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It was ironic how, after saving the world, the Party still had to go through coursework and exams like any other teenager. Will Byers, at least, wouldn't have it any other way though. In perspective, he preferred dealing with teachers and bullies than monsters from other dimensions.
And yet, he had his own inner demons to fight. For example, falling out of love with Mike Wheeler. It was particularly hard since they became close again, but Will thought he was doing good. Mike wasn't the only boy on Earth, nor he had to always be the center of his world, even though it had been like that for a long time. Plus, Mike was El’s boyfriend. Will would never hurt his sister like that.
After fourth period, Will opened his locker and, while he was putting books in there, he spotted a piece of paper. He picked it up and it reads:
You look pretty today
I like you in blue
-C
Will couldn’t help but smile softly at it. This has been happening for a few days now. He would casually find little notes wishing him a good day or just complimenting him. They even showed how dedicated their author was, because he was indeed wearing a blue sweater that day.
The sender would always sign with a ‘C’, but Will had no idea who they could be. Either way, it felt good receiving this kind of attention. He would even sometimes indulge in fantasizing about the person sending those notes.
“Hey, what's that?” Dustin suddenly asked, leaning in curiously to have a look at what Will was reading.
Soon Lucas and Mike looked in too.
“Oh, it's just… someone's been leaving these notes in my locker,” Will answered, letting the boys read the paper.
“Whoa! That someone has it bad for you, Will,” Dustin said teasingly with a smirk on his face.
“C? Who could that be?” Lucas wondered. “We don't know many other… gay guys.” He lowered his voice on that last part.
Will snorted. “Yeah. I have no idea who they could be.” Then he looked up at Mike, who seemed like he was having a hard time understanding what was happening, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Wow. I mean, yeah, that's so mysterious. I hope you get to know them,” Mike spoke hurriedly, like he only did so because he was expected to say something. But he was nowhere as excited as his other friends.
Will nodded awkwardly and was quick to stash the note away in his backpack. But as he was about to close his locker, he noticed there was another stray piece of paper in there. It was odd because they would only leave one every day. The second note read:
can I meet you after school?
outside the cafeteria
-C
“Ha-ha! Look at you, Byers, you got yourself a date!” Dustin shot his mouth off excitedly, throwing an arm around Will’s shoulders at the same time.
“You should totally go, man!” Lucas chimed in from the opposite side.
“I don’t know, guys… you think so?” Will doubted, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t seriously considering it.
“Guys, we don’t even know if they’re a guy,” Mike intervened like the problem was so obviously visible. “It’s all too… weird. Just saying, I don’t trust them,” he continued, crossing his arms over his chest.
Dustin inspected the note more closely. “Nuh-uh. This handwriting is too mannish. No way a girl wrote this.” Lucas and Will seemed to agree.
“And even if they are a girl, it’s no big deal,” Lucas shrugged. “I say you go,” he finished, patting Will’s shoulder.
“Me too,” Dustin nodded.
Then Will looked at Mike, who ultimately grumbled something and loosened his arms as a sign of defeat.
• • •
Will kept telling himself he wasn’t nervous. This person supposedly liked Will, so what was there to worry about? But his stomach still crumpled in an unpleasant knot as he approached the cafeteria building, leaning against the wall.
After a life of being rejected and jeered at for everything and by everyone, the idea of being chased after (if he could even call it that) was completely foreign to Will. Sure, he has had some moments with other people, like with that girl from Lenora in History class or when he danced with that other girl at the Snow Ball in middle school. But Will was never interested in any of those two; hell, he didn’t even know their names.
Several groups of people passed by, cars came in and out the parking slots around the school, and Will was slowly scanning his surroundings in search of… he didn’t know who either. But then he made eye contact with a guy in a green jacket. Great, thought Will after quickly looking the other way. He was a basketball player, someone he and the Party despise and is always wary of due to an obvious clash of cosmovisions. That is, of course, excluding Lucas, because he was in the school’s basketball team too.
But as he cautiously glanced at the guy’s direction once more, Will noticed he was coming closer to him. Will brushed it off as a coincidence, and kept it so until there was no doubt the guy was approaching him. Will wished the earth would just crack open and swallow him.
“Hey. Byers, right?” the guy spoke, his hands deep into his jacket’s pockets. It was funny because he couldn’t forget about Will’s name since the first time he heard it, but he wanted to sound casual.
“Uhm, y-yeah,” Will nodded awkwardly and slightly backed off by instinct. He noticed a name embroidered on the guy’s letter jacket: Chance. Will had to admit he was pretty good-looking, but soon cursed himself for thinking about that.
