Boys don't cry - a byler fic

|| Byers home | Saturday, September 12th 1985 | 2:17pm ||

A couple TWs before we start cause this fic will get a bit intense.
‼️ domestic abuse, intense bullying, eating disorders ‼️

Wills pov.
Will Byers woke up as his brother tapped him on the shoulder, "hm?" He asked bleary squinting at Jonathan "we're here" he said before getting out of the car. Will sighed, he'd fallen asleep to forget about it but now it was inevitably here.

The Byers family had moved from Madison Wisconsin to Hawkins Indiana. Will wasn't really happy about this, it was really hard for him to make friends and he got bullied often, in Madison he'd managed to make a few. Now he'd have to go through the anxiety inducing process again, although he supposed it would be better than living in cheese land... which was being dramatic but still they did like their cheese.

Will picked up his backpack and got out of the car. He looked at his new house, it was bigger than the last one, Will knew it was because his father had bought it.

Will hated his father. He was an abusive drunk who found fun in hurting Will. As much as he wished he'd go away Will knew he was the only reason the Byers weren't living on the street.
See, the Byers were quite poor, Lonnie, had a lot of money. Though she knew it hurt the family Joyce got back with him so they could put food on the table.
Will knew there was nothing she could do about it but deep down he resented her for making his home life living hell.

Will sighed and walked towards the front door after grabbing his suitcase, he saw a few neighbors poke their heads out of their doors to observe the new people on the street.

He stopped once he got in the door and put his bags down. He'd entered into what he guessed was the living room, it was still completely empty as they hadn't had time to bring any boxes or furniture in yet, the walls were an ugly shade of pale yellow, but other than that Will supposed it was okay.

He continued through the first floor which consistently stayed the color of banana.

He circled back around to his suitcase and carried it up the stairs. He peeked into rooms as he walked down the hallway, he saw his parents bags in one of the bedrooms and saw Jonathan in the other, so he concluded his room was the one at the end.

It wasn't big but it was no smaller than his old room. The one piece of furniture in it was a wooden bed frame with a mattress in the corner of the room. Thankfully the walls were a light grey-blue.

Upon further inspection he discovered that his window opened right onto the roof, it looked perfect for sitting on to draw and ignore his parents fighting. The house was also weirdly close to the neighbors, he was less than 8 feet from the window of the other house.

"WILL, HONEY. COME HELP BRING BOXES IN!" Will's mom called from downstairs, "COMING" he yelled back. He tore his eyes away from the forest behind the house and made his way downstairs.

He started bringing boxes inside, it was an exhausting process, box after box he brought into the house.

A few neighbors offered to help, Will thought they said their names were Nancy and Karen. With them the process was much faster.

Finally about another 40 minutes later, they had all the boxes inside and in their respective rooms. "See you later Joyce! Maybe we can have dinner together sometime!" Karen waved as they left, "definitely! Bye Karen!" Joyce said.

"They seem nice! I heard they have a son your age, maybe you two can be friends!" Will's mom exclaimed turning to Will, "yeah, maybe" he said, he was highly doubtful. "I'm gonna go unpack my stuff" he said while turning and going up the stairs. Joyce frowned, he didn't seem happy, she just wanted her boy to be happy but it seemed the world was against him.