Work Text:
Music is blaring out of Stacey Albright’s house, sure to get a noise complaint or two. But nobody cares, because they all just survived high school.
Sure, some of them survived it more than others, like the ones who weren’t involved in the whole, “Kill Vecna” thing, but that was over. They could finally be normal teenagers, without a care in the world. Especially tonight, because Stacey invited them all to her end of the year party.
Stacey’s parties were notorious for underage drinking and drunken make-outs, as many other parties were. But this time, everyone had bought a mass influx of alcohol, which just made the party a million times more chaotic.
Of course, the Party had already dranken together a bunch of times, especially after they defeated Vecna. It was like a celebration every other weekend for a while. They had to stop after a bit because their grades were slipping.
Mike was the last to arrive to the party, carrying in a 12-pack of Bud Lights. As he entered, he was immediately enveloped by the smell of sweat and B.O..
“Great.” He thought. He never cared for parties either way, but Dustin and Will wanted to go so bad. So there he was, fighting his way through a house filled to the brim with random classmates and trying to find his friends. He spots Max first.
“Max!” He yells. Max turns around and envelopes him in a hug. She smells of booze.
“Wheeler! Finally showed up!” He feels her smiling on his shoulder.
“You must be really fucked up already. I don’t think you even hugged me after you got out of your coma.”
Max pulls back playfully. “I think you forget that I could barely move, dumbass.”
Mike rolls his eyes. He has to raise his voice a lot to talk to her over the music, with Madonna’s “Material Girl” on maximum volume. “Do you know where anyone is?” Mike asks.
“I think Lucas is grabbing me more punch, Dustin is.. um.. I think chatting up the ladies? Yes? And uh,” She continues, “I think the last time I saw Will was with.. Stacey?”
Mike furrows his brows in confusion. “Stacey? As in Stacey.. like.. the Stacey?” Max laughs.
“Yeah it really seemed like they were hitting it off. You don’t have to take my word for it, go find him!” She pushes him playfully.
“Alright then.” Mike tries to hide his confusion, taking a beer out of the case and handing it to Max. “Be safe, ok?”
Max smiles and accepts the beer, cracking it open. “Since when have you ever cared about safety?” She leaves him to go dance with some random classmates.
Stacey? Why would Will be with Stacey of all people? This doesn’t make sense.
-
“So then I said to him, “If you want another kiss just go to your grandma!’” Stacey says, sending Will into a laugh attack.
“Serves him right!” Will says, taking another sip of his punch that is definitely not just punch.
They were sitting together on a loveseat in Stacey’s living room, just chatting away like they were old friends catching up. Except, they weren’t. This was quite literally their first time talking ever besides school projects and such.
Will has found out the ultimate social hack tonight: Liquid confidence lets him talk to literally anyone, anxiety free. Normally, when it comes to talking to anyone outside of the party, he is initially shy. But with alcohol, he loosens up really quick. He is also terribly honest, but is careful to not reveal anything too private about himself.
“Will, why didn’t we talk before tonight? You’re actually so funny.” Stacey laughs, taking another sip of her drink, which at this point, has dribbled onto her shirt. The song changes to “Let’s Dance” by Bowie.
“Stacey, being completely honest, I didn’t think you’d like me, as a friend, that is. Y’know, with the whole zombie boy thing in middle school.” Will shrugs, smiling.
Stacey puts her hand on his shoulder encouragingly. She is slurring her words almost beyond recognition, but somehow in his drunkenness, Will understands. “Will, that was years ago! I doubt anyone cares anymore. Like sure, it probably turned a few girls off at first, but they’d be stupid to care about that now.”
Will smiles. “I guess you’re right. What’s your excuse for not talking to me?”
“I don’t know.” She looks up, making it look like she might be forming an answer. “I guess I was too involved in my friends and boyfriends to kind of venture out, you know? Kinda like you and your like.. what is it? D&D?” She continues, “Yeah, your D&D friends.”
Will laughs. “You’re right. I usually never venture outside of that group, but that’s because we’re so tight knit.”
Stacey replies. “I bet. With that whole thing with you going missing and then them finding you? I wish I had friends that would go out of their way to do that.”
