Chapter Text
It was exactly 11am when I knocked on the Byers’s door on the morning of Friday, November 1, the first day of the month and the long weekend. My bike was parked out front, but notably neither Joyce’s car nor Jonathan’s was there. I had breathed a sigh of relief when I realized I wasn’t going to have to confront either of them right now about dating Will again.
Will answered the door almost immediately. He was wearing one of my favorite shirts of his: a red, white and indigo blue striped t-shirt with a solid blue collar. It was tucked into a pair of khaki pants, which were held up by a brown leather belt with a gold buckle. It was really nice seeing Will as himself again rather than dressed as a character in a movie. I was sure he thought the same for me, especially since I had been wearing a wig the whole evening, making me look even less like myself. Today I was wearing a navy flannel shirt jacket over a solid green t-shirt tucked into a pair of medium blue jeans. He greeted me with a wide grin. “Hey, Robert!”
“Hey, Will,” I smiled back.
“Don’t worry, it’s just us,” he assured me, telling me what I had already deduced on my own.
I turned around to look out at the front yard again for a second and turned back to him. “Yeah, I figured.”
I stepped inside his house, immediately beginning to feel all kinds of nostalgia. It felt like it had been forever since I’d been inside, yet it still felt like a second home to me, just as familiar as ever — everything from the faint smell of burnt toast emanating from the kitchen down the hall to the dingy old taupe and brown striped couch in the living room that Will and I had spent so many nights sitting on together watching TV and VHS tapes of our favorite movies.
“So how much trouble did you get in last night?” Will asked, wasting no time interrogating me about any consequences I might have faced from my mom.
“None,” I smirked in a self-impressed manner.
Will looked baffled. “How?”
“My mom was asleep on the couch when I walked in, so I snuck down to the basement and stuck my costume in the wash with her none the wiser.”
“Wow, you really are a rogue, aren’t you?” Will teased.
I chuckled. “How about you? Did your mom find out?”
His smile faded. “Yeah, I had to tell her everything.”
“Did you get in trouble?”
“No, she was just glad I got out of there in one piece.”
“Is she okay with… you know?”
He nodded. “She’s always had a soft spot for you.”
“And Jonathan? He wouldn’t even so much as look at me last night.”
Will shrugged. “You know Jonathan. Always overprotective. He’ll come around.”
I cleared my throat. “So umm, did you have something specific in mind you wanted to do now or…”
“What? I’m not allowed to wanna hang out with my boyfriend without a specific plan?”
My cheeks flushed. “I… I didn’t mean it like that…”
He smirked. “I’m just messing with you. Yeah, actually I was thinking maybe we could head over to Lovers Lake for a picnic. Something peaceful and private, you know? We don’t have to if you don’t want to, though. It’s just an idea…”
I put my finger over his lush lips. “Will, that sounds amazing.”
He smiled with relief. “Great! I already packed lunch and water for us, so let’s head out!” He slipped on his olive green jacket and grabbed his backpack off the couch in the living room.
Of course he preemptively packed everything, I thought to myself with a closed lip smile. Will was definitely a planner, always making sure he prepared for things well in advance — everything from setting up D&D campaigns to studying for tests. I was the total opposite, a chronic procrastinator who always waited until the last minute to do things. It was a good thing I had him around to keep me on task.
We spent about half an hour walking to Lovers Lake from his house, passing by Castle Byers on our way over. I couldn’t help but notice while we were walking by it that Will seemed a little on edge, but I decided not to press him about it. If he wanted to talk about it, he would.
______________________________________________________________________________
Bored out of her mind, El lay on her bed reading the latest Cosmo magazine. Hopper had connected the dots from last night and promptly grounded her for the entire long weekend — no TV and no going out with friends. She was only allowed out later today for tennis practice, and Hopper would be driving her there and back to assure she wasn’t sneaking off.
She heard a knock on the front door of Hopper’s cabin. El set her magazine down and got off her bed. She fluffed her hair a bit before padding over to her bedroom door, using her powers to open it. She stepped out into the living room past Hopper’s creaky old reclining chair that the chief had used a few times to peak into her bedroom to see if she and Mike were maintaining “appropriate distance” from each other.