“I was hoping I could see you today,” Chance continued, putting on a shy smile. “I’m Chance.” Then he swiftly offered his hand for Will to shake.
But Will was too taken-aback to reciprocate the greeting. “See… me? For what?” he spluttered.
That is when all the confidence Chance had left disappeared. Will was acting as if he was a complete stranger, as if he hadn't been receiving his cute little notes every day. Chance knew, of course, that Will wouldn’t know their author, but he was here now! Wasn’t that obvious?
“Well, I—, uh, I asked you to meet up here,” Chance managed to explain, putting his hands away in his pockets again. “You know; in the, um, note I left you.”
Will’s eyes widened. “You wrote those notes? You’re C?” But his tone wasn’t of relief or honest surprise. It was more like he was terrified of this discovery.
“Yeah, yeah! That’s me!” Chance nodded, taking one step forward, causing Will to take one back.
Will looked around again, desperately searching for something wrong, like other jocks waiting to ambush him or to laugh at him when he realized this was all an elaborate prank. Hundreds of catastrophic scenarios played in his head, every one of them involving humiliation falling upon him. He couldn’t take it. He had to escape.
“Um, s-sorry, I gotta go.” Was all Will could mutter before stepping back and walking away from Chance, head down. He felt his face turning red from the utter embarrassment that situation was.
And Chance could only stare at Will, feeling like the stupidest dunce to ever exist for causing that kind of reaction in the boy he liked. He covered his face with his hands in shame, wondering what could have gone so wrong. He knew Will didn’t like girls, so either he just looks hideous or Will does hate his guts. On second thought, it must be the latter. Of course Will would be freaked out by that stupid jacket of his. What was he thinking when he decided to put it on? That Will would fall in love at the sight of someone that any other day would bully him and his friends? Chance was absolutely hopeless, and today proved it.
Chance wasn’t like the other jocks, though. He has never engaged in actively bullying people, but he does like basketball — that’s the only reason he is in that team.
Some time later, when Will got home with tears in his eyes, Jonathan was there and stood up from the table as soon as he saw the state his brother came in.
“Hey, hey, what happened?” he asked, stopping Will from getting into his room. “What’s wrong?”
Will sobbed the tears back. “Nothing, really. I’m fine,” he replied, rubbing his eyes.
“You can talk to me, remember?” Jonathan insisted, placing his hands on Will’s shoulders.
After Will calmed down a little, he agreed to tell Jonathan what happened.
“It’s just… I’d been getting these notes in my locker. They all said very nice things, but today he asked me to meet him after school. So I did, and he was a guy from the basketball team. And I—” he paused, letting out a sob. “I ran away. I just got really scared. I’m sure it was all a prank anyway.”
Jonathan’s first reaction was anger. He couldn’t stand seeing his brother being bullied or ridiculed at school again. Silver lining, Will wasn’t swooning over Michael Wheeler anymore. He scanned Will from head to toe, looking for any injury or sign that someone had hurt him, and was pleased to see there wasn’t any.
“If that guy ever comes near you again, I swear I’m gonna beat the shit out of him,” he sighed irritatedly.
Will chuckled at that. “Thanks…”
Then Jonathan pulled him in to hug him.
“But don’t let them get to you, alright? You’re gonna find someone good. Just maybe not in high school,” he said as he slowly rubbed Will’s back.
And Will nodded in understanding.
• • •
The next day, during lunch, Will, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Max were eating at their usual table in the cafeteria.
“So Will, how was your date yesterday?” Mike asked while he mindlessly fidgeted with his food.
Will swallowed a biteful uncomfortably before looking up at him, sitting across.
“I think it was a prank or something…” he responded, trying not to sound disappointed.
“What?” Mike spat, attracting the attention of everybody else on the table. “What happened? They didn’t show up?” He squeezed the fork in his fist.
“No, um… he did show up. But he was a basketball player—”
“I knew it!” Mike slammed his fist against the table. “I knew it! Those dickheads have it against us, what have we ever done to them?” He turned his head towards the jocks’ table. They were typically laughing and shoving each other around, barely aware of someone badmouthing them.
But there was someone actually aware of it. Chance felt a pang of shame and guilt when he caught Mike glaring at him across the cafeteria like he wanted to kill him.
Meanwhile, Will could only hide his face in his palms. Dustin and Max witnessed the scene in consternation.
“Wait, who was it? Did you get his name?” Lucas quickly asked beside Will.
