mourning. | stranger things.

bargaining.

will

october 31st, 4:26 am.
will practically pacing the now empty room, for he couldn't stop. tears rolled down his face, constantly. while jane tried her best comforting him.

"will, there's nothing you could have done, it was too late." jane spoke, trying to have him calm down, even if it was just for a moment.

"jane, you don't understand. i could have done something! anything! i knew. i knew about it and i didn't tell anyone!" more tears fell. "stupid." he insulted himself. jane's eyebrows raised.

"will." she continued, her voice sounding stern. "what do you mean you knew?"

october 27th, 8:23 am.
mike could never sit still in class, especially math. it was just way too boring for his mind to process.
he struggled in that class, not necessarily for the grade itself. but because that was his only class with dustin.

dustin and mike used to be best friends, since middle school.
they were close. until the summer, dustin became friends with some older adults, and began always hanging around them.
steve harrington became dustin's best friend. maybe it made mike a bit jealous, straying from the close net friendship. but that didn't stop him from his genuine concern for his friend.

this wouldn't have been a problem. if it didn't change him. he was the goofy, best friend that could make you laugh even if you were just sobbing your eyes out five minutes before. they basically grew up together, almost brothers.
but he turned into a different person, a person mike didn't enjoy being around anymore.

it was early summer when mike started realizing something was off.
dustin started skipping on hanging out, missing semi important dates. stopped calling, stopped making an effort to talk to any of them. dustin was definitely struggling, but on the outside he seems completely fine. he seemed happy.

mike and will decided to investigate.

the boys made up an excuse to go over dustin's house. will distracting him while mike snooped through dustin's belongings. which was definitely a big mistake.

dustin had been doing drugs. and not just marijuana, or even mushrooms. dustin was doing hard drugs. given to him by his older friends. and that was the beginning of the end.
for, obviously they were concerned for him. wondering how they're video game playing best friend was hiding the fact he was a drug addict following with way too much alone time.

mike tried approaching him with the idea of getting help, and he lost his mind.

and that, was the end of their friendship.

unfortunately they still haven't rekindle the flame that went out, they stayed apart, respecting each other's space. mike never snitched on him, or forced him into doing anything he didn't want to do. and maybe he was a bad friend for not doing so, but mike had too much respect for dustin to hurt him, even after the big fight.

mike tried distracting himself from the thought of dustin. he thought of jane, and how he was planning on seeing her after school that day.

i've mentioned before that a lot of the group had fallen out. dustin and mike, will and dustin, and lucas and will. the story of lucas and will is a bit hard to explain.
at the end of junior year, lucas had wanted to celebrate going into senior year. he had begged the group to hang out. but only max and will we're willing to spend their weekend partying.
for this was just before lucas and max had broken up for good.
they were sitting around a small camp fire in the woods outside of wills fort. caste byers, it was called.

june 18th, 12:45 am
lucas and max were bickering, as almost always at this point. while will stared into the flames, trying the drown it out. but he couldn't.

"would you two quit it already, who cares if max wanted to know where you were." will finally spoke up.

"i care! i don't want her spying on me." lucas said, throwing his hands up. he's had way too many beers. wills thought to himself, feeling a light drunk buzz through his body as well.

"i'm sorry for being curious of where my boyfriend is when he's party hopping, and probably hooking up with other people!" max yelled back. she didn't often show her insecurities, but lucas was hard to trust at times.

and that was it, lucas swung, hitting max hard, across her face.
will jumped up to his feet of course, demanding lucas to leave. they never fought, or even argued.

"whatever, man." is the last thing lucas had said to will, before he took off. they never spoke after that incident.

max spend the night crying in wills arms, in his fort. and maybe that's just the reason he doesn't care that mike and max spend so much time together. he knew she was coping, and it was her way of healing how tragic her last relationship was. it wasn't fair to her, and will understood that. but that's also why he didn't exactly want mike to fall for jane. not that max would really care if he found love, but the fact that she would lose her only coping mechanism. he felt for her.

and maybe that's also why mike didn't care that his little hook up sessions with lucas's ex would effect lucas in the long run. he was friends with lucas, still, of course. but he didn't necessarily like him. he can easily gets so angry, and mike doesn't trust him.

mike began to feel like max's protector.

he'd walk her to class, stand by her often. he was her best friend, and he cared for her safety. so, so deeply. even if she annoyed him to death at times.

which yet again, was an other reason why will just stayed out of the way. it wasn't his business, even if he was handing directly in the middle of it all. he wanted to support his friends, but didn't exactly know how to do so.

october 27th, 8:30 am.
"please turn to page 32." the teacher spoke in front of the class, breaking will out of his thoughts as he had to turn the page.

though max perceived will as a good friend, he was more of an observer. he watched the world around him while keeping to himself, not enjoying getting into pointless fights or relationship drama. he didn't have interest in those things. but he will always care about lucas, and the rest of his friends, or old friends. that was the kind of person will byers was.

though he couldn't help by stray from his thoughts, beginning to actually think about how everyone keeping secrets was going, or has affect each other so much. he wondered if there was anything he could do, anything he could have done to prevent everything from unraveling the way that it did. he couldn't help but question himself, going over thoughts in his head. what could i have done better?
he hated when he mind would come up with a thousand what-if scenarios. it always happened.

"can anyone answer number 6, please?" he teacher said, once again causing will to break from his thoughts.

he needed to force himself to focus.

thoughts & theories???  — sadie