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“Finally, you’re in!” Jane grinned, bouncing beside him. Will offered a weak smile in response, shuffling backwards awkwardly as she clung to his shoulder.
“Uh, yeah. I am.” He nodded. He had been off of school for over a week, basically two, and only came back in after a letter from the school basically threatened him for not coming in. Well, they didn’t exactly threaten him, but they might as well of with their tone:
‘William Byers has demonstrated he is not willing to come to lessons despite being perfectly able to. If this behaviour continues, due to his attendance, he will be temporarily removed from school and it will be put on his permanent record.’
If it were up to him, Will would have disregarded the letter and accept the suspension with open arms. However, his mom wasn’t so easily convinced. His mom had been an overachiever her whole life, as she put it, desperate to leave town with a bright future ahead as she nestled in at some fancy school, like Harvard or Princeton. Instead, she met Will’s dad: Lonnie. Someone with very different values and a pack of contraband stored in the back pocket of his jeans, who promised her the world if she did as he wanted. Young and desperate to escape her family, his mom had accepted. And, after destroying her record and reputation, she had no choice but to succumb to her partners wishes and she remained in Hawkins, the very town she swore one day she would escape.
“You know, it’s been so boring at school. Maybe you being back’ll lighten up the mood, huh?” Jane continued, grinning. Will opened his mouth to answer before he was interrupted.
“Will!” The unmistakable sound of Dustin’s voice reached Will, loud and hearty, full of genuine warmth.
“Hi, Dustin.” Will smiled, offering the friendliest hug he could give without fearing he made Dustin uncomfortable. “Hey, Max.” he waved.
“Hey, Will. You alright? Why were you off so long?”
Embarrassingly, Will had been off due to a simple crush. Well, hardly simple. In fact, it was quite the opposite: it was complicating, draining and unbearable, following him around like a shadow desperate to clasp him in dark, empty hands. Perhaps that was slightly dramatic. Mike wasn’t cruel to Will directly. Sure, his presence was, but that could hardly be helped.
His mom had told him he needed to go back in after Will failed to explain why he refused to attend. She had hopes of him fulfilling her dreams, making it big somewhere, an ideal student of Harvard. She claimed he had potential, and was heavily reliant on him to prove this town is escapable.
“Uh, I was ill for a while, and then I felt exhausted afterwards.” He lied. Max raised an eyebrow, unconvinced, but shrugged.
“Alright. Well, so long as you’re better, huh?” She responded, to which Will relaxed and nodded.
As the group continued their causal discussion, Will’s thoughts returned back to where they always seemed to drift back to: Michael Wheeler. He wasn’t popular, necessarily, but he wasn’t a loser like Will. Allegedly he used to be super into dungeons and dragons, but he would never admit it. It was nice to think Mike had a bit of loser in him, it made him feel like he had a chance, even if he didn’t. Besides, even in the unlikely scenario Mike did turn out to be… gay, Jane was hopelessly in love with him. And he loved Jane more than himself, and any risk of her being sad was nowhere near worth it.
Max wasn’t particularly keen on Mike, thiugh she took an interest in his friend, Lucas Sinclair. Lucas was actually popular. Popular as in ‘basketball champion, hangs out at parties, gets drunk, has a line of girls begging for a chance with him.’ From what Will knew, he was actually quite sweet, despite his dickwad friends, and he clearly showed an interest in Max. Sure, Will had his jealousy regarding Max’s love story that began to brew, but he was truly happy for her. Happy she got to experience the kind of love Will yearned for but never received, the kind of love queers weren’t allowed to have.
“Will! You coming?” Dustin asked, snapping Will out of his day dream. Dustin had that magical ability, drawing attention to himself. More often than not, Will loved his attitude towards life, and admired his ability to speak his mind as he pleased. However, sometimes he hated the unexpected eyes following their moves as Dustin continued to recite some nerdy monologue from a campaign or something. The feeling of people judging or mocking him made him feel sick.
“Uhm, coming where?” Will replied. Max and Jane both shared a look, a look of shock eith a hint of annoyance. Valid, however, because Will had not being paying an ounce of attention the conversation going on beside him.
“Lockers, Mr. Byers!” Jane announced, skipping next to him as she clapped a hand on his shoulder. Will giggled at the over the top gesture.
“Right away, Miss. Hopper.” Will spoke swiftly, putting on a fancy accent, the kind you’d see in an old Hollywood film.
“Or should you say Mrs. Wheeler…” Max mumbled under her breath. Jane gasped aloud before hitting Max harshly on the arm. “Ow!” Max gasped. Jane gave her a smug walk before strutting away, Max following closely behind.
Just then, it dawned upon Will that Dustin had been silent for a very long time, which was extremely out of character for a person so full of character.
“Dustin, you alright?” Will asked quietly, voice low so others couldn’t hear him. Dustin exhaled slowly before averting his gaze once again.
“It’s stupid. I- it’s nothing, really.” Dustin muttered, fiddling with his thumbs. Clearly something was wrong, and Will could tell.
“Dustin Henderson. I’ve been best friends with you since kindergarten, and I can tell whatever’s bothering you isn’t ’nothing’ because such a logical and smart person would never become so upset over something like that.” Will spoke clearly, putting in his best serious voice his drama classes had taught him. Dustin smiled sadly before answering.
“Yeah. Yeah… uh. Fuck it, I think I like Jane.” Dustin admitted, shifting his weight from one foot to another uncomfortably.
“Huh.” Will spoke, attempting to process what had just been said. “I… Wow.”
“Wow.” Dustin agreed, already regretting saying it aloud. Will paused. It wasn’t particularly often you were met with such a confession, and it wasn’t often he had to give advice on such a matter. He had never gotten into a relationship, obviously, because he was the only gay kid he knew in the entirety of the ever-so-conservative Hawkins.
“I…” Will hesitated. This was really fucking hard. “I think you’d make a really sweet couple.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m friends with you.” Dustin sighed, pushing off the wall in frustration. Will inhaled deeply, attempting to gather his thoughts.
“No, Dustin. Genuinely, I think you’d make Jane like… actually happy. More happy than anyone else could, and I think if you tried really, really hard… it’s very possible.” Will spoke, selecting words he deemed persuasive enough. Dustin smiled softly, though his eyes were sad.
“You think?” He asked gently.
“Definitely.” Will nodded.