Chapter Text
“What the hell? Who the fuck baked this cake?”
Max's voice rang out, and Mike looked around at Dustin, Lucas, and Will. He was very aware how shifty the four of them looked, exchanging quick, nervous glances.
Dustin cleared his throat, and then attempted a brave smile. “What's, uhh, what's wrong with the cake? It looks good! Nice and chocolatey.”
Max put her hands on her hips and squinted at Dustin. “It's lopsided! Why is it so lopsided? And what’s up with the frosting? It doesn’t look right.”
Lucas rushed in to explain what Mike had to admit was a shoddy frosting job. “Well, we only had one can of frosting and it turned out that that wasn't really enough to frost the entire cake. So we had to spread it kind of thin... But I mean, come on, everyone on campus is sick of dining hall food! Someone is definitely going to want to buy some delicious homemade cake, even if the frosting doesn’t look great.”
Mike glanced at Will, who was keeping his head down. He seemed to be trying to look too busy to take any of the blame for the cake, carefully laying out the cookies the four of them had also baked the day before. When Will glanced up, Mike caught his eye and flashed him a quick grin. Will smiled back, shot his eyes down to the cake, to a still fuming Max, and then back to Mike with a grimace. Mike stifled a laugh.
All four of them were equally to blame, really. Baking the cake was a joint effort the night before during their regular game night down in the common area of their dorm building. How were they supposed to know how to bake a cake? While Dustin and Mike had worked together to mix the ingredients, Will had piped up unhelpfully to not “mix it too much,” without having any clarifying information on how much was too much, or what happened after they crossed that “too much” threshold.
It was almost Mike's turn in Scrabble when it came time to pour the batter into the cake pans, so he did it quickly. He hadn’t realized that it was important to level out the batter before putting them in the oven until they pulled the cake layers out, fully baked and still sloping in the same haphazard way he’d poured them. He thought they would level out while cooking. He was wrong.
They let the cakes cool while they finished their Scrabble game (Dustin won), and Will and Lucas frosted the cake right before bed. It became apparent very quickly that there was not enough frosting in the can to cover the entire three-layer cake sufficiently. Will was a little distraught over the whole thing, biting his bottom lip and swaying with anxiety as Lucas spread the frosting thinner and thinner.
Mike couldn't have volunteered quickly enough to run out and grab another can of frosting, hoping to soothe Will’s nerves, but then Lucas pointed out that the convenient store on campus closed over an hour earlier. And of course, they couldn’t drive off campus to get another can of frosting at the nearest grocery store. That was the whole reason for needing to fundraise in the first place: Dustin’s van had broken down over the weekend and was at the mechanic’s. They’d all already shelled out too much money from their savings for the tickets for Comic-Con, hotel room costs, and gas money, so they were all already short on cash when the alternator in Dustin’s van died. They couldn’t go get the frosting they needed in order to raise money, which they needed in order to pay for the costly replacement part for the van. No money, no Comic-Con.
So they just had to make do. The layers of frosting were extremely thin, barely separating the cake layers, and not quite hiding the cake underneath. Overly tired from the late hour, all four of them had giggled about it the night before.
Will gasped out through a laugh, “It looks so bad. This is the ugliest cake I've ever seen.”
Lucas whispered, “It's like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.” Dustin let out a loud peal of laughter.
They stood back and made peace with their monstrosity, and then packed it away, along with the cookies they'd made earlier that evening.
Their bake sale was set up in front of the student union building, with a poster hanging off their table, announcing: “Help the Science Fiction & Fantasy Club raise funds! Buy a sweet treat!”
Will had made the poster on his own. His drawings of delicious looking desserts looked far more appetizing than what they actually had arranged on the table.
Max sighed at the cake, shaking her head in disapproval, and started to lay out the brownies and cupcakes that she and El had made. El, standing beside Max, snuck a brownie from the container and bit into it, shooting Mike and Will a chocolatey grin. Mike thought to himself that the brownie looked a little crumbly, like it wasn’t as fudgy and moist as he would expect, and that maybe the cupcakes Max was laying out sat a little short in the cupcake papers, like they hadn't risen properly. But he certainly didn’t make any accusations about bringing subpar baked goods to their bake sale.
