Chapter Text
As the day goes on, Michelle can’t forget the shiftiness of Will’s eyes. It feels like the image of Will’s messy chin length hair and wavy bangs along with her haunted greenish hazel eyes is following her. All she can see is the way Will has gotten thinner, her eyes becoming massive without the full weight of her cheeks. Will’s eyes have always been the most expressive thing about her and Michelle struggles to forget the dread building up in them. Not just from the future party they are being forced to attend, but also from whatever Will is holding beneath the surface. It seems to be important. It scares Michelle though.
It’s not Will’s fault that she’s been feeling bad, but Michelle doesn’t want anything to change. She wants to try to keep it the same. So.. hopefully whatever Will is feeling isn’t real and just her going through a tough time. Maybe when she gets the chance to talk to Will she’ll be able to help her get back to normal.
Yeah.. normal.
Somehow the end of the night is here and Lucas is already picking her up to get to Chance’s house. She wishes Will would’ve picked her up so she could ask her about what’s happening to her.
As they turn on the street to Chance’s house, they can already hear the booming sound of the song 'I Wanna Sex You Up' by the band Color Me Badd. “Wow, what a good song.” Michelle snarks. Lucas just sighs. “Look I know you aren’t going to like this party, it’s not your atmosphere. Maybe try to have fun though? Like be stupid and live your life as a teenager. Who knows how much longer we will have to be able to go to stupid parties like this.”
She just sighs in response, turning her head to the window as they pull up to the house. She looks out the window to find that yes, her other friends are here already.
She spots Will and almost comes to a full brain stop. There’s Will, dressed in her color, a nice sweet yellow. It’s a nice color on her. It matches her chestnut hair. She's wearing a top with long yellow sleeves with ruffles of white poking out from underneath. Will is also wearing long jeans that are baggy on her form. She’s not wearing a jacket right now which is extremely uncommon for her. She must be cold.
Michelle quickly gets out of the car as they pull up next to their friends. Lucas puts the car in park behind her and flinches at the speed at which Michelle gets out of the car at. She quickly maneuvers over to stand next to Will, who is visibly shaking from the cold. As she looks at Will, she takes notice of the light mascara she has, making her hazel eyes shine underneath the streetlight. She also takes note of some lipgloss and blush.
“Hey Mich.” Will says dulcetly. It sounds like music to Michelle’s ears. “Hey.” Michelle responds breathlessly. “You look.. great! Good, really good. I love the yellow. It always looks nice with your hair.”
Will just nods and Michelle thinks she sees the formation of a red flush starting to form on Will’s cheeks and down her neck. It couldn’t be, because it’s just cold! Yep, just cold. “Thanks..” Will smiles softly.
Max interrupts them by hitting Michelle’s ankle with her cane, which leads to Michelle grabbing her ankle and yelping. Will’s eyes widen and she almost makes a move to help Michelle steady herself, but Elliot makes it before her. “Not gonna say hi to anybody else except for Will?” He jokes behind her ear.
“Yeah Michelle, we know she’s your best friend but come on. No need to make it so obvious. You also have us to thank for the yellow and makeup.” Max laughs slightly, a red flush evident on her face. Max laughs slightly, a red flush evident on her face. Lucas walks up behind her and puts an arm around her and joins in her laughter. Dustin just grins. “Finally! You guys took forever. We can begin the actual party.”
“I have you to thank for the yellow and makeup? You just hit my fucking ankle!” She retorts harshly. "At least Will doesn’t hit me when I don’t say hi to her immediately.” Max scoffs at her “You always say hi to Will immediately, so we don’t know that do we?” Michelle feels her face start to warm out of annoyance. She knows Will would never hit her just because of something like that. What a stupid comparison.
Dustin is getting tired of the outside talk apparently, because he grabs Will by the arm and drags her to the front of the house with the rest of the group following. Dustin shoves Will to the front of them. Will stands there awkwardly staring at some basketball guy who’s staring her down. “Willow Byers? What the fuck are you doing here?”
Will just sighs like she doesn’t know what she’s doing here either. “Look.. I.. We got invited by Chance.” She says holding up her party flyer with a note from Chance that specifically mentions her. The basketball guys just side eye each other and laugh. “Man, that guy needs to learn how to like 'em’. Going for the bulldyke is really abnormal. But, I guess you don’t look too bad right now.” One of the guys says looking at Will.
The party makes equally disgusted faces and Michelle moves to go in front “How about you learn how to fuck off and go blow your dads or some bullshit, assholes.” She grabs Will’s arm and drags her inside, while the guys protest as the other party members follow suit with insults and various amounts of middle fingers.
She looks at Will behind her who is obviously trying to hide her discomfort and the frazzled look behind her eyes. She drags her around for a while until she knows they lost the other party members. Michelle walks back outside towards the pool. She sighs and turns to Will, who turns to look at her. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.. It’s fine. I would rather be out here than in there.” Will shrugs towards the party inside. “Thanks by the way, for saying that.”
Michelle shrugs, “He was being a total asshole. It’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before.”
They share a smile.
“Hey so..” Will looks up at her with her big eyes, wide and hazel. She’s always had intense, expressive eyes. It does things to Michelle’s stomach. Having all of Will’s attention always makes her stomach twist and turn. It’s never bad though, she’s just lucky she even has the opportunity to feel like this about Will. After Will went missing, she tried to scrape all the memories of Will together in her brain.
