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Carlton was really getting sick of the name Mike.
From sitting down in that first art class in September and first seeing the pale boy with big sad eyes, Carlton knew he was smitten. He and Will had their first conversation that same class, their first date in December, and their first kiss that same day. The first time Carlton heard the name “Mike” was their second date in early January.
Maybe it should’ve been a red flag, in hindsight, that it took less than two dates for Will to bring up the mysterious childhood friend to Carlton. Initially he had seen the sad, longing look in Will’s eyes and immediately assumed this was some one-sided, first love of his boyfriends and had felt a hot sense of dread pool in his gut. Carlton’s face must of shown it too because as Will finished looking off into the distance like an anime character whilst telling him about how his childhood best friend, Mike, would’ve hated the fancy restaurant they were at, to make eye contact with Carlton, his actual boyfriend, Will’s face dropped almost instantaneously, morphing into a shaky smile as he stuttered in his attempt to assure Carlton that he had nothing to worry about when it comes to Mike. As his boyfriend waved his hands in front of him, eyes darting around the room throughout his very rough explanation, Carlton thought at least he has the sense to be sheepish, and assumed the mysterious Mike was straight and that was why Will was so insistent that Carlton needn't worry about a boy he so clearly had some kind of unresolved feelings for.
Despite Carlton's feelings on the matter, he let it go. And really, what does that say about him? Because the mentions of Mike never really stopped. They were few and far in between, yes, but against Carlton's own wishes he was learning more and more about his boyfriend's childhood best friend. A few months in, he was informed that Mike had black hair. A year, he was told about the mystery boy's brown (so dark nearly black) eyes. Two years, he was hearing about Mike's scattered freckles. Against Carlton's self preservation, he stayed every time Will got tipsy and talked about Mike, because whenever he went out into New York with his and Will's friends, there was no Mike to be seen so really, how much of a threat could Mike really be?
Two days after his and Will’s three year anniversary, Carlton, Will, Carlton’s friend, Ben and one of Will’s other childhood friends, Dustin, had gone out for a night of drinking and celebration. Carlton had volunteered himself designated driver, which hey don't look at him like that! His intentions were perfectly pure! He didn't mind being sober for the night, but the chance to ask this Dustin person about ‘Mysterious Mike’ was too good to pass up.
Once everyone but him were sufficiently drunk, Carlton left Will’s side to slide into the seat next to Dustin, who had just sat down at the bar, smiling and shimmying to the music. Dustin looked up at him through curly brown bangs and made eye contact, nodding, but his face had turned stale at Carlton's appearance. He ordered two shots for him and his partner’s friend and turned to the other boy.
“So… Who’s Mike?”
The reaction was instantaneous. Before Dustin's face had been of mild distaste at Carlton's general appearance but his expression twisted into something regretful and sad and angry. What, Carlton thought, could that reaction possibly indicate? There was a pause.
“He was our friend”, Dustin stressed, clearly drunk and emotional. What the fuck is going on? Carlton found his face twisting into confusion as the other boy stuttered out, “Mike– he w– is the bravest of us–”, Dustin cut himself off to pull his brown leather wallet out and fumbled a little to slide out a wrinkled and browning picture from one of the sleeves. It was Will in the photo, Carlton quickly realised, he must have been 16 or so, and soon thereafter recognised the curly haired boy as a young Dustin. They were both standing next to a dark skinned boy that Carlton assumed was the younger counterpart of another one of Will’s friends who Carlton had only met a few times, and a black haired boy with dark eyes and freckles–
Oh, Carlton thought, Mike.
It was as he came to that conclusion that Dustin pointed a single finger (was he shaking?) at said black haired boy and simply stated, “That’s Mike.”