None of them knew shit about baking. They were hopeless.
He did nudge Lucas though, and pointed his head at the brownies and cupcakes with his eyebrows raised. Lucas looked at them and contorted his mouth to stop it from spreading into a smirk.
When they were done laying out the baked goods, they all flocked behind the table and stared out expectantly at their fellow college students walking to and fro. No one really offered them a glance. They all just rushed on by.
Will murmured quietly, “Hmm.”
El stated blandly, “They don't seem interested in our stuff.”
Dustin tentatively called out to a larger group of students walking by, “Bake sale! Delicious, homemade baked goods for sale!“
They shot him a quick look, and then looked away, obviously uninterested.
Lucas muttered under his breath, “Fuck.”
Mike threw his head back to the sky and sighed loudly.
They took turns trying to get the attention of students walking by, voices tinged with more and more desperation as time went on. Eventually, at long last, a couple of girls approached them. One of them asked, “What are you raising money for?”
Dustin eagerly said, “We're the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, and we're raising money to help us go to a convention this weekend, it’s called Comic-Con! It's all the way down in San Diego but we ran into a complication with our transportation, so we’re raising funds to fix my van. The convention is supposed to be really cool, there are actors and authors of some of our favorite books, and-”
Mike cut Dustin off, shooting him a quick look. “We have cupcakes, brownies, and cookies for sale, and a whole cake, if you and your friend are feeling ambitious?”
The girls peered down at the table. One of them asked, “How much for two cookies?”
Mike said, “Five dollars!”
The girl balked. “Seriously? What about like... two?”
Mike was about to snap back at her that two dollars would barely be breaking even on what they spent to make the cookies, but then Will spoke up gently.
“Yeah, we can do two bucks. Thanks for supporting the cause.”
The girl looked strangely glowy from Will's words, and fished two dollar bills from her bag, flushing a little. Mike stared at her, confused, until he saw her slowly tuck a lock of hair behind her ear and bat her eyelashes a couple times before handing Will the money. Will took it, and handed her two saran wrapped cookies in exchange. Dustin called out a chirpy, “Appreciate it! Enjoy!”
The girl took the cookies and watched Will a few seconds too long before turning away with her friend, the distinct sound of giggling trailing after their retreating forms. Mike watched them sullenly.
It was easy to forget that Will was a total chick magnet until they interacted with the public and every single girl that came within twenty feet of Will seemed to melt like a puddle at his feet.
Mike supposed it was due to his beautiful hazel eyes, big and full of so much warmth. They had a little sparkle that made Mike feel like his insides were lit from within. Or maybe it was Will’s smile, wide and just so sweet that Mike had to smile too when he saw it. It was an automatic reaction. Seeing Will happy made Mike happy, and it was... well, it was probably the same for all those girls. Or it was the adorable mole above the corner of his mouth that Mike stared at when Will wasn't paying attention, wondering what it would be like to put his thumb just, just... there. His thumb would be there on his mole, his palm would be on Will's cheek, his fingertips would reach Will's hair, and, and, and... anything could happen after that. Or maybe it was in the way that Will covered his mouth when he burst into laughter, always making Mike want to watch him carefully. He usually did watch. He couldn't really help himself.
So yeah, Mike got it. He understood. He had spent hours upon hours muddled up in thoughts about just how lovely Will was to look at. That didn't mean he had to like it when other people, when girls obviously agreed with him, though. He could be a little irrational about this. Not that he'd ever do anything about his jealousy. He just stewed in it, boiled in it, fumed until steam erupted from his ears.
Max drawled, “So we're just letting cute girls buy cookies for less than half the price we agreed upon, huh?”
Mike's heart raced as he realized that maybe Will had given the girl a discount because he thought she was cute. His head whipped around to stare at Will, who did look like he was blushing. Mike fought between loving the way his cheeks were faintly pink, and the swell of jealous nausea that was threatening to become a problem. Had Will liked that girl? Mike didn't know if she was cute. He didn't even really know what Will's type was.