Knock, knock, knock. “El, you there?” Max’s muffled voice came from outside. El opened the front door with her powers. “Can we talk?” the redhead asked upon seeing her best friend.
El sat back down on her bed while Max paced back and forth.
“I don’t know what to do, El. I feel like I’m going crazy.”
“Why?”
“I think… I might be falling for Lucas again, but…”
“But what?”
“I mean… I can’t just go crawling back to him, after everything he said… his lies.” She continued to pace. “You know last night I saw him down the street after everyone ran out of the house and we were all standing outside. He gave me this look, like he regretted everything, like he was checking to make sure we were all safe. He warned you and Mike about Todd, right? Maybe I was too quick to judge him. Maybe he does still care about Robert and Will, about all of us.”
“He does,” El assured her. “You should talk to him.”
“No, I can’t…” Max paused for a moment to think. “This is probably gonna sound dumb, but have you ever found yourself maybe, potentially… I don’t know… liking two boys at the same time?”
El’s face scrunched up. “Two boys?”
“Yeah like if besides Mike you liked someone else too,” Max explained. “Like really liked them. Not just as a friend.”
She shook her head. “No, just Mike.”
Max scoffed. “Right, of course not. You two are attached at the hip.”
Ignoring her zinger, El looked up at her Ralph Macchio poster on her wall. “Well, maybe Ralph Macchio too, but I don’t exactly know him. He’s just pretty.”
A beat passed as Max stopped pacing and flashed her a crooked smile. She had introduced the Karate Kid to El this past summer. “Please don’t tell Mike I said that,” El begged.
“Don’t worry, El. Your secret’s safe with me,” Max chuckled while looking down at the cross-legged brunette.
“Who’s the other boy?” El wondered.
“Huh?”
“You like two boys, right?”
“I didn’t say that,” Max denied.
El shot Max a knowing look. She could see right through her best friend.
“Okay, umm, see the thing is… I don’t even know if I really like him or not…”
“Max, who is it?”
Max sighed and sat down on the bed with her. “Jack.”
El’s eyes twinkled in amusement as she covered her mouth to hold back a giggle.
Max was flustered, not expecting that kind of reaction from El. “Look, he’s no Macchio but he’s nice, okay?”
“How long have you liked him?” El asked, trying her best to be serious and suppress any further judgment.
“The thing is… I hadn’t even thought about him that way at all until Robert told me last night that Jack’s been crushing on me. Hell, I hadn’t even picked up on the signs. But when I was taking care of him last night, that’s when it really started to click. The way he’d look at me, how he put in all that effort to match his costume with mine. It was like… like I meant the world to him or something. And I guess it feels kinda nice to have someone think of me that way again.”
“Does he mean the world to you?” El questioned her.
Max thought about it for a moment. “I… I don’t know. I mean I care about him and all. He’s really sweet. I know he’s got it kind of rough at home, and since I know what that’s like, I kind of feel like I have this like need to help him or something.”
“Like you helped Robert?”
“No! Well, I don’t know. Maybe? Kind of?”
“If you’re not gonna talk to Lucas, maybe you should give Jack a chance, see where it goes. You’re gonna see him later at practice, right?”
Max frowned. “It's so stupid how we have to have practice when there’s no school,” she complained. “Maybe I should skip. Call in sick. It’s not too hard to believe I’d get a tummy ache from eating too much Halloween candy.”
El tilted her head. “I thought you liked cross country.”
“I do, but…”
“Don’t you wanna see him?”
“Look, I just don’t feel like going to practice today, okay?”
“It’s because of Robert, isn’t it?” El correctly deduced.
Max sighed. “You saw how angry he was at me.”
“If it wasn’t for you, he and Will wouldn’t be back together.”
“I know, but if it also wasn’t for me, the whole school wouldn’t know about them, or at least be suspicious of them. Honestly I don’t even know how they’d actually know for sure. It’s not like anyone saw them kissing or something.”
“Has he ever thanked you?”
