Love, Will || Byler

II

☆ᑕᕼᗩᑭTᗴᖇ TᗯO☆

The next day at school, Will thought about every interaction he had with any boy all day. He wondered, thinking that any one of these boys could be Marc.
At lunch break, he sat as usual with the party and Max and El. He didn't pay much attention to their conversation since he had bigger issues. He was trying to connect to his Clem email address on his phone to check just in case Marc had emailed him. The problem was that he couldn't find any signal. Mike noticed something was on Will's mind.
"Will are you alright?" he asked.
"W-what? Yeah. No. I just- There's no stupid signal in this stupid school."
"So? Talk to us instead." said Dustin
"I know I just... I need to do something. And I need some signal."
"Can't it wait til you get home tonight?" asked Max. "There's never any signal here anyway. And especially not in the cafeteria."
"Yeah I know." Will said, putting his phone back in his bag. "I'm sorry, I can wait, it doesn't matter."
"Will it's fine. If you need to do something important we can like try to look from some signal around the school. I can come with you." suggested Mike.
"Won't we look stupid if we go waving our phones in the air around the corridors?" chuckled Will.
"It won't be any different than usual then." said Mike.
Will thought about it. He really wanted to see if Marc had sent him anything.
"Okay fine. Let's go and search for some signal." he said, standing up.
"Hum Will. Maybe can we finish our food first?" said Mike.
"Oh yeah. Of course. Sorry, I forgot."
Both Mike and Will hurried up and finished their plates.
They walked around the school, their phones in their hands.
"Have you got anything?" asked Mike.
"Nope. The signal's absolute shit."
"Yeah."
Will puffed. He needed to check his email. He looked at his phone and jumped up.
"Mike! I've got a bar."
"Really? Cool."
"Yes! Finally."
"What is it you need to do then?"
"Oh I just needed to check something."
"Oh, okay."
"Thanks for like coming with me and stuff."
"You're welcome. I loved mobile signal hunting with you."
"Yeah. I liked mobile signal hunting with you too."
Will sat on the nearest bench and Mike turned on his phone and started scrolling through Pinterest. Since Will had introduced him to this app, Mike was constantly on it.
Will opened his email app, making sure that Mike didn't see what he was doing on his own phone. He logged into his "Clem" address. It took a while but he got in. And he didn't regret waiting because there was a message from Marc that he'd sent last night after Will had switched his laptop off. Will clicked on it and read it.

Dear Clem,
Haha I like it. Clem. I've never met anyone called that before. I know it's not your real name but you know.
Anyway, the real reason I emailed you at first was because of what you wrote on your note.

Will's stomach dropped when he read the next part. He'd thought that Marc had just forgotten about that. Anyway, he carried on reading the email.

You said that you were gay. And because I know you're a boy I wanted to tell you that I'm gay too. Like you. I really didn't think anyone else in Hawkins was like me. That's the real reason I messaged you. I just wanted to talk to someone who was like me. I have SO many questions. I want to know if it was the same for you as it was for me.
I'll message you again tomorrow if you're going to have dinner now.
See you
From Marc.

Marc. Marc was gay. Will needed to message back straight away. Hopefully he'd have enough signal to send a reply.

Dear Marc,
First, congrats? I guess. I don't know. Through time I'm now accepting of my sexuality. I don't know about you. Personally, I found out I was gay a few years ago but I had know it all my life deep down...

He wanted to talk about Mike. He looked up to his left to the boy sitting next to him. Mike's eyes were fixed on the screen on his phone. He was still scrolling through the Pinterest app. Will loved everything about Mike. His hair, his face, every single freckle on his rosy cheeks and his nose. He loved every side of his personality. His brave side and his little nerdy side. Everything.
Will started typing again, making sure Mike couldn't see what he was doing on his phone.

...I think I was about thirteen. I was going through some personal stuff but nothing could ever distract from my best friend (a boy). He was the handsomest person I'd ever met. He still is. But one day, my thirteen-year-old self realised it wasn't normal to feel the way I felt about my best friend. The feelings I had for him were just so strong. The thing is, he is also as straight as a line. I never told him about how I felt, I'm too embarrassed. Too embarrassed to think about all the times I cried because of him never going to like me back.
If ever you have any questions and stuff, feel free to ask me. I know what's it like to hide your sexuality, I still am. I'd be honoured to help you get through this.
From, Clem.

Will glanced back at Mike and smiled. And he hit send.
"Okay, I've done what I needed to do." said Will.
"Oh. Okay, cool." said Mike, lifting his head up to look at Will.
"So do you wanna go back to the others?" asked Will
"Hum, whatever you want to do. To be honest I wouldn't mind just staying here. There's signal."
"So you prefer the Internet signal over spending time with your friends?" Will asked, with a chuckle.
"No. You're here so I'm fine."
Will turned his head the other way so that Mike wouldn't see him blushing a little.
"Okay. Fine then, if you want to stay here, I'll stay with you."
"Cool." Mike said, opening Pinterest again.
Will looked back at his phone. Maybe Marc was going to reply soon.
"Will I'm just gonna go to the bathroom okay. I won't be five minutes." Mike said, sliding his phone in his back pocket.
"Okay, yeah sure."
Mike walked off and Will kept refreshing the page, hoping for new emails to appear, and one from Marc in particular. He waited and waited. He decided to open Pinterest instead. For a few minutes he scrolled through pictures of all sorts of stuff and saved a couple of pins to his "Bedroom ideas" board. One with a layout of different band posters on a wall, one with a D&D themed decor and another one that gave him an idea of how to frame a picture of him and the party that they'd taken at Dustin's birthday.
He scrolled again as Mike suddenly came back.
"Hey." he said
"Hey." Will said back.
"Sorry I took a while."
"Oh it's fine don't worry about it."
Mike sat back down next to Will and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
"Mike, we aren't just gonna stay on our phones right?" Will asked, trying to see what Mike doing on his phone. "Hey what are you hiding?"
Will leaned over and tried to take Mike's phone.
"Hey! Stop." Mike complained, holding his phone away from his best friend's reach.
"Okay okay. Sorry." Will said, with a grin.
Mike looked back at his phone and saw a notification pop up.
"Time for BeReal anyway." he said, pressing on the notification.
Will looked at the camera and gave a thumbs up, copied by Mike. Mike looked at the picture and smiled.
"Perfect." he said as he hit send. "I'll send it you if you want."
"Yeah, it's a nice pic." said Will, smiling.
Mike looked back at him and smiled too. Will fought back the urge to stare down deeply at his rosy and chapped lips. He didn't though. He didn't want to Mike uncomfortable.
"So..." Will said, interrupting their moment "Now we used the phone signal, you wanna go back to see the others?"
"Oh yeah, sure." Mike said, closing his apps and putting his phone back into his pocket.