Chapter Text
Bittersweet. That’s really the only word Will can think of to describe anything right now. The Party just graduated, Dustin gave the perfect speech, and get this… Stacey Albright just walked up to them and invited them to her after-party! Life could not get better. There was no beating this.
“Hey, so I’m having a party later tonight. You guys should come.” There was actually no way this was happening, Will had never been to a party, not one like he’d imagine Stacey’s is anyway. This lack of experience wasn’t exactly by choice… he’d just never been invited to one before now. His childhood and most of his teen years were basically stolen from him and this could be his last chance to have a normal teenage experience before going to college, he was NOT going to let it slip through his fingers.
“Should we go?” Will managed to say through slight giggles before anyone else could pick their jaws up off the floor and form a coherent sentence.
“Uh… Is that rhetorical?” Lucas leaned forward into the semi-circle they found themselves standing in. The smirk on his face told Will they were on the exact. same. page.
Mike took a half step forward, put his hand out as if to quiet everyone else down as he said, “No. Screw that. I have a better idea. Way better.”
Everyone groaned. With an extra loud sigh and a dramatic flailing of her arms, Max said, “Don’t ruin this, Wheeler. We are SO going to that party.”
Oh my God. Will loved Max SO much. He wanted this so bad but he knew he wasn’t EVER going to turn down whatever dumb idea Mike was about to throw out there. He knew no one else besides Max would shut Mike down that quick. Lucas and Dustin knew it too. Will watched as they threw thankful smiles her way before offering one as well.
“Wha-” Mike started before being cut off by Max once again, “You in or not?”
Mike looked around as if he were begging for someone to help him out here. His eyebrows pinched together, his slightly agape mouth, the desperate look on his face, and those DAMN puppy dog eyes gave Will no choice but to place his hand gently on Mike's shoulder and provide him with a not-so-sincere offer, “If you don’t want to go… I’ll stay with you, Mike.”
Mike's mouth closed and the pinch between his eyebrows softened as he looked at Will, “You’d do th-”
“Absolutely Not.” Max stepped towards Mike and Will while pulling Will’s hand off his shoulder, she kept hold of his hand ensuring it would NOT make its way back where it just was seconds ago. “Wheeler! Look at him! He wants to go!”
The pinch between his eyebrows was back as he looked from Max to Will then back to Max then back to Will and back to Max one last time. Will was stuck. “No he doesn’t! Do you, Will?”
Yes. He did. But, of course, Will still said, “No, it’s fine. Really, Max…It’s fine.”
It was not fine. Max looked at him and gave him a disappointed look. He looked at Dustin and Lucas. Their expressions were mirroring hers. Will looked around once more before sighing. After everything that’s happened… everything he’s had to deal with… everything they’ve ALL had to deal with… Will thinks they deserve to have ONE “normal” night.
Mike opened his mouth to speak but this time Will was the one to cut him off “Actually, Mike, I think it could be fun.” Mike’s mouth slammed shut. “I mean think about it… we have ALL summer to do whatever we want together. This party is a one time thing… And I think we… deserve it?” He said the words 'deserve it' as if it were a question rather than a statement. He didn't really know what he 'deserved' but he knew it'd probably be fun. Right?
Will was looking down and shrugging his shoulders. He could take a disappointed look from anyone else in The Party but it wasn’t as easy to take one from Mike. Max gently rubbed her thumb over the back of Will’s hand then let go. Maybe she was sure that now it wasn’t going to end back up on that shoulder.
Mike once again had that pinch between his brows as he sighed and said, “Fine. Let’s go to this stupid party.” He crossed his arms. Will looked up with a smile so big, his cheeks started to hurt. “But when it’s stupid and boring. I expect an apology from ALL of you. Got it?”
“Aye aye, Cap!” Lucas joked in a salute stance right before basically jumping onto Mike. Dustin quickly joined in on this plan to jump on Mike while celebrating. Will watched with a smile and thought about how they really should be careful because truthfully, Mike can only hold so much…
They all fell to the ground laughing. Well, Mike wasn’t necessarily laughing but that's beside the point. Something about watching them roll around on the ground made Will's chest ache. With pride? Love? Adoration? He didn't know. He just knew that watching them made him feel like they were normal. Like they didn’t fight a weird supernatural alien thing (guy?) from another dimension. Like they didn’t have their most developmental years stolen from them. At that moment, he felt like everything was going to be okay.
