Chapter Text
January 22, 2022
Will
What the fuck…
He opened his phone to a message from Alex, who was his… something. They had been going out for soon to be three months, and he knew Alex was expecting things to start getting more serious any time now. But what Will knew was that there was no chance of that happening, no way in hell. Alex was cool and all, which was why Will had been hanging out with him in the first place, but he wasn´t planning for it ever to get serious; he never did with anyone.
After taking a few moments to get himself together, he finally opened the message:
Alex:
Goooodmoorning Babyy, hope u slept good (and dreamt of me), do u want to hang out today?I was hoping u would finally show me some of ur art!! Anyway, send me a message when u wake up, I missssss youuuuu!!!
Will scoffed. Some people might love a message like that; some people probably dream of waking up to one. But Will was in no way one of those people. Alex hadn´t always been like this, but after about a month and a half, he had started to act like they were married or something, and Will had been put in a position where he had to wake up to messages like that every fucking morning. And he therefore hadn´t had a good day since.
He shut his phone off and finally got out of bed. It was almost 10 Am, and he had class in thirty minutes. Even though Will had only been at NYU for a semester, he was really enjoying himself. When he got the letter that he had gotten in, he almost couldn’t believe it. He was finally doing something more with his art than just painting random things in his bedroom.
He took a shower and, of course, put on some music. As the beat of Brent Faiyaz's “Paper Soldier” started caressing his ears, he raised his face to the water and let it drown out his thoughts and the sickening feeling in his stomach. He knew he had to break it off with Alex. The three-month mark was close, and ever since he had started dating, he had made the three-month mark, his cutoff mark. It wasn´t like he didn´t like the people he had been seeing; some of them he could even picture himself actually dating, like for real. But dating meant opening up, letting someone in, being vulnerable… Will shuddered at the thought.
He had never been good with feelings, at least not his own. He liked pretending he was fine, like nothing could ever get to him. And he had done it so long it was like second nature to him. His mother, sweet but overbearing, had always been emotional. Every time she fell apart, he had to push his own feelings aside to pick up the pieces of his mother, which had happened as long as he could remember, at least since his father left when he was 10. He never liked his father anyway, but it still hurt; it was confusing for a 10-year-old that his own father would just up and leave. But he had to keep it together for his mom. Slowly, Will learned two things: he was better off keeping his feelings to himself, and unconditional love… was bullshit.
He got out of the shower; he had twenty minutes until he had to get to class, perfect. He picked up his phone and clicked on Alex´s contact. He picked up after the first ring… of course.
“Hey, good morning, babe!” pierced through Will's ears, and it almost made him hang up.
“Yeah, hi, good morning, are you in class right now?” Will asked, trying to sound as normal as possible so as not to let his annoyance scare Alex off. He had to get this done today.
“Nooo, I don´t have class until 11, what´s up?”
Will smiled to himself. He didn´t know why, but he knew he shouldn´t be, but he was about to break this boy’s heart, and he couldn´t wait.
“Cool, want to meet up on the bench outside of the art building?” Please say yes, please say ye-
“Sure!! Are you finally going to let me see some of the pieces? Are any of them of me?”
He could feel Alex smile through the phone, but Will was getting more and more annoyed by the second. Why the fuck would Will ever paint him, and why the fuck would Alex ever think he would? He had only ever painted two people in his life: his mother. For her birthday, she cried. And Jane, his stepsister, who had begged for weeks until he did it. But he only painted them because he loved them. He didn´t even really like Alex. At least not anymore.
Finally, Will answered Alex after the apparent and awkward silence from Will’s end of the phone:
“Uhm- no… I just wanted to talk to you,” he said finally, and he could basically hear Alex’s heart starting to ache.
Alex said okay, and they agreed to meet in five minutes. Will threw on some clothes and headed out. He had a weird feeling in his stomach, but it was nothing new; it was the same feeling he always got when he was about to break someone’s heart. A mix of guilt and gloom brewing in him. When he got to the bench, he took a deep breath and forced the feeling away. He knew what he had to do.
