Symphony || Byler

Chapter 9

-Mike's Perspective-

     This nitwit is here? Can I never escape him? Everywhere I look...he's there. I can't help but feel intrigued by it. Why was he here? He didn't even know Eddie. Is he following me?

    The sound of a chair scratching against the tile came from behind me. As I turned, I saw that Eddie had gotten up from his chair. "Glad to see you came, Will! We really need more members. You're doing me a serious favor here."

    Will nodded with a smile before sending me a death glare. God...did he really hate me? I didn't do anything that would warrant such a reaction. I simply stated facts to improve the band.

     Dustin stood up with a smile to hold his hand out to will. "I hope you're better at D&D than trumpet...no offense."

     Will shook his head before taking the only available seat across from me. "None taken. I'm not great...but I'll get better. I'm set on it...as for D&D it's been a minute but I know the base game. Enough to not accidentally kill off my character."

    "Your character?" I butted in. There's no way he had one ready. It was most likely just a scratch paper from his notebook. It took a while to build a character.

    "Yeah! I actually created one during study hall! Even printed off a sheet and everything!" Will was practically beaming as he grabbed it out of his backpack and placed it onto the table.

     Sure enough, he did have the entirety of it filled out. He even had a drawing of the guy.

   God...why...am I impressed? He's so...passionate with whatever he puts his heart into. It doesn't mean that he's amazing at whatever he does...far from it. But he puts his all...it...was admirable.

    "God, Mike.... Stop burning a hole into Will's head" Eddie got me out of my train of thought while sending a smile and a wink my way.

    "I wasn't! I just...toned out....can we just start?"

     How could I just stare at him? Was I really that obvious about thinking about him? Jesus... how embarrassing.

     The inner corners of Will's mouth raised to show a soft smile. "Yeah. I'd like to start too. Do you happen to have any spare dice, Eddie? I didn't bring any of mine due to being invited earlier today."

     Eddie smiled and nodded and started to scavenge through his bag. After a minute or so, he pulled out his black tin lunch box and opened it.

     Will tried to walk over to get them but Eddie held up his hand for the boy to wait. The members of Hellfire knew damn well what was in that lunchbox...but none of us would say it out loud. Probably best if Will learned like the others... through rumors.

    Eddie then threw a black bag over to Will who failed at catching it. The bag hit him square in the forehead. A few snickers coming from the group.

      The current group being me, Dustin, Eddie, Gareth and Lucas....now including Will. Making us an official club in the eyes of the school.

    Will's face turned a light shade of pink as he grabbed the bag off of the floor. Soon after, he opened it and placed the blue and gold dice onto the table.

    "You know the dice meanings?" Gareth butts in with a smile. He's being weirdly helpful. Normally he would hate newcomers. When I joined, he nearly had a heart attack.

     Will nodded and went over how he has played with his family before. Mostly with his sibling. He kind of danced around names...which I found weird but perhaps there was a valid reason. Perhaps...it was a similar situation with me and Nancy?