It’s now Will’s turn to put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure someone would go out of their way to do that for you. You seem like a great person, promise.” He holds out his pinky.
“A pinky promise? I guess nothing can beat that!” She takes his pinky in hers, both of them laughing and taking sips from their respective red solo cups.
-
Mike makes his way into Stacey’s giant kitchen. “Damn,” He thinks, “She’s fucking loaded.” She has two china cabinets and a big kitchen island, which is where the punch is. He finds Lucas by the punch, taking shots with some of his old teammates. He’s laughing and giving one of them a noogie.
“Lucas!” He grabs his attention.
Lucas looks towards Mike and brings two shots of.. something with him. “Mike! Do a shot with me!” He’s practically shoving the shot glass into Mike’s hand, causing a little bit of its contents to get on Mike’s shirt. He’s not all that bothered, but he rolls his eyes.
“Have you seen Will?” He asks, trying to find an answer as to where he is and why he’s with Stacey Albright. “I don’t know but do this shot with me!” Mike tries to interrupt, but Lucas cuts him off with a countdown.
“3.. 2… 1!” Both of the boys down their shots, with Mike making the most sour face ever. He coughs.
“Dude! What was that?” Mike asks, growing a little concerned.
Lucas laughs. “Now that I think about it, uh, I don’t know. But! I’m sure it’s fine.” He sees the case of beer in Mike’s hands.
“I’d be happy to take that off your hands if you want!” He smiles, but Mike quickly hides the case behind him. “Only if you tell me when you saw Will last.”
“Dude, fine! I think the last time I saw him, he was going to the living room with, um, Stacey!” He continues, laughing and trying to reach around Mike for the beer. Mike gives up the case, taking one out for himself.
“Save two for Dustin and Will, please.” He asks Lucas sincerely.
“No problem, man. Good luck finding Byers.” Lucas pats him on the back and heads back to the jocks, to which they immediately go back to laughing and joking with each other.
“Okay.” He thinks. “At least I know where he is now.” He cracks open his beer, making his way to the living room. Which, of course, was on the other side of the house.
But one question was lingering in his mind. Why was he with Stacey Albright of all people?
-
“Hanging with you is so much better than just, leaving to go make out with Andy or something.” Stacey giggles. “She Bop” by Cyndi Lauper was now playing.
“Don’t say that, Stacey. You and Andy are like, the cutest, I think.” Will is trying to encourage her, but truthfully, he didn’t really know about their relationship until now.
“‘Were’ the cutest.” She fingers air quotes when she says “were”. “We’ve been like, so over for like a month now. Says he’s already found someone who’s gonna go to his college.” She rolls her eyes and puts her head in her hands.
Will didn’t know what to say in response to this, so he just put his hand on her back, trying to come up with a response.
He hadn’t really dealt with this besides giving advice to El about Mike when she was still around. Of course, at that time, he liked him. He liked him so hard it hurt. Liked him so hard it was hard to sleep at night, especially when he was living in his house. However, he loved El and was not about to just sabotage their relationship, so he gave her advice and pointers on what to talk about with Mike. He would also hang out with Max and talk to her whenever her and Lucas were going through something and give her advice on what to say to resolve things.
But THIS. THIS was a whole new ballpark, a whole new SPORT. Will knew some about Stacey because now she had drunkenly shared half of her life story. But Andy, he knew nothing about. In his confidence, he bit the apple.
“He’s such a man whore, Stacey. He’s not worth your time.” Stacey looked at him with a blank expression at first, to which Will started to worry he said the wrong thing. He was just starting to get close with a new friend and he fucked it up, he thought. That is, until Stacey bursted out in laughter.
“You’re so fucking right! Oh my god!” She laughs, her giggles taking up the entire room. Will starts to laugh along with her.
“And that hat does nothing for his hair, I mean, it looks like he never takes it off!” Will responds, causing Stacey to giggle harder.
“Because he doesn’t! He doesn’t even take it off when we’re hooking up half the time!” Stacey laughs even harder, slapping her hand against her knee. Will is laughing so hard to the point where he’s coughing.
He calms down a bit. “I mean seriously, does he even wash that thing?” “Maneater” by Daryl Hall and John Oates was now playing.
