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Do you remember the first day that we met?
The little coffee shop was unusually empty; everyone probably opting to crowd inside a more lively space tonight, such as the little pub near campus or that rowdy club downtown. It made sense, of course. Most people actually had social lives—a group of friends to drink cheap booze with and carelessly pop fireworks; and laugh drunkenly as they grind their flushed bodies against one another. It made perfect sense to Will Byers why the coffee shop would be completely deserted on New Year’s Eve.
But here he was anyway, the lone occupant sitting in a rickety old booth in the back corner. Steam rose up from the mug next to his sketchbook, causing tiny beads of moisture to drip down the frosted window beside him. He had his art supplies out and was currently sketching the barista he’d seen nearly every day for the past few months—practically from memory, not even having to glance up to where he was leaning over the counter. But of course, Will was only doing this to pass the time; and it wasn’t like there was any other suitable subject, really, so he could hardly be blamed.
The pencil glided across the page, delicate and deliberate, as Will aimed to capture the sharp edges of the young man’s face. His high cheekbones, the long curve of his fingers as they tapped rhythmically against his angular jaw.
Will couldn’t help but think this guy was beautiful. He absentmindedly took the end of his pencil in between his teeth as he stole a glance over at the counter—strictly for artistic reasons, of course.
The man also had dark eyes. The darkest eyes Will had ever seen. He wondered if there was even a name for a color that dark. They seemed to twinkle against the lowlight of the shop. His face—pale in contrast—was framed by equally dark curls. Will could almost feel the velvety softness between his fingers; could almost feel how warm his skin would be if he traced over those honeycomb freckles dotting his cheeks. The idea sent a zap of electricity through him; particularly in his shoulder, actually, almost as if—
“Shit,” hissed a familiar voice, jolting Will from his thoughts. His cheeks flooded with warmth as he looked up to see the very man he’d apparently just been daydreaming about. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to shock you. Or startle you, either.”
“No, it’s okay.” Will slid his eyes back down to the table and immediately panicked. The sketchbook was still face up on the table, his once seemingly innocent drawing now feeling sinful and undeniably incriminating. He shuffled his hands to snap it closed before the guy could notice. “Sorry, I guess I zoned out.”
“No worries,” he said kindly. “I was actually just coming over to—”
“Oh!” Will shot his head up as he wondered what time it was. “Oh, shit. I’m so sorry. It’s probably late, isn’t it? I don’t mean to keep you here. I can—”
“Woah, hey. You’re good.” He laughed, and Will’s stomach did a weird flip. “We technically don’t close for another hour or so, but I wanted to ask you something.” His voice was soft, his expression warm.
Will swallowed. He hadn’t realized how hot it was in here. “Yes?”
“Well, I was thinking…” he said, suddenly sounding nervous. “I was thinking, if you want—you don’t have to, of course—but maybe, I could lock up early, and we could… hang out?”
He stood over Will, shuffling his feet. It was an odd sight to see, actually. He’d always seemed so sure of himself to Will. Now he was wondering if maybe he’d imagined all of it, or if maybe it was Will himself who was making him nervous. The thought made him feel a little fuzzy inside.
Will’s answer was an immediate yes. He’d been crushing silently on this guy for ages now. He was always so kind to Will and would occasionally initiate small-talk between them when business was slow—which wasn’t very often, but it was comfortable and enjoyable when he did.
But Will’s brain wasn’t exactly functional at the moment and he fumbled his answer. The answer he’d had from the moment the invitation slipped past the guy’s lips. The answer that would’ve been polite and right and yes.
Instead, he blurted out, “I don’t even know you.” Will winced as the guy’s demeanor slipped. Shit. I’m an asshole, he thought. “Your name,” he was quick to amend. “I meant, I don’t even know your name yet.”
“Oh, right.” The guy’s shoulders loosened and he chuckled. “I can’t believe we’ve never officially introduced ourselves before. I’m Mike. Mike Wheeler.”
He held out his hand, and Will shook it. Another zap tingled hotly against his palm. “Will Byers.”
“Will,” Mike echoed, smiling and holding onto his hand for a moment longer before letting go. Will ignored the cartwheels inside his stomach. “This damn dry weather. Keeps getting us, huh?” He laughed to himself, swaying back on the balls of his feet a bit. “So, what do you say, Will Byers? You wanna get outta here?”
