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This was shaping up to be the day Will Byers had needed all summer. While it was a dark, wet, rainy day, it meant that there would be not trips to the Hawkins Public Pool or to the StarCourt Mall. Better than that, it meant that Mike Wheeler would not be spending the day with his head up his girlfriend’s ass and would finally be hanging out with his friends. The dreary weather made the perfect atmosphere to play a game of Dungeons and Dragon like they used too. It would be the four of them, just like it used to be. Dustin Henderson was home from science camp, Lucas Sinclair’s on and off again relationship was currently off, Mike was banned from El’s house for the day, and Will literally had nothing better to do. In fact, Will had been hoping for this day for a long time. Everyone in the party was around and Will had been planning the perfect campaign for weeks. Something that was really gonna blow the socks off his best friends.
At least that was the way everything was supposed to happen.
Will wasn’t prepared for what really happened while he was setting up for his amazing campaign. Mike and Lucas spent most of the afternoon talking about their girlfriends instead of getting ready for their campaign. Worse than that, Dustin didn’t even show up. Will still tried to do his best to catch his friends attentions in the game, but both Mike and Lucas treated the game like bullshit. They didn’t even put forth any effort to make the campaign what it should have been. What finally caught his friends attention was Will storming out of Mike’s basement when he was done with their bullshit. Will ran until he got to the garage, when he noticed it was pouring buckets. To be truthfully honest, he really didn’t care about getting soaked as long as it got him away from these assholes he called friends.
“Will! Will! Where are you going?” Mike screamed after him, running up the stairs and following him to the garage. Fan- fuckin- tastic. “Will, come on! I’m sorry! We’ll take it seriously! Really, it was a good campaign! Come On!”
“Shut up! God! Do you just not get it?” Will said, flipping around to glare right at Mike and gesturing wildly with his hands. “You’re destroying everything! And for what? So, you can swap spit with some stupid girl?”
“El’s not stupid!” Mike interrupted, pushing against Wil’s shoulders. . “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”
It was that statement that caused Will to freeze in his spot, all the color and emotion draining from his being. He thought back in his mind at what he must have done for Mike to think such a thing. He knew for sure he never said that out loud, never confided to anyone about his most inner thoughts. Will took a step back, shaking his head and gearing up to talk himself out of this situation. Mike, still furious at what Will said about his girlfriend, took notice of this change but continued advancing on Will.
“Look,” He said, resting his palms on Will’s shoulders. He stared into Will’s eyes, his voice softer but still held a harsh tone to it. “I’m not trying to be a jerk, okay. But we’re not kids anymore. I mean what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were gonna just sit in my basement all day playing games for the rest of our lives?”
“Yeah, I guess I did.” There was no emotion in Will’s voice anymore, as he stared defeatedly into Mike’s eye. He shrugged Mike’s hands off his shoulders, and started backing up toward the open garage door. “I really did.”
Will turned tail and ran out to his bike, jumping on it and peddling off into the pouring rain. He could hear Mike screaming his name as he turned on the next street, but he continued on. He didn’t want to be around his friends right then, especially when they had no problem saying hurtful things. So he just kept on peddling until he reached home, wishing that this day he had dreamed for would just come to an end.
The months following the fight at StarCourt were hard for everyone to get through. Max was suffering through the loss of her step-brother, no matter how much of an ass he had been. Joyce dealt with the guilt over Hopper’s death and the taking on of another child. It was hard on the kids, going back to school and struggling with the weight of what happened to them. In an effort to give her kids some sense of normalcy, Joyce had decided to sell the house and move to Nowhere, Ohio. None of the kids wanted to go, leaving behind their friends and the life they knew, but it didn’t much matter once Joyce set her foot down.
Will was packing up the last few items left in his room, overhearing the goodbyes between Mike and Eleven through the paper-thin walls. The other members of the party had been upset about the move just as much as Will and El were, but still offer to help them pack up the day of the move.
“I talked to my mom and she said I could come down for Thanksgiving. Maybe you guys could even come up for Christmas?” Will heard Mike say. “Or you know before or after. After would be better because then we’d all have new toys to play with.”
Eleven could be heard chuckling through the walls and Will could almost hear Mikes grimce of embarassment,
“That made me sound seven.”
The two talked more, dragging out their sappy goodbye, which Will tried to ignore. Will continued to pack up his things until all he had left was a pile of stuff for donations. He grasped the pile and hauled it into the living room, where the donation box sat. Mike was there too, helping pack up knickknacks. Will walked over to the box and placed the stuff inside. Mike looked in and saw what he put in the box.