“Wash what thing?” A voice comes out from behind him.
Will looks behind him, and speak of the devil, it’s Andy.
“Shit.” He thinks, and he thinks Stacey must have thought the same thing, because she’s now looking at him with an awkward expression.
-
Mike makes his way to the dining room, finding Dustin talking to a bunch of women classmates. Mike takes a few chugs of his beer as he makes his way through the dining room. He almost doesn’t say hi because his main goal right now is to find Will, but Dustin calls after him.
“Mike!” Dustin shouts. Mike turns around and heads his way.
“Did you think you could just ignore me because I am occupied with a bunch of-“ He smiles at the girls he’s with, “lovely ladies?” Dustin had at least six girls by his side, drunkenly flirting with him because of how good his graduation speech was. Mike giggles.
“No, but I am kind of on a mission to find Will.” He smiles, “So if you’ll excuse me-“ Dustin interrupts him by dragging him to have a seat.
“Don’t worry about him!” Dustin smiles, drunkenly. “Last I checked, he’s having a good time with Stacey Albright!”
Mike’s blood goes cold and his turns pale.
“Having a.. g-good time?” Mike stutters, trying to hide the fact that inside, he is seething.
“Yeah! Like!” Dustin realized what he was accidentally implying, immediately going back on what he said, shifting his face into a re-assuring one. “Probably not like that, because Will’s.. you know.” Dustin tries to communicate to Mike that he’s definitely not doing what he thinks he’s doing because he’s gay, without outing him to all the girls surrounding him. “Taken! That’s right ladies, Will Byers is off the market!” Dustin laughs at his remark, to which all of the girls around him giggle. Mike is not amused.
“Come on Mike! Sit down!” Dustin takes his arm, but Mike pulls back.
“No! I need to find Will.” Mike asserts.
“C’mon Mike! Will’s probably fine! Right ladies?” The ladies respond in an abundance of, “He’s fine!” And “Don’t worry!”’s. Mike is still not convinced, but Dustin and the ladies manage to pull him down and make him sit for a few.
“Mike, this is Claire, Karen, Michelle, Debbie, Christina, and uh,” Dustin stalls, stopping on one girl’s name who he can’t remember.
“Lisa.” The girl responds, surprisingly, not offended at all. Mike finishes off his beer and notices Dustin hasn’t touched his punch. He’s probably refilled it a few times, he figures, so he discreetly grabs his cup and takes it for himself. If he were going to talk to Will, he was gonna have to be a little more than tipsy.
“I should set you and Michelle up, Mike. That would be funny!” Dustin continues, “Michael and Michelle would be a cute summer fling, don’t you think so girls?” And they all agree, just wanting to talk to Dustin.
“I’m not looking for that, but thanks.” Mike responds. “But I am looking for Will, so I’ll be going now.” He gets up and takes a few sips of the punch. Immediately, he is punched with the taste of whatever he had before with Lucas, mixed with fruit punch and possibly vodka.
“Have fun buddy! You know where to find me!” Dustin waves bye to Mike while smiling ear to ear, all while Mike was stumbling through the dining room.
Why did Mike care so much about what Will was doing? Because he’s his best friend, of course.
But something was itching at Mike. He wasn’t only worried about Will possibly hooking up with Stacey, because Will had came out to him and the whole party eighteen months ago, and if he was hooking up with Stacey he would DEFINITELY be doing something he’d regret when he sobered up. Mike thought a stupid question. Sexuality doesn’t change when you’re drunk, right?
Something that was poking at his heart besides that, though, is why Will didn’t want to have a good time with him. Not like that, he thought, but then he thought harder.
Maybe it was like that.
-
“Stace, why are you hanging out with this fag?” Andy questioned, getting up in Stacey’s face. Although Will had gotten used to the word, he still got uncomfortable by Andy calling him that.
“First of all, he’s my friend. Second of all, what the fuck are you doing here?” Stacey stands her ground, or rather, grounds herself in the loveseat. She is a little intimidated by him, with Andy being a lot taller and bulkier than she is.
“You invited my friends, so obviously, I was gonna show up. What the fuck is zombie boy doing here?” Andy shot a disgusted face to Will, to which he just rolled his eyes.
