Reddie,Byler,ElMax,Boreo&Freebat Oneshots

Byler 4

please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh i could recognise anywhere

joanna (zamazenta

william byers can't sleep.

what does he do?

he goes straight to the window of the boy that he's in love with.

it's around eleven o'clock on christmas eve when he wakes in a cold sweat, panting from the nightmare he'd had.

normally in this situation he would go and crawl into his step-sister jane's bed, but knowing that she believes that if you are awake when the clock strikes midnight on christmas day you don't get any presents from santa claus, he chooses not to bother her.

so he takes a moment to calm himself down, catching his breath, before throwing the covers off of his small body and tiptoeing over to the window.

he doesn't care that it's 23°, or that snow is descending from the heavens in thick white sheets. all he cares about is getting to the one person who makes him feel the happiest.

his best friend, mike wheeler.

he supposes that mike might be a little more than a friend to him, but he brushes it off whenever the thought comes into his head.

ever since mike had come up to him when he was sitting on the swings in kindergarten and asked to be his friend, he felt like he could trust him with even the most important secrets.

except, for some reason, he can't bring himself to tell his best friend the most important thing about himself.

he would practise in the mirror when no-one else was home, or when it was just he and jane at home, their parents out on a date, jonathan at college. jane was the only person who knew.

hawkins was a dangerous place to be homosexual.

but even if he did come out, nothing would change - except maybe his friends. he would still be called a fag. he'd still be shoved in lockers by the tougher kids in school (although pretty much the entire population of hawkins high fell under the category of "tougher than will byers").

he wasn't sure about how his friends would react, though. however, he was sure of one thing. jane would always be accepting - she liked girls and boys.

"guys, i'm gay."

he's lost count of the number of times he's muttered that into the mirror, slapping himself in the forehead after saying it. how could he ever tell any of his friends something like this?

he treads through the thick blanket of snow, his feet bare and toes quickly going blue. every time he exhales he feels his warm breath fall back against his face, sort of like a hot water bottle is momentarily touching his skin.

by the time he gets to mike's house his hair is covered in snow. he takes a deep breath before beginning the climb up to mike's bedroom window, which is on the second floor of the house. looking at his watch, he hesitates for a moment.

it is nearing quarter past eleven.

typical sixteen year olds would still be awake at this time of night, their faces buried in a book or eyes glued intently on the screen of the small television set that their parents graciously set up in their bedroom. mike and will, and the rest of their friends, are not typical sixteen year olds.