Why was he holding his hand (when he's supposed to be mine?)

Chapter 7 - Finishing the Drawing -

"So, this is my room." Will gestured lamely to the semi-clean room that he had just shown David into. "If you want to get started on the drawing I have an easel here for when I paint."

"Oh! I didn't know you painted?" David smiled, his eyes scanning the room as he spoke. "Can I see some of the paintings?"

"Yeah, sure. Set up your stuff and I'll find them." In the hurry too clean his disaster of a room Will had just shoved a lot of his stuff into the closet, including the box he kept his paintings in, which he knew was all the way in the back.

He opened the closet and a pile of clothes immediately fell out, along with some old comic books he probably hadn't touched since they had moved. He could hear David laughing under his breath. "So I'm not the cleanest person in the world." He muttered pretending to be mad, then turning his head to flash David a smile.

"No worries man. Tell you what, judging from that mess of a closet you won't be finding those paintings anytime soon. Why don't I just finish the drawing for now." Wil nodded, scooping up the clothes and shoving them in the closet, closing the door quickly before they came tumbling out.

He took a quick look at David's drawing to get an idea of how he had been sitting before then sat on his bed, right in front of the easel. "Is this fine?" He asked. "Oh yeah, it should be good." David said clearly already more focused on the drawing then what Will was saying.

Will allowed himself to retreat into his own mind. Thinking about nothing in particular but just retreating for a second and getting a break from the real world was nice. He sat there for about ten minutes lost in thought until David said "what do you think about when you do that?"

"Do what?"

"I dunno, you go somewhere."

"Not really. The point is that I kind of go nowhere." David looked at him quizzically. "I need a kind of break from everything, and when I check out into my own mind like that it's like a little break. The world can be a lot to handle y'know?" David nodded understandingly, staring at Will with a look he couldn't quite place.

Will broke off the stare abruptly, the last thing he needed to do was scare off this new friend. "Almost done?" David turned the easel around looking quite pleased with himself. "Yep! What do you think?"

Will grinned, it looked just like him. He had drawn what he could only assume was the expression he wore when he was lost in thought. "Wow, I love it." He got up too look at it closely. "You're very good." David grinned at his compliment. "Thanks man."

Suddenly looking rather awkward David said "I know that I was only supposed to stay over to finish the drawing but if you don't have anything else to do do you maybe want to watch a movie or something?"

Yes! Will had been hoping David would want too hang out a bit more and may have begged his mom to rent the new superman movie. At the time she had given a teasing look, but had followed through and dropped it off. "Yeah, that's cool. You can stay for dinner too if you want. My mom left some food in the fridge for me." David looked quite pleased with himself. "Yeah, it sounds good."

Will had warmed up some of the lasagna Joyce had left in the fridge and handed a plate over too David. "Your mom works a lot, huh?" Will cringed inwardly, sometimes it was awkward having to explain to people that they didn't have a lot of money. "Oh, yeah it's just we've moved three times in a year and she and Hopper are getting married this winter, and it's not like we had a ton of money to start." He said in what he hoped wasn't too defensive of a tone.

"It's cool dude I get it." David smiled compassionately, not in that pitying way that most of Will's friends did when they talked about money. "My dad was a dick before he left us, and never worked. Made my mom do everything." David confessed, Will nodded. "Yeah my dad was kinda an ass too . Treated my mom like shit, hated me 'because he thought I was que... He just didn't like me." Will felt panic rush into him after almost admitting his dad called him a queer. I mean he didn't want to weird David out.

Will got up from the table and stood at the sink rinsing his plate, embarrassed at his slip up. Until David spoke. "My dad called me a queer too. Told me he wouldn't have a freak of nature in his house." David laughed bitterly but before Will could say anything he continued, " My mom though, she loves me no matter what. Told my dad she didn't want a lazy asshole for a husband and he was out the next day." Will had turned around and stared at David. He was glad David had shared that with him. He also tried too push out the tiny glimmer of hope that was telling him it kind of seemed like David had just told him he was gay. "Thanks for trusting me with that. I get how hard it is. Trust me I do."

David smiled, getting up and giving Will a pat on the shoulder, Will's breath hitched at the physical contact. "So," he started, voice weak "How about that movie." David grinned, arm now around Will's shoulder. "Lead the way Byers."