prom dress

o10 | 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘦

It was freshman year for the party, 1985. Max and Lucas had been dating ever since the Snowball of eighth grade. Dustin was still single, despite his efforts and constant advice from lady's man Steve Harrington. Mike and El still had their little thing. They hadn't officially started dating yet, but they might as well have been. They definitely had feelings for each other. Will wished he was the one that got to look at Mike with heart eyes. Well he had been, since the fourth grade, but he never got to see Mike's big brown eyes looking back at him the same way he looked at his best friend. He wished he could have that more than anything in the world.

The party was sitting around the lunch table, eating what they had packed for lunch that day. Dustin was sitting next to Lucas, who was sitting next to Max. Max never brought a lunch, she always took a little bit of what everyone had to offer her. She never had to put any effort in, and always got the best of everyone's lunches. El took a seat next to Max who was now not sitting next to Mike anymore. That left Will, since the table was a circle he sat right in between Dustin and Mike. He wasn't going to complain.

El pecked Mike on the cheek and he started to blush, his eyes darting down and focusing on his lunch, embarrassed. Will watched with curious eyes, wondering what made her so attractive to Mike. He then looked back at Mike and found himself thinking of all the reasons why he was attracted to his best friend sitting next to him. He then realized that he was probably looking at him too long, too long for him to like him as just friends. Mike and El had they're own conversation going all lunch long. Will talked to Dustin once in a while, but most of his focus was on the couple next to him. He wanted to talk to Mike all lunch long and have their own little world. He wish it didn't have to be this way.

That was the thought on his mind for most of the day. Throughout the rest of his periods, until he got home. While he was riding his bike, he thought of his best friend, as he does most of the time. He wanted him to like him back so very badly. He didn't know what to do. It wasn't like he was gay like Will, of course not, he was basically dating El. Will wished he could hate her. Truth is he loved her like a sister, which made the whole situation worse. He didn't want to hurt any of his friends by explaining his feelings, that would ruin everything. He didn't want to deteriorate any of his friendships by coming out to them. He loved them, and didn't want any of them to think of him differently.

Will peddled his bike into his driveway and used his kickstand to put it up against his garage door. He grabbed his house key out of the smallest compartment in his backpack and unlocked the front door. He set his things down by the door and turned on the TV. He didn't have any homework. That gave him most of the night to think about Mike. Again.

He found himself watching the Goonies for the millionth time. I guess you can say he had a routine. The Goonies could always make him laugh, even after everything he went through last year. It took his mind off the events that went on during his life. He had finished the movie and he used the remote to flip the channels before deciding he didn't want to watch TV anymore.

He couldn't get his mind off Mike, he didn't know how. He didn't want to sit and pine from a distance anymore. He's had enough of that. He wants to do something, anything, if it just gets Mike to notice him. If only he could act like El did. Touch his shoulder, and bat her eyes, and flirt like she could. Wait. Could he?
He dumped out all the quarters he had saved up for the arcade into his bed. He gathered them all and shoved them into his backpack before biking to the nearest convenience store.

He bought every magazine he could find that had tips and tricks like how to flirt and how to tell if someone likes you. The cashier giggled and wished him good luck with the girl he trying to impress. He nodded with a smile, thinking about the very much boy he was going to try and impress. He needed all the help he could get, without asking anyone for it of course, that would be too embarrassing.