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Will Byers was miserable.
He couldn't hear anything. Well, he could hear something, but it was too unintelligible. People screaming, everyone looking pissed off at each other.. He'd already been going through a lot, and now he has to deal with this, too.
Will's just standing, away from the crowd, completely out of it. He doesn't understand a single word that's being said. Everything seems blurry. He looks at Nancy, who has an extremely annoyed expression on her face, screaming at Steve, who's holding back a laugh, the kind of laugh you get when you're frustrated for long periods of time.
Speaking of frustrated, Will's been getting more and more annoyed by the minute, and he's reaching the maximum he can take.
He started breathing hard, curling his hands into fists, and then, it was like his body was moving on it's own: he speed walks away to his bedroom and slams the door shut.
He stands in front of the door for a minute, looking up at the ceiling, then starts sliding down, face covered by his hands. And when he's on the floor, he starts tearing up. He couldn't handle it anymore. He's been under so much stress this past week, let alone his whole life. He's so close to ripping his hair out. Will curls into himself, placing his forehead on his knees, his hands resting on his shins. He's crying loudly at this point, it's surprising nobody has heard him yet, but then again, there was a whole screaming match happening outside the room.
He then looks up to wipe his tears away and sees something.
A sharp pocket knife on the drawer.
He gets a terrifying thought.
It was so out of nowhere. Sure, maybe he tried to do it once or twice after getting found in the Upside Down, being called 'Zombie Boy' everywhere at school and after someone suggested it to him, which Will still couldn't tell if they were being genuine or not. But he always chickened out in the end. He knows it's not a good thing for him to do, obviously he knows that. Yet, his eyes are still fixed on that knife. He starts rubbing his wrist unconsciously.
While still sniffling, he stands up and slowly walks towards the drawer, even if everything in his body was screaming at him not to do it.
Will's hand was shaking when he grabbed the knife. He sat down on the bed, stared at the said knife, still contemplating on if he should continue or chicken out again, but eventually, he makes up his mind.
He slowly rolls up his multi-colored jacket's sleeve, places the knife on his wrist and swipes swiftly with a bit of pressure.
It immediately stings, but Will feels.. relieved. He doesn't feel like crying anymore, he feels strangely calm, even while watching his blood start to drip.
Wait, what?
He cut a bit too deep, his wound immediately becomes red. Too red, it starts dripping down. Will, after getting out of his trance and realizing what was going on, stands up immediately and frantically looks around for a paper towel, tissue, anything to wipe his blood with.
He runs around his bedroom, slowly becoming more and more panicked, as if he wasn't completely stressed out already. He can't find anything. Well, except for one thing: his black shirt. It was his last resort. Will glanced at it a total of 5 times while running around. After contemplating for a bit and having no other choice, he grabs the shirt off the floor and sits back down on the bed, wiping the blood off his arm. Then, he presses the shirt down on his wound to stop the bleeding.
Finally, he can take a breather. Finally, he feels relieved, even if he's slightly concerned by the amount of blood coming out. Maybe he'll eventually calm down-
The door bursts open. Will hides his blood-stained, shirt-covered arm behind his back.
"EAT SHIT!"
The door shuts loudly. Mike Wheeler is now standing in front of him, breathing hard like he had just ran a marathon. At first he had an annoyed look, but when he sees Will, his face softens.
"Will, There you are! I was looking everywhere for you," Mike says, grinning.
"Oh, hey," Will responds, wide-eyed, sad eyebrows raised and tilted, mouth hanging slighly open. Why now, of all times? Why couldn't he at least come a bit earlier?
Mike gets a concerned look on his face.
He also failed to remember he was crying a minute ago.
"Hey, you okay? What's wrong? Did someone say something to you in the fight?" His best friend asks with the voice he only reserved for Will, sitting down on the bed and caressing Will's right shoulder, which he jolts to. Mike leaves his hand in the air for a bit, processing what just happened, and eventually puts it away. It's understandable why he's confused. Normally, Will loves it when Mike does that to comfort him, but right now, that arm is off limits. it's the last thing he wants.
"I'm- I'm fine, Mike. It's okay, it's- well- it's not okay, but- whatever." Will says, looking away after saying the last part of his sentence.
Worst fumble in history.
"You're not gonna convince me with that. What happened, Will? Don't lie to me, please."
Will looks back at Mike again. He looks desperate.
"Nothing. Nothing happened, I just.. Get like this sometimes," Will gestures with the hand that's not hidden.
"Is it 'cause of the Upside Down?"
"No- well, maybe- I don't know, but it did start after I went missing. Its not correlated, though."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
Mike nods. Will gives a small smile to easen the boy's urgency. He smiles back, though he doesn't look convinced.