Will, looking shy and avoiding eye contact with anyone, said, “No, we've just been out here for a while with no sales. I figured two dollars was better than nothing.”
Lucas groaned. “Should we lower our prices?”
They all started talking at once, squabbling over their carefully set goal for their bake sale and what they'd thought were fair prices.
“If we lower cookies to just one dollar each, we're barely breaking even on what we spent! We need to raise a hundred and sixty dollars for the mechanic.”
“Yeah, and we spent a lot on all these baking supplies.”
“No one's even looking at our table though, they don't know the prices are too high. Someone will be willing to pay what we’re asking for a homemade cupcake or cookie once they're over here.“
“Well, the cupcakes look kinda... Well, Max, come on! We messed up on the cake, you messed up on the cupcakes! Nothing wrong with admitting it!”
“Oh my god, Dustin. They look fine!”
“Ehhh, maybe fine... Not great, though.”
Mike sighed. He saw a group of a few students walking by and called out to them, “Hey, you! Can you come over here, please?”
Everyone stopped their bickering and froze, shooting the students awkward smiles.
They approached. Mike asked bluntly, “No one seems to want to buy our cupcakes and shit. Does our table look bad or something? Is it something else?”
The students standing in front of them were two girls and a guy, and all three of them looked taken aback at Mike’s brusque words. They peered at the table, and one of the girls, a brunette, hesitantly said, “Well... the biggest thing on the table,” and she pointed at the cake, “looks bad. No offense. But if your cake looks like that, then I don't know if I want anything else you guys baked, to be honest.”
Somewhere to Mike's left, Max sighed. Mike tried to ignore her, and the logic of what the girl said.
The guy added, “I'm actually cutting down on sugar because I'm hoping to join the rowing team. And I mean, I’m sure you guys are cool, but I don't want to give my money to the…” and he glanced down at the sign hanging from the table. “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Club. I'm kind of broke as is, and it's not like this is a charity to help anyone who needs it. It's just, like, a nerdy thing, right?”
Mike barely controlled an eye roll and a sharp retort. “Sure, whatever. What about you?” His question was directed at the third girl, who had a blonde ponytail, who was busy whispering to the brunette girl. She stopped her whispering, an embarrassed smile on her face, and said, “Oh, umm, sorry, I'm just trying to save my money, and don't really want a cookie right now.”
Mike asked, “Okay, so even if you don’t want one now, let’s just say you did. Hypothetically, if you wanted, say, a cake, or brownie, or whatever, how much would you be willing to spend? We were thinking eight bucks for the cake. A whole cake.” He looked at her expectantly.
Instead of meeting his gaze though, the girl’s eyes flitted to the right of him. Annoyed, Mike glanced where she was looking: right at Will. Mike looked away, slowly releasing a frustrated exhale and trying to unclench his jaw.
Finally, the blonde girl refocused and said, “No, I don't think I'd spend eight dollars on the cake, sorry. Maybe like a couple bucks? Three? I'm really broke, sorry.”
The brunette girl, the one she'd been whispering to, nudged her and said with a strangely suggestive eyebrow waggle, “I know what you'd spend eight bucks on.”
The blonde girl with the ponytail blushed furious red and turned to smack her friend on the arm. The guy let out a big guffaw.
Mike shot a sour look at Will, who seemed thoroughly unaware of what was going on.
El spoke up, “What do you mean? What would you spend eight dollars on?”
Mike looked up at the sky, wishing that these assholes would walk away and no girls would ever look at Will again.
The blonde girl sputtered and said, “Nothing, nothing, it’s just... he's cute, I wouldn't mind giving him my number or going on a date with him or something. That's it.” She was blushing but looked at Will hopefully, as if she'd be rewarded for her boldness.
Mike whipped his head around to look at Will again, who looked like he was trying very, very hard to form a response, but was at an absolute loss.
Dustin crowed out from behind them, “That's our boy!”
