Hold My Heart // Byler

009

After that night, the two boys couldn't help but feel a little awkward.

But Mike decided it was better to just stay friends and not let his emotions get in the way. He'd always had a special way of doing so.

Will felt the same. He just wanted Mike in his life, even if he had to bury his feelings about Mike in the back of his heart.

Sometimes he felt like it would be easier to rip his heart out and watch it beat and bleed, because then maybe it wouldn't belong to Mike, it would belong to his-self.

So that's what he planned to do. No awkwardness, just be friends with Mike, best friends. You can't lose him.

If he had to repeat that for his whole life just so he would not lose Mike, he would do it.

************

Will woke up before Mike, he'd always been a morning person. He got dressed in the bathroom and walked back into Mikes room.

His eyes flicked to Mike's desk. Those letters. Just the previous night, he couldn't quite figure out why, but he felt like they belonged to him. Like he was meant to see them.

And Mike acted defensive about them, confused almost. That had confirmed his suspicion more, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, his heartbeat paced quicker when he thought about Mike writing him a letter.

Could Mike ever want to create something for him?

His thoughts became interrupted by Mike's loud groaning. The cause wasn't apparent.

But Will whipped his body around towards Mike. Mike sat up in a daze and looked towards him.

Mike wasn't a morning person. He said " Will- you're up? How.. early is it?"

Will looked down at his watch before leaning on the wall and saying " Its uh- 8:15."

Mike was shocked. " Well, you are a morning person. How uh- long have you been up?"

Will said " Not long, but I figured you'd be sleeping for another mm-" he looks down at his watch and jokingly says " ahh i dont know, 7 hours."

Mike rolls his eyes and says " Oh shut up, stop over exaggerating"

  Will laughed lowly. " Are you gonna go back to bed?"

  " Well, I'm already up now. And-", he jumped out of his bed and walked towards Will, then proceeded in a joking tone, " Why would anyone sleep when they could look at your adorable face!"

   To emphasize his joke, he pinched Will's cheek and scrunched his nose.

  Although Will was laughing, he couldn't deny the blazing pink blush coating his skin.

*******************

   Breakfast was, lively, to say the least. In contrast to dinner, everyone had a good night's sleep and was well rested.

  This helped ease the tension between the two boys a lot. But for Will, there couldn't have even been tension because Mike would not stop showering El in affection.

  Giggling, whispering, play fighting, it made Will's stomach ache.

  And he couldn't tell if it was the fact that he was being simply forgotten, or the fact that Mike hadn't even glanced in his direction for the past 30 minutes, and they were less than 4 full feet away from each other.

   He felt okay, though. Although Mike wasn't paying attention to him, their conversations over the past few hours had almost confirmed something for him.

   Mike's just hanging out with El. She is his girlfriend, ya know.

  Mike felt okay that morning, having talked to Will the previous night and that morning.

  But he felt bad. He couldn't quite figure out how to spend time with El and Will, because he didn't want it to seem like he was spending too much time with Will.

  He also didn't want to seem like an asshole in Will's eyes. He had a sense he already failed.

   But after breakfast, he was planning to hang out with Will because Max and El were going to have a " girls day".

  Mike never understood girls. Maybe that should've been a sign? Mike thought to himself.

  He continued to hang out with El for the remainder of breakfast. He liked spending time with her, but in his eyes, El was only his closest friend.

   I pray El doesn't hate me, ever. He felt this looming stopwatch over him, and it was laughing at him, just counting the seconds until he finally became hated by everyone in his life.

  And he sometimes felt like it was already coming into existence as he glanced over at Will's soft eyes on him.

  Except they looked angry. But also understanding. Understanding but angry.

   Mike made sure to give Will an apologetic look and a slight smile, and seeing Will's eyes soften made his heart flutter more than he would ever admit.

******************************

  After Max came over and her and El rushed out of the house, Mike walked over to Will, who was talking to his mom in the kitchen, and said " Hey, let's go."

  Will eyed him curiously. " Where?"

   " Byers, a surprise would be no such thing if you knew the contents of it, now would it?"

  When Mike talked in that sarcastic and snarky tone, it made Will's cheeks pinken up more than he would ever admit.

   Will laughed and said " Fine, let's go."

  Mike nodded and then grabbed Will's arm and began running up the stairs.

  Will didn't have time to protest because the sound of Mike's genuine laughter filled his brain and he became entranced.

  He laughed along with Mike and he felt nothing else but pure euphoria.

  He was once again reminded why, in every lifetime, he would always choose Mike to love.

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A/N: hi! so im really happy that i decided to continue this fic bc im finally confident with the direction i want to go with this. and thank you for reading! there will be more dialogue between Mike and Will next chapter. BYEEE! thanks for reading <3