Chapter Text
“I'm heading out father.”
Mr. Afton nods his head reluctantly towards his son and leans further back into his chair. With the house being pretty much completely furnished by now and after a long day of unpacking and re-organizing, William decides he needs a break. He takes a final glance at his father who was staring mindlessly into the small TV just across him. William steps outside, being hit with a wave of hot summer air. There was no doubt his back would be soaked with sweat before arriving home tonight, but he had to admit he’d always been more curious than cautious.
Will walks down his driveway and peers at the unfamiliar streets carefully. It didn’t look like there was anything for miles besides self owned businesses and the occasional gas station. He grimaces at the sight, fiddling in his pockets for a smoke to calm his nerves while simultaneously attempting to keep his balance on the sidewalk as he does.
Admittedly, the town seemed a lot nicer than Birmingham, quieter at least. It was his own father’s idea to immigrate to the US in the first place. Whether it was a lack of money or just needing to re-root; As the old man’s son he was basically obligated to come with. It only took about a week in advance to pack everything and move into the run down house in Hurricane.
William spots a bench, blowing a cloud of smoke from between his teeth as he rests. Fucking hillbillies, he basically hisses between his teeth in frustration. It is no wonder Americans are notoriously hot headed considering they live in areas like these…He runs a hand through his long hair and takes another drag off his cigarette. It’s a bad sign to be so miserable here already, not to mention there seemed to be mostly elderly couples living on his block. Not that he was really planning on making buddies his age anyways, considering he had already graduated school at sixteen; Americans graduated at about eighteen or nineteen, making it nearly impossible to maintain solid relationships while school was in session. He had made a few pals in England, but nobody that stuck around after he let his true colors shine. It was a shame everyone had to be so boring.
Grinding out his smoke, he decides to head back home. Father would definitely be asleep by now, and he needed to finish some things in his bedroom before it got too dark. As Will strides down the street, he notices a group of teenagers heckling someone. He shakes his head, stepping across the street to avoid confrontation. While passing, he looks over to see what they’re picking fun at. Waving his arms frantically, a blonde-haired boy with square glasses and an obviously worn down pair of overalls seems to be explaining something to the group desperately. Of course he was getting bullied; The outfit was just horrendous and the glasses really didn’t help his situation either. William chortles to himself, leaning a nosey ear towards the conflict.
“What’s your fucking problem?” The dirty blonde boy holds tightly onto the sleeve of the glasses kid.
“I-I really don’t have a problem. I don’t even understand why you guys stopped me…I was honestly just-” His ramble is quickly interrupted.
“Don’t pull that shit, you totally were making a face at me?” Will takes notice of the shorter tan boy and a fluffy haired redhead girl circled around the taller dirty blonde. They both make faces as the kid with glasses tries to explain himself.
“No, I was just walking down the street. I didn’t even notice you guys until you came over to me.” The way his tone comes of almost makes him sound sarcastic.
“Oh, that’s horse shit.” The dirty blonde pokes the kid in the chest again.
As the girl laughs, the taller boy shakes the guy around a little more. William scoffs to himself, the encounter was so obviously staged into getting the girls attention. He was definitely rooting for the glasses kid at this point. Suddenly the tan kid spins around, notices William and shouts.
“Hey, what are you fucking lookin’ at?!”
William makes a disgruntled face and crosses his arms, flicking his cigarette butt onto the grass. “Huh?” He tries to play dumb to try and avoid any conflict. His first full tee entry four hours in America didn’t deserve to be spent in a holding cell.
“Huh, I said, do you fucking need something or are you just going to stand there and fucking stare?!”
William steps onto the street and decides to head towards the group against his brain. The rest of them seem to have stopped what they were doing and they were all looking at him curiously, almost like they’d seen a ghost.
“Relax. I was just curious about what you were all doing over here, mate.”
The dirty blonde steps forward, letting go of the glasses guy. He locks eyes with Will for a moment before shamefully staring into the grass..
