Chapter Text
My nerves were at their breaking point, sweat dripped from my forehead and I couldn’t tell if it was because of the California heat or the fear I felt about arriving to see Eleven. Several months had already passed since the last time I saw her, since the last time she kissed me. We sent letters to each other, but over time they became fewer; the words became hard to write because I simply didn’t know what to say, it even reached a point where the “Love you, Mike” no longer appeared anywhere.
I could say the same about the letters to Will, whom I also hadn’t seen in months. The last time we saw each other I said things I never should have said and that I never had the time or the courage to fix. Unlike Eleven, Will only received occasional letters; I, on the other hand, had at least about 18 in the first month and a half after their departure. Will’s letters were simple but they could make you smile unconsciously while reading them, with deeper anecdotes than the ones Eleven could tell, who generally only used letters as a diary. I loved receiving letters from both of them; they are two of the most important people in my life, but I could notice how, over time, I liked receiving some more than others. This didn’t affect me at first, but it left me thinking quite a lot. I wrote letters to Will, but I only sent the ones that looked simpler, like a conversation about a new place in town or someone who fell in the high school hallways; I tried hard to write better letters to Eleven, but it became more and more difficult. When the letters to her stopped, I didn’t send any to Will either.
This was starting to eat away at me; the point that broke me was the arrival of a new person in my life, Eddie Munson. The man invited me, Dustin, and Lucas to play D&D after seeing us completely lost and with the faces of absolute nerds; he was our salvation at school, and the more time we spent with him, I couldn’t stop looking only at him. He was quite a bit older than me, but that hair, the rings, and his rock style clothes with leather pants and chains, I had never seen anyone like that in town and I was fascinated. The moment everything took shape in my head was during a campaign where a Vampire was the threat to defeat. Eddie, as the great Dungeon Master that he is, arrived with a cape, completely black clothing and chains around his neck, at least five leather bracelets on his arms, adding to that an eyeliner he had stolen from the hallways and applied quite messily, but making him look incredible, more than that, he was beautiful. That campaign was one of the few we lost, and in part it was my fault; I preferred to watch the characterization of Count Argold of Malavia rather than focus on attacking or protecting myself and the others.
As a result of that situation my life became confusing. I couldn’t avoid seeing Eddie in a way that was abnormal, and thinking that receiving letters from my best friend was more exciting than receiving them from my girlfriend gave me a headache.
I arrived in California with all the hope of fixing everything, fixing my life, with flowers for Eleven and a perfect change of clothes for the climate and fashion of the place. These vacations would be just for my amazing girlfriend and to maybe forget about Eddie and Will’s letters. I got off the plane and walked a bit through the airport looking for them with my eyes; I finally caught sight first of the figure of a Jonathan who looked more tired than usual, and finally the beautiful Eleven. I approached them and immediately gave her a hug and a small kiss on the cheek.
“I was so eager to see you,” she said, letting go of my hug and looking me up and down.
“Me too, I brought you some flowers, I tried to combine them a bit but I think the lady put too much yellow,” I was a little nervous and she could notice it because she took the flowers from me and brought them close to her.
“They’re perfect, Mike.”
“Sure.”
I looked around a bit and turned to Jonathan. “And Will?” I know that the main thing at that moment was Eleven, but even so it felt strange not to see him with them, and deep down he was who I wanted to see first.
“He went to the bathroom and God, you’re not going to recognize him, a change of air transformed him almost completely.” I made a confused face; he never mentioned anything about it in his letters.
“There he comes, actually.” Eleven looked to the side and waved her hand to signal for Will to spot us. Among all the people I couldn’t see him, or rather identify him. It was then that in front of us arrived a tall boy, messy hair and completely black, his clothes were also black and with chains and a belt with a strange symbol I had never seen, boots that looked heavy, chain necklaces with spikes and one where a bat hung. But the most striking thing, even more than his clothing itself, was his face, completely white and black on the lips and around the eyes in the form of decoration. But even more striking than that was that beneath that white face with black and pointed decorations was the face of Will Byers.
I was completely frozen for a few moments, I looked at his whole body, all his clothes, everything about him. His hands had rings that were connected by chains and that I didn’t notice until he raised it to greet me. I heard my name like echoes in my head, but I only saw the boy in front of me, I saw how good he looked, how well those rings and necklaces suited him. How that dramatic makeup made his face shine.
“Mike.” Someone’s hand shaking me hard snapped me out of that trance, only to make me want to go back when I saw that it was Will’s hand touching me and that he was even closer to me so I could hear him. I kept looking at him shamelessly and he did the same until a grimace appeared on his face.
“Are you okay?” he said, crossing his arms.
“Ah yeah yeah, um Eleven told me you had changed, I didn’t recognize you, sorry.” I was trembling and stuttering, moving my arms uncontrollably. A smile formed on his black lips and it was so sweet even with his new look.
