𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞; byler

Chapter 8- Will

-THREE MONTHS LATER-

SOMETHING WAS DEFINITELY wrong. As much as Will tried to suppress the feeling, he knew it was true.

Over the last few months something had changed. 

Well, two things changed: the first, Jane joined their party. 

She was very sweet and she and Will were becoming good friends, so that change was nice. Over the last three months Max had dumped Lucas 7 times, but at the current time they were together (Will was pretty sure). In any case, that didn't really matter to Will because they always came back together. 

the change he was concerned about was Mike.

The change was slow at first: suddenly, they didn't see each other everyday but every other day. Then, before Will noticed, they saw each other twice a week if they were lucky. 

But Will didn't know whether he should be concerned: Every time they managed to get together Mike acted normal, even nicer then usual.

 That being said, he stopped talking about sex altogether. Will wasn't sure if it was because he had finally understood Will wasn't ready or because... Will couldn't think it.

 Now, as the whole party was sitting in Mike's basement, loading up on snacks and watching a stupid movie on the TV Mike had dragged from downstairs, Will noticed another small difference: Mike wasn't trying to grab Will's hand, and even thought they were sitting next to each other Will was pretty sure Mike was closer to Jane then to him. 

Maybe that was just Will feeling insecure, but he couldn't remember the last time they touched hands in secret during the time they were hanging out with their friends. 

Will looked at Mike's face, but he was invested in the movie. 

He slowly moved his hands a few inches closer to Mike's, then a few more... their hands were almost touching, and Will was breathing heavily. 

He was never the one to incite the contact, he didn't even know where to start... he moved his finger so it was touching Mike's, but he didn't seem to notice. Will looked around, making sure none of his friends were looking, and slowly grabbed Mike's hand, his heart beating fast.

Suddenly, a loud honk sounded outside.

"My dad," Jane said. She talked a little bit weird, Will had noticed, and he still didn't understand how she came to Hopper... But now he was more focused on the way Mike leaped to his feet,Will's hand falling on the ground. His face turned a bit red with rejection."I'll walk you out," Mike said.

 Jane waved bye and they went upstairs.Max closed the television and stretched. 

"So that was a crappy movie," She said, "I'm going upstairs to get a coke. Lucas?" Lucas jumped to his feet and they went upstairs, leaving Will and Dustin to sit alone.

"You know how you're single and my girlfriend lived really far away?" Dustin asked, grabbing a fistful of Doritos. 

Will nodded. "what about it?" 
"I just thought how the snowball is coming up in like a month, and since neither one of us has a date we could blow it off and go to the movies or something." Dustin explained, and Will's heart hurt. 

He would give anything to go to the snowball with Mike, to dance with him, kiss him on the dance floor... Show him off to the whole entire school. 

He didn't even care how much worse it would make the bullying he was already enduring quietly. 
"Sure," Will agreed, "What about Mike?"

"Awesome! and he can join if he wants to-" Dustin started, but was interrupted by loud steps on the floor above them. The two boys looked at the stairs just in time to see Max and Lucas running in, their eyes glittering mischievously. 

"You'll never believe what we just saw-" Max started, and just then Mike burst in behind them, his face completely red. "Max, please don't-" he tried, but Lucas cut him off.
"Mike asked Jane to the snowball and they kissed!" He called happily, and Max elbowed him in the ribs. "Asshole! I wanted to tell..."  
but their words were fading into white noise in Will's ears. His whole world crashed on him in a moment.

Mike kissed Jane. He's taking her to the snowball. 
Will heard himself muttering something about it being late and dinner plans with his mom and Bob, and ran out of the basement. 

once again, Will felt broken.