"It was the best thing I've ever done" Byler Oneshots

[4] The bathroom (1/2)

(AKA, Will hates the idea of using the only mens bathroom on his grade floor. It's space contains flickering lights that give him flashbacks to the upside down and quite frankly has one of the most disgusting floors in the entire building. That why he drags Mike along with him every time! This is- until Mike starting ignoring him and decided that he was too cool to be seen around Will any more.
When Wills project on a gay man who he looks up to becomes a bit too hard for him to actually go through with, he makes a break to that one bathroom.
Now suddenly, presenting his project doesn't seem as terrible.)
- - -

It was in those empty halls that the solid vinyl floors and blocky walls seemed to mock him. Their lifeless dots mirrored tiny eyes that speckled out across the patterns and his feet perfectly pulsed against them. Steps in a hallway that only kids who were actively skipping could possibly be in. Typically, Will would ask Mike to come with him to the bathroom. His best friend, or.. more like an ex-best friend if he was honest. Mike hadn't approached him since freshman year. They were juniors now. So, yeah. Will hadn't slipped into a school bathroom stall for more than a year- nearing two years actually. And now, because of an abundance of nerves to present his 'Who's my hero' project, Will had given into the idea that a bathroom pass could buy you three to five minutes of stalling time. And so the male restroom door was in front of him, that one with the flickering light that always reminded him of those flashbacks into the Upside Down.

He gulped, his watch making sure he remembered that he could only be out for four more minutes. Only four minutes to collect himself so he didn't break down on the spot.

Mike had a matching watch- when they used to be friends. But they weren't anymore, and so Mike's watch was probably stuffed somewhere in his closet. He didn't need to match with Will anymore. And sure it burned with that liquor-like poison, a type of jealousy that Will was pettily aware of, but the older of the two had no control over the situation and so he accepted it.

It wasn't easy, not at all. But he tried. Never meeting his old friend in the eyes, never even allowing himself to glance in the younger man's direction. Not even when Mike had finally broken up with El Hopper and suddenly had some interest in talking to Will. Byers knew his heart was incapable of letting some terribly beautiful boy with freckles that splattered perfectly across his cheeks, throw it through a paper shredder and watch as it turned into confetti that drifted along the gentle breeze of the air conditioner.

Will, with all of the force and strength he could manage, tightened his grip on the handle and inched it down. Allowing the door to push open under his grip. He almost wished he didn't when he took a step inside. Those lights, though flashing and struggling past their flow of electricity, were no longer the main issue of his trip. Mike, hands diving into the sink where water swished around his palms, stood facing the mirror. His eyes darkened by a lack of sleep and some type of pinch in his eyebrows that made him appear sorrowful. Maybe even- alone. Because for once he didn't have a lover to tug into the bathroom and slobber over. He was the laughing stock of his posse, despite still capturing that popular classification. Mike was entirely alone in his thoughts.
His head snapped toward Will's figure when he heard the door shut behind them, a weak smile shaping onto his lips.
"Will, hey!"

But Will just closed his eyes with a sigh and paced his way to the sink closest to the door, ignoring the invitation to talk. The water just hummed a distraction for him to collect in the palms of his hands.

"Umm, so- uh, what class are you coming from?"
"English." Was all Will muttered, barely above a whisper, and he could see from his peripherals that Mike's small grin had morphed into a frown. Dimples twisted downwards in that slanted upside-down U shape. It wasn't uncommon recently, Mike always seemed to sport a dejected look nowadays. A pallet of different shades of gloom.