confused - byler

12 - Exposed

Mike POV

I wake up with Will's body wrapped in my arms and our legs entangled under the blankets. His breathing is slow but speeds up when he hears his alarm. I reach over him and turn it off, groaning at the thought of going to school right now. We both stumble out of bed and slowly get dressed, me in jeans and a sweater and Will in jeans and one of my sweatshirts that u brought from my house sweatshirt.

We walk hand in hand to to the bus stop and talk the whole way to school as I try to keep his mind off of what Cooper said.

In history, I'm sitting and trying to focus on my textbook work when I see a note thrown at Will. I look back to see Cooper laughing and turn to see Will opening the note slowly, his hands shaking. When the note is fully unwrapped, a look of terror appears on his face and he turns towards me, handing me the note.

Wait until lunch. I am going to tell everyone in that cafeteria about you two. Don't think I didn't see you holding hands at the arcade.

I feel my heart practically skip a beat as I turn back to Will who is shaking uncontrollably and crying silently into his hands.

"May Will and I be excused?" I ask the teacher who shakes her head yes. Will quickly gets up and runs out of the room as I follow quickly behind. He runs straight to the bathroom where I find him shaking violently and sliding down against the wall to the tile floor, burying his head in his lap.

"Will?! Will are you okay?" I say, kneeling down in front of him.

"I - I think I'm having a panic attack." he sobs, still shaking.

"Okay, okay. Is there anything I can do?" I ask worriedly. I've never seen anyone have a panic attack before, so I don't know what to do to help.

"No, it's fine. Just stay with me, please." he cries. I sit down next to him and wrap him in my arms, holding him tight and feeling him shake against me. I kiss his head and keep him wrapped in my arms as tightly as I can until the shaking is gone and he is barely crying.

"Will, are you okay? I'm sorry I wasn't much of a help. I had no idea what to do." I explain, still cradling him against me.

"I have panic attacks sometimes, and it's fine. Usually I just try and listen to music or curl up in my bed until they're gone." he says, resting his head on my shoulder.

"I'm really sorry. And about what Cooper said - we just need to stay strong. People are going to say some awful things to us when they find out, but we have to just move past it." I say.

"Yeah." he says dimly.

Before I know it, I'm skipping geometry class to join Will at lunch to be there when it happens. We each get a tray of Mac and cheese and a fruit cup before sitting at a table with a few other people at the other end. We play with our food in silence until we hear some commotion coming from the middle of the room, and I see Cooper stand up on one of the lunch tables.

"Hey! Everyone! Listen up!" he screams as everyone's conversations die down.

"I need to tell you something very important. Will Byers and Mike Wheeler need to be seen for what they really are : queers. I saw them flirting and holding hands at the arcade this weekend. I don't want fags in my town. Who's with me?!" he yells. Almost the entire cafeteria breaks out in 'Yeah' and begin to clap loudly as I feel my face turn red in embarrassment.

By now, people have spotted us and are staring right at us as my fists clench together in anger.

"Do you hear us?! Get out of our town you fags!" Cooper yells loudly, more applause breaking out.

'Get out! Get out! Get out!' people begin to chant. A few people even start to throw food and trash at us as I grab Will's hand and we run quickly out of the cafeteria and out of the building. We don't stop running until we are far enough that we can't see the school, and that is when Will and I collapse into the pavement and into each other's arms, sobbing and letting the cool October air envelop our warm bodies.

We find the nearest pay phone and Will calls us his mom at work who arrives here to pick us up in the matter of minutes.

"Guys? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" she says as we climb into the back seat, shivering and still crying. Wills eyes are puffy and red and it physically pains me to see him like this.

"Cooper t-told everyone about Mike and I. They started screaming and throwing stuff at us." Will sobs.

"That's disgusting! I swear to god I'm going to kill those awful boys." Joyce says, reaching behind and taking Will's hand in hers.

"Do I - do I have to go to school tomorrow?" Will cried.

"No, honey. You can stay home for as long as you want." she says, starting the car and driving off.

"And Mike, if you want, we can stop by your house and pick you up some more clothes and you can spend the night for as long as you want if that's okay with your mom." Joyce says.

"That sounds good. Thank you." I say as she turns onto my street. I run inside to find my mom sitting at the dinner table.

"Michael, what are you doing home?!" she asks worriedly.

"Something happened at school and I don't really wanna talk about it. It involves will and I getting bullied pretty bad and I was wondering if I could spend the night at his house again tonight?" I ask, her eyes filling with worry.

"I'm so sorry, honey. And yeah, that's fine." she says. I run upstairs and get a few more pairs of clothes and my favorite stuffed animal before heading back to Will's car.