That familiar confidence was back now, and Will hated that it made him so giddy. He barely knew Mike, but he was eager to get to know him. So Will smiled up at him and made the decision he knew in his gut to be the right one.
“Yeah, let’s do it. What’d you have in mind?”
. . .
Turned out that Mike knew the perfect spot in town to watch the fireworks. They lay side by side on their backs on a grassy hilltop. Hundreds of colors exploded and rained down above them. It was about ten minutes until midnight now. They’d been out here for nearly an hour talking about everything and nothing.
It came so easy, talking to Mike. Will felt like he’d known him for years. Mike told him that he attended the university, shocking them both when Will revealed that he did too. They were in the same year and most likely walked the same halls to get to the basic freshman courses. But it was a large campus, so they supposed it made sense why they hadn’t bumped into each other, even with sharing similar lessons.
Talking to Will must’ve been just as easy for Mike, too, because soon enough, he was telling him about how the only reason he ended up here was to get away from his hometown. Will couldn’t help but feel that was something they had in common.
“Yeah, no, I get what you mean,” he said to Mike, tucking his arms behind his head. “It seriously sucked growing up in a town as little as it was small-minded. I was bullied relentlessly for so many years, for reasons I didn’t fully understand until I got older.” He heard Mike mumble something under his breath but could tell it wasn’t toward him, so he continued. “It got to the point where I just tried my best to keep my head down and stick with my circle of friends.”
Will paused to admire a particularly bright starburst lighting up the night sky before adding, “I had to get away from all that. It took a pretty bad toll on my mom, but in the end I had to do what was best for me, you know?”
The loud pops and raining shimmers grew more and more frequent as the minutes fell away and midnight grew nearer. The soft hum of people in the distance slowly increased to an echoing buzz.
“I do, actually,” Mike said and Will turned his head to look over at him.
His gaze was focused upward toward the sky, just as Will’s had been for the past several minutes. His body was relaxed like he was comfortable in Will’s presence. Mike’s hair spilled out into the grass making him look like a work of art.
“I mean, for me, it was mainly my parents I had to get away from,” Mike continued. “But I do understand what you mean about the burden of small-town mentality. It’s like being forced to conform for the sake of pacifying those who claim to be normal.”
He lifted his hands in air quotes on the last word. The suddenness of it had Will quickly snapping his gaze back toward the light show so as not to be discovered staring.
“I got so tired of living my life for everyone else—of changing myself to fit everyone else’s needs. I’m sick of worrying about what people think of me. I just wanted to do something crazy. Something for me. Something…” Will could hear the smirk in his voice. “Something that would piss off my parents. Which it did, by the way.”
“What, you moving away?”
Mike laughed, and Will decided that it was one of the best sounds he’d heard in a long time. He also decided that he wanted to to hear it again—and again and again.
“Well, yeah.” Will could practically see the smile on his face now. “But I did something even crazier than that,” he murmured. “I stopped pretending to be something I wasn’t. It was honestly the best thing I could’ve done for myself. Besides,” he added, softer than before, “I got to meet you, which has been pretty cool.”
Will was at a loss for words. How could someone he just met—officially, anyway—two hours ago possibly make him feel so… So—? He couldn’t even find a word for it.
He turned his head with the intention of returning the compliment and was surprised to see Mike already looking over at him with those stupidly beautiful eyes of his.
“I mean it, Will,” Mike whispered. “I can’t seem to find a single reason someone would want to be mean to you.”
Will had not been prepared for that and found himself thanking the stars above for the dim lighting—because he was sure his entire face must’ve been glowing bright red. God, what is wrong with me?
“Um, thanks. I’m glad I met you too, Mike.” Will pulled his wrist up under the pretense of checking the time, just so he could escape those dark eyes he was sure to get lost in otherwise. “We have about three minutes to go,” he said.
“Cool.” Mike leaned up on his elbow, cradling his head in his hand. “Just enough time for you to tell me one of your New Year’s resolutions.”
Will thought for a moment. “Well,” he started, “going off what you said earlier, I think it’d be nice to try something crazy next year. Let loose and live a little. I was always so careful back home because I didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to myself. And I didn’t want to give my mom more reason to worry.”
“That makes sense. You should. It’ll be an experience.”
“What about you?” Will asked.
“Me…” Mike mused. “I… I’d like to get to know you this year.”
