youth - byler

chapter 1

mentions of bullying and homophobia!!

- 🌨 -

will woke up early that day.
last day of school.
not only that but ..
it was the day before will was going to see his best friend of 11 years who he had not seen in a year.

for some context, he and this boy had lived in hawkins their entire life; and been friends with some other people : dustin, lucas, max and.. el.

his mother, joyce, and el's dad, hopper, started to date. and, good for hopper, he found a job in california.

the downside was that due to that, joyce wanted to stay with hopper. so, they were forced to move to california.

when will first found out he was mortified. away from the town he had grown up in? away from his school? away from his friends? away from mike?

'please will, you know what this town has done to us. are you really happy here? after all that happened with..' she had trailed off, not wanting to bring up what still haunts will to this day.

at the thought of that place, will quickly pulled the covers up higher to his chest. he got chilled just at the thought of that bleak world. the fact he had dreamed about it didn't make it any better.

shaking his head to clear his thoughts, his gaze drifted over to his painting canvas. there it was. the painting will had spent so long on. the painting will had used his months savings on, getting the perfect paints and a variety of brushes.

the painting which was for him.

he was very nearly finished.

all he needed to do was paint the heart red, which he would do later when he got back from school.
throwing his legs off the side of his bed, he grabbed his jeans which were thrown over a chair, and pulled on a comfy striped sweater. he checked his reflection in the mirror, smoothing his hair. not that it mattered. no one really looked at him. no one cared. no one noticed him.

mike would notice you, a voice sounded in his head. he brushed it away. i mean.. would he really? he had spoke to mike twice over the phone during this year, and despite having sent far over 30 letters to him, he never received one back, whereas el had a book of letters from him. he felt a sharp pang in his heart. was he really that unimportant to mike?

no! come on will, don't be stupid! mike is just busy.. not too busy to not write back to el though. STOP!! el is his girlfriend. of course he was gonna write back to el. he probably wouldn't of written back to her if they weren't dating. right? right. yeah.

will knew that was all a lie. but he didn't care. anything to get the little voice out of his head that told him mike didn't really care.

that all he cared about was el.

will wished sometimes more then anything that he was the one mike looked at.

that he was el.

'WILL!'
he jumped, thrown out of his thoughts.
'COME AND GET YOUR BREAKFAST!!'
with a final glance at his painting, he rushed downstairs to meet with his mother, hopper and el. well. el was her name at home anyway, at school she was known as 'jane'.

'hello will.' el gave him a small smile which he returned. he and el had grown much closer over the recent year, without mike they both felt quite lost. and seeing as they were both each other's only friends at school. especially due to.. angela.

'hi honey!' joyce gave him a kiss on his head. 'i have to leave for work early today and will be back quite late. we're going for a meal seeing as it's our bosses birthday. and hopper is coming for it too. are you and el going to be okay??' she burbled, glancing between me and el.

'mom, we'll be fine. have fun tonight.' he smiled at her. he just wanted his mum to relax after years of stress. he loved her so much.

'you're an amazing boy. thank you sweetheart. hopper, drop the kids off, i have to run.' and with that, she grabbed her car keys and coat, and rushed out of the door. he heard his moms car start up and then drive away.

hopper, who was eating some cereal beside the sink, looked at them. 'you both ready?'
they nodded, and hopper quickly slurped up the milk from his bowl, placed it in the sink, then strode out of the their door.

he heard el let out a small sigh. the bullying towards her was ruthless at school. he turned around and gave her a smile which he hoped was somewhat reassuring, then followed after hopper.
time for another amazing day at school.

he exited the school, breathing in the fresh air. with all those sweaty teens from cheerleading or sports or whatever it absolutely stank in there.
he glanced around him and made eye contact with el. she stood there, clasping a piece of paper to her chest. he started to make his way towards his sister, but as he was walking, a tall, blonde girl shoved him out of the way and strode towards el.

'hey jane! mind if i see this?' she said, smirking as she snatched the paper away from el, her idiot companions giggling behind her.
angela.

angela started reading it out in a stupid voice. 'jane, my amazing student. you have been an absolute pleasure to teach. you are such a bright girl, please continue to aim for the highest.' she looked at the paper, and then looked at el, and burst into laughter.
'bright? please! that idiot presentation? the fact you can't answer a single question without stuttering?' she crowed.

walking over to the blonde brat, will grabbed the paper out of her hands, and gave it back to el. 'leave her alone.'
angela looked him up and down, and shoved him hard. 'or what, fag?'

will felt a lump appear in his throat.

seriously? when he moved away from hawkins he thought one good thing would be no more bullying. no more homophobia. no more STUPID comments about his sexuality just because he liked drawing, or tucked his shirt into his trousers sometimes like some of the girls did. he glared at her, grabbing el's arm and dragging her away with him. he could hear the echos of their laughter in his ears, which slowly melted into the memories of troy's and jame's laughter after they used to torment him. but not just his old bullies.
his fathers as well.

'will?'

he kept walking, not looking at her.

'will? will? what did they mean by that word? fag-?'
he stopped and turned to look at el. 'never say that word, el. never.'

el looked at him with big, doe brown eyes. she looked troubled. she glanced down at his hands and took one of them gently in hers. he realised he was shaking.
'it's okay, will. sorry if i upset you, im really sorry they said that. i don't know what it means but.. it's clear you're sad from it.'

will sighed. 'it's okay el. and uh- that word.. it means someone who's gay. someone who likes the same gender as them selves. but it's a bad word. like if you want to refer to a person who loves the same gender, use 'gay' or 'lesbian.' never use that word.'

el was silent for a few moments, he glanced down, seeing el matching her footsteps with his. it was usually something she did when she was thinking or when she was anxious. her cherry lips were pursed and she looked concentrated. he wondered what she was thinking before she spoke.

'um.. well uh. are you gay, will?'
will thought for a few seconds.

he knew he was gay deep down. he knew he could never see himself doing anything with a girl. he thought of the girl in his class, nudging her foot against him and smirking at him. he thought about doing things with her. kissing her. he felt nothing inside of him.

he thought of men. he could definitely imagine himself kissing a man. not just any man though, a certain one. mike. he thought of mike's raven black, curly locks. he thought of his dark brown eyes, his freckled nose, his stupid smile. he thought of mike.
he thought of kissing mike until his breath went away, hugging him, pushing his hands through his raven locks and-

he shook the thought away. wrong. wrong wrong wrong. you are wrong, will byers. those thoughts are WRONG.

'no el, no i am not.'

a/n — hey guys! hope u enjoyed this ! sorry this is boring next chapter will be better