𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐌𝐞 ; 𝘉𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘳 ✓

𝟐𝟎.𝟓.

A year ago...

Hawkins High | Fri 12:29 PM
Will Byers & Troy Walsh
(Interlude)

When Will came back to Hawkins, he was concerned about being bullied by Troy again but to his surprise, Troy didn't even acknowledge his existence for the first few weeks. The first thing Troy said to him was an apology for treating him horribly in the past, and Will being the forgiving person he was, excepted the apology. The two of them became friends and as they got closer and closer, something started to change.

Troy had fully put down his walls with Will and in the summer before ninth grade, one accidental kiss turned into two until they were pretty much going at it every time they saw each other. Today was no different. This time they were under the bleachers in their usual spot and instead of going to the cafeteria and eating, they came out here to 'catch up' with each other.

Troy had his hands lingering above Will's waist and underneath his shirt on his lower back, while Will's arms were draped around his neck. Their lips had gotten adjusted to each other and it no longer felt awkward or uncomfortable for Troy, who couldn't help but feel a little disgusting inside for doing this. To cope he continuously told Will that he wasn't gay, which was more him trying to convince himself then trying to convince the small boy he loved to be with.

The two hardly talked about real feelings, since Will didn't want to scare off Troy and Troy didn't want to admit that he actually liked a boy. They weren't together, more friends with benefits. That was all that they needed, although Will felt like he wanted a bit more.

The boys were so deep in their embrace that they didn't hear when someone started to walk towards them, until it was too late.

"Ew what the hell!" The random girl said when she saw the two.

Troy had jumped back so fast that he had accidentally scratched Will's side a little. He pushed Will back and began to panic. "W-Why the fuck would you kiss me f-fag!"

Will's expression was a mix of confusion and hurt. He stood there in silence while Troy threw him under the bus and made up a whole facade to hide the fact that they did this often. After telling that girl, other people found out about the incident, including the rest of the popular kids that Troy hung out with. He explained the whole story and added in new details every time.

The basic story was that Will had asked him to talk and then confessed his love to Troy. Then after Troy rejected him and said he was straight, Will had kissed him and forced Troy to do the same.

To make sure people believed him, Troy started tormenting Will everyday and called him all the gay slurs in the book. Will never stuck up for himself, so it continued. The best way for Will to get out his emotions was drawing, but he ended up finding something that worked even better.

One year, Lonnie sent Will a black spiral notebook for his birthday. Will hadn't used it but he kept it, until that Friday. He started off with a generic 'Dear diary,' but Will thought that it was a little girly for him to have a diary. Then he thought that it wasn't that big of a deal and he was having an internal fight with himself, writing and erasing the words Dear Diary over and over again until he finally settled with 'Man Journal' as the title for this book.

Partly because the words seemed to solve the conflict in his head and partly because he only wrote about the men in his life in the book. This included his crushes and everything his father had done to him in the past year. That day, he wrote about Troy for hours, going over every thing in their short relationship.

When he was done, he took a deep breath and felt at peace for the first time that day. Troy wasn't the type of person Will'd cry over, so he just sadly read over everything he wrote instead and dwelled over tainted memories.

Fast forward a year and Will was now hyperventilating over the fact that Troy actually read what he wrote about him today and what his reaction was to all the pain that Will had felt that day. Will was glad he didn't stay with Troy, he knew he deserved better. He just wished that it hadn't ended as badly as it did. Maybe Troy would be different that way.

To be continued...

The ship we didn't know we needed
— Vaeh Joi

(Lol Jk)

[7/9/20 | 804 words]