All on me | byler

4

It was later on in the uneventful day, and Will was just coming home from work. He decided to go straight home again so he could take a nap. Will was sticking to his word and wanted to do something nice with his mom before he had to move away.

"Mom? I'm home." Will called out as he walked through the unlocked door.

"In the kitchen honey!"

Will followed the call to the kitchen to find his mom and her boyfriend Hopper, playing cards on the kitchen table. "Hi Will, how was work?" Joyce asked, sweetly. "Oh it was fine. Hey Hopper, how are you?" Will asked. "I'm doing well, thank you." He smiled from his seat at the table. "That's nice to hear."

Well, awkward small talk with your mom's boyfriend wasn't on his checklist for the day but- Check!

"So uh, how's Jane doing?" Will asked, genuinely wondering. He rarely hears from her these days, and he would really like to considering they'd all be going their separate ways soon.

"Oh well you know, it's so hard to keep track of her these days." He chuckled. "Always at her friend's house, or the mall, or the movies, or something that cost an unnecessary amount of money!"

"Friend's house?"

It wasn't like Jane couldn't have any friends outside of their group, but had she been completely ditching them for someone else this entire time?

"Yeah, her friend Kayla or Caitlyn or something like that. They're always together lately. It's like she's never alone anymore!"

"Oh tell me about it!" Joyce jumped in. "Do you know how rare it is for Will to be here- at his own house- for the day? And if he is then Mike's following along behind him like a puppy-dog!" She giggled. "And when they're not together, they're running up the phone bill, talking to each other all night long! They're so inseparable, it's like they're mentally connected or something! "

Will would be lying if he said that his mom's comments didn't hurt. Did he seriously never spend time alone? Were he and Mike really together all. the. time? He knew the answer to that though, immediately yes. When had he lost his sense of independency, of individuality? The more he thought about it, the more he realized he couldn't remember back to a time he was just by himself. And yeah, that could be a good thing considering his past, but he couldn't help but think that some part of him had been lost over this past year.

Will was zoned out as the two adults at the table laughed about something. He quickly shook himself back to reality. "Um, I'm gonna go take a nap." He said.

"Ok hon that's fine, are we still going out later?" Joyce asked.

"Of course." Will smiled before walking toward his room.

Will plopped down onto his bed, exhausted from wrangling art supplies and little kids all day. He knew art was his passion though, and that kept him going. Will debated on calling Mike and telling him that he was home. But he instead considered what his mom had said, about them being inseparable. Of course he loved Mike, more than anything in the world. More than life itself. But he really didn't want to lose himself. He remembered back to another thing his therapist had told him. If he got too dependent on another person for happiness, every moment spent without them could lead into a spiral. Will did not want it to get to that point, but he also didn't know how he would explain that to Mike without hurting his feelings.

He knew how clingy Mike could be, and that's what made Will love him so much, because he always had someone there for him when he felt like there was no one. But all of this and more is why he's afraid to talk about it. He truly doesn't want to seem ungrateful.

Just as Will was drifting off to sleep in his thoughts, the phone on his nightstand started to ring. Ugh.

Will, annoyed, quickly picked up the phone.