????? (Completed)

But Can't Ask You To Stay

"I'm sorry, Will, I really am. I just... I don't know how to be friends without being weird or awkward, and I don't care. I want to be friends anyway. Even if it's weird, and- basically what I'm trying to say is, can we be actual friends again?" he paused, "I miss my best friend."

"You want me to be honest?" Max chimed in, looking at the teen with pity.

Mike glanced back at her, which was getting difficult as she skated next to him. "Yeah."

"He's not buying that shit." Mike peddled his bike faster, trying to catch up with her increasing speed on her skateboard. "Well, what's wrong with it? I was honest." he huffed.

"Yeah, but honesty isn't enough. you like, majorly screwed up." "He's pissed at you, mike. A half-assed apology isn't gonna win him over."

They arrived at the school, half-heartedly putting the bike and skateboard away.

"Then what will win him over?" Max smirked, shrugging and turning towards the corridor.

Will was spending a lot more time with mason. Jonathan knew that. What was bugging him was the fact that the kid was obviously a stoner. Will did a terrible job at making him look like a good influence.

Of course, Jonathan had stopped Will from visiting Mason's house after he caught them smoking, but somehow, he wasn't convinced they stopped.

Especially with Will acting weird. Like this morning. When Mason came over before school, the two went to the woods, where they spent a suspicious amount of time doing whatever. Jonathan figured they were smoking.

That was concerning, but what really confused him was that Will had always biked to school since meeting mike, kindergarten, and now he was getting rides from Jonathan.

His suspicions were only confirmed when they returned, talking nonsense with Will in his room before Jonathan drove them to school.

As Jonathan watched the two walk to the car, he knew he would hate this drive.

As mike sat in class, anxiously bouncing his leg, he remembered when Will used to pass him notes. Usually, it was just small things like 'should we do this after school?' or 'focus, mike' when they were chatting too much during a test.

The habit had died the day Will passed him a note saying he needed to talk about the mind flayer. It became less light-hearted after that.

That being said, mike was still toying with the pencil in his hand as he contemplated writing a note. What else would he do. Ask Will after class?

He glanced back to them, masons desk being directly behind Will, how had he not noticed that before?

Finally, between nervous thinking and failed sentences, mike wrote a note asking if will wanted to hang out after school, he hadn't thought about what they'd do, but he was already making progress.

He passed the note to Max, who looked at him confused until he pointed to Will. she rolled her eyes and handed over the message until it reached Mason.

Mike never took his eyes off the two as will read the note, he recognized the handwriting immediately and glanced at mike before having a whispered conversation with Mason.

That irritated him. What was there to talk about? Especially with Mason.

As another note returned to Mike, the feeling of anxiety returned.

Mike resisted the urge to trash the note after reading it. It simply read, 'sorry mike, plans after school.'

He didn't toss the note, but he was beyond furious. He scoffed at the paper as he placed it flat on the desk.