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31

Today was gonna be one of those days where Will Byers would regret getting out of bed. He just knew it. He had a major math test 4th period that he was so not ready for, an essay to hand in for English that he wasn't proud of, and of course, on top of all that, today was Valentine's day. Not a huge deal, unless of course you were the weird, tiny, Zombie Boy, with a crush on his best friend, stuffed so far back into the closet, he wasn't sure he could find the door if he tried. Oh, and in honour of such a wonderful greeting card holiday, Hawkins High was holding a big dance after school, AND since it was a Friday, The Party would no doubt end up tagging along to some shitty after party at some poor kid's house. Not exactly Will's idea of fun on an already doomed-to-suck day.

Will groaned, and pulled his blanket up over his head. No, today was not a good day to get out of bed. He could already feel it.

"Will?" Joyce called from the hallway, interrupting his pity-party. She knocked on his door.

"I'm," Will began, when he suddenly had an idea. He lowered his voice to just above a whisper, "I'm not feeling well, mom..."

Joyce opened the door then, hurrying over to sit on the edge of Will's bed to press a cheek to his forehead. "You do feel a little warm..." she said as she pulled away. Will hadn't prepared himself for her to check his temperature, but he thanked whatever God above that was helping him keep up his ruse.

"Okay hon, you'd better stay home today. Do you want me to stay with you?"

Will quickly shook his head, "No, no, I'm fine, my stomach is just a bit upset and I, uh, I have a headache," he took great care to make his voice sound weak, but not so weak that Joyce might actually panic. She had never quite grown out of her tendency to worry too much about Will; not since the incident three years ago.

"Okay," Joyce looked a little hesitant, "but you'll call me if you feel worse?"

Will assured her a few more times that he would be okay before Joyce finally seemed satisfied enough to go to work. Then, he radioed the party.

"Hey guys, I'm home sick today. Not feeling great, over," he said into the walkie-talkie. He received various replies, "feel better dude"s and "aw man, you're gonna miss the dance"s and things like that.

When Will was pretty sure the rest of the party was done calling him, he rolled over, away from the window and drifted back into sleep.

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

Will had spent the rest of his day working on his art and then tidying up his room when he eventually got bored of that. Joyce had taken a double shift, and Jonathon was staying at school this weekend, so Will was still home alone at 6pm.

As the clock hit 6:05, Will heard a knock at his window on the way back from the bathroom. Wait, a knock at the window? Will's body tensed a little automatically, but he assured himself it was a tree or something as he made his way back to his room.

It was not a tree. No, it was Mike Wheeler standing outside his window, smiling and waving when Will finally made it to his doorway.

Will felt like he had swallowed a hoard of butterflies. He may be in the closet to everyone else, but Will himself could not escape the feelings he'd had for his best friend ever since he was thirteen.

Will rushed over to the window as his body finally caught up to his brain, and threw it open.

"Hey!" Mike started to move to crawl in the small window, but Will stopped him. He sighed.