Hold My Heart // Byler

014

It had officially been two days of Mike ignoring Will.

Will could say that he hadn't been trying either, though.

Will was walking toward the table for breakfast when he caught Mike's gaze following him.

The truth was, for Mike, Will was a distraction. He turned heads.

His beauty was too great to not be seen.

Will deserved to be seen.

But maybe Mike couldn't be the one to do it. So almost as quickly as he looked, he snapped his gaze away from Will.

Because once those eyes looked into his, he was gone.

Will sat down across from Mike. This had almost prompted Mike to jump up and run away.

Will never was able to pull his eyes away from Mike. Maybe if he'd looked at Mike more, he would've convinced him to stay.

But then again, Will didn't believe he was worthy enough for Mike to stay.

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

This was the part that Mike dreaded.

The part where he had to pretend. Pretend to be in love with a girl when the real..

No.

Mike wanted, needed, to stop having these thoughts. He needed to make himself believe.

He wrapped his arm around El and kissed her cheek softly.

El was surprised, since they hadn't hung out in the past few days.

El knew something was up, and she wanted to know what exactly it was.

Mike began talking to El. It's not like he didn't love her.. just not in the way she wanted.

" Hey, so I was thinking we could hang out later.." Mike said.

El nodded and smiled at him before saying " Good. I'll cancel plans with Max.."

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

El desperately wanted to poke and prod Mike for information.

Why did her brother look so upset? Why weren't him and Mike sitting together? And why did Mike look so.. tired.

El had always known that Mike and Will had a special bond. And over time, she had begun to find out that maybe it was more than a friendship bond, but neither of the boys would admit.

And she wanted so badly to let Mike be free. She never wanted to hold him back.

And lately, it had occurred to her that her entire life didn't revolve around Mike, and that maybe she didn't give herself enough time to explore life.

She hadn't been free until she met Mike. And yes, she felt like he had saved her. But maybe she had misinterpreted her feelings.

She didn't know what love was. She didn't. And as much as she had thought she had romantic feelings for Mike, that was before she'd experienced true friendship.

And to her, Mike had always felt like a really close friend. She wanted to hang out with him and be around him. And when she really thought about it, Mike was her best-friend, but nothing more.

She planned to tell him about it. She wanted to give Mike freedom. And she could tell that he was slowly caving in within himself.

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

After breakfast, Will had seen Mike and El go upstairs to his bedroom. He felt his stomach turn.

He went into the basement, just trying to waste time. He wanted to waste his entire life away if he continued to live it like this.