“Yeah, it was Chance,” Will sighed.
“Lawson?!” Lucas realized. “I didn’t know he was—” but then cut himself off. “I don’t know him that well, but he doesn’t seem that kind of person.”
“Not that kind of person?” Mike echoed, visibly annoyed. “Look who he’s sitting with! He’s a jock, Lucas!” He pointed at the jocks’ table again, raising his voice.
“I’m in that team too and I’m not a bully!” Lucas retorted.
“He’s right, Mike,” Max chimed in. “I’ve seen that guy in practices and games, and he doesn’t seem like a bully. At least he doesn’t act like one.”
“Bull,” Mike spat bitterly, earning a roll of eyes from Max and a scoff from Lucas. “You know one, you know them all.”
“Well, why doesn’t Lucas go investigate?” Dustin suggests to a distraught Will. “You know, ask him directly,” he shrugs.
Then Will turned his head to face Lucas. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know more. He was feeling more like forgetting the whole issue, but Lucas thought it was a good idea.
“You want me to try?” Lucas asked for confirmation.
“I… guess?” Will winced. “I may have overreacted a little…” he rationalized.
“It's settled then.” Max shrugged and smirked, mostly towards Mike who was sulking on the other side of the table.
• • •
The next day, in the locker room, the basketball team was showering and dressing after a practice. Chance was planning on going home quickly, unlike other days where he would chat with his teammates for a while. He threw his bag over his shoulder and was about to leave when Lucas approached him.
“Hey, Chance”, Lucas called.
Chance answered with a “hmm?”.
“You know my friend Will,” Lucas continued with a subtle tone of question, although he was sure Chance knew who he was talking about. And Chance’s eyes actually widened when he heard Will’s name. “He told me you… played a prank on him. Ring any bell?”
Lucas didn’t fully believe Chance would do that, but then again, he wasn’t best friends with this guy.
Chance was agape momentarily before looking around and tugging Lucas by the arm out of the locker room.
“I swear to God it wasn’t a prank,” he assured once they were in the hallway. “Look…” Chance exhaled. “I like your friend. Like, a lot,” he admitted. He was embarrassed to say it out loud, but it wasn't any less than the truth for that.
“I really wanted to meet him… He told you about the notes?” Chance huffed a laugh awkwardly, like they seemed now a dumb idea to him. “That was me being a total coward. I didn’t know how else to approach him, but I wanted him to know who I was… you probably know the rest.”
Lucas took pity in how pained Chance looked while he explained his rationale. Moreover, he sounded sincere.
“He hates me now, doesn’t he?” Chance asked, running his hand through his hair in despair.
“I don’t think so. He was just convinced you were joking,” Lucas responded.
Then Chance put his palms together. “You have to help me, Sinclair. You have to tell him I was being serious, please.”
And Lucas sighed. “Alright, man. I’ll see what I can do. Can't promise you anything though.”
Chance exhaled in relief. “Thanks, man.”
• • •
After being given a second chance, Chance’s palms were sweating while he waited for Will, sitting on a booth in a diner downtown. He had ditched his letterman jacket and chose a more casual outfit for today, nothing that yelled out ‘I’m gonna bully you’.
As Chance was fidgeting with a ketchup packet, slightly sprawling out on the cushioned seat, he caught sight of Will by the diner’s entrance. Will glanced over the place before finding Chance’s booth and making his way over there. Chance’s body jolted from the seat into a straighter posture.
“Will, hey,” Chance greeted. He couldn’t help but smile at the other boy. At the risk of looking dumb, he was really happy to see him again.
“Hi,” Will awkwardly responded with a lump in his throat made up of a mix of nervousness and shame.
Chance cleared his throat before speaking again. “Um, first off, I’d like to say I’m sorry if I didn’t come off right that day at school…”
Will’s brows went up. “Oh! Don’t be, please. I definitely overreacted there.” He let out a self-conscious laugh.
Chance huffed a laugh and nodded. “I understand if I… caught you off guard or something.”
“Yeah, it was something like that.” Will fiddled with his fingers under the table. “I really liked your notes, by the way.”
“You did?” Chance asked back as if he couldn’t believe the words Will had just said.
Will nodded. “Yeah! They were so cute. I’d never… never had that kind of thing before. At all.” His somewhat obvious lack of experience was embarrassing in Will’s eyes. When all the other teenagers his age had already lived a lot of stuff, he felt like he was barely learning how to walk.
“And I was afraid you’d think I was lame,” Chance said in a fake humble tone, because he actually felt pretty proud of himself right now.