“I invited him and his friends because of the badass speech Henderson made at graduation! Duh!” She fought back, now getting up in his face.
Andy got up close and personal to Stacey, to which she backed away a little. “You mean to tell me half of those Hellfire freaks are here?” He got serious. Stacey didn’t respond, looking down. This caused Andy to turn his attention to Will. He loomed over him.
“What the fuck are your intentions with my girlfriend, huh?” To which Stacy faintly responds. “I’m not your girlfriend!” This gives Andy an idea.
“That’s right, you don’t swing that way, huh?” He takes Will’s chin in his hand and smiles menacingly.
“I’m probably turning you on more than Stace over here is, right?” He asks, taunting him. Will feels like he could crawl up in a ball and die.
He was used to homophobic comments from a young age, with his father insisting that he would grow up to be a sissy if he kept getting so close with Mike. Will didn’t even know he could have those feelings until his dad pointed it out, and he didn’t even truly figure out he was gay until a while later. But, what Andy was doing was crossing a giant line, if there even was a line with bullying. Will was about to speak up, until..
“He could probably please me more than you ever could!” Stacey yells, getting Andy’s attention. He lets go of Will, turning his attention to Stacey once more.
“What the fuck did you say, slut?” He barks, but Stacey isn’t intimidated anymore.
“He’s a kind and gentle person, something you would have learned if you ever took the effort to be kind to him.” She’s basically yelling at him, spit flying in his face.
“That’s why you’re only friends with losers, Andy! Everyone else but those douchebags are scared that you’re gonna beat them to a pulp at any given moment!” She continues, “If you took the effort to be friends with kind people and to be kind, maybe one of your homeboys wouldn’t have tried to get with me twice!” Andy is suddenly pale in the face, and Will looks over at Stacey and smiles drunkenly, almost like a “you got him good” type of smile.
Andy regains his composure and lowers himself to Stacey. His face is so red to the point where it looks like steam could come out of his ears at any moment now. “This isn’t over.” He stammers out, and he turns to Will, pointing at him.
“You’re lucky I don’t know where you live, Byers.” He threatened, turning around and seemingly heading for the exit.
They both sat in silence for a minute, to which Stacey bursted out laughing.
“Oh my god! Did you see the look on his face?” She giggled, her face turning pink. Will was laughing, but didn’t respond. Stacey noticed this, and put a hand on his knee.
“For the record, I don’t like you like that.” She said as nice as she could, continuing. “But I just knew that would shut him up. Sorry if I led you on a little.”
Will smiles. “No worries, the feeling is mutual. And yeah, you do have a way of shutting him up.” He giggled. “I guess when a fragile man is insulted, he turns into a big baby.”
This makes Stacey go into a full blown giggle fit, taking sips out of her solo cup as she stops and starts giggling.
“You know what, Will? I have a great idea.” She smiles at him.
“What is it?” He questions.
She pauses for a moment, questioning if she’s pushing a line. Her drunk mind just dismisses it. “Is there anyone.. special in your life that’s at this party? A girl?” She questions back.
“I mean-“ Will stutters, confused by why she’s asking this. “I don’t-“
“Oh my god you don’t even have to tell me! Don’t worry!” She throws her hands up and gets closer to Will.
“But just know, if you wanted to tell me, I wouldn’t judge. I mean, I have no room to judge, I was with Andy.” She shrugs and smiles.
For a second Will feels like he can let his guard down, his drunken mind wanting to tell her all about Mike and how he liked him for the longest time, and how he was his first love,. But also how he knows he would never reciprocate, so he’s tried to get over him. For a while, he was over him; but with the school year ending and everyone heading to college, him included, his feelings were starting to come back. He wanted to tell Mike because he was scared that it was now or never. But as soon as he snapped out of it, he made up an excuse.
“I do kind of have someone like that, it’s kind of complicated though-“ Stacey cuts him off.
“I could help you make her jealous!” Stacey exclaims, taking Will’s wrists and shaking them.
Will laughs. “What?”
