Chapter Text
“Call me when you get home, yeah?” Nancy’s looking at him with an affection that he still isn’t used to.
“Yeah, course.”
“Give my love to Will.”
“Will do. Love you.” He turns towards the car. It’s getting late, and he wants to get home, to Will and whatever movie he’d picked up at the video rental this afternoon.
“Oh, so I send my love to your boyfriend, and you won’t send any to mine?”
“What do you mean, ‘boyfriend’? Will’s not my boyfriend.”
She furrows her eyebrows, and a note of confusion enters her smile. “Yes he is.”
“Nancy, I don’t think you can tell me that. I think I’d know if I were dating Will.”
“Mike, you’ve been dating for five years. You’ve lived together for three. I’m a journalist, and I know you two. I managed to pick it up somewhere along the way.” She smiles, clearly not fazed by any of this. She looks happy for him.
Mike gawks back at her, incredulous. “We’re friends, Nance! We’re in college, that’s what people do in college! God, why would you think we were dating?”
“He was at our family Christmas! Don’t act like I’m the weird one here.” She’s laughing. Why is she laughing?
“Because the heating at his house had broken, Nancy! Look, I’m tired, and want to go home. Send my love to Jonathan, I guess.” He walks down the garden to his car, filled with bewilderment. Will is his friend. Nothing more, nothing less. He can feel Nancy watching him from the door. He doesn’t turn around to wave. By the time he gets home, Will’s gone to bed, leaving a nearly-empty mug of tea and a post-it on the kitchen counter: “Had a headache, sorry! Let’s leave Withnail until tomorrow :)”. Mike picks up the note before walking to his room. He sticks the post-it on the mirror amongst all the others, and goes to bed. He doesn’t call Nancy.
—--
In the morning, he leaves before Will emerges from his room. He drives to Lucas and Max’s apartment on autopilot, and immediately starts banging on the door. This was more important than maintaining a good relationship with their neighbours.
“Mike, what are you doing here?”
“I have a weird question.”
“Mike, it’s 9am on a Sunday. Is it urgent?” Lucas’ face suddenly becomes alert. “Wait, is it-”
“No, it’s not Vecna. Why is that the first thing you jump to? I can have normal person problems too, you know.”
“God forbid a man worries about his friends.”
“Shut up.”
There’s a rustle in the background, and Max appears behind Lucas’ shoulder, hair in a messy ponytail and a scowl on her face. “Mike, this better be important.”
“Look, are you going to let me in or am I supposed to stand out here all day? Jesus, this generation doesn’t understand basic hospitality.”
They begrudgingly step aside as Mike walks ahead to the living room. He drops down onto the sofa, and they stare down at him, arms crossed, looking like parents who are less than impressed with their child’s report card.
“Why are you here? All offense meant, I’d rather be having a cosy morning in bed with my adoring boyfriend here than listen to you whining about your classwork again.”
“Well, lucky for you, I’m not here to talk to you, I’m here to see Lucas.”
“Shut up, Wheeler. Just spit it out.”
“I can’t both shut up and spit it out, Maxine.” He takes a moment. How would he even go about this? It’s completely ridiculous. “Nancy called Will my boyfriend. Why would she say that? She knows we’re not dating.”
The couple standing in front of him go quiet. Mike’s never been good at reading facial expressions, but he’s fairly sure he’s looking at a mixture of shock and concern. They turn towards each other and start speaking in hushed voices, as if that would prevent Mike hearing. He hears it all, but listening doesn’t make him any less confused.
“Did they break up? Why didn’t they tell us? Did you know about this?”
They glance down, looking increasingly worried.
“It must be recent if they have. They seemed fine last weekend. I went for coffee with El on Wednesday, and she didn’t mention anything.”
They turn towards him and stare for a couple of seconds. The initial shock on their faces has evaporated, leaving only the concern. Lucas is the one to break the silence. “Are you okay? Do you need a place to stay? Is that why you came over?”
“Why would I need a place to stay? I have an apartment ten minutes away. You’ve been to it.”
“Has Will broken up with you or not?”
“Firstly, why would you assume he would break up with me and not the other way around? And secondly, no, Will hasn’t broken up with me, because we were never dating in the first place.”
“In response to your first point: because, although you’re a stupid idiot loser, you know a good thing when you have it. And in response to your second point: what do you mean ‘never dating’? It’s been half a decade.”
“I’m not dating Will. I never have dated Will. Max, I’m not even gay.”
For some reason unknown to Mike, they both burst into uncontrollable laughter at that.