Heartbreak Story - Byler

IV - Wondered How This had Happened

Jonathan looked just as bewildered as I felt. How could Will's boyfriend have abandoned him and left him all alone, hurt and afraid? We looked at one another and automatically knew we'd been right this whole time, Alex should never have been trusted. Why did we ever let him anywhere near Will?

Steve came speed-walking down the hall towards us, a look of fury on his face, his hands on his hips and a dish cloth slung loosely over his shoulder. It appeared he may have been doing the dishes in his apartment or something when Nancy called and he left to get El, Lucas and Dustin to the hospital so quickly he didn't even have time to drop his cloth. "What happened?" He demanded. "Who hurt my baby, I swear to god I'll-"

"Calm down, Mom." Dustin said, patting his shoulder. We'd taken to calling Steve our mother over the last couple of years, he was better at it than my own mom was and Joyce always found it amusing.

Nancy explained to him and the other newcomers that Will wasn't speaking to anybody so we were all at a loss for how this had occurred and was just about finished with her explanation when a doctor emerged from Will's room. We all stood up a little straighter, my heart in my throat and Jonathan taking Max's hand as the doctor announced, "We did some more thorough checks and it appears there will be no lasting damage. However, we can't give you a date of discharge until we find out how this happened. We need to know he'll be safe before we can let him go and if he won't tell anyone why he's injured, we don't know if this will be repeated. Mrs. Byers, I think you should try talking to him again."

Joyce shook her head, "He won't speak to me, I think we should send in his friends. He might be more willing to open up to somebody else." Her gaze focused on me as she said her last sentence and I swallowed, could it possibly have been a mere coincidence or was I the "somebody else" she meant?

Max, Jonathan, El, Lucas, Dustin and I all made our way into Will's room while Nancy, Steve, Joyce and Hopper remained outside to give us some space while we tried to get through to Will.

Entering the room, I was overcome with emotion - Will had truly been attacked. He had a deep cut running diagonally from the left-side of his forehead to the bridge of his nose, dark bruises around both of his eyes as well as cuts and scratches along every piece of skin visible outside his hospital gown. Yet none of that was what horrified me the most, it was the way his hazel eyes, usually so full of joy and love, stared unseeing in front of him at the wall. They were lifeless and his trademark sparkle that made my stomach do backflips every time I looked into them was gone.

"Will." Jonathan whispered, his voice cracking from the pain of seeing his little bother so broken. Will tore his eyes from the wall and looked around at us slowly and emotionlessly. He first looked at Jonathan and then Max before his eyes found my own. It was then that Will spoke the first word he had said in hours, ever since arriving at the hospital.

"Mikey?"

Love for this boy began to wash through my body, flooding every emotion and feeling with it and made my heart begin to glow. 'Mikey' was the nickname he came up with on our first day of Kindergarten when we first met but he hadn't used it in years. Before we met Lucas and Dustin, everyone knew us as the duo 'Mikey and Byers' and wherever you found one of us, you'd always find the other. Lucas once admitted to me that it's why it took him so long to approach us, our friendship intimidated him and he thought we'd never allow him to join us. If I'm honest, I didn't want to become friends with him at the start. I wanted it to be just me and Will, the way it always was but Will welcomed him with open arms and I grew to be the best of friends with him too. I'd never let Lucas call me Mikey, that was Will's name for me. Lucas once used it and I shouted at him and told him not to call me that, I regretted it instantly when I saw the hurt creep onto Will's face and he ended up stopping using the name too. Will must have thought I didn't like it but how could I explain that I only wanted him to use it? It would seem like I was picking favourites and Lucas already worried I didn't want him to be our friend.

Without caring that anyone was watching or that there were others in the room who wanted to be close to him, I closed the distance between me and my Will and placed myself next to him on his hospital bed. I took his hand and rested my other hand on his cheek (the way he once did to me) and whispered, "I'm right here. I'll always be right here for you, Byers."

Jonathan's voice reached my ears, mumbling to everyone to give us some space and they all left us alone. I didn't care what they were doing, I was too preoccupied with Will to bother about anything or anyone else.

Tears began to fall from Will's eyes as he repeated the words, "I'm sorry, Mikey. I'm so sorry." Over and over again.

My arms wound securely around his neck and he rested his head on my chest, his tears staining my shirt but I didn't care. All that mattered was Will safe and I would hold onto him, my face buried in his hair for as long as he needed and if he never wanted to move, I would gladly have remained that way forever.

"Shhh." I hummed into his ear as I rocked him back and forward, gently so as not to hurt his broken ribs. "Please don't cry, you have nothing to be sorry for. Whatever has happened, it's not your fault that you've ended up here. It's that fault of whoever has done this to you. We're all just so happy you're safe."

Will moaned against my shirt in anguish. "You don't understand. It is my fault, Mikey. If I wasn't...if I hadn't..." his sweet voice trailed off and I could hear the fear it held. He didn't want to tell me, he didn't want me to know.

"Come on, now. Please just tell me what's happened. I can't help if I don't know."

"I can't, Mikey. I can't." He whimpered.

"Please, Will. You know you can tell me anything, right? Mikey and Byers don't keep secrets from each other. I thought you learned that in Kindergarten." My face burned with shame as I lied to the boy in my arms, the boy I'd been keeping my deepest secret from for two years. I was grateful his face was still hidden in my chest so he couldn't see the heat staining my cheeks.

Will gave a faint, soft chuckle, a sound that made my head begin to spin with joy. "We don't keep secrets, I would trust you with my life and have on occasion." He seemed brighter than he had done ever since I'd gotten here but the light that had entered his voice suddenly vanished as he raised his head off my chest, breaking our embrace and looked me dead in the eye saying, "I'll tell you as long as you promise not to judge me. Not that I wouldn't deserve it, mind you."

Will hung his head in shame and my sole purpose in life became to change this view of himself. I lifted his chin with my finger so we were making eye contact and solemnly told him, "You're the most incredible, amazing, loving, wonderful, talented and heartwarming soul I have ever met and I would never judge you. You mean the world to me, William Byers."

Will's eyes widened and we gazed into each other's eyes for an eternity, my finger still holding his chin, but even forever with Will Byers would never be long enough for me. "Okay." He whispered, breaking the silence. "Here goes..."

*

Byler!!! And that's all I have to say about this chapter because that's all that matters.
I'm about to cry because I wrote Will's story all out in a hell of a lot of detail (over 1500 words I think) ready for the next chapter and it was so hard for me to write because it is honestly so cruel and vile but then I deleted it by accident. So now I have to go through that pain and nausea to write it again.
Wish me luck (although by the time anyone reads this, I'll have written it again but still it's the thought that counts).
All the hospital chapters are linked and were originally supposed to be one chapter but writing them, they just expanded way too much and now looks like it will be three chapters. Jeez.
(A late edition to the author's note) - I'm off to Rome in the morning for six days so this will be the last update before I return on the 24th. A cliffhanger but no one is reading this other than my friend Lydia (woo shoutout to my gal) and she's coming with me so I guess it doesn't matter.
- Niamh.