Comfortable silence follows while they look at each other's eyes. When Will thought he got away with it, Mike looks down and starts talking again.
"Hey, what's that knife doing beside you?"
Shit.
"Oh, uh, it's- it's nothing. I just, thought.. The.. Design, was.. Cool," Will lies, looking away, too afraid to keep eye contact with Mike. He's never been good at lying, except always telling everyone he was fine to save their pity for him. Seriously, he's so fucking done with everyone treating him like he's fragile. Mike might've caught onto that, though.
"You like the design of a bland pocket knife?" Mike replies, still smiling, but with one eyebrow raised.
"Uh, yeah, I do, it's.. minimalism, you know?"
Mike stares at Will for a couple of beats. Slowly, his smile drops.
"Cut the bullshit," Mike replies in an annoyed yet pleading voice.
Not-so comfortable silence anymore follows. The best friends could be mistaken to having a staring contest right now. Mike looks serious and concerned now, when he, a second ago, looked casual and soft. Will looks stressed. Mike sighs and breaks eye contact by looking down near Will again.
"Uh, what are you hiding?"
"Huh? Nothing, what?"
"Uhm, if you're not, then I think you should get your arm checked out," Mike says, the corners of his mouth trembling for just a second, probably trying not to laugh at his own joke.
"Mike, I'm not hiding anything," Will replies, letting out a soft laugh to maybe get him to look more convincing.
It doesn't work.
"Then show me your hand."
Will blankly stares at Mike for a couple of seconds. The black-haired boy makes a gesture with his arm and has an expression on his face that says Well?
"No," He finally replies with a straight face.
"What? Will, come on. You're obviously lying," Mike responds, visibly kind of hurt. It makes the other boy feel guilty. Will looks away from him.
Mike, although gently, starts trying to pry his arm out.
"What are you possibly hiding that you can't show me, somebody's head?-"
"It's personal, okay?" Will harshly cuts in immediately, not backing down.
"Well, I don't care if it's personal, I'm fucking worried about you."
The best friends keep fighting until Mike finally pries his arm out.
"What? A shirt? you were hiding a shirt from me?" Mike says, more-so confused rather than angry.
Will doesn't reply, he's frozen. He stares directly at Mike with a panicked look.
He gets even more confused.
"Why were you so scared of a shirt? I don't understand-"
He takes off the shirt from Will's wrist.
Will immediately pulls away his arm, but it's too late. Mike saw it.
Will looks down, petrified. Mike thinks he's pathetic now, a failure. He feels his tears form again at the corner of his eyes. He wishes he could just disappear from this situation right now.
"Will.."
He braces for impact.
But instead, he's met with a warm embrace.
Mike's hugging him, tightly. Just like that hug they had right before Will and the rest of his family left for Lenora, before everything became awkward between them.
Will hugs him back eventually, letting his tears drop.
"I'm sorry," Mike says.
"For what?" Will responds, now just as confused as Mike was a bit ago.
"For not noticing, for not letting you know I'm here for you, instead resorting to fucking hurting yourself," Mike rambles, saying the last part of his sentence like he's out of breath.
Will swears he can feel something damp on his back.
"No.." is the only thing Will could respond with when he starts breaking down. Mike rubs his back gently, hugging him even tighter.
Will doesn't remember when was the last time he broke down in front of him. Maybe 3 years ago? 5? 10, before he went missing? The answer is, a pretty fucking long time ago.
Will opens his eyes a bit.
His wound stares back at him.
Mike keeps repeating I'm sorry over and over again.
Will lost count of how many times he replied with It's Okay.
When Will calms down a bit, which took a considerable amount of time, he pulls back and looks at his best friend, who still has his hands on Will's shoulders.
Mike looks the same as Will does: miserable, teary-eyed, like a kid who just got told he can't stay home from school today after countless begging.
He's looking at Will in a sort of endearing way, an expression the other boy's never seen before, though it could just be his mind playing tricks on him.
He also swears Mike looked down at his lips for a couple of seconds before looking back up, but that's probably also just him being delusional.
'Will,' Mike starts, 'If you ever feel like doing that again, please just come talk to me instead. I will literally drop anything to talk with you, even watching a Ghostbusters movie an hour before I have to return the tape, or missing out on a D&D session,' he says, shaking his best friend a bit on each emphasis.
Will, in return, giggles, smiling ear to ear with teary eyes. Mike hugs him again.
Maybe he can recover from what happened in the Upside Down if he has Mike next to him, supporting him, being there for him.
But he knows their friendship won't last long, not with these fucking disgusting feelings Will has towards him.