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The Snow Ball was scheduled for Friday evening in the middle school gym, seven o’clock on the dot. Thursday afternoon, after the last bell, it was all the boys could talk about as they biked back to Mike’s house. Lucas kept talking about this choice of colored tie, trying to match Max’s outfit. She wouldn’t tell him but he kept insisting orange was the right color– but no one bothered to tell him it would match her hair more than any of her clothes. Dustin said very little except that they would be impressed by his selected get-up. Will biked between the two of them silently, looking ahead at Mike. While Will’s choice move to avoid discussing the dance was silence, Mike’s was to leave the conversation entirely.
“You have a date yet, Will?” Dustin asked. “It’s kind of crunch time.”
Will tried to pedal faster, but the boys kept up with ease. “Yeah. I have one.”
“Since when?” Lucas laughed. “You didn’t tell us!”
“I asked them last week.” Will answered, shrugging. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal! Will, we’ve been pushing you to ask that girl by your locker for weeks and you finally did?” Dustin cried. “We’d want to know.”
“I–I didn’t ask her.” Will said, gripping his handle bars nervously. Already his sweaty palms were slipping on the rubber grips.
“Then who!”
Will looked straight ahead at the boy pedaling in front of him. His hair was whipping around him as he stood on his pedals, trying to catch as much wind as he could. “Mike.” Will said softly.
“Mike knows and not us?” Lucas said. “This is ridiculous. MIKE!”
His head whipped around. “Yeah?”
“We’re talking Snow Ball back here. Slow down.” Lucas waved Mike back, making room beside Will to fit into their line. Will kept his eyes focused on Mike as he slipped into the formation. They’d had this discussion in their heads a thousand times. Would the verbal version go just as well? “Will has a date and didn’t tell us.”
“I–I know.” He said, furrowing his eyebrows. “Of course I know that.” Mike always preferred to confront the idea.
“What do you mean ‘of course’!” Dustin cried, throwing his hands up before slapping them back down on his handle bars.
“Because Will asked me.”
All the bikes skidded to a sliding halt; Lucas and Dustin in surprise and Mike and Will to avoid collision with the other two. Their expression ranged from confusion to a strange form of pity. Mike sat back on his seat, waiting for them to speak, while Will tried to move the group forward, hating the silence when it wasn’t his own choice and comfort.
“He asked you?” Dustin echoed. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“How?” Mike asked, looking at Will. He placed a hand on his handle bars to keep him beside him. “I’ll go with him.”
“But this is your last Snow Ball,” Lucas continued, waving his arms between them. “You’re not supposed to go with your friends! You’re supposed to ask girls!”
“I don’t have to ask a girl if I don’t want to.” Will argued, repeating advice given to him by Jonathan minutes before he biked over to Mike’s house, the dance proposal stuttering on his lips. “I don’t have to.”
“So, you’re just going to sit down all night? What about dancing?” Dustin said.
“No. I’ll dance with Will.” Mike answered, laughing at the simplicity of the question.
“What about the slow songs?” Lucas added, as if he found a sinkhole in their plan.
“Well, the thing is,” Mike started, his hand lifting from Will’s bike to his shoulder. “We don’t know how to slow dance, but we’ll try. Right?”
“Right.” Will nodded. They had promised each other that they’d try the slow songs– maybe just one– but they’d get out there. They’d stomach the weird looks from their pairing and most likely off-beat movements. They promised each other that they wouldn’t let anything ruin the best night of the year.
“Are you guys really not getting this?” Mike asked. He looked at Will, eager for reassurance before proceeding. Will wanted to shake his head, wanted Mike to abandon the conversation, but he knew it would be better to just say the truth. “I’m Will’s proper date. Like, he asked a guy because he wanted to.”
“I didn’t want to ask a girl.” Will confirmed softly. “I don’t like girls.”
“Will likes boys.” Dustin wasn’t asking a question but rather just stating a new fact, hearing it for the first time with his own ears. “That’s… new.”
“Not really.” Will said, shrugging. “Mom says she’s always kind of known.”
“Huh.” Lucas mumbled, scratching his head. “I didn’t see that coming… I guess… I guess it’s cool that you asked Mike.”
“Well, I also wanted to go with Will. We ended up asking each other at the same time.” Mike laughed, wrapping his arm around both of Will’s shoulders and pulling him into his side.
“Wait, so both of you.” Dustin pointed between the two of them, arm in arm, and was somehow still confused. Confusion was better than outrage.
“Don’t hurt yourself, Dustin.” Mike laughed. “It’s not that big of a deal. Just… something different.”
Mike had always been better talking about it than Will. The minute Will confronted the idea of going with Mike he would go silent, the boys going on about their plans for that evening while Will smothered the truth. Granted, while Will was comfortable talking about it with his mom and brother, and not so much with his friends, Mike was the opposite; with Lucas and Dustin, he felt no hesitation, but when Will came over to his house in the days before the dance, Mike and Will invented their own fake female dates to talk about to ward off any suspicion.
“It’s really not a big deal.” Will began to fret, looking into the confused faces of his closest friends. “Guys, please say something.”
Lucas and Dustin looked at each other, communicating silently with shrugs and nods. Finally, Dustin turned back to them. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Will echoed. “It’s okay?”
“Yeah, definitely. It’s okay.” Dustin nodded. “You’ll have to walk me through how either of you think you’re going to both lead in a slow dance, but I’m here to be surprised.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Mike said quietly, biting his lip. “Guess we only have a day to figure it out…”
“Max and I can come over before the dance!” Lucas offered. “Maybe she knows how to follow… Or whatever it is girls do when they dance.”
“I’m not going to dance like a girl, Lucas.” Will insisted, starting to push his bike forward. “I’m going to be dancing with another boy. There’s a difference.”
“R–Right.” Lucas nodded, beginning to push off from the ground. “It’s just like everyone else. Just you and Mike.”
Lucas sounded like Will’s mom, saying that there was nothing wrong with him–that he was the same as everyone else– but part of Will never believed it. Choosing to go with Mike was different. It was going to be a problem with some of the teachers, Will was sure. But he didn’t want to be like everyone else and go to the dance with the girl who called him “zombie boy” in completely serious situations and in the face of his friends– or when he was with Mike.
Will wanted to be different; Mike was different too and it meant that they’d always fit together– their hands seemed to do it just fine, why couldn’t their steps do the same during the dance?