Who Knew - Byler

18

The room fell silent. Jane was silently crying and Hopper was confused. Mike was frozen in his place. When his brain processed that Will was probably unconscious, he bent down. "Will?!" he screamed. His voice was so full of scare it froze Hopper's heart.

"Will?!" he screamed again, and started shaking the boy, desperately trying to wake him up. There was no response. Will's eyes were closed. Jane was so mad she didn't even realize what she'd done. She just stood silently because she could sense something was wrong.

Mike then had the most horrible, heartbreaking thought. What if Will... had... passed away? He could feel his heart physically hurt at the thought. He quickly approached Will's mouth with his ear and prayed to hear some breathing, even if it was weak.

The moment he heard a weak, shaky breath leave the boy's lips, he felt an extreme relief. He was breathing. "Come on, do something!" he desperately screamed to Hopper. "Take him to a hospital!"

Even though in his mind it had happened in slow motion, all of this had happened in just a few seconds. A few seconds that helped Jane calm a little bit and let her brain think.

Will was in Mike's arms, unconscious. Hopper was grabbing him to take him to his car and bring him to the hospital. You did this to him. She felt tears roll down her cheeks, but this time they weren't anger tears, they were true sadness tears.

Will was his friend. And she'd hurt him. Not intentionally, but she'd hurt him. She was so angry she didn't even stop to think that one of those things she was throwing in the air could hit one of the three people she loved the most in the world.

When her brain finally processed everything, she approached Mike, crying and sobbing. "Mike," she said, grabbing his arm. The boy was fast to move away in disgust. "Don't touch me," he said, and these words penetrated through the girl's heart and created too much pain for her to handle.

"I... I didn't mean to..." she sobbed, but Mike was walking away. He followed Hopper, who was carrying Will, to his car. The chief carefully put him down in the back seat putting his head on Mike's lap and turned around to face Jane.

"Stay here," he said, and she could see in his eyes he felt the same way about her Mike did right now. He closed the car door and started the machine. He drove away and Mike didn't even look back at Jane.

The girl was left crying, feeling afraid of herself. She really couldn't control her anger.

Inside the car, Mike was massaging Will's hair, trying his best not to cry. Not Will again. He'd had enough the last two years. He had suffered enough for him. Not him again. What hurt the most about this situation was that the last two years, Will had been hurting because of a weird organism called Upside Down that they couldn't control.

But this time, he was hurting because of a human. And more specifically, the human Mike had been dating for some months now. He truly couldn't believe he could ever forgive Jane, even if Will woke up with no damages.

-

"It was nice seeing you, Dustin," Claire said. Dustin smiled. He did actually have a chance with the girl. "Will I see you again?" he asked. The girl nodded shyly. She had a lot of character, like Max, but she clearly wasn't used to have a boy flirt with her.

"I'll be staying here till the end of the school year," she replied. Dustin's smiled faded. "You're leaving after that? Why?" he asked. "I'm visiting my grandpa for a year because my grandma just died and my parents don't want him to be alone," the girl explained, "but I'll go back to Florida after this year."

Dustin sighed. Florida. Well, at least he had an entire year to be with her. "I'm sorry about your grandma," he said, and the girl nodded. "I hope I'll see you in school. You're the same age as me, right?" Claire nodded again.

"Great. We'll be in the same grade and since you're new to school, I can show you around and introduce you to my friends," Dustin said, and he smiled, showing his teeth proudly. "That sounds great," the girl smiled back.

"Claire!" they heard, and they both turned to see an old man waving at her. "I have to go now," she said. "See you soon." She left and Dustin smiled like an idiot. He really liked that girl.

-

Mike was sitting in the waiting room next to Hopper. He'd called Joyce as soon as they'd arrived to the hospital. They both felt really bad for the woman. She was constantly suffering for her son.

The doctors were talking to Joyce and Mike was nervously playing with his straight hair nervously. It didn't seem like Will had any serious injuries, but he was still worried.

Suddenly, a door opened and Joyce walked towards Mike and Hopper, who stood up as soon as they saw her. Her hands were lightly shaking. Her life had been non-stop stress for the past two years.

"He woke up," Joyce said, and Mike sighed in relief. "The doctors say it's nothing serious, but they have to run some tests on him just to make sure everything's okay," she explained.

"Can I see him?" Mike asked, and Joyce shook her head. "They're only letting family in. He'll be able to receive visits tomorrow." Mike sat down in his chair again.

"Let's go," Hopper said, shaking the boy's arm. "No. I'm staying here until they let me see him," Mike replied. "But Mike, they'll only let you see him tomorrow," Joyce repeated, and the boy crossed his arms.

"Then I'll sleep here," he said, and Hopper sighed. "Your mum's gonna be worried. Come on, let me take you home. We can come tomorrow really early, okay?" he said, uselessly trying to convince the teenager.

"I'm staying here," the boy repeated. "Call my mum and tell her I'm spending the night here. I don't care. But I'm staying." Hopper and Joyce looked at each other as it was obvious they weren't gonna convince him.

Joyce then stepped forward and sat down next to the boy. "I'll stay with you then," she said, and Hopper rolled his eyes, but he didn't try to fight them anymore.

"I'll stay with you two then," he said, and he sat down next to Joyce, grabbing her hand. Joyce looked at him and smiled.

-

Joyce's head was resting on Hopper's shoulder as they both slept. It was five a.m. Mike was walking around the waiting room in circles. He knew Will was fine, why was he so nervous? Why couldn't he wait to see him if it had only been less than a day?

He had barely slept that night. He was too busy thinking. Was he starting to feel something for Will? Was he starting to like him like more than a friend? That couldn't possibly be, could it? He'd been friends with him for his entire life, why would he feel something for him right now?

But when they had held hands, and when they had slept together, Mike was always left wanting more. He also always wants to be with him and misses him every day. He always thought that was because they were really close, but now he's not so sure. He never felt that way about Lucas or Dustin. The only thought of holding hands with them is just disgusting to Mike.

Apparently, the walking woke Joyce up. She smiled, seeing Mike nervously walking around and mumbling his thoughts, her head still resting in Hopper's shoulder. She was really glad her son had a friend like Mike.

"There's no way I like him..." Mike muttered, and Joyce widened her eyes. Did Will actually have a chance with Mike? She smiled widely. Everything's gonna be okay.

"Mike," she said, and Mike almost died. He wasn't expecting that. He quickly turned around and blushed. Had Joyce heard him? "How long have you been awake?" he asked.

"I woke up right now," she lied, and Mike sighed in relief. She hadn't heard him. "When will I be allowed to see him?" he asked, impatiently. "Mike, it's really early I'm pretty sure you haven't slept a lot this night. Why don't you sit here next to me and use my shoulder as a pillow? I know you're tired," Joyce said.

"But... Will..." Mike said. "They'll let us know when we can see him. Sleep a little bit," Joyce said, and Mike decided to sleep a little bit.

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unedited 

double update... i'll post the next chapter in 5 minutes ;) i finally made it up to you guys! also the next chapter will have a lot of fluff since it's byler reuniting... hehe