Left Hawkins: Please Come Back

Chapter 3 - Is Hawkins Home?

Sunday morning was a time for blueberry pancakes as Will and Trevor shoveled down their food. Karen fed them so much Will thought he would explode. They cleaned up and were dragged to the Wheeler's church by Ted and Karen. Will let them know that Trevor and him had to go to the Sinclair's house for dinner.

Will arrived 15 minutes early and saw not only Max and Lucas, but Dustin and Susie also. Will turned red many times as he was so embarrassed and out of place he wanted to crawl under a rock. "Nice to see you man." Lucas gave a shoulder hug to Will while Dustin and Susie hugged him. Will had a bunch of emotions go through him as he was with the Party again. "This is my son Trevor." Dustin and Lucas stared at Trevor and Max giggled as she was also was trying to place him in her mind. "This is Patrick and this is Colby." Lucas introduced his son and daughter to Will and Trevor. "Patrick is in your grade Trevor and Colby is in 5th grade." Dustin introduced his son "this is Oliver, our son. He is in 6th grade." Will and the rest made small talk until the meal was prepared. The kids went upstairs to play.

The pot roast meal was very good. Max mixed mashed potatoes and white rice together along with stuffing and covered it all in a good brown gravy and baked it in the oven while the Crock-pot made the roast with onions and carrots. After the kids ate first, they left the house to go to Dustin's so Oliver could show Trevor his cat and other assorted pets. This left the adults alone to eat. They talked about their careers. Will found out Lucas is the new Mr. Clarke, the middle school science teacher and basketball coach. Max is the high school guidance counselor which is a surprise to Will. Susie is the high school computer teacher and district IT professional, and Dustin works for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as a biologist.

"So you catalog different floura and fauna for the state? Remember the Dart incident guys?" Laughter erupted around the table. "Yeah, I'm going to be famous discovering a new life form." Lucas badly parroted Dustin's actions back in 84'. "How am I suppose to know it was from the Upside Down. I can't help Will incubated a demodog slug in himself." Dustin was defending himself. "He saved us at the junkyard battle, that's all that matters." "Yeah, he addicted a demodog to 3 Musketeers candy bars." Dustin took the heat off "so Byers, what have you been up to since you left us to go to cold ass Minnesota. I thought you hated the cold?"

Will turned red "I went to college, first at Itasca Community College and then the University of Illinois for graphic design. I worked for a greeting card company in Chicago until my business took off which was 2 years after I adopted Trevor. Now I run a business." "Impressive Byers, what does your business sell or do?" Max asked. "Um, I own a company called BGL which stands for Byers Game Labs. BGL sells table top card games mostly. Our most popular games are Bicycle Patrol and Heroes of the Kingdom. We also sell a collectible card game called Majestic Skies High." Dustin's eyebrows angled hard upwards. Max spoke first "that is funny Will. Colby is obsessed with Majestic Skies High and is always looking for new cards. You can hook her up with new merchandise and save me some money." Laughter ran around the room. Dustin spoke next "you made Bicycle Patrol? I played many games of that in College. I thought some of the cards were similar to what we went through in the Upside Down crises. I loved that game!" Lucas was laughing, not joyfully, but more darkly. "All of us have a weekly D&D night with another couple, in case you didn't know. We were looking for a game that was a little less intense and more casual." Dustin cut Lucas off "don't go there man." Lucas pressed on "I bought the Heroes of the Kingdom game thinking it would be more what we were looking for. Dustin threw a fit and said..." Dustin looked at Will "I said it was a shitty knockoff of D&D. It wasn't my favorite game." Will smiled "I made Heroes of the Kingdom because I thought people were looking for a more faster and casual version of D&D. I spent years on the road trying to make Heroes a thing. It put food on the table but Magic sucked all the oxygen out of the room. I'm not mad at you Dustin. I appreciate the feedback because alot of people feel the same way."

Dustin felt better "well, just so you know Will, I really like Bicycle Patrol." The 5 adults talked for a while until it was time for the questions they wanted to ask. "Why are you here in Hawkins, Will?" "Um, so a little while ago I was at the Lake Hanover Gaming Convention manning my booth when the Wheelers found me. Basically they want me to try to help Mike. I agreed and now we live with them temporarily." Lucas scratched the back of his hand "yeah Mike. That guy angered me sometimes, but I still feel bad for all the things he went through. I'm glad you want to help him Will." "Yes Will, that is what a fellow party member does for their friends." Dustin added. Lucas added "so why did you leave Hawkins, Will?" Will's jaw hung open.

