"Ve? Are you still out there?" Will asked.
"Never left."
A click made Five get up from the floor. The door opened slowly to reveal a teary eyed Will.
"You can come in." Will said, staring at the floor.
Five walked into the room and sat on Will's bed. Will followed Five and sat next to him, still not looking at him.
Five placed his hand on top of Will's hand.
"What's wrong?"
Will sighed, "It's just. Well."
"You can trust me."
"It's just these two stupid boys who keep bullying me."
"Bullying?" Five asked.
"Yeah. Like make fun of you, tease you. Umm like someone hurts you either by words or actions."
"Oh. Who are these two boys?"
Five glowered at thought of the two boys making fun of Will.
"Well you don't know them. Their names are Troy and James."
"What did they tell you?"
"That I should've stayed missing."
"Missing? You were missing?"
"Yes but I was," Will paused, pondering if he should tell Five about the upside down, "I was stuck in the upside down."
"The drawing?" Five wondered if Will knew what he was talking about. "The Shadow Monster thing."
"The Mind Flayer." Will said.
"How did it happen?"
Will tried to explain what happened to him in the upside down the best he could to Five. Although Five understood most of it, he was still confused.
Five noticed Will's behavior when he talked about the upside down. Deciding to avoid pushing Will further to talk about it, Five moved on to the previous subject.
"What did the boys do that made you cry?" Five asked.
"First, it started out with them just saying things. The usual. 'You should have stayed missing, zombie boy.' And 'Can you be gay somewhere else?' Then they started putting notes in my locker. I thought that was it but then they started to get physical. "
"Did they hurt you?" Five asked, concern in his voice.
Will nodded, tears filling his eyes as he tried to blink them away, "They did for the first time today. On my arm."
"Does your friends know?"
"No. Only you. You're the first person I have actually told about this."
"You can't let them take you down. Don't let them hurt you."
Will only nodded, "Well I have to go to bed, I have school tomorrow. Goodnight, Ve."
Five studied Will as he turned the lights off. He wasn't going to push it any further.
With that, Five crawled into his sleeping bag and attempted to fall asleep.
Five stayed there for what seemed like hours trying to fall asleep. He couldn't imagine what Will had gone through.
"Ve?" Will whispered.
Five rolled over, "Yeah?"
"Uh thank you for listening."
"You're welcome." Five and Will stared at each other. Five raised an eyebrow, "Is that all?"
"Um well no but-"
"What is it?"
Will rambled, "It's just that. That I don't want to have a nightmare. And I was gonna ask you to come up here but you probably-"
"Okay."
"Okay? Okay what?"
"I'll sleep next to you."
Will blushed, "Er you don't have to, if you don't want to. You- you know?"
"It's fine." Five said, climbing into Will's bed.
Will's face turned a darker red and he looked away from Five. Although Five seemed calm, internally he was freaking out. He didn't understand why he was. He just felt his heart beat go a bit faster.
Five laid there, staring at the ceiling since he couldn't fall asleep. The bed shuffled next to him as Will started to mumble in his sleep. Five shook Will's shoulders gently.
"Will. Will." Will's head shot up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just a nightmare." Will whispered.
They stayed quiet. Five reached for Will's hand and embraced it. Will's breath hitched.
"It'll be okay." Five said.
"You will be okay."
-
A/n: awww my two awkward little beans lol. Anyway, I wanted to say thank you for all the reads and votes! I'm happy you guys like the story so far! If you have any questions about the book, characters, or anything else, feel free to comment them or pm me and I'll do my best to answer them.
Have an amazing day/evening/night!💜