Chapter Text
June 1989
It had been just over a week since the party had graduated and they had hung out almost every day. Now that school was over they had the entire summer to enjoy themselves before people started going off to college.
Today, they were going to the theater to see a new movie that had come out. Jonathan, Robin, Steve, and Nancy had all seen it together after Jonathan had asked them. He had gone home to rave to Will about how good it was. Will usually trusted Jonathan’s judgement and had decided to invite his friends to see it. So, here they were.
“Okay, wait. So, what movie are we seeing again?” Max asked from where she was walking hand in hand with Lucas.
“Dead Poets Society.” Jane said affirmatively. She was walking in between Max and Dustin. The two weren’t together, but everyone in the party was waiting for it to happen. Dustin, however, was very insistent that he was not doing anything until Jane knew exactly what she wanted.
A few steps behind the group walked Will and Mike, arms brushing slightly against each other. “It has Robert Sean Leonard in it!” Will said excitedly.
Mike nodded along, looking away from Will and towards the rest of the group, “Yeah, from ‘My Best Friend Is a Vampire.’”
“Oh! The one you think is cute, Will?” Jane said with a teasing smile at her brother. He simply rolled his eyes playfully in response.
Dustin turned to face his friends as they walked out of the theater, “Okay, you know at the beginning, I wasn’t sure if I would like it that much but that was so good.”
“Yeah… I didn’t care much about the plot line of the one dude and the girl though,” Max said as a small look of disgust flitted across her face. The group nodded in agreement. No one cares about Knox and Cris.
“Todd kind of reminded me of you, Will.” Lucas commented. This set off murmurs of agreement, as people began to assign each other characters. Including a brief mention of how much Todd looked like Robin.
“What did you think, Mike?”
The addressed boy had been silent since they left the theater, dragging behind the rest of the group slightly. When he didn’t respond, Will stalled his steps slightly, matching Mike’s pace. He gently bumped his shoulder into Mike’s making the boy jump.
“Huh—uh yeah—yeah, it was pretty good.”
Will frowned at his best friend. The boy in turn made eye contact with Will before quickly looking away. The group was a bit confused but shrugged it off. None of them had been quite themselves after the Upside Down and Mike had only gotten worse as senior year neared its end.
“Are we still going to Mike’s house?” Will asked eventually. They had originally planned to have dinner at the Wheeler’s after the movie.
“You know,” Max began, an evil glint in her eye, “Lucas and I actually had plans for tonight!” She shot a look at Jane.
“Oh, yes! Dustin and I also have plans!”
“We do?”
Will looked over at Mike, who was refusing to look at anything other than his shoes, “Well, guess it’s just us.” Mike only nodded. “Or… I can just go home?”
“No! No!” Mike immediately said, voice urgent but not quite yelling. Will fought a laugh at Mike’s frantic face and wide-eyes. “I mean—no. I mean, we can hang out. Just us.”
Will nodded, “Cool!”
“Cool.”
The two boys were in Mike’s basement now. They had been lounging about for an hour or so but hadn’t talked much. Mike was laying across the couch, reading a comic. Will was sitting on the floor, back pressed against the furniture. He leaned back, head occasionally brushing Mike’s arm as he sketched. The silence had been awkward at first but had become more comfortable.
Things were like this recently. Mike not physically pulling away from his friends, but talking less. Sometimes it was awkward, other times not. It was weird. They used to talk about everything. Mike hadn’t even told anyone in the party what his plans for college were and Will was the only one who knew about his acceptance to NYU—not that Mike had committed to anywhere anyway.
Being around Mike was nice, even if they didn’t talk much. But when everyone left for college they couldn’t really do that—do this. Staying in touch during college would be more talking and less hanging out. Will tried to ignore the thought. Although he had long since accepted that Mike could never return his feelings—even if he wasn’t sure he would ever fully move on from them—he would make sure Mike kept his promise of “best friends.”
“So… Jonathan recommended that movie?”
Will jumped when Mike spoke, almost drawing a dark line on his paper. He glanced up at Mike who had long since abandoned his comic and was instead watching Will draw.