Mike swallowed a few times, trying to get his breathing under control. He was just imagining his eyes stinging. He wasn't really tearing up, because that would definitely be an overreaction. Definitely. He blinked and swallowed, swallowed and blinked.
There was an awkward quiet then, when Mike thought everyone was waiting for Will to say something, but it was Max who broke the silence.
“Wait, would you pay eight dollars, or maybe even just five, to maybe just... kiss him? Or another cute guy?"
The blonde girl stared at Max, mortified, but the brunette girl said with a casual shrug, “Yeah. I would, at least.”
An awkward quiet fell again. Mike felt like he was watching a slow motion car crash happening in front of him.
The brunette girl asked, “So, uhh, can I? Kiss him for five dollars?”
Mike snapped in a panic, “No, get out of here, you pervert.”
The group of three all glared at him before turning their heels and walking away quickly. The brunette girl glanced back and shot him a dirty look as they retreated.
When they were far enough away, Mike burst out, his voice shaking just a little, “Max, what the fuck? You can't just go offering to fucking, like… fucking sell the chance to kiss Will, that's ridiculous. You put him on the spot, look at him!”
He turned to gesture at Will, who was red as a tomato.
Max said in a rush, “I am so sorry, Will, I wasn't actually going to take money for that, I was just... I don't know, just wondering what those girls would be willing to spend money on, if not our cookies and cakes.”
Will squeaked out, arms crossed over his chest, “It's fine, Max, don't worry about it.”
Mike leaned over slightly so his arm was brushing Will's, as a silent show of comfort and support. Will leaned back into him a little, and Mike felt warm from head to toe.
Dustin said, “Well, it sounds like our cake sucks, college students don't want to eat a bunch of desserts, and our prices are too high because everyone is broke. Great. We're never getting to Comic-Con.”
All six of them lapsed into a moody silence. Mike picked up a brownie and offered it to Will, who accepted it gratefully. They certainly weren't going to be selling them all, so someone might as well enjoy their baked goods.
As Mike tried to avoid staring at Will, nibbling happily on the brownie, he noticed that Max and Lucas were talking quietly together. He called out, “Want to share with the class?”
Max and Lucas turned to him, their eyebrows raised.
Lucas cleared his throat and said, “Well... kissing isn't really a big deal. Just a peck, you know? It takes like five seconds.”
Mike narrowed his eyes at Lucas.
Max added, “Even less than five seconds, sometimes. See?”
She turned to Lucas, who gave her a quick peck of a kiss on her lips, just one second of contact before they separated and both looked at Mike, smiling wide.
“Anyone can do that, right? Easy enough? Quick enough?” Max asked, looking hopeful.
Mike looked over at Will on instinct, wondering what it would be like to kiss Will, and then blushed when Will was already looking at him.
Dustin sputtered, “What are you suggesting? That we actually sell kisses? That seems… weird.”
El shrugged and said, “Those two girls certainly wanted to kiss Will. Enough to spend money on it.”
Max said, “Listen, it could just be, like, a fun thing. I've heard girls in my classes talking about how hard it is to find single guys and that they're sick of frat parties and everything. This could just be a simpler, more fun way to kiss someone. No pressure, no weirdness. A kiss can just be a kiss. And for us, it’s just a different kind of fundraiser. My dad once talked to me about how there were kissing booths at fairs when he was younger. They’re a thing! People do this.”
Mike huffed out a big breath. They were crazy. Will didn't want to go around kissing all these girls, and Mike didn't want to see that. He didn't want to have to kiss a bunch of random people himself, either.
Mike stated firmly, “Well, no one is volunteering to do this so unless you two want to watch each other kiss strangers, we have no kisses to sell.”
There was a beat of silence, during which Mike was feeling quite confident about having shut down Max and Lucas's ludicrous idea, until-
“I'll do it. I'll kiss whoever,” El announced.
Mike stifled an eye roll.
“Okay, that's just one-"
Dustin talked over him, “I guess I could! I've been single for a while, I wouldn't mind getting a little bit of action.” He waggled his eyebrows, smiling excitedly.
