Fake Love-Byler

A Talk Outside Of Castle Byers

AN: well. This is it! Hope this chapter is up to your liking. Big fat whopper chapter so that I can wrap this up nice and clean. I hope you enjoyed this book :3

Today was the day. It was finally time for Mike to man up and tell Will how he really feels. This could go wrong in so many ways but it's fine. Whatever.

"Hey, Will, can we go to Castle Byers today?" Mike brought up on their duo ride home.

"Yeah, let's go to my house."

Mike nodded. Okay, this was really happening. No reason to be nervous! Will gave plenty of signs that he liked him back. There's absolutely no reason to be worried.

They were inside the house sooner than Mike realized. Will got them two juice boxes from the refrigerator and a small bag of goldfish to munch on. Mike tried to ignore the curious glances from Jonathan the entire time he was in his vicinity. "Will? Can you come here?" Jonathan called from the kitchen.

"Yeah?" Will walked over to his brother, setting his backpack down on the floor.

"What happened to Castle Byers?" Jonathan pointed out the window. Sure enough, the small hut was no where to be seen. "Am I imagining things? I could've sworn it used to be right there."

"It...was. But I took it down. It's whatever," Will brushed him off.

"You took it down?!" Mike interrupted. Both brothers looked back at him then shared a look. "Why?"

"I'm gonna go show him. I'll be back in a little," Will sighed. He waved goodbye to his brother then beckoned for Mike to follow him.

Seeing the ruins of Castle Byers was surreal. Just looking at the crumbled up papers and memorabilia made him feel like he was in an alternate universe.

"What made you do this?" Mike felt his heart shatter. There was absolutely nothing left of the clubhouse besides soggy furniture, ripped up drawings, a dirty notebook, and broken sticks.

"My mental health couldn't really handle the entire fake dating thing."

After a minute, Mike finally realized what he meant by that. Will continued to avoid his gaze. He took a long, nonchalant sip from his juice box while Mike suddenly didn't feel thirsty anymore.

"Oh my god..Will I-"

"Mike, you've apologized about a billion times."

"No. I...I hurt someone I...love."

Will choked on his apple juice. "Love? Who?"

"You! I love you and look what I made you do!" Mike gestured over to the pile of sticks. Will's expression dropped, he looked absolutely mortified. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe Will only saw him as a friend and he just ruined their friendship. Maybe this was just a mistake.

"Mike, you can't do this to me."

"Huh?"

"Mike, please, I- I thought we were making progress!" Will started backing away slowly. "I thought- you said you regretted faking feelings for me! I thought you said you wanted to have a real friendship with me. At first I thought you calling me attractive was just a blip but you kept doing it and- no. I can't do this again. Please just...no."