hey! sorry this took so, so long to get out. it was a long, long week, and really long weekend. i graduated, and i cried with some friends i'm leaving, and me and my parents had a massive fight but i think it's allg now.
than, you for 7k, then 8k, nearly 9k. love you all!
i rewrote this chapter a million times tbh.
third person
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when el and mike out of hospital, the kids spent the weekend together at will's house, where they snacked on the surprisingly delicious pancakes el made from scratch, adding a lot of sugar to balance the 2 extra eggs and two cups of flour and milk she added to make more of the batter.
it was currently friday night, almost a very early saturday morning, and they danced to music that jonathan lended them before he left for his date with nancy.
"you have to show them that you're really not scared!," el sang, loudly, giggling along with max, who carried the next line for her. "you're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare,!" she laughed. will grinned at dustin as he sang the next line with enthusiasm.
"they'll kick you, then they beat you, then they'll tell you it's fair so beat it, but you want to be bad,!" he screamed, and all of the party sang the chorus together, laughing.
"just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it!," they shouted, out of sync, will picking up a pillow, hitting lucas over the head with it, lucas tumbling over and knocking the radio off the shelf. "oh, fuck," will murmured. "is it broken?," he rushed to the piece of machinery, which was now turned off but otherwise only had a few scratches.
"not that i can see," lucas said, gently, placing the radio back onto the shelf with the help of his dustin, and will pressed the on/off button. it turned on, after a few attempts, and will smiled in relief, turning it back off.
"you guys wanna sleep soon?," max asked, raising an eyebrow at the clock on the wall. "yeah," el murmured. the boys nodded in agreement and the party started to lay down on the four mattresses that were scattered along the floor. max and el and lucas and dustin both shared one, while will and mike had seperate ones.
"hey, el," max said, turning to el. "my mum, uh," she shrugged, embarrassed, as she blushed. "she's signing me up for dance class next year so i seem lady like? i guess, what i'm trying to ask is would you mind if you also signed up? i just don't want to go alone, and you can do it whenever you're ready."
el smiled, and turned to max. "sure, maxi," she smiled, taking a sip of water as she laid her head back down.
there was another short silence until will piped up.
"do i seem gay?," he asked. max choked on her own saliva, dustin, mike and lucas looked up in shock, and el furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"gay?," she asked.
max didn't want to answer that one for her, so she passed it on to the task of mike wheeler. "it's, uh, when a boy and boy like each other like we like each other. love, even. not many people like gays though, and even try to hurt or, uh," he trailed off, sighing. "kill them."
"oh." el murmured. "do you?" she asked, meeting mike's puzzled face. "do you want to hurt the people in love?"
"what? no, i think it's terrible, personally, i think they're like any other human and just want to love the person they love."
el took a second to process this, and nodded, understandingly.
"well, same here, no one should be killed for which person they choose to love."
the boys, and max, murmured in agreement, as max turned to will. "do you like boys?," she asked, probably a bit too straight up. will shrugged, looking down.
"i, i don't know." he mumbled. "when i was dancing with melissa, at the snowball, i didn't feel anything. is that normal?"
"maybe melissa isn't the right girl," dustin said. "but," he continued, putting an arm around will. "if you ever think you're gay, we're always gonna be here, bud," he smiled. el smiled and moved over closer to will, the rest of the party agreeing and sitting next to him.
"he's right, always, and if you wanna talk to someone about it other than us, i'm sure there's jonathan, right?" mike said.
"yeah," will smiled, and hugged his friends tightly, as they went in for a group hug.
they sat there, snuggling up to each other for a brief moment of silence.
"have mouth breathers been bothering you again?" el asked, looking up.
will sniffled, putting his head in his hands. "y- yeah," he murmured. "the keep calling me things l- like," he trailed off, sighing. "fairy," he said, crossing his arms. "they said that i'm a- a faggot," he wiped his tears away.
el crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. "that's stupid," she said. "stupid mouth breathers," she said.
will softly smiled, and looked up. "yeah, el. stupid mouth breathers."
"at least we get two weeks off," dustin said, to lighten the mood. "i want to kill them," mike said, speaking up from his silence, as lucas and el exchanged glances and for once in their life agreed on something.
"we're gonna kill them." they said, in sync. "yeah, we should," max grinned, agreeing. "i wish we could," dustin said, and mike smiled, agreeing.
"thanks for being, uh. really, really supportive friends," will grinned, smiling. "don't stress," lucas said, patting his shoulder. "we're here for you. we're here for each other, okay? family," he smiled.
"yeah," max agreed, slinging an arm around the closest person to her, which happened to be el, who flinched, not expecting it, and blushed, putting an arm around her friend.
"family," she replied, dreamily.
the part separated and went back to their beds, quickly falling asleep to the sound of each other's breathing and the slight slow music that still came out of the radio, only slightly awaking when jonathan burst through the door with nancy in his arms, ushering her to his room.
whatever they did in there, none of the members of the party wanted to know.
