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

Chapter 18 - Then Keep On Reaching -

The rest of the ride to the Wheeler house was quiet. Both boys clearly had a lot on their mind. Will was mainly only thinking about Mike's hand which was still on his shoulder.
How had Mike known that was what would soothe Will at the moment? Did he know why it soothed him? Will did. It reminded him of a time when they were younger, a time when it was still okay to hold hands and hug your best friend and let your hand rest on their shoulder for more than 10 seconds. So Will sat there letting his breath regulate.
Meanwhile Mike was focusing on the road, and the skyline, and basically anything that wasn't his hand on Will's shoulder. Because if he thought about it, he was gonna move his hand and he knew that it was calming Will down. Plus he was determined to not be a shitty friend anymore.

So the hand stayed until they pulled into the Wheeler's driveway.
"Let's go in through the basement, my mom is in a very inquisitive mood lately."
Will's eyes grinned at him. "Mine too, it's so annoying."

Mike nodded in agreement while unlocking the door leading into the basement. It was like going through a time portal. They had all changed but the basement stayed the same. Some of Will's old drawings from some campaigns were hanging on the wall and the shelf full of their movies was next to them. The couches were loaded with blankets from when the Party was here more frequently. Will sighed with contentment. "Your basement feels more like my home than the actual place I live." Will laughed. Mike laughed, "Honestly I consider this to be my room more than the room upstairs."

"Michael!!!"
Mike rolled his eyes while Will crinkled his eyes silently laughing at the other boy.
"Michael are you home?" Mike walked over to the stairs and screamed up

"Yeah mom! Will and I are setting up for the others to come." A pause "So leave us alone!" Will silently shook his head. He and Mike had such different relationships with their mothers.

"Sorry about that." Mike muttered seeming...embarrassed (?) by his mom. Will laughed at him jokingly messing up his hair (Fuck, he shouldn't have done that. Because now all he could think about was how soft Mike's hair wa..) "Mike I've known your mom for forever I'm not gonna let you start getting embarrassed by her now." They both laughed while Will silently prayed that he had smoothed over the hair touching situation and Mike trying to forget it. They went to the kitchen and poured popcorn and chips into big bowls then set them on the table in the basement. "Help me get some sleeping bags from my room?" Will nodded and they trudged up the stairs of the Wheeler home.

Will hadn't been in Mikes room since before they had moved to California and then back again. It had changed a bit. I mean just the smell of body spray let him know that it was a teenage boy living here now not a preteen boy. The pictures on the wall caught Will's eye were those? They were. "Mike are those my drawings?" Mike looked at him surprised. "I mean yeah. That's where I put all the stuff my friends have given to me. You're just the only friend who really gives me much stuff." He shrugged sheepishly. "You don't mind, do you?" Will shook his head still glancing at the wall. "No not at all." He said in what he convinced himself was a nonchalant tone.
Mike opened his closet doors, there were no sleeping bags. "Damn, mom must've moved them. I'll go find the other sleeping bags. Just do me a favor and bring the sleeping bag from under my bed downstairs okay?" Will nodded as Mike left the room.

Reaching out from under the bed Will pulled out a rolled up sleeping bag and a shoe box. He was about to put the shoe box back under the bed when he saw his name on the box. What could he say, curiosity got the better of him. Of course he opened it.

Inside the shoe box were dozens of letters all addressed to Will and as he noted going through them all signed Love Mike. That's when Will's heart skipped a beat as he remembers the fight, he had overheard El and Mike have during spring break.
"FROM MIKE, FROM MIKE, FROM MIKE!" She had shouted "YOU CAN'T EVEN WRITE IT!"
Yet here were a bunch of letters addressed to Will all signed love Mike? He could hear footsteps, hurriedly he closed the lid of the shoebox and grabbed the sleeping bag. As he reached to open the door Mike came into the room again, a slightly panicked look on his face. "Get the sleeping bag?" Will held it up to confirm. Mike nodded absentmindedly "You didn't see anything else under there?" The letters? Will wondered, he decided to joke around though.
"Gross Mike what else do you have under there?" Mike turned red stammering defensively 'till Will cut him off. "Relax man I just grabbed the sleeping bag. "
They finished setting the basement up and then sat on the couch for a minute relaxing before the doorbell rang and they heard Karen letting the other kids in upstairs. Tonight was gonna be fun.

As they came downstairs Lucas grinned at them. He was helping Max walk down the basement stairs as she violently protested. "Lucas! I'm fine. They let me leave the hospital for a reason." Lucas grinned at her. "Maybe I just wanted an excuse to hold your hand." He then dramatically presented his hand to her to help her off the last stair. In a very un-characteristically Max move she giggled.

El came down after her and they decided they would start the night with a movie. Finally Will sighed happily, things were going back to normal. He remembered the letter......Almost back to normal.

After many movies and many bowls of popcorn the whole party had pushed all the sleeping bags and blankets together, creating one massive blanket pile that they were all now fast asleep on. Except for Will who was focusing very hard on pretending to sleep. Or rather trying to focus on anything other than the fact that Michael Wheeler was inches from his face.

After many movies and many bowls of popcorn the whole party had pushed all the sleeping bags and blankets together, creating one massive blanket pile that they were all now fast asleep on. Except for Mike who was trying to focus on anything other than the fact that William Byers was inches from his face.