Max spoke up quickly, “Mike, no one is forcing you to join in. You can be the person that takes the money. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, no one has to at all.”
Mike crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, I'm not going to, so I'm glad we've established that. Yeah, Will and I can take the money from people and explain what we're doing. Right, Will?”
He looked back over to Will, who was fiddling with the bottom of his shirt. Mike asked again, a nervous niggle in his stomach, “Will?”
Will looked up at Mike for a few seconds. He looked strangely guilty. Mike stared at him, trying to figure out what the look meant, his heart falling down in his chest. Will glanced over to Max and Lucas and said, “Actually, I can do it too. I want to help us raise the money. I'll do it for a little bit at least. I might drop out if it's too weird, though.”
Mike gaped at Will, who seemed to be avoiding his eye contact.
Lucas said, “Yeah, man, that's fine. Anyone can stop at any time. It's only fun if we're all having fun. Okay, so we have Mike to handle the cash, and then maybe we can have El, Will, and Dustin swapping out, like we can have two people always ready for kissing while we do this.”
Dustin asked with a grin, “What about you two? Not quite ready to open up the relationship this much?”
Max and Lucas looked at each other, shrugged, and Max said, “We'll be alternates in case we need an additional person or two. That okay with everyone?”
The others agreed, but all the while Mike kept glancing at Will. His heart was thudding in his chest and he felt like crying again. He'd been so sure that Will wasn't going to do this. Will didn't date, Will wasn't out there kissing people. Would this be his first kiss? Mike blinked, and blinked again, hard, and tried to busy himself with straightening up the baked goods unnecessarily. Anything to avoid Will noticing that he was tearing up. Mike counted his breaths and kept blinking.
“Alright then,” Lucas said, clapping his hands together. “I think we need to do a total overhaul of our fundraiser idea because we've been out here for an hour and have raised a grand total of two dollars. Let's reconvene here tomorrow and sell some smooches. Will, can you draw up a new poster? And what price should we set for the kisses?”
Dustin said, “Eight dollars? That girl was willing to pay eight dollars.”
Max nodded and said, “Maybe let’s just go with five bucks to not scare anyone off. I’d rather have a ton of people pay five dollars than have a few people pay eight dollars. And if no one's biting at five, we can cut the price more. But at five per kiss, and our goal of a hundred and sixty, we’ll need… thirty-two people willing to shell out some money to kiss one of us. That seems doable, right? Will, maybe leave the price off the main sign and we can just call out prices, and that way if we need a change, we don’t have to change the sign.”
Will nodded.
Mike mumbled, “Leave off the club name too, people don't usually want to kiss a bunch of nerds.”
Will laughed at that and said, “Sure, I'll leave that off.” And of course Will was laughing, Mike thought bitterly. Those girls knew that Will was a nerd and wanted to kiss him anyway.
They stood around for another hour, discussing the details of the change to their fundraising plan the next day, but also occasionally calling out, “Bake sale! Cookies and brownies and cupcakes for sale!” They sold one brownie during that time, but now that Mike was paying attention, he noticed that a lot of the girls walking by did seem to glance at Will as they passed. Some guys looked at Max, some guys looked at El, some girls looked at Dustin or Lucas, but it felt like Will constantly attracted glances.
Mike was boiling on the inside. Will had never really been someone who was looking for romance. All throughout high school, Will was too focused on fighting Vecna, on being there for his friends, on overcoming all of the horrors that had been following him around since middle school. Mike never asked about it, because he didn't really want to know, he felt weird about it.
During their senior year of high school, the party decided to all go to the same college (other than El, who didn't want to go to college, but she lived with Max in an apartment off campus). They all wanted to stay close. Mike had slowly but surely accepted that he liked Will throughout high school, and he knew he was never going to go somewhere that Will wasn't for college. He'd follow Will anywhere.
