Say Anything | Steve Harrington |

Ch. 31 Remember

November 5th, 1984
The Byers Shed

"Do you know what March 22nd is?" Mom asked as she took a seat on the chair in front of Will. Staying silent, Will's chest heaved up and down as he tried to catch his breath after screaming for so long.

"It's your birthday." She answered for him as a sorrowful look cast over his eyes. "When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that?"

Silence.

"It was 120 colors. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors."

Silence.

"And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it. And you must have used every color in the box."

The faint shadow of a smile grows on his lips.

"I took that with me to Melvald's and I put it up and I told everyone who came in, "My son drew this." And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud."

Silence.

"I was so, so proud." She said again though Will seemed to only stare at her in a daze.

"Do you remember when dad left?" I spoke up, causing Wills eyes to dart in my direction.

"We stayed up all night building Castle Byers. And we built it just like you drew it." I continued, pulling Jonathan with me as I made my way in front of my little brother.

"And it took so long because you were so bad at hammering. You'd miss the nail every time." Jonathan stated causing the two of us to chuckle slightly at the memory.

"And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We all got sick for like a week after that." Jonathan continued as the smile on Will's lips slowly started to grow.

"We just had to finish it, didn't we?" I asked with a smile as he moved his eyes between the two of us, his eyes becoming glassy.

"Do you remember the first day that we met?" Mike asked from his place by the wall. "It was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody." He spoke softly as a tear fell down his cheek.

"I had no friends and I just felt so alone and so scared, but I saw you on the swings, and you were alone too. You were just swinging by yourself."

Still quiet, Will's bottom lip began to quiver at Mike's words.

"And I just walked up to you and I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes and it was the best thing I've ever done."

Will's breathing got heavy as continued to stare sadly at Mike. "Will, baby. If you're in there, just please, please talk to us." Mom spoke, causing his eyes to snap back down to hers.

"Please, honey, please, can you do that for me?" She asked as Will slowly started to cry, his lip now quivered violently.

"Please. I love you so much." She whispered to him, and almost as quickly as he started to show emotion, it all drained away.