“Huh? Yeah, he saw it when it first came out. He likes the actors and some of his film friends had been talking about it at school.”
Mike hummed, nodding slightly at this. He was silent again. Will was about to turn back to his sketch when Mike spoke.
“I agree—that you’re like Todd, I mean. You’re quiet and thoughtful but—uh—really brave.”
Will smiled, he had liked Todd a lot. “Oh yeah? You kinda remind me of Neil yourself. I mean not the… you know.”
Mike’s mouth opened as if he was about to reply. He closed it again and looked at the ceiling. “Yeah… I actually can’t stop thinking about that. Y’know, when my parents were in the hospital and Holly was… missing, I said I didn’t want to have any more regrets. Carpe diem, I guess…”
Will nodded, not quite sure where Mike was going.
“But I do. I have a lot and I just… I just… I think I’m going to accept my admission to NYU.”
Will’s face lit up and he set down his sketch book to fully turn around towards the other boy, “Oh that’s—Mike that’s amazing! I mean, we could room together and, and—”
“There’s more.” Mike interrupted, wincing slightly. Will fell silent, looking at the boy expectantly. Mike sat up before slowly sliding off the couch to sit by Will. Their knees bumping together. “This sounds so dumb… I can’t—uh, I can’t stop thinking about what happened to Neil… I mean, he finally got everything he wanted and then it got taken from him. And I can’t let that happen to me… Look, I don’t want to be like my dad. Like, I really, really, don’t want to end up like my dad but I also can’t end up like… Neil. This probably doesn’t make any sense. It’s stupid but I guess that movie gave me the final push, y’know? So I just have to tell you…
I think I’m in love with you.”
Will stared at Mike, mouth agape. That was the last thing he was expecting when Mike started ranting. He had figured maybe it would be related to NYU, like Mike saying he was going to go into writing, or y’know, literally anything but that.
“No… I know I’m in love with you. And I have been for years, like since you left for California? Or—no. That’s when I realized but it’s probably been longer than that and I know I can’t expect you to like me back just because you’re also… uh… different, but I just needed you to know. And I totally get it if you take back what you said about rooming together or you don’t even want to be friends—”
He was interrupted by Will reaching out and cupping his face, immediately falling silent at the touch. Mike knew his own eyes were beginning to water but when he finally stilled and took an actual look at Will, he found the other boy was teary eyed too. He was about to ask if he was okay when Will spoke.
“I’m in love with you too.”
Now Mike’s jaw dropped, “What? Since when?”
Will could only laugh at that, “Since forever, I don’t know Mike. As long as I can remember?”
Mike flailed slightly, before bringing his hands to rest on Will’s knees—he supposed that was probably okay. “But when you came out you said you liked someone else and you were over it! That they were your Tammy or something? I still don’t even know what that means!”
“I lied, Mike. It’s always been you.” Will whispered, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Mike’s.
The taller boy finally seemed to calm down, leaning more into Will’s touch.
“It’s always been you for me too. Even if I was too stupid…or refused to see it.”
Will’s smile deepened, brushing his thumbs over Mike’s cheeks, “I love you. And you don’t have to say it back because I know it’s hard for you—”
“I love you too.” Mike whispered. Will’s breath caught. He didn’t get flustered as easily as he once used to but that had gotten him. “Can I kiss you?” Mike whispered again, hands going from Will’s knees to his face and neck. Will simply nodded.
“Neil and Todd totally had a thing right?”
Will gasped, “No, I know! Like that had to have been a metaphor. You seriously want me to believe, with the whole conformity plot, that it was just about being an actor. It was totally an allegory for Neil being queer!”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Mike nodded in agreement, grabbing his now boyfriend in excitement. The two were both sitting on the couch now. After Karen had called them for dinner they had asked if Will could sleep over. They were already making plans to tell the rest of the party that Mike was going to NYU… and he was going to come out… and they were going to announce that they were dating (though after Mike came out, everyone would probably already know).
Will smiled at his best friend and boyfriend, this was the most he had heard him talk in ages and he wasn’t afraid to admit it made him giddy. The two began to ramble on about the little things they had noticed during the movie. Excitedly sharing details and theories.