Through some stroke of luck, Will agreed to be his roommate, while Dustin and Lucas agreed to room together. And throughout their freshman year and the first month of their sophomore year, Will still didn't get a girlfriend. When Dustin asked why he didn’t, Will always just said that he was really focused on studying, or that he wanted to make some new friends first, and that he'd find someone eventually, but that he was happy enough for the time being. Mike always listened to his answers with rapt attention, trying as hard as he could to seem casual. He never asked Will about it himself, for fear of inviting bad news into his life. But Will always brushed off the idea, and that was that.
Mike didn't think that Will knew that he liked him. He was subtle. He loved Will desperately and fiercely, but he was subtle. Mike made sure to gaze at him when Will wasn't looking. He closed his eyes to concentrate more carefully on the sound of Will's laugh sometimes, but passed it off as a yawn or just sleepily rubbing his eyes. He admired Will's legs in shorts and his arms in t-shirts, his tanned skin in the summer, his pink cheeks in winter. He just did it all from a distance.
When Will spoke, Mike listened attentively. When he offered up a compliment, Mike clung to it and repeated the words to himself and god, he really did try not to blush. When Will offered up criticism, Mike course corrected as quickly as he could manage. He wanted to be the person that Will thought he could be. He wanted to be the best version of himself so that Will would never be disappointed, never let down. Will's word was Mike's guiding light and he held onto everything from Will like it was nourishment.
Mike loved Will’s art, insisting that they hang up a lot of it in their dorm to decorate. He adored the way Will’s nose scrunched up in annoyance when he had to walk to class in the rain, and the relief that flooded his face when Mike insisted that Will borrow his umbrella for the day. Mike didn’t mind walking to his own classes in the rain if Will was staying dry and happy. He loved the way that Will stayed gentle throughout everything, the way he didn’t mind calling Mike on his shit when he was acting like an idiot, the way his face shone when Mike shared a new D&D campaign idea. There was so much in Will to adore.
The others chattered about the fundraiser: Will brainstormed ideas for a poster with Max and Dustin, while Lucas and El chattered about the set-up that they might use for the kissing. And Mike just stood back quietly and watched, feeling very left behind and small all of a sudden.
They all seemed so casual about it all. He wondered if he'd missed some essential step in growing up and becoming an adult that allowed the others to be so relaxed about the idea of kissing strangers. Sure, Mike had kissed El when they dated years back. Those memories didn't even seem to belong to him though. It felt like someone else had kissed El, it was someone else's lips that had touched hers, someone else's body that leaned in to meet hers. He didn't like to think about it, it made him squirm uncomfortably. He tended to shy away from those memories.
Mike had kissed two girls since then, both during his first semester of freshman year. He hadn't done so very happily. The kisses came from feeling alone, terribly single, and not getting as much attention as he wanted from Will at a couple parties that they'd attended soon after arriving at college. They hadn't been good kisses. They were hurried and awkward, Mike slinking away just as quickly as he'd found himself in a dark corner with the girls to begin with.
It had been a year since then, and Mike hadn’t found anyone else that he wanted to kiss, at least not anyone that he wanted to kiss more than Will. And so he hadn’t.
He knew that Lucas and Max had done plenty more than kissing. Kissing didn’t even phase them. They kissed in front of the others all the time.
El had kissed him, and a few boys throughout high school, although those relationships never lasted, just a few weeks here and there. El would get attached and heartbroken when they left, but she tended to bounce back quickly, quicker each time with the help of her family and friends. She'd probably kissed boys since moving with them close to campus, but Mike didn't really know.
Dustin had done long distance with Suzie for a few years, and had dated a different girl for almost all of freshman year before they broke up at the start of summer, a few months earlier.
So Mike knew that he and Will were the least experienced of all of them. He just thought that Will was waiting for a special girl. A special person. He'd daydreamed, of course, of being Will's first kiss, but he knew that was never going to happen. Mike was queer, Will was not. It wasn’t possible. Even when Mike hoped it could happen, he still knew in the back of his head that he was deluding himself.
The hopes and wishes persisted, though. Time and time again, Mike found an opportunity for a daydream to fester, hotly and nauseatingly, butterflies flapping too hard in his stomach with queasy want.