“I changed quite a bit.”
“You look incredible.” I said it without thinking, my gaze lost on him. Will opened his eyes a little and started moving nervously as well.
“Thanks, I thought it would be weird for someone to see me like this.”
“Not at all.”
We stayed silent for a moment and both of us looked into each other’s eyes. His eyes hadn’t changed at all; even with all that black and white, his eyes were still as innocent and tender as always. NO, this was everything I wanted to avoid by coming here, this was wrong. I went back to Eleven and took her hand.
“Let’s go out, take me to see everything,” I said, starting to walk and turning my back on Will.
“I’ll take you to one of the best places in California, I go there practically all the time, with friends and classmates.”
We started walking and I could feel the Byers brothers walking behind us. While Eleven talked to me about things to do while I was visiting, I tried to decipher the murmurs of both of them behind us as they started talking. I only managed to understand a “everything is fine” and a “it’s not his fault” from Jonathan. It was Will I wanted to talk to; this radical and hypnotizing change was exactly what I was interested in knowing, how he managed to be even more handsome by changing bright colors to black and how wearing makeup left me more captivated.
“Mike?” I felt a pressure on my arm.
“What’s wrong?” I hadn’t even heard everything Eleven had said; I was a horrible boyfriend and I had been for months. I had to focus on fixing that now, I had to try harder.
“I was asking if you wanted to eat first at the restaurant I told you about and then go to the skating rink?”
“Um sure, we’ll do whatever you decide, you’re the one who lives here.” I smiled and she returned the smile, pressing her body against my arm and still holding the flowers to her chest.
We arrived at the skating rink after eating and Eleven started explaining how everything worked. I followed her instructions and went to get some socks and skates to skate together.
“Do you know how to do it?” she asked.
“I have an idea.” I put one foot on the rink and when I felt how it slipped I grabbed onto a railing on the wall. Eleven laughed.
“Give me your hand.” I did so and she patiently started guiding me on how I had to do it. I started slowly, but I could get into rhythm with her help as she stayed in front of me. While we went little by little, I saw Will entering the rink, he changed his boots for equally black skates and started skating so freely and carefree, he just went around the rink and moved his feet on the curves to make a turn that made him spin. I stayed watching him and never noticed that I had already stopped to look at him.
“He’s been coming too, he’s good, right?” Eleven mentioned when she noticed I was looking at him too much.
“Yes, he is.”
“Oh no, someone is taking things from our table, this always happens here, wait for me here to take them away from there.” She let go of me and when she left me with good balance she started skating toward our table. I stayed in the middle of the rink alone and without support, keeping my arms extended trying to stay still. I wanted to take a step to skate on my own, but the moment I moved a little my stability was gone and my feet moved uncontrollably until my body did the same. I wobbled and just before falling backwards someone held me from behind. Will was behind me and held me with great strength. I turned my head and I could see him face to face; his makeup gave him an expression that I didn’t know if it was really his or just the paint, but it made me feel so strange that I got dizzy and almost fell again from not being able to hold myself with my feet.
“Be careful.” He brought me closer to a wall with a railing so I could hold onto it and finally let me go. We were left again staring at each other while I tried not to fall again.
“I know it’s strange to see me like this, with time you get used to it just like Eleven, Jonathan, and mom.”
“It’s not that, it doesn’t bother me how you look, I meant it when I said you looked incredible.”
“Not many people think that.”
“Do you wear it to school?”
“Not anymore, I tried a few times but they yelled at me and the kids made fun of me. Over time that stopped mattering to me, but I had to stop by orders of the school. But the clothes I do wear like this all the time, I like it.”
“And did you create that or where did you get it from? I never saw anyone like that, only on Halloween or in horror movies.”
Will laughed. “It’s called goth, I can tell you about it later.”
While we were talking a boy passed in front of us and called him a monster, yelling it in his face. I wanted to intervene and yell something back at him, but it wasn’t necessary; Will flipped him off and told him to fuck off. Even when the other one laughed, Will didn’t care at all.
“Is that normal?”
“Quite a lot, I don’t care anymore. This is the best I’ve felt in my entire life and being insulted isn’t something new.”
I made a slight smile looking at him while he looked around without paying attention to me. Before, Will would have been sad about the insults, even more if they were as constant as when we were kids, but now he didn’t care at all and even defended himself without hesitation. He was someone different, someone better.
“Thanks for taking care of him, Will, I’m back to teach him,” Eleven said, arriving where we were and taking my hand.
“No problem.” He continued skating freely and I could see how around him there were mockeries and looks of disgust, but Will kept doing his own thing and didn’t bother looking at anyone, and when he did, I could even see him smiling with satisfaction. He was incredible, he was so hypnotizing.