Max’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“You sat with him every day at lunch to make sure he wasn’t alone after he broke up with Will. You covered for him when he skipped out on cross country practice that first day after he broke up with him. And you got them back together… with a little help of course. Tell me, has he ever thanked you for any of it?”
El could practically see the gears turning in Max’s head. “No, I don’t think he has,” the redhead realized.
“He’s ungrateful, Max. He’s treating you like garbage. You’re going to ignore him,” El instructed her. “Don’t acknowledge him at practice. Don’t answer his calls. Give him the medicine.”
Max’s lips curled into a proud smile. El was parroting the same advice she had given to the brunette early last summer when Mike and El had a spat of their own a few days before the Fourth of July. Hopper had been giving them hard time about spending so much time together and forced Mike to lie about why he couldn’t hang out with her. El figured out quickly that her boyfriend was lying but when he couldn’t explain why, she got fed up with his crap and dumped him. Fortunately the pair made up just in time to celebrate America’s birthday together.
“Lucas, Jack, Robert… you’re always helping them fix their problems because they’re too stupid to help themselves. You know what? Forget what I said about talking to Jack. You need some time off, Max, to focus on yourself — your needs.”
El’s transgressive advice started to make Max feel rebellious. “You wanna go shopping?” the redhead asked on a whim.
El frowned, looking down at her golden brown flower-patterned comforter. “I’m grounded, remember?”
“Grounded, schmounded. Come on, El. What good is a three day weekend when you’re cooped up in here the whole time? And besides, we both know full well it’s the perfect distraction from stupid boys.”
El’s eyes lit up in excitement, the brunette looking positively giddy at the thought of breaking her grounding for a shopping trip with her best friend, especially a therapeutic one. “Papa’s gonna kill me if he finds out!”
Max grabbed El's hand and pulled her up and out of the bedroom. “What’s he gonna do? You have superpowers, remember?”
They laughed as they ran out of Hopper’s cabin hand in hand, both eager to partake in some much-needed girl time at the Starcourt Mall.
______________________________________________________________________________
Lovers Lake was nice and quiet this time of day. It’s namesake came from the heart shape of the lake, but both Will and I were well aware of the lake’s reputation as a place where horny teens parked their cars on weekend nights to hook up. During the day, however, especially a weekday such as this one, the lake was peaceful, serene, the perfect place for the two of us to catch up undisturbed.
I looked out at the water while munching on the PB & J sandwich Will had packed for me. The view was beautiful, the calm water gently rippling and the pine trees on the other side of the lake swaying ever so slightly with the wind. Because it was overcast today, like many so autumn mornings in Hawkins often were, the landscape was blanketed by soft even lighting with barely if any shadows. It made the whole area look even more serene than it already did. The parking lot, which was on the opposite of the lake from us since we had trekked through the woods from Will’s house rather than taking the road route, was empty.
Had I brought my camera with me, I would have been able to capture the beauty of this moment on film, but alas I had left it at home, sitting on my desk where it was collecting dust. I hadn’t used it in a while. I had been finding it impossible to motivate myself to go out and take pictures, especially with school and cross country taking over my life. So I took mental pictures instead, savoring the peaceful bliss, the two of us alone together.
Alone together. It was nice. Really nice. But did I really deserve it, though? After everything I put him through? After the way I treated Max? After the way I so cavalierly spilled Jack’s secret crush to her? This was an escape. This wasn’t reality. It was like a perfect dream. One that would surely end when I biked home later from Will’s one story bungalow off of Mirkwood. Then reality would kick me in the teeth at cross country practice, where I’d have to face Max and Jack. Did Jack even know about me? He had been totally out of it last night, but surely Sharon had told him by now.
“It is pretty, isn’t it?” Will commented, his soft sweet voice ushering me back into the moment and out of my own head.
“Yeah, it’s beautiful,” I replied in a half-whisper.
He took a swig of water from his canteen, sitting cross-legged and staring out at the lake. “When I was really little, Jonathan used to take me out here. We’d sit on the ground with a blanket just like we are now. He’d give me a cup of crayons and drawing pad, and I’d scribble while he read a novel. I used to believe this place was some magical realm that only Jonathan knew the way to, like Narnia or something. I’d draw all sorts of fantastical characters that I imagined lived here by the lake, mermaids, serpents, wood elves. Of course later on I figured out that he was really taking me out here to get away from our dad. Once I got a little older he decided I needed my own place to escape, so he built me Castle Byers.”