“It’s none of your fucking business, mate. You foreign or something?” The bully cocks his head.
As the girl giggles, both boys perk up. They were undoubtedly doing this for her attention and he wanted no part of it. William steps confidently towards the group and settles in front of them with his arms crossed.
“You’re the one who went out of your way to call me out, I was just looking to see why three people could possibly be ganging up on one single guy.” Will glances at the victim. “You really needed three mates to kick his ass..?”
The kid blushes, hastily picking his bag off the ground and taking small backwards steps away from the conflict while they were all distracted. Will rolls his eyes as the boy books it and disappears behind a tree. The bully steps closer to William, putting a finger to his chest.
“You making jokes, I ain’t gonna let no fuckin’ poofter try and get a laugh on me.” He grimaces.
Will looks on, unimpressed. “The only one laughing is your boy, considering he snuck off somewhere.” He gestures toward the spot where the glasses kid was just standing and they all turn to look. The bully huffs and turns back up to William, cheeks red with boiling anger.
“Oh so you’re the fucking funny guy, huh?”
“Tch. So sorry I interrupted your bullying session sweetness. Least now I know why the three of you wouldn't have been enough to take fat boy on.” William smirks and unfolds his arms.
“How about I kick your ass on my own and show ya?.” The bully has a wild look in his eyes as he waited for a reply. Will nods yes.
The kid throws his arms up and laughs, satisfied with Will’s answer. In retrospect it was a dumb choice considering the kid looked like he ate nails for breakfast. The two onlookers step back and watch them fight.
William grabs at the bully’s arm quickly to try and throw him off with the sudden move. Tripping over his feet, he rolls onto the dry grass, dragging William down with him by the cuff of his shirt. Before Will can regain his ground, there’s a flash of white in his vision as the bully hits him right between his nose and the corner of his eye. Will grabs at his nose and the boy gains the higher ground on top of him while his hands are busy. Already he was losing a fight he started. Typical.
The boy hits him hard again in the nose, making his eyes water. The weight of the kid was nearly enough to suffocate him, but he refused to ask him to step off. If you start a fight, you must finish it. As he’s shaken around a bit more, Will feels a sharp pain in his back as he’s slammed into something hard beneath him. He snickers as he bends his arm back behind his rib cage in search of the item. As his fingers grip tightly around the rock, he takes another blow to the face and rolls onto his stomach as the pressure is released from the kid sitting on him. He would win this fight.
Before the bully can inch any closer, Will shouts as he swings the heavy rock against the kids face. The other two must’ve ran off at some point.
“Fuck!”
The boy cries out, wiping his forehead and looking at his bleeding hands. “Are you fucking insane?!” Will grips at the bloody rock, inching closer on hands and knees to finish the job. The bully takes little notice as he raises his hand again ago slam across the pretty boys face. This time there’s a squelching sound as he does, signifying a split in his forehead. The kid falls in the direction of the blow, yelping in pain as he hysterically uses his dirty fingers to attempt to close up the open wound on his face. Will tosses the rock, crawling into a standing position above him.
“Don’t you ever fucking threaten me. Do you understand me?”
He pokes at the boy underneath him, who is still holding his face together.
“Hello! Can you hear me?!” William raises his fist again and the boy shrieks in anguish.
“Yes Yes, I hear you!” The way he was shaking almost made Will feel bad for being so harsh. “You split my head, shit!” Thick blood drips from his face to the thick green leaf under him. Will pinches his own nose as he feels his chin get wet.
“You don’t get up until I’m gone.”
The boy sits quietly, both hands over the wound inflicted on him. William spits at him and walks back towards the road, smirking at the accomplishment. Whether or not it was a fair fight was between him and god, but in his book, he was a winner. He grabs at his cigarettes in his pocket and pulls out a crushed box. With shaky hands he pulls out the one smoke that didn’t break in threes and lights it up. The blood running down his chin was dried by the time he makes it home as he sits down on his porch. Hopefully father was asleep.
