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The group sat, all squished together in Hopper’s small cabin, watching Mike pace the room.
“There’s got to be some way we can help her!” Mike huffed as he threw his arms into the air.
Will struggled not to roll his eyes.
“Mike,” he sighed, “I’m sure there’s a way to help her, but you’re not helping right now. Can you please just come back to the table?”
Will saw Jonathan side-eye him as Mike hissed between his teeth.
“How can she be this stupid to go off on her own? After everything that’s happened, she just leaves?! How can she do that!?”
Mike’s pacing picked up, and Will finally rolled his eyes.
“She’s her own person, Mike. She can make her own decisions and all we can do is support her.”
Mike whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at Will.
“But how can you support this when she’s putting herself in danger! I love her! I can’t lose her! My life started the day I found her in the woods. It was the best thing that has happened to me.”
It was silent for a moment, other than Mike’s harsh breathing. Then-
Will scoffed, causing all eyes to snap to him.
“Ok, that’s nice, Mike. Now, does anyone actually have a plan to help her instead of just sitting on their ass?”
Everyone’s eyes widened as they stared at him in surprise. Robin looked at him in respect as Jonathan gasped, having never heard Will curse.
And Mike? Mike paled, and his jaw dropped to the floor. It took a few moments of stuttering before he could complete a sentence.
“Why are you acting like that?”
Will just raised an eyebrow with a deadpan face. Nancy looked at him with curious eyes.
“Like what?”
“Like-Like all,” he scrambled for words as Will raised his eyebrow further up, “bitter,” Mike finished lamely.
Will accidentally let out a dark laugh as he stood from the table. His chuckle caused several to pale. Steve and Dustin shared panicked looks, their eyes screaming with the word ‘possessed??’
“I think,” Will said with a chuckle. His eyes were dead, and his tone was full of venom. “With everything that’s happened in my life, I’m allowed to be a little bit bitter.”
Mike’s eyes widened further as Will crowded into his space, tilting his head up to bore his harsh gaze into Mike’s eyes.
“Don’t you?” The brunette growled.
“I mean,” Will giggled wetly, his eyes stinging as everyone remained silent. “What can fuck you up more than an abusive father who wished you were better off dead ,” he spat, causing all to flinch.
“Then getting bullied for the very thing your father would abuse you for, getting dragged off into some hell dimension by a murderous monster and having to hide for a week in said hell being hunted by monsters wanting to kill you and not knowing if you’d make it out, and sometimes wishing you didn’t ,” he breathed harshly as the tears finally fell down his cheeks, catching on the edge of his manic smile.
“You wished the monster would just find you and end your misery, only to make it out just to be bullied again but more harshly. Zombie boy, freak, fairy, fag ,” Will spat out the insults as he ignored everyone’s flinch with each one. Robin flinched particularly hard at the last one.
“Then you get fucking possessed by a monster from the dimension you were stuck in and get flashbacks before getting trapped inside your own body and watching as your life is slowly stolen again because of the same fucking thing as the first time and having to live with yourself and the knowledge that you’ve gotten so many people killed and have killed people with your own hands.”
“Will-” Mike tried to touch the boy, only to get his hand slapped away.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Will screamed, hugging himself tightly as he clenched his eyes tightly.
The only sounds in the cabin were Will’s harsh breathing as everyone looked around for advice.
“Then you’re forced to move across the country, away from all of the friends you’ve grown up with, even though they’d practically abandoned you the first chance they got and forgot about you the minute they all get girlfriends,” Will spoke softly, wiping away his tears as he stared blankly at the floor.
“And have to suffer all alone because everyone’s abandoned you, and feel even more alone because then you’re really gone for good and no one’s there to help you at school anymore when you’re bullied again because no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you’ll always be that fairy freak even though you try. You try so hard to be like everyone else. To like girls like you should, but no matter what, you know it’ll never happen,” he giggled hysterically as Mike felt tears trail down his cheeks.
“And when you finally see your best friend for the first time in a year , who has left you and abandoned you, who you always try to contact yet has seemed to leave you behind, he ignores you to make goo-goo eyes with your sister and leaves behind again . So you’re forced to third wheel on your birthday, which everyone forgot,” Will took a shuddering, deep breath in, and Mike felt his heart break in two.
“Then gets blamed for not helping your sister even though you’ve tried to help her, but she’s just so stubborn and you have your own problems to deal with but it’s never good enough. You’re never good enough and no matter what you do or how hard you try it’ll never be good enough for anyone and maybe you should have just died when you were stuck in that hell dimension because it sure as hell feels like you never came out.”
Will was panting by the end of his rant, tears running down his face that matched Mike’s.
“Will,” Jonathan choked out, his own eyes misty. But Will just shook his head and speed-walked out the door.
~~~
“Stupid, stupid stupid,” Will growled as he punched the tree again. After he ran out into the woods, he decided to go behind the cabin and let out his anger on a tree. He’d been punching the tree for five minutes when he heard Mike call out his name.
He decided not to respond. Instead, his knees went under him, and he sat on his knees, crying into his palms and ignoring his bloody knuckles.
“Will!”
“Go away, Mike,” Will’s voice wobbled as he sniffled.
Mike ignored him and kneeled in front of him, gently taking his hands off his face and inspecting his wounds.
“You’re hurt.”
Will unconsciously let out a dry huff at Mike’s concerned pout.
“Please just go away.” The brunette winced as his voice cracked. Mike hesitated for a second, looking at Will’s slumped form, before dragging Will to stand.
“We need to clean these.”
Will nodded with a defeated look.
Mike dragged Will to the porch and sat him down before running inside to grab bandages and antiseptic, causing the shorter boy to smile slightly at Mike’s thoughtfulness.
Though, he wiped the smile from his face by the time Mike came back outside.
They sat silent as Mike cleaned Will’s hands, whispering soft assurances despite Will’s high pain tolerance. WIll only spoke again to thank Mike once the teen was done bandaging, only for his breathing to stutter when Mike held his hands.
“Will.”
And Will felt himself start to shake at Mike’s soft voice.
“I don’t even know where to begin my apologies.” Mike seemed to look at him for guidance but then thought better of it as he averted his eyes to their clasped hands.
“I’m so, so sorry, Will. Nothing I could say or do would make up for how I’ve made you feel. For the way we’ve all made you feel. You’re the one who’s always brought this party together. We’d be nothing without you.”
“It didn’t feel that way when you all abandoned me,” Will murmured.
Mike’s face scrunched up in an unknown emotion before he smoothed it out and took another deep breath.
“I never meant to abandon you, Will. You’re my best friend,” Mike breathed.
“But ever since last year, we go days without having a meaningful conversation,” tears started sliding down his face again. “And I used to miss you so much when that happened.”
Will slowly took his hands away from Mike’s and hugged himself again.
“But it never seemed like you missed me,” Will smiled around the taste of salty tears as he looked into Mike’s horrified eyes.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Will spoke again.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t love me in the way I wanted you to.”
Mike looked over in confusion before everything clicked into place, and he gasped at Will’s pained smile. The brunette didn’t let him get a word in as he stood up and walked back into the house without Mike.
As the teen was left sitting on the porch, he gazed up into the stars with unseeing, misty eyes.
“I’m sorry too.”