Chapter Text
Will and his boyfriend, Carlton, just got home from the bar. Carlton was completely intoxicated, babbling drunken nonsense as Will drove him home. Will had deliberately asked Carlton not to get too drunk, he couldn’t stand when Carlton was drunk. It just reminded him of Lonnie. Every time they were alone together, Carlton would get pissed off at Will for the smallest reasons.
“What the hell was that?” Carlton yelled as Will threw the keys down onto the counter. “What was what?” Will asked in a quiet, frustrated voice.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Don’t use that attitude at me,” Carlton slurred as if he was talking to a child.
“No, Carlton. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Will blurted out, louder than he meant to. He just hated when Carlton did this. He always got drunk, pissed off Will for nothing, and then they fought until Carlton finally passed out drunk and Will just went to bed.
“Don’t fucking yell at me,” Carlton shouted, surely waking up the neighbors on every side.
Will flinched slightly and felt a tear began to form in his eye. “I’m sorry. I just- why are you so mad?” Will pleaded.
“That bartender was obviously into you.” Carlton was still yelling.
“What?”
“You saw the way he was looking at you. That stupid fucking grin on his face.”
“So what if he was looking at me. What does that have to do with me?” Will started raising his voice.
“You weren’t doing anything about it. You guys were practically eye-fucking across the counter while I was right there.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You kept smiling at him and talking to him and shit.”
Will scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I was just trying to pay for your drinks because you were too drunk to do it yourself. Don’t put this on me.”
“Don’t tell me that bullshit. He flirted with you all fucking night and you didn’t do a damn thing about it.”
“And what the hell was I supposed to do about it? Huh, Carlton?” Will was yelling now too.
“I SAID DON’T FUCKING YELL AT ME!” Carlton shouted, getting in Will’s face, basically pinning him against the wall. Will’s vision started to get blurry as his tears grew harder to hold back. He felt like he couldn’t breathe.
Carlton had gotten angry before, but Will felt like something was different this time. “Ge-” Will began, cutting himself off in fear. The look in Carlton’s eyes was enough to scare Will into silence. “What?” He yelled in Will’s face, “What!?” He repeated more angrily, pushing Will’s shoulders into the wall hard, sending a wave of pain through his shoulders. Will could feel his own heart beating in his chest and it was getting increasingly harder to see through the tears. “Get off,” Will breathed, struggling to speak. “Get off,” he repeated, louder this time.
Carlton’s face contorted with rage. He backed up slightly before raising his hand and punching a hole in the wall about an inch away from Will’s head. Will flinched hard. He turned his head just enough to see the part of the wall that Carlton just destroyed. “What the fuck!?” Will exclaimed, pushing Carlton away from him. Carlton stayed silent, grabbing Will’s wrist as hard as he could as Will yelped in pain. Carlton’s anger turned into shock as his grip loosened on Will’s wrist. He paused before rubbing his hand over his face.
“I’m going to sleep. We’ll talk about this tomorrow,” he hissed. Will couldn’t find it in himself to say anything back as Carlton let go and stumbled down the hallway.
The tears finally streamed down Will’s face. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor with his knees to his chest. He leaned his head into his legs, trying to stop the sobs racking his body. It was becoming harder to breathe by the second. He leaned his head back against the wall, squeezing his eyes shut. He tried to breathe slowly the way his mom taught him to every time he felt a panic attack coming. He thought back to the past few minutes, realizing how much Carlton has escalated from when they first started dating.
His friends were always telling him how Carlton was bad for him and how their relationship was unhealthy, but Will never listened. He wasn’t expecting the relationship to go that far anyway, but things happened, and before he knew it, Carlton was asking to move in together. And Will didn’t know how to say no to him. Especially since Carlton always made him feel like shit afterwards.
Pretty soon Carlton’s snoring rang out from the bedroom, startling Will. The tears had subsided and Will pulled himself up by the wall behind him. He noted the hole in the wall right next to where he was standing. He had to get out of there. Where though?
He stared, for a while, at the keys on the counter. He was trying to think, but there was too much going on for any real thoughts to form. He made up his mind to drive somewhere to clear his head. He sucked in one final breath before swiftly grabbing the keys and walking out into the hall of the apartment building, letting the door shut behind him.
Will got into the car, still shaking, and started driving. He didn’t realize where he was driving to, but by the time he got there he had already planned out what to say.
He walked up to the door of the house he had just pulled up to and knocked unsurely. What was he doing? It was the middle of the night. He probably wouldn’t even hear the knocking, let alone actually open the door. After a few moments of silence Will was about to go back to his car to drive home when the door opened to reveal a yawning figure. Just the sight of him filled Will with a warmth that completely overshadowed the cold air around him.
“Will?”