He stood there with a faint smile. He could feel a lump in his throat start to form but Max broke him out of his own thoughts by saying “You do a really good ‘hurt puppy dog’ thing too apparently.”
“What?” Will let out a small, breathy laugh, “I don’t know what you're talking about.”
Max let out a small laugh as well. She looked at Will with a closed mouth smile, shook her head, then opened her mouth to say something but before any words could come out both her and Will were being dragged down onto the floor to join the “wrestling” (rolling around like idiots). It should’ve been embarrassing. People were looking at them, but Will couldn't find it in himself to care. He didn’t even care much when Andy and his friends walked by with the most confused, possibly disgusted, looks on their faces.
Will may not have cared but Dustin sure did. He sat up, which caused the rest of them to sit up as well. Dustin was mirroring their disgusted expressions and spewed “What!”.
Andy looked just about ready to retaliate with some nasty choice words before glancing at one of the friends he was with, sighing, and visibly cringing while saying “Nothing. Carry on.” through clenched teeth.
This was a fairly new advancement. Earlier this year, Andy and his friends had walked up to Dustin and “apologized” after school. Dustin didn’t tell them exactly what was said but he made it clear that it was something along the lines of: ‘We were all mourning different people and clearly dealing with it in different ways. Blah. Blah. Blah. We’re sorry’. Dustin didn’t take it as sincere, he says that Andy looked like he was being held at gunpoint and it seemed as if the words “I’m sorry” caused him genuine pain. He didn’t say much about Andy’s friends’ actions during the apology and Will didn’t ask about them. Honestly, Will doesn’t even know their names nor does he care what their names are. He has a vague recollection of one of them sitting in front of him in art class this past year though he couldn’t recall his name if his life depended on it. However, he could recall the slight swoop in his hair and his perfect side profile that Will got a glimpse of whenever he’d turn to talk to the person next to him. But… no one had to know that. Oh and… No, Will had NOT been using the mentioned perfect side profile as drawing inspiration. He had not been doing that and anyone who said he was MUST be lying.
“Thought so.” Dustin stupidly retorted while standing up. The rest of the group stood with him and began to dust off. “Alright stop.” Lucas put his hand protectively on Dustin’s shoulder.
Andy’s hand that wasn’t holding his diploma immediately balled into a fist as he took a step forward “Who do you thi-” before he could finish, Art Boy, which is what Will has now decided to call him in his mind, grabbed his arm and shot him a clear pleading look and whispered something that Will couldn’t hear. An excruciating long few seconds passed before Andy rolled his eyes and snarled “Whatever.” He unclenched his fist and the group walked away so quickly it almost gave Will whiplash.
“You seriously gotta stop testing limits, man.” Lucas slightly pushed him with the hand that was once lying defensively on his shoulder.
Dustin just laughed “I’m invincible! I don’t know what happened but Andy won’t retaliate. Like at ALL!”
“Until one day he does.” Mike deadpanned.
“When? In class tomorrow?” Dustin shot him a look with raised eyebrows, “Oh wait… we just GRADUATED. I’ll never have to see his face again!”
“Except at the party tonight” Max said matter-of-a-factly as she tilted her head.
“I’ll be too busy with Stacey,” Dustin joked.
“Gross.” Will shook his head playfully and rolled his eyes.
“No seriously. One of you has got to be my wingman tonight. Don’t let me say anything stupid and….” They all began to walk out together as Dustin was going on about what he needs out of his wingman tonight. Will wasn’t really listening, he knew he wouldn’t be much help when it came to things like this so he began to, respectfully, ignore what was being said. He was choosing to get lost in his own thoughts instead. Thoughts about what tonight was going to look like, he was setting expectations in his mind. He had no idea what was really going to happen but it was nice to think about the what-ifs.