It was like she was missing a limb. Phantom feelings that were still there, but she knew it wasn’t real. It sucked. It was like she was grasping for a truth that wasn’t real. Michelle always feels like she’s drowning but when Will went missing it felt like they were both drowning. She felt like she was trying to swim and grab Will from the water but she was also struggling. Trying. She’s always trying.
It’s never enough though. Not to be able to keep Will close. She never seems to be able to keep her close enough.
“Are you okay?” she asks quietly.
Will stares at her mouth as the question leaves it and then looks up into her eyes. It’s like she’s trying to read Michelle’s mind, trying to untangle all the dark knots that are hidden underneath her hair.
“Yeah.. I’m fine. Do I not seem to be?” Will responds but it’s not convincing enough. There’s nothing legitimately wrong with her answer but Michelle knows better. She sees the way Will’s eyes drift when they are in the full group. The way her eyes become blank and dark. Like she’s not real anymore. Michelle almost takes it like when Will was possessed, but this obviously isn’t the same. It was more like when Will was being haunted by the Mind Flayer the first time, but no possession. It’s scary to see her revert back to being 13 and in hell.
“You just sometimes get this look in your eyes. Like.. you did when you first got back out of the upside down and had those “episodes”? Also you have massive bags underneath your eyes. I mean! You don’t look bad, never, but it concerns me because you know, normally you don’t. I also noticed you don’t eat at lunch anymore, and it’s showing on your face that you don’t eat as much? You’ve just gotten thinner and it makes me really worried about you.” Michelle rambles off explanations about how much she’s noticed and Will just goes silent.
The pool lights in the water light up Will’s face, which makes it even more apparent how.. sick she looks. Makeup can cover up a lot, but nothing can cover up the fact that Will’s eyes are distant. The blush makes her look more alive, but nothing can hide the paleness that has started to settle underneath her skin.
“I’m fine. I’ve just been having trouble sleeping.” Will says gently, as if trying to calm her down.
“But it’s not! Something’s obviously wrong.” Michelle cannot let this go.
“I swear, I’m fine. It’s just bad sleeping and I haven’t been feeling well enough to eat. I’m sorry I worried you.” Will persists.
It’s hard to be aggressive towards Will. She has this ability to just be able to calm Michelle down. Will is always so gentle towards her even when she doesn’t deserve it. She doesn’t deserve the soft touches, the low timbre of Will’s voice in her ears, her art. She’s never done anything to deserve Will’s grace, but for some reason she has it. She’s blessed by the fact God thinks she’s worthy enough of such a role in Will’s life.
“But..”
“Michelle. I promise.. I’m fine. Just nightmares. It’s just been a rough month.” Will smiles at her. “Thanks for being worried about me though.”
“Of course. You don’t- I go crazy when I think about not-.. No, sorry. I mean of course I worry about you.” Michelle awkwardly laughs.
Will smiles with her teeth. It’s cute.
“What are you guys doing out here?”
Michelle turns her head towards her boyfriend.
“Oh hey! Sorry, we were just talking.” Michelle drops the grip she had on Will’s hand. Not realizing she had kept it in her grasp this whole time. Elliot smiles and walks over to her.
Will greets Elliot with a nod, “Yeah we were just talking…” her voice drifts off. Michelle glances at Will but Will seems to be off in her own world again, looking at the pool with a look that feels uncanny. Elliot doesn’t seem to notice the sudden change in smile, the change in eyes, but Michelle notices.
Elliot puts an arm over Michelle’s shoulders and she tries her best not to run away from it. She doesn’t understand why she can’t just be affectionate towards him. He’s not doing anything wrong to her and he treats her so well. “Well.. we should go inside. It’s cold out here.” Will nods in agreement.
“Sure.”
They head inside and immediately go searching for Dustin, Lucas and Max.
Will notices them with a “Oh, there they are.”
Dustin, Lucas and Max are all engaged in apparently a riveting conversation all with drinks in hand. The trio walk up to them and Max is immediately heading towards Will and grabbing her arm to drag her to Max’s side. “Look now we have an unbiased opinion!”
Will raises her eyebrows and Michelle scoffs, crossing her arms. “What are you even talking about Max?”
Max glances over her, keeping her attention on Will. “Who do you think is a better boyfriend? Lucas, Dustin, or Elliot?” Will blanches in response. “What?! Why are you even asking me this?”
“Obviously you are the only one who has dated outside of the party, so you would know unbiasedly who is the best boyfriend?” Max says casually.
Michelle’s brain stops. Dated outside of the party. Will looks at Max like she’s lost her mind. “Dated outside of the party? I haven’t ever dated anyone!” Max looks confused at this and turns towards Elliot. “Didn’t you say that somebody liked Will in California or am I going crazy and not remembering stuff correctly?”
Elliot nods, “I mean.. I didn’t say they were dating but there were lots of guys in Lenora who wanted Will’s attention. There was one guy named Shawn, there was…” his voice drifting as he goes through at least 3 different guy’s names. Michelle isn’t listening to any of it though. Her brain is still trying to catch up from the idea of Will dating somebody. Dating some.. guy and never telling her. It makes her irrationally angry to the point she can’t even listen to the conversation. The arm around her is heavy and weighted. It makes her feel like she’s glued into her spot, but she shifts her shoulders slightly to let Elliot know silently to take it off of her. He takes the hint, but not before giving her a concerned look.
“I’m going to get a drink.” Her mouth opens, the directness of her voice shocks even herself. Michelle turns and heads towards the kitchen, grabbing a drink of whatever alcohol is in this punch and she downs it. She grabs another and downs it.