Summer Savings [Byler]

Chapter 24

Mike answered the door almost immediately after Will had knocked, taking Will by suprise.

"Hey," Mike grinned.

"Hey," Will repeated, a little less enthusiastically.

Mike took Will's coat and bag, trying his best to be overly kind, to the slight embarrassment of the latter, who told him to stop every time he asked.

"Am I sleeping in the guest bedroom?" Will asked, desperate to start off conversation, keeping pace with Mike as they walked up the stairs. "No," he scoffed, before backtracking, "unless you want to."

Will shrugged, "Nah."

Mike set Will's bag down in the corner of his room, whilst the latter stood awkwardly in the doorway, not knowing what to do with himself. Mike simply raised an eyebrow, and the two made silent eye contact with eachother. Will broke it off quickly, bending down and pretending to re-lace his shoe.

"What's up with you?" Mike asked, attempting to keep his tone steady to hide the fact he was a little offended. "Nothing," Will shrugged, still not moving from the doorway.

"Well, what do you want to do then?" Mike asked, plastering a smile on his face.

Will shrugged, and walked over to the bed when Mike patted the space next to him. "We could watch a movie, order pizza, go for a walk?" Mike listed off a few things but none of them seemed very interesting to Will - who was regretting his decision to come.

Will gave a quick shrug, and Mike opened his mouth to say something more, only he was cut off by a shrill, repetitive tone. Will jumped and dug his hands around in his pockets, pulling out his small phone and running out of the room - saying that he "really had to take this!" and promising to "be back super soon!".

Mike waited until Will left the room before collapsing backwards onto the bed, letting out a sigh. He really did want to make up with Will, and now something else was looming, pressing in on the back of his mind - Will was here on holiday. Soon he would return back home, and Mike will have missed his chance, and the two would've parted on bad terms.

***

Will slumped against the wall of the hallway, feeling the stress quite literally lift from his shoulders as the familiar, comforting voice of Joyce echoed through the tinny phone line.

"Will!" He could hear the smile in her voice.

She hit him with a barrage of questions: how was work? How about the friends he had made? What had he done lately? He wasn't feeling sick - or ill?

Will intercepted with "yes" and "no" and "good" at the appropriate times, but other than that simply let Joyce do all of the speaking, much more content to sit and listen to her. He did feel a little homesick at the sound of her voice, but it was fine. He would be home soon. And besides - he was having fun.

Mostly, he added in his head as his eyes slid, of their own accord, back to Mike's bedroom door.

His mind must have wandered for a moment, because the next thing he knew, Joyce was letting him know Jonathan would be there with her to meet him at the train station when he got back, and that she would see him in a few weeks.

"Bye, mom," he smiled into the phone, hearing the line click dead.

Will pocketed the little phone, letting out a quick breath and pushing the bedroom door open.