Chapter Text
He follows his older brother out to his car and gets in the front seat, snatching his seatbelt and clicking it into place.
Jonathan closes the driver’s door and starts the ignition. He lets the windshield wipers wipe over the windshield for a minute or two, urging the bits and pieces of freshly fallen snow off.
He turns up the heat and slowly backs out of the parking lot of Hawkins Middle, cautious of any ice that may be starting to appear on the concrete.
It’s quiet for a few minutes in the car until he speaks up.
“Did you have fun?”
Will shrugs. “Yeah, it was fine.”
The youngest Byers adjusts his light blue tie, straightening up in his seat a little. He’s exhausted, but he can’t complain. Well, not completely. The Snowball was fun. He just… wanted more out of it.
Jonathan hums as he takes in Will’s words.
“Did you, you know, did you dance?”
Will feels himself tense up, images of the girl in front of him beaming, bright blue, white, and gold lights reflecting off her eyes, and the slow songs ringing in his ears and replaying in his brain.
“Yeah, I did.” He clears his throat. “With a girl.”
Jonathan nods an affirmative. “Uh huh,” he says absently, carefully turning a slippery corner. “Who?”
“Um, Katie. Katie Churchington.” Will internally cringes at the shudder in his voice. It’s not that has a problem with Katie, it’s just…
“How was that?”
“I um… I didn’t exactly want to dance with her.”
Jonathan gives him a curious eyebrow quirk. “No?”
Will shakes his head, looking out the window.
His brother smiles at the windshield. “Nerves?”
He swallows. That could be a valid excuse. But…
“No. I- I mean, I don’t know. It’s like…” he trails off. Jonathan side-eyes him. “I just didn’t wanna dance. Not with her…”
Even with his whispered words at the end there, Jonathan gives him a quick glance.
“With who, then?”
Will huffs. He looks at Jonathan. Studies his expression. Jonathan looks a little cautious about the potentially precarious roads, but overall, he looks… peaceful. More than he’s looked in a long time. Will knows. He sees how Jonathan looks at Nancy.
“Jonathan?” He voices. His brother hums in acknowledgement. “How did you know you like Nancy?”
The older Byers boy pauses, biting his lip in thought. Eyes scan the road as he turns another corner. Finally, he gives a small, sheepish shrug, as if he’s embarrassed to be talking about it.
“I guess I just… I’ve kind of always known, you know? I mean…” Jonathan squeezes the wheel tighter and shrugs again, a nervous habit. “I would look at her, or think about her, and just… feel happy. I might smile, or feel like… a flutter in my chest. I might… stare.” He looks a bit embarrassed. “And sometimes it would freak me out, or like, make me feel weird. But it was never uncomfortable. It was like… even if I thought I should, I didn’t really mind feeling something towards her.”
Will nods slowly, taking Jonathan’s words in and mulling over them for a minute.
“So… how did it feel? I mean, like… admitting to yourself that you were into her?”
Jonathan smiles lightly. “It… it felt… good. Like a weight was off my shoulders. That even if I didn’t want to share it with anyone, I knew that just someone knowing, even just myself, that was enough. I felt… normal.”
He glances over when Will goes quiet.
“Why are you asking about my feelings?”
Will blinks back to reality. “Um. I’m just… curious.”
Jonathan gives him a small smirk. “Why? You like someone?”
Will flushes a little. Jonathan chuckles.
“Yeah? Who is she?”
Will looks down at his lap. This is it. I guess it’s now or never. I can trust Jonathan. He… he won’t judge me. Right…?
“It-” He takes a deep breath. “It’s not a she.”
Jonathan quirks a brow. “No? Well, who is he?”
Will startles. What?
“Wait, what?”
Jonathan looks back at him. Will stares, mouth agape.
“You like someone. Who is he?”
Will swallows. “You- you’re not… you’re not mad?”
Jonathan raises a brow. “Why would I be mad?”
He slumps against the seat, looking out the windshield.
“Because… because I’m…”
His brother looks at him, almost as if daring him to finish the sentence. He swallows again.
“I know,” Jonathan whispers. Will’s heart is in his throat. “I know, and it’s ok.” He smiles softly as the latter looks at him. “I’m not mad.”
Will’s chest warms a bit, and he stares at his brother. “You’re not?”
Jonathan shakes his head. “No. ‘Course not. Do you really think, after all we’ve been through, what with Dad, and the Upside Down, that I’d care about that?”
Will shrugs. He does have a point. His eyes suddenly widen.
“Oh no. If Dad found out-”
“Dad is gone,” Jonathan reminds him. It looks like it pains him to say as much as it pains Will to hear. But he’s right. Lonnie is gone. Thank God.
“So you… you’re really not mad?” Will asks again, just to be sure. “You don’t… you don’t hate me?”
Jonathan gives him an incredulous look. “What? No, of course not. I’d never hate you. And I wouldn’t judge you for your preferences. Remember what I told you. You shouldn’t like things just cause…”
“People say you’re supposed to,” Will finishes in a whisper. He smiles slightly at him. “Thanks, Jonathan.”
The latter smiles and silence falls between them. Jonathan glances over at him and studies him for a long moment, a contemplative look on his face.
Before Will can open his mouth to question him, Jonathan’s lips quirk up into a sly smile.
“It’s Mike, isn’t it?”
Will’s face flushes red and his eyes widen.
“Jonathan!”
Jonathan smirks. “Well?”
Will huffs, looking out the window to hide his face.
“It’s…” He smacks his forehead against the window. “It’s Mike.”
He hears his older brother chuckle, and he wants to cry, laugh, scream, and run away at the same time.
“Knew it,” Jonathan whispers, not unkindly.
Will wants to slap him.
He feels a nudge and ignores it, but his heart skips a beat when Jonathan whispers.
“I’m proud of you.”