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An 11 year old Mike knocked twice, as hard as he could, on the front door of the Byer’s house.
Joyce smiled when she opened the door to see her youngest son’s best friend.
“Hi, Mike,” she greeted him. “Did you bike here by yourself?”
“Yeah! I made something for Will, I wanted to give it to him since we don’t have school tomorrow and he and Jonathan are doing something so we can’t hang out,” he said excitedly, gripping a pink folded piece of paper.
Joyce smiled brightly, and waved him in. Mike slid his shoes off at the front door out of habit, not necessarily a rule at the Byers but a rule at his house. “He’s in his bedroom, does your mom know you’re here?”, Joyce said after him. Mike called back a “yes!” and she went back to sweeping in the kitchen.
“Will? Will!,”Mike called down the hallway. He turned to Will’s bedroom door, knocking once softly and opening the door. Will was sitting on his floor, sharpening colored pencils that surrounded him while he sat criss cross above an open sketchpad.
“Mike!,” he said happily, smiling up at him, one tooth in front missing from where he’d lost it a week before. Mike shut the door behind him, dropping his backpack on the ground and sitting on his knees in front of Will.
“Whatcha doin?,”he asked, looking at all the colored pencils. “You gonna draw somethin? Can I see when you’re done?”
Will giggled. “Mike, I always show you my art…,” he said, as he put down the green pencil that was now sharp as can be. “I’m gonna draw your DnD character.” Mike beamed.
“Really?,” he said, still holding the folded pink paper. “You should draw yours too, like both of them together maybe. And maybe Dustin’s, or Lucas’. Are ya gonna draw your wizard character? What if you did that? Can you draw my character and your character with a dragon? Or maybe an elf…or what if you did fairies? We’ve never had fairies. Fairies would be cool. What about fairies, Will?”
Will grinned a semi-toothless grin at Mike. Mike sure talked a lot, but Will didn’t mind. He could listen to him speak for hours. He had cool ideas and always made Will feel like the best artist in the world.
“Yeah I could do a dragon or fairies,”he said. “What if I did a red one, that’s your favorite color isn’t it?” Mike nodded.
“Are you sharpening your pencils? Can I help?,” Mike asked. Will nodded and handed him an extra sharpener. After about 10 minutes, Mike finally looked up and held out the paper he brought with him.
“Um, I made this…for you!,” he said shyly, a faint pale pink color filling his cheeks. He’d made gifts and things for Will before, or bought him stuff with his allowance money, but this time he was a little more nervous about what the gift was.
“It is a drawing too?,” Will said, opening the folded paper. Inside, he was greeted with a doodle of two boys, who looked like himself and Mike, sitting down by what appeared to be water, like a lake. They were holding hands and smiling with big smiles that took up half their faces. In the corner was a brightly colored sun, that looked almost orange with the way the yellow marker mixed with the pink of the construction paper. There were two…..bikes? at the side, Will couldn’t really tell.
And, on the blank side of the fold, were the words “Happy Valentine’s Day, Will. Love you. From Mike.”
Will smiled and his eyes shined with joy as he set the card down and leaped over his sketchpad to hug Mike, who was laughing. “I’m glad you like it, Will,” he said, hugging him back. Will say back and started to clear the colored pencils from the floor, putting them back in his case and looked at the card again.
“I REALLY like it….I didn’t draw anything for you today though,” he said a bit sad. “I’m sorry.”
Mike shook his head and shrugged. “That’s okay! That’s why I…came over. So we could just hang out more. I would’ve given it to you at school but….ya know…”
Will nodded. They would’ve both been toast if anyone at school knew Mike was giving Will a card for Valentine’s Day. Kids were incredibly cruel to them both and called Will in particular a lot of names that neither boys understood, but it must’ve been bad because they always heard it any time they stood too close, or hugged, or just because. So yeah, Will knew.
“Umm, yeah, that’s okay!,” he started. “But you should probably keep this with you…just to keep it safe or somethin’. My dad would be mad….if he saw it. He’s kinda like the kids at school….” Mike nodded, needing no further explanation. He knew. He’d heard Lonnie and Joyce yelling at one another during a couple of sleepovers and he said really hurtful things to her and about Will. His dad was similar, though less loud and never really truly mean just…not there and made comments sometimes that made Mike feel bad.