Dustin downed his shot, said goodbye and congratulations to Will without even glancing at Carlton, and left. On the drive home, Will kept shooting mildly suspicious looks at him but all Carlton could think about was the dark haired, dark eyed, freckled, sharp cheekboned, hook nosed, Mike. He thought about Dustin’s odd reaction and the longing look in Will’s eyes whenever he talked about the mysterious childhood best friend which, now that Carlton thought about it, he knew that Will kept in contact with all of his old friends from his small town in Indiana, Hawk-something, so what was so different about Mysterious Mike?
He and Will had been together for three years and 2 months when the both of them travelled to Will’s home town for a weekend in early April. Will flew home most birthdays, every Christmas, and every April for a weekend each time. Carlton never asked why, assuming it was Joyce’s birthday or something, and simply kissed his boyfriend goodbye and told him to give Joyce his regards. However a week before Will was meant to fly over, Carlton asked Will,
“Why do you go home every April? A birthday or something?” The brunette had paused his sketching, stared at him blankly for a second, “Er, y-yeah, erm, basically.” Carlton stared at him for a long moment. He could hear the wind woosh slowly outside. Will opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, eyes never leaving Carltons, “Why don’t you come this year?” Will had practically mumbled it, but after hearing the third tick of the clunky watch on Carlton's wrist, Carlton found himself nodding anyway.
This wasn’t the first time that Carlton was meeting his boyfriend’s family but he was anxious about staying with them nonetheless. Joyce was as sweet as ever, Jim was as scary as ever, still ensuring that Carlton called him Sir and Jonathan was still standoffish to him, before he would turn to Will, his features softening as he asked Will, gently, how he was doing. Friday night was quiet and pleasant but on Saturday morning Carlton realised that something was off with his boyfriend. He was weirdly quiet and had begun walking around his childhood home as if he was a ghost, looking at Carlton like he needed to tell him something but he never actually spat it out. The two of them ate with Will’s family but soon thereafter, Carlton grabbed his boyfriend's hand and dragged him out, exclaiming that they were going to whatever shoddy bar this small town had and getting drunk. Will had stuttered and declined again and again before eventually giving in. The bar wasn't far, no need for Carlton to be the designated driver tonight as they could easily walk back even on un-sober, uneasy legs.
It was only when Carlton started ordering drinks for them both that Will finally began to relax. He giggled and leaned into Carlton's shoulder and it was almost like Will had never hidden anything from him at all. Into the night, he figured that the two of them needed to slow down with the heavier alcohol lest Jim caught them stumbling back in and killed Carlton. However, he didn't want to stop just yet. The bar's red wine was cheap and shitty but he ended up ordering red wine for them both anyway.
It was then, fueled by the courage the alcohol had given, that Carlton asked one of the many questions he had for his partner. He cycled them through in his mind, what do you want to tell me? You think I can't see that you're hiding something? Who's Mike? “Will..” He started, “Why are we here? You said it was for a birthday?”, he added on after a moment, “Who’s?”
Will didn’t answer him. He started down into the wine glass.
“My best friend, Michael, Mike, his mom drank this stuff,” He murmured uneasily, gesturing to his wine glass, still not looking at Carlton whose face scrunched in confusion at the apparent change in subject.
“All the time,” Will carried on, stressing the ‘all’. “So he hated it. Hated bars and parties and fancy restaurants and the way his parents argued too.” Well, if you asked me, Mysterious Mike hated a lot of fucking things, Carlton thought. Doesn't seem like a likeable guy. He looked at his boyfriend, feeling that familiar jealousy for a guy he had never even met curl up in his gut again, “And where is Michael tonight?” Carlton asked.
“He jumped off the quarry the day of graduation,” Will answered.
Oh, Carlton thought.
Oh.
That's why he had never met Mysterious Mike. That's why Will had stressed so adamantly that Carlton needn't be jealous of him.
Will carried on seemingly unaware of Carlton's inner turmoil, “April 7th is his birthday. We’re here to have dinner with his parents, and his sister, Nancy, tomorrow.” Will only brought his eyes up to meet Carlton’s then.