𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 ; Byler

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭

Max, who had been oblivious to Will slowing his pace, turned around to see him dragging behind.

She smiled to herself when she noticed Will was fluffing out his hair which had fallen into his eyes.

"Come on, you're shirtless, and you're messing up your hair, seriously who the hell are you trying to impress here? Because it certainly isn't me," She said, sort of serious, sort of teasing him.

Will looked up to Max, who had been ahead of him, now right next to him.

"I'm not trying to impress anyone, I just thought that since we're now in Junior year, I might as well start trying to make an impression, so people will start to like me, that's all."

Yet, Will had been lying. Maybe not about making an impression, but lying about not trying to impress anyone.

Will knew for a fact the boy he liked would never like him back, but he still tried his hardest to stand out to him.

"It's okay, Will. You're good enough for him, he's just definitely not good enough for you," Max reassured, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He turned his head behind his shoulder to see Max shining a half smile up to him, which made him smile a little.

He reached down and grabbed her wrist, forcing her to catch up with where Will paced the sidewalk, making her laugh. Max, in return, nudged him to the side which made him almost trip and fall into the grass. They both burst out into a huge fit of laughter.

After a few minutes of laughing and joking around, they at last made it to the parking lot of the Mall, and made a beeline for the door. Will had Max carry his backpack while he threw his hoodie back on as they approached the entrance of Starcourt. Will, upon opening the door, was flooded with the sweet smell of cinnamon, and the aromas of other fast food joints being heated inside the mall. The cool air pushed against his warm skin, cooling him off effectively. Max followed close behind him, looking around the mall, frozen in shock on how big the building was from the inside.

"Want to go to Scoops Ahoy?" She asked Will eagerly, right after he made a silent plan to get himself something to eat.

"Uh, sure yeah let's go," Will nodded to Max, as she took the lead.

They made their way to the escalator, letting it take them up to the next floor. Will stepped off the escalator, and watched as Max all but ran towards Scoops before following behind shortly after.

They walked up to the counter, and surprisingly, there wasn't a customer in sight. Nobody was at the tables, or in line, ready to order some refreshing ice cream in the blazing hot weather.

Steve walked up to the counter, not realizing who they were at first and began reciting his lines that he memorized. However, once he did, he gawked at them in shock.

"What are you guys doing here? You're supposed to be in class!" He exclaimed towards the two kids, who just rolled their eyes. "Max, I'm not really all that surprised about, but you, Will? You usually wouldn't be caught dead skipping school, what's up?" Steve interrogated after noticing Will's nervous expression.

"Oh, Max and I got the idea right after lunch, we were just bored and didn't feel like going to class." Will shrugged.

Max rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the side. "It was completely my idea," Max said, looking at Will.

Will shook his head lightly and turned back to Steve, ready to order.

"Enough with the questions, can we just get two sundaes?" Will said, ignoring the way Steve's eyes were boring a hole into Will's skull.

Will moved to set the only ten dollar bills he had on the counter before Steve cut him off and scooted the money back onto his side of the counter.

"First of all, why would it be twenty bucks for goddamn ice cream, second of all, it's on me," Steve said, looking at Robin who perched on the window behind the counter, rolling her eyes.

"You owe me, Harrington," Robin remarked as she moved to the front and scooped the ice cream, assembling the sundaes before drizzling the chocolate sauce and giving Will an extra cherry.

Steve rolled his eyes at Robin before grabbing the ice cream containers off of the counter and handing them over to the two kids, who grabbed a plastic spoon out of the dispenser.

"Thanks, St-" Will paused for a moment before smiling slyly, "Thanks Mom," he repeated, dragging the word out to further annoy Steve.

"Whatever, just don't come crying to me once you two idiots are caught skipping class and you get your asses grounded. Now get out of my store!" Steve yelled as Max and Will began walking out of the shop.

"So," Max went on to say, as she took a bite of her sundae.

Will turned his head, his hair whipping in front of his face as he turned to listen to Max.

"There's a party at Jane's, everyone in the 11th grade is invited and I was planning on going, you in?"

Max, what kind of stupid question is that, you know I don-

"Sure," Will said, interrupting his thoughts. "But, what will we wear? You know, seeing since it's Jane's party?" Will said, scooping up a bite of ice cream and shoveling it into his mouth.

"Will, I don't need help with my wardrobe, thank you. But you definitely do, which brings me to my next thought: what if we took you shopping?" Max grinned as she took another bite of ice cream, some of it spilling onto her chin, making Will laugh at her.

"Uh, sure," Will said, scared to see how much the outfits would be.

"Adventure awaits, Will the Wise" Max teased, dragging Will behind her once again.