“I’ll give it to you to keep safe when you go back home, though. I wanna keep it for now,” said Will, looking up at him and smiling. He went to pick up one of his colored pencils, starting with a flesh-colored one to match Mike’s skin tone. Will laid on his stomach while Mike continued to talk. And talk. And talk. The only other sound was the scraping of Will’s pencils against the rough texture of his sketchpad paper in between brief silences when Mike paused to think or reply to something he said. Both boys were a mess of giggles and Joyce smiled from down the hall hearing her boys laugh. It was the greatest sound in the world to her.
In Will’s room, Mike was about to start getting ready to head out but he sat back down, swallowing nervously.
“Hey Will…,”he said, playing with the end of his shirt.
“Have you ever….kissed anybody? Like a girl or….like a girl?,” he asked a little awkwardly. Will stopped coloring in the dragon he had drawn and looked up at his friend.
“Uh-uh….,” he said. “I don’t think any of the girls at school would like me enough to want to do something like that. Why, have YOU kissed somebody?”
“No…,”said Mike. “Just seen it on TV and in movies and stuff….Nancy talks about it a lot with her friends…who kissed who or who WANTS to kiss someone…I don’t know if she ever has. Maybe now that she’s a teenager she will.” Will hummed and shrugged, sitting up and closing his sketchpad.
There was a little silence between the two boys as they stared at each other. Will chewed on the inside of his cheek.
“Is there a girl at school you like? Is that why you’re asking?,” he inquired. “Do you want to kiss her?” Mike shook his head.
“No….uh. No.” Mike said, trailing off and looking down at his lap. “I don’t think any girls would like me either.”
Silence again. Will scooted closer, hugging his knees and looking at Mike directly in his eyes.
“You…can kiss me,” Will said. “Then you can say you’ve done it.” Mike held his breath.
“But what if someone asks who? I can’t say….you, Will,” Mike said, looking down at his hands and then back up at the boy beside him. “Boys don’t kiss other boys….right?”
Will shifted uncomfortably. He shrugged again and rested his lips against his knees, looking silently at Mike, not sure what else to say. “My dad doesn’t think so. He says that boys that kiss other boys should be put in mental wards…He calls me the same name some kids at school do…,” Will sad sadly, letting his legs fall flat on his floor. He folded his hands in his lap. “But I don’t think that about you, Mike.”
Mike blinked a few times at him and nodded. “Me neither. I don’t even know what it means. But your dad sounds so angry when he says it. So it’s probably supposed to be bad maybe…But I think you’re cool, Will. How is that bad?”
Will shrugged. “It’s not. I don’t care about what my dad says about you, Mike.” Mike was overpowered with feelings he’d never really experienced before. He was only 11, and hasn’t lived much life yet, but even though the emotions scared him they also felt safe. Very calm, and kind. It reminded him of when him and Will started to play Dungeons and Dragons: In that reality, he could be whoever he wanted. He always chose to be someone that protected, that saved. And he always wanted to protect Will.
Mike scooted in front of Will, getting close as he could with his legs in the way. He looked into Will’s eyes and held his hand the way they’d done so many times before.
“You can kiss me, Will,” Mike said. “And we don’t have to tell Dustin or Lucas or anyone. We can just say we did it.” Will smiled and nodded.
“Uh…count to 3?,” Mike asked, face turning red. He gripped Will’s hand tighter, signaling shyness and intense anticipation. Will nodded and couldn’t stop grinning.
“Okay! One…
two…
breathe in, Will
three!”
Mike pressed his lips to Will’s quickly and almost missed. He pulled away fast, a quiet kiss sound between them both and Will sat back, eyes wide with a gasp. He was redder than lava, and his eyes said everything.
“Um—,” Mike tried. He kissed Will! “How was that?!”
Will was flabbergasted. He sat back up, stuttered a bit and then smiled. “Good,” he said giggling. “It was good, Mike.”
Later
“I’ll see ya later, Mike,” Will said, holding the back door open for Mike to step out. “Hey Mike?”
Mike turned around, holding his bike by the handles as he rolled it along with him a bit down the back driveway. He looked back, hair blowing slightly in the wind from the oncoming storm.
“Yeah?”
”Thank you….for….the thing…I liked it a lot I think,” Will said, mostly referring to the kiss they shared.
Mike knew what he was talking about. Grinning and blushing, he nodded.
“You’re welcome….me too,” he said, throwing one leg over his bike and riding off. Will watched him pedal away, listening to the subtle thunder and hearing rain start to come down. He brought a hand to his lips to gently touch them with his fingertips.
I really like Mike. I hope he likes me too.