Byler one shots

31

Will had been in hospital for a week. He was recovering moderately well, but obviously the doctors had no idea how to deal with the effects of a toxic alternate dimension.

Mike had been anxious to get out of school. He had been having the worst day.
He woke up late in the morning and rushed to get on his bike. He then found that his tires were flat and he had to run to school, meaning he arrived particularly sweaty and gross. He also got lunchtime detention for arriving to school an hour late. On top of that, he forgot to bring his schoolbag when he was rushing out of the house. So he also got phoned home and his mom had to bring his schoolbag to him, which she wasn't happy about.

Collapsing at his desk, he sighed and lay his head on the cool surface. It was science class now. Last lesson of the day. At least it was bearable. The day had dragged on so much because of his detention, and he was completely exhausted.
Dustin and Lucas sat themselves down next to Mike, Dustin ruffling his hair as he passed him.
Mike grunted and sat upright. He didn't bother taking out his books. He didn't have the energy.

Lucas looked over to him. "Are you okay?"
Mike turned and gave him a look that silently said, "Really? You're asking me that after the awful day I've had?"

Lucas held his hands up in defeat. "Aight man."

The lesson dragged on, Mike barely staying awake. Usually he would love Science. Plus they were studying specifically Chemistry today, which meant cool experiments.

Dustin and Lucas were overjoyed by the experiment. Mike watched as they placed aluminium strips into different acids and how they giggled when one started to fizz or do something.

Mike breathed out, looking over to Will's desk from where he stood by the test tubes. He missed him. Usually when experiments happened in class you would have one partner every time. Mike usually worked with Will so he didn't have a partner and was told to work with the other two boys.
Because they were so used to working with each other, they usually forgot Mike was even standing there with them.
He had given up on trying to contribute. He wished that Will was still here, in school. He missed him.
Lucas and Dustin would start petty fights or have their own special friendship and he felt left out.

He missed having Will with him. He missed those times where Dustin and Lucas would start wrestling and Will would roll his eyes at Mike affectionately. Mike could stand the constant shouting of the other two then. But now he found it irritating and left out.

Mike missed having Science class with Will as well. He missed how big the white safety apron was on him, or how the goggles would continually slide off his nose.
He missed how Will stuck out his tongue when concentrating. Or when he did something right he would over exaggerate the shit out of it.

"I got it!" Lucas shouted. And for a second Mike swore that he thought it was Will's overly happy voice.
Erupting him from his thoughts, he looked at one of the test tubes that was fizzing and giving off a gas.
"Awesome." Dustin grinned a toothless smile, leaning down to take a closer look at the test tube. As he did, he accidently breathed in some (non toxic) gas, which caused him to fall backwards, coughing. "I'm going to die!" he exclaimed.
Lucas began laughing uncontrollably at the boy having a coughing fit.
"Why are you laughing?" Dustin shouted, "I'll be dead by tomorrow!"

Mike shook his head, smiling. "Dustin, it's non toxic. They're not going to give us an experiment with toxic gas in middle school."
Dustin's eyes widened. "Are you implying that they give us toxic gas in high school?"
Lucas was still laughing loudly, causing everyone to turn and look at the scene.
Mike would admit, it looked rather odd. Dustin was laying on the floor with his hand clutched to his chest, doing "breathing exercises" as he called it, when in reality all he was doing was making weird faces and breathing heavily.
Lucas was asked to leave the class so he did, still hanging himself laughing.
Mike sighed. Everyone could still hear Lucas laughing wth the door closed.
This was the kind of shit he had to put up with. He chuckled absentmindly.