Reddie,Byler,ElMax,Boreo&Freebat Oneshots

Byler 3

Rising Sun

gemnism

He would always be there.

He remembered helping Will with his shoelaces when he was behind everyone else on learning to tie them on his own. They had been only a few weeks into their friendship and he couldn’t help but notice that the other always had his right shoe laces untied and dragging against the wet, muddy ground.

“Will, your shoelaces are untied.” What he didn’t realize was that the seemingly innocent observation would have embarrassed his friend so much. He watched closely as Will’s cheeks reddened and he went into a squat to tuck his laces into his shoes rather than tie them. He was observant, he always had been. Without saying anything he squatted alongside his friend and tugged them out of the shoe earning numerous protests from the smaller, but he tied them anyways.

“Better.” He said.

He remembered the first time Will scraped himself- really scraped himself on the harsh concrete during spring break. He remembered the way Will cried and cried because the blood wouldn’t stop leaving his knee, he remembered telling him countless times that it would be alright, that he was there, that everything would be okay.

He remembered the first time he showed Will how to shoot at a beer bottle the summer of 85’.

“Are you sure i’m not gonna hit myself on accident?”

“Of course you won’t, c’mon just let go. I’m right here it’s fine.”

I’m right here. The one phrase that seemed to possess Will into doing anything and everything for the latter. The heat trickled down their faces as Will squinted and let go of the sling shot. He watched with a frown on his face as the rock went flying completely to the left of the bottle, not even grazing it slightly on the sides. The boy behind him didn’t say anything though, there was nothing but the slight rub of the shoulder and a “don’t worry it takes practice” as words of encouragement. Not long after he shot one of his own. The empty lot was filled with a soft “clank” as the rock smashed the bottle straight onto the ground and Will gawked at him in awe. He could feel the heat in his cheeks rise despite thinking that they couldn’t get warmer because of the weather outside, but nonetheless they did and his face was painted with a light peach. He grabbed the tip of his hat and pulled it down to his eyebrows while ducking his head low in an attempt to hide the flattery on his face.

He remembered the first time he saw Will genuinely get mad at him. It was that same year he taught Will how to shoot at a bottle for fun. The upcoming school year he found himself getting awfully acquainted with “Sydney from English”. He knew she liked him, he was observant. He noticed the long glances during class, the “accidental” brushing of hands when they walked together in the halls or when he walked her home. He noticed how she’d constantly find an excuse to play with his hair- or ask him to help her out with the homework even though they both knew she was one of the smartest kids in the class.

But he didn’t mind. He indulged it. He wasn’t really interested in the idea of shutting her down- partially because he enjoyed having her around as a friend (and if there was one thing he knew about girls his age it was that it was either only friends or only dating- and the primary was her current choice). The other reason why he never bothered with letting her know that he wasn’t necessarily interested was because he was intrigued . The idea of romance had always been alien to him, it was never on his list of things to pay attention to other than dungeons and dragons and the science fair. He wanted to try new things. He was fourteen and he’d never done so much as look at a girl in his class. Sydney was- as bad as it sounds- his experiment.