𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭; byler

-7-

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WORD COUNT: 1103

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THE NEXT DAY MIKE woke up extra early. 

He normally LOVED sleeping, sometimes he would even sleep until lunch time (which drove his mom crazy), but for some reason today he had woken up at 7:30 am.

He tried his best to go back to sleep, but he was already pretty riled up for some reason. Also, he was super hungry.

He got up with a groan and went downstairs, careful not to wake his mother and father. Holly was sitting in the living room, watching cartoons.

"Holly! What are you doing up?" He asked, blocking the TV on purpose. 

"I'm watching Ductktales," she said as if that explained it. Mike stayed in place and the little girl whimpered in anger.

"M-i-ke! move!" She whined. Mike was just teasing her, but he knew if she started crying and woke up their mom he would be in serious trouble.

"Fine, fine! Do you want breakfast?" He asked. She nodded, smiling again.
"Eggos!" She declared. Mike loved how little kids forgot their anger so quickly.

Since Mike really didn't have anything to do for the next few hours, he actually made her the eggos and watched a few episodes of the cartoon with her. He wasn't used to this- but it was also kind of nice.

At about 10 he decided to get ready. He found himself staring at his closet for a while trying ti decide what to wear- why, he didn't know. Finally he decided on a yellow-blue striped shirt that he probably wore once before.  Again, he didn't know why he chose that specific one.

He virtually ran down the stairs, ecstatic. It was almost time!

"You look nice," he heard his mom's voice as he passed by the living room. She was sitting on the couch, a novel in her hands and Holly asleep on her lap. His father was asleep on the LaZboy, which probably meant Mike's mom had made him get out of bed so he found the next best thing.

"Where are you off to? Jane's?" She asked in a suggestive tone.  

For some reason Mike's mom had gotten this idea that Jane and him were a couple. Even the idea sounded ridiculous to Mike- Jane was his best friend! how could he ever be with her?

But it was too hard to explain.

"No- actually, I'm seeing Will." he said. His mom raised her eyebrows in surprise. 

"Oh." she said. Mike waited, not sure if he could go.

"Do you want to take the car?" She asked.
"Yes!" Mike said without wasting a minute. His mom never let him take the car...

She tossed him the keys from the pocket in her robe, and four minutes later he was driving to the Starcourt mall, nodding along happily to the music from the radio.

He was psyched.

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Mike found Will at the entrance to the ice cream parlor "scoops ahoy", sitting on the floor and drawing something in a sketch pad.

"Hey, Will!" Mike called, though he was still kind of far, and the brunette raised his eyes immediately. His whole expression changed to one of shock, like he couldn't believe Mike was there. Mike didn't understand: They had scheduled a meetup, after all...

"You find it okay?" Mike asked when he finally reached him. Will nodded, a small smile on his face. He seemed very uncomfortable and awkward, like the way he had been the beginning of yesterday. 
"You know what? Ice cream feels perfect," Mike said, glancing at the sign. He was trying to keep upbeat, but Will was weirdly un-energetic.

Will pointed at the watch on his hand and raised his eyebrows. Mike knew what he was saying: It was 11:15 in the morning.

"No time is too early for ice cream," He said decisively. Will laughed slightly, shrugging.

They stepped into the store.

Behind the counter stood Robin, the girl from the charity. Mike knew he had recognized her! She smiled at them.

"Hey, Will," She said, then turned to Mike. "You're Nancy's brother, aren't you?" he nodded.

"You know Will?" he asked, turning to Will. Will shrugged, looking down.
"Yeah! he's the only one of the dinguses down there who actually had an interesting conversation with me- well, written down obviously. What can I get you guys?"

Robin knowing Will made the buying experience why simpler. Will simply pointed at the flavors he wanted, and she got it for him without any weird looks. Mike was starting to like her a lot, too.

They sat down at a table with their ice creams. Will opened his bag and took out the notebook and a pen. He flipped through pages of drawings Mike could only see some of, until he found a blank page. He started writing something,

"Came prepped, huh?" Mike asked with a smile. Will nodded, and after a minute slid the notebook to Mike.

"𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓀𝑒𝓃𝒹, 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈..."

Mike looked at Will, not sure how to respond. He didn't think about the fact that Will knew it wasn't his choice- but he really didn't want him to think he didn't want to be there.

"No! I really do want to be here!" he said, but Will just smiled, looked down and raised his eyebrows skeptically.

"I swear!" Mike said loudly. He didn't know why he was getting so worked up about this... but he NEEDED Will to know.

Will raised his hands in the air as if to say "okay, okay!" And then started eating his ice cream again. He seemed cheerful, but Mike was bothered by that sentiment. Why wouldn't he believe him?

"Will, I do want to spend time with you. Really," he said. It had been a minute since they spoke, so it took Will a while to understand- but he just let out a weird snicker.

He wrote something on the notebook and passed it back to Mike, and the words written on it disturbed Mike deeply. Like, a million alarms started ringing in his mind:

"𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉. 𝒮𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓃𝑜 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇"

And maybe he was kidding, but something deep in his eyes made Mike feel uneasy. For some reason that one innocent sentence mixed with his muteness and the charity and that weird tenseness made Mike understand his mom had been right:

Something's not right with that boy. Like, really wrong.

But that fact just made him more determined to get to know Will, and find whatever that was.