“I’m serious! We could dance together in front of everyone and she’ll see us and she’ll be like, ‘Oh no, I need to tell Will Byers how I feel now!’” She giggles. “It’s the perfect plan!”
“Stacey I don’t know if-“ Will is hesitant, but Stacey interrupts him again.
“Please Will!” She pleads. “If not for that girl, for me! I wanna dance and have fun with you tonight! Make up for lost time!” She giggles, taking his hands again.
“And it’s totally fine because I know you don’t like me and I don’t like you!” She basically yells over the music, which has now changed to “Fire in My Heart” by Escape from New York.
“Please Will! It’ll be so much fun.” She’s basically dragging him off of the loveseat.
Will hesitates, but ultimately agrees. “Fine!” He giggles.
Once she knows he’s going along with it, she stops and turns to him. “Perfect! But-“ she pauses, taking out a cherry lip balm from her pocket.
“I kinda noticed that your lips are a little chapped. You’re gonna need some of this if you’re gonna be tonguing your girl later.” Before Will can protest, she’s unscrewing the cap and putting it on for him. He tries to break out of her grasp, but his efforts are futile.
“And for the final touch!” She quickly grabs his jaw and kisses it fast, nothing more than a peck. But, her bright pink lipstick stands out on his jaw. “To really seal the deal!”
Will is dumbfounded, but he can’t even be mad, so he laughs. “I don’t even know if h- she is at this party yet!” He corrects himself quickly, careful to not out himself to her.
“Well I guess we’ll find out!” She says as she drags him to the biggest room, the dining room.
Will doesn’t have a clue how dancing drunkenly with Stacey with her kiss mark on his jaw would make Mike jealous, because if anything it would probably make him concerned. Mike knew Will was gay, everyone in the Party, in his immediate circle, knew he was gay. If anything, he was genuinely just doing this to please his new friend. Will finished off his punch, becoming the drunkest he’s been that night. So does Stacey.
But what if Mike was there? What if it did made him jealous?
-
Mike is practically plowing through drunk teenagers to get to the living room- to get to Will. What if he wasn’t there? What if him and Stacey had left the party to hang out? To go do something else? To go-
He has to stay focused, Mike is looking for Will, not what he’s doing. He knows he’s there, because he has testimonies from three of his best friends that he saw him. Although they were all pretty hammered, seeing Will Byers isn’t just something you imagine, especially for Mike.
When he finally stumbles into the relatively quiet living room, he doesn’t find Will. Except, he sees his jacket on the loveseat. His jacket. His dark denim hand-me-down from Jonathan. His jacket he wore whenever him and the party would go out and do something. His jacket he wore whenever he wanted to look good. His jacket he had left at Mike’s house dozens of times now. His.
Mike was now freaking out. If he checked the whole bottom floor and he wasn’t there, he was either outside or-
In Stacey’s bedroom.
He had never ran up a staircase so fast, although he could make out someone yelling behind him, but he ignored it.
He started opening all of the doors upstairs, all were vacant. Except for one.
Stacey’s bedroom.
It was all the way at the end of the hall.
He practically ran to the door, only to find-
“Hey!” A girl shouts, hiding behind a guy’s back.
“Wheeler, get the fuck out!” The guy yells.
“Sorry!” Mike manages to utter as he slams the door.
A couple was hooking up in there, but it wasn’t Will and Stacey. Mike was able to catch his breath. His hand lingered on the doorknob, until he felt his shoulder being grabbed.
“Wheeler!” Max yelled, Dustin and Lucas behind her. All three of them looked confused but amused at the same time.
“Oh! Hey guys.” He said, trying to seem calm and composed. “’Sup?”
Max rolled her eyes, behind her, Lucas spoke. “We found Will.”
Mike’s face turned pale.
-
Stacey had told whoever was playing the music to restart the song. There it was, “Fire in My Heart” by Escape from New York, playing again.
The four of them ran to the dining room, lead by Mike, to find Will.
Will dancing on the dining room table with Stacey.
The song had already started, with the synths coming in and Stacey and Will already dancing.
Mike’s mouth was wide open, his brows furrowed confusedly, until-
He saw it.
The bright pink lipstick on Will’s jaw.
Stacey’s bright pink lipstick.
