Chapter Text
Will was a shoelace. No, not metaphorically. He quite literally was a shoelace. He was 160 centimeters in length, and he belonged to a high top dirty white converse shoe that Mike had discarded under his bed several years ago. Just the aglet of the shoelace peeked out from underneath Mike’s bed. From there, he could see all that occurred in Mike’s room. He had been with Mike through thick and thin, even though Mike didn’t know. This was because Will was a shoelace.
Today, Mike was crying. Bawling, even. No, not balling, but bawling. Used tissue after used tissue was thrown from the top of Mike’s bed. Will the shoelace tried to squirm away, but to no avail. He wanted so desperately to comfort Mike, but he was unable to. This was because Will was a shoelace. A sad little rainbow shoelace.
Eventually, everything went quiet and the tissues stopped falling. Will the shoelace assumed Mike must’ve fallen asleep. This was confirmed when he heard light snoring coming from the bed above him. It was finally his time to shine!
Will the shoelace began to attempt to move. He squirmed side to side aggressively, struggling greatly. After half an hour of struggling to wiggle, he scrunched up. Like a worm. He realized that he could scrunch around to move! This was groundbreaking! He started squirming forward and back like a happy little gay shoelace!
Suddenly, he was crushed. Michael had rolled off of the bed onto Will the shoelace. After hours of failed attempts at moving, he had finally gotten the hang of it. But now, he was crushed and unable to move once more. Mike started crying again. Poor Michael must’ve hit his head! Will the shoelace attempted to squirm out from underneath Mike. It was a success! The shoelace curled up beside him, but realized this was not enough to comfort the poor crying Mike. He slowly squiggled around Mike’s wrist and tied himself there.
Mike jumped up and started flailing his arm around mindlessly. Will held on even tighter. After ten minutes of flailing his arm around, Mike gave up and allowed the shoelace to hold on. Mike stared the little shoelace in its eyes and began crying. Was this a friend? Was this all that Mike needed in life?
With his new partner, Mike paraded his room, thrilled. Him and his shoelace would be inseparable. Mike prepared to walk down the stairs to show his family his new friend before remembering that his family hated him. Then he also realized that the shoelace was rainbow. Oh no! They would know… They would all know!!
Mike realized there was only one thing that he could do to save himself. Dye the shoelace. He felt bad. He didn’t want to hurt the poor shoelace, but it would be like dying hair, right? RIGHT?
Imminently, Michael got to work on dying his shoelace. He took some of his mother’s bleach from her bathroom and poured it in a bucket. He said a little prayer before releasing his shoelace into the bleach bucket.
After dropping the shoelace into the bleach bucket, he immediately felt terrible and pulled the shoelace out. He had ruined it!! The poor rainbow shoelace was ruined. Rainbow was him! That was his color! His life! And Mike had taken it all from him. Michael began to cry once more, and the shoelace slowly wrapped itself around his arm again. It wiggled up his arm and gently caressed his face, a sign that it was all okay. Thankfully, the shoelace wasn’t fully bleached that quick. He still had some of his rainbow self left.
Michael poured the bleach out the window to get it away as quickly as possible, and the little shoelace sat on his shoulder. It was terrified of the bleach. It stung his metaphorical eyes.
Mike made his way back to his room after getting rid of the bleach, and the shoelace quietly whispered in his ear, “All is okay, Michael. True beauty is only on the inside.” He slammed his door behind him and hugged his shoelace close, crying. He never meant to hurt him! Now, he had taken a part of his poor shoelace. It would truly never be the same again.
Realizing that the shoelace still had quite a bit of rainbow left, Mike decided that it would be best to keep his shoelace to himself. It would be his little secret.