“You know this is the donation box, right?” Mike picked up the Dungeons and Dragons games and turned it over in his hands. The look he gave Will was one of confusion. “You’re not gonna take this with you?”
“Nope. I can just use yours when I come to visit right?” Will smiled up at Mike.
“Of course, you can!” Mike stated, smiling back. “But what if you wanna join a new party?”
Will grabbed the game box, putting it back for donation.
“Not possible.”
The goodbyes were the hardest part. Even knowing that they’d see each other again, it was filled with tears. As Will rested his head on the passenger window, he couldn’t help thinking of all the things he wished he had said.
Will had not seen any of the party since the day the Byers set off for Fuck All, Ohio. Sure, they had sent letters and talked on the phone as often as they could, but it just wasn’t the same. The one he really missed was Mike. He’d only gotten to talk to him a handful of times, and mail was way too slow. Sure, Mike called the most out of any of them, but it was always El he was talking to. El was the one he missed the most, not Will.
The new school had been kicking Will’s ass in an effort to fit in. Thanksgiving couldn’t have come at a better time. Will was excited to see all of his friends again. Mike, Nancy, Lucas, and Dustin were all coming the weekend of Thanksgiving break. While they were only able to make it for a day, it was enough to sate Will’s needs to see his friends.
Nancy and Jonathon had set off for Jonathon’s room as soon as they got to the Byers household, while the other kids gathered around the living room, playing a game of monopoly and catching up with each other. They had ordered in pizza and had various other snack sat around the room. It wasn’t too long into the game that Will noticed El and Mike slip away to El’s room without saying anything to the rest of the group.
Will was upset that they wouldn’t spend time with the rest of them, but tried to not let it upset the time he had with the rest of his friends.
“Hey, did I tell you Steve got a new girlfriend?” Dustin asked, in the middle of his next turn. Will shook his head. “She’s like super awesome! She so funny and nice and smart! She even comes to all our track meets with him!”
“She sounds nice!” Will smiled at Dustin, moving his game piece on his turn. “It’s awesome that he finally found someone.”
They played through a few more rounds of the game, before they heard El’s door hit the wall. Will craned his head toward the hallway, and saw Mike banging down Jonathon’s door. His appearance was ruffled and had a wild look on his face.
“Nancy! Nancy! Come on we need to leave!” Mike never once ceased the pounding on the door, “Come on! Can we please go?”
Nancy opened the door looking more rumpled than Mike did. Mike crashed into Nancy’s arms and started started crying into her shoulder. Will could hear her talking to him quietly, trying to soothe him. He got up from his spot on the floor and started towards them.
“It’s not my fault! I promise it’s not my fault!” Mike was blubbering, and Nancy ushered him out toward the front door. Will, Lucas, and Dustin followed them outside, trying to understand what was going on.
“Will, I’m sorry we are going to have to cut this visit so short. I really need to get Mike home. Can you please tell Jonathon I’ll call him when we get back to Hawkins?” At this point all the boys were in the car, Mike folded into himself as he cried harder. Will nodded, and Nancy hugged him.
“I’m sure he will tell you about it soon. It’s just hard for him right now.” With that Nancy ended the hug and got in her car. Will watched from the front porch, until they turned the corner at the end of his road. When he turned around, El was standing in the doorway watching them drive away as well. There were tears in her eyes.
“We broke up.” She said. She turned to look towards Will now, the tears finally falling. “I’m sure it will take him a while to figure out exactly why he didn’t love me the way he said he did. But he will.”
“He didn’t even say goodbye. He came all this way and he didn’t even say goodbye.” Will freely let the tears fall as well now. He went up and hugged El, and together they both went back into the house.
There was snow covering the ground the next time Will got a chance to see his friends. Christmas saw them all in a better mood, playing Dungeons and Dragons once again in Mike’s basement. This time it was just Will and Jonathon who came back to Hawkins. Joyce and El decided to stay in Butt Fuck, Ohio because of all the bad memories surrounding the place. The boys were staying at the Wheelers during the break between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The party had been at this campaign for the past three days, and they were almost at the end. It was like before Will went missing, the four of them in Mike’s basement around the card table for hours upon hours. There were snacks and sleeping backs spread throughout the room, making quite a mess of the place.
“What the fuck, Dustin!” Lucas exclaimed, “You just got me Killed!”