The sun slowly sets and he puts his smoke out on the porch steps, resting his hands on his knees. Faint footsteps come towards him from the side. Will glances up to see the glasses kid from earlier is standing awkwardly in front of him, clutching at a large bag by his hip. William scoffs.
“You? Did you follow me here?”
He blushes, breaking eye contact for the second time today. “Uh…Yeah…sorry…”
“Hm...” Will gives an accusatory look towards the coward above him. “You ran off didn’t you?”
The boy pulls a tissue out of his back and hands it to Will who takes it harshly and wipes his face.
“Erm..I did, but I saw you guys start fighting and I uh…well …I wanted to watch it honestly, so I hid behind a tree. You didn’t kill him…did you?” He laughs nervously. Will shakes his head.
“Pfft, no. How would that kill him.”
“I guess…then thank you for doing that.”
Will rolls his eyes and tosses the tissue onto the ground.
“I didn’t do it for you.”
He turns red in embarrassment almost instantly. “Oh..Well, my bad haha…”
“You’re fine mate, it didn’t seem fair they were all ganging up on you anyways.”
“Yeah haha..They suck.”
William gestures towards the stairs and the boy sits. He pulls a broken cigarette out of his pocket and offers it to him. The boy declines.
“Oh no, I don’t smoke. Thank you…”
“Your loss, not offering twice.”
“That’s fine…I think it smells haha.”
Will shrugs and puts it back into the box for later.
“Hey, what’s your name anyway?”
“Henry. Henry Emily. I live about a block away. Is this your house?”
“I’m William and yeah, just moved here.”
“Oh, this house has been empty for a few years. I was wondering if anyone would ever move in. The old couple that lived here died and everyone thinks it's haunted or something…so look out for that I guess.”
Henry moves his hands frantically as he talks, occasionally tucking a stray hair behind his ear. Will watches as he rambles on. Henry wore a blue barrette in his hair to keep it tucked back, it was kind of cute. It reminded him of a grandmother.
“I'm not afraid of ghosts.”
“Yeah, me neither, but they are definitely real so be careful.”
“Sure.”
Henry glances down at William's bruised hand resting overtop of each other.
“Ah…and despite what you say…you definitely almost killed that guy…I hope you don’t get in trouble.”
Will snickers, “I don’t think he has the balls to say anything. Plus that asshole hit me first. It was self-defense.” He knows Henry saw everything, but he too doesn’t have the balls to correct him.
“Hmm..Yeah, but you did beat his head in with a rock..I’m not even sure if he got up.”
“So you just hid and watched the whole thing?”
Henry shrugs and smiles. “Yeah…I was hoping you wouldn’t turn around and get me next honestly.”
“Tch. You didn’t do anything mate. I would’ve just told you to fuck off.”
“Oh, cool…” Henry pulls out a slip of paper and sets it on the stairs, standing up.
“Um..Here’s this if you want to talk more tomorrow. I erm..I have to go home or my parents will start worrying.”
“Do you just have a slip of paper with your number on it?”
“Yeah, just in case. I actually have a few haha.”
Will shoves the paper into his pocket and stands, heading towards the door. Henry waves,
“If I don’t answer, I live right over that way in the shit yellow house haha…”
“Got ya..I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”
“Cool. Bye, William, it was nice meeting you...and thanks again..”
Henry waves again and jogs off, prompting Will to head back inside. His father is sleeping on the chair in the living room with static on the TV as he enters. He clicks it off and heads into his bedroom to rest. The room is nearly empty, almost the way you'd imagine an asylum room being.
Jumping onto his mattress he thinks back to the ghost story Henry told him. It was ridiculous, yes, but it made him decide to hurriedly put his feet under the blanket. Henry…what a strange kid. Will smiled to himself and turned onto his side. Maybe I’ll call you back.
