Chapter Text
The morning light streams into the room through the window.
Will rolls around his bed, groaning from exhaustion. While slowly opening his eyes, he glances at the alarm clock on his nightstand. Looking at the blurry red numbers, he rubs his eyes to clear his vision.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Will shrieks, stumbling off the bed as he realizes he overslept and is late for school.
With only 13 minutes to get ready and be in class, Will is practically running around his dorm trying to put his clothes on. He quickly grabs his backpack — shoving his notebooks and schedule inside and hurries out the door.
When Will arrives at the school, he has about 5 minutes to get to his class. Will is scrambling around the school, frantically searching for his art history class. By the time he arrives, he is 8 minutes late and everyone in the room looks over at him. Feeling everyone’s gaze on him, Will starts sweating before profusely apologizing to the professor.
After briskly scanning the room, he walks over to an empty seat. Beside the empty seat, there was a nice-looking guy Will was unfamiliar with.
“Hey — um, is this seat taken?” Will asks, pointing at the empty seat while awkwardly standing in front of the unknown guy.
“Nope, you can sit there!”
“Thanks!”
Will quickly gets into his seat, pulling out his notebook and pen desperately trying to catch up with the professor’s lecture.
Minutes pass by and Will hears a voice coming from his left.
The mysterious guy looks at him with a gentle smile on his face.
“Sorry?” Will asks, not able to recall what the other guy just said.
“Chance, Chance Lawson.” Chance says.
“Will Byers,” he cringes a little when his voice comes out a little funky.
Will uses this opportunity to study his face, something he always did whenever he met someone new.
Chance has dark, brunette hair with some front pieces falling on his face. His eyes are kind of dark brown, reminding him of his favourite type of chocolate: milk chocolate. He has low-set thick eyebrows, giving him an intense look. His cheekbones aren’t exactly prominent, however he doesn’t quite have chubby cheeks.
“So,” Chance says, interrupting Will’s train of thoughts.
“What’s your major?”
“Arts, but specifically Studio Arts. What’s yours?”
“Business and Communications, but it’s super boring in those classes. I really hope it’s worth it in the end.”
“Hey, that’s pretty cool! Is that class difficult?” Will asks, he doesn’t realize he is no longer paying attention to whatever the professor is rambling about now.
“Yeah I guess so, I pull some all-nighters from time to time just to finish some assignments.”
“Jeez that must be tough.”
“Yeah it kind of is, but I’ll do whatever it takes to pass.”
Will lets out a laugh. “It seems like you take your grades seriously.”
Chance shrugs. “I guess so?”
“Hey, that’s a good thing though.”
“Well — yeah, but it’s quite stressful when you’re constantly worried about your grades.”
“Your future self will thank you for working so hard, but take it easy on yourself.”
Chance smiles a little. “Thanks, I will try my best to do so.”
After a while, the professor dismisses the class and it makes Will and Chance realize they’ve been talking to each other the entire class. Will looks at his almost-empty notes, containing only his name, date, and three sentences. Will lets out a sigh, knowing he has to catch up when he returns back to his dorm.
“I can’t believe we talked the entire class, we’re going to need to catch up somehow.” Chance says while packing up his stuff.
“Yeah we’re going to have to get notes from someone.” Will says with a chuckle.
“Talking to you was fun, you’re a good conversationalist.” Chance mentions.
“Thanks, talking to you was fun too.”
They both quickly pack their items and head towards the doors.
“We have to listen to the professor in the next class, we can’t keep talking every class.” Will says.
“For sure, anyways, see you next class!” Chance says, walking away with a smile on his face.
“Bye!” Will can’t help but grin even when Chance walks away. This is new.
—
For the next couple of classes, Will and Chance have talked non-stop during class. They did not keep their word for paying attention in class, instead they just talked even more. Will is astonished at how easily he can talk to Chance. Chance makes the conversation flow and is entertaining. However, there was an odd feeling in his stomach whenever he would pass by Chance in the hallways. Was it butterflies? Was he nervous? Will felt confused about this feeling.
One day, while they were talking in class, Chance randomly drops a bomb in the middle of the conversation.
“Hey Will, you know I’m gay right?”
Will was bewildered, especially since the conversation has nothing to do with discussing sexualities. It was unusual seeing someone be so open about their identity.
“Oh uh — no I didn’t! Don’t worry, I support you, I’m —” Will stops, he was questioning if he should tell Chance that he’s gay too. It was out of his comfort zone to come out to someone he just met a few days ago, but it’s not like Chance was homophobic.
“I’m gay too.”
“Well that’s nice, we have something in common!” Chance chuckles, though it felt a little bit awkward.
Will forces a weak laugh, hoping Chance will say something and ruin the awkward silence. However, it was comforting knowing there was someone he knew that was also gay.
Chance finally decides to break the silence. “So, did you ever like any guys in the past?”
Will suddenly got violent flashbacks from —
Mike.
Will was doing a great job of forgetting about Mike and his previous feelings for him. Will can’t even remember when their last conversation was. Mike had drifted off after their high school graduation, for no reason at all, too. Will eventually stopped trying to reignite their friendship.
“Helloooo?” Chance says, breaking off Will’s thoughts.
“Oh sorry, I was just thinking.”
“Woah, how many guys did you like?” Chance says this with an unreadable look on his face. It looks like a mix of concern and confusion.
“Just one, a really big one.”
“I see, do you still like him?”
Will quickly shakes his head. “Nope.”
It’s hard to believe that Will doesn’t like Mike anymore, it took him years to move on from him.
Chance nods his head after hearing Will’s response; he looks like he wants to say more, but he doesn’t say anything. Will wants to say something to break the silence, but he couldn’t find the right words. Throughout the remainder of the class, they sit in a deafening stillness.
—
As the days go by, things start to change. Will doesn’t despise going to school anymore; in fact, he seems quite excited. His mood is also changing, he feels much more energetic and ecstatic. However, Will doesn’t understand the reason why he’s feeling like this now. He starts thinking about the new possible changes in his life that could be the reason why he’s suddenly looking forward to going to school. Could it be that it’s the new semester? Could it be that his grades are getting better?
Will decides to abandon this thought and starts heading to his art history class. When he arrives at his class, he sits down and starts pulling out his notebook and pen. He realizes he really needs to pay attention to the professor since his pages are blank other than the date. Suddenly, he sees a figure walking by him. Will looks up and smiles when he sees Chance walking towards him. All of a sudden, Will’s stomach starts to form knots. Then, Will is struck by realization.
Will has fallen for Chance.