Will was shaking his head back and fourth and the lipstick caught on the dining room light.
In a matter of seconds, Mike Wheeler was fuming. Not at Will, but at Stacey for going that far with Will.
She hadn’t even known him for a day.
“Dude.” Dustin said, completely dumbfounded.
“How did Will?” Lucas chokes out. Max just stares in disbelief.
They dance harder as the lyrics start, making everyone around them also dance. Basically everyone who was at the party (with the exception of the couple hooking up upstairs and the few drunkards throwing up outside) was in this room, in the moment. Everyone was dancing to the music. Even Max, Lucas, and Dustin were dancing, dragging Mike to the front with them.
But Mike was not dancing. He was angry.
Although, he couldn’t stop thinking about how good Will looked when he swayed his hips to the music, when he looked up for a second and the light exposed his collarbones. When he was looking down at the crowd that formed and scanned it, scanned it for Mike.
When their eyes finally locked, Will winked at him and gave him a wave.
Will WINKED at him and gave him a WAVE.
Mike was convinced Will was up there to torture him. There’s no way he didn’t know what he was doing.
Yet again, how could he know how his best friend felt?
Right as the chorus started, Will and Stacey turned to each other and gave each other a nod.
Stacey started feeling on Will’s chest.
Don’t stop when you hear me calling,
Will put his hands on her shoulders, just doing what felt right in the moment. Hell, he was so drunk, he could barely even feel anything. Everyone in the crowd of teenagers were cheering, red solo cups up.
Except for Mike.
Don’t stop when you here me shout out,
Will threw his head back, to which Stacey followed.
Fire in my heart.
They broke apart and danced separately as the chorus repeated. Everyone kept cheering and dancing. Will and Stacey had gotten into a grove, they would dance together for a second, and then break apart and come up with their own dances. Stacey was spinning around and waving her arms a lot, While Will was letting his hips sway and his foot tap as he ran his hands through his hair.
While Mike doesn’t think he’s been this pissed off in his life, he also doesn’t think he’s seen something this attractive in his life.
As the chorus after the bridge came up, Will and Stacey both got off of the table and went to find people to dance with. Stacey picked one of her friends, but Will, of course, picked Mike. Nobody could really see either of them because they disappeared into the crowd and at this point, everyone was dancing like mad.
Will went up to Mike and saw his face was red, to which he giggled. “Maybe he’s just had too much to drink.” He thought. In an act of drunken confidence, he looped his arms over his neck and danced with him for a second, smiling as he swayed his hips to the beat of the song. But as soon as the chorus came on, Will took his arms away from Mike’s neck, opting to do the dance he came up with in his head
Will pushed Mike’s chest softly, but took a big step back.
Don’t stop when you hear me calling,
The brunette ran his fingers through his hair dramatically, throwing his head back and swaying his hips.
Don’t stop when you hear me shout out,
Will spun around until he looked dizzy enough to fall over, so Mike caught him before he fell.
Fire in my heart.
Mike stood there holding Will for a second. Will took a risky move and started mouthing the words to him.
Don’t stop when you hear me calling,
Don’t stop when you hear me shout out,
Fire in my heart.
Truly a risky move. Looking into his eyes especially during the last lyric, Will was trying to tell Mike how he felt through the song. However, Mike didn’t take it like that. He instead, let go of Will and started charging towards the bathroom.
All he wanted tonight was to find Will, and now all he wanted to do was get away from him.
Will noticed the shift immediately, so he called after him.
“Mike!” He shouted, concerned. But Stacey was dragging him to go back on the table.
“Stacey!” He yelled, trying to talk over the music. She turned and looked at him confusedly.
“I can’t dance, something’s wrong with Mike!” He yelled, to which she let go and drunkenly hopped back on the table.
He ran after Mike as fast as he could, but he couldn’t catch up with him as he shut the bathroom door.
“Mike!” He yelled, knocking on the door.
No response.
“Mike.” He tried again, this time not yelling, but still knocking.
What was wrong with Mike? Had he gotten sick from the alcohol? Was he overwhelmed?
Was he mad at Will?
“Mike? I’m coming in.”
Will opened the door and to his surprise, Mike was crying.
The song ended.