I shifted in my spot on our picnic blanket, turning away from the lake to face him. “Is that what we’re doing right now? Escaping?” I asked him innocently, trying my best not to sound accusatory.
Will smiled wryly. “We all need somewhere to go to feel safe when it feels like the world around us is crumbling, like everything we know is changing, turning into something we barely recognize anymore.”
Did I have a place like that? My bedroom hardly counted, especially ever after I had tore down all the things that had reminded me of Will, things in which I had once taken comfort. I hadn’t yet gotten around to putting any of it back up yet between last night and now. I always did feel safe in Castle Byers, but that was Will’s place, not mine. Mike had his basement, where pretty much no one else in his family spent very much time ever. I didn’t really know if anyone else in our party had a safe place.
But there was a striking similarity in Will’s words now and what Max had told me Lucas confided to her right before she broke up with him. Had Max perhaps been too harsh on him at the bowling alley? Had Lucas really just been scared of the party becoming something he didn’t recognize anymore? Was it so wrong to have that fear? Especially after everything we’d all been through?
“You think maybe that’s why Lucas left?” I speculated after a moment of silent reflection.
Will’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”
“Like maybe he got scared the party was changing in ways he didn’t want it to, so he ran off and found comfort in the one thing left in his life that still felt normal and safe: his football team.”
Will scratched his head. “I guess I never really thought about it that way,” he admitted, his hazel eyes downcast.
“He still cares about us, Will. I know it. If it wasn’t for him… we… I don’t even wanna think about it,” I shuddered, refusing to let my mind go there. Especially right now.
“If he really hates Todd now as much as we do, why is he still keeping his distance? Why isn’t he rejoining the party?” Will’s usual bitter attitude that accompanied anything regarding Lucas since he had ditched the party was gone. Instead there was a sense of mournfulness behind his questioning of our former friend’s motives.
“He still has a season to finish out with that asshole. Maybe once it’s over, he’ll come back,” I replied, trying to be optimistic.
“I miss him, Robert.” Will confessed, his voice shaking a bit. “I’ve missed him all along.”
“I know,” I murmured, giving him a sad smile. “Me too."
Will put his knees up in front of him, resting his forearms on his knees his left hand gripping his right wrist. “You know, it’s funny,” he began wistfully, staring off into the middle distance. “I used to be so scared of the same thing — the party changing in ways I wasn’t ready for. Earlier in the summer, before the Fourth, before the mansion… all I wanted us to do was sit in Mike’s basement and play D&D… like old times. And even though we did play a bit, it was never like it used to be. I could tell Mike’s heart wasn’t in it as much when he was the DM. It was like he was just going through the motions. Somehow the campaigns felt lazier too. Maybe it was because they were dumbed down so El could follow them, maybe it was because Mike didn’t spend as much time setting them up. But no one really seemed to be into it as much anymore. Mike and Lucas were always so distracted by their girlfriends and would rather spend time with them than with us playing D&D, Dustin got fed up with Mike and Lucas running off all the time and started hanging out with Steve and Robin in the mall, El and Max were never into D&D that much to begin with, and you started to find other hobbies that sparked your interest more, like photography and running.”
“We still all hung out though. Sure it wasn’t like every waking moment, but it’s normal for us to wanna branch out a bit, right? I mean I definitely enjoyed hanging out with you one on one more frequently.”
“As did I. But even those times we did all hang out together, it was never the same, you know? It wasn’t like how it used to be. Like when did everything start becoming about relationships?”
“When El came back?” I chuckled.
Will didn’t seem amused. “You remember when all of us went together to see Back to the Future opening night?”
“Yeah, of course! That was a lot of fun.”
Will frowned. “Not for me, it wasn’t.”
I shot him an incredulous look. “What? Why? I thought you loved Back to the Future. You even wanted to see it again for our first date.”
