since it was the first time he had ever seen him smile.
“Well, Will. My actual name is Michael but no one calls me that either; apart from my dad, sometimes my mom… but that doesn’t matter.” Mike shrugged, pulling one of his legs to his chest after he rested it on the windowsill.
Mike didn’t look like he was planning on leaving anytime soon, so Will stayed. Suddenly, missing his art class didn’t seem so bad.
“So, has your first day gone badly or something?” Will asked, with genuine curiosity.
“You could say that.” Mike shrugged. “Are all the teachers here as bad as Mr Daniels?”
Will widened his eyes. “You have him? God, I’m sorry. I had him last year, and let's say he put me off American History for the rest of my life.”
Will remembered back to those lessons last year, and he absolutely dreaded them. Mr Daniels was rude, he’d ask you too many questions about your personal life, and would give you detention for being a single minute late. Some of the comments he would drop in class would make Will want to jump up from his seat and start an argument with him, because in Will’s opinion, he was wrong about a lot of things. Will felt more relaxed talking to Mike now, even if they were talking about one of the worst teachers in the whole school.
“I’ve only had him once and I can already tell he’s such an asshole. I’m pretty sure he already hates me, and you know what makes it worse?” Mike leaned forward as if he was telling Will a secret. It wasn’t like anyone would be able to hear them anyway, but Will waited for his answer. “It was his class I just stormed out of.”
“No way….” Will started, knowing that doing something like that in that class was sure to guarantee you a week's worth of detentions.
Mike nodded his head, and then laughed slightly before looking down. “Yeah, he said a lot of shit that I didn’t like and it set me off.”
Will then remembered that Mr Daniels was extremely - to put it plainly - homophobic, he almost never went a single lesson without offending Will in that sort of way. He didn’t know if Mike meant the same thing, because that teacher did say a lot of offensive things and it could’ve been anything. He wondered what would’ve made Mike so angry that he had to storm out of the class, though. Will didn’t bring up the fact that he could quite clearly hear Mike crying, and it seemed that there was way more to it than just a few shitty things being said by a dumb teacher.
I won’t pry, that’s rude.
But he’s clearly not okay.
It’s none of your business, Will.
“I know the feeling.” Will nodded, and then he thought of something. “You know you don’t have to be by yourself all the time. You can come and sit with me and my friends at lunch if you ever want to, I mean… you don’t have to. I just thought I’d offer.”
Mike looked at Will in a thoughtful way, where Will couldn’t decide if he was going to happily agree or throw it back in his face. Will thought that he must’ve seemed so desperate, they’d only had a small conversation and he was already practically offering friendship. Will wasn’t the best at these things, but he was trying; it was what any decent human being would’ve done.
“Maybe,” Mike nodded, and Will got the impression that he was the type of person that liked to be alone sometimes. So he would respect that, at least he offered. “Thanks, Will.”
Why is it so nice to hear him say my name?
“Hey, didn’t I see you in the hall before?” Mike asked, and Will was sure he stopped breathing again. He saw him staring.
Will scratched the back of his neck. “Maybe?”
“I did, I remember now.” Mike nodded. “I mean, everyone’s been giving me weird looks all day, but you were the only one who didn’t.”
“I didn’t?”
“No, it was more thoughtful. Like you cared.” Mike said, giving Will that thoughtful look he was talking about. Will felt like he could quite possibly melt down the drain when Mike looked at him.
He wondered about Mike. What music did he listen to? Did he read books, and if he did… What kind of books did he read? What were his favourite movies? Was he an artist like Will, or a writer? Will found himself less concerned with the actual reason Mike was there, and he thought more about him as a person. He wanted to know him, but he didn’t know why. Will didn’t really know what to say, so he returned the thoughtful look; like he cared.
Do I care?
No.
I shouldn’t.
But I think I do.
“I think you’re the most decent person I’ve met in this school so far.” Mike told him, and if he was going to melt down the drain at any point, it would be then.
Will smiled. “Thanks, you’re not too bad yourself, new kid.”
“Will I ever lose that damn title?”
“Soon enough.” Will reassured him.
Suddenly, Mike pushed himself off the windowsill and stood up, brushing his hands off on his trousers. “I should probably get back, I’ve been gone long enough to use the excuse that I felt sick.”
“Good idea, the worst you’ll get is a detention. Or maybe he’ll let you off, who knows?” Will shrugged, turning when Mike walked past him towards the door.
“I can only hope,” Mike shrugged. “Thanks for talking to me, William. See you around.”
“Bye, Michael .” Will said, using the full name just like Mike did. Mike only laughed lightly and then nodded in Will’s direction, before slipping out of the bathroom door.
Will smiled to himself once he was gone, hoping that Mike would take him up on his offer at some point. It would be nice to make a new friend, and Mike seemed cool, now that he’d actually spoken to him. Will decided that he was right about what he thought earlier, Mike was a mystery. He wanted to know more, the boy seemed a bit broken and rough around the edges, but sometimes the best pieces of art had their imperfections.
Will wanted to punch a wall when he looked in the mirror and saw the pink flush across his cheeks.
Damn you, new kid.