It was already 10:17 when Alex showed up, which meant Will had exactly thirteen minutes to get this done. He looked like he had rushed out the door, with his blonde hair falling in his face, in contrast to his usual hairstyle (which included way too much hairspray). He walked over to him with his head down and his hands in his pockets; he almost looked like he was trying to hide from Will, or what was coming.
When he sat down beside him, he finally looked at Will with a small, defeated smile, but there was still some flicker of hope in his eyes. Will thought Alex probably knew what was coming, but had tried to convince himself it wasn´t. Will had seen this look before, in Gabriel, Peter, Christopher, etc. He quickly looked away to stop himself from letting the guilt he had previously pushed away back in.
After a few moments of silence, Will cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter, forcing himself to look into the boy’s eyes.
“I don´t think this is going to work.” He said finally, letting the breath he had unconsciously been holding in go.
Alex opened his mouth, then closed it again, before sinking further into the cold bench and looking away. Will didn´t really have anything more to say, but felt like he should say more anyway. Maybe he felt like Alex deserved a little bit of an explanation, or perhaps he was trying to avoid the “Can we talk? I need closure” bullshit that was bound to come his way if he left it like this. Without looking at Alex, he continued:
“It´s not your fault, so don’t beat yourself up about it, I don’t think I´m ready for a relationship, and hey- “he stopped. Alex, who was previously sliding further into the bench, had now stood up and looked straight at Will. He looked… angry?
“Fuck you, Will.” He said, matter-of-factly. Will was about to say something, but Alex turned on his heel and started walking away, fast. He was probably hoping Will would run after him and beg for forgiveness, and that Will would say he messed up. But Will just chuckled to himself while he watched the blonde boy walk away. Damn. He had seen many different reactions throughout his career of breaking up with people, but he had never seen this one.
He looked at his watch, 10:27, shit, he had to go. He put his headphones on and started walking towards the big red doors of the art building while “Darling, I” by Tyler, the Creator flowed through his ears. And as he reached the doors, the suffocating feeling that had surrounded him for the last three months finally started to wash away, and he felt like he could breathe. He was all alone again, just like it should be, just like it always would be.
Mike
“MIKE!! Get the fuck out of bed!!” The explosion of sound made Mike jump up. He looked around and, for a few seconds, didn’t know where he was or who was yelling. He didn’t even have time to figure it out for himself before Dustin busted in through the door.
“Are you almost done packing? We have like a ten-hour drive ahead of us, you know.” Dustin looked around the room where the evidence clearly pointed to no, Mike was not almost done packing. His room looked like a tornado had gone through it, with clothes, books, and other miscellaneous items scattered across the floor, waiting to be put in the boxes that still stood empty by the door. At least he had thought about packing. Mike smiled to himself before uttering a sleepy “I´ll pack now, give me an hour.” Dustin raised his eyebrows and looked in at Mike, his eyes saying, If you say so, buddy, before he nodded and left the room.
Mike slowly got up from bed and dragged himself to the shower. He brushed his teeth and put on the first clean-looking clothes he could find when he walked back into his room. He started packing his things into the boxes while thinking about the new life he would have at NYU. Maybe he, Dustin, and Lucas would go to a lot of cool parties, maybe he would make a lot of new friends, perhaps he would even find a girl he liked, or maybe even… a boy- he stopped himself from finishing that thought. He couldn´t let himself think that way, not after what happened at UCLA, not after the incident. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning the music up louder. And as Lana Del Rey's angelic voice filled the room, he forced himself to keep packing.
After an hour and a half, he was packed into Dustin´s shitty car alongside Lucas and, of course, Dustin. The car was stuffed with all of his boxes, forcing Lucas to work hard to find a comfortable position in the back seat. Luckily, Dustin and Lucas only had a duffel bag each as they already had all their things in New York. They had already been at NYU since August; meanwhile, Mike had gone to UCLA for some dumb reason. He had convinced himself he wanted a fresh start, something he now looked back on and cringed.
“You ready for your new life in The Big Apple?” Lucas said as he stretched his arms, gripping Mike´s shoulders from the backseat and shaking him excitedly. Dustin and Lucas had tried all summer before they left for college to convince Mike to join them at NYU. It looks like they finally got their wish.
