10 years

1980

When Will woke up on Christmas Day 1980, he had the biggest smile imaginable on his face. For two reasons. One, it was the first Christmas he got to spend free from his fathers gaze of judgment. The first Christmas where his Mum wouldn't have to wait till his Dad was passed out on the sofa, from all the vodka he'd drunk, to give him the presents he actually wanted. Not having to hope that he wouldn't wake up and catch them doing this. Like he did one year, leaving a terrible bruise on Joyce's eye for weeks afterwards. And two, it was the first Christmas that he would get to see his best friend Mike. He knew that after breakfast he would get to go to the Wheelers house for the first ever Byers Wheeler Christmas.

The Byers got to the Wheelers house at about 12. Mike ran straight to the door, opened it and gave Will a big hug. He then took his hand and the two ran down to the basement. A pregnant Karen soon followed Mike giggling 'Sorry, he's really exited. Come in! Do you want anything to drink?'. Joyce took her coat off 'No thank you I'm fine'. Karen smiled 'How bout you Jonathan, do you want anything?'. Jonathan just shook his head. Which most people would have found rude. But Karen knew Jonathan well enough to know that he was just shy. The three went into the Kitchen where Karen said 'Nancy and Barb are in the living room if you want to go and speak to them. Barbs parents had to go out of town and unfortunately couldn't take Barb with them so she's here instead'. Jonathan shook his head 'I'm fine. I'll just stay here'.

Meanwhile, in the basement, Mike and Will were showing each other what they got for Christmas. Mike held up his new dinosaur toy 'And this is my new dinosaur. Look he has a speaker in his mouth to he can roar! What should I call him?'. Will thought for a moment 'Hmmm. How about, rory!'. Mikes jaw dropped 'That's so cleaver!'. Which somehow made the two boys burst out laughing. When the laughing stopped Will managed to say 'So what else did you get?'. A huge smile grew on Mikes face 'I got this cool game called dungeons and dragons'. Will gasped 'NO WAY!' The boy reached into his bag a pulled out the exact same game that Mike was holding up 'ME TOO!'. Mike smiled and the two boys laughed again.

Dinner was, awkward. Not for Mike and Will. They just carried on looking at each other and laughing. Nancy and Jonathan carried on making eye contact which Barb picked up on but said nothing about. Karen and Joyce were talking about how weird it was going to be having a Wheeler who isn't in the same grade as a Byers. Joyce helped a lot with making dinner as Karen was 2 weeks away from her due date. Ted was just asleep. He was literally just sad there asleep. He had a bit of gravy dripping down his cheek. Which Mike and Will, being 9 year old boys, found hilarious.

After dinner, Mike and Will went back down to the basement. Which is when Mike remembered that he hadn't asked Will what he got for Christmas. So he did. With a kind smile he said 'Hey Will. What did you get for Christmas?'. Will smiled 'I got some pencils, a new sketch pad, D&D and a frog plushy'. Mike smiled 'Cool'. Wills face lit up 'Oo I almost forgot, I made something for you'. He ran over to his bag and pulled out a peace of paper and gave it to Mike 'I was looking at the frog plushy before we left and it reminded me of you so I drew you a frog'. Mike gave Will a dirty look 'Thanks?'. Will laughed 'I'm kidding! Turn it over!'. So he did. And he saw that Will had drew him a big red dragon. His face lit up 'OMG Will it's so cool!'. He then went over to the table and pulled out his binder that he kept the drawings Will have to him and put it at the very front. Will smirked 'Frog face'. Mike turned round 'What did you just say?'. Will giggled 'nothing'. Mike marched over to his relatively small best friend 'Friends don't lie'. Will smirked again and whispered 'frog face'. Mike stared him down then did the only thing he knew to get pay back. He tickled him. Will fell to the ground giggling 'No Mike stop! Mike! Stop! Please!'. Mike thought for a second 'Only if you name the frog plushie Mike!'. Will smiled 'deal'. The two boys got up, still laughing.

A few hours went by and Mike and Will were laying down in the blanket fort in Mikes basement. They weren't even talking just looking at the ceiling. The science seemed to fill the fort in a nice way. Until Mike said 'Willy?'. Will turned to the raven haired boy 'Yeah?'. Mike smiled 'Today was fun. Maybe next Christmas we could do it again'. The smaller boy giggled 'Maybe we could do it every Christmas for the rest of our lives'. The taller boy smiled a huge smile 'Yeah' he thought for a moment 'Maybe tomorrow you could come over and we could figure out how to play D&D'. Will just nodded and the two boys just stayed there for a moment. The was until Joyce called 'Will sweetie it's time to go!'. Both boys frowned and Will called back 'Coming'. Then he gave Mike a big hug, ran out of the tent and got his stuff before running upstairs and leaving. Mike hated watching Will leaving so quickly. It made him feel like a part of him just left. If only he figured out why sooner.

-authors note-
Hola children, thanks for choosing to actually read some of this awful book. I promise it'll get better as it goes on. I just really like writing baby Byler moments cause I just think that they would've been so precious when they were little. Also I had to write something in about Barb cause she deserved better. Ok bye.

15th November 2020
1056 words