“Yeah, because I wanted a better memory of watching it, not one that was ruined by the fallout of Mike and El’s breakup,” Will explained. He let out a sigh. “I remember that evening we were standing in line outside the theater. All of us were so excited, sharing our theories on what was gonna happen based on the trailer. For one shining moment I started to believe that maybe, just maybe, things really could go back to the way they were, especially since El had dumped Mike the day before. Finally Mike was talking about something other than his breakup. Dustin was actually with us and not running off with Steve. But of course things started to go downhill quickly from there. Turned out Dustin had invited Steve along and hadn’t told any of us, so Steve randomly showed up and joined us in line, and once we got inside he and Dustin predictably went off on their own, sitting a few rows behind us. Then El decided to ditch us too and join them just to be away from Mike, even though she barely knew Steve. But the worst part of it all was during the movie, around the point when Marty was trying to get George to ask Lorraine to the dance, I could hear Mike right next to me whispering to Lucas about his girl problems and how petty El was being for sitting away from us. And it wasn’t just for like a few seconds. He kept going on and on. Like it couldn’t wait even though they’d been talking about it the whole day. Both of them were so focused on Mike’s breakup rather than the movie we had all been so eager to see for weeks. It took me completely out of the whole experience. To her credit Max tried to hush them a few times, but they just kept going at it until she finally slapped Lucas across the back of his head to shut him up and forced him to trade seats with her so he’d be away from Mike. All that crap and for what? Some stupid lovers’ quarrel that got resolved within a day or two? That was the moment when it dawned on me that the party as I knew it was gone. Everyone was too caught up in their romances or bromances, the gossiping and talking behind people’s backs. Everyone, that is, but you.”
Will craned his neck to face me, gazing into my fascinated dark brown eyes. I was completely riveted by his story of that night. I couldn’t get over how observant Will was and how oblivious I had been. While I obviously knew Dustin, Steve and El had gone off to sit separately, there was all this stuff with Mike and Lucas during the movie that I somehow completely missed, despite being only one seat removed from it all. But really Will could have been talking about his trip to the grocery store and I’d still be fascinated. I could sit here and listen to Will talk for hours. I loved the sound of his voice, the impassioned and eloquent way he spoke about things.
“I remember turning to my right after all that, and seeing you there next to me, your eyes glued to the screen, totally immersed in the movie, nothing else distracting you. It was like you were in your own little world. None of the drama ever seemed to phase you much. You just rolled with it all, somehow. I don’t know how you did it. But despite that, I still sensed a kindred spirit in you, someone who deep down felt just as alone and left out as I did. I wanted so badly to grab your hand in that moment, so if both of us had to feel alone that night, at least we could feel alone together, but I couldn’t do it, Robert.”
I got the chills as he uttered the words “alone together,” the exact same two words I had just been dwelling on minutes ago.
“I couldn’t bring myself to potentially destroy the one thing that still reminded me of how things used to be, before the Upside Down, before the Mind Flayer, before… girls.”
“Our friendship?” I guessed.
Will nodded before shifting back to a cross-legged position on the picnic blanket, his palms on the ground slightly behind him pushing his back upright. “You were the only one I had left. The only one who hadn’t moved on like everyone else had. Sometimes I wondered whether you felt some sort of obligation to pay attention to me because no one else was. Whether you secretly wished you could have found a girlfriend or some cooler older dude you’d rather hang out with. I’d feel guilty, like I was holding you back from what you wanted.”
I placed my hand on his knee, rubbing it gently. “I wanted you, Will. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
His lips curled into a smile. “You know, they say hindsight’s twenty-twenty.” He took another swig of water and offered the canteen to me, but I declined. He set it aside and continued his story. “So we got out of the movie, and everyone was raving about it, even Lucas despite his passionate arguments about why the time travel made no sense. But all I could think about at the time was how angry I was at Mike. You know I’m not normally one for confrontation, but I just felt this... need to say something, let him know exactly how I felt. So I told him I needed to talk to him alone, which he surprisingly agreed to. It was pouring rain that night when the movie got out, so the two of us took shelter under the marquee, waiting for everyone else to go home. Part of me wished you had been there with me, to back me up, but you seemed to have been having such a good time that night. I didn’t think it was fair to drag you into all that negativity unnecessarily.”