“That’s not really a resolution,” Will muttered, growing more flustered by the minute. He felt that familiar heat spreading across his face and neck.
“Well, then… I’ll strive to do something crazy like you. Actually,” Mike breathed, his voice barely a murmur as he inched close enough to where Will could feel his breath tickling his neck. “Can I tell you something crazy? Right now?”
Will froze. After a moment, he gathered the nerve to offer a weak nod in response, not trusting his voice in the slightest right now.
Mike pulled back enough to stare into Will’s eyes, and Will wasn’t even sure that he’d make it to the New Year. His heart was like a jackhammer, beating hard and loud against his chest. Surely this would kill him.
“I really wanna kiss you.”
A strangled noise emanated from deep inside Will’s throat that was completely, one-hundred percent undignified. Mike was trying to kill him.
“Uh, yep. That’s, um…” he rushed out, inwardly cursing himself for how pathetic he sounded. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Yeah, that’s pretty crazy.”
And it was. In every existing sense of the word. This was completely uncharted territory for Will, and to be perfectly honest, it scared the shit out of him.
And yet… Will heard himself say, “But me too.”
He’d never felt so reckless before in his life; so completely willing to do something as insane as kiss a stranger.
But here Will was, laying on a grassy hilltop and feeling as high as the fireworks soaring above, with Mike Wheeler. The very stranger he was admittedly willing—no, wanting—to kiss. Mike, who was now reaching out a hand to gently cup his face, causing Will’s breath to catch in his throat.
Yeah. Mike was going to kill him.
Will’s senses seemed to come alive as he took a moment to just look at Mike. The soft reflection of fireworks swallowed up by the darkness of his eyes; the little pinpricks of freckles spread artistically across his cheeks and around his mouth. He could feel the way their tangled breaths warmed the frigid winter air blowing against his face. And he could hear the rising sound of voices coming from all sides; once like a distant echo was now a pulsing chant.
Ten.
Nine.
“Well, then…” Mike leaned forward again and stopped just a breath away, his voice low.
Eight.
Seven.
“Maybe we could go crazy together, huh?”
Six.
Five.
“Yeah,” Will whispered, his words ghosting against Mike’s lips.
Four.
“Crazy together.”
Three.
Mike’s eyes fluttered shut.
Two.
Will allowed his to do the same.
One.
Fireworks. That was all Will could see, hear, feel.
He could see the bright bursts of color, even from behind his closed eyelids. He could hear the chaotic symphony of explosions, screeches, and car horns blaring through the town, right down to his bones.
And God, could he feel them.
Will imagined it would feel like a small spark inside his chest—comfortable and inviting. Instead, it was a jolt of energy surging through his veins; not unlike that of getting shocked earlier by the very person he was kissing now.
Mike’s lips were warm against his, a relieving contrast to the bitter wind whipping at Will’s body. Mike had both his hands on his face now, and Will’s hands made purchase on his shoulders. The positioning was a little awkward because they were both still laying on their sides, but neither of them seemed to mind.
Will pulled back first, his brain buzzing a bit, and opened his eyes.
Mike smiled at him. “You know, I think you may have broken some kind of record.”
“Oh, yeah?” Will quirked a questioning brow but was grinning all the same. “What for?”
“You basically resolved your New Year’s resolution within the first ten seconds of entering the new year,” Mike explained, his lips curling up into a smirk. “And it’s all thanks to me.”
Will playfully shoved Mike away from him. “Yeah, right. Just for that, I don’t think I’ll even let you fulfill yours.”
“Oh, c’mon! After you spent an entire evening sketching me, I think the least you could do is let me get to know you.”
Oh, shit.
“Oh, my God.” Will rolled onto his back and covered his face with his hands. “You saw the drawing.” It wasn’t a question and they both knew it. “That’s so embarrassing.”
Mike laughed and grabbed his hand to pull him back on his side. “Yeah, it is,” Mike joked, to which Will shoved him again.
They lay there for a long moment, just gazing at one another. Will couldn’t help but think that this was a good decision. He was really looking forward to exploring all the possibilities that came with having met Mike Wheeler. That thought alone made him smile.
“Happy New Year, Mike.”
“Happy New Year, Will.”
I just walked up to you, and I asked.
And you said yes. You said yes.
Little did Will know that meeting Mike was going to be the best thing either of them had ever done.