"Do I have to answer?" Everyone said yes and you owe us the truth. "Uhh, I do owe you the truth. If you don't like what I am about to tell you I'll understand if you don't want to speak to me again." "Did you kill someone Byers?" Max asked. "No, nothing that bad. I..I'm gay. I don't know how you guys feel about this." Will looked down "we suspected that Will. We would of still been your friends." Max spoke for the group who shook their heads yes. "Why did you really leave?" The question lingered like a bad fart in the air. Max didn't waste any time asking. "Okay, direct. I was in love with, ummgh, Mike and seeing him with El hurt." Arguments started erupting and Will held out his hands for them to stop "I know that sounded bad. I just want to say that wasn't the main reason I left. I realize Mike can love whoever he wants to. I realized since 1986 that Mike would never love me like he loved Jane. I was accepting that, really Max." Max looked at Will skeptically. "I wanted Mike and Jane to be happy together. It was something else that hurt me, and I can't talk about it."

"What. did. you. see. Will?" Lucas asked in his halting, questioning way. "I would tell you guys but it isn't my truth to tell." Max took over "what did Wheeler do Will?" "That is between me and Mike, sorry. I just want to say I'm sorry for leaving without notifying you. I thought at the time I wasn't part of the Party anymore." "Why did you think that Will?" Will looked at Lucas "because you ignored me that summer. You all did the fun stuff while I was at work and when I was off, you were all having date nights and couples hangouts. I thought nobody wanted to hang out with me." Will looked down. "I'm sorry man." Dustin said with emotion. "I didn't realize until lately that we were doing those things. It just happened that way. We weren't trying to exclude you, really." Lucas took over "it's just you were always working at Carver's business and we were bored and did the fun stuff during the day when you weren't around. We picked weekends as couples hangouts. I don't blame you for leaving." "Yeah, we could of been better friends." Susie's family moved to Hawkins in 1987 in the summer from Utah for business opportunities at the time.

"Was this one reason why you left town?" Max asked. "It was a factor, but not the main one." "Well, we were shitheads back then. We are adults now so let's rebuild our ties. Welcome home Will." Max hugged Will followed by the others. "We'll have your back man." Lucas told Will. "We're here for you Will." Dustin told Will.

"How was today, Trev?" Will took Trevor back to their temporary home. "Great! Patrick was fun and Oliver was nice, but Colby is funny. The best part is that I have lunch with both Patrick and Oliver. I already know a couple people already. If you can get me a bicycle I can ride with them to school." Will knew that Trevor wanted a nice one so he might have to buy one in Indy.

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It was 10:30 at night and Lucas and Max were in bed talking like a couple from TV. "It sure was nice to see Will again. I knew he had feelings for Mike, but it's too bad Mike couldn't reciprocate. It least Will is going to try and help Mike, he could use it." Max laughed "honestly, I think Mike likes Will also. I shouldn't say this, but remember when Mike invited us to NYC during college. When we were all drunk, I remembered that Mike said he missed Will and he wasn't taking about it in a platonic way either. My female senses tell me he liked liked Will but he can't admit it." "That actually makes sense Max. Mike was so protective of Will back when we were young. Maybe they will get together." Lucas wiggled his eyebrows. "I'm glad you didn't ruin the moment stalker. I thought you would of told Will that Mike was the one that pushed for weekends being couples and dating time."

"If Will knew that Mike was actively trying to ignore him back in the day, I think Will would let Mike rot away in the asylum. I would if I was in Byers's shoes." Lucas spoke "I'm glad I didn't tell him the whole truth then. We have to find a way to keep him in Hawkins. I want him to be part of the group again." Max snorted "I don't think that will be a problem. I think Trevor will want to stay in Hawkins. It's up to us to woo Byers. I'm not afraid to manipulate him if need be. Now if we can get El to come back." Lucas looked at her almost afraid "you really are a schemer Max. I'm glad I'm on your side."