“You could have dragged me into it, Will. I would have helped you. We could have talked to him together.”
Will shook his head. “Some things you just have to do on your own.” He took a breath. “So anyway, once it was only the two of us left outside the theater, I finally let Mike have it — how he had not only ruined my night but was also ruining the party, how he didn’t seem to care at all about D&D anymore or even that Dustin was starting to drift away from us because he was too busy sneaking off to swap spit with El, and how even after she dumped him we still couldn’t go to the movies without him making everything about him and El. I wasn’t trying to attack him. Not really. I only wanted him to realize how much his negligence was hurting the party… hurting me. I thought maybe he'd understand if I laid it all out for him. But instead of acknowledging his shortcomings, all he did was defend himself by making it about how I hadn’t moved on like everyone else. You wanna know what he said? He said, ‘It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.’”
I was completely taken aback. I knew Mike could be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but I never thought he could say something so callous, especially to Will. “I… I can’t believe he’d say something like that.”
“Well, he did. And all I could do was stare back at him totally speechless, trembling and on the verge of tears. I mean, it wasn’t like I could deny it since technically it was true. He tried to backpedal a bit once he saw how much his jab had hurt me, telling me he wasn’t trying to be a jerk or whatever, but he never actually apologized for saying it. He just continued on about how we weren’t kids anymore and asked me if I really thought none of us were ever gonna get girlfriends and just play games in his basement the rest of our lives.”
I winced, imagining myself in Will’s shoes that night. “I’d have punched him in the face if he said all that crap to me.”
Will chuckled lightly. “No way you would've.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I sighed. I couldn’t help but agree that no matter how angry or hurt Mike made me feel, there was no way I could actually go as far as punching him. “So what did you say? Did you answer his question?”
“Yeah, I told him I did, even though I honestly didn’t really believe it anymore. And then I just left him standing there under the marquee as I rode my bike off into the stormy night, crying my eyes out the whole way over to Castle Byers, the raindrops mixing with my tears to the point where I couldn’t even tell which was which anymore. I remember after sitting inside of it for a bit, my clothes and hair soaking wet and my eyes puffy, picking up that picture of the four of us in our Ghostbusters costumes and you in your sheet ghost costume from last Halloween and just feeling more and more broken the longer I stared at it, knowing that I’d never be able to go back to those simpler times when it was just the five of us all happy together, like in the photo. And when I couldn’t bear to look at it any longer, I ripped it to shreds.”
I shuddered at the thought of him being in so much despair that he would destroy a treasured photo of us. I couldn’t even begin to imagine now what he might have done after I broke up with him. I also couldn’t believe he had never told me the story of this night before. He was supposed to be my best friend, my boyfriend, and I had no idea he had suffered through all of that.
Will moved his arms out in front of him, resting them on top of his crossed legs. “I was so stupid. Stupid for thinking that we’d always be those carefree kids playing D&D in Mike’s basement. Stupid for not allowing myself to try to move on like everyone else had,” he started to choke up.
I placed my hand on his. “You weren’t stupid, Will. Who could blame you for wanting to go back to those simpler times after everything you’ve been through?”
“You know I almost destroyed it, Robert? I almost destroyed Castle Byers. Twice now, actually. That night and the night you broke up with me. The first time I swung a bat at it, made a few dents. But the second time… well, I kind of tore down all the pictures on the walls.”
Yeesh. So that’s why he was so uneasy walking past it earlier. I continued to hold his hand, grabbing it fully now. It was dry and cool to the touch.