“What? It was so romantic,” Will half-smiled. “A bit cryptic, but romantic.”
That’s when the waitress came over to their booth to take their order. They didn’t think it through, just went and ordered what the diner was most known for: burgers.
“Heh, I just didn’t know how to, you know, talk to you,” Chance explained after the waitress left. “You were almost always with your friends and I just— didn’t know how to… insert myself.”
And so they started talking more about themselves. At first it was obvious how different they were. Chance didn’t know much about Will’s nerd games and art stuff, whereas Will didn’t understand a thing about basketball. But they did share tastes in music and Chance was a bit of a cinephile, to which Will could relate thanks to Jonathan.
Then family was brought up. Chance was an only child and lived with his mother, while Will had a brother and a step-sister from his mother’s partner. They both understood what it felt like growing up without a father, though Hopper was beginning to be Will’s father figure.
Minutes turned to hours and the sun started to set. Their plates remained empty most of the time because they didn’t order more food after the first one.
“Oh wow. It’s getting dark,” Will commented, looking out the diner’s window.
“I can drive you home,” Chance hurried to offer, not wanting the day to end yet. But after seeing Will’s uncertainty, he added with a playful smile: “I’m not a serial killer.”
That made Will chuckle. “It’s not that! It’s just that I came here on my bike.”
“We can toss it on the backseat, don’t worry.”
Chance paid the bill himself, even if Will offered to help. They exited the diner and Chance fit Will’s bike on the backseat of his silver Chevette, which was actually his mom's.
They spent the short drive talking, with the occasional silences being filled with Chance’s music selection on the radio, which Will found very pleasant to hear.
“Do you think you could paint me some day?” Chance asked with a smirk on his face.
“Hmm, I don't know…” Will started, contributing to the banter between the two of them.
“I'm not pretty enough for a painting? Is that it?” Chance retorted, one of his hands on the wheel and the other resting on his leg.
“No,” Will chuckled. “You are, but— I mean…” he trailed off at the realization of his words, which made him blush a little. Chance was starting to enjoy seeing Will like that. “Okay, okay. Some day I’ll paint you,” he gave in. That day could very well come a lot sooner than Will expected.
Will told Chance where to drive, and when they arrived at the Byers’ house—Hopper’s cabin—, Chance braked and reached out to take something out of the glove box.
“Can I get your number?” he asked, showing the other boy a pen with a slight tone of hope.
“Yeah,” Will blinked, smiling slightly. He looked around for somewhere to write his number down, but he didn’t find any. “Where should I—”
“Here,” Chance got ahead by offering Will his arm.
Will let out a faint chuckle and went on to write his number on Chance’s right arm, holding it carefully above the center console. The sudden proximity made the taller boy fluster, but more decided on what he was going to try next.
“Will…” Chance called after Will finished writing his number down. “Can I kiss you?” He made sure to sound extra respectful, not too drastic or desperate. He didn’t want Will to get the wrong idea again.
And Will’s breathing froze for a second. He stared at Chance with surprise, but it was a nice surprise this time. The only thing that stopped him from throwing his arms around the other boy was his inexperience. But he didn’t mention it; Chance would probably infer it.
“Yeah.” Was all Will said without thinking much about it.
Chance didn’t need him to say it twice. He leaned forward and cupped Will’s cheek while Will tilted his head and closed his eyes, going in with only instinct and external references about how kissing works.
For being Will’s first kiss, he didn’t do bad at all in Chance’s opinion. “Was that okay?” he asked after pulling away gently.
Will nodded and sheepishly looked down. “Thank you for… today. I really enjoyed it.”
Chance smiled at that. “Me too. Thank you for giving me a second chance.”
And Will giggled at the memory of their first encounter, then got out of the car.
“Can I call you tomorrow?” Chance asked, leaning over to see Will through the rolled-down window.
“Any time you want,” Will responded, and he couldn’t help but smile. They would probably not be able to talk at school, so they would have to resort to phone calls.
As Chance drove away from Will’s house, he was absolutely ecstatic. He had taken out the boy he liked, gotten his number and even kissed him! All of that after thinking he had ruined his chances with him, Lucas had saved him by being his wingman. On the other hand, Will got into his room feeling giddy. A lot of ‘first times’ happened in a single day, which he almost couldn’t believe. No more Vecna or demogorgons threatening to kill him, nor an unrequited crush on his best friend making his days miserable. A new house, a bigger family, his lifelong friends by his side and a boy who was actually interested in him made Will think his life was finally going down a good path.