“Yeah- “Mike laughed, “I really should´ve listened to you guys from the beginning,” He said, looking over at Dustin.
“Yeah, you should have, glad you finally came to your senses.” Dustin smiled at him. Mike felt his excitement build; this was going to be a good year.
Will
After class, Will was feeling a whole lot lighter and a whole lot better. He didn´t really know why he kept getting into situations with new boys if he was going to break up with them anyway. He was probably trying to fill an emotional void inside himself or something. Jane had said to him after he broke up with Peter… or Christopher, he couldn’t really remember. But he shoved both thoughts aside when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.
Jane:
Wanna eat lunch with Max and me? We´re going to the burger spot that u like!
Will:
Sure, I´ll meet u in 5, just got out of class.
Max was Jane's best friend; she was Will´s friend, too, of course, but he didn´t have anyone he would classify as a best friend. He started walking to the diner, but when he saw them, he could clearly see that they were whispering to each other about something. When they spotted him, they both stopped and stared at him. Were they whispering about him?
“What?” He said, not trying to sound concerned, even though he was.
“Uhm- did you break up with Alex today?” Max suddenly blurted out, Will was both relieved and a little curious how she had found that out not more than two hours after it happened. He nodded and looked at her curiously, waiting for her to explain exactly that. Before answering, though, she looked at Jane whilst making her I-told-you-so face.
“He´s in my class, you know, and he was visibly upset the whole class; it even looked like he was crying at some point.” She said, finally. Oh, Will didn´t really get the feeling Alex was sad after their exchange earlier, but he didn’t tell the girls that; he just shrugged and gave them a short “Ahh, shit.”
“So why did you? - break up with him, I mean?”, Jane asked
“I don’t know, I wasn’t really feeling it anymore, he was a little much, I guess.”
“That’s what you always say”, Max rolled her eyes at him
“Well, what do you want me to say then?” Will answered, sounding a little more annoyed than he planned. Max and Jane were always on his ass about getting into a relationship and then jumping ship when things got too serious. They said it was concerning. It seemed like they picked up the fact that Will was done talking about this topic, so they eventually drifted over to another one. Will wasn’t really paying attention, yeah- and Dustin said-, great, they were talking about Jane's boyfriend again. She was utterly obsessed with him and had been since they met and started dating in September. Will hadn’t met Dustin yet, not because he didn’t want to, per se; he just wasn’t really interested in having a bigger circle than he already had. More people meant more expectations, and he couldn’t really be bothered with that. After zoning out for a while, he suddenly noticed both Max and Jane had stopped talking and were now looking right at him, expectantly…
“Soo, are you excited?” Jane finally said, playfully nudging his arm and smiling.
“Wha- Excited about what?” Will literally had no idea what she was talking about; he just prayed that Max and Jane weren’t planning on dragging him to another concert or social event.
“Your new roommate?” Max said, looking at him as if he had just asked what color the sky was. New roommate? What the actual fuck? Up to this point, Will had his dorm all to himself because his former (should-have-been) roommate never even moved in. And it was the greatest thing that had happened to Will thus far. And why had no one told him about this supposed new roommate? And how the fuck did Jane and Max know?
“What do you mean, new roommate?” He finally asked, looking at them both, now struggling to keep the tone of his voice anything but lathered in annoyance.
“I talked to Dustin earlier, and he said his friend Mike was joining us at NYU, and apparently, he had gotten an email that his roommate would be William Byers! Isn´t that a crazy coincidence?!” She looked genuinely happy about this life-ruining fucking coincidence. Will didn’t say anything, allowing Jane to continue:
“Dustin said Mike is a writer- at least that’s what he’s studying, he initially studied at UCLA-“
Suddenly, it was like Will’s brain finally caught up to the conversation when he blurted out, “Who the fuck just switches schools across the country in the middle of their first year at college?” Will asked no one in particular; he knew, as he asked it, that the answer was probably a lot of people. But a lot of people weren’t going to suddenly move into his dorm and strip him of all sense of privacy and peace.
“Will- I seriously don’t know how you didn’t know this; I have told you so many times to start checking your emails.” Jane rolled her eyes, not really annoyed, but not pleased. She was right, though; he never checked his emails. He slowly pulled out his phone and reluctantly opened his emails… yep, there it was: Michael Wheeler will be moving into dorm 317 on January 22. 2022. Wait, what the fuck, he was moving in today?
