sweet dreams | | byler (ongoing)

chapter 1 : the snow day.

Monday, January 14th, 1985

The sun is setting at around 10 P.M, Mike and Will were still kids, sitting on the edge of the cliff at the quarry, watching the sunset within the blue and purple clouds. Their car, which was actually Jonathan's that he had let them borrow even though they were barely 14, was still on in the background. Queen was playing on the radio. Life is good.

Will sat on the edge, Mike by his side, watching the calm sunset over the valley, thinking about him. Will has had a huge crush on mike ever since he hit puberty in 5th grade. 

Will has always had strange feelings for Mike, and for boys in general, but he had never admitted to himself that he was gay & liked Mike until 5th grade. He's always been too afraid to confess to him in fear of ruining their friendship that they've had ever since Mike had asked Will to be his friend back in kindergarten on the swings. and because a guy liking guys was "wrong" in society's eyes. He had never understood that, why liking people of the same gender was wrong, they never caused anyone any harm.

"The sunset is beautiful tonight, isn't it?" Mike spoke to will

"Yeah..." Will said, staring off into the blue and purple clouds "This is the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen."

They both chuckled for a bit and continued staring, when Will realized that this was his chance, this was his chance to confess his feelings for Mike. After all these years, he just knew that right now, it was time.

"Hey m-mike?" Will asked in a soft voice

"Yeah Will?" Mike replied

Will looked at the freckled boy with a smile and then said the three words to change everything.

"I like you."

Mike looked at him for a few seconds, then began to smile.

"I like you too Will."

Suddenly, all of Will's bad feelings had just vanished, it was like his depression and anxiety issues had just disappeared from existence. He slowly began to lean in closer to Mike's lips, Mike was doing the same.

"This is it..." Will thought

Right as the two boys lips were about to touch, Will suddenly heard a sound from a distance

It sounded like it was... some kind of alarm? It appeared to be calling out to him. As the seconds passed, the sound kept getting louder. He looked back to Mike, but Mike had disappeared. Eventually, the sound hit him right in his ears.

*

Will suddenly woke up, noticing he was not on a cliff next to Mike, he was back in his bedroom, on his bed. He realized his alarm was going off, and quickly slammed down the "snooze" button. He checked his clock: 6:30 A.M. Soon after realizing his confession to Mike was all just a dream, he fell back down on his bed, tired and sad that it wasn't real.

"Will?" He heard his mom call, she soon entered the room "Wake up sweetie, it's Monday and school starts soon.

"Fine..." Will groggily said

Will got up out of bed and began to prepare for the day. He put on a light blue shirt and some blue jeans & looked out the window...

What he saw outside the window made his frown turn upside down, there was at least 4 or 5 feet of snow covering everything, and it was still going. He didn't need the news to tell him school was closed.

"Will?" His mom called "Never mind sweetie, look outside, its snowing!"

"Yeah I know mom" Will said, visibly excited

The first thing will did was hop back in bed and go back to sleep, when he woke up again it was 9:30 A.M and he was feeling very well rested. He went downstairs, ate some breakfast, and went outside to help his brother shovel snow... and also have a mini-snowball fight with him.

While they were having fun. Will noticed someone walking up to their house. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was Dustin.

"Hey Dust!" Will greeted

"What's up Will?" Dustin greeted back, hi-fiving Will.

"So what do you want to do?" Will asked

"Actually, Will, we need to talk." Dustin replied

Two days earlier

Dustin entered Mike's house, ready for the DnD campaign.

"Hey Dustin!" Mike greeted

They went down to Mike's basement, everyone was there. Well, everyone except for Will. Will hasn't shown up for the last two campaigns. Dustin was starting to suspect something wasn't right

"Hey, where's Will at?" He asked

"I'm sure he's fine." Mike said, as he was cuddling with Eleven on the couch

Dustin began to grow suspicious, he looked over to Max who also seemed to be growing suspicious. Max looked over to Dustin and Dustin whispered to her:

"Meet me in the bathroom after the campaign."

"Got it." Max whispered back

*

After the campaign was over, everyone started getting ready for bed as they were all sleeping over. Dustin snuck into the bathroom and sure enough, Max was waiting for him.

"Lock the door." Max whispered

Once they were in the bathroom and the door was locked, they began talking.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Dustin said

"Somethings wrong with Will." Max said

"Exactly, he hasn't shown up for the past two campaigns!"

"Not just that, have you seen how he's been acting recently at school and such?" Max replied "He always seems so sad now."

"What do you think's wrong with him?" Dustin asked.

"I don't know, it could be anything." Max said "you don't think- that thing..."

"It can't be that" Dustin said "We destroyed the mind flayer months ago."

"What if..." Max paused "Have you noticed how Mike has been spending all of his time with Eleven recently? He barely talks to any of us now!"

"Oh yeah..." Dustin said, suprised "Mike and Will are like the best of friends, what if him avoiding Will is what's affecting him?"

"I wouldn't be surpised" Max said

"Know what?" Dustin said "I'm gonna try to talk to Will about it on Monday."

"Good idea." Max said "I really hope he's okay..."