“Dude, it’s not my fault! I for sure thought that would work!” Dustin was confused about what the next move the party needed to make to save the villagers. It was the same campaign that Will had come with all those months before. And the boys were right, it really was good.
“We really are gonna have to sacrifice ourselves. That’s the only way to save the villagers.” Mike had finally figured it out after all this time. He looked up over his binder at Will for confirmation. “That’s it isn’t it?”
“Yea. That it.” Will was as surprised as the first time they had gotten it. Last time it only took them an hour, even though they were only screwing around. The two remaining players made the choice to sacrifice themselves and saved the villagers. With that it was the end of the game.
“Well it’s been fun, but I really should go spend some time with Max.” Lucas stood up and grabbed all his stuff. “She was super pissed that she wasn’t invited to the campaign.”
“Yeah. I gotta get going to,” Dustin began to follow Lucas. “I promised Suzie I would call her before the new year.”
Mike and Will followed the two out of the basement to the garage and said their goodbyes. They both promised to come back and see Will again before he left again. After the two was out of sight, Will and Mike went back to the basement and began to clean up the mess from the past three days.
“Did Jonathon tell you about New York yet?” Mike asked Will as they were cleaning.
“Yeah. Him and Nancy moving out and going to NYU next fall?” Both of them had actually gotten accepted together and they were excited to be with one another again. “I’m excited for them but I’ll miss him a lot.”
“Yeah. I’m sure I’ll miss Nancy but at least I get her room now.” The two joked off and on while they cleaned. Finally, when the basement looked marginally better, the two collapsed on the sofa. They were quiet for a while, letting their exhaustion sweep over them.
“Hey, Mike?” Will had his head against the back of the couch and he turned to look at his friend. Mike hummed, so Will continued. “Can I ask you why you and El broke up? She wouldn’t tell me.”
“I guess I can tell you. It wasn’t really my fault.” Mike turned his body toward Will and looked into his eyes. “She noticed somethings before you guys left and I didn’t really wanna talk about it. She kinda left it at that but then thanksgiving happened.”
“What happened at thanksgiving exactly? You were both so upset but no one knows why.”
“I... uh... I” Mike started, and Will motioned for him to continue on. He had a sheepish look on his face. “We were making out and I may have said someone else’s name.”
Will was shocked and he sat up defensively.
“Did you cheat on her with some other girl?” Will may not have liked El and Mike together all that much, but she was basically his sister now and he would kick Mike’s ass if he had too.
“No! God, No! I would never!” Mike sat up and put his hands on Will’s shoulders. “Like I said, it wasn’t my fault! It wasn’t even a …”
Mike’s Mom started screaming for him from somewhere in the house. Mike looked between the stairs and Will trying to decide what to do. Finally, he yelled back that he was coming in just a minute.
“Stay right here please! I’ll explain in a minute.” Mike let go of Will’s shoulders before climbing the stairs to see what his mom wanted. Will sat on the couch for a while before he got up and looked out the ground window. He looked out at the snow-covered ground and contemplated what Mike meant by it not being his fault. How couldn’t it be? And how could you call out someone else’s name while you were kissing your girlfriend and not be cheating on them? Will was contemplating a lot of things while Mike was upstairs talking to his mom.
“It wasn’t exactly a girl’s name that I said.” Will turned around and came face to face with Mike. He didn’t even here him come down the stairs and now here he was standing awfully close. “Turns out, I didn’t really like girls all that much myself.”
“What?” Will said, his body frozen in shock. “What exactly does that even mean?”
“Will.” Mike reached out and cradled Will’s cheek. “It means I like boys. El somehow understood before I did, but I would hear it. I tried to pretend and hide it but she knew. And then I said a boy’s name when we were kissing and she broke it off for good.”
“Who’s name?” Will answered back, searching Mike’s face. He leaned into the hand holding his face. “Who did you wish you were kissing instead?”
“I think you already know the answer to that.” Mike brought up his other hand to cup Will’s shoulder. He smiled at him. “Can I kiss you?”
Will didn’t answer him verbally, but smiled and leaned into kiss him. When their lips met for the first time, it felt like coming home. Their first kiss lasted mearly seconds, before both boys pulled away grinning to hard. Their lips met again seconds later with a heated passion. Mike moved the hand on Will shoulder down to grip his waist and pulled him closer. Will wrapped his hands around Mike’s neck. Will’s tongue started to massage Mike’s bottom lip, and when the other boy groaned, he slipped it between his lips. The two spent spent seconds, minutes, hours exploring each other mouths before they pulled away and rested their foreheads together and basked in the glory of being together.