Will stood up without saying another word to the girls, still offering them a small smile and a wave; they seemed to understand that his reaction to this kind of news had nothing to do with them. He needed to smoke.
Will had been smoking weed since he first got introduced to it in his sophomore year of high school. Back then, he was still innocent, still sweet, not this wannabe douchebag he was pretending to be these days. As his lungs filled with smoke, and his ears filled with music, he finally relaxed, a little bit at least. What a long fucking day.
Mike
“So, I talked to Jane and asked her about Will, by the way…” Dustin said, making Mike tune back into the conversation, tearing his gaze away from the window. They had been driving for eight hours already, which meant they were closing in on NYU, two more hours, and everything was official, officially starting fresh. Lucas was now fast asleep in the back seat. Mike figured that was the reason Dustin finally brought the subject up. Apparently, his new roommate was Dustin´s girlfriend’s stepbrother. He got his name when NYU emailed him about it after he got in. William Byers.
“Yeah, what did she say?” Mike asked, trying to sound as casual as possible, not to reveal how nervous he was. Or maybe excited. He didn’t know, but he knew he wanted as much information about Will as he could get; that way, he would know what to expect.
“Apparently, he didn’t even know you were coming, Jane said, something about him never reading his emails. Not that I blame him,” Dustin laughed, “I think he´s a pretty closed off person, not that I´ve officially met him, he just seems kind of… cold.” Dustin was now looking over at Mike, and Mike could feel him searching for a reaction to what he just said. He didn’t get one just yet, as Mike was still sorting through what Dustin just said in his head, cold? What was that supposed to mean?- Dustin cut off his train of thought:
“Oh, and he´s gay, but last I checked, he was dating some blonde guy. I know you don’t care, but I thought maybe it would be good to know.”
Suddenly, it felt like all the air was sucked straight out of Mike’s lungs. Will was gay? And people knew about it? And he was openly dating- who was he dating? Blonde… his thoughts followed his eyes to the rearview mirror, where he caught a glimpse of himself with his jet-black curly hair. Wait- why is he comparing himself to his roommate´s (who he hadn’t even met) supposed boyfriend? Mike didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with him, but it was definitely something… he didn’t have time to figure it right then and there, though, as Lucas stirred, finally waking up. With the third musketeer awake, the conversation naturally flowed away from the Will subject, something Mike was thankful for; he was really starting to stress out about this whole roommate situation.
When they pulled up outside of the dorm building, it was dark and empty, but Mike could see why; it was cold outside, the kind of cold that feels like no amount of clothes could stop it from reaching into your bones. Not that Mike was ever adequately dressed for the weather. Begrudgingly, the three boys started carrying Mike’s boxes up to his new dorm. When they reached his floor, they all stopped outside the door, no one really wanting to be the first one to disturb the supposedly cold William Byers.
“You gotta knock, man,” Lucas finally said after several beats of silence.
“Why, wha-“Mike tried protesting, but didn’t get the time to argue before Dustin, who seemingly had gotten tired of standing in an empty hallway with one of Mike's heavy boxes, took the key from Mike’s hand and opened the door. Mike could feel his lungs refusing to let his breath reach all the way down as they looked around the room. It was dark… and empty.
“He´s not even here,” Dustin laughed. Mike tried to laugh with him, but couldn’t help wondering where his new roommate was. It seemed like everyone else in the dorms had retreated to their rooms for the night, everyone but Will. Maybe he was at his boyfriend’s place… Mike didn’t know why he felt something, anything, about his roommate, whom he hadn’t even met, being at another boy's dorm.
Mike couldn’t quite decide if he was disappointed or relieved that his roommate wasn’t home when they continued carrying his boxes up. He half expected Will to turn up any moment, but two hours had passed, they had finished carrying everything, Dustin and Luas had left, and he was even almost done unpacking. He usually wouldn’t start unpacking for days, maybe even weeks. But he didn’t want to start his relationship with his new roommate by arguing about Mike's lack of cleaning and organization. He already felt bad about stripping Will of his single dorm. Looking around, Mike could tell that Will was a clean person; his side of the dorm was spotless, not even a sock on the floor.