“But the very next day, the Fourth of July, something crazy happened while we were watching the fireworks with everyone else that gave me hope… hope that maybe I could move on like everyone else had. Mike and El had just gotten back together that morning and were all over each other like nothing had happened between them. Lucas and Max were busy cozying it up as well. Even Dustin and Steve were like two dorky peas in a pod. None of them really paid us any mind. We might as well have been alone — just the two of us gazing up at the sky. As we admired the fireworks I admitted to you that I felt like the Mind Flayer was still out there watching us, waiting for some opportunity to strike, and you said if it somehow found a way through that you wouldn’t let anything happen to me. And then it happened. You grabbed my hand, just like you did now. I was so taken aback. You just went for it. No hesitation. But almost as quickly as you did it you drew your hand away, totally embarrassed I’m sure. I was too. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I liked it too much. I couldn’t help but wonder whether maybe you felt it too —that spark. And I began to feel like even more of an idiot after that for not doing it the night before in the movie theater because it didn’t ruin our friendship in the slightest. It felt right, like… like…”
“Like everything was as it should be,” I finished his thought, recalling how I felt about it at the time.
Will’s eyes twinkled with surprise. “Yeah, exactly,” he smiled. “And little did I know that two days later, I’d discover you had felt that spark too. But even though we got together, there was still some part of me that wished things could to go back to the way they used to be between us. Not because I wasn’t in love with you, but because it was safer, more familiar. I guess I wanted to hold onto that feeling of us being those same kids playing D&D in Mike’s basement a little bit longer. But after that month we spent apart, I know I definitely don’t feel that way anymore. I wouldn’t trade what we have now for anything in the world. Even to go back to a time when demogorgons and mind flayers were just D&D monsters to be wary of. Everything that’s been thrown at us, Robert, we’re stronger for moving past it, overcoming it.”
I absolutely loved seeing Will so much more sure of himself. It made him even more attractive than he already was, if that was even possible.
Beaming, I grabbed his hands. “And we’ll continue to overcome everything that’s coming our way, together.”
Sitting there on the picnic blanket cross-legged and holding hands with dopey grins on our faces, we gazed into each others’ loving eyes leaning our heads closer and closer until our lips met halfway. Not satisfied with a simple peck, Will let go of my hands and wrapped his arms around my back, eagerly pulling me further into the kiss. I grabbed his face, my fingers gliding across his cheeks and nestling in his silky soft chestnut locks. I could taste hints of peanut butter as my tongue slid into his mouth. My heart was pounding out of my chest as his hands glided up and down my back. There was nothing in the world that ever felt more right to me than kissing Will Byers, and boy had I missed that feeling.
We slowly pulled away from each other’s lips for a moment, catching our breaths. He stared at me with radiant eyes, his wet lips open, his breaths warming my face.
“As good as you remember?” I simpered.
“Better,” he smiled back coquettishly between heavy breaths.
“Better than Jennifer Hayes?”
He snorted. “Shut up.”
He leaned back in to kiss me, our mouths fitting together perfectly. I helped him out of his overly warm jacket, which he tossed aside. Will then shoved his backpack and water canteen out of the way to give us more room on the blanket. With newfound space on the blanket, our bodies went into full autopilot, as we found ourselves rolling over back and forth on the picnic blanket giggling and nuzzling noses between kisses. Will’s hips started to grind against me involuntarily in an intoxicating rhythm, driving me totally nuts. Moving my lips off of his, I planted light kisses from his chin trailing down his neck, where I then began to suck at the soft pale skin right near those two moles I loved so much. “Mmm, Robert…” Will moaned in delight.
After I had had my fill of his neck, I rolled onto my back and craned my neck upward, allowing him access to mine. I squirmed a bit as I felt the tickle of his lips and tongue against my skin. “Will…” his name escaped my lips as my head spun in euphoria. I had almost forgotten what this sensation felt like, the occasional vivid dream serving as the only reminder. Of course that paled in comparison to the real thing.
Once both of us were satisfied, we slowly sat up. Will reached over and grabbed his canteen, handing it to me. I took a swig and handed it back to him. He took a few gulps and set it down. By now, it was essentially empty.
“This was once Jonathan’s safe place. Now it’s ours,” Will proclaimed proudly.
I beamed at him, taking comfort in knowing that now I wouldn’t have to find a safe place of my own since Will had just given me one, one we could share. All my worries about what was going to happen to us in school now that people knew (or at least could reasonably assume) we were together, and what was going to happen with Max and with Jack began to flush out of me, dissipating into the cool November air. Will and I. Alone together. That was all that mattered right now. And if I was capable of making Will feel this happy, this incredible, then yes, I did deserve it.