Mike had mused on the idea of sharing a smoldering kiss with Will after their high school graduation, in that transitional time from high school to college, from kids to adults. Everything seemed up in the air that summer, so why not his relationship with Will too? Will had dragged him outside that night after graduation, away from their families' joint graduation party. He’d talked to Mike about being scared of change, of moving away from home. The conversation was full of bumping knees and quick glances and when Mike felt a burst of bravery, he held Will’s hand after he'd wiped away some of his tears. Mike was too nervous to try to kiss him though. Will was scared of change, and a kiss would be change.
Once he knew they’d be roommates, Mike pictured them stumbling home, drunk and silly, after their first college party. In his imagination, they’d get more and more touchy until they kissed. Mike daydreamed about the scenario dozens of times, picturing where he’d touch Will on the arm, the shoulder, his back, his cheek, and how it would all lead to Will’s lips crashing against his. Instead though, Mike got too drunk at the party. Drunk, and then sad. He and Will got separated at some point, and Mike couldn’t find him again. He drank too much during his search to find Will, and ended up kissing some girl with brown hair and heavy bangs that lived down the hall in their dorm building, Tina Walsh. It was his first kiss in years, since he and El broke up. After a few minutes, Mike stumbled away from her and slumped onto a couch, dizzy, and glaring at everyone until Lucas and Will eventually found him. Will helped Mike home, and the most they touched once they got back to their dorm was Will holding his hair back as he vomited in the bathroom and when Will gave him a hand to climb up into bed.
Mike thought about hanging mistletoe in their dorm that Christmas, but before he could summon the courage to pick up the stupid sprig in the seasonal goods aisle at the store, Lucas scooped it up and added it to his cart, giggling about holiday spirit. The next time they visited Dustin and Lucas’s dorm, Lucas swooped in to give them both kisses on the cheeks under the mistletoe. Mike stared at the pink blush on Will’s cheeks long after Will pulled away from Lucas, giggling. Mike figured he couldn’t duplicate the experience after that.
Mike tried to get Will the best birthday present ever, so good that Will would fall for him then and there. He got Will a very nice new art set and a store bought cheesecake, both wrapped in a bow and everything. Will gave him a big hug after he opened them, and Mike could feel Will’s breath hot on his neck. No lips pressed there though, no gentle kiss, no whispered confession. Rather, Will whispered, “Thank you,” and the way his words were spoken so softly and gently by Mike’s ear made all the hair on his neck stand on end. Mike was pleased, despite the lack of a romantic ending to the night. Will was happy, so Mike was happy.
So although none of Mike’s wishes ever came true, he’d always assumed that he wouldn't have to go through something as hellish as watching girl after girl pay five dollars to kiss Will right in front of him. That seemed like too much to handle. That was the kind of thing that would drive Mike half crazy.
Soon enough, they packed up their baked goods, mixing them up so that Max and El got plenty of cookies, and so the boys all got some cupcakes and brownies. No one seemed too interested in the cake, and Lucas carried it halfway back to their dorm, offering it to passersby for free. Someone eventually took it. Will snorted as Lucas explained the shoddy frosting job. Mike shot him a sullen look that he immediately regretted as Will’s smile faded.
The four of them got to their dorm building and walked up the stairs, Dustin joking about which girls from his classes he hoped would pay to kiss him. Will and Lucas laughed, Mike forced a smile. They separated once they got to their dorms, and once alone with Will in their room, the silence settled quickly and uncomfortably.
Will shot him a few glances, probably all too aware of Mike’s sour expression. When Will turned his back to place their baked goods haphazardly on top of their microwave, Mike made a snap decision and grabbed his backpack from the back of his desk chair.
Will turned and asked, “Mike, are you okay? You seem-”
“I'm fine, Will, I just have to go to class.” He stomped towards the door, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
Will called out, “I thought you didn't have class for another couple hours-“
Mike closed the door behind himself without a glance Will's way. He stomped down the hallway and searched for a quiet place on campus to settle into for a couple hours before his next class. He fumed the whole time, trying to think his way out of his hurt feelings and his ever-present, lovelorn pining for his best friend.