When Mike went to open the shared closet, he was surprised to see a bunch of canvases lying at the bottom. He knew Will was studying art; it was the only piece of information he had received in the email besides Will's name. He looked around before picking some of them up, not wanting to be caught snooping in his roommate's things before he even introduced himself. He quickly skimmed over the pieces, and holy shit- these were amazing. Most of them were landscapes, but one was a painting of what looked like a cowboy on a horse, which was his favorite. He suddenly realized he probably had been staring at the painting too long and pushing his luck when he quickly put them back, trying to stack them the same way he found them, hoping Will wouldn’t notice someone had touched them.
At last, he decided it was probably time for a shower, so he grabbed his towel and headed into the bathroom.
Will
It was dark out, and Will was definitely still high, but he decided that after a day like today, he could smoke a little extra. He usually made a point not to smoke till he got high high, every time. But on days like this, he allowed himself. After just walking around for about an hour and a half, he decided he should probably get something to eat. He was fucking starving; the sensation was most definitely a mix of him leaving lunch early and, of course, the munchies. He went back to the same burger joint he previously stormed out of, a full circle moment, he thought, and laughed a little to himself.
While he ate, he started going through his day, point by point, trying to figure out how he actually felt about the events. He had a habit of ignoring what he felt at any given moment, but the weed was most of the time a key to open the tightly locked door that held Will’s feelings.
He thought about Alex and decided that, even though he had to break it off, he felt guilty for dragging yet another unknowing boy to the same fate as all the unknowing boys before him. Will didn’t quite know why he did it, or why he always pretended he didn’t ever care about them. Maybe that was because he actually didn’t. Will had never gone into a relationship with someone he genuinely liked, probably out of fear, probably because he knew that if he actually liked them, he would convince himself it could work, last forever… and all that bullshit.
He left that train of thought and moved on to the next point. Michael Wheeler. He looked at his watch; it was late, and his new roommate had probably moved in by now. This thought made Will let out a little annoyed huff. Unless Mike, as Jane had called him, had changed his mind at the last minute and gone back to UCLA. Will knew he was in a predicament; he had already gotten shit from Jane about not meeting her boyfriend yet, even though they had been dating for a few months. He couldn’t make her angrier by being a dick to his new roommate, who, of course, was one of her boyfriend’s best friends. Wills fucking luck strikes again. He thought sarcastically to himself.
After mulling over the situation, he landed on a decision. He would be cordial with Mike, but he would make it obvious that they weren’t friends. He would still try to make it seem like they were in front of Jane, mainly to save himself from her wrath, which she would most definitely send his way if she found out he never planned to befriend this Michael Wheeler.
After finishing his food, he started the walk back to what was previously his dorm, trying to savor the last moments of his life of solitude. He walked slowly, trying to push the inevitable moment of meeting his new roommate as far as he could into the future. But alas, all good things must come to an end. He reached the door, took a deep breath, and opened it. Okay, so Mike was definitely here. His things were here, his clothes were in the closet, and he had even hung some posters on the wall. But the boy was nowhere to be seen. Where the fu-
Before he could get really confused about the mysterious new roommates' whereabouts, he heard the lock to the bathroom click, and the door opened.
“Oh, hey- “he heard as he turned around. Oh… holy shit.
Will could almost feel his brain shutting off. In front of him was the prettiest boy he had ever seen. Dark wet curls falling into his dark, nearly pitch-black eyes. His cheekbones were so sharp that Will was sure they probably could cut the tension in the air, and he was tall, taller than Will. And he was only wearing a towel around his small waist. Will had to fight hard not to look down at the boy’s torso; he lost that fight.
Will could feel himself staring and knew the boy in front of him probably felt it too, as his freckled cheeks turned a slight shade of pink as he looked down to the ground.
“H-hey…” Will said finally, trying to sound casual and nonchalant. “I´m Will.”
“I know, I´m Mike,” The boy said. Will already knew this was Mike, but he still couldn’t believe this was Mike, his new roommate. Michael Wheeler.